Death Cursed: Death Touched, Book 1 (Urban Fantasy Romance) E-Book

Mac Flynn

• Herausgeber: Crescent Moon Studios, Inc.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Death comes for everyone. For Nena, Death comes for her, but doesn't collect. She's instead picked up by a mysterious group led by a man named Scratch, and they won't let her go now that she's Death Touched.

As Nena tries to understand what that means she learns that a threat has arisen that promises to upset the delicate balance between the living and the undead. The threat proves especially dangerous to her when she becomes the target of one of the Corrupted, a creature of Death who's sole purpose is to destroy living and undead alike.

Her only solace amid the dark is the hope that she can somehow escape the Agency and her own changes before she finds herself too deep in the supernatural world.

Leseprobe

Death Cursed

Death Touched, Book 1

Mac Flynn

Copyright © 2018 by Mac Flynn

All rights reserved.

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.

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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

Continue the adventure

Other series by Mac Flynn

1

She didn’t understand life until she died.

It was that night when everything changed. That fateful evening when Nena Tacita found herself at her friend’s crowded apartment. The occupants of his hovel weren’t other people, they were computer parts. Large and small, broken or awaiting a chance at a new life in another tower. He already had six of them set in an old server box in his bedroom.

Nena sat on the short bed with its wrinkled sheets and dirty clothes. She was a young woman of twenty-five with a heart-shaped face ringed by long brown hair that flowed over her shoulders. Her jean-clad legs were crossed and a large t-shirt covered her well-rounded bosom. In her lap was her large purse, and on her lips was a frown.

“There’s got to be something else you want to do besides type on that thing,” she scolded the pale figure who sat before three computer screens on the wall opposite where she sat.

He was a young man of twenty with a round face and short black hair. Thick, black-framed glasses covered his unblinking eyes as they switched between two of the screens. His fingers moved faster than his eyes as he typed away and occasionally clicked on the nearby black mouse. “Nope.”

Nena groaned and fell back onto the sheets. She checked her watch. “Come on, Matt, it’s almost seven. How about we go get something to eat and see a movie?”

“Can’t. Too busy saving the world.”

She rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Out of all the excuses you could give me, you choose that one?”

Matt paused and spun around in his chair to face her. He pushed the bridge of his glasses up against his nose and pursed his lips. “I am being serious. What I’m working on is going to save the world. And with this-” He leaned back and tapped a square pin that was attached to his shirt with a picture of thick, black-rimmed glasses on the front, “-I know we can do it. My lucky pin hasn’t failed me yet.”

Nena sighed and sat up so she could swing her legs over the side of the bed. “Yeah, but who’s going to save you and your lucky pin? I told you I was going to come here tonight to drag you out of your cave, and now you’re giving me excuses about saving the universe.”

“The world, but it might branch out into that, too,” he corrected her.

Nena pursed her lips as she stood and shouldered her bag. “You know I only get these nights off once every few weeks from the hospital, and you’re still going to stiff me a hamburger and a movie.”

He pushed his lips out in a pout. “You don’t believe me, do you?”

She grasped the strap of her bag and sighed. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, Matt, it’s just a little hard to believe.”

“That’s the same thing.”

She frowned and marched up to his side. “Fine, show me.”

Matt grinned and spun around to face the screens. A couple of taps and a dozen windows opened on two of the screens. He tapped the left-hand screen with its black box of primitive commands. “I spent half the day trying to decipher this code. It’s something to do with a Project Endzeit. That means ‘end time’ in German. Corny name, huh? A few more days and I think I’ll have it.”

She pursed her lips and her eyes flickered down to him. “Is this paying your rent?”

He grinned up at her. “And then some. Whoever this guy is he’s loaded.”

Her eyebrows crashed down. “Did you take another job from one of those creepy message boards?”

He frowned. “It’s an online job site for professional hackers, but yeah. So what?”

“So the last time you did that the guy turned out to be stalking his ex-girlfriend, and you were helping him hack into the security cameras around her apartment,” she reminded him.

He winced. “That was just an oversight. This new guy came recommended by the Merry Men.”

Nena pursed her lips. “That group of hackers? They’d steal a penny from their grandmother and hand it to a stripper and call it a good deed.”

Matt’s face fell. “I’m a hacker, too, ya know.”

She sighed and set her hand on his shoulder. “Listen, Matt, I know this is exciting for you and all, but don’t you think you’re being a little too cocky? I mean, you’re going to get caught some day and I don’t want to see my oldest friend go to jail for the rest of his life.”

He looked up and flashed her a grin. “Maybe, but at least I’ll have you to see me on visitor’s day.”

She snorted. “I’m not bringing you any escape tools in a cake.” Her eyes flickered to the unused screen. It showed a black screen saver. “What’s going on there?”

Matt blushed and cleared his throat. “Nothing-” Nena reached over and grabbed the mouse. He tried to wrestle it from her. “No! Don’t!”

She flung the clicker over to the far screen and awakened it. On the screen was a browser window with a picture of a mostly naked woman in a compromising pose. The name of the site was Wanton Women. There were two dozen tabs at the top with equally salacious titles.

Nena looked down at her blushing friend and gestured to the window. “That’s why you need to get out more.”

“I-it’s for research purposes,” he argued as he snatched the mouse from her and minimized the browser window.

She stood straight and snorted. “Uh-huh. And I’m the Queen of Sheba.”

He spun around to face her and held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Queenie.”

She swatted his hand away and half-turned toward the door to the bedroom. “If you’re not going to go out with me tonight than I’m just going to go home. Sleep is better than sticking around here listening to you tap away at that thing.”

“Wait.” He grabbed her arm and looked up into her eyes. “How about tomorrow night? My treat?”

She pursed her lips. “You promise?”

He crossed his finger over his heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die.” Nena’s expression faltered a little and she turned her face away. Matt winced. “Sorry. I forgot your mom taught me that one.”

She shook herself and gave him a hollow smile. “No, it’s fine. I mean, it’s been two years now. You’d think I’d get over it.”

Matt squeezed her arm a little. “But seriously, anywhere you want to eat, and then any movie you want to watch.”

Her eyebrows raised and her lips curled up into a sly smile. “Any movie?”

He cringed. “Within reason. To protect my sanity.”

“You mean insanity, but I’ll think of something we both want to watch,” she assured him as she gave him a wave and left the room.

Matt’s living room was so small that Nena only needed to take a couple of steps before she was at the front door and out into the dingy hallway. Wallpaper peeled in large strips and settled onto the stained and browned carpet on the floor. Doors with patches, and some bearing their holes, lined both sides of the narrow hall. A few flickering bulbs lit the passage as Nena made her way to the rickety staircase and down the creaking steps to the lobby. Once beautifully tiled, there were now large patches of only dark plaster.

Nena stepped outside and was greeted by a chilling breeze. She shivered and wrapped her coat closer around herself. The streets were deserted as she walked down the stoop and onto the cracked sidewalk. A few ancient cars of dubious paint jobs sat along the curb as her shoes clacked with each lonely step.

Nena’s eyes flickered to all the dark spots along the street. There were many thanks to the broken streetlights and dark, abandoned apartment buildings.

“Couldn’t you have picked a better place to live, Matt?” she mumbled to herself as she tightened her grip on her bag strap. She tensed as a newspaper shifted in a nearby alley. “Like maybe a prison?”

Nena jumped as the funeral march began to play. The sound came from her bag. She rolled her eyes as she stopped and rummaged in her bag. “Great timing, Dad. . .” She found the cell phone and pressed it against her cheek. “Dad, I’m kind of busy.”

“I just wanted to ask you out on a date this weekend, Cauliflower,” came the teasing voice on the other end.

Nena rolled her eyes. “Not that name, Dad, and I’ve got to work all weekend.”

“What about next week?”

“Probably that, too.”

“How about next year?”

She snorted. “Do you ever give up?”

“Nope, so what about a lunch date? My treat.”

Nena sighed. “You know you don’t have to do that. Feed me, I mean. I’m not getting along that badly that I’m starving to death.”

Her father chuckled. “He’d have his hands full with you, but I’m not trying to feed you all the time. I just want to see how you’re doing.”

“It’s called email, Dad. You have my-”

“Hey, there.”

Nena spun around. Her loose grip on her phone meant the machine went flying. It crashed onto the pavement and the glass front shattered into a million pieces. The screen went black.

A pair of black boots stepped up to the broken phone. They belonged to one of two young men in their early twenties. One was dark-skinned and dressed in over-sized pants and a loose coat. The other was lighter and wore a bandanna around his head.

It was the darker baggy pants who spoke to her. He had a crooked grin on his lips as he picked up the broken phone and turned it over in his hands. “Damn. That was a nice phone, too.” He glanced at his friend. “How much do you think we could’ve got for it?”

He shrugged. “I dunno. Fifty bucks.”

“Fifty bucks. That’s a lot of dough.” He returned his attention to Nena and held up the phone. “So who’s gonna pay for this, huh?”

Nena frowned and took a step back. “That was my phone.”

The man laughed. “It wasn’t gonna be for much longer, and that’s why you gotta pay for it.” He tossed the phone away and held out his hand to her. “That means hand over the bag.”

Nena wrapped her hands around the strap of her bag. Her heart thumped in her chest as her eyes flickered over the area. The mouth of an alley lay on her left. Lit streetlights lay at the far end of the shadowed route with another alley crossing over hers halfway in-between.

The thug noticed where her gaze lay and frowned. “You’re staying fucking here-” Nena turned to her left and shot off down the alley.

The pounding of her heart matched her feet as she sprinted through the puddle-riddled alley. She heard shouting behind her, but didn’t look back.

Nena heard a gunshot and felt something hot rip through her chest. Her feet stumbled and she fell to the cold ground, landing on her back. Out of the corner of her eyes she glimpsed a red pool of liquid slip out from beneath her.

Her eyes widened. Is that. . .my blood?

2

The men marched up to her with the bandanna-attired holding back a few feet from the bleeding woman. His eyes were wide as his friend stooped and rifled through Nena’s pockets. The gunman lifted her up and yanked her bag off her shoulder.

“Jesus, Darryl, you didn’t have to shoot her. . .” he whimpered.

Darryl whipped his head up and glared at his trembling friend as he tossed the bag to his partner. The other man caught the bag in his trembling arms. “Shut up, Willie, and search her bag before the cops come.”

Willie swallowed the lump in his throat and knelt down to sift through the large bag. He had just pulled out her purse when something made him look up. The man froze when he caught sight of a shadowed figure at the intersection of the two alleys.

The stranger was about forty and stood as still as a gravestone. He was six-feet tall and wore a black overcoat that reached to the ground. The front was open to reveal black suit pants and a black vest that covered a black blouse. The coat had a high collar that wrapped around his neck and contrasted sharply with his pale skin. Black gloves adorned his hands, and in one he grasped the top of a black cane. Unlike his short messy black hair, the man’s face was thin and deathly white. A skull mask covered much of his features, but it couldn’t hide the person’s sunken eyes that glowed like cooling coals in a once-blazing fire. Those eyes fell on Willie and made his chilling blood freeze.

“D-Darryl!” he yelped.

Darryl raised his head and noticed the stranger. He stood and walked around Nena to face the stranger in a showdown. The punk raised the gun and pointed it at the interloper. “Get the fuck out of here. Now.”

The man shook his head. “I don’t wish to interfere. It’s too late, at any rate. I would ask as a small favor that your toy-” his eyes settled on the weapon pointed at him, “-be given to me.”

Darryl sneered at him. “Over your dead body.”

Their dark foe chuckled. “That is not an option. However-” he strode toward them with his cane clacking against the hard ground, “-I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist.”

A sick smile slipped onto Darryl’s lips. “You want the gun? Too fucking bad. But I’ll give you a bullet.”

Darryl fired off six successive shots. The partners heard the bullets meet their target as metal buried itself into cloth. They could even see the man’s clothes indent with each hit, but the stranger himself didn’t notice any of the hits as he continued to walk toward them.

Darryl’s mouth dropped open as the man stopped four feet away from them. “What the fuck?”

The stranger stopped and smiled as he drew off one of his gloves. Beneath the cloth was only a hand of bones connected by some invisible method. “You have very precise aim, my young murderer, but I’m afraid you were shooting the wrong target.”

The stranger lunged forward and wrapped his bony fingers around Darryl’s throat. The thug screamed and dropped the gun to grab the other man’s arm as he was lifted off the ground. Willie scrambled back as Darryl’s body began to shake. Black smoke rose from his flesh as his skin melted away to reveal his bones. In a few short moments the stranger held a baggy-pants wearing skeleton.

Willie screamed and turned to flee, dropping the bag. His cries echoed through the night as he ran down the alley and disappeared around the corner.

The man sneered at the body in his grasp and tossed the skeleton to the side. He stooped and picked up the gun before turning his attention to the woman.

Nena was still alive, but each labored breath was slowly ticking down to her last. Her vision was blurry, but not so bad that she didn’t see what had happened. That’s why she cringed when the man stepped up to her and knelt by her side. His dark eyes studied the bloody hole in her chest over her heart before his gaze moved up to her pale face.

A soft smile graced his lips as he grasped her left hand and slipped the gun into her cold fingers. “This will hurt but for a short time, and then you will feel nothing.”

Nena’s lips moved, but no sound came out as he raised his bone hand and lay his fingers over her forehead. Her eyes widened and she let out a strangled gasp as a deep cold seeped into her body. He lay his gloved hand on her chest as her body twitched and jerked against the chill that invaded her form. Every prick of cold was like a dagger buried deep into her flesh. Her breathing quickened. Each short breath was a fight against death.

Then she stopped. Nena’s body fell back against the ground as her breathing ceased. Her eyes were open, but they no longer saw anything.

The stranger removed his hand from her forehead and closed her eyes. He brushed away a strand of her hair from her face and cupped her cheek. His voice was soft and low as he studied her pale face with that peculiar smile of his. “Wherever your adventures lead you, hold tight to the gun.”

The man stood and once again covered his hand with the glove. He cast his gaze one last time over Nena’s still form before he turned and walked toward the wall opposite where she lay. A dark swirling portal twenty feet tall and as wide opened in the wall. He paused in its mouth and half-turned to glance at the still body.

A noise down the alley made him look in that direction. He chuckled and returned his attention to Nena. “They’re coming. Be brave, Nena, and farewell.” He stepped into the portal and disappeared. The swirling darkness closed behind him.

The alley was quiet for all of a half minute before a black car with red license plates skidded to a stop at the mouth. The front passenger door opened and out stepped a young man. He wore a tan overcoat over a pair of jeans and a plain white shirt. His hands were hidden by a pair of black gloves like those worn by the previous stranger. Between his lips was a short cigarette. He took a long puff and tossed away the remains before he looked over the area.

“He would be hiding out in a dump like this,” he commented with a shake of his head. He glanced at the opposite side of the car and banged on the roof. “Are you coming out or do I get to play with him alone?”

The driver door opened and a pale man of thirty exited the vehicle. He was tall and thin, and dressed in a formal black suit with a pair of shades over his eyes. A string hung around his neck and at the end hung a small white bag with a slight bulge at the bottom. His lips were tightly pursed as he studied the mouth of the alley. “The sensors indicate he is no longer in the area.”

“Typical,” the other guy replied as he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and helped himself to another. He lit the end and tucked the lighter into his overcoat pocket. “How big was this portal supposed to be?”

“Large enough to drive a truck through its mouth,” the other man replied. He watched as his companion took another long puff and frowned. “That is not healthy for you humans.”

The other man chuckled, but tossed the half-finished cigarette away. “I don’t think that’s what’s going to get me. Anyway, let’s see if he left anything behind.” He took a step forward, but paused and glanced over his shoulder at his companion who didn’t move. “He is gone, isn’t he?”

The pale man swept his gaze over the area and nodded. “Yes, but-” he looked down the alley and frowned, “-there is something down there.”

The other man arched an eyebrow. “What’s that mean?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know myself.”

The smoker sighed and tucked his hands in his jeans pockets. “All right, let’s see what he left us.”

The pair walked side-by-side into the alley and stopped five feet from where Nena and the skeleton lay. Her blood was spread across half the alley. The thug’s body still smoldered. The whole place wreaked of death.

The man in the overcoat shook his head. “Jesus Christ. What’d he do to them?”

The pale man strode over to the skeleton and knelt down beside the body. He turned the neck over and brushed his pale fingers across the throat. “He burned away the flesh and organs.”

The other stranger knelt beside Nena and looked over her blood-stained body. He pressed two fingers against her neck for a moment before he shook his head. The gun in her hand caught his attention. He pried the gun loose and popped out the cartridge. “Still hot. This must’ve been what did her in. Funny, I didn’t think human weapons were his style.” He returned his attention to Nena and studied her face before he shook his head. “Too bad. She was a real looker.”

“Death does not care for beauty or age,” his partner commented as he joined him. His brow furrowed as he looked over Nena. “This is strange.”

The smoker frowned at his partner. “Come on, Pete, you know I hate it when you do that.”

The pale man pressed his palm against her forehead for a brief moment before he drew back. “She is not dead.”

The other man arched an eyebrow. “I felt her pulse. There’s nothing there.” Pete tapped her eyelid. Nena flinched, but her eyes remained closed. The other man’s eyes widened and he looked back to his partner. “A vampire?”

Pete shook his head. “No, but she is between worlds.”

He returned his attention to Nena and pursed his lips. “Death Touched.”

Pete nodded. “I believe so.”

The other man pocketed the gun and lifted Nena into his arms. “Let’s take her with us. Doc’ll want to take a look at her.”

Pete stepped in front of him, blocking him from the mouth of the alley. “That is not the protocol. Those who are Death Touched must be-”

“I know the protocol, but we can’t just leave a lovely young woman out in the cold,” the other man argued.

“Even one he has touched?” Pete countered.

His partner pursed his lips. “Yeah, even one he’s touched. Besides, we’ll have Doc confirm what you said.”

“And Scratch?” Pete reminded him.

The other man frowned. “If I know him then he’ll have a plan for her, but at least she won’t be out here wandering the streets alone, and you and I know that would be a worse idea than taking her with us.”

He pushed past Pete and strode toward the car. Pete frowned and glanced over at the skeleton. He drew out a black plastic bag and stuffed the bones inside. A short stop to grab Nena’s purse, and he followed his partner to the car. Nena was set gently in the back seat and the bag was deposited in the trunk before they drove off, leaving only her blood as evidence anything had ever happened.