Even the Dead Feared Him: Pietas faces ghost soldiers

When a team of reanimated special ops soldiers pits itself against Pietas, the immortal learns a new truth. Even the dead feared him.

30 Days of Chaos: Day 14

To celebrate the launch of Bringer of Chaos: the Origin of Pietas I’m sharing 30 Days of Chaos. Each day during April, I’ll post one excerpt from the book, along with a poster of a quote by Pietas. On the final day, members of my Romance Lives Forever Reader Group will receive a full color book containing all the quotes and posters. Unlike my website, the book posters will have only a quote and a beautiful image. Look for another giveaway at the end of this post.

Even the Dead Feared Him

The stasis pod Pietas hid behind rested on the floor, and came up to mid-thigh. It hid him, but allowed no view of the door. A sudden change of light told him soldiers had entered. Grunts, they wore beams on their chests to light their way. The idiots had left them on, which let him calculate the level of brightness. At least six.

That was all he warranted? He hardly knew whether to be amused, or insulted.

He waited for a stirring of emotion, but felt none. Smart. They’d sent either androids or ghosts with those new anti-emo chips. The latter would be fun to fight. When he killed them, would they experience a human death, or did they have to be terminated like an Ultra? How well did the chips work?

He’d find out in a minute.

A tiny trickle of fear leaked. That meant three things.

One: ghosts.

Two: anti-emo chips? Worthless.

Three: even the dead feared him.

More fear leaked, and then frustration. The ghosts were fighting the effect of the chip. They were afraid of being afraid. Typical. Humans underestimated the power of death. They thought dying and coming back to life meant you’d overcome the fear of dying. He had died thousands of times, yet he still avoided it. Their anti-emo chips had given them no edge whatsoever.

Excellent. He could use that.

Another hint of fear surfaced. It zinged over Pietas’s skin like a cool breeze, good as a waft of air. How interesting! Emotion from the reanimated energized more than emotion from the living. He drew the aetheric fear into himself, gathering strength.

The silence meant no air had entered the room. He’d miss his favorite sound: bones breaking in his enemies.

Remaining on his side, Pietas let them get all the way inside the room.

Crowded as the space was between his pod and the wall, two ghosts crept into it. Six spots of light showed on the other side. Eight ghosts then. That would be a much better fight. One nudged him with a foot.

Suppressing a smile, he continued to play dead.
—
Bringer of Chaos: the Origin of Pietas
Immortal. Warrior. Outcasts. Traitors took everything. Except their honor.
Preorder on Amazon http://amzn.to/1R8DAbb (Out May 1, 2016)
Read now in print on CreateSpace http://bit.ly/boc-origin-csp