The Blood of Kings

The University of Pittsburgh campus is anything but quiet the summer Jamie, a hunky college sophomore, feeling brokenhearted after being dumped by his first boyfriend, decides to audit a summer class on Egyptology taught by the magnetic Dr. Danilo. Several of the university's star athletes are then found murdered, their bodies completely desiccated, but Jamie has other things on his mind, as Danilo's attention turns decidedly nonprofessorial. Soon, he is swept up in a passionate affair with his teacher. When Danilo invites Jamie to travel with him, first to Paris and then to Egypt, the young man leaps at the chance, but in Paris, events turn sinister. At the Louvre, an exhibit of Egyptian artifacts includes a relief of a pharaoh kissing his son and successor, who bears more than a slight resemblance to Danilo. Taken alone, this means little, but a murder identical to those in Pittsburgh occurs, and Jamie begins to have uneasy suspicions. In Egypt, Jamie questions Danilo and learns of an ancient cult of kings connected by a single bloodline extending through centuries. Danilo is on a quest to invigorate this line of kings by initiating them and training them to use their power. Those who had been denied their birthright died so that Danilo might live. Now Jamie must choose whether to return to the world he has known, or to join his lover and mentor in a life of passion, power and blood.

John Michael Curlovich has published "Cities of the Dead," "Owl Light," and "The Colors of Hell" under the pseudonym Michael Paine. He is the arts and entertainment editor at Planet Q in Pittsburgh.