Dear readers, with the release of A Hybrid’s Tale, the first novel in The Cambion Journals Series, we are proud to present an interview with one of the most intimidating characters you will ever meet: Augustus Thorne.

Augustus is here to tell us about his existence as a member of the demondim – supernatural creatures spawned following the rebellion and fall from heaven – a scavenging, insidious multitude who have preyed on humankind since the dawn of time. They live among us, in secret, and have steered humanity’s politics, religions, and evolution for countless centuries.  

This interview is set in the present day, and reveals the motives that drive Augustus to do what he does. Kill demons… And the dire situation such a lifestyle places him in mortal danger.

Pay attention, for some of the details he uncovers may just save your life.

Who are you, and where are you from?

My name is Augustus Thorne, and I was born on the 12th of November, 1760, in the tiny hamlet of Bearwood in the midlands area of rural England. My mother, Rosemary was raised in a protective environment by her father, Frederick—the village blacksmith—and his wife, Lilly. Because they were affluent, they paid a considerable sum of money to guarantee an education of the highest standards for my mother, and always ensured she was chaperoned wherever she went. That, together with her natural beauty and wonderfully long golden hair, meant she caught the eye of the son of the local squire, Robert Archer.

Unfortunately, it also resulted in her catching the eye of a monster; a devil in the truest sense of the word. A high-ranking Incubus; my spawn-father, Fanon. It was his arrival that blighted her life and led to my creation.

So you’re over two hundred and fifty years old? Do you ‘age’ in the sense that normal, everyday people do?

Yes, I have lived far longer than any human being could possibly dream of. And while I do age, it’s very different to the concept you’re thinking of. I’m a Cambion, you see, a human-demon hybrid; as reflected in the fact that I didn’t have a heartbeat until I was seven years old. After that, I grew as every other child did, but only until puberty. When that kicked in, my demonic hunger surfaced: the need to feed off human emotions. The stronger the better. And while I can eat normal food, it’s the life essence of human souls that boosts every aspect of my vitality, slowing ageing as a byproduct. And once a member of the demondim reaches physical and mental maturity – about thirty years old – the physical ageing factors slow right down, becoming almost negligible.

What else make’s Cambion’s so different?

Quite a few things, really. As well as near immortality, I don’t need to sleep. Instead, I just enter a meditative state—one in which I remain fully aware of my surroundings—and from which I can emerge after several hours, fully relaxed and refreshed. I can skirr—a condition similar to flying—whereby I adopt a quasi-corporeal state to flow through the air; I have an astonishing resistance to fire; and can render myself invisible to others.

When it comes to extrasensory talents, I am blessed with telepathy and coercion; I can read thoughts, emotions and sensations at a distance; I can induce the haze, a deep hypnotic sleep in others; and once prey are subjected to my will, I had the capability to then fugue them and actively overwrite selected memories, even wiping them entirely. As if this blend of talents isn’t lethal enough, I have another ace up my sleeve—a purely demonic one—in which I unleash the Fey, a complex wave of compulsive pheromones that induces an extremely high state of arousal.

I think you’ll agree that’s a deadly combination, especially when you consider the downside to my nature: the demonic hunger I mentioned. A gnawing ache that badgers me so much, it borders on torture, because it’s relentless and dominates my every waking hour.

The thing you have to understand is that it’s easy for me to trigger the biochemical and psychic reactions that provoke strong emotions in humans. Those emotions are like nectar to me, extending my life and increasing my strength to many times that of a normal person. Stronger, even, than other full-blood Incubi and Succubae. And while I can eat food like anyone else, especially if it included a lot of bloody meat, it’s the heat of sexual excitement or shock of pure terror that’s highly addictive. And I have to contend with this constant temptation each and every day. That’s harder than you can possibly imagine, thanks to the additional bane being a Cambion brings: Stunning good looks!

Seriously! There’s something about the paranormal condition of all Incubi, Succubae, and Cambions that makes us extremely attractive to the either sex. Just what you needed when you were trying to fight an addictive obsession like mine. I come in at well over six feet tall, and am blessed with an athletically lithe and well muscled body that would put an Adonis to shame. Finally, my jet-black hair, perfect teeth, lightly toned skin and piercing dark eyes do nothing but add to the killer effect. Literally.

So, you admit to being a killer? Does that mean you’ve murdered a lot of human beings?

Yes, I am a killer. One of the most lethally efficient, cold-hearted assassins you could ever wish NOT to meet. And yes, in my early years, some humans did fall at my hands. But never the innocent. And not once did I ever feed on them. Let me explain.

When a Cambion is born to a human woman, it usually—in 99.99% of the time—ends up with the traumatized mother abandoning the baby. And why wouldn’t they. A newborn Cambion is silent. It doesn’t display much emotion. It doesn’t even have a heartbeat, and can be extremely demanding. That’s why Cambions are so tough. We have to fend for ourselves from the instant we come into the world, until the moment we leave it. (Most often in combat with another member of the demondim).

But Rosemary wasn’t like that. She didn’t cast me off, despite the abuse my spawn-father heaped upon her. She refused to let me be, and loved and cherished and nurtured me in those early years. And believe me THAT made a huge difference. Without her support and guidance I’d have turned into a monster, preying on women and using them to satisfy my selfish lusts, exactly as my father had done.

And I’m determined never to become a thing my mother—or any other woman, come to that—would abhor. So, while I do feed off humans, I make damned sure that any interaction is consensual, noninvasive, and that they are alive at the end of it. I keep my rage bottled up until I get the opportunity to express it appropriately, usually when I’m hunting and exterminating supernatural vermin.

Is that why you hate the demondim so much? Because of your father?

It’s spawn-father. And his name is Fanon. Remember that name, because he’s a dead man walking. Anyone who treats people the way he did deserves to die. My mother’s suffering still taunts me. Haunts me. It’s because of him I exist. It’s because of him I’m cursed with a hunger I can barely control. But control it I do, at great cost to myself. So why should they be any different? I hate them. I hate being one of them; a monster doomed to feed from other people forever. And I will do everything in my power to bring their dark reign to an end.

And your father? What would you do if he was here now?

What do you think?

The day will dawn when I finally get my hands on him. And when I do, his screams for mercy will resound throughout the Tau-rus network, around the Earth, and up into high heaven. I’ll make him beg; make him suffer; make him bleed, as I slowly flay him alive, peel him open and lay his rancid soul bare.

But it won’t be quick. Oh no. That scumbag’s going to endure hell on Earth before I rip out his rancid heart and consume it. My mother’s memory demands nothing less than his abject torment, terror an inescapable end.

The Tau-rus network? What’s that?

Simply put, it’s a cabbalistic wormhole system used by the demondim to travel about the globe and from conclave to conclave. As you’ll find out in A Hybrid’s Tale, the network draws its power from Tartarus, the tainted essence of Holy Spirit that remained in the lower realms following the fall of the first and most powerful of the demondim from heaven.

What does the future hold for you?

For all my self-control, I’m a monster on a short leash, forced to walk a solitary path for fear of harming the innocent. I yearn for a normal life. To meet someone special. Fall in love. Settle down and start a family. To grow old with that person, content, and happy to know my offspring will continue on. But it’ll never happen.

So I’ll spend the centuries alone, hunting demons until they’re either all gone or they get lucky and take me out before I kill them.


Andrew P. Weston is a bestselling author from the UK who lives with a large amount of rescue cats in a medium sized house on a small Greek island. As well as suffering from an inordinate compulsion to make things up and write them down for other peoples’ entertainment, he is also an expert nuisance… just ask his wife.

You can find Augustus Thorne on the pages of A Hybrid’s Tale.

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