Crisis Alert (Divine Justice, 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Warning

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  About Mary Abshire

  Crisis Alert

  Book 3 in the Divine Justice series

  Demons are growing in mass numbers and destroying vampires, mankind's protectors. To stop an outbreak of demons, the best field agents from the Divine Syndicate and Union of Justice must work together.

  Anna and Zale hit the streets of Indianapolis to locate the demon masters and end the bloodshed. Although Zale holds biases against vampires, he's impressed by Anna's strong morals and commitment to saving the human race. He's drawn to her in a way he's never felt before. The need to protect her thrives deep in his soul. Anna can't deny her attraction to Zale. Captivated by the werewolf's nobility and compassion, she considers giving in to her heart's desire. But preventing an outbreak must come first.

  Anna and Zale's struggles increase when the vampire leaders demand deadlines for exorcising the masters and reducing the demon population. Vampires are outraged over the increased destruction of their kind and want revenge. But killing humans is a crime. The UoJ will have to cease helping the DS to serve justice on those who break the law.

  In a race against time, Anna and Zale must find the masters to avoid more carnage and the damnation of humanity. Their devotion to their mission and each other prevails as they encounter dire circumstances. But can they stop evil from ruling the Earth?

  * * * * *

  Crisis Alert (Divine Justice, 3)

  ©Copyright 2017 Mary Abshire

  ISBN: 978-0-9986820-2-0

  Cover Art by Rebecca Frank

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, names, and events are from the author's wild imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (such as electronic, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording, scanning or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  License Notes: This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Warning

  This book contains sexually explicit content, language, and violence.

  Chapter One

  The red and gray carpet in the tunnel quieted Anna’s steps. She carried a square black bag at her side, the strap of it hung across her chest. On the walls, wide posters under plastic display cases showed various programs offered to government employees. Most tunnels under roads and businesses weren’t as nice, but since she was walking in the one connected to the Capitol, she suspected the Governor required the pathway to look appealing for the legislators, staff, and visitors.

  She’d left the Divine Syndicate’s headquarters, a block away, and had yet to run into a living person. The lack of a single heartbeat in the building hadn’t surprised her. Not many humans worked in downtown Indianapolis at ten at night unless they were hotel, restaurant, or club staff. Unlike most who start their workdays in the morning, Anna’s shift started at sundown.

  Reaching a set of glass doors with a security panel on the wall nearby, she stopped and entered a code. The red light on the display changed to green and the doors clicked. With her access granted, she continued into the next building.

  The silence in the tunnel allowed Anna’s anxiety to grow. As if the threat of an outbreak of demons wasn’t enough, she couldn’t stop thinking about her new partner she’d soon meet. She’d never worked with anyone outside of the DS before. Based on the credentials she’d read about Zale Wallace, he seemed dedicated to his job and preserving peace for mankind. He’d served in the Union of Justice for one hundred and thirty years. From what Victor and her boss had told her, Zale was the UoJ’s best field agent. While his exemplary record revealed plenty, she couldn’t overlook the details of his job, which were to track and serve justice to vampires who’d broken the law created by the Alliance of All. In essence, he destroyed the criminals of her kind. Although she worked for an esteemed organization and endeavored to save lives, it seemed reasonable to believe he would have preconceptions about her based on her race and would reserve placing any trust in her. She hoped his prejudices wouldn’t interfere with their objectives.

  She reached a pair of steel doors at the end of the southern part of the government center. A sign posted on one door read Employees Only. Another key panel clung to the wall. She entered the same digits from earlier. Within seconds, the interior lock clicked.

  Anna entered a smaller shaft with plain white walls. A stench similar to a sweaty locker room hovered in the air. Her boots clacked on the linoleum floor. Few people knew about the various tunnels under the central part of Indy. They’d been created before the Capitol, other government buildings, and hotels had been built. Historical records detailing each underpass had disappeared from the central library long ago. Those records sat in a vault at the DS for safety and security reasons.

  Having reached the new Marriot hotel at the end of the pathway, she took the stairs up to the main floor. The bag she was carrying bounced against her thigh. She shifted the strap across her body so the case hung behind her.

  From the stairwell, she passed the main elevators. A couple dressed in fancy evening attire and waiting for a ride up stared at her. Anna suspected she appeared like some kind of rebel in their eyes. She wore knee-high boots and black jeans. A leather jacket covered most of her red sweater. Instead of leaving her long hair down, she’d tied it up behind her head. The tail of her locks brushed over her upper back. Before she’d left the office, she’d considered dressing nice to meet her new partner. The idea had lasted two seconds. She and Zale had too much work to do in the field and she worked best in comfortable clothes.

  She strode through the hotel lobby. The chatter of voices and laughter caught her attention. To her left, two ba
rtenders were serving a wealth of customers at the bar. All the seats had been taken and many guests were sitting in the social area. Business appeared to be booming for the hotel. Given its location within blocks of major attractions and the mall, she wasn’t surprised to see such a large crowd.

  Reaching the escalator, she stepped on it. As she rode up, she fought the itch to check the time on her phone to make sure she hadn’t arrived late. She’d left early, but the path through the tunnels took longer than walking outside along the streets.

  As the escalator neared the second level, she scanned the area. A bulky man with wavy dark hair and a beard sat alone on one of the couches near the Starbucks café. He faced two empty chairs. She’d seen a photo of Zale and recalled similar features. Although she couldn’t see the front of the man, she believed she’d found the werewolf she had to work with.

  Excitement and nervousness battled for dominance within her as she left the escalator and strode toward the man. She hoped her new partner was ready to hit the streets because they couldn’t wait another night to go after the masters populating the city with demons.

  The man with the beard turned his head toward her and then rose. She instantly recognized him from the photo she’d seen. His locks looked a bit longer. His wavy bangs curved and hung on each side of his head, making his forehead appear broad. He was taller than she’d expected, and much bigger too. He wore a blue blazer with a white button-down shirt tucked inside his jeans. His sexy appeal held her attention. She started to feel a little under dressed.

  “Zale Wallace?” she asked.

  He grinned and thrust his hand toward her. “I’m your man. I mean, I’m Zale.”

  Gazing into his dazzling green eyes, she accepted his greeting and smiled. His warm hand generated a wave of heat inside her, especially in her southern region. She couldn’t deny she felt an attraction toward him, even though she’d never spoken or met him before. Sure, she knew plenty about him. But meeting him person exceeded her expectations and roused a yearning inside her she’d kept suppressed. And from the extra beats of his heart, it seemed he might have a slight interest in her as well.

  “I’m Anna Collins. Thank you for agreeing to work with me.” She let go of his hand. “Please, have a seat.”

  His green eyes stayed on her as he returned to his seat on the couch. “My boss told me you needed help tracking some master demons.”

  She lifted the strap over her head and then sat in a chair across from him. She placed the bag next to her thigh. “Yes. Did your boss give you any other details?”

  “No.” He clasped his hands together between his slightly parted legs.

  The news hadn’t surprised her. Aziel, her boss and leader of the DS, had mentioned the UoJ had been busy investigating missing and destroyed vampires. She suspected Zale had been given a directive to drop everything to work with her.

  Anna crossed her legs. “I’ll give you a brief summary. If you need more information later, I can give it to you.”

  “Sounds good.” He grinned.

  “My partner and I followed up on a tipoff several days ago. The possessed human’s name was Jamal. Before I could interrogate him, he killed himself.”

  Zale’s brows came together. “A demon committed suicide?”

  “Yes. It was the first one I had ever seen and I’ve been in the DS for over two centuries.”

  “Did your boss have any ideas about the matter?”

  “Aziel believed the demon wanted to protect his master or information about his master’s plans. It makes sense.”

  “I suppose it does.”

  “Through research and talking to Jamal’s parents, we learned Jamal had connections to Finton Morris, Reggie Thompson, Tim Willoughby, and Rodney Stewart. Tim died the same night as Jamal. I’ve tried to locate Finton, Reggie, and Rodney at their home addresses and have yet to find them. Finton’s girlfriend informed me about Stan Richman and Leon Taylor. I haven’t had a chance to pay a visit to either of those two. From my research, Finton is drawing humans to Reggie and Rodney.”

  “Are they masters?”

  “I suspect both are masters. A few days ago, I captured a possessed human and exorcised the demon. My assistant questioned him and learned the boy was seventeen. He recounted Finton had taken him to a party where he’d smoked weed and met Rodney. The boy’s mother had been in poor health and he’d said Rodney prayed with him, only the words were foreign to the boy.”

  “Damn,” Zale said with a shake of his head.

  “So we know Rodney is a master. Jamal’s parents had told us Jamal talked to Reggie frequently. Finton’s girlfriend said she’d met Rodney, but hasn’t met Reggie. She said Finton talks to Reggie a lot and works with him. Since Reggie’s name keeps coming up, I believe he is a master too.”

  “And the girlfriend wasn’t possessed?”

  “No. She smokes a lot of weed, but she wasn’t possessed at the time we visited her.”

  “What side of town are these men located?”

  “East side.”

  “Really?”

  “Right now, the east side is a hot bed for demons. Crime and poverty are thriving. Drugs are everywhere.”

  “What you’re describing is on the west side too. That’s where I had investigated several corpses.”

  Anna hadn’t heard about the locations or any details of missing or destroyed vampires. Since her focus had been on the masters on the east side, she hadn’t paid attention to any problems elsewhere.

  “The odds are high there are other masters. Since I’m close to finding the ones on the east side, we’ll start there first. The sooner I can exorcise them, the quicker the demon population will drop,” she said.

  “Perhaps you’ll gain information after you exorcise them too.”

  “We typically do. Human minds are easy to penetrate should we need to.”

  “I’m willing to bet you know how to do that quite well.”

  His comment disturbed her. She uncrossed her legs and stiffened. As she’d suspected, he’d already formed judgments about her based on her race. “Contrary to what you might think, I don’t use telepathy much to gather knowledge. It’s an invasion of privacy and I gain more reliable information by reading a person’s natural responses and emotions. I will only pry into a human’s mind when he or she can’t remember details well enough. I can’t speak for all vampires, but the agents I’ve trained act in the same manner.”

  He let go of his hands and began bobbing one of his knees. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to offend you. Honestly, I don’t know your tactics.”

  “And I know nothing about yours, so let’s avoid making assumptions.”

  “Fair enough,” he said with a single nod.

  Based on his response, he seemed willing to put aside his presumptions. His apology had sounded sincere. For another matter, the constant movement of his leg led her to believe he was nervous. She thought it odd for him to have such an emotion. He’d destroyed many lawless vampires in his career. Since she was far from being a criminal, what did he have to be anxious about with her?

  “I realize working with me, or rather, a vampire, is the opposite of what you normally do, but I assure you I value life and want to save as many humans and non-humans as I can. I don’t want to see evil taking over. The last outbreak was horrific. I’m going to do everything I can to prevent another one,” she said in a calm tone.

  His active knee froze. “Stopping the demons and another outbreak is my top priority. I’ll do whatever it takes, so you can count on me.”

  “Great. Thank you.”

  His steadfast words boosted her confidence in their partnership. The tension in her spine lessened and she relaxed against the back of the chair.

  “The men you’re searching for, do you know anything about them?” he asked.

  “Yes. They’ve all been in and out of jail multiple times with the exception of Leon. He’s the youngest at eighteen. Finton, Reggie, Rodne
y, and Jamal were in a gang called Hell and Back.”

  “Seriously?” he snickered.

  “We don’t know about any other members right now. My focus has been on the names I’ve mentioned. According to Finton’s girlfriend, he works odd jobs. I haven’t been able to trace current employment for any of them. I think they’re earning their incomes from selling drugs.”

  “Do you have any idea what they do during the day or what types of vehicles they drive?”

  “No. Our human support in the daytime is minimal. We don’t have human investigators qualified to handle a demon during the day. And from what we’ve seen, the demons are most active at night. We haven’t been getting tipoffs during the day.”

  “That’s interesting. They could cause greater damage when the sun is out.”

  “Our locations are secure. I’m not sure why they haven’t attempted an attack in the daylight. Maybe they’re resting or plotting their next moves.”

  She didn’t bother to mention Tim Willoughby breaking into her home or demons going to Glenn’s house and destroying him. Those two small details offered no value to finding the masters.

  “I can double check with my boss, but I haven’t heard of much activity during the day. I can ask to have agents posted outside the addresses too. Who knows, maybe the people you seek will show up,” Zale said.

  “I doubt it, but if the UoJ can watch the homes, then go for it. As for vehicles owned by the men, the last information showed out of date registrations. We asked the local law enforcement to put all points bulletins on the cars, but they can’t without an official order.”

  “And you can’t get an order, can you?”

  “No. There’s no evidence of any crime committed. These men appear as normal as other humans. They sell drugs, but who’s going to rat on them, especially if they are in a gang?”

  Zale leaned forward, put his elbows on his knees, and threaded his fingers together. “What’s our next move?”

  “First, we locate the five men I mentioned, starting with Rodney.” Anna lifted the flap from her square case. She removed the sealed evidence bag containing clothes. “This is a pair of jeans and a shirt from Finton’s house.” She handed the bag to Zale and he straightened. “Victor had me take them while he was questioning the girlfriend.”