The Reincarnationist Read online

  Book one of The Reincarnationist series.

  A bomb in Rome, a flash of bluish-white, and photojournalist Josh Ryder’s world explodes. As Josh recovers, thoughts that have the emotion, the intensity, the intimacy of memories invade him. But they are not his. They are ancient...and violent with an urgency he cannot ignore—pulling him to save Sabina...and the treasures she protects. But who is Sabina?

  Desperate for answers, Josh turns to the Phoenix Foundation—a research facility that scientifically documents past-life experiences. He is led to an archaeological dig and to Professor Gabriella Chase, who has discovered an ancient, powerful secret that threatens to merge the past with the present.

  Here, the dead call out to the living, and murders of the past become murders of the present.

  Previously published.

  Praise for

  M. J. ROSE

  and

  THE REINCARNATIONIST

  A Book Sense Highlights selection

  “Rose is an unusually skillful storyteller.”

  —Washington Post

  “M. J. Rose delivers a tale that goes beyond chills and thrills… Not a disappointing page.”

  —Steve Berry, New York Times bestselling author

  “A Da Vinci Code-esque tale of intrigue that’s more believably plotted and better meets its ambitions than Dan Brown’s ubiquitous book.”

  —Publishers Weekly [starred review]

  “Fun.”

  —Entertainment Weekly

  “It will open your mind to some of the incredible mysteries of the past and the greatest secrets of existence. The Reincarnationist is more than a page-turner—it’s a page-burner. Don’t miss it.”

  —Douglas Preston, New York Times bestselling author

  “Rose’s engrossing thriller effortlessly leaps to and fro through the centuries. Dramatic suspense and intriguing characters expertly set the stage for this first in a series.”

  —Library Journal [starred review]

  “A breakneck chase across the centuries. Fascinating and fabulous.”

  —David Morrell, New York Times bestselling author

  “A compelling, ferocious read, an intelligent thrill ride, intricately plotted, with enough twists to keep the reader firmly in M. J. Rose’s grasp.”

  —Robert Ferrigno, New York Times bestselling author

  “A triumph! A breathtaking, smart and inventive novel that dazzles while it thrills. Part passionate romance, part rousing adventure…one of the year’s best reads.”

  —Chicago Sun-Times

  “A riveting thriller—smart, original and so well written. Rose hooks you on the first pages of the book, where current-day murders pull the reader into ancient secrets and shocking revelations, and keeps you turning till the stunning denouement.”

  —Linda Fairstein, New York Times bestselling author

  “Packed with unforgettable characters, breathtaking drama, and fascinating research [this] cements M. J. Rose’s reputation as a master storyteller. Pick your millennium, folks. You’re in for a timeless ride.”

  —Gayle Lynds, New York Times bestselling author

  “Rose’s stylistic mastery is exceeded only by her exhaustive research.”

  —Providence Journal

  Also by M. J. Rose

  Fiction

  THE VENUS FIX

  LYING IN BED

  THE DELILAH COMPLEX

  THE HALO EFFECT

  SHEET MUSIC

  FLESH TONES

  IN FIDELITY

  LIP SERVICE

  The Reincarnationist series

  THE REINCARNATIONIST

  THE MEMORIST

  THE HYPNOTIST

  Nonfiction

  BUZZ YOUR BOOK

  (with Douglas Clegg)

  HOW TO PUBLISH AND PROMOTE ONLINE

  (with Angela Adair-Hoy)

  M. J. ROSE

  THE REINCARNATIONIST

  This book is dedicated to my remarkable editor, Margaret O’Neill Marbury, who convinced me I could climb this mountain.

  &

  To Lisa Tucker and Douglas Clegg, wonderful writers and friends, who threw me lifelines every step of the way.

  To my readers: please visit Reincarnationist.org to subscribe to my free newsletter and get exclusive access to special materials, lost chapters, screen savers and more.

  I simply believe that some part of the human self or soul is not subject to the laws of space and time.

  —Carl Jung

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  Suggested Reading List

  Chapter 1

  They will come back, come back again,

  As long as the red earth rolls.

  He never wasted a leaf or a tree.

  Do you think he would squander souls?

  —Rudyard Kipling

  Rome, Italy—sixteen months ago

  Josh Ryder looked through the camera’s viewfinder, focusing on the security guard arguing with a young mother whose hair was dyed so red it looked like she was on fire. The search of the woman’s baby carriage was quickly becoming anything but routine, and Josh moved in closer for his next shot.

  He’d just been keeping himself busy while awaiting the arrival of a delegation of peacekeepers from several superpowers who would be meeting with the pope that morning, but like several other members of the press and tourists who’d been ignoring the altercation or losing patience with it, he was becoming concerned. Although searches went on every hour, every day, around the world, the potential for danger hung over everyone’s lives, lingering like the smell of fire.

  In the distance the sonorous sound of a bell ringing called the religious to prayer, its echo out of sync with the woman’s shrill voice as she continued to protest. Then, with a huge shove, she pushed the carriage against the guard’s legs, and just as Josh brought the imag
e into that clarity he called “perfect vision,” the kind of image that the newspaper would want, the kind of conflict they loved captured on film, he heard the blast.

  Then a flash of bluish white light.

  The next moment, the world exploded.

  * * *

  In the protective shadows of the altar, Julius and his brother whispered, reviewing their plans for the last part of the rescue and recovery. Each of them kept a hand on his dagger, prepared in case one of the emperor’s soldiers sprang out of the darkness. In Rome, in the Year of their Lord 391, temples were no longer sanctuaries for pagan priests. Converting to Christianity was not a choice, but an official mandate. Resisting was a crime punishable by death. Blood spilled in the name of the Church was not a sin, it was the price of victory.

  The two brothers strategized—Drago would stay in the temple for an hour longer and then rendezvous with Julius at the tomb by the city gates. As a diversion, that morning’s elaborate funeral had been a success, but they were still worried. Everything depended on this last part of their strategy going smoothly.

  Julius drew his cape closed, touched his brother’s shoulder, bidding him goodbye and good luck, and skulked out of the basilica, keeping to the building’s edge in case anyone was watching. He heard approaching horses and the clatter of wheels. Flattening himself against the stone wall, Julius held his breath and didn’t move. The chariot passed without stopping.

  He’d finally reached the edge of the porch when, behind him, like a sudden avalanche of rocks, he heard an angry shout split open the silence: “Show me where the treasury is!”

  This was the disaster Julius and his brother had feared and discussed, but Drago had been clear—even if the temple was attacked, Julius was to continue on. Not turn back. Not try to help him. The treasure Julius needed to save was more important than any one life or any five lives or any fifty lives.

  But then a razor-sharp cry of pain rang out, and ignoring the plan, he ran back through the shadows, into the temple and up to the altar.

  His brother was not where he’d left him.

  “Drago?”

  No answer.

  “Drago?”

  Where was he?

  Julius worked his way down one of the dark side aisles of the temple and up the next. When he found Drago, it wasn’t by sound or by sight—but by tripping over his brother’s supine body.

  He pulled him closer to the flickering torches. Drago’s skin was already deathly pale, and his torn robe revealed a six-inch horizontal slash on his stomach crossing a vertical gash that cut him all the way down to his groin.

  Julius gagged. He’d seen eviscerated carcasses of both man and beast before and had barely given them a passing glance. Sacrifices, felled soldiers or punished criminals were one thing. But this was Drago. This blood was his blood.

  “You weren’t…supposed to come back,” Drago said, dragging every syllable out as if it was stuck in his throat. “I sent him…to look in the loculi…for the treasures. I thought…Stabbed me, anyway. But there’s time…for us to get out…now…now!” Drago struggled to raise himself up to a sitting position, spilling his insides as he moved.

  Julius pushed him down.

  “Now…we need…to go now.” Drago’s voice was weakening.

  Trying to staunch the blood flow, Julius put pressure on the laceration, willing the intestines and nerves and veins and skin to rejoin and fuse back together, but all he accomplished was staining his hands in the hot, sticky mess.

  “Where are the virgins?” The voice erupted like Vesuvius without warning and echoed through the interior nave. Raucous laughter followed.

  How many soldiers were there?

  “Let’s find the booty we came here for,” another voice chimed in.

  “Not yet, first I want one of the virgins. Where are the virgin whores?”

  “The treasury first, you lecherous bastard.”

  More laughter.

  So it wasn’t one man; a regiment had stormed the temple. Shouting, demanding, blood-lust coating their words. Let them pillage this place, let them waste their energy, they’d come too late: there were no pagans to convert, no treasure left to find and no women left to rape, they’d all already been killed or sent into hiding.

  “We have to go…” Drago whispered as once again he fought to rise.

  He’d stayed behind to make sure everyone else got out safely. Why him, why Drago?

  “You can’t move, you’ve been hurt—” Julius broke off, not knowing how to tell his brother that half of his internal organs were no longer inside his body.

  “Then leave me. You need to get to her…Save her and the treasures…. No one…no one but you…”

  It wasn’t about the sacred objects anymore. It was about two people who both needed him desperately: the woman he loved and his brother, and the fates were demanding Julius sacrifice one of them for the other.

  I can’t let her die and I can’t leave you to die.

  No matter which one he chose, how would he live with the decision?

  “Look what I found,” one of the soldiers shouted.

  Screams of vengeance reverberated through the majestic hall. A shriek rang out above all the other noise. A woman’s cry.

  Julius crawled out, hid behind a column and peered into the nave. He couldn’t see the woman’s upper body, but her pale legs were thrashing under the brute as the soldier pumped away so roughly that blood pooled under her. Who was the poor woman? Had she wandered in thinking she’d find a safe haven in the old temple, only to find she’d descended into hell? Could Julius help her? Take the men by surprise? No, there were too many of them. At least eight he could see. By now the rape had attracted more attention, drawing other men who forgot about their search to crowd around and cheer on their compatriot.

  And what would happen to Drago if he left his side?

  Then the question didn’t matter because beneath his hands, Julius felt his brother’s heart stop.

  He felt his heart stop.

  Julius beat Drago’s chest, pumping and trying, trying but failing to stimulate the beating. Bending down, he breathed into his brother’s mouth, forcing his own air down his throat, waiting for any sign of life.

  Finally, his lips still on his brother’s lips, his arm around his brother’s neck, he wept, knowing he was wasting precious seconds but unable to stop. Now he didn’t have to choose between them—he could go to the woman who was waiting for him at the city gates.

  He must go to her.

  Trying not to attract attention, he abandoned Drago’s body, backed up, found the wall and started crawling. There was a break in the columns up ahead; if he could get to it undetected, he might make it out.

  And then he heard a soldier shout for him to halt.

  If he couldn’t save her, Julius would at least die trying, so, ignoring the order, he kept moving.

  Outside, the air was thick with the black smoke that burned his lungs and stung his eyes. What were they incinerating now? No time to find out. Barely able to see what lay ahead of him, he kept running down the eerily quiet street. After the cacophony of the scene he’d just left, it was alarming to be able to hear his own footsteps. If someone was on the lookout the sound would give him away, but he needed to risk it.

  Picturing her in the crypt, crouched in the weak light, counting the minutes, he worried that she would be anxious that he was late and torment herself that something had gone dangerously wrong. Her bravery had always been as steadfast as the stars; it was difficult even now to imagine her afraid. But this was a far different situation than anything she’d ever faced, and it was all his fault, all his shame. They’d risked too much for each other. He should have been stronger, should have resisted.

  And now, because of him, everything they treasured, especially their lives, was at stake.

  Tripping over the uneven, cracked surfaces, he stumbled. The muscles in his thighs and calves screamed, and every breath irritated his lungs so harshly he wanted t
o cry out. Tasting dirt and grit mixed with his salty sweat as it dripped down his face and wet his lips, he would have given anything for water—cold, sweet water from the spring, not this alkaline piss. His feet pounded the stones and more pain shot up through his legs, but still he ran.

  Suddenly, raucous shouting and thundering footfalls filled the air. The ground reverberated, and from the intensity he knew the marauders were coming closer. He looked right, left. If he could find a sheltered alcove, he could flatten himself against the wall and pray they’d run past and miss him. As if that would help. He knew all about praying. He’d relied on it, believed in it. But the prayers he’d offered up might as well have been spit in the gutter for the good they’d done.

  “The sodomite is getting away!”

  “Scum of the earth.”

  “Scared little pig.”

  “Did you defecate yourself yet, little pig?”

  They laughed, trying to outdo each other with slurs and accusations. Their chortles echoed in the hollow night, lingered on the hot wind, and then, mixed in with their jeers, another voice broke through.

  “Josh?”

  No, don’t listen. Keep going. Everything depends on getting to her in time.