Book 13 of 2013 – The Blood Gospel – James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell
Archaeologist Dr. Erin Granger is working on a dig in Caesarea, Israel when an explosion rocks the Masada. The explosion splits Masada and emits a gas that kills all the visitors The explosion reveals an unknown underground chamber. Soon Sergent Jordan Stone is sent to bring Erin to the site to help and try to discover what happened!
While a crew of soldiers and Dr. Granger are exploring the chamber where they find a young child impaled on the wall using silver spikes and an open sarcophagus. A priest Rhun Korza mysteriously appears by their side in the chamber. The group is attacked by monsters of some kind and many on both sides are killed. But Father Korza saves Erin and Jordon. As the pair watch Father Korza’s actions, it becomes obvious this is no ordinary Priest!! What was buried in the chamber was a Gospel of the Bible written by Christ in his own blood – The Blood Gospel. After another attack this by a grimwwolf minion of the Belial in charge of recovering the book, Bathory, Rhun revels that while he is a priest, he is of the Order of the Sanguines a secret order within the Catholic Church composed of vampire like beings that do not feed on the blood of humans but are fortified and blessed through the drinking of consecrated wine, aka, The Blood of Christ. The attacks at Masada came from the Belial an order of vampires that the Sanguines battle. They unlike the Sanguines are not blessed and are a mean bunch! Erin and Jordon soon learn that they are to be paired with Father Korza to fulfill a prophesy to find and open the book before it falls into the hands of the Belial.
The race to find the Blood Gospel takes them to Germany and then Russia (where they meet, no I’m not telling) along the way Erin and Jordon find out more about both the Order of the Sanguines and the Belial. Throughout the book Father Korza must face not only the Belial but his own sinful past!