Nephilim Falling
A TRENTON INVESTIGATIONS PREQUEL
Felicia Beasley
Contents
Nephilim Falling
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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
Damian
7 Years Later
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About the Author
Copyright © 2017 by Felicia Beasley
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are either conjured from the depths of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover art by Lou Harper
Nephilim Falling
They say demons and angels don’t mix. I say people should mind their own damn business.
My brother, Damian, has been my rock ever since mom left. Didn’t matter to him that I was a lowly half-demon while angel blood flowed through his veins. I was his and he was mine.
But nothing lasts forever.
He wants me to go to college. I’d rather fight a hundred sentinels than lead a boring, safe life hiding who I am. So when a nephilim goes missing, I go behind Damian’s back to find the teen. Maybe if I can solve the case, he will upgrade me to his partner in crime solving.
As bodies begin to drop, I realize I’m in way over my head. But there’s no way I’m going to admit that, not when my future hangs in the balance. Instead, I set my eyes on recruiting the help of the new kid. Lucas is arrogant, sexy, and persistently trying to get my number.
He’s also a nephilim. Off-limits, no matter how good he looks flinging fireballs.
Then again, I was never good at resisting temptation.
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Chapter 1
Telling a girl she has to stay in the car and study while you and your bestie hunt down a swindling frog demon is like expecting a four-year-old to eat her broccoli while you eat a giant slice of chocolate cake.
Don’t be surprised when she lunges across the table and snatches it from your lips.
Just as Damian shouldn’t have been surprised when I flew out of the car at first sight of the demon ribbiting out the back door of the bustling demon-run casino.
The biting winds of February cut my cheeks and brought tears to my eyes, blurring my vision. I only had an insulated parka for protection. Really needed to remember to put on a hat, mittens, and scarf next time I want to chase a bad guy in the middle of a Minnesotan winter.
The stench of swamp and mold hit my nose. I gagged. Even if I were a blind deaf mute, I’d be able to follow this guy just with my sensitive nose.
My sneakers slipped on the ice patches coating the parking lot. I thanked my demon reflexes that I was able to remain on my feet and not land on my ass.
They should put down more salt. Wouldn’t want a pesky lawsuit or something.
He glanced over his shoulder, beady black eyes bugging out at how much I’d gained in just a few seconds. His powerful legs launched him high in the air. He landed farther with each leap as his feet hit grass. He hopped straight for the tree line in the distance. Probably hoped he could lose me in the dense thicket.
He probably would.
The casino was in no man’s land, but because it appealed to demons rather than humans, there was a nearby waypoint, just through the forest.
It saved on gas.
If he made it to the portal, he’d be gone. I’m not dumb enough to follow into the demon domain of Sheol. I liked living.
Snow crunched under my boots. Boots made for walking not traipsing through a winter wonderland.
I pushed my legs to go faster, calves burning, arms pumping. A five-mile run every morning did wonders for my long-term stamina but did nothing to give me the burst of speed I needed to catch the fat toad.
You had to do sprints for that. I hate sprints.
Luckily I had some demon abilities to make up for the human-side deficiencies.
He broke the tree-line, swallowed by impenetrable darkness. My job just got a hell of a lot harder.
My pace slowed as I followed him into the foreboding forest. The snow here was packed tighter with a narrow path all the demons used to go from the waypoint to gamble and drink to excess.
At first, there seemed to be too many tracks to know which belonged to the mad frog. Then I noticed where each step sank deeper into the snow. The stride was farther as well. Like someone had leapt with powerful fervor.
Cha-ching! Jackpot.
The trail of his hops swerved into the thicker woods where the snow was fresh and untouched except for his imprints.
Stupid, stupid frog.
I burst into a ten by ten clearing and stopped. The pristine snow marked the end of the line. There were no more footprints to follow. It took me a second to put the pieces together.
Stupid, stupid Lex.
Someone smashed against my back from above, knocking me flat on my face. A move that would have made a professional offensive lineman proud.
He bounced off with another lurch of his power thighs, landing in front of me, crouched down, very frog-like.
It reminded me of Toad from the first X-men movie.
“Xyls fuck svwib?” he croaked.
I was pretty sure that was gibberish.
I spat globs of snow from my frozen mouth as I pulled myself to standing. “Sorry, I don’t speak frog.”
I must have offended him because he roared and charged toward me. Have you ever heard a frog roar? It’s unsettling.
This time I was ready for him. I stepped to the side once he got close and planted my boot on his back with a precise side-kick.
It was his turn to eat snow.
He wasn’t down for long, though. He pushed himself up with wart covered hands. Not the kind of warts you’d normally see on a toad. Rather humanish, the kind that indicated you have skin cancer.
Knowing my advantage was quickly diminishing, I squashed the back of his neck with a devastating stomp, hoping to crush the cervical spine and paralyze the fucker.
No such luck. Demons are tough sons of bitches.
I went for another strike, but he caught my ankle, gripped it tight, and flung me head first into one of the trees.
I flew and thanked the gods his aim was shit. Landing awkwardly on my shoulder, pain shot down my arm. I was lucky I hadn’t broken it. I’m hardier than a human but not as strong as Kermit here.
It was time to take the kid gloves off.
I launched myself back onto my feet-ten years of gymnastic instincts paying off-before he could squish me like a bug.
He smiled wide, like the terrifying smiling man creepypasta, black pus oozing from his lips.
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br /> I’d need to be careful. This guy had more poison running through his veins than a junkie.
He roared as he charged like some rhino/amphibian hybrid.
I dodged to the right. He missed and took several steps before course-correcting. I danced away from his next charge as well.
He was fast, no doubt, but I had conditioned my body to react, requiring no thinking on my part to play the defense.
I had no weapons unless you count the fancy pen in my pocket.
My job wasn’t to win. It was to survive long enough for my brother and his partner to find us and deal with it. While I didn’t know the details of the case, since Damian never deigned to inform me, he had been adamant to Wes that they needed the asshole alive.
Kermit kept charging at me, coming from different angles. I continued to spin out of the way, changing the directions just to keep from being bored.
It wasn’t taxing. I could keep doing it all night if I had to. Clearly, he wasn’t someone who learned from his mistakes.
He stopped suddenly, snarling at me like a rabid bunny.
Guess I spoke too soon.
I dropped into a front stance, ready to unleash some powerful kicks. Playing defense was boring anyhow.
Faster than I could take a second breath, his slimy tongue shot from his mouth, extending the ten feet between us and wrapping around my throat.
Cool saliva rolled down, settling between my breasts. I would have gagged had I not had a noose around my neck.
His tongue flexed, tightening around my throat and cutting off my air supply. I had to admit. It was impressive.
I clawed at the meaty tongue. Heartbeat pounded in my ears like a racehorse. Eyes burned.
This felt like the end. I was going to be choked to death by a tongue. Hope they don’t put that on my tombstone.
Where the hell was my brother?
The demon jerked his head, and I went airborne. Landing on my side, the bone in my arm crackled like a firecracker. Agony raced through my body, my pain receptors firing messages to my brain that said dumbass. A shrill blood-curdling scream pierced the dead air.
My scream.
I struggled to regain footing. My legs refused to cooperate. My arm wasn’t the only thing I’d injured in my botched landing.
The Hulk stalked over, lips curled back to reveal dandelion-colored, razor sharp teeth. The better to eat me with.
I scurried backward, a failed one-armed crab walk. He stood over me and straddled my body. With all my strength, I propelled my leg up between his legs.
His hand caught it before I could crush his balls. He raised me by the ankle high enough that the tips of my long, red hair barely brushed the ground. A punch to the kidney made my broken arm feel like a mosquito bite.
Another. Blood poured from my mouth.
He dropped me. I thanked whatever divine power kept me from breaking my neck in the fall.
Thunder rocked me to the core. I glanced up.
Not thunder.
Wes, my brother’s partner in crime-solving, had his gun raised and fired another shot at the demon.
Kermit the demented frog stumbled back a step but didn’t go down. Two holes in his chest gushed black liquid, pulsing in time with his heartbeat.
My hero had come to rescue me. If I didn’t hurt so fucking much, I’d probably have been annoyed. No one likes being the damsel. I wanted to be the one to rescue the princess. Just once, please.
Before Wes could get off another shot, the demon turned his focus to the bigger threat and charged. Wes didn’t move fast enough to avoid the three hundred pound demon’s tackle.
Wes’ pained grunt burned my ears.I tried, and failed, to get back on my feet, back to the fight.
I crawled, one-armed, over to the two males. Now was my chance to save the prince. I didn’t feel any surge of heroism; no renewed strength fueled my body. Instead, bile rose in my throat, mixing with the metallic taste of blood.
The demon’s fist pummeled Wes’ delicate face. A sickening crunch filled the air.
If I didn’t do something, like now, the demon would cave Wes’ face in.
And it’d be all my fault.
Wes struggled to fight back, to push off the massive amphibian. It was not very effective.
Wes’ gun laid within reach. I ignored it. I’d never shot one before. Damian had forbidden Wes from taking me to the shooting range, which was fine with me. I didn’t trust the metal monstrosity. Magic and technology were strange bedfellows. Terribly unhealthy for each other.
Besides, Wes’ earlier love bites hadn’t been very effective.
The demon was in reach, still engaged in pummeling Wes’ beautiful face. I watched in morbid fascination as the demon extended his tongue and lapped at the pooling blood on Wes’ cheek.
This spurred Wes to fight harder, reaching his left hand up to gouge out an eye. The demon swatted it away.
I pulled out the fancy fountain pen I’d gotten from Wes for my birthday last month. He probably hadn’t expected it to be used to save his life.
“Hey, ass-butt,” I said, trying to draw his attention. “You forgot about me.”
I drove the tip of the pen as hard as I could through the back of his neck before he could turn around.
The writing instrument pierced through his throat. Foul, inky blood soaked my fingers.
He screeched and knocked his arm back, sending me flying for the third time in ten minutes.
I landed hard on my back, but this time nothing broke. It just bruised.
The good news was I had diverted the attention from Wes.
I don’t have to tell you the bad news.
He was on me in seconds, launching himself up with his powerful hind legs. It felt like his boots caved in my chest as he landed, driving the air from my lungs.
He jumped again, this time straight up, landing on my chest a second time. Ribs cracked.
He stopped his gleeful hopping and straddled my waist. He wrapped his hand in my hair and pulled my head back. His tongue, I was getting really sick of it, left a slime trail on my throat.
He leaned down like a conspiratorial lover and whispered, “Bet you’ll fetch a pretty penny.”
His scratchy voice sent a wave of revulsion through my stomach. Plus his breath stunk.
I knew this douchebag knew more than just demon frog gibberish and English expletives.
I realized something in this moment of terrifying pain. He was playing with me. If he had wanted to, he’d have killed me already. No, he was one of those assholes who played with his food until he grew bored. Then he secretly snuck the unappealing food to the family dog.
In this case, the dog was the slave traders in Sheol.
I’d have preferred death.
“What? Not demon enough to finish the job yourself?”
He tsked, not rising to my bait. “Credits trump thrill of the kill every time.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised. He was, after all, a swindler.
In the blink of an eye, his head was missing. Just gone. One second asshat was leering at me. The next, he was headless.
Pressure lifted from my chest as his body tumbled beside me.
I looked up and met the stormy eyes of my half-brother. His eyes looked like a tempest in the night.
He turned his back to me and walked away. I tried to prop myself up to see where he went, but the pain was too much. I resigned myself to stare at the stars until he came back.
I mean, what else could I do?
He came back, presumably from checking on his partner. He looked grim, his face creased in worry.
“Wes?” I asked, fearing the worst.
My body protested as he scooped me in his arms and started walking back to the car.
“He’ll live. Will have to use his other assets to charm the ladies for a little while.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Alive and ugly was preferable to dead and sexy.
I swiveled my head around looking for the man I owed my
life. He laid on his side in a crumpled heap surrounded by red snow.
He didn’t move. He didn’t look alive.
Had Damian lied?
“We can’t leave him.”
Damian ignored my plea.
“I’m very disappointed in you, Alexis.”
He didn’t sound disappointed. He sounded ready to chop off someone else’s head.
“Put me down. I can walk.”
I wasn’t sure I actually could, but Wes looked ten times worse than I felt and I worried if we left him there there’d be nothing to return to.
“I’ll come back for him.”
“Damian,” I shouted, struggling to get out of his grasp. I screamed as agony played with my organs.
He stopped, looking down at me, anger and worry warring behind his eyes.
“Where are you hurt?”
His tone contained a dangerous ferociousness like a mama bear with her cub.
“Everywhere.”
He growled in response. “I can’t lose you, niblet.”
He held me tighter against his chest. His heart pounded against my cheek. Safe. I was finally safe. He’d never let anything hurt me.
Too bad I had a habit of getting myself hurt anyway.
“It’s not an option.”
He started walking again. The farther we got from Wes, the heavier the weight on my chest.
“Stop. You can come back for me. Don’t leave, Wes.”
He didn’t stop walking. “He isn’t my priority, love.”
“If he dies—“
“Then maybe you’ll learn not to rush headlong into situations you can’t handle.”
The cruel words stung. He was right. I would learn. At too great a cost. And if I was really honest with myself it wouldn’t stop me from bum rushing the next dangerous thing.
And then who would I lose? Damian?
I kept my silence as he continued the trek. Coming out of the forest, the world around me came to life aglow with unnatural light.
I turned my head and stared at the demon casino then I looked back at my brother. “Why is the casino on fire?”
The ghost of a smile appeared on his lips, but he said nothing. Yep, he was just as guilty of being as reckless as me.
Nephilim Falling (Trenton Investigations) Page 1