Protected by the Damned BoxedSet 1

by Michael Todd

  Protected By The Damned™ Boxed Set One

  Books 1 - 4

  Michael Todd

  Michael Anderle

  Laurie Starkey

  Protected By The Damned Boxed Set One (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

  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

  The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2015-2018 by Michael T. Anderle and LMBPN Publishing.

  Contents

  Torn Asunder

  Killing Is My Business

  And Business Is Good

  Sit Down Shut Up and Pull the Trigger

  Protected By The Damned Boxed Set JIT Team

  Beta Readers

  Bree Buras

  Dorothy Lloyd

  Tom Dickerson

  Dorene Johnson

  Diane Velasquez

  JIT Readers

  James Caplan

  John Ashmore

  Micky Cocker

  Larry Omans

  Kelly O’Donnell

  Tim Bischoff

  Joshua Ahles

  Peter Manis

  Daniel Weigert

  Paul Westman

  Kelly Bowerman

  Sarah Weir

  Veronica Torres

  If we missed anyone, please let us know!

  Weapons Consultant

  John Kern

  Proprietor

  Spurlock's - Henderson NV

  Editor

  Lynne Stiegler

  Torn Asunder

  Torn Asunder

  Chapter One

  A voice crackled over Korbin’s earpiece. “The contact is still in the pizza place. The girl he was speaking with did not come back with him to the table.”

  Korbin chewed the inside of his cheek before he replied. “Do we have any info on her?”

  “Nope,” the voice came back. “We haven’t seen her with this contact before. Most likely a college contact. Looked like they were studying.”

  “Thanks, Derek.” Korbin paused. “Did any of you other guys notice her coming out of the place?”

  All Korbin got back were negatives.

  Shit.

  While she wasn’t the mark, it would have made him feel just a little better if they had seen her leave.

  If the coven had her, the best he could hope for was Damian’s prayers to support her.

  Somehow.

  The building was dark, but the coven had set up rings of candles for their ritual and the small flames flickered eerily off the crumbling stone walls. They made the space look like a cave instead of the dilapidated casino parking garage it really was.

  Water from old broken pipes trickled down the mildewed bulwarks, and No Trespassing signs were taped everywhere. Twelve people wandered around, completing their pre-ritual duties and waiting impatiently for the thirteenth to arrive.

  Their weathered brown cloaks dragged on the ground behind them and their hoods carefully covered their heads, shadowing their faces and concealing the truth behind their red-ringed eyes.

  The space had been used before, but this would be the last ritual they would perform there since the building was to be demolished in two days.

  It was the perfect time for the summoning.

  They could call forth their brothers and sisters, and when they were done all evidence would be buried beneath the garage’s rubble. Nothing would be left behind to show they had been there.

  Where they would go after, none of them really knew yet, but in that moment not one of them cared to think about it.

  They had a mission to complete, and this was going to be one for the books.

  Katie hadn’t expected to be tied up—literally—this evening, nor had she even known such rituals existed, but somehow she was the focus of one. She had no idea she was, of course, because at the moment she was unconscious.

  Two thick ropes tied her tightly to a thick stone pillar adorned with strange symbols and scriptures.

  Her body, adorned in a white linen dress that looked to be handsewn, slumped forward. She resembled a nun in training, although her bare feet were dirty from the coven dragging her into the hidden space far below the bustling world above them.

  They were waiting for her to wake.

  For now she remained tied to the pillar, a gift for the demon she was meant for. She whimpered slightly as she came back to reality.

  The broken and crumbling cement rolled under her fingertips as Katie slowly pulled her head up, but her eyes were stuck shut. Her head pounded like a drum. “Dammit,” she mumbled.

  She tried to push her hair out of her eyes, but couldn’t. “What the hell?” she rasped. Ropes tightly bound her arms, so all she accomplished by squirming was to scrape her skin and remind herself that she wasn’t where she should be.

  She opened her eyes and blinked to clear her vision.

  What the fuck? she thought, choosing a stronger word now that she had a clue.

  Whatever drug she had been given had royally messed her up, but there were ropes holding her so she obviously wasn’t in the bar anymore.

  She could hear whispering; a conversation between two people, ahead and to the right. She squinted, trying to make out faces while her heart raced in her chest.

  “Trevor isn’t back,” one of the guys whispered.

  Trevor, that fuckwad. She knew exactly who they were talking about.

  Trevor was in her Chem lab, and had asked her to tutor him at the local bar over pizza and beers. He was nice enough and had those damned puppy dog eyes she seemed to want to help every damned time, so she had agreed. She closed her eyes for a moment, since the drug was still making her tired. “I try to help with chemistry, I get roofied. There’s got to be a lesson in there somewhere,” she told herself.

  How long did roofies take to knock a person out? Her eyes narrowed. Was it twenty minutes? Thirty? Fucker! She had done that hard-assed question at the end of the chapter for that bastard.

  What a dick! She tried to think through her daze. So, she was about an hour into it. He’d probably sent these assholes to get her out of the bar.

  And bring her down into whatever hellhole she was now in.

  “He should have just stayed with us,” the guy said with irritation.

  “He couldn’t,” a woman’s voice whispered. “He had to stick around for alibi purposes.”

  “We shouldn’t do this without our thirteenth,” the guy replied. “It might screw up the entire thing.”

  “Relax,” she responded. “He will show up in time. We need to be ready, though. You know She Whom We Can’t Name will not be happy waiting.”

  “The one we didn’t realize would come,” he said. “She’s really brought our coven up a notch.”

  “She has,” the girl said with a smirk. “We did well. Her brother helped, but keep that shit to
yourself.”

  Katie pulled her eyebrows together and looked behind them. She could make out a large circle of candles around an enormous pentagram etched into the concrete, which had been painted over with a red substance that could very well be blood. The smell of sewage wafted to her nose, pulling her back to her senses. The drugs were wearing off, apparently just in time for the show.

  The female walked over to Katie and grabbed her chin, lifting her face into the light. Katie growled and pulled her face away, but the girl just smiled and turned back to the others.

  “She’s awake,” she called. “It’s time to begin.”

  Katie watched through blurry eyes as the twelve assembled, stepping between the flames and creating a circle inside the ritual site. They lifted their hands into the air and brought them back down, grasping each other’s hands tightly.

  A hum arose from their throats, and the sound of their collective warbling made the hair stand up on the back of Katie’s neck. The girl from a few moments before tilted her head back and began to speak. Katie’s eyes opened further; the fear was working its way through her subconscious.

  The language was foreign to Katie.

  “Nos hie vocare te magnanime daemonium septuaginta duo. Exite nostrae tenebras paravimus corporis tui. Quod petis hic damnatio suscipiendum hoc tecum sumus.” The words were indecipherable, but the bitch’s passion was undeniable.

  Katie’s mind whirled around the words, finding the tone and dialect somewhat familiar. It was Latin, which she didn’t speak a lick of. The only word that sounded familiar to her was “damnatio,” which she knew meant “damnation.”

  She had heard it in church when she was a child. Yay, one point for Sunday School!

  It was becoming apparent that she was to be offered up as some kind of sacrifice, and the dress was certainly not the best garb for the occasion. These fuckers could have at least provided better fashion.

  She grunted. Gallows humor; it came to her at the worst times.

  Katie looked down at the ropes binding her to the stone and struggled to get free, but she was tied tightly.

  When the chanting got louder, Katie looked back up at the group. A new female she had missed was now standing in the center.

  She was a strong woman. Beautiful black hair rolled down her back, and she was naked from the tips of her toes to the... How did she get her hair so shiny? Like seriously?

  And those two damned cantaloupes up top weren’t fake, nor did they follow the laws of gravity. Those sweater puppies for damned sure gave her backaches. No one could hold her back as straight as that with those. Katie smiled, thinking that every time that ho tripped they would cause her to fall right on her face, unable to fight gravity.

  The exhibitionist’s muscles were tight, as if she were readying herself for battle. She looked like she could seriously do some damage to anyone who decided to fuck with her. She glanced around the group, like she was sizing them up to eat.

  Fuck, that chick was weird. Katie looked over her shoulder at her tied hands. Like she was the weirdest part of the night so far?

  Katie brought her head back around, watching the woman glare at those in the group. I wish I was that chick. I’d kick everyone’s ass.

  Footsteps rushed through the parking garage, pulling Katie’s attention to her left. She grimaced. “You goat-sucking bastard!” she spat, her mouth dry.

  Fucktard McBastard Trevor was coming toward the circle, pulling his hood over his head as he ran.

  Her erstwhile chem-study partner stepped into the firelight and grabbed the others’ hands, then joined the chant.

  At that moment the candles began to flicker more brightly, and the woman inside the circle pulsated as if the air around her were electric. A bright flash rippled outward over everyone, extinguishing the candles and blinding Katie for several moments. The coven had done their job, and although Katie couldn’t tell what had happened, she heard a surprised gasp.

  At least, she thought she heard one.

  As Katie’s eyes adjusted to the darkness in the parking garage she groaned softly, feeling the pulsing in her brain return. She glared at the coven as they stepped out of the circle and made their way toward her, trying to catch their eyes. She hoped to remember their faces so she could finger them in a police lineup.

  In return they looked at her curiously, as if they weren’t even sure themselves that the ritual had been successful. Trevor slowly approached Katie and bent down in front of her, tilting her chin upward. Katie growled and spit at him, tearing her chin from his hand.

  “You tricked me,” she hissed, her voice angry.

  “You will thank me later.” He winked and straightened. “Well, maybe not you, exactly.”

  Katie didn’t know where it was coming from, but there was an anger in her chest darker than anything she had felt before. She didn’t like it. It didn’t feel natural, but it coursed through her like the blood in her veins. She tightened her hands into fists and looked up at Trevor, who was standing there smiling at the others.

  “It is done,” he told them. “Now we can—”

  Before he could finish his sentence, a loud BANG reverberated from the stone around her and Trevor’s head blew into about a thousand pieces.

  Blood and flesh sprayed across Katie’s face, and she looked away as Trevor’s body toppled into a pile next to her.

  She was too busy spitting out small pieces of Trevor’s brain to care.

  There was complete stillness for a moment as the others looked at the bloody pulp in front of them in shock. Then, as the candles began to relight on their own, a bunch of men filed into the room.

  Katie had no idea who they were, but they had shot the asshole who had gotten her into this predicament. They couldn’t be all bad.

  “How?” one of the robed coven hissed.

  “Your boy Trevor wasn’t too keen on being discreet,” a tall silver-haired man commented, looking around as he stepped into the light. “We’ve been tracking him all day. You really weren’t that smart, now were you?” he asked. The sound of his gun being cocked punctuated his comments.

  “You’re too late,” the woman in the brown robe hissed as she stepped forward, pointing her finger at Katie. “It’s done. Your little mission and the girl behind it are damned.” She cackled.

  “Hey, a little respect here!” Katie snapped, still trying to get the taste of brain out of her mouth. “Let’s not talk about me as if I were a child.” Not that her little rant helped; no one was paying any attention to the tied-up chick.

  “No matter.” The mercenary looked at the girl with surprise and then relief on his face. “While we may have been late to the beginning of the party, late is better than never.”

  Five men stepped up behind Korbin, the merc leader. They smirked at the twelve remaining coven members, who were swaying back and forth with swords and clubs in their hands.

  The coven growled as they looked at the six men. They pulled down their hoods one at a time and lined up to face the mercs.

  Katie watched wide-eyed as the coven’s eyes began to glow red and they lunged at the team.

  Her mouth dropped open as she watched the mercenaries spread apart, their guns’ reports reverberating off the cement walls, floor, and ceiling. The coven members’ bodies jerked as the bullets struck them.

  She screamed twice during the ensuing conflict. Katie was not easily frightened normally, but when bullets ricocheted next to her twice, anyone who wanted to count the two little shrieks of shock could just kiss her ass.

  If she ever got untied, that was.

  Two of the coven raced away from the line, tearing their robes off and growling into the air. Red mist circled their bodies and their muscles exploded. From their frail human forms, two large demons materialized.

  “Fuck me!” Katie spat. Her head moved erratically, trying to watch as much as she could.

  Even if she was having trouble believing any of it.

  Two of the mercs jumped onto the demons’
backs, striking downward with savage knives and reaching around trying to slit their throats. The demons’ blood sprayed across the ground and both fell to their knees, their arms useless. They bled out as the men rode them down. Katie strained against her bonds. She wanted to do something, but the damned ropes were still holding her tightly against the pillar.

  Wow! A new voice rang in Katie’s head.

  Katie looked around. She expected to see a woman standing next to her, but there was only darkness. She shook her head; too much simultaneous input. There was no way she was going crazy and hearing voices…but then it came back, this time louder and stronger than before.

  That redheaded bitch just turned into a Level-Four Succubus, the voice said, chuckling. I didn’t see that coming.

  Katie just stood there, completely shocked by what was going on inside her head. She looked over at the fight, spotting a blonde girl with glowing crimson eyes wielding her sword against one of the mercenaries. His hat was tilted back, and he was dressed in a white shirt and black tie. A black raincoat protected his frame, and a large white cross hung from his neck.

  He looked kind of like a religious man.

  “Who the hell are you?” Katie whispered to the voice in her head. “That is, if I’m not going insane. And considering what I’m watching, I’ll give myself a mulligan if I am.”

  Those idiots don’t know what they’re doing, the voice continued, ignoring Katie’s question. It kept up the running commentary of the fight. She’s trying to use a third-level lust spell on that Damned with the white cross on his chest. Just goes to show you, there are dumbass blonde succubi in hell like there are on Earth. HE’S A FUCKING PRIEST, YOU IDIOT! Katie could feel the sigh of exasperation in her mind. What a waste of demon-flesh she is.