Into Death's Arms

Cover art by: Monte Sipl
es

Dedicated to Bug-Mom and Dad always thought you were Gods gift to them but I have always known the truth you are his gift to me.

Disclaimer: this book is a work of fiction any resemblance to any persons, animals, places, or events is entirely coincidental.

Table of Contents

3

 
“I’m going out Pop,” I yell
ed
toward the kitchen
. M
y voice echoed down the long hallway
.
My dad spent
a lot of time in the kitchen.
Admittedly, it wa
s one of the
biggest rooms
in our house specifically for that reason.
He liked to cook
,
which worked well
for me because I like
d
to eat.

 
 
 
 
“Whoa, it’s after dark,” h
e
said
as if
I were
still thirteen, not twenty.

 
 
 
“Yep,
”
I threw
on my b
lack leathe
r thigh
length coat and shut
the hall closet.
It was mid-December and
chilly in San Francisco
. O
kay
,
it was damn cold
.
This
was my favorite
coat
because
aside from being warm
it hid all my essentials.
You know my gun, my
shoulder
holster, and my two extra clips. The coat itself was Kevlar lined
. D
ad’s idea not mine. The Kevlar made it a little heavy
,
but the extra weight made it look way cool when I swung it just right. Just like in the movies.
 

 
 
 
 
“How many
clips you got on you?”
and that
was
where our normal fa
ther-daughter relationship ended
.

 
 
 
 
“Three,” I answer
ed
slightly exasperated with the question I heard every day since I’d turned fifteen
.
Yeah, I’d bee
n wandering San Fran with a Sig
and at least three clips concealed on my per
son since my fifteenth birthday
.
He
stepped out of the kitchen and wiped
his enormous hands
with
a tiny frilly hand towel.
The silly little thing was
lace
trimmed.
It wa
s a
lmost as funny as the
crisp
white apron tied about his waist.
The apron was not
lace trimmed
.

    
My dad was
a big
guy
.
He
was
6’5 and built like a mountain
.
He was all hard planes and rough edges.
In the hallway,
he looked like a giant lumbering through the house. I hadn’t switched on the light so he looked like some great hulking shadow-beast.
He ha
d
the most vibrant green eyes I had
ever seen in real life
.

    He
had straight red hair that fell
to about mid-back. He wa
s also a tattoo junkie.

    He had a tribal on either shoulder, an Iris in honor of my mother over his heart, an ornate cross spread the length of his back, and then of course there was the AoD tattoo.
Let me explain
,
my dad was special not in the ‘I like to lick paint’ type special but in the ‘holy hell did that guy just decapitate a giant wolf with a claymore’ kind of special. He hunted
Shadow-born
, the nighttime creepy crawlies most of the world only dreamt about. He had sworn to defe
nd humanity from those who would harm use their greater power to harm them
. The tattoo that lay across his belly was a symbol of that vow.
It is a
sword flanked by angel wings. If he were an
AoLi,
it would be a tree of life flanked by angel wings. AoD was an acronym for Angel of Death.
My father hunted the
Shadow-born
.
AoLi was the acronym for Angel of Life.
They didn’t hunt but healed the AoD when death itself had gotten too close.
We weren’t really
angelic;
actually,
the thought of being considered angelic made m
e
chuckle. It was a
title;
it meant we just weren
’t normal. Mostly human I guess
we live
d
the same way,
we
love
d the same way, we didn’t die so easily
,
but we could
be killed.
We did
n’t get sick
often
,
and for the most part
,
we healed up really fast when
we were
hurt
;
but we could be hurt just like a human. The trul
y great
and terrifying
part
,
came on our twen
ty-first birthday. On my next birthday
,
I would go through a sacred ritual
called the Ascension
;
and
if
I
survived
the
if
part scared the hell out of
me
I would be either
an AoLi like my mother
or an AoD like my dad. With that
title,
I would gain power. I would gain n
ew abilities, like the ability to heal. Oh
,
and I would
live forever
,
provided I wasn’t torn into too many pieces or sustained more
than one death blow at once. Or
,
God forbid
,
one of the monsters managed to behead me. I shuddered
and dragged myself back to now
.

 
I thought
all those tattoos were
pretty,
but I had
n’t gotten one of my own.
I wou
l
d
soon.
At least
I hope
d
, because
,
if I didn’t
,
I’d be dead.
I guessed I wouldn’t miss it much
.

  
My dad
used to smile a lot.
H
e had
n’t in a long time
,
but you could
still see the v
ague smile lines he earned a long time ago
. He
had
quit smiling about the
time my mom
had died. Sometimes I could coax
a little grin but no one got
the full out smile anymore. Sixte
en years
and he still grieved
like the day she passed
and he wondered
why I
wasn’
t into anyone.
I buttoned up the last few buttons on my coat and kept my eyes from him
. A
s a single parent
,
d
he had an uncanny ability to see when I was up to no good or thinking about things that made me upset.

 
 
 
He raised hi
s left eyebrow
, and for a moment, I wondered if he had figured out the direction my thoughts had taken
. “Only three?
”
H
is tone firm
as he placed one of his massive hands on the wall and leaned a little to the left as if he were trying to see through me or guess where I’d hidden them
.
Good
,
I thought
I
didn’t want to have the
‘
I know it’s been hard being raised by a man talk
’
again. Instead, h
e led into one of his favorite topics.
He’s a firm
believer in massive
firepower.
I understand this…

 
 
I sig
hed heavily and patted
my coat where
I’d hidden
my Sig
.
“Yeah, only three.
I
f I find something that
the first clip doesn’t take down
.
I am running li
ke hell,
three is sufficient,
”
 
I
shrugged
,
making the edge of my coat brush
the hallway wall
.
I wasn’t kidding
,
anything
that coul
d take a bullet and keep going wasn’t something I was going to stick around and fight. I
was going to run
from it.
He shook his
head;
his big
should
ers shook slightly
I couldn’t see his face clearly in the semi-dark
,
but I knew
he was laughing at me
.
I didn’t
really
care;
I understood it
. W
hen you we
re
the big bad hunter
,
you did
n’t have to run.
He
did
n’t
ever run
,
but
hey,
I wasn’t like him
yet
running was still an option. The best option really.