The Nosferatu Scroll (Chris Bronson)
James Becker
Language: English
Pages: 480
ISBN: 045123619X
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
A race-against-time conspiracy thriller with a deadly twist from the bestselling author of The First Apostle.
BOHEMIA, 1741
On the northern banks of the Vltava River, an extraordinary event is taking place. Inside a private chapel, a high-born Hungarian lady is being laid to rest. But not before her heart is removed from her body, and she is buried beneath a layer of heavy stones -- lest she rise again to prey upon her victims.
VENICE, 2010
Holidaying in the world's most beautiful city, Chris Bronson and Angela Lewis discover a desecrated tomb. Inside it is a female skeleton and an arcane diary dating back hundreds of years. Written in Latin, it references a scroll that will provide an answer to an ancient secret. Soon corpses of young women, all killed in the same ritualistic manner, start appearing throughout the city. And when Angela disappears, Bronson knows that he must find her before she too is slaughtered.
But Bronson's hunt for Angela leads him back to the Island of the Dead, and into a conspiracy more deadly than he could ever have imagined.
she’d drifted off into a fitful sleep, from which she had awoken, shivering and terrified, at intervals during the night. Marietta had no watch on her wrist, but she guessed it was midmorning, and she was ravenously hungry and really thirsty. She’d had nothing to eat or drink since the previous afternoon, and her throat was parched and dry. She consoled herself with the thought that if her captors had intended to kill her, they would probably already have done so. And that meant that they
make sure we don’t get too far apart. We don’t want to have to spend hours tramping around here looking for each other.” “It’s not that big a place, Chris,” Angela pointed out. “And what we’re looking for is quite specific. Because of the date of the diary, the tomb has to be dated no later than about eighteen hundred, maybe eighteen ten, and because the diary uses the expression ‘twin angels’ every time the topic is mentioned, I think the carving will be of two identical angel figures, not just
a few seconds, the two men reappeared, and the guard stopped for a moment at the entrance to Marietta’s room. “You’ve got company at last,” he said, an unpleasant sneer on his face. “She’s the one we’ve been waiting for. Now we can get started.” 24 For about twenty minutes after the men had left the cellar, the only sound Marietta could hear from the adjacent room was a dull moaning. The girl, whoever she was, had clearly reacted badly to being shocked by the Taser, and was taking a long time
appalling fate that awaited her. On the right-hand side of the other girl’s neck was a round wound, and her blood was flowing freely from it into the bowl beneath. Marietta couldn’t help herself. She threw back her head and let loose a scream that was deafening in its intensity, a howl of absolute terror and utter dismay. The men turned as one to look at her, even the one lying on top of Benedetta, and their leader responded with an angry gesture. One of the group walked swiftly over to
high and eight feet long, positioned quite close to the wall. It was just about big enough for him to hide behind, at least lying down, and would keep him invisible to anyone entering through the church door, though if somebody stepped across to the sidewall of the building, they would see him immediately. It was a chance he was going to have to take. The Browning in his hand, he crouched down behind the collection of old timbers. The only sound he could hear was the wind sighing through the