Shadowlands : Wings of The Wraith
Khardine Gray
Title © 2018 Khardine Gray
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Shadowlands: Wings of The Wraith
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
Shadowlands: Wings of The Wraith
My world changed overnight
Literally overnight. On my birthday. When I met him. The man who told me he was my guardian angel and would protect me from the evil beings trying to get me.
It was all so new to me...
I wasn’t certain of anything.
Except... my feelings for him.
It would be a mistake to fall for a man I barely knew.
And not just any old guy either.
An angel.
A fallen angel...
Chapter 1
Dante
“Hey man, look at this stash.” Zeek cooed.
His eyes flickered from the luminous green he sported as he started to shift back from being a reptilian demon. Thank God, too, I was getting sick of his scaly skin. But scaly skin had brought us in a wicked stash.
Blood diamonds, actual blood diamonds. Not the worthless stones people used in the human realm for special occasions, but the sort that could be used to forge a weapon and make the wielder of the said weapon formidable.
Not that I needed it. I still had my angelic powers.
They never left me like I had expected them to when I was cast out of heaven.
I pushed the memory aside.
It was still hard for me to accept I was considered nothing more than a fallen angel. Those loathsome creatures who served evil.
I was not that.
There was nothing like me, and I took pride in it.
Zeek set the bag of diamonds on the table and took out a few. They glowed a dark red. The darker the color, the better.
“This will definitely be worth the hassle we’ve had to put up with over the last few months.” I smiled.
Zeek nodded in agreement. We’d lost a lot of men.
We travelled between the realms collecting priceless items, and sometimes collecting people that were hard to capture the usual way.
I guess I would accept the term bounty hunters. Or mercenaries. I would be either depending on the price.
Fallen angel though? Fuck no.
Those assholes wouldn’t know where to find a clue even if they were given one. Put simply, they followed sheep.
“What now?” Zeek took a breath and his skin flickered back to normal.
Normal as in he looked similar to me. Like a man. He was a shape-shifter who could have taken on any form he wanted, but he chose to look like a man. A man with shoulder length blonde hair, dark eyes, and a full beard.
In all the hundreds of years I’d known him, I’d never asked if that was the real him. His real self. I still thought it would be rude. Definitely rude since he was the one who saved me from withering away into nothing.
“I don’t know. We should take it to the mages, get them to imbue it so it can’t be tracked then we can forge the weapons. Hopefully save some of our guys.”
I wanted my guys armed with these weapons. As a leader I owed it to them to give them the best.
“The Mages? Really? After you seriously pissed her off.”
I smiled at the memory of the beautiful Aurora. The mage who thought she could tie me down. Poor thing, and what was worse was she tried to curse me, but magic didn’t work on me. It never would.
The only thing that could harm me in any way was a wraith. Those demons, filled with pure darkness and evil, were the only thing that could touch me, and touch me they did, but something inside me was powerful enough to resist the darkness.
Just not powerful enough to resist it all.
Without warning I expanded my wings and Zeek jumped backwards.
“Holy shit! I wish you would warn me before you do that.”
“Why? Does it scare you?” I laughed.
It was only a matter of time. Didn’t matter how long.
It would happen though...just like the Order said. The seers at the Order were never wrong.
My wings were black at the tips now.
Soon all my feathers would darken, not just in color but in essence too.
And I would become a wraith.
The half demon, half angel soulless creatures that drifted between realms causing destruction.
I didn’t know how long I had. It could be as much as a hundred years, could be less. But it would happen.
That was why I’d been cast aside like shit.
I didn’t live in Dominus like the other sentinels.
All my years of good, of hard work, and that was what I got.
“Of course, it doesn’t scare me. I just wished you’d give some warning. Maybe ring a bell. Something along those lines.” He huffed and shook his head.
“She liked my wings.” I retracted them and smiled. “And other parts of me too.”
“Sinful bastard, you give us a bad name.”
“Oh please, like you’re some saint. We take the diamonds to the mages tonight. Then leave for Uzbekistan in two days. Ralph said he saw the Dragt demon among the vampire clan there. We’ll need those weapons if we’re gonna go up against a demon of that strength and level.”
“And, how much is the order paying us?” Zeek narrowed his gaze at me, knowing the bullshit answer I was about to hit him with.
“A teleportation stone.”
“So, the payment is just for you?”
“And a hundred thousand dollars. You guys can have that to split five ways.”
Zeek’s mouth dropped. “Seriously, what? How? Why? You don’t want the money. That could do some serious stuff in the human realm.”
I shook my head.
“No. I just want the stone.” That stone meant more to me than anyone could ever begin to imagine. Foolishly, I still believed in the damn prophecy that said if I could get to Kolai –the realm between the ethers – before it completely disappeared, I’d be able to save myself. Teleportation stones only worked there, because they were from there.
My plan was to get there and teleport to just before the wraith demon attacked me.
It was over two hundred years ago now. I got that prophecy from a seer ten years ago when I rescued a young witch. The reward was the prophecy. It sent me on a wild goose chase that saw me collecting items from every realm. The teleportation stone, which those bastards at the Order had, was the last thing. I’d collected five items so far.
A phoenix feather, tears fr
om a mermaid, the soul of an empath, a Beleric dragon’s tooth, and the heart of a griffin.
The stone was the sixth and the final piece.
I didn’t plan to go back to being a sentinel, the grandiose warrior class of angels. No. That ship had sailed for me and I wanted no part in it.
What I wanted was to not fade into the darkness and become a wraith.
I would still continue to live in Picchus because it suited, and I would never abandon my men. They were friends who had stood by me always.
Neo rushed into the room, his features troubled.
“Dante, I need you out here now. There’s a guy who says he knows you.”
I straightened up and looked him over. “Everybody knows me. Who the fuck is it?”
“Something’s off about this guy. His eyes are gold like...”
“A sentinel?” My eyes widened.
Neo nodded.
I pushed past him and rushed out into the waiting area where we met clients.
A man as tall and muscular as me stood by the window, back turned to me as he focused on the rock formation outside. The first sun was setting, and it cast a glow over the largest moon. People thought Picchus worked like a planet, but it didn’t. It was more like a mass of wasteland that hung between the realms. A little like Kolai; neither here, nor there.
It was fine for the likes of me and mine. No one messed with us here, and we didn’t mess with anyone else we came across.
The place was like a hub for thieves, and like the average thief or big bad, we had a code of honor among us.
The man didn’t need to turn for me to know who he was.
This man had once been my brother in arms. My commander, my strength.
But that was a very long time ago, and he was part of a life I wanted no part of.
“Malachi,” I breathed.
Malachi turned to face me, eyes gold, skin with that ethereal appearance even though he’d toned it down to be here. His full presence would have most likely killed Zeek and Neo, and anyone in the back office that had demon blood.
“Hello brother.” He had the audacity to smile.
“Don’t fucking call me that. Brother? Really? Why are you here?”
He looked hurt.
I could have laughed. I really could have laughed and had to wonder if he looked that way too when I was being cast out of heaven.
He did nothing to stop it from happening. Nothing at all.
“We need you.” He turned fully, and I could see his armor under his raven cloak. The same dark color as his hair.
It was the only similarities we had as children when we were human. This man had been my brother when we were chosen to be sentinels and he’d been my brother in life, too.
And death. We died in the crusades, fighting the cause of Christ.
“Get out. Get the fuck out.” I balked. I didn’t normally lose my cool, but it had been awhile since I saw my brother, and last time was not good.
Last time was that God awful day I would never forget. The day when everything changed for me and I had to stand in front of all the Archangels and their Sentinel armies of Heaven to get my sentence.
As if I had done something wrong. It was to decide on whether I, the tainted sentinel should be allowed to remain amongst them.
As Archangel Gabriel, our head commander, literally cast me out, I’d looked to Malachi, my brother who stood before me now, and took in the look of disappointment on his face.
That disappointment was down to the fact that I decided to take on the demon by myself. That was it, and because of that he’d decided to leave me to the lions.
“We need you, Dante.” He said again in that calm demeanor, then his eyes changed to the blue color they were when we were human.
The brightness in his skin receded too, giving him a more human tone. Now he looked more like the man he’d been when I trusted him. When I had trusted him and agreed to go wherever he went because he was my brother.
“Don’t.” I shook my head.
“I have to. This is happening.” To my greatest shock he put out his right arm and I could see through it.
See through — as in see through. Clear, opaque.
“What the hell?”
“A spell has been cast on us. It attacked the sentinels.”
“How? Nothing can touch us. Except wraiths.”
“Yes, that’s what we thought too. But we were wrong. Something happened that nobody knows. There was a day that no one remembers. It was like the realms went to sleep and whoever did this came out to play.
“Fuck, what? What do you mean? You’re talking in riddles. That never happened here.”
“Correction, nothing happened to you.”
“What does that mean?”
His expression grew worried, quite worried. Nothing could worry a sentinel because there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do. But he looked worried.
“The hell god, Razul. His acolytes are trying to break him free from his prison in the underworld. If that happens it will bring about the apocalypse. In this state we won’t exist to stop it. The other angels will not be able to stop it, and evil won’t just take over the earth, it will be all the realms too. Everywhere.”
“Where do I fit in? If there’s a spell on sentinels, I’m affected too.” Had to be.
He shook his head. “Not you. No. We think it’s the wraith essence in you. It’s fighting whatever is attacking us.”
“And what would dearest Gabriel want me to do?” I couldn’t hide the sarcasm in my tone even though I knew it was disrespectful.
“Dante. I know you are very bitter, and you have every reason to be. But please try and cast your anger aside.”
“I don’t want to talk about that.” I snapped. “Answer the damn question.”
I wished he would because I was dying from the suspense.
“There’s a woman. We think she’s a witch in the making. She was supposed to be one of your charges. One of the guardians found out Balmora was looking for her.”
Balmora?
God in heaven, not her. The sorceress only presented herself if she had something worthwhile to gain. She was one of the followers of Razul.
“What does she want with her?”
“We don’t know. Whatever it is we’ll find out tomorrow when the girls powers come into fruition.”
“How old is she?” Witches powers tended to come in at various ages. I couldn’t remember if it was eighteen or twenty one.
“Twenty-eight. She should have had her powers years ago, but her ancestors delayed it.”
“Why?”
“Now that is the very question we have.”
“I don’t have charges anymore Malachi. I don’t do that shit anymore.” I shook my head and ran my hands through my thick dark locks.
“You will want this one, because she holds the key to that which you seek.” His voice sounded faint and weak. In an instant he shuffled back to his sentinel presence. Seemed like he was stronger at full power mode.
“How do you know what I seek?”
“We always know. I always know. You want to go back in time and prevent yourself from becoming possessed by the wraith. If you do this you will succeed.”
To my shock he reached into his pocket and tossed me a red stone.
I caught it and held it up to the light. I dared not think it was what I wanted it to be.
“What is this Malachi?”
“The teleportation stone that you seek.”
This was it. This was the last item on my list.
The other items were so hard to come by.
Very hard, and painful to my heart.
The soul of the empath and tears from a mermaid were items I got in one go.
I was after the mermaid when I happened upon the empath who was trying to save her from me.
The empath was a priest. His order had been charged with protecting special creatures. Special creatures like her who were being hunted for their tails by an old sea capta
in who wanted the gift of immortality.
Mermaid magic came from their tails. In the sea mermaids had magic, once on land they would take human form in every aspect.
Seeing I meant no ill will he allowed me to join forces with him and I helped save a whole colony of mermaids. But disaster struck when one of the captain’s men broke into their hideaway and killed him.
Before he died, he gave me his soul. The mermaid he’d been trying to save cried and gave me her tears, the only other thing that contained magic because of the rarity of it. Mermaids did not cry because it stole part of their essence.
That was just one of my encounters. There were so many more stories like that. Stories in line with me collecting my rare and hard to find items, and others that were not. But equally as painful. I’d watched people die, people I couldn’t save.
People I couldn’t heal.
I might have been able to walk like a sentinel, talk like one too, act like one and I still retained some of the magic I once had.
But, the darkness in me stole away from all the things I used to be able to do. Like heal. I couldn’t heal people anymore, and I’d lost the gift of foresight.
That was why I’d took on the mission to fix me.
The soul of the empath and the mermaid tears were the first items I collected and the first time I’d had hope in years.
And here I was with the last item.
“Gift from Gabriel.” Malachi nodded.
“I don’t get it.” I didn’t.
“If you help a way will be provided for you to go to Kolai.”
“Why in the hell can’t he just help me properly by curing me?”
“We don’t have that power. Those sorts of things require too much technicalities and will cause a rippling effect we won’t be able to control. Going to Kolai is the only way because that way you control your destiny.”
“Fine, so that means I can go now right?”
“Dante, didn’t you notice something?” He frowned.
I shook my head. “Your prophecy stated that Kolai will appear before you when you are in possession of all six items and you are pure of heart.”
I pressed my lips together. Sure enough I had all six items, but ...
It looked like I didn’t quite meet the criteria to be pure in heart.
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