Dark Mission

DARK MISSION Angels of the Veil NITA ROUND Cover design MAY DAWNEY Edited by KRISTA WALSH Contents Copyright notice 1. Pity the dead 2. Elle’s Diner 3. Dark dreams 4. Preparations 5. Wraith hunt 6. Endings and beginnings Other books by Nita Round Copyright © 2023 by Nita Round All rights reserved. The right of Nita Round to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Patents and Design Act 1988. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The characters, incidents and dialogue herein are fictional and any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. First published 2023 1 Pity the dead The ghoul slid off the end of Cassandra’s sword and slumped like a sack of meat to the floor of the cabin. If that sack of meat had been wrapped in hairless, gray-green, crinkled skin. It looked more like a discarded overcoat than anything else. The stench of damp graves and dead things rose in stinking waves, but this was informative if pungent. With only a sniff, she knew this creature was old and badly fed. She noted something else, too. It wasn’t a normal ghoul. Cassandra, Cassie to those who knew her well, held two short swords loosely to the side as the garish green glow of the ghoul’s eyes dimmed and went out. Properly dead this time, and with life extinguished, she was satisfied this was one less creature to bother the living. Except for the smell. She sniffed the air once more and barely had time to raise her blade when the second and third ghouls jumped from the rafters above. The urge to look upward almost overwhelmed her, but she resisted and focused on her assailants. Besides, she had already done that and seen nothing. There had to be a hideaway up there. Now was not the time to worry about it. “There you are,” she said. “I knew you were somewhere. Two against one? I like those odds better.” The larger of the two ghouls hissed as it rushed in. Its eyes pulsed with hatred and the burning need to feed. Unlike its companions, this one’s claws dripped with glistening poison. She knew its type, and a good swipe with its claws would paralyze. Being eaten alive was not a good way to go. If she had been human, she would likely not survive this fight. She was descended from the angel Aevrael, and although he was a fallen angel, her heritage granted her many advantages. Her senses were more acute, which allowed her to see and hear beyond the range of normal humans. There were things in this world, beyond the ordinary and the mundane, that Cassie could see. Physically, she was stronger, faster, and more agile than any human, and right then, with these ghouls before her, she needed every bit of speed and strength she could muster. She called upon her father’s powers, and the dark interior of the room lit up with the golden glow, like sunlight, emanating from her eyes. The ghouls didn’t like her light, and the lesser one flinched away and cowered from her for a moment. That helped. The larger one did not, but she had already turned her attention to that one. It was strong enough to resist the light, and with claws dripping poison, it had to go first. As it reached for her, she slashed and ducked, then slashed again. The ghoul hardly registered that she had hit it, but its head spun across the room and thudded against a rotting wooden wall. If the creature could feel or express emotion, it would have opened its mouth in surprise. She spun on her toes and swung for the other. Two powerful strokes and that one crumpled to the ground, too, but not before it sliced her hands and added another slash across her neck. They were not deep, though, and other than recognize the initial pain, she ignored it. Ready for more, Cassie froze in place and pushed her senses out. Outside the old building, there were the sounds of the night. The building creaked. The smell of the dead was a stench that would only lessen when she destroyed the bodies. Still, she waited in case there were more. Once satisfied that they were done, she sheathed her blades. She turned in a slow circle, and the walls lit up with dark symbols. There was a dark witch at work. Not all of them were symbols she could read, and the spells that had been created were not any that she could decipher with certainty. But what she knew was that this was a prison. To keep the ghouls inside. Except these creatures were no ordinary ghouls. She rolled the largest of them onto its back and ripped away the rags that passed for clothing. Her golden eyes picked out symbols etched into the emaciated skin, and when she used a knife to open the creature up, she found more symbols glittering on its ribs. Not a ghoul, but ghoul-like. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. Her hands glowed with a golden light, dim at first, but as she called her power, the light grew brighter, almost white. She muttered a brief prayer, asked forgiveness on their behalf, and then let light pour from her hands into the bodies. They glowed as she purified them with an outrush of power. Just in case this was a recent rising, Cassie used her power to purify and destroy all the symbols she could see. Even if she couldn’t destroy them all, she could break the spells. If anyone came back here, they would need to remake them. Once done, she looked up into the rafters. There