Blood Promise (A SkinWalker Novel #4) (A DarkWorld SkinWalker Novel)

by Ayer, T. G.

  Fulbright's sudden aggressive interest in Melisande Morgan had caught the attention of the High Council, and because of their already comfortable working relationship with the CPD they asked Omega, instead of their own investigative unit Sentinel, to look into it.

  Omega and Sentinel, both powerful paranormal agencies were interested in a rash of paranormal disappearances in the last six months, something that seemed to also have caught Fulbright's attention.

  "So, I trust you will ensure Saleem here has full access to all our Missing Person's files?" Chief Murdoch said as he rose from his seat.

  Fulbright reddened as he stood, his back ramrod straight. "Of course, Chief."

  When he stalked out of the office and shut the door with a click, Saleem turned to Murdoch. "I don't need those files you know?" Chances were Omega's files on the disappearances were much more substantial than what Fulbright could come up with.

  Murdoch smiled from beneath his mustache. "Of course I know that. It's just better that Fulbright doesn't." The Chief sat, his massive frame threatening to crush his creaking chair.

  "So what has he been up to?" Saleem glanced through the window at the warren of desks. Fulbright stood at one of them, flipping through a stack of files while repeatedly glancing at Murdoch's glassed in office. Fulbright's stomach rose from mid-chest and hung low on his hips, so low over his waistband the man needed suspenders to hold his pants up. Not that body image bothered the detective at all.

  "Investigating all of Mel's cases but especially focusing on the abductions and deaths involving paranormals. I don't know how, but he's managed to hone in on the paranormal cases too well for my comfort. Ask him yourself. He doesn't mind sharing his suspicions."

  Saleem nodded left the Chief's office, heading to the two desks that sat facing each other. A floor to ceiling window looked out onto traffic and block after block of aging high-rises.

  Saleem sat and the sound of the chair brought Fulbright's head swiveling toward him. Fulbright did not expect conversation with Saleem. In fact, he'd made it clear enough he didn't have much respect for Saleem or his presence. He'd barely glanced at the Djinn since he'd arrived.

  He knew what that meant. Race always played a big part in heightening emotions. But Saleem didn't care. It was bad enough his Persian descent was clear in his deep olive skin, dark hair and black eyes. As far as his appearance went, Fulbright had him pegged. But imagine if this normal human realized he had a bloody djinn sitting next to him. A real, honest to goodness genie. He'd be off searching for a lamp so fast Saleem would probably choke on his dust.

  Silencing a snort, Saleem sneaked a glance at his partner. Saleem wriggled in his seat. Time to find out a little more of what made the whole Fulbright-Morgan relationship tick. "So what's the deal with you and Mel Morgan anyway?" Saleem asked, pasting on the innocent rookie face he'd practiced with his team leader, Logan Westin, yesterday.

  Fulbright gave him an impatient glare as he stacked his files in a pile and pushed them aside. The detective took a deep breath, grunted. "Just something about her that doesn't add up. Her ability to find people when we can't is strangely coincidental. Most of the cases we close end up with her. And she solves then. Finds the people, dead or alive."

  "And you find that strange how?" The sounds of the office hummed around them. Saleem had his own reasons for being here, for watching Mel Morgan and the more he knew about her the better.

  "Nothing I can put my finger on really. Just strange." Fulbright was being reticent and Saleem understood. Most cops didn't like Omega or Sentinel.

  Saleem stared out the window for a moment then looked at his new partner. Fulbright shifted and threw Saleem an annoyed glare.

  "It's an old case, nine years to be exact. A kid went missing. House trashed. Blood everywhere, parents' throats slit. And this Morgan kid standing there, covered in blood not saying a word. Then we found there's a kid missing, her younger sister. And from the blood and the condition of the house we knew the chances the girl was alive were slim to none. Case closed." Fulbright shook his head.

  "So why keep an eye on her now?" Saleem couldn't keep the criticism from his voice but Fulbright was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't even seem aware.

  "I've been looking at the files. And she's just too good at her job to be ... normal."

  The hairs on the back of Saleem's neck stood on end. "And this friend of hers you are investigating?" Saleem asked, almost afraid of the answer.

  "A guy named Samuel Fontaine." Saleem went cold. Samuel, the Master tracker. So Fulbright was on the paranormal trail after all. Saleem just had to find out how much he knew.

  Human mage trackers were rare. Which is why almost every available paranormal tracker was on both Omega's and Sentinel's contractor lists. Including Melisande Morgan. And Fontaine. Until he'd toasted his grey cells on a jump.

  If Morgan's paranormal identity was blown, everyone else would soon follow. Fulbright was more dangerous than he could ever imagine.

  The detective snorted, reminding Saleem of the unpleasant presence of the other man. Saleem didn't want to talk to him anymore so he started up the computer and logged into Omega to give his report.

  # End of BLOOD MAGIC Excerpt #

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  RETRIBUTION – THE CHRONICLES OF THE IRIN #1

  Evangeline ducked into the shadows as Baltazar crossed the street. When he reached the sidewalk, he glanced over his shoulder and stared straight at her. Evie silenced a gasp. For the briefest second, she feared she'd been spotted.

  Then he turned, looked ahead and continued walking.

  Evie remained steeped in darkness until she felt assured he wouldn't be turning around to investigate the shadows.

  The Boston night was cold. Icy enough to snare her breath and weave misty coils with it in the air before her face. But she paid scant attention to the weather. She had followed Marcellus' directions and arrived at the demon's lair. Her search had come up with nothing so she had followed Baltazar hoping the object the Master was after was on the demon's person. She had tracked him through the warren of old, red-brick Colonial buildings along Acorn Street and its narrow cobbled roads. She was careful to soften the sound of her heels on the smoothed stones. Hugged by fresh green moss, the worn stones shone in the pale moonlight, brightening the street. But the iridescent beauty of the multi-hued, red-and-grey cobblestones was lost on Evie.

  It only put her on edge.

  She kept her eyes on Baltazar's muscle-bound shoulders, stalking him as he loped to the edge of a small tree-lined park, which hugged the darkened neighborhood. Old gas lamps cast pale, buttery light on his dark head as he walked the stone pathway that curved through the elms and oaks. He was large with the body of a wrestler and limbs and muscles to match. But that didn't matter to Evie.

  He was no match for her.

  Baltazar slipped through an opening in the tree line up ahead and disappeared down the hillside without a sound. Evie followed, avoiding branches and shrubbery as adeptly as her quarry. She tailed him until he arrived at a cliff-top clearing that gave a glittering, magical view of the city.

  Tiny pinpricks of lights flickered and blinked in the valley below, like multi-colored diamonds thrown carelessly on the dark surface of the land.

  While the view held his attention, Evie bent and drew her silver dagger from her boot, releasing her Damascus blade from its leather sheath. She held her breath, weighing both blades in her hands, gaining comfort and strength from their familiar weight.

  She was ready.

  Evie, coming up behind him, closed the distance between herself and the demon Baltazar, silent as a leop
ard stalking its oblivious prey. Her feet whispered over the dew-kissed grass. So light was her step she may as well have floated across the small field.

  Trees sighed behind her in a deceivingly gentle breeze. Evie drew closer--just close enough that an obliging gust would carry her scent to him.

  She counted the seconds under her breath.

  His back stiffened, his neck muscles rigid as he turned so slowly she could almost see the hair on his skin undulate as he moved.

  Her scent evoked similar reactions with all her marks. The perfume of death, their very own Reaper come to call. And she never tarried with them. Social niceties somehow seemed out of place where knives and blood and imminent death were intertwined. Besides, these creatures wallowed so far beneath her on the moral and genetic ladder as to be untouchable, unworthy.

  Baltazar swallowed.

  The tendons in his neck remained taut as bowstrings. Then he drew a ragged breath and opened his mouth. He may have intended to ask her a question. Something typically innocuous. A ridiculous gesture as none of their questions received an answer. If they ever got the chance to ask one.

  The demon didn't.

  In a swift and viciously smooth swipe of her left hand, Evie plunged the silver dagger deep into his chest. So deep only the carved hilt prevented farther penetration. The slim blade embedded itself securely within his heart, flaying open arterial walls, penetrating the center of his demonic soul. Creatures of the Underworld had a seething dislike for anything silver. Perhaps it was the metal's innate ability to end their miserable lives. The accuracy of her aim was helped by the conveniently human location of his heart.

  She followed quickly with her right hand, sweeping the curved blade of the Damascus dagger clean across his throat. The deadly edge slid smoothly through glamor, demon hide, and bone.

  Quick. Clean.

  Landing in a crouch, Evie held her breath and watched him through the strands of her hair, which had escaped its bindings at the back of her head. It had happened so fast. Too quickly for the demon to defend himself. His body fell slowly, crumpling awkwardly onto his back until he landed beside her. Evie met his eyes. And sucked in a breath, an unconscious pause as she waited to see the last emotions fly across the demon's face.

  Always, she watched the last light in the eyes of her mark flicker and fade. She'd made herself do that whenever it was possible to be sure she never lost sight of the significance of her job. Evie had witnessed final moments of pure rage and comical disbelief. As a warrior of the Irin, she'd been doing Marcellus' bidding for six months now, and she'd begun to notice a pattern to the behaviors of her targets. They were always pissed when they got caught and always a little more than upset to find their existence about to be permanently terminated.

  This last one was different, though. This time, what she saw planted a tiny seed of doubt within the darkest recesses of her mind. His eyes were the palest of blues. It held anger and annoyance. But she also saw confusion and disbelief that faded as his life dissipated.

  Soon, wracking her mind, trying get a bead on the strange feeling that was so elusive, she stood over dancing amber embers flickering over the grass in the night breeze. The rising ashes and slivers of dust caught the next swift breeze and rode the night wind in silence. If she had learned anything in her long lifetime, she knew better than to ignore her instincts.

  She scowled.

  Something was wrong.

  Baltazar had been too easy to track. And she had taken his ignorance of her presence for arrogance. A nonchalance that spoke of a self-assured killer, but killers often got sloppy in their arrogance. They get careless, cocky. She had paused a few times to wonder if she had mixed up the scents. No. He had been the right mark.

  Now she stared down at the last of the fading embers.

  Soon, there was nothing but the glistening, almost-black blood that marred the slim, deadly beauty of her Damascus blade and the silver face of the dagger that had pierced his heart. As she bent to wipe her blade off on a nearby patch of grass, she neither mourned nor regretted her actions.

  This was just a job.

  The very act of wiping the blood off the blades was purely habit. She knew, as well as any other hunter of her ilk, that the essence of a demon's life force was destroyed when they were killed. For some unknown, and on her part unquestioned, reason, the Creator of these creatures did not wish the world tainted by their lifeless remains. Few people knew where these creatures went in their afterlife.

  These demons she killed, they were nothing. Murderers. Evil.

  Evie just seemed to be in the garbage business lately.

  So why was it bothering her more and more each day. Why did she feel a sense of wrong each time she killed a mark? Was it that their human glamors that had gotten to her? That they lived a pretense of normal human lives to hide their true nature? Was it that before Marcellus she'd never belonged to a demon death squad? Or was it that she just missed doing good?

  She stood over the grassy spot where the blades were still bent at unnatural angles, having been crushed beneath Baltazar's weight. Of all the possessions left of him, it was a metal disk which had caught and held her attention. Only moments ago it had hung on a fat bronze chain around the demon's neck. Thick, heavy and ornately carved with tiny swirls and patterns, its surface gleamed in the moonlight.

  Evie picked up the disc, feeling the solid weight of it in her palm. She frowned, trying to concentrate, but she quickly gritted her teeth, admitting she was unable to identify the language. But even as she did, she knew the script was beyond her knowledge. She'd have to wait to take it home.

  Frustrated, she glanced around the deserted clearing. Nobody would have seen her. She'd cast a glamor around herself and threw angel-light around her--standard protocol on a mission. Hidden within the blanket of her glamor, Evie wasted precious time studying the strange piece.

  Octagonal in shape, the disk bore a small carving on each of the eight corners. A hole bored through the center and inscriptions covered the back. The tiny carvings resembled Greek or Roman, possibly Persian, figures. An impressive relic.

  A sudden sound interrupted her thoughts. She breathed again. Just a car backfiring. But it was enough to remind Evie of her duties.

  Whether demon or human, the dead didn't take anything with them.

  Evie gathered the other solid items from the grass and threw them into a small envelope, which she hurriedly stuffed into her bag. Jewelry, belt buckles, and the odd spur or two needed to be rounded up from the scene. In the past she would have dumped the remaining trinkets she'd found. Not in the last six months though. Marcellus had given them all strict instructions to ensure every piece of metal be brought to him. No questions. Marcellus certainly had a different method of running the Irin than Patrick. None of the teams enjoyed the feeling of being under his control.

  Most of all Evie.

  She clenched her fist. It was time to leave. Not that she feared being tracked, nor did she waste time worrying over being observed making a kill. She was too good at her job. It just annoyed her that she couldn't put a finger on what bugged her about this whole kill.

  Something feels off.

  Everything in order, she swept her eyes over the scene. One last check didn't hurt. Satisfied, she was about to take off when a ray of light bounced off something in the taller grass at the edge of the clearing. Her night vision was superb, so she admonished herself for not finding it on her first scan of the area.

  But when she looked closer, she saw it had been half hidden by a fallen branch. She strode over to the grass, bent to retrieve the trinket, and felt its weight immediately. The ring that lay in the palm of her hand looked ancient. Possibly Minoan from the carving and the color of the gold. What would a low-life, albeit high-level, demon be doing with an ancient artifact like this? Another little piece to add to the puzzle slowly growing around Baltazar's untimely end.

  Evie sighed and unfolded her wings. They stood a head taller than her, beautiful,
pearly white and iridescent under the moonlight. Her angelic heritage had failed to bestow upon her all its glorious abilities, and so she could not disapparate to the Irin HQ, but she needed to calm herself anyway. Flying always gave her a sense of peace she could not find in anything else she did. She strengthened the glamor over herself, making her invisible to any eye that may be cast heavenward.

  Flexing and spreading wide, her wings lifted her up into the night sky. Toward the twinkling stars. Toward peace, silence, and calm.

  ***

  "It is done!" Daniel Feinstein stared at the list of names inked onto the ancient parchment. The relic lay dry and brittle beneath his sweaty fingers, waiting for the slightest change heralding Evangeline's latest successful termination.

  "She has terminated Baltazar... This is good. Is it confirmed?" Seated calmly behind the heavy oak desk, Master Marcellus waited for Daniel's confirmation. The Master's black garb, as nondescript as the next Brother, did nothing to mark him as one apart from the group. Above the rest in any way. Yet a dark air remained around him, shadowing him. Marking him as different.

  In addition, the previous Master, Patrick had conveniently fallen victim to a long and untimely illness. Despite his immortality, he had been unable to overcome the strangely inexplicable affliction. As Patrick's successor, it made perfect sense for the right hand of the old Master to take his place. Master Marcellus Bactor smiled to himself, taking comfort in his position of power. The Brotherhood still answered to him with the same reverence bestowed upon their previous leader.

  Daniel stared at the name "Baltazar" etched in ageless ink in an ancient and forgotten language. Progress dragged slowly and it would be a while yet before the rest of the Seals were gathered. Daniel gripped the fragile parchment a little too firmly. The crackle of the paper brought him back and he loosened his grip.

  "Yes, his name has just disappeared from the list." Daniel glanced at Marcellus.

  He considered Marcellus and his position within the Irin. With the power of the Nephilim at their fingertips, they were fast becoming invincible. Half-breed angels from the four corners of the globe. This kind of reach was unimaginable until the Irin Warriors proved their prowess. They were the best tools to obtain the Seals. Even better--they were dispensable.