Time Jacker by Aaron Crash (nonfiction book recommendations .TXT) 📕

Jack fired into the heart of the angel—or where a human’s heart would be.

Meriton stopped moving, mouth agape, that black spit dribbling from his open mouth and the few yellow teeth still there. For a moment, it was like the bullet had already gone through him and time was struggling to catch up. Blood fountained out of his back along with a good-sized chunk of meat.

Bailey staggered up. Across the way, Gabby was also upright, gripping her sword.

And yet, the ancient angel was glued there in the air, drooling and bleeding, his glowing eyes flickering and sparking. The halo was gone.

A message flashed in Jack’s eyes.

A SURPLUS OF NEFESH AND DECAYSIA IS AVAILABLE!

ACTIVATE STORAGE?

CONVERSION OPTIONS?

Jack knew that an ancient angel like Meriton had to have a ton of Nefesh, though the Decaysia was a surprise. Jack figured he could convert those two Septua energies into other energies, or he could store them in his auxiliary storage.

He hadn’t been given this option before. No, this was because he was the host of the Eternity Cannon, also known as Aeterna Kalpa Olam.

The first thing Jack did was channel the Nefesh into his Corpus—that was his spatial body, and it was basically shattered. He felt the Corpus fill him, and he felt his bones reset, his tissue repaired, his skin made whole. It was painful, but it was a healing agony that was better than what he’d felt before.

He raised his hand and watched as his fingers straightened and grew strong.

Current Corpus: 100/100

He still had more energy to work with, though. He could feel it still in the gun in his hand. He saw that he could reduce his Decaysia by using the Nefesh, which he did. Point by point, the energy of decay left him.

Current Nefesh: 100/100

That left him with a bunch of Decaysia, which he then converted into the rest of the energies, including Kairos, which reduced his headache to a manageable pinch.

Current Kairos: 43/100

Jack flopped on his back and brought the pistol up to his face. “Aeterna? I am deeply in love with you.”

And I love you too, Master, Jack Masterson, son of the Master.

The feminine voice was so quiet, so unexpected, that Jack wasn’t sure he could really trust that he’d heard it. He got to his feet. He had four shots left in the Cannon. How could he reload it? He wasn’t sure. First things first, he had to get it out of the Cast Away, Gone Astray. Then he was expected to give it to the Clockwatcher. That was something Jack did not want to do.

Meriton’s body had lost his feathers and his skin was melting. Soon, only bones would be left. Jack grabbed the armlets and got them off before they got too bloody. He also whipped off the belt. The sword was nothing but a line of rust on the floor. The horn had a good-sized hole in it—the divine bugle would blow no more.

He tossed the armlets to Bailey. “Keep those. We can sell them.”

Jake cinched the belt on his hips.

By that time, Gabby limped over. Her breathing matched the glow of both her halo and her eyes. As she walked, that radiance brightened—she was taking in the last of Meriton’s Nefesh. There wasn’t much left.

A tear trickled down from her brilliantly bright eyes. It created a line of silver on her pale skin. “He was a sad thing. I knew him in his prime, when I was first created to fight for the Divine Legions. He was different back then. This place is cruel, the Cast Away, the Gone Astray.” She sighed. “And the sad thing is? He might have been here for no reason. He stayed at his station when he might not have needed to be here at all. Sometimes the legions are cavalier about where they post their angels.”

Jack thought of the Japanese soldiers on islands scattered across the Pacific. Some of those loyal warriors had spent decades in a war long lost. There was a lesson there—make sure your loyalties were to honorable people and make sure your duty wasn’t some stupid fucking joke.

“Was he at the beginning of the war or at the end?” Jack asked.

Gabby wrinkled her forehead at him. “We don’t talk about the war.”

Bailey was about to say something when the doorway from the future house opened and skeletons in jeans came pouring through. They were armed with big rifles that glowed with red lights.

Their fight wasn’t over yet.

Chapter Nineteen

BAILEY HUSTLED BOTH Gabby and Jack behind the central pedestal. Good thing she did because seconds later, a barrage of bright red bursts of plasma filled the room. The hyper-heated material struck the stone and immediately turned it into slag.

Gabby popped out from behind the pedestal. She put her horn to her lips and let out a blast. The front line of skeletons burst into sticks, and their guns were flung from their undead hands. There were three more behind them. Those other skeletons were growing flesh on their bones, which was a gory sight to behold.

Jack stuck the huge cap-and-ball revolver into the back of his pants. He then scooped up the shotgun and charged forward. He blew the head off one skeleton, while Bailey flung her pick and swept the head off another. Gabby took care of the third monster. She flew in, avoiding the rifle fire, and hacked the skeleton from shoulder to pelvis.

Jack felt the energy of his kill fill him, but it wasn’t Kairos. These things weren’t Fugs, but something else, full of Decaysia they were leeching from the air. And since he hadn’t used the Eternity Cannon to kill them, he couldn’t convert the energy.

Jack then realized what was happening. The skeletons were collecting the Decaysia from their rooms, unleashed now that the Eternity Cannon had been captured. They would be rebuilding their bodies—from the futuristic jean-wearer to the hunters and gatherers.

And Jack had the distinct notion