Angel Hunter- Redemption Book 2

by LaVerne Thompson

  Devlin followed her to her bedroom but just waited by the door for her.

  “I’ll be ready in five,” she told him, going into her walk-in closet, so she could get changed and armed. Some of her shoes from a top shelf had fallen to the floor but she stepped over them and headed toward the back wall. She had a safe with her firearms in there along with a satchel. She took out two of the firearms, one she put in the sleeve at her back the other she placed in the satchel with a few extra rounds for her gun and a knife. She stuck another knife in her boot. When she walked out of her closet, she was ready to do battle.

  Devlin remained standing in the doorway to her bedroom with his arms folded, watching her. “Ready?”

  They went down the hallway toward the front door, but she still had questions. “Even if we find out the quake and the release of the magma were deliberately caused, then what? Can you stop it?”

  “I might be able to stop the aftershocks or make it so they’re not so strong. At the least, maybe redirect the lava flow.”

  “How?”

  “Like I said, I won’t know ‘til I have a look.”

  When they stepped out the front door, they saw evidence all around them of the effects of the quake. The air was thick with sulfur, the sky was hazy, the sunlight muted. It wasn’t even ten in the morning yet.

  “Oh my God!”

  Her house was one of the few houses unaffected on the outside. Almost all the houses on either side of the block had some kind of damage. One the roof had caved in, in another the side of the house had sunken into the ground so the top of the window was now parallel with the front yard. There was a crack that ran down the center of the sidewalk and part of the street. The crack ran through some of the homes on the other side of the street. People were everywhere. The sound of sirens filled their ears and the scent of fire, dust, and smoke permeated the air.

  His Jeep was parked in her driveway behind her car, she was glad it wasn’t a covered car park like the one two houses down from her. It had fallen on top of her neighbor’s car.

  “Get in,” Devlin said to her taking out his keys and unlocking his car.

  “I think I better drive.”

  “Why?”

  “I know my way around the area better in case our GPS doesn’t always work.”

  He frowned. “You sure?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”

  He tossed her his keys and opened his passenger door. “At least it’s more comfortable than that shoe box of yours.”

  Eva chuckled as she got into the car. “Don’t go dissing my car.” She pulled out her phone placing it on the dash. “I sent the GPS coordinates to my phone, so we can find the points of the explosion.”

  “Is it working?”

  “For now, we’ll see as we continue. Maybe we should stop some place and get a map in case it stops working.”

  She turned right out of her driveway, they got as far as the end of the block when they couldn’t go any farther. There was a crater in the middle of the street and an emergency vehicle blocked the only safe way around it. A wave of heat radiated from the open area. Eva backed up the car until she could turn it around and head in the other direction.

  “This is a longer way but hopefully the road to the highway will be good,” she explained to Devlin.

  “Even if it is, we’re going to run into a lot of traffic with people fleeing the area. The highway’s going to be clogged.”

  “We don’t have much of a choice, unless we want to walk,” she advised.

  “We may not have much choice. Or to use back roads.”

  She glanced at him, knowing he spoke the truth. “Do you think Michael had something to do with this?”

  “No,” Devlin’s response was firm.

  “I agree, but I’m surprised you do. Why?”

  “He might be an ass, but I think you read him right. He’s not about mass destruction, selfish, yes, but not this. This smacks of Abel,” he said.

  “But he’s still missing. No one’s seen him for months. Not since Samuel and Thalya stopped him back in New York.”

  “That’s true but just because he hasn’t been seen doesn’t mean he’s not around.”

  Eva couldn’t tell him while Abel may not have done this because he remained contained, he might still have orchestrated it. She kept driving, navigating her way around the cracks in the road and the destruction of the buildings they drove past. The winds picked up and along with it, burning ash blew all around them. She had to use her windshield wipers and in some spots, the ash covered the roads and crumbled buildings in layers. A few blocks over, they could see fires climbing toward the sky. The sound of sirens and honking becoming louder. A city out of control.

  It took them forty minutes to navigate their way to the entrance ramp to the interstate, an otherwise five-minute drive. From a block away, they could see it was a parking lot. Eva did a U-turn and took the first side street she came to and backtracked. She looked over at Devlin as she pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant with a few cars covered in soot in the parking lot. “Walk it is.” As soon as she took a breath, she began to cough.

  Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

  Scott and Chris had set the timer for the explosions and made it back to the house just before sunrise. Scott couldn’t handle any sunlight. The house was already closed up tight for the day. No light filtered into the living room as Chris took his place on the floor in the corner by feel and familiarity. Good thing not a lot of furniture was in his way.

  Tomorrow night in all the chaos, the hunters would be busy, too busy to watch over one stupid bitch. He’d be able to take her then. Get whatever information Michael needed out of her. Michael would be well sated too, from the fear of the earthquake and what they had triggered for the next day would generate. It was all coming together. Michael would be so pleased with him and he would see that he, Chris, was the one. When Scott had come to him with the plan of causing the mass destruction that would bring the city to its knees, he wanted to help. Begged him. Chris immediately saw a way to make it work to benefit himself.

  The sun had been up for a while, so had Chris when the floor he slept on shook beneath him. He opened his eyes and smiled. Sitting up, he turned on the lamp he’d placed on the floor near him. It was a low wattage bulb and threw the room in shadows.

  Michael came into the living room shortly after. “What the fuck was that?”

  The lamp blinked then went out, plunging the room into darkness. Chris turned on the flashlight he’d placed near his spot just in case this happened. But he knew better than to shine it in the direction of the two soulless, instead he directed it at the floor near his feet.

  “What the fuck you think?” Scott added as he stumbled in after Michael and lay on the couch. “The town’s going to reek with fear tonight. We’re going to have good hunting as soon as the sun sets.”

  Michael turned around and went back to his room. The other soulless in the house never left their rooms. Scott glanced over at Chris. He didn’t smile but nodded his head.

  Chris understood what he meant. Tonight was the night they’d take the woman.

  Scott closed his eyes. He wasn’t strong enough yet to handle any sun but in a day or two, after he had both Chronicles, he might be. That fucktard Chris thought they were taking the woman tonight. She didn’t know shit. Scott knew more than she did, he knew where both Chronicles were. He had one and Michael had the other.

  Abel was no fool, he’d given each one of them the location of one of the Chronicles to keep safe for him, but he didn’t quite trust Michael. Scott needed this hell on earth to fuel his power; tonight he was taking Michael on. Once he took the Chronicle from Michael, with both he’d be able to find the lost one Abel told him about and find Abel. Though he wasn’t quite sure how; he couldn’t read the Chronicle Abel had given him to safeguard. The language was older than he was, like none he’d ever seen. Didn’t matter, once he had both journals they were supposed to show him the way
. Combined they were a sort of map.

  Scott heard Chris snoring in the corner. The man had gone back to sleep, even as the house shook around them. He couldn’t wait to take in Chris’s emotions when he realized he’d been tricked as he slit the bastard’s throat and drank his blood. Tomorrow or rather tonight, a new world order would start and he would have been the one to light the match, so to speak. He’d done what Abel couldn’t do: start the end of days.

  When he finally found Abel, the first son of man would be able to bathe in the human blood that Scott would spill in the streets for him. If Scott could feel emotion, he would have laughed with glee. As it was, perhaps he still could. “Chris!” he called.

  The man had his back to him but turned over when he heard his name. “Yeah.”

  “You know what I need.”

  Chris got up and came over to the couch. He dropped to his knees and tilted his head to the side. Scott latched on to his neck and drank in his emotions as he took in his blood. Chris’ utter satisfaction over this night’s work and what was still to come satisfied Scott. Scott released him, shoving him away as he lay back down on the couch. He closed his eyes, but this time he’d taken in enough of Chris’ emotion to mimic the one he sought. A smile remained on his face even as he slept like the damned he was.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Movement from the corner of his eye had Devlin taking Eva’s arm and guiding her out of the way as a few youths came running out of a jewelry store through a broken window. A man, maybe the owner, with a baseball bat in hand followed after them screaming ‘bastards’ at the top of his lungs and running hard on their heels. The cops were going to have their hands full as panic and chaos reigned. It would only get worse come sundown when the soulless joined the fray. They would have a field day.

  This was not good. They’d need all the hunters they could get out in the more heavily populated areas. Devlin hoped Samuel would be able to get some of the New York hunters and some from the other major cities there in time to make a difference.

  “Perfect,” Eva said as she raised her hand and pointed.

  Devlin wasn’t sure what she was pointing at. Ash and dust fell from the sky, surrounding them while covering the world in shades of gray. The stench of death and soot thick in the air hovering over the city. The sounds of sirens drowned out most of the noise of panic but the negative energy everywhere was palpable to everyone. They’d seen some kind of either significant structural or superficial damage in almost all the buildings they’d passed in the last few blocks. Some were time bombs waiting to fall. Devlin wondered if they even had until sundown for the soulless to come out. The haze in some areas could be thick enough to dilute the sun, some older soulless could already be out and about adding to the mayhem.

  “See it? Over there.”

  “What?” he asked, distracted by his dark thoughts. The only thing ahead of them were people on foot, most of them running or stuck in cars that weren’t moving. Either crying and or dazed and the sense of confusion overwhelming. There seemed to be a mass evacuation out of Southern Cali. So far, it wasn’t mandatory but that was just a matter of time.

  Eva had to tug on his arm to get his full attention. “A bike.”

  Then he saw it. “Ah.” A Harley dealership. He nodded. “That works.” He took her hand and they made their way between the cars on the street when they could no longer navigate the sidewalk because of the broken concrete.

  There were only a handful of people outside the showroom. They appeared to be more protecting the place than anything else, some held tire irons as they patrolled around the building and whatever bikes were still outside. When they approached the door to the showroom there was a man about six four, three hundred pounds with snakes tattooed down both muscled arms standing outside holding a shotgun across his chest. He looked them over as they approached. They’d gotten to within a few feet of him when he spoke. “Sorry, we’re closed today.”

  “We need a bike, and I’m willing to pay the list price for it,” Devlin said.

  He looked them up and down once more. They must have passed his inspection because he opened the door and stuck his head in and yelled. “Hey, Mike, customer.”

  Another older man, dressed casually in jeans, a Harley t-shirt, and biker boots came over to the door and looked at them. “Let ‘em in.” After he closed the door behind them, he held out his hand to them. “Mike James, I own this place. What can I help you with?”

  Perfect. “Thanks. I’m Devlin Corwin and this is Evangeline Strauss. I don’t need to haggle.” He glanced around noting they were the only ones in the showroom and it was crammed with bikes, more so he was sure, than they normally had inside. “I need whatever you have that can get us around today in this mess and I need it now. Money is not an issue, Mr. James.”

  The man rubbed his hand over his baldhead. “Call me Mike. Any other day I’d love to accommodate you but everything’s down. We’re not going to be able to conduct any transactions today.”

  “I figured. But I can give you all my information and once you’re up and running, you can enter the information. But I’m afraid I need the bike today.” Then Devlin did something he’d only ever done a couple times before. Samuel had been teaching him, helping him to focus and strengthen his abilities. It’s not something he was proud of being able to do but it could come in handy, like right now. He looked the salesman in the eye and grabbed a hold of his mind.

  Eva stilled beside him, as if she knew. “What are you doing?”

  “What I have to.”

  “Shit!”

  “Make the sale,” Devlin directed the man.

  Mike turned around and they followed him into his office. He handed Devlin a form, which he filled out and signed. Devlin gave him his driver’s license and his Platinum American Express credit card. The man stared at it a moment, like he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do with it.

  “Damn, he can’t enter the information,” Devlin groaned.

  “Perhaps you need to make photocopies of the information and you can enter it later,” Eva suggested.

  “Yes, Mike. Do as she says.”

  Mike nodded and turned around to use the photocopier on the console beside him, but it didn’t work.

  Devlin smacked his hand against his head. “No electricity. Fuck! Screw this! Get out your phone take a picture of my driver’s license and credit card.” While Mike did that, Devlin withdrew his phone. He didn’t have any checks on him but he got an idea. “I need the account information for the dealership and the sticker price for a road worthy bike. I’ll enter a transaction to transfer funds as soon as the system is up and running. Agreed?”

  Mike blinked. “Yes, yes. Agreed.”

  “I’m not stealing a bike but purchasing one. Agreed?”

  He nodded his head. “Agreed.”

  “I need a bike that can navigate on the streets and off road,” Devlin added.

  Mike opened up a file draw and pulled out one folder. He passed it over to Devlin. It was the fact sheets on a Street 750 bike, which could operate in urban areas and off road. Perfect for what he needed.

  “This is fine.”

  Mike told him the bank account number for the dealership. Devlin entered the information, of course he got no signal when he tried to initiate the transfer but it would go through as soon as it was able. He wrote all the information on another form, a bill of sale, which they both signed.

  “Now, I just need the keys. Where’s the bike?” Devlin asked.

  “Someone’s coming this way,” Eva warned.

  Devlin glanced up. “Tell them everything is okay, you’re making a sale and not to worry about anything.”

  “Hey, Mike, you doing okay? Jose wants to take off and check on his family.” The man glanced over at Devlin and Eva nodding at them. “It’s getting really crazy out there.”

  “Everything’s okay. He can leave,” Mike said.

  The man turned to them. “You folks be careful out there, we heard what
sounded like gunshots.”

  “Hey, Bruce, can you bring me the keys to the blue gray 750 and the registration?”

  Bruce frowned, looking puzzled. “Sure.” He turned around and walked out.

  “Do we need to do anything else?” Devlin asked.

  “Nothing’s working. So everything else will have to be mailed to you once the transaction goes through.”

  “Sounds good,” Devlin replied. “And we bought the bike, it wasn’t stolen. You sold it to us and the transaction will go through as soon as your system is up and working.”

  “You bought the bike,” Mike repeated. “I sold it to you. The transaction will go through as soon as the system is working.”

  “Do we need anything else?” Devlin asked.

  Mike frowned. “When Bruce comes back with the registration, I just need to sign that over to you.” The man shook his head as though he were coming out of a trance then he smiled at them. He held out his hand. “It was great doing business with you folks.”

  “We’ll need helmets,” Eva suggested.

  Mike stood up. “Come on we have an accessory store. For what you paid, I’m going to toss in two helmets.” He led them over to the store and pushed the door open no one was in there but there was a lot of gear.

  They were both already dressed in jeans and light jackets, more to cover their weapons than anything else and they wore the right kind of boots. So all they needed were a couple of helmets. Devlin choose a black and silver one and Eva went for a dark purple one. She paused to check her phone then grabbed a couple of water bottles and protein bars which she put in the saddlebag she wore around her shoulder. She also grabbed a scarf and wrapped it around her neck, and tied a black Harley bandana around Devlin’s neck.

  “Do you have cell service?” Devlin asked her.