Exclusive Excerpt from Nightway Chant

by M.J. Calabrese

“You are an enigma, Dr. Coulter. Oh, and you can drop the frightened abused spouse act. Like I said, I’ve done some research on you.”

Adam slowly raised his head as a grin formed on his face. Any signs of fear disappeared from Coulter’s eyes. “All right. It was getting a bit tiresome to keep up anyway. So why do you want to kill Eagle?”

“Oh, you know. Revenge. Hate. The usual crap.”

Adam shook his head and smiled, “Don’t bullshit me, Dean.” If he could’ve shrugged, he would’ve. “Tell me the truth. In the long run, you’re going to kill me anyway so who would I tell.” His smile broadened, “Remember the saying, the truth shall set you free.” Adam took a deep breath then stretching his right index finger out, he began to tap the chain holding that wrist. Slowly, rhythmically, he kept tapping. He lowered his voice. Making it deeper and softer. “Come on, Dean, consider me your father confessor. Look at me and tell me.”

Dean stared into Adam’s eyes for a moment before his gaze slipped on up to the one moving finger. He tilted his head. His brain unconsciously focusing on it. Adam’s monotone voice droned on, getting softer and softer. He began to answer Adam’s questions, casting caution to the wind.

“Eagle was my mentor. He was my lover. My protector, in the beginning.” Dean paused; eyes still fixed on that one point above his captive’s head. “Everything I did. I did for him. He understood me. He listened to me. He loved me… until Corporal Javier Duran came along. He was younger and prettier. I tried twice to kill him, but Eagle always got in the way. He protected him. That was when I knew he was going to leave me. He got the kid transferred out of our unit about a month after he got there. I tried to find him, but they made him disappear.”

“Who made him disappear?”

“Eagle and the Colonel. Duran’s the next one on my list. I killed all the others. Mims, Presnell, Torres, Mako, Kinzer, Rayne, Lee. All gone. Told them I would. Told them I would kill them and their families…, and I did.” Dean’s eyes drooped but weren’t quite closed. “Only Eagle, Duran, and the Colonel are left.” Dean’s voice softened as he began to drift off. He heard Adam’s calm voice but couldn’t make out what he was saying. His words trickled over him like a babbling brook. It was soothing and warm as he began to slip beneath the surface of Adam’s words until there was silence. He could feel himself breathing. He could still hear the barely-there tapping, ticking off the seconds. He could hear his captive’s whisper.

Suddenly a sharp report tore him out of his calm. Pulling his gun from his waistband, he scanned the room, finger on the trigger as his heart rate raced. It took him a moment to realize where he was and who the man hanging in the middle of the room was. Slowly lowering his weapon, he turned back to Coulter with a grin. “Oh, you’re good, Doc. You almost had me, you sneaky bastard.” He raised his gun, pointing it at Adam’s head. “I should kill you for trying to hypnotize me. Too bad you got interrupted by that truck backfiring.”

Adam slyly grinned, “Oh, was that a backfire? How do you know I didn’t finish the job? How do you know I didn’t plant something in your arrogant, fucking brain, asshole? How do you know for sure?”

About Nightway Chant

There was a time in Detective Eagle Woodard’s life that he would like to forget, but Eagle’s past catches up with him and it’s threatening to destroy everything and everyone he holds dear.

Dr. Adam Coulter is recovering from a cancer diagnosis and Adam and Eagle’s relationship is stronger than ever, but the continued disappearance of their son, Michael, overshadows their happiness. A new threat appears in the form of a man Detective Eagle Woodard thought dead. Sergeant Dean Kessler aka ‘The Viking’ is on a mission to destroy his old Black Ops team mate. Secrets held in silence by Eagle for over a decade come to the surface, threatening his relationship with Adam and with Eagle’s family.

Not only is The Viking after Eagle, but when Dean Kessler finds his younger brother is in Albuquerque, he becomes a target for his older brother’s revenge as well. Eagle wants to deal with Dean on his own, but the people who care for Eagle the most aren’t about to let him do this by himself.

The question is, will Eagle be able to keep the worst part of himself locked away or will he need ‘The Skinwalker’ to help him defeat ‘The Viking’?

Author’s Note: This book begins about six months after the end of Book 2 in the Coulter/Woodard series. This is the third planned book in the Coulter/Woodard series. No others are planned at this time, but who knows if the muse will strike. There are secondary characters who might need to have their stories told, but if they do, then the stories will be standalone novels.

PLEASE NOTE: This story contains some scenes of BDSM, drug abuse, and violent death. If these are triggers for you, this book may not be for you.

Available at: Amazon

About M.J. Calabrese

My mother now regrets her fateful words she offered the day I came home from our small town library in Palm Springs, California (yes, I’m a Cali girl) complaining that there were no more books to read. “Then why don’t you write some.”

My father never saw his old Remington portable until I entered college and they gifted me an IBM Selectric. By then I had produced at least two dozen unpublishable novels which make me cringe when I read them today.

I found inspiration in innumerable odd jobs (from migrant work as a Date palm pollinator to the person who cleans the washing machines at the launderette to professional Dominatrix) for stories. After a stint in Rehab for Alcohol and Heroin abuse (so when I write those scenes, I know what I’m talking about), I cleaned up and have stayed that way for 29 years. (Me and Sir Elton, LOL). My gypsy lifestyle gave me a unique perspective on the different people who inhabited the Washington, Oregon, Arizona, California, and New Mexico areas where I have lived.

After 3 very bad marriages to men, I finally figured out what was wrong and fell in love with a woman when I lived in Portland, OR 23 years ago. We’ve been married since 2008 (yes it was legal in California at that time). We now live in Asheville, NC and love the people in this liberal and accepting corner of the mountains of North Carolina.

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