Templar Chronicles Mission #1 - Shades of Blood - eBook edition
BEFORE THE LEGEND. BEFORE THE LOSSES. WHEN CADE WILLIAMS WAS STILL LEARNING THE COST OF COMMAND.
Five years into his command of Echo Team, Captain Cade Williams considers himself a seasoned Templar. He's faced demons, revenants, and necromancers. He's earned his reputation through successful missions and calculated risks.
But he's about to learn the difference between being good and being tested.
THE MISSION THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING
A panicked call from a Boston parish priest. Street people disappearing. And a veteran Knight Captain's entire squad—gone silent for three weeks. The Preceptor assigns Echo Team to investigate what's being called a "blood cult" and recover the missing Templars.
It should be straightforward. Cade sends Bishop ahead to establish a safe house and gather intel. Standard operating procedure. But when Bishop misses his first check-in, then his second, Cade realizes this isn't a standard mission.
Something in Boston is powerful enough to take down experienced Templars. And now it has Bishop.
CHINESE VAMPIRES AND IMPOSSIBLE CHOICES
When Echo Team arrives in Boston, they discover the "blood cult" is something far worse than human fanatics. Ch'iang Shih—Chinese hopping vampires, animated corpses driven by an insatiable hunger for Chi, the life force itself. These aren't the romanticized vampires of fiction. They're predatory, ancient, and deadly.
And they've done something to Bishop that forces Cade to make impossible decisions.
Using his psychometry powers, Cade tracks Bishop's location—but what he discovers through his Sight raises terrible questions about what can be saved and what must be sacrificed. The rescue mission becomes a race against time, with Cade leading his team into a confrontation that will test everything they've learned about combat, loyalty, and the brutal calculus of command.
WHEN BULLETS AREN'T ENOUGH
Echo Team faces enemies that phase between worlds, creatures that can't be killed by conventional weapons, and a threat that challenges Cade's unique Sight in ways he's never experienced. Riley and Flynn bring overwhelming firepower. Cade brings tactical intelligence and supernatural awareness.
But against an enemy this ancient and this powerful, even that might not be enough.
The warehouse battle becomes a desperate fight for survival—close-quarters sword combat, tactical adaptation under fire, and the moment when a young commander learns that some victories come with costs that haunt you forever.
Perfect for fans of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files and early-career urban fantasy where the hero is still learning the ropes—and sometimes barely survives his mistakes.
What readers are saying:
"Shades of Blood delivers everything I love about the early Templar Chronicles—Cade using psychometry on crime scenes, Riley's dark humor under fire, and that warehouse battle against Chinese vampires is absolutely vicious."
"Seeing Cade as a rookie commander making tactical mistakes adds so much tension. This is before he became the legend. You can feel him learning on the job while fighting creatures that phase between dimensions."
"The Ch'iang Shih are terrifying—they don't just drink blood, they drain your life force until you're a desiccated corpse. And Bishop's transformation from teammate to enemy is brutal."
New York Times bestseller Joseph Nassise returns to the early days of Echo Team with a fast-paced supernatural thriller that sets up enemies and conflicts echoing throughout the series.