Justice Served Cold_An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure Read online

  Justice Served Cold

  Rewriting Justice Book One

  Martha Carr

  Michael Anderle

  JUSTICE SERVED COLD (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 Martha Carr and Michael Anderle

  Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing

  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 [email protected]. 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, May 2018

  The Oriceran Universe (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are Copyright (c) 2017-18 by Martha Carr and LMBPN Publishing.

  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

  Author Notes - Martha Carr

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Other Revelation of Oriceran Universe Books

  Other Books by Michael Anderle

  Connect with Michael Anderle

  Justice Served Cold Team

  Thanks to the JIT Readers

  James Caplan

  John Ashmore

  Peter Manis

  Daniel Weigert

  Larry Omans

  Joshua Ahles

  Micky Cocker

  If I’ve missed anyone, please let me know!

  Editor

  Lynne Stiegler

  From Martha

  To everyone who still believes in magic

  and all the possibilities that holds.

  To all the readers who make this

  entire ride so much fun.

  And to my son, Louie and the wonderful Katie

  who remind me all the time of what

  really matters and how wonderful

  life can be in any given moment.

  From Michael

  To Family, Friends and

  Those Who Love

  To Read.

  May We All Enjoy Grace

  To Live The Life We Are

  Called.

  1

  The loud ring of Leira’s cell phone broke her deep sleep. She groaned, rolled over in the bed, slapped at the nightstand, and pulled the phone to her face. She squinted at the bright light from the screen and sighed. It was one of her contacts. It had taken her the entire year in DC to carefully cultivate the hidden eyes and ears that spread out all over the world.

  Went out on my own to hunt these bad motherfuckers. Still takes a village… just a slightly darker one.

  She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, careful not to wake Correk as she got up and walked out of the bedroom.

  “Ouch,” she grumbled, stepping on a piece of broken stone in the unfinished part of her new house. Their new house.

  “Hello?”

  “I have a tip,” the raspy voice stated.

  “One that couldn’t wait until the sun came up?”

  “No… Good info never lasts long, you know that. I heard it at the local pub; whispers, really,” the deep voice rumbled, “I’m sending you the coordinates. It’s rumored to be a powerful artifact left there by an old wizard who jumped ship back to Oriceran. You might be able to get it before word spreads.”

  “Okay,” she yawned. “Send me the coordinates.”

  Leira hung up and took a deep breath. There was never a bad time to get a powerful artifact out of the hands of the dark families, not with how everything else had been going. She tiptoed back into the room and kissed Correk on the forehead, grabbing her pants, shirt, and boots from the table and heading to the bathroom to get dressed. I wonder if I should take Yumfuck? Nah. It’s early, and this seems cut and dried.

  It was about time something was simple. The battles of the year before were still taking their toll on her. She finished getting ready, pulling her long dark hair into a tight ponytail and heading to the empty living room. Leira looked down at the coordinates on her phone and slipped it into her pocket, then extended her hands in front of her.

  She closed her eyes and drew magic from the ground up through her body. The warm feeling of the light filled her, calming her senses and waking her up. Symbols flashed across her skin, twisting and changing at a rapid pace, but she didn’t take the time to read them. She pulled the magic into her hands to form an orb of shining energy in front of her; a portal.

  “Hyde Park,” Leira read aloud as she stepped through the portal to the sidewalk next to the park entrance. “Huh, London. Nice.”

  Leira let the portal close behind her with a snap, silver sparks fizzing out and striking the ground. She wiped her hands on her legs and sighed, looking across the expanse of land in front of her.

  “Guess this couldn’t be easy and convenient at the same time,” she muttered, walking quickly into the trees to the right.

  She took a deep breath and let the magic take over, sending out an orb of light that shot up into the sky and scanned the landscape. It bobbed and weaved through the trees, skipped across the long pond, and made its way back into Leira’s hands. There was a whisper of darkness in the returned orb, but not enough to put Leira on high alert. She walked out of the trees and put her hands down in front of her, pulling in the ambient energy. She could feel the warmth of the bracelet on her wrist, grounding her just enough to stay in control.

  Her eyes glowed brightly as she flipped her hands over and sprayed a thin mist of white light from her palms. The light moved throughout the four square miles of the park, covering every surface and searching for the hum of an artifact. Where are you? Aha! There you are. Quite a bit of dark magic in you.

  Leira brought her mind back to the front of the park letting the energy dissipate around her. She headed quietly through the trails, keeping to the edges just in case. With the dark families still out there and still hunting her, she couldn’t be too careful. She crept along the edges of the tall horse chestnut trees, running her hands along the moist bark for grounding. As she approached a clearing she paused, watching the remnants of her magic—a tennis-ball-sized white orb—bobbing up and down at the top of the hill.

  “That must be it,” she whispered.

  She glanced at the tall wooden pagoda to the side of the space, seeing nothing but the shadows of the trees fluttering in the light breeze. She walked toward the orb, letting out a deep breath and concentrating on sensing the artifact’s pull. As she got closer she shook her head, wrinkling her forehead.

  “I
don’t feel anything.”

  Suddenly a streak of blue light struck her white orb, exploding it into smoke. Leira swung around, hands at the ready, and squinted at a shadowy figure coming down the stairs. It had been a trap. There was no artifact, but there was a very powerful wizard smiling menacingly at Leira as he tapped his crooked wand in his palm.

  “Silly little Elf,” the wizard chuckled as he strode toward her his robes dragging over the wet grasses. “I didn’t actually think this ploy would work? It must be the human in you.”

  Leira sneered, rolling a fireball in her hands and whispering, “Find your target.”

  The red fiery ball of light whizzed straight at the wizard, who started chuckling. He swiped his wand through the air just as the fireball reached him, forcing it to curve to the right, dropping it into the lake where it fizzled out.

  “Tsk, tsk,” the wizard said, still walking forward. “You didn’t think you could smite Sirius and the dark families and not have to face consequences?”

  Leira centered her mind and sent out an intention—one she used all too often these days. Disable him. The light coursed through her body and shone from her eyes and her fingertips. She looked down at the symbols on her arms as they twisted back and forth, showing the different possible outcomes of the fight. They were moving so fast she could barely make them out, but one caught her attention and she wrinkled her nose, perplexed. Shifters? What do they have to do with this?

  As the light left her hands the wizard twisted his wand, weaving a web of blue power that exploded into a shield. The energies collided and forced each other back and forth, moving closer and closer toward Leira. She growled in irritation, counting to three and dropping to the ground as the spray of magic shot over her head, then rolled to the side and sent out orbs of energy which split and headed straight for the wizard. He swiped all but one away; it hit him in the shoulder, singeing through his dark tunic and burning his flesh. He winced and sent fireballs back at her, shaking the embers off his clothes as she dodged them. On second thought, probably not the best idea to come alone. Fuck second thoughts.

  Leira jumped to her feet and let the white light take over, pushing all around her. She could feel its heat radiating through her body, the scar on her belly aching as it sped toward the wizard. He raised his wand and braced himself against the light, his feet digging into the grass as it impelled him backward toward the pagoda.

  “You should have brought your boys,” Leira growled, feeling the energy push against her bracelet.

  The avenging wizard’s low dark laugh cut through the whine of the energy coursing from every part of her. She was barely able to see him through her light magic, but she pushed harder, determined to disable him. Just when she thought she had the edge she saw a flash of red energy burst toward her. It was too fast to dodge and hit her square in the chest, disconnecting her magical energy draw and throwing her backward. She landed on her back and she grabbed her chest as the air left her lungs and the pain sizzled and sparked against her skin. Her hand smoothed over her singed UT t-shirt and she grasped the whistle hanging around her neck.

  “The Shifters,” she whispered, pulling the long cord from around her neck and peering up at the wizard who was walking slowly toward her and bracketing her with fireballs.

  She thought back to when she had been given the whistle, remembering the kind brown eyes that stared at her after she had saved one of the shifter’s lives. He had become an ally and a secret weapon of sorts, though it was never quite apparent what side the wolves were on.

  “Use this only in times of great danger,” he had told her. “We will come.”

  A fireball exploded next to her face, and she gritted her teeth as she pulled herself into a crouch. When she put the whistle to her lips and blew, only a small high-pitched wail came out. She took it from her mouth and looked down at it curiously, wondering if anything could hear it.

  “There’s no time for backup, Leira.” The wizard smiled. “By the time they get here, you will be dead.”

  He raised his wand high in the air to cast another spell, but before he could there was a sound behind Leira in the bushes; a low growl that stopped the wizard in his tracks. He tilted his head and looked behind her at yellow eyes gazing back from the darkness. Slowly Leira straightened and clenched her hands into fists.

  “What were you saying?”

  A massive dark brown wolf with streaks of silver up its back lunged from the bushes and ran straight for the wizard, who swiped his wand through the air and blasted the wolf with a stream of dark magic. It went flying and yelped as it hit the ground, but before he could turn back there was another and another and another, their fur barely brushing her arms as they sped past Leira.

  “Wretched traitors!” The wizard sent several fireballs at the snarling beasts.

  Leira threw her arms up and whispered to her magic, sending destruction at the dark wizard. At first he was able to bat the attack away while barely controlling the Shifters charging after him, but Leira snarled and pulled magic through her, sending out one large streak of light that hit the wizard square in the chest. He flew backward, then slid across the ground and his airborne wand splashed into the pond.

  The shifters howled and barked as they ran toward the wizard, then piled on top of him and ripped at his clothes until they found flesh. Leira grimaced and looked away, not wanting to watch the scene unfold. Time to get the hell out of here before something else decides to come along.

  She centered herself, blocking out the screams and gurgles of the wizard behind her as she formed an orb and stretched it. She saw her unfinished kitchen on the other side of the portal, and all the lights in the house were still off. Leira stepped through and turned back as one of the wolves walked toward her, his eyes bright yellow. She nodded in thanks and the wolf shifter did the same, then turned and ran toward the wizard. He opened his jaws wide, his sharp teeth shimmering in the moonlight, and as his mouth found the wizard’s flesh the portal shut and sparks spattered onto the dirty tiled kitchen floor.

  Leira paused and stared toward the window for a moment, a cascade of light from the street lamps illuminating the floor. She balled her hands into fists and shook her head, the twinge of anger inside her making her eyes glow.

  It had been a setup, and she could smell the dark magic all over it.

  2

  “Damn the heat,” Leira muttered, tapping the thermostat with her finger. The metal bracelet with its inset stone jangled on her wrist as she brushed a long strand of dark hair behind her ear and tapped again. Nothing. “It’s not the heat, it’s the fucking humidity.”

  “You’ll strain your finger again.” Correk chuckled and reached into a box of blueberry Pop Tarts, pulling out a silvery wrapped package and tearing it open with his teeth.

  “I earned that strain fair and square. The wizard never saw me coming.”

  Correk stopped chewing and looked at Leira, choosing his words carefully. “You went alone and the wizard was waiting for you. The dark families haven’t taken the bounty off your head, and now that we don’t have Turner’s resources—”

  Leira cut him off, ignoring the mention of Turner Underwood, the retired Elven Fixer. She stood in the half-finished hallway with her hands on her hips. “And I haven’t taken mine off any of them. I still won the fight, and with an old-fashioned roundhouse punch. Another one who won’t be working for world domination again.”

  “That only leaves the government, a few hundred other dark wizards and witches…”

  “And a few dozen corporations, last time I checked. I get it. Still going to do my part to keep it from becoming outright chaos.” Leira turned the dial, then drew magic through her feet and swirled the energy around the thermostat, her eyes momentarily glowing. “This thing really is broken.”

  Correk bit into the Pop Tart and gave her a sidelong glance. “Please take the troll when you go out hunting for them again. It’s a request, that’s all.”

  “Said the Fixer.”r />
  She walked over and hugged the Light Elf from behind, ignoring the squeaks in the old pine floor. “Those things are better hot.” She bit him softly on the ear, still rounded from the glamour he kept in place to hide in plain sight.

  “The electricity sparked out in the kitchen again. The heat in here has left them warm anyway.”

  “DC in the summer with no air conditioning! I can’t take it…”

  “We said we would keep the magic to a minimum. Keep a low profile, not leave energy trails for anyone to follow…”

  Leira threw up her hands and went to the bedroom to stand in front of the large fan. The bedroom was the only completely renovated space in the Federal-style red brick townhouse they had moved into in Georgetown.

  Leira pulled her sweaty UT t-shirt away from her body and lifted her long hair off her neck as she looked at the overturned picture on the dresser. She picked it up and looked at the photo from her mother and Don’s wedding.

  A perfect day. Her hair drooped, clinging to her damp neck as she brushed the dust off Turner Underwood’s face. He was like a second father to me.

  Leira bit her lower lip and put the picture back, still face-down. It had been a year since they packed up their lives and moved from Austin to DC, and it had taken that long for Leira to feel comfortable in her new surroundings. She had found the good coffee places in her neighborhood and a place in Rock Creek Park to let Yumfuck loose to play without being seen, but it was still nothing like Austin.