A Sacred Pact

by Michael Todd

  A Sacred Pact

  War Of The Angels™ Book One

  Michael Todd

  Michael Anderle

  Laurie Starkey

  A Sacred Pact (this book) is a work of fiction.

  All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.

  Copyright © 2018 Michael Todd, Michael Anderle, and Laurie Starkey

  Cover by Ryn Katryn Digital Art

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  A Michael Anderle Production

  LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact support@lmbpn.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  LMBPN Publishing

  PMB 196, 2540 South Maryland Pkwy

  Las Vegas, NV 89109

  First US edition, November 2018

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Connect with Michael Todd

  Books by Michael Todd

  Books written as Michael Anderle

  A Sacred Pact Team

  Beta Readers

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  Dorene Johnson

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  Timothy Cox

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  If we missed anyone, please let us know!

  Weapons Consultant

  John Kern

  Proprietor

  Spurlock's - Henderson NV

  Editor

  Lynne Stiegler

  Dedication

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  to Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  to Live the Life We Are

  Called.

  1

  “Geu gaejasig. Jenjang,” Sean mumbled in Korean.

  Turner lifted an eyebrow at him. “Uh. What?”

  Sean shook his head, his dark hair unruly. “Sorry. I tend to revert to my mother’s side of the family when I get frustrated.”

  Turner chuckled. “I knew you were Korean, but I didn’t know you spoke the language. You should teach me some so I can slam Brock and he’ll have no idea what I’m saying.”

  Sean smirked. “I’ll get on that as soon as we figure out how to combat these demons without ammo.”

  Brock kicked a pebble down the Romanian sidewalk, watching it roll down the street and hiss in the lava there. They carefully maneuvered up the old cobblestone walkway that cut through the village, surveying the white and black buildings. Scorched hand-painted signs hung above doorways, and small tables with half-melted legs wobbled in the hot wind. It was quiet, but that didn’t mean danger wasn’t close by.

  Eddie pointed at a wilting flower in a planter outside of a florist. “Well, this was a beautiful Romanian village. Now it’s like a combination of a Renaissance festival after the crowd packs up and goddamn Pompeii. So much for picking up hot Romanian chicks.”

  Turner snickered. “Unless you like them skinless and sporting a demonic houseguest.”

  Brock ignored Turner and watched Sasha, their local guide, move down the street. Sasha had a curious calm which Brock chalked up to stress and shock.

  They passed a bakery with pictures of various breads and cakes in the window. Turner stopped at the window and grabbed his stomach. They hadn’t had much food since they arrived.

  Sean put his face carefully up to the window and peered inside, trying to see if there was anything worth eating. A stream of lava poured down the counter. All that was left of the crusty creations were charred crumbs on the counter and a blackened corpse on the floor. Sean sighed. “I guess we won’t be getting lunch there. I doubt that’s up to code health-wise.”

  Eddie looked in and grimaced. “Jesus. Yes, I’d like a charred human body with a side of molten sweet bread. Poor guy. Should have saved himself first.”

  Sasha waved her hands to get their attention. “I bet the church has a food pantry. We can get some food there. People in this village take their breads very seriously.”

  Turner lifted an eyebrow. “No fucking kidding?” He followed her down the street.

  They turned the corner, their guns out even though they were all completely out of ammo. Sasha stopped and gasped, then began sprinting up the hill.

  Brock cursed. “Sasha, wait!”

  The guys chased after her. She skidded to a halt and bent down, then tried to pry the top off of a manhole. “Help me here.”

  Sean chuckled. “I think she’s lost it. They call women like her neoteuga neomu manh-eun has lolppang. Hot buns with too many nuts.”

  Turner and Brock knelt next to Sasha. The two grunted as they slid the manhole cover to the side. Brock recoiled from the smell. “Now what?”

  Sasha nodded. “Go ahead, hurry and climb inside.”

  Turner stood up, wiping his mouth on the shoulder of his uniform. “Hold on. You want us to go down there? Into the sewer, with the shit and the rats? When we could walk easily around up here where the smell of sulfur isn’t even close to the devastation that hole is causing my nose?”

  Sasha put her hands on her hips. “I can lead you to the church through here. It’s the main one in the village and will be safe.”

  Sean looked up as a minor explosion erupted in one of the buildings. “Uh, do you think this is smart? I mean, lava flows down, and we are going into a sewer. Which is down. Where there is no escape.”

  Brock looked up the hill. A slow wave of lava was creeping toward them. “I don’t know if it will be much better up here. At least these are sealed.”

  Eddie stretched his tattooed arms over his head and frowned at the hole. “Death by sewage, that sounds fucking amazing.”

  Sasha rolled her eyes. “It’s either go into the shit and have a chance or stay up here in the lava and burn to death. It’s your choice. Personally, I don’t want to be a historical relic one day—just another pretty face trapped inside a cooled lava sarcophagus.”

  Sean put one foot on the ladder. “Chick has a point. I don’t want to be the next Pompeii. Come on, guys, it’s just shit. We’ve been covered in demon guts before. It can’t be much worse than that.”

  They all climbed down into the hole, Sasha last. She pointed to the right and covered her nose. “Head that way. I’ll tell you where to go next.”

  Brock made his way to the front of the group. They foll
owed him through the sewage and trash floating at the level of their calves. They reached a fork and Sasha pointed to the right again. Brock made the turn and froze; four sets of bright red eyes stared at him from the end of the pipe. Without warning, the red eyes surged toward the guys.

  Brock showed his teeth in a snarl. “Get ready. Go with hand-to-hand combat or any other weapons you have!”

  Sean smirked and pulled a short sword from its sheath. Turner stood next to him grinning, holding a dagger in each hand. “Hell, yeah. I always wanted to fight shit in literal shit.”

  Eddie furrowed his brow. “You guys need to get a life.”

  Brock looked at Sasha for a moment, ready to comfort her. She didn’t need it. She was calm and collected. He whispered, “Just stay here. We’ll handle this.”

  The four guys ran and met the demons in the middle of the dirty sewer. Turner took the one in the middle, punching him hard in the side of the head. The demon stumbled back but caught his footing and growled. The beast lunged forward, but before he could slash him with his claws, Turner crossed both knives over its neck and pulled outward. Blood splashed the walls of the sewer and the demon fell into the sludge, the dark water splashing Turner across the face.

  Turner grimaced as he wiped the shit from his cheek. “Come on, man, fucking gross!”

  Next to him, Sean was kicking and boxing with a tall, thin demon. He jumped and spun with his leg extended. The demon stepped back, but not far enough; he got a boot in the side of his neck. Sean landed and immediately struck again, slamming his fist into the demon’s throat. The demon’s loud, screeching whine echoed down the tunnel.

  “Fuck you. Get out of my sewer,” Sean yelled. He leaped forward and grabbed the demon by the head, kneeing it in the face.

  Before it could tug away, he twisted its head hard, ripping it from its shoulders. Sean dropped the head into the shit below and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. Farther down the tunnel Brock was battling a demon on one side, and Eddie fought on the other. Brock slashed his demon across his stomach, then shoved his long sword into the demon’s heart. A girlish giggle floated to him. He glanced at Sasha, narrowing his eyes at her strange smirk. Suddenly a hand flew by his head. Turner was holding the demon’s paw just inches from his face.

  Turner wagged a finger in Brock’s face. “You might want to watch what you’re doing.”

  Brock glanced back at Sasha, but she had turned away. He jammed the sword harder into the demon’s chest, and it turned to ash. He opened his mouth to say something to Turner when a loud shriek cut him off. They whirled to find Eddie holding the demon by the neck and pounding its face with the butt of his short sword over and over again.

  Eddie screamed out in anger, “Fucking come to my planet. Fucking kill my friends, you sick sonofabitch. Go back to hell.”

  Sean walked up to Eddie and put his hand on his shoulder. “Bro. Just finish it.”

  Eddie breathed heavily, looking at Sean before reversing his sword and slicing the demon’s head off. He mumbled to himself, “Fuck you, demon. Back to hell with you.”

  The four guys looked around, but there weren’t any more demons in sight. As they walked back toward Sasha, Brock put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder. “You all right, man?”

  Eddie shook his head. “Yeah. I don’t know what came over me. I just felt so angry. I’m okay now.”

  Brock clapped him on the shoulder, then the team formed around Sasha. She pointed down the tunnel. “Come on, I’ll lead you to the church. Just keep your eyes peeled for anything else.”

  Brock stepped to the side as she walked past, feeling a cold chill run up his spine. He shook it off and joined the others. They were wounded and tired and ready for some food and sleep. The battles above and below the village had worn them down, but they had no choice but to keep going. They followed Sasha blindly, turning right and left through the maze of the ancient sewer system.

  Turner looked down one of the long, dark branches as they trudged passed. “Do they know here in Romania there is a much better way to do this whole sewage thing?”

  Sasha glared back at him. “Not everyone can be American. Sometimes we make do with what we already have. It works, yes? There is no shit running in the street.”

  Turner scoffed and kept moving. “Yeah, now there is lava, demon ash, and human remains. That’s a whole lot better than shit, right?”

  Brock elbowed Turner and shook his head. He just wanted Sasha to get them to the church. The tunnels were dark and unbearably warm, but the lava hadn’t seeped down there yet. No more demons stood in their way, but something wasn’t right. As hard as Brock tried, he couldn’t seem to keep track of the route they were taking to the church.

  Sasha stopped at the end of a tunnel and turned right. She grunted as she lifted a large steel bar from in front of an old wooden door, then opened it with a creak and disappeared inside. Brock and Turner looked at each other for a moment, and Brock shrugged. They followed her. They found themselves in a dank hallway. The walls were stone, dripping with what Brock assumed was water or condensation.

  “We are below the church.” Sasha closed and locked the door behind them. “You’ll be safe here. This is holy ground. The door ahead will take us upstairs to the chapel. Down here are the sleeping quarters for the clergy.”

  The guys headed for the stairwell. Brock slowed down to walk beside Sasha. “How do you know so much about this church?”

  Sasha smiled. “You live in a small village like this, you explore everything. This church was the first thing built, even before the village popped up around it.”

  She hurried up the stairs ahead. When they reached the top, they walked through a large archway into the main chapel. Eddie stopped dead in his tracks. Brock hurried to him. They looked around the room, taken back by the carnage. Stacked all around the chapel were piles of dead bodies. Many of them didn’t look like they had injuries, but they were all dead.

  Brock covered his face with his hand as the smell of decomposition hit him. With the heat of the lava, the bodies were breaking down faster than normal. “All of these bodies. How did this happen? Usually when a demon attacks they tear a body apart and leave the pieces, if they leave anything. There have to be a hundred intact bodies here.”

  Sasha was unfazed. “Who knows? But it seems there are no survivors here. Probably for the best. It would be a mob with all these people. They would all want food and water.”

  Turner walked to the window and looked out. “We might as well get used to it. The streets have created a molten lava moat around this place. We aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. I’m guessing that we’ll have to wait until it cools before we can leave.”

  Eddie grimaced at a body slumped over the pew. “We should go back downstairs. I don’t really want to hang with these guys. They don’t seem like much fun.”

  Brock narrowed his eyes at Eddie. “Show a little respect. I don’t know what happened here, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. These people died inside a holy place. They should have been protected.”

  Eddie looked at Turner. “Hey, where’s Sean?”

  Sean was standing at the front of the church looking at the large crucifix hanging from the ceiling. “It looks like Jesus is crying.”

  Sasha took a deep breath. “Yeah, well. Let’s go downstairs. I know there were a couple of priests who lived here. Maybe they had some food or even a game. Something we can pass the time with.”

  Eddie rubbed his hands together, following Sasha. “Maybe we can play cards. I think I have some in my pack. Maybe strip poker?”

  Sasha giggled as she reached the bottom of the stairs. She ran her hand down Turner’s chest and his eyes glazed over. She winked at Eddie. “I think I might be down for that.” She led them into a room.

  As soon as they entered the priest’s room, Turner started pacing the floor, talking super-fast and not making much sense. “The church is really nice. Tombstones on the ground. Demons, their red eyes. Making games, let’s make g
ames.”

  Brock furrowed his brow. “Turner, dude, are you all right?”

  Turner chuckled nervously, rubbing his hands together. He looked straight at Brock. His eyes flashed red but showed their whites as they rolled into the back of his skull. He collapsed to the floor. As Eddie ran forward to catch him, Sasha moaned out loud in ecstasy. Brock stared at her for a minute. This whole thing was getting really strange, and for Brock, that was saying something. Sasha just shrugged.

  Eddie and Sean lifted Turner onto the bed and began to check his vitals. He was sweating and groaning, but his eyes were clamped shut. The vein on the side of his neck protruded, and his fists were clenched.

  Brock walked up next to Sasha but kept enough distance so that she couldn’t touch him. There was something strange about her—something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. “Tell me again how you ended up all alone out here? It was crazy that when we first met you, I missed the story.”

  Sasha kept her eyes focused on Turner. “Sure. I was here living with my cousin. He was really sick—dying, and then one day he was gone. I was left with all of his things and the responsibilities of the household.”

  Brock slowly rested his hand on the hilt of his sword. “Really?”

  She nodded. “Yep. Why?”