Lycaeon Legacy (ePub)

Paul McDonough thought he knew what the definition of evil was. As a Navy SEAL and covert operative, he had encountered it on every mission. It was the human seeking wealth and power who murders and tortures their way to the top of the socio-political heap. He would never have considered a supernatural, predatory beast that only looks upon humans as either minion or meal. The arrival of his niece, after the brutal murder of her parents, brings him face to muzzle with these other possibilities.

I. To protect his newly expanded family unit, Paul must recall his military experience and skills:

McDonough turns the engine off and begins to glide in silently. In rapid succession, he clears the dock, upper deck and crow's nest of sentries with the suppressed HK417. At twenty feet above the deck he uncouples from the rig and drops down using the body of a dead guard to cushion and muffle his landing on the helipad.

II. The origins of werewolves and why silver is so deadly to them, is told in the side story of Lycaeon:

"Words have power! Listen to my final words for you and fear for what they will bring. You, Lycaeon, having broken our agreement, will still be immortal. Instead of being a precious gift, it will be a curse!

"Know this Lycaeon, the metal silver, which was the means of your continued accursed existence, will also be used to take that recompense away!

"Know this Lycaeon, I return to that place of eternal night from whence I came. In so doing, I take all the protections that my presence in this world granted to you."

III. The somewhat strained relationship between Vampires and Werewolves is summed up this way:

"Damn maggot sacks!" he called them. He had nothing but contempt for them. They were stone cold, reanimated corpses, with little more than a heartbeat to distinguish them from those rotting in their crypts.

IV. The reader will also get insight into what it is like being a werewolf:

His thoughts returned to the young woman he had cornered. His prey had no place left to run. Fear was overwhelming his victim. It's rapidly beating heart pumped the blood that saturated the tissues in sugar. The sweet smell filled Matullah's nostrils.

V. What is it like being neither human, nor werewolf, but something of both? The Pseudo-Were:

Mary Shelley had taken the name of the author of "Frankenstein" because she had instantly related to the plight of the books' monstrous character. Like him, she felt she could never fit in with the human dominated outside world.

VI. What kind of human being would willingly serve as a minion? This question is answered:

This is one of the lowlife shit piles that would raid the Gypsy slums or "cardboard settlements" as the locals call them. These tarpaper shacks are often perched next to the fancy hotels, or upper class residential areas of Serbia's capital.

VII. There are inhuman servants as well:

He was damned. His punishment for an indiscretion he could no longer remember. He was also a Revenant. Brought out of the darkness where grief was so deep, the pain could not be described by human language.

VIII. The book is not only a study in evil; it also explores the depths of love:

As if he were struggling with his words, Patrick choked out, "You've got to know, both of you, that at any time without hesitation, I'd die myself before I'd let anything bad happen to you! I didn't want any of this to happen, but there is no other way."

Approximately 42,800 words.