Courts and Cabals by G.S. D'Moore (best e reader for academics txt) 📕

developed a magical hallucinogen that ate your brain while giving you an orgasm the entire time you died; in came Echelon to deal with the problem. Hell, when Russian oligarch shifters thought they were above international law, Echelon went in and sterilized an entire clan.

They were the source of conspiracy theories and the main focus of protestor’s ire when it came to the WRA. They didn’t operate under the laws of a single nation. Their authority came from the world body, and they were not shy about using it. Vernon had read many of the post-mission files on some of the Echelon operations, and they weren’t the boogie man people made them out to be. What they were was a group of supernaturals that could take down a division of conventional military troops, and that kind of firepower scared the shit out of people. The fact they were being deployed to upstate New York to deal with a bunch of kids was beyond his comprehension.

“Ma’am, I have this under control. We don’t need . . . “

“Dupree is novel, Vernon,” she cut him off, and his stomach dropped into his feet.

A novel supernatural was something they had no data on. They were marked incredibly dangerous because no one knew what the hell they were capable of. That’s what should scare the shit out of people, not the team deployed to contain them.

“The DNA test missed it because we only check for known genetic sequences. The scientists are still confused about Dupree, but he definitely has genetics we haven’t seen before.”

“Roger that, ma’am,” Vernon answered on auto pilot. “We’ll hold our position. No one will leave on my watch.”

“Good. Dupree is considered extremely dangerous until we get him in a lab and test him more thoroughly. Be careful, Agent Dud,” the line went dead, and he was stuck there holding his phone like an idiot.

He gave himself a moment to digest and then got on the radio. He didn’t need to give everyone all the details, but they needed to know the mission had changed. They were in containment mode now. No more kicking down doors and taking prisoners.

He just hoped they’d be able to hold if things turned nasty. Dupree might be a big unknown, but what he did know was they’d have enough trouble keeping the supernaturals they had identified from doing whatever the hell they wanted. At least until Echelon arrived.

“They might be kids, but if this gets ugly . . .” he didn’t want to think about it.

“Push the perimeter back another block,” he sent over the radio, just to be safe.

***

I stood on the balls of my feet with the sword held vertically in a two-handed grip. I didn’t bounce back and forth because I was afraid I’d be caught off balance when the knight charged me, but I was ready to dart one way or another to avoid getting skewered.

“I should have trained naked,” judging by the way the troll was studying me, that might be my final thought, and as final thoughts went, it was about as weird as my life had been recently.

It felt weird to stand there waiting, dick literally hanging out, as the warm breeze swept under my taint. It made me shiver. The troll didn’t have the same problem. He slowly advanced on me, the epitome of big-dick confidence. He held his giant broadsword in a casual grip as he started to edge to my left. I countered by altering my position.

As he got closer, I finally realized I’d have to kill this mobile mountain if I wanted to live. “He’s not a real person,” I tried to dehumanize him in my mind, which was easy since he technically wasn’t a person.

Fae were humanoid, but different on the genetic level. As if the universe was waiting to prove a point, the troll dropped his glamour. I don’t know why he was using power to create a human-like illusion, but if it was for intimidation purposes; that shit worked. I shuffled back several steps as the troll’s true form rippled into existence.

His lower jaw jutted out to reveal a pair of extended, thick tusks. These were the type of tusks used to impale lesser beings, and while they probably wouldn’t get all the way through a human, they sure as shit would cause some damage. I made a mental note to not get bitten, but that wasn’t all. More boney protrusions started to expand out of the creature. A halo of small white horns decorated his bald head like a crown. Both of his elbows had scythe-like protrusion, and his spine grew a sharp ridge. He looked less and less human by the second, which was good and bad. Good because I didn’t have a problem with sticking my sword in a monster, but bad because I doubted he’d even need a sword to poke me full of holes.

“He’s not a fatty at all,” I groaned as his buddha belly disappeared to show a thick but powerful physique.

The hulking beast continued his march forward, and I prepared myself. The first strike was innocent enough, the troll just took a casual thrust at me. Despite all the talk about him being slow, it still felt pretty damn fast. I was able to twist out of the way, but just barely. He probably could have charged while I was off balance and finished me, but he was taking his Lady’s order seriously. He would kill me slowly.

A few more casual thrusts and I’d made a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circuit around the bleeding grounds. The troll just grunted, and stepped up his efforts. He started with a thrust, but he added additional strikes. It wasn’t anything different than what Dani and Xamira had thrown my way, but it was an entirely different feeling when I knew the other guy was trying to kill me.