DEATH (The Justice Cycle Book 1) by J Kiefer (best novels in english TXT) 📕

The thunder of an explosion echoed in the distance; blue-black lightning flashed.

“I’m pretty sure I know where he went,” Jeremy said.

“Agreed,” Sanctuary replied. “He most assuredly needs our help. Are you up to the task?”

Jeremy sighed heavily. “Well, since you asked so nicely, yeah. Besides, God has been screaming at me for the last couple minutes about it, so I don’t have much of a choice either way. Trust me, if I tried to leave, He’d find a way to get me there, anyway. He’s good at that.”

Sanctuary smirked at Jeremy. “I am aware.”

Jeremy huffed, “Yeah yeah yeah.”

Sanctuary put his hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “I truly am glad to have you with me, my friend, and I am very thankful you were able to be here when I was not.”

“Alright, enough with the mushy stuff already. You gonna fly me there or am I going to take the bus?”

“The bus, of course,” chuckled Sanctuary. “I may have the strength of ten men, but I am not that strong.”

“And there is the son of a gun we all know and dislike,” said Jeremy. “Wow, I didn’t think you had a sense of humor. I thought being serious was a prerequisite for your line of work.”

“Perhaps you are rubbing off on me,” he said, turning to take him by the arm. “We really do need to go.”

As soon as Sanctuary touched Jeremy’s arm, his eyes went wide in surprise. He jerked suddenly to the right, away from the angel’s touch and away from the edge of the roof where they were standing. His momentum sent him as far from the angel as was humanly possible just as a ball of violet energy erupted between them. The force of the explosion pushed Jeremy towards the center of the roof and sent Sanctuary reeling through the air.

Jeremy’s last-minute maneuver had saved his life, placing him in just the right position for the blast wave to throw him away from the edge of the roof instead of off it. He did, however, strike an industrial air-conditioning vent with enough force to crack a few ribs and knock the wind out of his lungs.

He lay still on his side, gasping for air. He could taste blood in his mouth but was unsure if it were coming from internal or external injuries. Thankfully, Jeremy had been listening, and he had heard God’s warning just in time. He had been distracted, but responded quickly enough to prevent himself from being splattered all over the pavement below. He knew that they were still in danger, so he tried to stand, but nearly passed out from the pain. Something was definitely broken. All he was able to do before the pain became unbearable was roll onto his back and turn his head toward whoever it was that had attacked them.

Sanctuary had already recovered from the unexpected ambush and had both his flaming blades out and at the ready. The fire from his aura had deflected most of the energy from the blast, but a few tendrils of crackling power arced around him before dissipating into the atmosphere. When unveiled, the angel was imposing, but the aura of the person nonchalantly leaning on the guardrail was just as impressive.

“God forgive me,” Jeremy whispered, “but oh shit.”

The Musketeer smirked as he tapped his lips with his free hand. His rapier was in his other hand still surging with power and he casually flicked it in the air.

“Now, now,” he mocked. “We mustn’t interfere with the children’s fun.”

Forty

The police radio in Dana’s car squawked as she barreled down an empty street. Apparently, two more explosions had been reported in different areas of the city and officers were being rerouted from the initial location to those neighborhoods. The radio chatter was predominantly from the officers who had been rerouted and they were all talking at the same time, trying to discover what was going on in their normally calm municipality.

Lee was buckled in and holding on to the handle over the window casually. Of course, his face was as stoic as ever. Dana took a hard left turn and he leaned into it gracefully like a pro, not showing any signs that the movement had disturbed him.

I bet all this action reminds him of wherever he was deployed, she thought.

Dana’s cell phone suddenly came to life as she made another sharp turn. Lee picked it up. “Officer Lee. Yes, sir, she is currently driving. Absolutely, sir.”

Lee pushed an icon on the dashboard’s touch screen and the captain’s baritone voice came through on the car speakers.

“Dana, you there?”

“Yeah, Captain, go ahead,” she replied.

“You headed to Fairview, or have you rerouted to one of the other locations?”

“We are headed to Prospect, sir,” she answered. “It’s the farthest out and most of the other officers are headed downtown or to the initial incident, so I figured we’d go there.”

“Good. I was going to send you that way. People are waking up and the reports coming in are… strange.”

Dana and Lee both glanced at each other. The captain was a veteran police officer and he had experienced pretty much everything that a person could during his many years on the job. So for him to be unnerved…

“What do you mean, sir?” Dana asked, trying not to allow the anxiety she felt to show in her voice.

“Now take this with a grain of salt, but witnesses are claiming that there are two men fighting in the street.”

“Okay. So, are they the suspected bombers?” Lee asked. “Perhaps an internal dispute or something like that.”

The captain said, “Honestly, I am a little hesitant to repeat what was reported. The reports are that one of them is carrying a glowing sword and that he is shooting lasers out of it like some kind of science fiction movie.”

Both Dana and Lee said, “What?”

“Are you serious?” Dana added.

“Dead,” replied the captain. “That is why I wanted you to head that way. I need a level