Downfall

THE CAL LEANDROS NOVELS

Slashback

“Cal Leandros, who is half human and half Auphe (a monstrous version of elves), and his human brother, Niko, make their living by hunting the supernatural creatures who prey on humans. Now a serial killer with ties to Spring-heeled Jack is on the prowl, and he has a grudge against Cal. The eighth addition to this urban fantasy series (after
Doubletake
) should please Thurman’s many fans.”

—
Library Journal

“This combo thriller and mystery will send your readers back into the stacks looking for more from this
New York Times
bestselling author.”

—
Booklist

“This dark and dynamic urban fantasy series continues to not only maintain but exceed the expectations of its fans.”

—Smexy Books

“A roller-coaster ride of horror and humor.”

—Bookshelf Bombshells

“[The Leandros brothers] are back in style in a way that surpasses the last book on every level.”

—Bookin’ It Reviews

“Thurman does her usual stellar job of combining wisecracks and violence, but the relationship between Cal and Niko remains the heart of the series.”

—
RT Book Reviews

“The book quickly became a page-turner, just like all of the previous books have been. This is a great series and I highly recommend it to readers who like gritty and violent urban fantasy with undertones of noir humor.”

—Fang-tastic Fiction

Doubletake

“Rob Thurman conjures up one of the grittiest tales of the Leandros brothers yet.”

—SFRevu

“Another wonderful addition to an intriguing series.”

—Night Owl Reviews

Blackout

“Thurman delivers in spades . . . as always, a great entry in a series that only gets better with each new installment.”

—SFRevu

Roadkill

“Readers will relish this roller-coaster ride filled with danger. . . . The unexpected is the norm in this urban fantasy.”

—Alternative Worlds

Deathwish

“Thurman takes her storytelling to a whole new level in
Deathwish. . . .
Fans of street-level urban fantasy will enjoy this.”

—SFRevu

Madhouse

“Thurman continues to deliver strong tales of dark urban fantasy.”

—SFRevu

Moonshine

“[Cal and Niko] are back and better than ever . . . a fast-paced story full of action.”

—SFRevu

Nightlife

“A roaring roller coaster of a read . . . [it’ll] take your breath away. Supernatural highs and lows, and a Hell of a lean over at the corners. Sharp and sardonic, mischievous and mysterious.”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Simon R. Green

THE TRICKSTER NOVELS

The Grimrose Path

“Thurman’s comic timing is dead-on [and] well-targeted in
Trixa’s cynical, gritty voice . . . a fast-paced urban adventure that will have you cheering.”

—Fresh Fiction

Trick of the Light

“Rob Thurman’s new series has all the great elements I’ve come to expect from this writer: an engaging protagonist, fast-paced adventure, a touch of sensuality, and a surprise twist that’ll make you blink.”

—#1
New York Times
bestselling author Charlaine Harris

“A beautiful, wild ride, [and] a story with tremendous heart. A must read.”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Marjorie M. Liu

THE KORSAK BROTHERS NOVELS

Basilisk

“Thurman has created another fast-paced and engaging tale in this volume. . . . Fans of great thriller fiction will enjoy
Basilisk
and the previous novel
Chimera
quite a bit.”

—SFRevu

“
Basilisk
is full of excitement, pathos, humor, and dread. . . . Buy it. You won’t be sorry. It is one heck of a ride!”

—Bookshelf Bombshells

Chimera

“Thurman delivers a fast-paced thriller with plenty of twists and turns. . . . The characters are terrific—Stefan’s wiseass attitude will especially resonate with the many Cal Leandros fans out there—and the pace never lets up, once the two leads are together. . . . Thurman shows a flair for handling SF/near-future action.”

—SFRevu

“A touching story on the nature of family, trust, and love lies hidden in this action thriller. . . . Thurman weaves personal discovery seamlessly into the fast-paced action, making it easy to cheer for these overgrown, dangerous boys.”

—
Publishers Weekly

“A gut-wrenching tale of loss and something so huge that
the simple four-letter word ‘hope’ cannot begin to encompass it. . . .
Chimera
grabs the reader’s attention and heart immediately and does not let go. . . . This is a masterpiece of a good story and great storytelling.”

—Bitten by Books

The Cal Leandros Novels

Nightlife

Moonshine

Madhouse

Deathwish

Roadkill

Blackout

Doubletake

Slashback

Downfall

The Trickster Novels

Trick of the Light

The Grimrose Path

The Korsak Brothers Novels

Chimera

Basilisk

Anthologies

Wolfsbane and Mistletoe

EDITED
BY CHARLAINE HARRIS
AND TONI L. P. KELNER

Courts of the Fey

EDITED BY MARTIN H. GREE
NBERG AND RUSSELL DA
VIES

Carniepunk

PUBLISHED BY G
ALLERY BOOKS

Kicking It

EDITED
BY FAITH HUNTER AND
KALAYNA PRICE

Published by the Penguin Group

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penguin.com

A Penguin Random House Company

First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC

Copyright © Robyn Thurman, 2014

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

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ISBN 978-1-101-63468-4

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Never give a sucker an even break.

—Latin proverb

This book was written to Robin Goodfellow and for Robin Goodfellow. In respect for all the times he hid behind the curtain, saving the day if not also the world with unseen cons, scams undiscovered, and deceptions none could begin to fathom. For his unparalleled trickery and a loyalty unmatched, I devote this long overdue limelight to him.

Without his tireless if grumbling efforts, the Leandros brothers would never survive long enough to
entertain us.

If you reread the first eight books of the series, look more closely this time. Goodfellow’s tricks are everywhere—unnoticed by readers and characters alike—and always have
been.

Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

—Virgil (19 BC)

If Heav’n thou can’st not bend, Hell thou shalt move.

—Alexander Pope (1728)

If I cannot move Heaven, then I will raise Hell.

—Clarence Darrow (1910)

If I can’t tear down Heaven, I’ll raise fucking Hell.

—Cal Leandros (2014)

Never give a sucker an even break.

—Latin proverb

There’s a sucker born every minute.

—David Hannum (1869)

Cal

They said if you couldn’t tear down Heaven, then you’d have to raise fucking Hell.

I thought they, the infamous and forever “they,” were shortsighted.

Why couldn’t I do both?

That’s what I thought absently, caught by the spectacle of fire when the sun fell from the sky. Heaven was falling, and Hell was rising to meet in mutual destruction. I wondered if I’d get a free apocalyptic hot dog with those fireworks?

My brother would say the sun was only setting, the same as it had done every day before us and the same as it would do every day after us. He’d go on to point out it had set on the days when the planet was a barely cooled mass of lava and no living thing was there to see the sun at all. He was like that, my brother. Full of words, full of
knowledge, full of things he had never seen but could visualize more clearly than what I could manage with what was right in front of my face. He was the smartest man—not to mention the most willing to share any and every fact whether you wanted to hear it or not—that I knew.

But this time he would’ve been wrong. Now, at this moment and for me alone, the sun was falling. Heaven was falling, and so was I—falling as I’d always known I would do. Falling because sometimes that’s the only choice. Falling, but not falling alone—my brother wouldn’t allow that. Considering where we were, I was damn glad to have that choice and that presence at my side. We stood tall in the tower, surrounded by a thousand teeming monsters, serpentine and scaled in snow-blind white, eyes as bloody murder red as the dying sun, and with curved dark metal fangs as long as my hand. They were never still, a constant undulation of hills and valleys. If I could stand in the middle of the Arctic with nothing but mound after mound of ice as far as the eye could see, it would be like this.

Of course the Arctic might have less mutilation, blood, and death than was circling us now.

Fuck if it isn’t the details that get you every time.

Am I right?

Yeah . . . thought so.

I took one last look at an indigo sky, a fiery orange and vermilion veil settling over the dark horizon, and then focused back on the giant scarlet pyre that inched downward. Falling for me. Waiting for me. Waiting for Caliban.

Caliban, who had once been something new and something old and something unlike anything on this earth.

But the earth wasn’t everything. I was no longer unique, and Niko was right. It wasn’t Heaven but the sun that called my name. It knew who I was—what I was and what I was not. Completely human, no. Wouldn’t that be
boring? Wouldn’t that be dull? But I wasn’t entirely—there is such a thing as too much fun—a manically gleeful monster either. I was monster enough, though, and, in a way, human enough as well—at least for this.

I wasn’t alone in my monster cred.

Some of us monsters, part or pure, had a talent, both stunning in theory and terrifying in reality. We could make the fabric of reality our bitch, tear it in two like the cheapest of tissue paper and pass through. We could travel to where we’d been, even if it had only been the once . . . and some of us could travel to any place we could see.

And I could see, my eyes full of the sun’s fire.

Damn straight, I could see.

Strange. I always thought I’d die in the dark—at night, when the monsters most typically come out.

Not so.

For the monsters or me.

“Are you ready?” my brother asked.

I knew what Niko saw when he looked at me. Red eyes instead of gray. Silver hair, not black. It didn’t matter. It never had to him. That made me the luckiest bastard in the world. I dropped my guns—who needed weapons when you
were
one? The smile I gave him was all teeth. Not happy, but not afraid. Satisfied, definitely. Vengeful as hell—yes, yes, yes. I’d known this was coming. I’d known how our lives would end since I was ten years old. Now, fifteen years later, I was inevitability made flesh. “We haven’t made a last stand in a while. Think we can make this one stick?”

“We can.” Niko smiled back. His sword was dripping with black blood, but his eyes showed only peace and determination. He’d known the same as I how our lives would play out; it had only taken him longer to see. Hope was impractical, but it was also a damn stubborn son of a bitch when it came to brothers. “Time for a new game,
little brother,” he said with a familiar lifetime-long fondness. “Time to hitch another ride.”

Yeah, I was the ticket to ride all right.

And my rides? No one did rides like I did.

I looked back at the sun. Nik was right. It was time. Off into the sunset we’d go.

Reaching for the sun, I took that ride.