Shock of Fate Anchoress Series Book One: A Young Adult Fantasy Adventure Read online

  SHOCK OF FATE

  Anchoress Series Book One

  D. L. ARMILLEI

  Copyright © 2017, 2019 by D. L. Armillei

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Second edition, February 2019

  ISBN 978-0-9986720-0-7 [Mobi]

  ISBN 978-0-9986720-1-4 [ePub]

  ISBN 978-0-9986720-2-1 [Softcover]

  ISBN 978-0-9986720-3-8 [Hardcover]

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017901625

  Diamond Cove Publishing, LLC,

  P.O. Box 2292, Palm Harbor, FL 34682-2292

  www.yourfantasyportal.com

  In loving memory of my mother Gail Armillei,

  an inspiring teacher of the arts and

  encourager of my imagination

  I-Ching #51

  “The shock of disturbing events creates terror and trembling. Seek a higher truth and you will find success.”

  —The I Ching or Book of Changes

  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

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Read the first chapter of book 2, Plague of Death

  Afterword

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Thursday Night:

  Latitude 44.8542° N,

  Longitude 93.2422° W, Earth World

  Michael Cross scanned the restless crowd but couldn’t find the demon.

  Families—humans of the Earth World—lined up, waiting for the Mall of America to begin its Midnight Madness sale.

  Filthy terrigens.

  They had camped in front of the mall for days. Crisp pop-up tents dotted the crowd like a virus, along with a clutter of beach chairs, blankets, and pillows. Most of them had food-and-drink-stocked coolers. Toys and trash littered the ground. Their need for more, the greed, oozed from the crowd.

  Yeah, this place would definitely attract a demon.

  Michael continued to survey the terrigens, wondering what had possessed him years ago to take a job requiring him to spend time in the Earth World hunting demons.

  I guess I had ideals back then. And earning a spot in the elite sector of the Lodian military impressed the ladies. His chest tightened as he remembered the exact moment when his life went bad.

  Michael’s rookie partner, Tilly Hopewell, caught up to him, interrupting his thoughts.

  Tilly stared at her palm. A dot flashed on her multi-track. “I’m picking it up over there.” She pointed through the crowd to an area dense with shadows.

  Clusters of adults bundled in bright spring jackets held cups of hot coffee on the chilly June night. They chatted with one another like old friends, oblivious to the danger lurking nearby.

  Michael snapped his hand over her multi-track. He had no need for terrigens to see something resembling the newest smartphone, which they’d ask about and want to buy. “Terrigens can’t see demons. But they can see us.” Does she think wearing hot, heavy pea coats to hide our uniforms is for fun?

  What he’d told Tilly wasn’t exactly true. Terrigens could see demons. They just didn't know it.

  Demons liked to appear in a form that enabled them to hide and move easily in the darkness. They usually camouflaged themselves to the point of invisibility, but occasionally terrigens glimpsed their movement as a wisp of smoke, the flicker of a shadow, or a blur. All of which the Earth World’s humans brushed off as a trick of the eye.

  Tilly looked away, abashed.

  “Rookies,” Michael mumbled with disgust. They came charging into the field fresh out of training, high on adrenaline, ready to be a demon hunter. They never seemed to grasp it takes years to become a competent Grigori. A protector.

  This last thought made his stomach clench. Reflexively, he ran his fingers along the scars on his jaw and neck.

  Tilly glanced at him, mistaking his movement for a command.

  Irritably, he moved forward, motioning for her to follow him.

  Demons were too cowardly to appear in their true form to terrigens, which gave the Grigori an advantage. Demons feared if they were seen, the Earth World humans would try to kill them, and the Grigori would target them for exhibiting aggressive behavior by showing their true selves.

  Demons were also lazy. It took a tremendous amount of energy and strength to hold their true form on the same higher vibrational frequencies as terrigens.

  And showing themselves proved not as effective as seeping. Michael shuddered. Demons found seeping easy.

  Michael and Tilly dodged as several kids careened by, laughing and playing. Lights from a massive storefront cast a forbidding glow over the crowd. That, along with the light of a near-full moon, created many hiding places in the shadowy gaps among the crowd.

  As Michael and Tilly edged across the line, the terrigens tensed and shifted their bodies, as if preparing to defend their spots. The terrigens calmed after realizing the interlopers had only crossed the line, not cut in, and again became entranced by the mindless vigil of the sale.

  Tilly wrinkled her nose as they inched their way down a delivery alley between the towering yellow brick of two mall walls. The air stunk like week-old garbage.

  And sulfur.

  “The demon is near,” Michael whispered.

  A faint rustling sound came from behind the trash bin ahead. His hand snapped into a halt position. He nodded to Tilly, who understood the unspoken command to use her multi-track to anchor the demon.

  Tilly hesitated and whispered, “It smells like sulfur, and the demon is holding its
elf at one of the highest terrigen frequencies. That’s odd, right?”

  “Stronger demons sometimes emit sulfur,” Michael replied. “And can hold at higher frequencies.”

  “Don’t they usually lower their vibration to try and slip away from us?” Tilly asked.

  “Usually,” Michael said. “Could be a Class II.”

  Tilly tensed.

  Grigori classified demons by their behavior. Class I demons were weak and cowardly. Class II demons were strong and aggressive. All demons were cunning and evil but had no interest in killing terrigens. They needed terrigens to produce negativity that generated new demons and to feed the ones already here, allowing them to become stronger, to become Class IIs.

  The Grigori aimed never to let Class I demons linger long enough to become Class IIs.

  “I gave you a command,” Michael growled. He hated training rookies. “Anchor the demon.”

  He scrutinized Tilly’s fresh, young face to see whether the demon’s whisper had influenced her. Demons used silent words to seep into the subconscious of any unsuspecting human’s mind, causing the person to succumb to “brain rot,” as Michael liked to call it.

  Brain rot corrupted the mind of the victim, prompting unsettling, negative thoughts that led to depression, intolerance, anxiety, and ideas of violence. Eventually, the thoughts became so disruptive people acted on them and performed atrocious deeds, committed violent or immoral acts, harmed others, or harmed themselves. This created an environment of fear, terror, and darkness—an environment where demons thrived.

  Grigori referred to this process as seeping and underwent training to be unaffected by it. Still, Michael wondered about his rookie.

  He pulled back his pea coat to grab his own multi-track when a wisp of smoke, swirling like a tiny tornado, emerged from the shadows.

  Tilly sprang to life and thumbed the switch on her multi-track to secure their own and the demon’s vibrational frequency and lock it in. Then she pressed a button that took both demon and hunters to a lower vibration and out of the terrigens’ sight.

  “Use the net,” Michael commanded.

  Tilly swiped her finger on the multi-track, and a web-like net shot forward, trapping the swirling demon.

  Stronger demons could change frequencies after being locked in, taking both themselves and the Grigori on a changing frequency ride. The net provided extra insurance the demon would be held at the Grigori’s desired frequency and not the other way around. This allowed the Grigori to hold the demon steady so they could kill it. Killing was protocol. Their job required them to keep the demon population under control.

  Sometimes, due to fear, demons “popped” back into their true form when confronted by a Grigori. If not, Grigori had been trained to force demons into their true form using the multi-track so they could get a visual description to put in their reports.

  But staring at Michael from under the net wasn’t a horrible creature.

  It was a little girl.

  She stood alone in the alley, trembling from fright. A ray of moonlight draped her, highlighting the girl’s white-blond hair, flawless porcelain skin, and pretty blue eyes.

  Horror tore through Michael and twisted his gut—the demon had replicated his daughter at age five, right down to Van’s favorite outfit at that time—red bowtie shoes and a white-ruffled, tailor-made dress.

  “I snagged a terrigen. I’m so sorry.” Tilly shook her multi-track and slapped it against her palm. “Is my MT broken?”

  The little girl sobbed. “Daddy! Let me out of the net,” it said, in a sickening echo of Van’s sweet voice. “Daddy, don’t you love me?”

  Michael’s shoulders tightened. His stare remained on the daughter-like demon as he grasped the hilt of his ritualized, mini-scythe.

  “Grigori Cross, sir, it’s one of the kids waiting for the sale,” Tilly said. “She’s mistaking you for her father. The demon slipped away. I screwed up.”

  Michael answered by unsheathing his scythe.

  Tilly’s eyes grew wide. “Remember our Grigori oath?”

  Michael understood her nervous tone. He had been back in the field only a short time, and with his sordid past… well, no wonder.

  “To protect the terrigens at all costs?” Tilly said, an octave louder.

  Michael grunted. That was only one of their oaths. And this was no terrigen. He had never seen a demon take human form, and he didn’t know what class they were dealing with, but it didn’t matter. It had to be killed.

  “It’s a demon.” Michael raised his scythe.

  “Demons can’t take human form.” Tilly darted over to the child.

  “Stand down!” He marched forward, ready to elbow Tilly out of the way and strike the demon.

  But, as Tilly tore off the netting, the demon-girl looked at Michael. Its stare flashed a phosphorescent violet sheen just like Van’s.

  Michael paused.

  Tilly swiveled to block his attack, turning her back on the enemy.

  “It’s a terrigen gir—”

  A dull, wet sucking sound cut Tilly off as the demon’s stick-like appendage pierced her torso. Its tip dripped with blood and chunks of tissue.

  The demon-girl retracted its spiked arm and placidly watched Michael with eyes now so dark and empty, they made his soul shiver.

  Michael held onto his scythe as he grabbed hold of the rookie.

  Tilly clasped his arms. Bits of blood dribbled down the sides of her mouth as she attempted to speak.

  She slid from his grasp, slumped to her knees, and crumpled to the ground.

  Michael didn’t blame the rookie for her mistake. Demons were more interested in humans’ suffering than in their death, and demons in their true form usually appeared the size of a small dog with a deranged combination of reptilian-goat features. Given enough time, Michael knew Class II demons could develop the potential to kill a human. But he had just witnessed an unclassified behavior.

  Holding the form of a human took a tremendous amount of strength for a demon, way beyond the ability of a Class II.

  Tilly’s training manual hadn’t covered demons taking human form, because Grigori commonly believed it wasn’t possible. But Michael had recently uncovered information in a hidden ancient scroll that a demon appearing in human form was not unprecedented. It had happened a thousand years ago, during the Great War between the Lodians and the Balish.

  Not everyone can be saved. Michael staggered backward, away from his rookie’s body.

  He couldn’t go back in time and change things. Life is for those who can be saved.

  His attention returned to the demon-girl. He wondered why it hadn’t yet attempted to kill him.

  Its eyes had returned to a beautiful warm blue; its spiked appendage transformed back into a child’s arm. It swiveled its ankle back and forth and smiled coyly at Michael, like Van had as a child whenever anyone confronted her for doing something wrong.

  Michael kept his stare on the Van-like doppelgänger as he unsnapped a salt bomb from his belt.

  He smashed it at the demon’s feet, hoping it would have a paralyzing effect, despite the demon’s strength.

  The demon squealed. It lunged and growled at him like a rabid animal, forcing him to dart and dodge.

  Terror filled Michael as he realized it was a rare Class III, one with the ability to raise its vibration high enough to reach the Living World. His world.

  He struggled to remain composed as the demon-girl paced and snarled, assessing his weaknesses before pouncing again.

  Michael unhooked the multi-track from his belt. “Screw protocol.” He pointed his MT at the demon-girl. Rather than attempting to net it again, he toggled a button and raised only the demon’s vibrational frequency—a dangerous, unauthorized way to kill a demon.

  The demon-girl let out an ear-shattering shriek of pain before it exploded into a fit of vaporous black rage.

  The smoky mass didn’t dissipate as he had expected. Instead, it took the form of a human-reptilian chimera.


  “Damn.” Michael stepped back and craned his neck to get a full view of this newest demon as it stretched its quasi-female body high and spread its reddish-brown wings wide.

  None of his Grigori killing tools would be any match for this.

  The creature snorted, lowered its angular head, and perused Michael as if wondering whether he was worth eating.

  Michael dropped his multi-track, gripped his mini-scythe, and met the creature’s eyes.

  The demon snorted, so close to Michael’s face its hot breath ruffled his hair.

  He braced, ready to fight to the death.

  Instead of attacking, the demon grinned at him like a friend, raised its glabrous body, and then seeped soundlessly into the earth.

  Michael loosened his grip on the scythe. He stood there, stunned by the understanding of what had just happened.

  He urgently needed to get back to the Balish palace to fulfill his secret plan.

  Class III demons appearing in the Earth World signaled the first stage of Dishora, a prophesied time when darkness would rise to oppose the light. It would start with another Great War between the Lodians and the Balish. Everyone would choose a side.