Smoke & Fire - Adult Paranormal Romance Series, Book #1

by Michele Wesley

  All Sori needed was a second to regroup and find someone to shoot, but seeing a fellow agent’s life about to end took her attention. She didn’t think about the consequences; she had a penchant for risking her life to save strangers. She would get a strong uncontrollable impulse to protect non-criminals, and although she knew how to flip her emotions on and off, she had no idea how to override her impulse to save an innocent. She couldn’t bear the thought of letting Agent Jones get shot or killed. Her boldness of underestimating these criminals was the reason they were in this situation in the first place.

  Harrison had taken aim at Agent Jones’ chest because Jones had just taken out one of his men. Sori couldn’t explain how she pulled off some of the death-defying stunts she attempted, but they often paid off. There were times when her instincts, or alter-ego, took control and propelled her to do things she never dreamed possible. As she ran toward Agent Jones, her vision had never been clearer.

  She traveled across the room like flowing sand in a sandstorm and shot every target aligned in her sight. Her movement and erratic behavior pulled Harrison’s attention, and her aim found him, sending hot lead to the center of his head. Just as her bullet seared its way into Harrison’s forehead, a final shot exited his weapon and landed in her back.

  The strength of the bullet hit Sori like full-force winds, momentarily picking her up and slamming her body into Agent Jones. She felt the bullet penetrate her back and slice through parts unknown within her body, but adrenaline had her back on her feet within seconds.

  Agent Jones took Archer down with a chest shot, but he was still alive. Since Sori’s job was to deliver Archer’s death, she made her way toward him. She pretended to care about his well-being as he forced a smile through obvious pain. He acted as if he hadn’t just found out she was the law.

  Archer asked her to lean in closer, intending to tell her something. As Sori leaned down, she ensured her nickel-plated backup was in reach.

  Bullets stopped flying immediately, as agents had killed everyone that wasn’t the law or a civilian.

  Archer grabbed Sori’s arm and pulled her closer. He spoke low in a strained whisper, “I wanted out of the Cartel just as much as the law wants in.” His eyes spoke more truth than his words and made Sori realize he had been using her to get out of the TC. Sori hadn’t kicked Archer’s weapon away from his reach because she needed an excuse to kill him. He handed her a better plan.

  She placed her weapon down the front of her pants and moved closer to Archer as he continued to speak. The heat from the weapon’s muzzle burned her, but she ignored it. The information Archer was spewing was much more important.

  Archer’s eyes were staring up at the ceiling, as if he were talking to people Sori couldn’t see. “You thought you had me for life, Padre, but I found a loophole. You took control of my mind, but I found a way to take pieces back. I found a way out! Death will find you all. Even you have weaknesses.” When Archer finally looked into Sori’s eyes, he said, “They can’t track you. You’re like them. You can fight them, but you can’t do it alone. He won’t rest until he kills you or controls you all. He’s building an army. They are in…”

  Archer started choking on his own blood. He made a grab for Sori’s weapon, and she let him take it. Death found Archer within seconds as Agent Jones shot him in the head. Sori wasn’t sorry that Archer was dead. Her only regret was that he hadn’t finished his sentence.

  Agent Jones ran over to Sori, trying to apply pressure to her back wound. She hadn’t realized she had collapsed, her body now prone on the floor. She surmised she must have been losing a lot of blood. She couldn’t see it, but she smelled the rusty scent of it.

  The shot had her losing consciousness fast. Now that her adrenaline had burned away, she felt her body shaking and shivering. She made a quick decision: if this were to be her last moments, she wanted to feel everything—every last emotion.

  She made the choice to open up her mind.

  Agent Jones didn’t leave Sori’s side, he continued to speak encouraging words while awaiting the medical team.

  There was usually a blessing in tragedy. This incident let Sori know that she still had some humanity left in her, a humanity she thought she was losing to the unknown currents that often stirred within her.

  When bullets started flying, she jumped in front of one to save Jones. She couldn’t bear the thought of him dying. Agent Jones had shown her genuine care and understanding even when she struggled daily to find the two emotions lying somewhere dormant within her.

  As sure as she was aware of her ragged breathing, Death had entered the room. Although her emotions were wide open, she didn’t feel the one emotion she expected most. She didn’t feel fear, didn’t feel afraid or frightened; not even a tear slid from her eyes in the face of sudden death. The fact that she didn’t feel fear in the face of death made her welcome death. The realization let her know that she was broken and damaged beyond repair. She did, however, feel her lover, pain; an excruciating and torturous pain.

  Like having an abusive husband, she embraced her pain, tried to ease it into a gentle ebb, as she felt herself slipping into the great beyond. She wondered if she had done enough good in the world to have given her life meaning and purpose.

  Finally, the tears came, but not because she was dying; they flowed because she didn’t fear the one thing that humans feared most—death. The realization called forth pity, who taunted and kicked her while she struggled with her last living seconds.

  Agent Jones kept calling her Agent Nelson, repeating her code name and reminding her that she would be fine. She’d felt the bullet when it tore through her back like a hot missile guided by death himself. Death held her; she could feel his presence. He was spooning with her on the floor. She felt her eyes fluttering now as her lover, pain, continued kicking her ass all the way to death’s door. She finally let go and let herself fall back into the blackness holding her.

  CHAPTER 5

  Drake and Damon

  The mission ended a tragic success. Top, along with the FBI, collected over twenty million in seized cocaine and cash, left stacks of dead criminals in their wake, and Cartel Prince Micky Banks—Archer Santos was dead.

  She was… well, she was another story. Agent Nora Nelson was a mystery Drake was still trying to solve. Fast and deadly, she moved like a mixture of smoke and wind. She had shot three men, including the target, and saved his life in the process. A gunshot to the back is what she’d won for her efforts. She had a strong constitution and was able to endure pain that would have put most men on their asses.

  Drake Anderson, also known as Agent Jones, had rendered initial care until the paramedics arrived. She had stepped in front of a speeding bullet for him, and he didn’t even know her real name. Immediately upon seeing her let the target take her gun to get himself killed, he knew she wasn’t a regular FBI agent.

  Drake was convinced that Agent N was a Top agent, and now better understood why she had been so tough and deadly. There weren’t many female agents in Top, and Drake knew the routine better than anyone because he was connected to the Top agent network. He prayed that the brave and fearless woman would recover so he could find and thank her for saving him.

  Feeling an immediate connection to her, Drake found she reminded him of his younger sister. His sister had been a victim of an abduction turn murder about seven years back. Her body had been found a month after she had gone missing. No cause of death was ever found, only her body drained completely of life.

  Drake and his twin brother, Damon, were not only closely associated with Top agents, they were also the heads of a very small and tight-knit secret agency called MIA. They started and named the group for their sister: Mara Isabella Anderson. MIA is like a group of power agents, linked to Top. The government had a few cells like MIA planted around the country. MIA consisted of a team of no more than ten agents that operated as a group or as singl
e entities, depending on the assignments.

  Groups like MIA often operated from static locations and deployed to different locations as needed. They lived, worked, and blended in as normal citizens, but most of their work was top secret or above.

  Drake surmised that Agent N probably fell particularly into the realm above top secret. Meaning, she didn’t stay in one location very long. She was what they called a ghost or a phantom. He knew from experience that she learned all the tools needed to blend into any type of environment and could disappear just as quickly as she appeared.

  The fact that he had firsthand knowledge of the secret spy world and was still unable to find her proved her secret status. She was one of a few people on the planet who had gone so far into the dark that she was literally unable to be tracked; the walking dead as it were.

  Drake walked into his office one afternoon and found a Post-it note stuck to his computer that read, “Still alive, Agent N.” His office on the fifty-sixth floor of the Anderson Building should have been unbreathable. Having no idea how she had gone undetected, the act cemented her status as a living shadow.

  With all of his money, technology, and connections, Drake had been trying like hell to find out who Agent N was, but came up empty on every try. He only knew her as Agent Nora Nelson, obviously one of her aliases.

  Drake became so obsessed with finding the mysterious agent, he had a sample of her blood analyzed. Her blood was taken from the shirt he’d worn the night she’d been shot. Keeping the clothes, he decided he would try using her DNA since nothing else was working. It wasn’t that he couldn’t find her; he couldn’t find anything about her or anything that linked her to anyone.

  In this day and age, ghosts were agents recruited specifically because they had no ties to anything or anyone, nothing that could lead to their true identity. There was essentially no proof that these people existed, and they were considered top of the food chain in the secret agent world. They received the best training and full access to the newest tech toys and spy equipment. They had access to things that were not on the market and some things that would never be released into the market.

  At his level, Drake had some of the same privileges, but not to the extent as Agent N. Most Top agents were shadows or spooks that were often the topic of many conspiracy theories and rumors. They were the ones the government called when monsters came out of the closets. They were the ones that were called to track those deemed untouchable. In Drake’s opinion, Top agents were some of the things that went bump in the night. Since the drastic increase in the number of HTE cases was on the rise, agents like Agent N were paramount to keeping the world from falling into further chaos.

  * * *

  Just laying down to bed, Drake got a call from an overly excited-sounding government scientist that worked for him. Dr. William Pendergast was a member of Drake’s eight-man team at MIA.

  Claiming to have stumbled upon a discovery that couldn’t wait until morning, Willie called Drake. Drake and Damon lived together. The brothers moved in together after the death of their sister. Drake, his wife Laci, Damon, and Mrs. Ruth, the cook and maid, shared a huge mansion that doubled as the brothers’ spy headquarters.

  The mansion was situated in a nice upscale neighborhood right outside DC. From the outside it looked like any other upscale home, but this particular mansion had more secret coves than Batman’s Batcave.

  Drake woke Damon so he could tag along to find out Willie’s discovery. The brothers walked the couple hundred feet to a secret elevator that would take them to the full service lab and medical facility located under their mansion.

  When they walked into the lab, they stood looking, waiting for Willie to say something. Willie wore an indescribable look on his face, one that made the brothers look at each other questioningly.

  Looking as if he’d discovered a cure for cancer, Willie stared at them. A mess of thick reddish-brown hair was matted to one side of his head; his already ghost-white skin was somehow whiter; his clothing, including his white doctor’s robe, was wrinkled beyond salvation; he sported bags under eyes that were bulging out of their sockets.

  Drake felt sorry for the poor man as he scanned the area looking for his shoes. It seemed the doctor had been sliding around the lab in his socks. Patience was definitely not on the brothers’ side. They both shouted at the same time, “What is it, Willie?”

  The brothers weren’t identical twins, but they looked enough alike that you could easily mistake one for the other. They also talked and acted as if they shared the same brain.

  Willie started out slowly, clearing his throat, “Well, I made a discovery by accident. I tested the mystery lady’s blood from your shirt and got a DNA profile and… well, I never had any intention of ever comparing it to someone else’s DNA because I had no reason to—I always double- and triple-check everything I do—so I swabbed for another sample from your shirt, only the second sample came up as your DNA. I just assumed you probably cut yourself and bled on your shirt. With your job duties and all, no big deal that you would bleed somewhere, right?”

  Drake’s patience was gone. Rolling his eyes up at the ceiling, he hoped for the patience he knew he didn’t have. Giving Willie a lingering stare, he said, “Willie, can you be a number 2 pencil and get this story of yours to its point?”

  “Yes, sir, but you have to hear the full story. Anyway, I set your results down and continued to work on identifying the lady. My eyes were tired, so I sat, took deep breaths, closed my eyes, and cupped my head in my hands to relax for a minute. When I opened my eyes, I opened the DNA results. Both were both there, staring back at me.”

  Willie looked nervously from one brother to the other and continued, “The mystery lady’s DNA results were halfway peeking out from under your results. At first, I thought my eyes were failing me because the two sets of results were close enough to get my attention. I studied and stared at those results for hours. I conducted a comparative analysis of your DNA and mystery lady’s, and, sir, you may want to have a seat.”

  Waiting for Willie to come to a conclusion, Drake and Damon stood completely still, as if they were in suspended animation. Willie continued slowly, “Gentlemen, since you two are obviously brothers, this discovery affects you both. I have tested these results three times, and I keep coming up with the same answer.”

  The brothers couldn’t take the suspense anymore. Damon asked in a very exasperated voice, “Willie, did you find out who she is or not?”

  “Sir, I still have not found out who she is as in name, but based on what I have tested, the mystery lady is your sister.” Willie used both his hands to point back and forth between the brothers.

  Both brothers shouted at the same time, “WHAT !”

  The wind from that one word swept through the air and seemingly blew Willie’s hair back.

  Drake stared at Willie, trying to figure out if their young genius doctor had finally lost his mind or had somehow cooked his brain on all the chemicals he used.

  At only twenty-six, Willie held the knowledge of doctors and scientists twice his age.

  He was nerdy and socially awkward, so the brothers’ lab provided his perfect escape from the world.

  Drake took a step closer to Willie. “That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard you say. It is time for you to get some sleep Doc. You are obviously overworked and have gone all mad scientist on us.”

  Damon just shook his head sorrowfully at the doctor. “Really, Willie? Really? Do you know how far-fetched and crazy that sounds?”

  Although Willie knew he would have a difficult time trying to explain this to the brothers, he tried anyway. “Look, you don’t have to believe me. I ran the test three different times, and each time, it says that mystery blood is XX, as in female, belonging to someone that is your close relative. The samples have more than seven DNA commonalities when compared to your blood and DNA profiles. It sa
ys that she is your blood relative and matched close enough for her to be more than a distant relative. You either share a father or a mother with this mystery lady. Since you said mystery lady is black, I can only assume you all share the same father. Here are the results guys. Look for yourselves if you don’t believe what I am telling you.”

  Walking up to Willie’s table, the brothers looked at the documents as if they were contagious. They asked Willie questions about different symbols and markings. The more they looked and started to understand, the more the brothers wanted to know and learn.

  Drake stared off into space. “The first day I met her, my first thought was that she reminded me of Mara. All I wanted to do was protect her. She reminded me so much of our sister, I kept staring at her. I saw it but didn’t think it was possible.”

  Damon pulled his eyes away from his brother. He asked, “Willie, are you 100 percent sure this data is accurate?”

  “I am as sure as the day I picked up a microscope,” Came Willie’s reply.

  Both brothers smiled. Damon asked, “Do you think she knows we’re related?”

  Shaking his head, Drake said, “No, there’s no way she could know. We look white because our mother is white, and Agent N looks black, which only could have come from our father. I think she felt a connection to me though. She saved my life.”

  Drake swallowed nothing. “I think she is a ghost. I can’t find anything on her from any database. Bro, you know the government won’t take a person to that level unless they lack ties to anyone or anything. They wouldn’t have made her a ghost if they knew she had family.”

  The brothers had Willie test the blood samples a few more times, as well as compare it to Damon’s blood, before they were convinced the mystery agent was indeed their sibling. Half-sister, but sister nonetheless.

  Drake called the one contact he knew who could assist him in tracking this mystery agent—the president. The brothers knew the president before he’d become the president; they had all attended Georgetown together. Drake felt this was his only card left to play if they were ever going to find their sister.