Damnation Books has released Michael DeMasi’s Under The Darkening in a digital format.

Description: Two kinds of underworld collide and coalesce.

Lost and desperate Ennio finally hits rock bottom when salvation appears as a bag full of new designer drugs found in the aftermath of a botched deal. A straight-laced guy, he has trouble making contact with the criminal element, but when he does things quickly deteriorate as his very psyche decomposes from the things he is forced to do in order to survive.

Hot on his trail is Detective Anzalone; a not so honest cop who believes those missing drugs will lead to vengeance and closure for the death of his ex-lover, Marina, brutally murdered a year past while working under deep cover for the F.B.I.

Following them both is Viktor, a powerful and mysterious figure in the Russian underworld. He was the one responsible for Marina’s death and is the one in need of Ennio’s new bounty. Viktor is also a century old vampire bent on literal world domination. All three fail at their quest as a new being arises, a woman more powerful and ambitious than even she could have imagined.

Excerpt: “The one who is darkness,” he whispered, almost sleeping. “The One.”

Anzalone struggled to get up, still drugged by afterglow. He dressed and left the way he came, without a word or glance to the Black Witch, off into the peak of night into the world of death.

He drove half drunk with booze and sex to the morgue. The girl found on Blue Hill, Viktor took her. She was the logical starting point…a bleak beginning but the excitement made him sharp.

He arrived and the attendant took him to see the body. They entered the steel silent and sterile room, the stark lack of stimulation stripped Anzalone of any remaining emotion of the supernaturally erotic encounter with the Black Witch. He thought about that as he walked down the row of steel drawers, he thought about how he wanted her for so long and now that he attained her, he almost forgot about it. All those listless nights of hunger gone, he felt like he lost something, but at least he gained freedom from the curse of curiosity and wanting. Now the Black Witch was no longer one he needed or wanted, at least not in the way of love. He still mourned Marina and would destroy the universe to have her back, but that wasn’t possible.

The body slid out on the drawer and the attendant uncovered her face. Anzalone uncovered the rest of her. In death this girl was still beautiful, cold perfection. Anzalone stared at the ragged gash in her neck and then read the report and saw the cause of death as blood loss. The toxicology report on what blood was left found a decent amount of alcohol, although well below harmful levels. There were no drugs or anything else out of the ordinary except a very high concentration of naturally occurring endorphins and opiates. Unusual for a girl being murdered to secrete these chemicals, unless, Anzalone thought, that is how the predator immobilizes its prey, with pleasure.”

Check it out on the Kindle: Under The Darkening

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