Walk Among Us

Title: Walk Among Us
Author: Vivien Dean
Publisher: http://www. samhainpublishing.com
Genre: Paranormal/horror, gay
Length: Short story
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

THE BLURB

The only man he can trust is the killer he can’t stop thinking about.

A Calling of Souls story

As an artist in New York City, Calvin Shumacher finally has the life he’s always wanted. In fact, only one thing can get him to come back to Illinois—his father’s funeral. All he wants is to bury his dad and hightail it back to New York, but a sniper at the graveyard puts those plans on indefinite hold.

So does Matthew Soto. The gorgeous gunman who speaks of monsters wearing human faces. And predicts there won’t be a body for police to find. Calvin doesn’t know what to think when Matthew claims he didn’t do anything wrong. All he knows is that this man’s haunted eyes seem to pierce right into his soul.

But as each of Matthew’s assertions comes true, Calvin slowly realizes this killer could be the only thing standing between him and an unspeakable evil…

THE REVIEW

Matthew had abandoned his vocation as a priest because his ability to see demons didn’t quite fit with the Church’s concept of a priest’s job description. He and Calvin meet for the first time at his father’s funeral when Matthew kills a demon; he fully expected that Calvin would turn him in to the Police as a killer, but when he doesn’t Matthew realizes that he may have found a kindred soul. He has been lonely since he left the priesthood and very rarely sought the company of other men because of his fear that they would be turned off by his unusual gift of seeing demons and more importantly, by his occupation of demon killer.

That night Matthew and Calvin have dinner together due to a chance meeting at a popular restaurant. During dinner Calvin realizes that he likes his companion and decides to test the waters to find out if Matthew is straight or gay. To his delight he recognizes that he might not have to spend the night alone as Matthew seems to be receptive to his advances, however neither one pursues the attraction and they go their separate ways.

Since the police had asked him not to leave town because he was a witness to the shooting, the next evening Calvin shows up at Matthew’s farmhouse to get some answers about the theory of demons walking among humans and Matthew invites him to stay for dinner. The attraction they felt before is even more apparent and they do what they both had wanted to do the previous night. Calvin ends up staying over but he is only looking for a one night stand while Matthew wants something more, but the night exceeds his expectations and the next morning he realizes how lonely Matthew’s life is as he talks to him about his recent past. It is only then he realizes what Matthew’s profession used to be.

This story is very different from the other two books in this series in that it is scary and more plot driven. Vivien Dean does a good job of infusing Walk Among Us with fear, and the threatening and ominous ambiance add a nice touch and ramp up the intensity level in a story that is filled with bad omens and evil; and when Calvin meets another man in a bar the next day it reaches its climax.

The characterizations were very good, especially Matthew who had such a void in his life since he left the Church. Calvin, the artist, was looking for a purpose and a companion though his search was not as obvious. I admire Vivien Dean for providing as much content as the format would allow and I realize it’s sometimes extremely difficult to write a satisfying short story, but given its unusual and complex plot I think that this book would have benefited greatly from a much expanded format.

Walk Among Us was a very enjoyable book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes the genre but when it ended I felt that there was some unfinished business between the main characters and more story to be told.