THE ANOINTED 3: PROPHECIES OF FIRE (11 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

“Here, hook these wireless comms into your ear, so I can keep in contact with the both of you at all times in case you need something.”

Nathan took the fingertip sized comm and placed it in his ear. Thomas shook his head when Graham turned to pass his one.

“Nah, I don’t look forward to having to deal with your crack pot humor in my head.”

There was a cool sarcastic relationship between the two, ever since Thomas had forced the ex-arm’s dealer to come over to work for them.

“Come on Thomas, play nice. I need you on board with the program because like it or not, Graham’s here to help us in the field. Need I remind you that this was sort of your idea?” asked Nathan.

“Yeah, even had two AK-47s pointed at me at the time,” Graham chimed in. “But our differences aside, I’m just trying to arm you with the tech you need as a part of TAT, so let’s just try to tolerate each other.”

TAT was an acronym for Threat Assessment Team.

“I just didn’t think he would be this close and personal,” grumbled Thomas, taking the ear piece.

“Truce?” Graham asked, putting out his hand.

Thomas watched the hand like a poisonous viper before sighing reluctantly and gripping it firmly.

“You better have our backs all the way on this because we need your all. One screw up and you will be part of this team from headquarter. Understood?”

“Fair enough.”

Thomas placed the comm on the inner part of his ear and cracked his knuckles like it was time to go to work.

“The piece also has a micro-camera that slightly sticks out, so I can have visual feeds and track your whereabouts.”

Striking a few computer keys, two video feeds popped up that showed the mobile computer station from the comms.

They both nodded understandingly.

Opening the back of the van’s doors, the sounds of the New York night came to them like someone had just turned the volume on a TV to full blast. The van was parked a few spots down from a nice upscale apartment building that one would only find in downtown Manhattan.

Nathan instantly looked up and Thomas followed his gaze to the middle of the high-rise. They were here to save someone up there from the most gruesome of fates. To prevent them from being cut open with an ancient dagger for an organ infused with the devil’s essence. Nathan tapped Thomas and nodded at the two burly men who exited the building. Thomas didn’t need to ask, these men look like career criminals and did not fit into this environment and that meant trouble. Another thing was that he knew someone had to buzz you into the building. No one from this part of the city would’ve done so. Nathan shut the van’s doors, shutting off the green/blue glow of the computer equipment inside.

“Pallida Mors. I can sense their dark tainted energy. Didn’t really want to throw you directly into the fire, but I think the plan has to change a bit because it’s clear that we’re not the first to arrive. I need you to neutralize the threat of the Pallida Mors from supporting whoever’s in the building. Believe me, from what we seen so far with these guys, where there’s two, there’s probably more. Wolves naturally move in packs, so be careful.”

Nathan placed a finger to his ear.

“Graham, scan the building for any heat signature or suspicious movement. Remember that the werewolf half of Pallida Mors can change their body temperature, as they did during the ambushes. Also, I need for you to hack into the building’s main system because I need to be buzzed into the building.”

It took a moment before Graham responded.

“I’m already lock into the building’s systems. Did that when we first pulled up. But I’m looking at a scan of the whole building and there’s one apartment in general that has me concerned. It has cooling signatures all around the room, plus there is someone stretched out on the floor up there not moving.”

“What’s the number of the apartment?” Nathan asked, worried about the person’s condition. But he knew that the taking had not begun for he would feel the agony of the deed, which would paralyze him.

“Thomas, I need you to interrupt whatever those two have going on while I go inside. I don’t have time for a fight right now.”

Thomas eyes took in the two men as they stood off a few feet, like they were guarding the building.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that my man. Starting fights are one of my hidden specialties,” he replied before touching the bullet fragment around his neck. The fires of vengeance burned hot and he sent up a prayer to his late wife, wherever she had gone.

This is for you baby
, he thought.

“Hey man, either one of you got a light?”

The two men, one white and the other Hispanic, watched Thomas with suspicious eyes as he came towards them. The white man with a bold Mohawk and prison tat snaking around his neck spoke first.

“Beat it asshole, there isn’t nothing over here for you.”

Thomas gave a small smirk at the words and came up to them, his hands searching in his pockets for a pack of cigarettes. The Hispanic man tried to look around him, probably spotting Nathan going in the building behind him. These guys pretty much had Nathan’s face on memory speed dial by now. The Pallida Mors stepped in that direction and Thomas stepped over, blocking his path while laying a hand on the Pallida Mors’s shoulder with a smile.

“Yo, my man, where ya going? Didn’t you hear me the first time?”

The Pallida Mors looked down at the hand and growled at the obstruction.

“If you’re trying to keep that hand friend, I suggest you take it off me.”

“Oh, is that so?” Thomas took his other hand out of his pocket and showed him what was in it. Instinctively, the Pallida Mors glanced down.

Without warning, black steel armor flowed down Thomas’s arm and the Pallida Mors’ eyes widened in surprise. Using his enhanced strength, the swift uppercut was brutal, lifting the Pallida Mors clearly off his feet with jarring force, before reversing the motion of his hand sending a wicked backhand sending the second Pallida Mors through the glass pane window of the storefront next door to the building.

Without pause, he snatched a round like sphere from his waist and tossed it into the air. The Q-Fox blade turned into a raging ball of floating flames as Graham took over its controls from the van. The people that dotted the sidewalk gave off different degrees of cries of surprise and alarm as the Pallida Mors who had landed through the pane window, came leaping back out in werewolf form, snarling.

Thomas caught one of its lethal claws in his hand and the Pallida Mors’ throat in his other to slam the beast over his head hard into a grey Kia that sat at the curb. The impact crushed half of the vehicle, causing the windshield to explode in a spray of glass. An angry roar sounded behind him, making him twist around to see the Pallida Mors he had uppercutted coming at him on all fours. Graham had given him the precious time needed between foes to engage them separately. Half of its face and fur was burnt away but there was no mistaking the murderous intent in its eyes.

Thomas barely had time to transform into full battle armor before the Pallida Mors struck him like a locomotive. He braced himself on his back foot and threw some of the Pallida Mors’s momentum back some. The new armor that was supposed to be almost indestructible, felt like paper as the Pallida Mors’ claws ripped through it. Thomas gritted his teeth against the pain as the wounds were automatically sealed shut by his armor. Pissed at the burning pain, he threw a right hook that took the wolf in the jaw, knocking a string of saliva from its mouth.

“Graham, a little help here?”

“I’m on it man, but damn, those monsters look unreal. Like out of a kickass movie.”

Twin blows to the Pallida Mors’ stomach took the wind from its lungs.

“Dude, forget the awe and give me some damn breathing room!”

“No need to scream man, you really sound like you have anger issues.”

The Q-Fox Blade, a four mode weapon, swept by with its deadly blades out now taking the Pallida Mors’s arm off at the shoulder, causing it to howl in pain.

“See? I knew you couldn’t be professional for once in your miserable life, but if these guys kill me, I’ll haunt your ass until I can snap your neck.”

Turning back around, he returned his attention back to the Pallida Mors that was finally getting up out of the huge imprint its body had made in the Kia. It shook itself like an overgrown dog, chunks of glass flying off it. The smell of gasoline from the damaged vehicle was strong in the air, like the Kia had experienced a sideswipe at seventy miles an hour. In a rage, the Pallida Mors flew at Thomas with its wicked looking finger thick teeth bared in a savage snarl. Thomas reacted by releasing the spark of core energy inside of him. The shock blast reversed the flight of the Pallida Mors by striking it in its chest, causing it to fly backwards into the passage/backdoor of the Kia, crushing the side inwards.

The sparks from the blast rained down and the pool of leaking gas ignited and the bluish flames leaped greedily at the gasoline, tracing a path back to the wounded car. Thomas cursed loudly. There were still a crowd of people on the streets watching with the glow of their cellphone cameras visible as they eagerly recorded the brawl that had suddenly broken out amongst them. If the Kia exploded, it would rain down deadly flaming metal into them. There were too many things happening at once and this made things extremely complicated.

The decision was taken from his hands as the Pallida Mors had grew back its missing arm and tackled him like Patrick Willis from the San Francisco 49ers from the side. Landing on the gritty sidewalk hard, he rolled over with the Pallida Mors on top of him with its snapping jaws aiming for his face. Thomas had no choice but to place his black armored arm into its mouth and instantly, it bit down savagely and shook it like a pit bull trying to maul. He could feel the increasing pressure of its powerful jaws and if he didn’t do something soon, it would, at best, crush his arm. At worse, rip it off.

Placing his free hand on the bottom part of its jaws, he pulled and nothing happened.
Damn, these things were strong
, he thought. Without the armor, he would be missing a limb or dead within the first ten seconds. Digging deep, he increased his effort and pulled with all his strength. The ripping/tearing sound was ugly as the Pallida Mors released him and made a wounded sound in its throat before staggering back in pain.

Its jaw had been snap out of joint, causing it to hang grotesquely like a broken bear trap. Thomas wasted no time getting back to his feet and grabbing a handful of its fur to sling it through a fire hydrant and into a thick metal light pole bending it. Jets of cold water shot up in a towing umbrella of liquid that (luckily) put out the hungry flames before the Kia blew.
It wasn’t what I was aiming for, but I’ll take it,
he thought, shaking some circulation back into his arm.

He didn’t even want to think about the potential rabies’ shots. Both Pallida Mors had enough. One pulled itself from the Kia and changed back into human form and staggered out into the street, stopping a red color Toyota Tacoma that almost ran him over. This was New York and Thomas was surprise the driver had stop. The driver slammed on the brakes and the Pallida Mors came around to the driver side door and ripped it open.

“Hey! What in da hell ya think you’re doin’? Put some clothes on you freak! I-,”

The words were cut off as the Pallida Mors yanked him from the truck and into the street with a roll.

“What da fuck? Ya can’t take my truck, asswipe, I only got six more payments left!”

The second Pallida Mors joined the first in the passage seat and the truck’s tires squealed, bringing smoke as the truck sped off.

“Graham, you’re on. This is why you get paid the big bucks.”

“If you been getting a pay check this whole time, I’m gonna kick your ass,” came Graham’s response.

The back of the van opened and a device was lowered, unfolding itself. Its twin engines roared to life like a fire breathing dragon. Two thick wheels held up a sleek silver motorcycle that looked like a popular science prototype drawing.

“I see that you haven’t been idly wasting your time since you came here,” stated Thomas as he went over and climbed on. His armored hands and boots locked into place with a click.

“Don’t mistake being prepared with hard work. I had the bulk of this cycle made already for the son of a close friend in China. I packed it up and had it shipped when I was allowed to pick up gear from one of my black site warehouses.”

“I’m glad, it would’ve been a waste in the hands of a commie.”

He lifted the front wheel up in the air and accelerated into the night time traffic, barely missing a yellow cab. With horns sounding angrily behind him, Thomas glanced down at the monitor that popped up inside the glass windshield and saw that his speed had reached ninety miles an hour in just seconds. It didn’t stop him from leaning further down and pushing the cycle for higher speed to catch the two Pallida Mors.

“You know Thomas, we live in a very politically correct society these days and nobody calls them commies anymore. A socialist would be more of the right word.”

“I always believe you call a spade a spade, I really don’t care for the egos of countries that are trying to absorb us. But I must say that they do know their toys. Why did he want it?”