Fractured Souls by Ava Marie Salinger

12

Morgan wasout of the SUV before Adrianne pulled to a stop at the curb. An ambulance was parked sideways in front of a vintage, black and silver cafe racer motorbike opposite the cream-colored house Cassius had called emergency services from. The front door of the property was wide open.

People huddled on the porches of the nearby homes, their faces full of worry. Most of them were elderly. Sirens rose in the distance as patrol cars converged on the neighborhood.

Morgan and his team had been re-examining the scene of the latest human sacrifice at Bayview Park when they’d received the dispatch about a black-magic attack in Mission District. Fear had twisted Morgan’s stomach when he’d heard the identity of the caller who’d phoned for an ambulance.

He stiffened when he picked up the acrid taint of magic lingering in the air. It was coming from the house and somewhere beyond it. Adrianne and Zach followed him as he strode briskly toward the property.

Julia climbed out of the second SUV with Bailey and Charlie.

“There’s a disturbance at a park north of here!” she shouted. “That’s where most of the cops are going.”

“You guys head over there. And watch your six.” Morgan clenched his jaw. “This smells like the same black magic we’ve been investigating. Whoever this sorcerer is, we need him alive.”

The EMTs were tending to an elderly woman in the dining room when Morgan and the others entered the house. One glance at her injuries and Morgan knew she would not survive the next hour.

Another woman sat holding the victim’s hand, her face full of grief while she mumbled reassuring words to her. Morgan was somehow not surprised to see Cassius’s cat sitting by the head of the injured woman. The demon spirit looked at him before staring at the ashen-faced figure on the floor, its agitation plain to see.

“That’s Joyce Almeda, the client Cassius was working for,” Adrianne said grimly.

Zach headed over to the EMTs. “Let me help.”

Though the demon couldn’t stop the woman from dying, his powers as an Aqueous meant he could at least stem the flow of blood pouring out of her wound.

The technicians hesitated before nodding. Morgan and the others’ badges identified them as Argonaut agents. As such, they had authority over all cases involving magic in the city.

“The guy who called for help,” Morgan indicated the bloodied cell phone on the floor, “where did he go?!”

“He went out back,” the woman holding Joyce Almeda’s hand said in a quavering voice before the EMTs could open their mouths. “He was chasing the person who did this to Joyce. Please, help him!”

Morgan’s gut twisted with a fresh wave of dread.

“Stay with Zach, in case there are any more of these bastards around!” he told Adrianne.

Morgan turned and made for the rear yard of the property without waiting for a reply from his second-in-command. A warm breeze ruffled his hair as he spread his wings and rose into the balmy night. He followed the scent of magic toward a large, open space less than a quarter of a mile to the north.

Flashing lights punctured the darkness as patrol cars screeched to a stop around the park. Morgan cut across a road. He had just entered the south perimeter when dazzling light flared in the gloom ahead. His heart stuttered.

The brightness broke through a giant, writhing ball of blackness hovering in mid-air, the slivers of intense brilliance seeping through the cracks in the sphere emanating a strong electric scent. Alarm prickled Morgan’s skin when he recognized the grotesque shapes making up the living globe.

Shit! War demons!

He unsheathed the dagger strapped to his thigh and released the Stark Steel blade within. A figure rose from the ground and headed for the ghastly manifestation, gray wings beating the air with strong thumps as it ascended. It was Julia.

The angel had also unleashed her sword, the scent emanating from her full of the same blood lust coursing through Morgan.

Though the Fallen had lost the memories of their pasts, the history of their kind had remained embedded in their very consciousness.

War demons were their enemies of old.

They converged rapidly on the creatures. A massive wave of power blasted into them when they were twenty feet from the globe.

What the—?!

The world went supernova a heartbeat later.

Morgan braced his wings as he was swept violently backward. He raised a hand to his eyes, the blinding force washing over him so fierce it raised goosebumps on his flesh. He squinted through his fingers and caught a glimpse of Julia where she’d been similarly cast aside by the explosive energy. The angel looked as startled as Morgan felt.

Few powers on Earth could physically move one of their kind against their will.

Morgan’s breath caught in his throat.

The war demons were disintegrating, their monstrous bodies crumbling to fiery cinders where they floated in the sky.

Resonance exploded inside Morgan’s soul when he finally saw the being in their midst. Cassius’s eyes shone with divine wrath as he glared at the remains of the enemy who had attacked him. His body was cocooned in a maelstrom of sheer, crackling radiance that pulsed with immense power.

But it wasn’t the fact that he had just demonstrated the true extent of his abilities that shocked Morgan. It was the snow-white wings sprouting from his back and the sword wreathed in Heaven’s Light in his hand that captured Morgan’s stunned gaze.

Cassius’s feathers slowly returned to their black and crimson colors as the last of the war demons fell to the ground in a shower of dark ash. He turned and swooped north, his face radiating anger and determination, oblivious to Morgan and Julia’s presence in his rage.

Startled cries rose in the darkness. Someone shouted a warning.

The cops fired on the angel.

Morgan reacted instinctively.

Wind roared as he shot across the park, his powers enclosing Cassius in a violent storm that deflected most of the bullets. The next volley of shots bounced off the whirling gale surrounding the dark-winged angel.

Julia’s voice boomed in the night. “Stop!”

She glared at the cops where she hovered in mid-air, her face aglow with the luminescence that characterized her kind.

The officers kept firing, panic clouding their minds.

Julia cursed and cast out a wave of seraphic energy. The cops yelled in alarm as their weapons crumpled in their hands, the earthborn metals reacting to the angel’s Terrene powers.

A disturbance at the north end of the park drew Morgan’s tense gaze.

Bailey and Charlie had tackled a man to the ground near a tennis court. The orb of defensive magic the wizard wielded made the air shimmer violently as he countered the fallen sorcerer’s black-magic globe. Charlie chanted an incantation, a focused frown on his face where he stood behind Bailey’s shield. The sorcerer went limp a moment later, his mind befuddled by the enchanter’s dark spell. Though akin to black magic, dark enchantments were allowed to be used exclusively by magic users working for one of the supernatural agencies.

Morgan headed for Cassius. The angel’s features grew clearer as the tempest enclosing him faded. He was wearing a grim expression.

“What the hell took you so long?!” he snapped at Morgan.

Relief flooded Morgan, so intense he almost sagged where he hovered above the park. He clamped down on the storm of emotions swirling inside him from all he had just witnessed.

“Are you okay?!”

Surprise flashed in Cassius’s eyes.

“Yeah,” he muttered, his tone a fraction less cool.

Morgan drew closer to the dark-winged angel. “You’re not hurt?”

He moved around Cassius and scanned his body for injuries.

Cassius raised an eyebrow. “Those bullets barely made an impression.”

“I meant the war demons.”

“Oh. My wounds have already healed.”

Morgan studied him for a moment before blowing out a sigh. “You’re a trouble magnet, you know that?”

Irritation wrinkled Cassius’s brow. “Yeah, well, it takes one to know one.” His scowl faded as he looked past Morgan to the south. Concern replaced the ire darkening his eyes. “Joyce.”

He turned and flew toward the cream-colored house.