Violent Mistake

Kazimir Skokan is an internet star, adored worldwide for his luxury photoshoots and his enviable lifestyle. Felix Quaid, an investigative reporter turned true crime podcaster, despises him. Felix has watched Kazimir slip into back-alley meetings late at night and seen people around him vanish, and he holds photos he believes prove it. Rumors of dangerous, even supernatural, events trail Kazimir.

The last time Felix tried to expose him, the story was shut down for no clear reason, and his reporting career went with it. Now he wants the truth from Kazimir and means to show the world.

Kazi is one of twelve immortal outcasts in the Blackrose Brotherhood, a group charged with killing their own kind before it is too late. His leader, Mikalis, orders him to kill Felix. Kazi thinks the order is wrong, since Felix is a pest and perhaps a stalker but no worse than any overzealous fan. He obeys anyway, having stopped caring who lives or dies long ago.

The job goes sideways when a pack of cultists mistakes Felix for a Brotherhood member and kidnaps them both. The acolytes worship Nyx and are unhinged. Held captive together, with time running short, the two men have to cooperate to get out alive. Escape does not cancel the order, though: Mikalis still wants Felix dead.

The book is a paranormal story told from Kazi's side and Felix's, with a hostile pairing at its center and a threat that stays after the escape.