Free Shadow Magic by Cheyenne McCray Page B

one.”
    â€œShit.” He slammed the latest newspaper on top of his desk, where the spilt coffee had been. The newspaper’s headline screeched BIOTERRORISM STILL SUSPECT IN STADIUM SLAUGHTER.
    â€œNo kidding, Captain,” she said with her usual fire back in her voice. “A big steaming pile of it.”
    Every one of his officers knew that bioterrorism had nothing to do with what had happened in the baseball stadium where thousands of withered husks had been recovered. Husks of humans whose souls had been stolen by Ceithlenn.
    Souls that had helped her bring an ancient god named Balor to San Francisco.
    Jake pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his burning eyes. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a good night’s sleep. Maybe five months ago when all this freakish shit started happening?
    He shook his head as he looked up and met her gaze. “Thanks, Landers.”
    â€œWe’ll get the sonsofbitches.” Her expression turned hard, her anger unwavering. Like him, she’d seen too many
of their officers, countless men and women, die at the hands of the demons and the goddess. “One way or another, they’ll all pay.”
    His own expression was probably hard as granite. “Every last one of them.”
    When she left, Jake turned his back on the door and braced one hand on the wall next to the lone window of his office. For a long moment he stared out at the prime view of the pollution-coated block wall of the building across the street. He needed to get together his own belongings to hole up in the warehouse on the pier with the rest of his officers. Construction workers had been hard at it 24/7 getting the place prepared for the move.’Bout time it was ready.
    Ceithlenn . He could never quite get the image of that flame-haired, leather-winged bitch out of his mind. Or the hideous malformed demons she commanded. At times it was like they were all in some surreal dream and none of this was real.
    Christ, after months of working with the D’Anu witches and those winged warriors from Otherworld, he still had a hard time believing it all. Even after battling the demons himself.
    To think it all started with one power-hungry warlock, Darkwolf, who’d summoned the demons from Underworld. Teams of officers, witches, and warriors had tried to find Darkwolf. Last thing they knew, the warlock had kept the eye and vanished from the massacre. Darkwolf had taken Junga, the demon queen, with him.
    â€œWhat black magic can Darkwolf do with that eye?” Jake muttered aloud. “Is the bastard going to give it to Balor or keep it for himself?”
    Jake faced the door of his office as he scrubbed his hand over his stubbled cheeks then pinched the bridge of his nose again with his thumb and forefinger. A goddamned nightmare. All of it.
    Fredrickson popped his head in the doorway.
    â€œWhat?” Jake snapped at the officer.

    With a jerk of his thumb, looking totally unfazed by Jake’s mood, the redheaded Frederickson gestured behind him. “Marsten needs you in weapons. And it’s not good,” he said before ducking back out of the doorway.
    Jake growled beneath his breath, anger simmering under his skin like fire over kindling. It hadn’t been his fucking day since sometime last September. He stormed out of his office, past cubicles of officers packing what they’d need for the move, as he headed to the expanded weapons area.
    â€œMarsten.” Jake strode into a room with the sharp tang of metal and chemicals in the air. He approached the burly dark-haired cop. “Status.”
    Marsten shook his head. “These demon heart-seeking bullets. We need more military supplies to make them, but they’re giving us hell.”
    â€œWhat the f—” Jake ground his teeth. “What’s the problem?”
    Marsten’s expression was dark, furious. “Some military higher-up here in the city is putting a stop