Prof Croft (0.5-6) - Brad Magnarella Audiobook

Written by Brad Magnarella
Read by James Patrick Cronin
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

0.5) Book of Souls
How did Everson Croft discover his powers?

Let’s go back to the night I turned thirteen, the night Grandpa filleted my finger with his cane sword.

I can’t say what terrified me more, the cold anger in his eyes or the crazy things in his locked study. A talking trunk. Squirming coats. A bookshelf whose titles shifted before my eyes. And one chilling title in particular: Book of Souls.

Ten years later and I’m en route to a Romanian monastery, in search of that lost book. But I’m not the only one. Three others have beaten me to the local village: two researchers and…

Well, I’m not sure who Flor is, other than Spanish, secretive, and sexier than a summer dress.

Can I trust her — or any of them? I don’t know, but we’ve got werewolves on our scent, not to mention an ancient curse hanging over the remote ruins.

Getting there and back is going to require serious cooperation.

Or serious magic.

Book of Souls is a short prequel that can be read before or after Demon Moon (Prof Croft, Book 1)

01) Demon Moon [MP3 32Kbps]
Everson Croft here, professor of mythology and behind-the-scenes wizard.

Show me an amateur conjurer, and I’ll stop him before he gets himself killed.

That’s the idea, anyway. But New York City isn’t what it used to be, and I don’t mean the recent crash.

Amateur casters are calling up creatures they shouldn’t be able to. And there’s been a murder at the city’s most hallowed cathedral, a message in blood on the victim’s back the NYPD wants me to interpret, like yesterday.

Something tells me I’m in over my head. And that’s not just Chinatown’s newest mob boss, a scary-powerful vampire, or my possessed cat talking.

No matter how much magic I hurl, worse keeps chasing bad, and I’m amassing enemies like they’re aluminum cans.

Did I mention the end of the world might be nigh?

Damn. Maybe I’m the amateur here.

02) Blood Deal
Everson Croft here, professor of mythology and … nervous as sin.

Tonight’s the night I tell Caroline the truth: about my feelings, my magic, everything.

So why am I surprised when Detective Vega calls me to a new case? An elusive creature is chewing up residents in a housing project run by rival gangs. One more mangled body and the place will explode into warfare.

Problem is, someone’s protecting the killer. All signs point to the vampire Arnaud—who’s just upped the stakes. If I don’t send Detective Vega down a trail of bad leads, he’ll snatch her child. But is Arnaud trying to derail the investigation or twist it to his own ends, ones that could reshape the city?

Worse, Caroline has disappeared, and I’m under suspicion. No one believes I last saw her with Angelus, a mysterious hunk and full-blooded faerie. Dangerous no matter how you slice it.

Two cases: one personal, one professional, and both going to hell in a hurry.

Time to wizard up.

03) Purge City
If you can’t stand the heat…

When New York City unveils a program to roast supernaturals, I wonder if I should be sweating.

The bloodthirsty Arnaud thinks so, and he’s insisting that our survival depends on a wizard-vampire alliance. Never mind his history of wanting me dead. Or undead.

Meanwhile, the mayor wants me on his team—an offer that’s only slightly less unnerving given our recent clash. So who’s really behind the purge? City Hall? The werewolves? Or is it the brainchild of the fae, whose newest advisor to the mayor slipped from my bed and life four months ago?

I’m getting the cold feeling someone’s trying to manipulate the program, and me, to set off a larger war, one that could explode through the city.

One thing’s for sure. If I don’t get my head straight and my magic on, it’s going to be a hell of a summer.

04) Death Mage
Playing fast and loose with the Order’s rules has finally caught up with me.

Sentenced to hunt down a cagey insurgent known as the Death Mage, I’m not feeling overly optimistic. Wizards with far more experience have tried and, well … died.

But overmatched or not, I want this assignment. The Death Mage killed my mother—he might also be my father.

I can’t lose my head, though. The mage wields an evil, mind-warping magic. A power that undermines his victims’ sanity while pledging their souls to an ancient being and devourer of worlds.

How would I even know if his magic was corrupting me?

Or is it already?

05) Black Luck
’Cause sometimes luck ain’t enough

In the year since the Whisperer’s attack, I’ve been busting my hump to become my best wizard, like my father. Now I’m ready for a test.

When a dark mage starts planting infernal bags around New York City, I get my wish. Like time bombs, the bags detonate without warning, spawning demonic beings that rip the souls of innocents from their bodies. And the attacks are accelerating.

Meanwhile, a new wizard has come to town. A recent addition to the Order, Pierce is everything I’m not: refined, self-assured, and adept at magic. He even has Detective Vega blushing. If riling my resentment wasn’t enough, he’s trying to shoulder me out of my own case, stoking my suspicions.

With the race to stop the dark mage growing more desperate by the minute, I need to prove that I’m the wizard to get it done—not Pierce. And without relying on my luck quotient.

That saying about being careful what you wish for?

It’s there for a reason.

06) Power Game
Creatures, conjurers, and … cosplay?

Protect Sefu. On paper it looks simple.

Only I have no idea who Sefu is, much less how to find him or her. And my magic’s not talking.

But with demons on the hunt, and fiendish whispers of Sefu being some sort of ultimate weapon, failure could spell apocalypse.

One of those demons happens to be an enemy I cast into the Pits, a former vampire whose deadly mind drips vengeance. Worse, he knows about my relationship with Detective Vega and her son. Meaning I have much more than Sefu to protect.

In the Order’s absence, I’m forced to scrape together what help I can. Let’s just say that with the hunt for Sefu tracking through a major sci-fi and fantasy convention, my new teammates and I will blend right in.

That is until a shadowy conjurer threatens Epic Con and its thousands of costumed attendees.

A conjurer whose name might be Sefu…