Shades of Death Read online

  Anabelle commed Blackwell as she hurried to the peer over the side of the chasm. “How you guys holding up?”

  Blackwell replied immediately. “We’ve got all the civvies a safe distance away from the fighting. Taken down a couple of small squads of orcs too. You’d think they’d be more organized with how many gates they had open. It’s like they were just throwing bodies at a meat grinder.”

  “I was thinking the same thing.”

  “Any idea about what’s going on?”

  A rotten scent was coming up from the chasm. “Whatever it is, I’m betting it has to do with this hole in the ground. And with the Jotun. But I got nothing. Let’s just clean this up and get going.”

  “Roger. We’ll get the civvies moving to a safe zone and then double back.” There was an explosion over the comm. “Goddamn it. Naota, didn’t I tell you to stay away from there? Sorry, gotta go. We’ll be there ASAP.”

  Anabelle hurried away from the chasm, trying to piece together all of the seemingly unrelated pieces of the cluster-fuck of a mission. “Abby? Terra? How are you guys doing with the Dark Gates?”

  Terra answered first. “There are way too many of these things. And these orcs can’t fight worth shit.”

  Anabelle didn’t hear anything else. Something was moving behind her. When she turned, she saw that a woman had emerged from the chasm. But this was not quite a woman. She was nearly all bones, her breasts hanging like heavy sacks against dead, gray skin. Clumps of her hair were missing, as were patches of her skin. She could barely remain upright. Instead, she stumbled across the ground like a deranged child, groaning loudly and painfully.

  Anabelle was caught off guard. All she could do was watch as the husk of a person toppled over and struggled to get back on her feet. “Uh… Ma’am? Do you need a hand?”

  The woman looked at Anabelle, her eyes empty of all life. She did not have whites, and her irises were the darkest, deepest green Anabelle had ever seen. The woman answered in a wheezing, hacking growl.

  Anabelle wasn’t taking any chances. She drew her mana into her hands, setting them aflame, and raced toward the wraith of a woman.

  As Anabelle ran, a rocket fired somewhere behind her. She whirled around at the last moment, and tossed up a barrier, catching the rocket before it hit her. The missile exploded, the impact pushing her back a few feet.

  She couldn’t tell where the rocket had come from. But with only one fired, they hadn’t intended to kill her. They had only meant to stop her from interfering. “Team, I want you on my location now.”

  Whatever this thing was, the Dark One was behind it. That meant enemy.

  Terra fell from the sky and landed beside Anabelle, breaking up the ground beneath her feet. A few seconds later, Abby landed gracefully a few feet away.

  “You need help with an old woman?” Terra asked.

  Anabelle pointed to the skyline. “Abby, there are snipers up there. Could you take care of them? I think they’re cloaked.”

  Abby nodded and turned to scan the area. “I came across cloaked orcs earlier, too. I’ll take care of these ones now. Martin should be able to find them.”

  Anabelle gestured toward the old hag, who was still moving to the Jotun’s corpse. “If you’re feeling up to it, Terra, maybe you want to handle the old lady?”

  Terra cracked her knuckles and smiled. “Yeah, okay. I guess I can help her cross the street.” She strode to the hag as Abby launched into the air to deal with the snipers. “Hey!” Terra called. “What—”

  The woman looked up, her expression feral. She released a low, threatening growl. Terra remained undeterred and strode closer.

  Suddenly the woman rushed at her, faster than the frail condition of her body suggested she was capable of. She hit Terra in the jaw, sending her flying back to land beside Anabelle.

  After a few seconds, Terra rolled to her feet and touched her jaw gingerly. “Did not see that coming. Double-team?”

  “Double-team,” Anabelle replied.

  The pair raced toward the hag, who had almost reached the Jotun. Terra swung a fist at the woman. She tried to swerve away, but Anabelle landed a fiery punch to the crone’s gut.

  The woman skidded backward as Terra and Anabelle initiated a second round of attacks.

  Anabelle shifted her mana, cooling the flames and covering her hands in shards of ice. She aimed, and fired, a blast of ice, hoping to freeze the hag in place.

  But the old woman raised one hand, and a glowing green sphere appeared in her palm and shattered the ice missile.

  Anabelle frowned. She hadn’t seen this kind of magical energy before; the power wasn’t elemental. “This isn’t good. We need to put her down.”

  Two Dark Gate portals opened beside the hag. Dozens of armed orcs came rushing from the gate, taking aim at Anabelle and Terra as the old woman closed in on the Jotun.

  The pair attacked the orcs, and Abby landed to join the fray.

  As the three women tried to fight their way through the dozens of orcs, more orc forces poured into the streets from the nearby buildings.

  At last, the old woman reached the Jotun and knelt beside it. “Flesh of a god…ah…flesh.” She sank her teeth into the creature’s flesh, tore off a strip, and gobbled it down fast.

  As she swallowed, an explosion rocked the streets, spewing green debris, and covering the entire block in a jade miasma. “What the hell was that?” Anabelle shouted.

  Energy crackled, and suddenly the smoke was caught in a whirlwind, and the air cleared.

  Anabelle turned to the hag who was hunched over beside the Jotun, barbaric and primitive, glaring at the Angels through the horde of orcs.

  “Sacrifices…” the hag muttered. “Delightful.” She raised her hands, which were glowing green, the same shade as the light now bursting from the holes in her skin.

  The orcs went rigid, emerald light shining in their eyes, and soon they were screaming in pain, their bodies convulsing as they rose into the air.

  “Uh, you guys might wanna look at this.” Abby was looking up at the buildings.

  They followed her gaze to find green light shining from the windows closest to the Dark Gates, where many of the orcs would have gathered.

  “She’s attacking the Dark One’s forces?” Anabelle asked.

  The orcs in front of Anabelle burst into green flames and were instantly incinerated, leaving only a pile of green ash on the ground.

  Green souls rose from the ash and from the buildings, and the old woman breathed them in, standing straighter as she released a sigh of relief. She wiggled her jaw back and forth before snapping it back into place. “Ah, that feels much better.” The old woman turned away from the Dark Gate Angels and strode down the street.

  The trio exchanged confused glances, and after a few seconds, Anabelle shouted at the old woman, “Excuse me? Are you going to—”

  Without looking back, the woman raised one hand, went to the Jotun’s head, opened its mouth, and yanked out one of its teeth. She ran her finger over the tooth, transforming it into a long, jagged knife.

  When she was done, she closed her eyes, and jade smoke encased her body. When the cloud cleared, she was wearing loose-fitting hide armor made of the Jotun’s fur, and a portion of her face was smeared with blood.

  She approached the Dark Gate Angels. “Uh…who are you?”

  Anabelle scoffed, still trying to process what she was seeing. “That’s what we’re asking you!”

  The hag was now only a few feet away from the three women. “Me? Oh, nobody important.” She pointed her knife at Abby. “This one. She’s a child, isn’t she?”

  None of the Angels answered—they were too taken aback.

  The hag sniffed loudly. She ran her tongue over her top lip and nodded. “Yep, that’s a kid. I’m going to eat your soul first. You cannot believe how good you will taste.”

  Before anyone could react, the hag tackled Abby, cackling madly as she raised her knife and plunged it into the girl’s chest, breakin
g through the armor. Her laughter was unending, a hair-raising sound like demons cackling as she pulled out the blade and plunged it into Abby’s stomach over and over again.

  Anabelle and Terra leapt onto the hag, ripping her from Abby. The hag kicked her feet, giggling like a child. “Wait, wait, I haven’t even gotten—”

  Terra punched the old woman in the face, sent her to her knees, and stomped her head into the ground. Anabelle ran to Abby and helped the girl sit up.

  She held Abby in her arms. “Abby, Abby, are you okay?”

  Abby pulled all of her nanobot armor off. “I need to heal…fast…” She coughed blood and winced when she touched her stomach. “Gimme a minute.”

  As Abby spoke, the marines finally showed up, driving into the block in military SUVs. Anabelle scooped the injured girl up and raced to Blackwell, who was getting out of one of the vans. She placed Abby in his arms. “She’s been hurt. Badly.”

  Abby groaned softly. “I’ll be okay. The nanobots can stitch me up. It’ll just be a minute.”

  “Watch her,” Anabelle said as she went to Terra, who still had her boot on the hag’s head. “Get her up,” Anabelle said, her fists beginning to burn with fire.

  Terra grabbed the hag by her hair and yanked her up.

  The old woman waved her hands in front of her face. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m just…” She screamed loud, her eyes burning bright green. “I’m just so hungry! You know, I haven’t had one that young in…oh, ages! I just wanted a taste!”

  Anabelle raised a palm at the hag, a fireball growing between her fingers. “Who the hell are you? And how are you helping the Dark One?”

  The hag looked confused for a second and started coughing. “The Dark One? That’s who woke me up and got that giant asshole off me? Guess that’s why he sent so many souls. But orcs? Ugh. Old ones, too. Could’ve at least sent a couple of newborns. He’s getting cheap these days. But payment is payment.”

  Anabelle punched the hag in the face, burning away some of the woman’s skin. “Who are you?” Anabelle yelled. But she merely received a blank stare in response.

  The hag’s lips twitched. That’s the case with all of Myrddin’s little cronies, isn’t it? You all want to have control. You and the Dark One. Answers and answers.”

  Anabelle looked at Terra. “We’re taking her back with us. She’s—”

  Terra was still gripping the hag’s hair in her hand, but the old woman grabbed the lank strands and pulled them out of her own scalp. She fell to the ground and rolled away. “Fine, fine. Name? Rasputina. Let’s go with that. And why am I here? The Dark One must be getting desperate. Even I wouldn’t summon a lich to help me.”

  Anabelle’s eyes went wide. There was no way she’d heard correctly. A lich?

  Rasputina could see the fear in Anabelle’s eyes. “Now, I’d kindly like that girl’s soul now. Or I’ll carve you both up first and take it anyways.”

  “You stay away from her,” Anabelle hissed.

  Rasputina cackled as she grabbed the side of her face. “Fine, fine. I’m tired of this already, anyway. Maybe the Dark One will have something more interesting for me to do than whatever the hell this was.”

  Without warning, Rasputina vanished in a cloud of green smoke. Terra pointed at the Jotun; the old woman had reappeared at its side.

  Rasputina knelt beside it and plunged her hand into its torso. The Jotun shivered as its fur melted, leaving exposed flesh that pulsated and swelled.

  Rasputina rose and grinned madly at Terra and Anabelle. “I think it might be time you two had a certain quality of evil in your lives.” And with that, Rasputina erupted in green flames and was gone.

  The pair raced to the Jotun. “Is Abby going to be all right?” Terra asked.

  Anabelle, who was scanning the throbbing remains of the Jotun, replied, “Yeah, she’s healing herself. She’ll be fine.”

  “What the hell is a lich? And what did it do to this thing?”

  “A lich is—”

  Anabelle was cut off by the sound of flesh tearing. The Jotun was decaying rapidly. Its skin burst open, and the air was filled with the smell of rotted flesh.

  Both Anabelle and Terra backpedaled, Anabelle only briefly glimpsing what lay hidden within the Jotun. The gut of the Jotun was lined with hundreds of cocoons, which were all beginning to split open.

  Anabelle retreated, grabbing Terra’s hand and pulling her away.

  All at once, the cocoons popped.

  A host of bat-like creatures with the heads of deer, sharp horns, and the bodies of orcs emerged from the corpse of the Jotun.

  Anabelle watched as the sky filled with the creatures. “This is not going to be good.”

  Before she could utter another word, the corpse of the Jotun began to move. It scrambled to its feet, skin hanging like tattered cloth from its body. It screeched loudly as it turned to face the two Angels.

  Anabelle swallowed hard. “Goddess, Myrddin really should send us with an army next time.”

  Chapter Four

  Terra watched the strange creatures spreading their wings, dominating the sky.

  Whatever a lich was, it had the ability to assert some control over the dead. The sight of all those mangled orc bodies elicited an emotion within Terra that she couldn’t quite understand.

  Terra grabbed Anabelle and shouted, “What the hell is going on?”

  Anabelle barely registered the question, expression blank as though still trying to wrap her head around it herself.

  Terra gave Anabelle two hard shakes. “Hey, we need you in this right now. What’s going on?”

  Anabelle shook off her funk. “Okay, we need to mobilize our ground forces. Shoot these things out of the sky. Then we need Abby airborne as soon as she can manage it. And…you…do you think you can take that thing?”

  Terra didn’t need Anabelle to specify which “thing.” The Jotun was the biggest creature out there. Terra knew she was the brawn. And that meant the baddest, scariest creature would be hers to eliminate.

  She watched the Jotun screeching and lumbering down the street, ejecting a blast of pure fire, scorching everything in its wake.

  “Yeah, I guess I can take that.” Terra nodded firmly.

  “Good. Let’s get this taken care of. The faster we can get back to HQ, the better.”

  Terra could tell Anabelle was still freaked out by what had happened with the lich. Anabelle might have been physically present enough to give orders, but that didn’t mean she was mentally available. “You okay?” Terra asked.

  Anabelle nodded as a magical aura pulsed around her body. “Okay enough for a fight. You ready?”

  “Where are you going?”

  Anabelle looked skyward. “Up.” She surged into the air, grabbed one of the bat-orcs, and wrangled it to fly toward the mass of wings above.

  Terra watched the Jotun amble down the street. “Guess it’s game time.” She ran after the creature, trying to figure out how to defeat something that large. It made the dragons she’d fought not so long ago look like garden-variety lizards.

  The Jotun slowed and turned its head to watch Terra as she closed in. Two seconds later, it released a blast of fire from its broken, necrotic mouth.

  Terra leapt aside, managing to avoid being singed. Guess this fucker means business. She ran around behind the Jotun and grabbed its tail, pulling with all her strength. The momentum toppled the ancient demi-god onto its side.

  The Jotun screeched with rage, kicked its hind legs, and flung Terra away.

  Abby lay in the back of a military SUV. Soldiers were moving around her, and she recognized a few. But her attention was focused on Martin, who was explaining what the nanobots were doing. Her internal organs had already been stitched up. Now the nanobots were repairing the damage to her soft tissue.

  “How long is this going to take?”

  “Maybe you could take a breather?” Martin’s voice was annoyed. “You did just get shivved in the guts.”

  “If m
y guts are okay, I don’t have to waste any more time, do I?”

  Martin sighed. “Guess not. The soft-tissue repair can be completed while you’re fighting. Just try not to get stabbed again.”

  Abby sat up, covering herself in a nanoarmor. “Perfect.”

  The soldiers closest to Abby opened their mouths as if they intended to say something, but the sound of her thrusters cut them off as she rose into the air.

  She flew toward Anabelle’s HUD signal. Something huge had happened while Abby had been laid out in the back of the van. She had never seen creatures like this before, not even in the dossiers she’d been studying in her spare time.

  Abby caught up with the elf, who was riding one of the bat-orcs. “Need a hand?”

  Anabelle smiled at Abby. “Would have taken me a month to recover from that!”

  “Modern technology does wonders.”

  The two Angels headed toward the mass of wings.

  Abby peeled away and flew into the thicket of bodies. She stopped on a dime, concentrated her plasma energy, and spun, slicing through anything dumb enough not to get out of the way.

  Anabelle leapt off her ride, her hands glowing with white and blue ice-energy. She grabbed one of the bat-orcs, freezing it instantly, spun it to gain momentum, and launched it toward the massive group.

  As the creature soared past Abby, she took aim, lining up her shot perfectly. She fired a plasma blast and exploded the bat-orc with a blast of ice magic, which also froze the creatures closest to it.

  Abby turned her thrusters up, weaving between the winged fiends, closing in on the creatures she had frozen. She slammed her elbow into one, cracking it down the middle, before whirling and firing her plasma cannons again, cleaning up the rest of the iced-over monsters.

  Anabelle came up behind Abby, riding one of the creatures. She snapped its neck, leapt to another, and drove her fiery hands through its body. “We need to make a wave!”

  Abby didn’t have to be told twice. She flew to Anabelle, grabbed her around the waist, and sped forward as the elf tossed off multiple fire-attacks. The pair burned through dozens of the creatures in front of them.