The Omega Effect Read online

  The Omega Effect

  Van Helsing Organization Book 3

  Noree Cosper

  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

  Epilogue

  Noree’s Notes (The Omega Effect 2018)

  About the Author

  The Omega Effect © 2018 Noree Cosper

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Created with Vellum

  Chapter 1

  For an immortal woman, I walked with Death. He trailed in the wake of my chaos, wrapping both friend and foe in his cold embrace. Tonight, we would claim another.

  Rain began to fall as I slipped through the rotting door of the abandoned house. It was just one of many that lined Admiral’s Row, forsaken and forgotten in a city that never slept. Dust rose up, leaving an almost constellation pattern on my black boot. Vines had invaded the wooden floors and climbed the walls of the dilapidated foyer.

  My hand hovered over the sheath of my sword that lay hidden beneath my long leather jacket as I let a duffel bag slip from my other shoulder and onto the floor. My heart pounded in my chest.

  This was it. After a month of searching this godforsaken city, I had Faust cornered.

  The abandoned house was a surprise for someone of Faust’s tastes. I expected more of the penthouses of the best hotels in Manhattan and not the long-forgotten homes of Admiral’s Row.

  A thud and a woman’s cry echoed from somewhere in the back. I crept through the study, avoiding the shards of glass strewn across the ground that had once been part of a large bay window. A cold wind fluttered the bare threads that remained of curtains and the moon shone through to light my path.

  I paused at the doorway and peaked into the next room. A short, stocky figure knelt over a fallen female body, pulling at her clothing. The shirt came loose with the sound of ripping fabric. I pressed my lips together and narrowed eyes with a frown. Were the shoulders of that assailant made of stone?

  I moved forward, stepping carefully and without a sound. The creature was indeed covered in stone. Damnit. I’d come here to kill Faust and instead I had found a truaco, one of the stone demons from the Throne of Lust. From the obvious shift from skin to stone, he was one of the remains from the brimstone spread that had taken the city a month ago.

  Demons had no physical bodied of their own and could only possess humans. Brimstone, an alchemical substance that could be produced from drawing blood of humans possessed by demons, altered people’s bodies to that of the demonic form that rode them. An enterprising demon that belonged to Faust, named Cambione, had turned brimstone into a street drug called Blasphemy. I’d killed him for it. Well, that and the fact he’d killed John.

  I gritted my teeth and pulled out two iron rods from their sheaths on my back. A small circle surrounding a triangle with tiny symbols between the two was etched on the end of both to ensure the destruction of the demon I killed. Even if I couldn’t have Faust, one demon would die tonight.

  I crossed the distance in a dart and swung a rod in a swift back swing that connected to his temple with a loud crack. The truaco spun around with a roar that sounded like an avalanche. I hopped back out of its grasp and kept my eyes focused on its chest. Its gaze had the power to freeze a woman in her place. I sprinted around the creature, lunged forward, and landed two more blows to the demon’s head, leaving behind small spider web cracks. The aftershock traveled up my hands.

  The demon charged me with his hands spread wide. I stepped to the side, forcing him to tromp past me, and slammed one rod in the back of his head and one in the back of his neck. He stumbled forward, then crashed into a nearby wall. His stubby legs pumped up and down to no avail as the rest of his body remained trapped in the hole he’d created. Cracks formed in the wall as it began to give way under his weight.

  I lunged forward as the demon slid to the ground and slammed both rods into its legs. A rush filled me as they left small cracks behind. This thing deserved punishment for laying its hands on that girl. This was what they all deserved for preying upon our dreams and for taking away what we loved most.

  I brought my hand in a back swing and hit the creature again. The force of my blow broke away the surrounding wall. The truaco tumbled out into the adjoining room. Why did I have to taste the ashes and have only the memories of every love I lost? I stepped through the fallen wall and leapt on the demon before he could get to his feet. My hands gripped the rods tight as I swung blow after blow upon the thing below me. If all I had was ashes, then that was all I would leave them. The rain beating against the shell of this house was drowned out by the pounding of my metal against the stone.

  I straightened and stood, panting, amongst the pebbles and dust that remained. My heart beat in my chest like a hollow echo chamber. The relief, the satisfaction I was supposed to feel after this never came. This wasn’t nearly enough. This wasn’t Faust. No matter how hard she tried, Lucy continued to strike out on her dowsing for him, giving me nothing but false leads. I grew tired of the scapegoats he left in his wake.

  The woman in the other room lay unmoving on a pile of rubble and debris. I couldn’t tell if she was breathing from where I was, but she most likely was. Truaco preferred living prey to carry out their desires upon. That didn’t mean she wasn’t injured. I sighed and walked to her, then knelt down. Her chest rose and fell in a quick panic motion, but the rest of her remained frozen. The demon had caught her in its petrifying gaze and turned her into its ideal prey.

  “It will be all right,” I said softly to her. “The demon is dead.”

  The rain outside ceased its assault on the house. I rocked back on my feet and studied her with narrowed eyes. The pressure in the back of my head released and the world grayed around me, allowing me to see the spiritual world that existed in conjunction with the material one. The esoteric society had dubbed it the Eclipse, and it was as vast or as tiny as a thought could be. I’d had the gift to see into that world for as long as I could remember, and
I remembered centuries.

  Demons and spirits weren’t the only things that existed there. Human souls represented by a myriad of colors, or auras as many people called them, shone like beacons in the dullness of the surrounding landscapes. It wasn’t always a mirror of the world most knew, either. The surrounding house, for instance, had returned to its former glory here. A chandelier hung from the ceiling, its flickering candles giving an ashen glow. A long dining table was set for twelve, with crystal glasses and fine china. Men and women sat in elegant clothing, laughing at antics I couldn’t hear. They were of no consequence, mere wisps of a time long gone. I turned my attention back to the living.

  The reds and oranges in her aura, colors of will and passion, had been muddied with a gray. The demon’s effect had drained her. A vein ticked in my temple at the sparkle of gold and silver in the shape of a halo that crowned her head. A nephilim. I gritted my teeth and let out a long sigh. The amount of supernatural beings in this city was becoming ridiculous. First demons and vampires, now we had another nephilim. They weren’t the children of angels, like the legends had the world believe, at least not all of them. They were born from emissaries, people with special abilities like me or the Van Helsing brothers.

  “I should just leave you,” I muttered, “but I’d never hear the end of it, and there’s no avoiding Esais’s ‘conversations’ once he gets started.”

  The girl’s fingers twitched.

  “Ah, good. This conversation was growing boring. Besides, I doubt I could carry you all the way back to Manhattan. So, listen carefully. My name is Gabby, and I know some people who can help you. Once you can walk, I’ll take you to them.” Much to my own regret.

  Her lips began to tremble. I sighed and headed outside. I grabbed the black duffel bag and pushed past the extra shirt, bandages, and cross until my fingers brushed the round object at the bottom. I pulled it out and stared at the ear bud resting in the palm of my hand. I closed my eyes, wishing for a short bit of oblivion before I resumed my hunt for Faust. Instead, I had to return to the Van Helsings.

  I slipped the bud in my ear and spoke in an even tone. “This is Gabby. I have someone that needs to be picked up.”

  Chapter 2

  The drive back to the Van Helsing Organization office with Adrian had been filled with silence, but that was fine with me. I preferred it as opposed to trying to find some meaningless words to fill the emptiness.

  Adrian parked the van in the office garage and killed the engine. His long fingers tapped against the steering wheel as he stared out with his jaw tight. The round metal device planted in his left eye socket protruded out from his face. It was like a camera lens. His cinnamon hair was pulled back in its usual ponytail. He looked down so that the upturned collar of his trench coat covered his chin and mouth.

  I rested my hand on the door handle and waited for the tirade to come. He hadn’t said a word at the sight of the paralyzed girl, his mouth only tightening. He’d even helped me in getting her into his van, which had been a surprise.

  “Your first contact with us in a month and for this?”

  “Not true,” I said. “I’ve been speaking with Lucy constantly. And I’ve spoken to Jonah a few times.”

  “But no one else,” he said. “And only them because you are trying to track down Faust on your own.”

  “He needs to be found and held responsible for what happened to John.” I crossed my arms and swallowed the lump in my throat at the thought of him.

  His smiling face came to mind, one lock falling over his blue eyes. He’d been there for me ever since I’d rescued him from a demon. That was until one of the demons Faust possessed had killed him.

  “Do you think we don’t want to see Faust taken down as well?” Adrian asked.

  “I doubt you would care,” I said. “You didn’t even like John.”

  “No, and I still don’t believe he wasn’t involved somehow,” Adrian said. “Still, Faust needs to be dealt with. He introduced the brimstone drugs into the city.”

  A wisp of doubt rose in the back of my mind. When Cambione, the demon Faust had possessed, had killed John, he’d taken something from him. John couldn’t have been another part of Faust, could he? I shook my head. That was impossible. Cristo, I could see demons with my spirit sight. After ten years, I would have noticed something.

  “Regardless,” I said. “Faust wasn’t there. Just a truaco demon and that girl.”

  He glanced in the rearview mirror at the girl stretched out in the back, his lips pressing into a thin line. “This is a mistake.”

  Here it came. I sighed, gripping the handle. “What else am I supposed to do with her?”

  “Call an ambulance, leave her to take care of herself,” he said. “There is a multitude of options that don’t involve bringing her to my headquarters.”

  “Esais would want to know about her. Besides, I doubt any hospital could help her.”

  “The effect wears off, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “We already have enough strangers here, thanks to my brothers.”

  “Then what difference does one more make?”

  “One with a power that we don’t know? I’d think that after all your centuries, you’d be smarter than this.”

  I gritted my teeth. “If you were this against it, why did you come?”

  He snorted. “Who else did you expect?”

  “I don’t know. Esais, maybe Tres.”

  “Esais is babysitting our squatters. Tres is setting up his clinic for this one.”

  “Then how about we move her inside?” I opened the door and slid out. “The sooner she is fixed and I find out how she got caught up with a demon, the sooner she can be out of your way, I’m sure.”

  We hoisted her out of the back and carried her to the elevator and emergency stairs with Adrian at her shoulders and me holding her legs. I inched towards the stairs, but Adrian pulled us to the elevator.

  “It’s one floor,” he said. “You’ll survive.”

  The metal doors slid open with a ding and he walked backwards inside, pulling me along with him. I breathed in and stared at the wall behind his head. The air in the tiny box became thick and hot as the walls grew smaller. I could do this. One ride in the box of doom was nothing compared to fighting a demon. My fists clenched as the elevator bell rang again, and I backed out into the hall, letting out a long sigh as the cool air of the first floor blew against my face. Adrian just shook his head and pushed me along into the medical area we had set up.

  Tres turned around as we lay the girl on a metal examination table. He had the face of an angel with his high cheek bones and not a blemish on his caramel colored skin. He flashed me his cocky smile as he brushed a lock of hair, that same red brown as his brothers’, out of his face and then straightened his white lab coat.

  “What’s with the coat?” I asked.

  He chuckled and smoothed out a wrinkle. “Our… guests feel more comfortable when I wear it. It makes me seem like an attending physician.”

  Adrian snorted. “This isn’t a hospital. Aren’t you too old to be playing doctor?”

  Tres glared at him. “I am a doctor, not that you ever cared. Besides, this is more of a halfway house.”

  “More like a zoo,” Adrian muttered.

  “Well, you have a new patient,” I broke in. “She was paralyzed by a truaco demon’s gaze.”

  Tres cracked his knuckles and stepped forward. “That shouldn’t be much of a problem.”

  Tres had the gift to heal or to harm with a touch, however there was a balance to it. He could only heal so much before he had to harm someone, or something. If I’d looked at him with my spirit sight, I would see three shadowy figures holding hands around him. I’d already seen it several times. From what other had hinted, Tres was connected to the Fates. His brothers had their own spirits as well, as did I. We were known as emissaries, those touched by spirits of the eclipse.

  Esais, the eldest, had some sort of angel that granted
him the power of telepathy while Adrian had some sort of muse that inspired him to invent things that could even break the known rules of magic. My own spirit I couldn’t see beyond the binding of my curse. I’d stared at in a mirror many times and only caught glimpses of light in between the red-cracked metal chains that covered it from head to toe. Once again, a few choice words ran through my head for Naamah, Allegra, and their curse. One day I would free myself from them. For now, I would deal with Faust. I turned my attention to the girl that might be able to lead me to him.

  Tres ran his fingers over the girl’s cheek and along her jawline. I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall with a sigh. The girl had to have come to that house on her own, but why? Was she another addict like the others Esais and Tres tended to? Thanks to Faust, an influx of drugs that contained brimstone had spread throughout the city. Most people mistook brimstone for sulfur, but it had a more nefarious origin: Hell, itself. It allowed demons to easily possess humans and change their physical bodies into nightmares. We had been able to stop the creation of brimstone, but its effect still clung to the city like mildew. Luckily, I was here to clean it.

  I turned my head to the doorway at the sound out footsteps. Esais stepped inside the room and blinked at me, his gray-blue eyes wide behind his square glasses and his mouth open in surprise. His hair stood in short spikes, one of his boyfriend Viktor’s fashion experiments. He coughed and rubbed the top of his nose as his gaze traveled across the room. He stopped on the girl on the bed and he paled a little.