Agon

This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s
imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as
real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations,
or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WCP

World Castle Publishing,
LLC

Pensacola, Florida

Copyright © Kathi S. Barton
2014

Smashwords Edition

Print ISBN: 9781629891200

eBook ISBN: 9781629891217

First Edition World Castle Publishing,
LLC, July 4, 2014

http://www.worldcastlepublishing.com

Smashwords Licensing
Notes

All rights reserved. No part of this
book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied
in articles and reviews.

Cover: Karen Fuller

Editor: Eric Johnston

Editor: Maxine Bringenberg

Prologue

Michael moved down the hall toward the
office. He knew that the other protectors hated to be summoned to
this particular office, but he didn’t mind. He loved going in and
conversing with the Creator of all things. Boss, as He wanted
everyone to call Him, as it sounded so much friendlier, was a man
of men. A kind yet firm man, and one who could change things in a
beat of a hummingbird’s heartbeat. Michael paused in
mid-step.

He was going to change things again.
Things were running very smoothly right now, and He’d want to shake
things up a bit. Michael tried to think what it could possibly be
and looked up when someone laughed.

“
I was thinking.” Boss
nodded at Michael’s statement. “Am I going to regret coming here
today?”

“
Possibly. And I know you
were thinking. I heard. You think much too hard for a man who has
it all.” Michael snorted, a habit he’d been trying to break himself
of. “You think I would lie to you?”

“
Nay. I think You believe
whatever You wish will be wonderfully simple when it seldom
is.”

Boss moved back into the room He’d
come from, and Michael followed. The walls were covered with images
of the protectors. Protectors had long since been the ones who
helped Boss in His daily work. A chosen man or woman would be given
the assignment to watch over a child when they took their first
breath. They never interfered with the person, but whispered
advice, gave them guidance, and when the time was right, they would
be there with them when they drew in their last breath as
well.

“
I do wish to change
things. But not for all of my protectors—just a few.” Michael sat
down, knowing that he’d have to carry out these duties no matter
what they were. “You have noticed that they
are…unhappy?”

“
I have. But it’s happened
before. They are bored. The last time this happened we gave them a
few days to interact on earth and they were happier for it.” Boss
shook His head. “You do not want that again.”

“
They wish to leave
Me.”

Michael sat there, stunned. He’d not
heard that. But he knew to leave there would mean—

“
I don’t want that to
happen.”

“
No, nor do I. Who is it?
Maybe I can talk to them.” Boss shook His head again. “You don’t
mean to kill them, do You? I know that is the way of things. When a
servant is ready to end their time as a protector, they are
sentenced to…please tell me of Your plan.”

“
I wish to have
them…perhaps it would be best if I showed you what I have in mind.”
The wall took another shape and images, a great many of them,
started to move. And the faster they moved, the more movie-like
they became. Twice Michael asked Him to slow down, and after He
explained it to him, the image moved on. Michael sat there for a
long while after the movie stopped, and stared at the images of the
few men he’d seen there.

“
They will not be happy.”
Michael looked at Boss but did not reply to His statement. “None of
them will.”

“
Nor will Tholan.” Boss
smiled as Michael continued. “He will believe that he is not worthy
of such a gift.”

“
He will be the hardest to
convince, yes, but if we deal with him later, then perhaps he will
see it is not such a bad thing to have happen to him.” Michael
doubted that. Tholan had a weight on his heart that no one seemed
able to help him with. “I would like to start with these five men
before Tholan. I want…do you think you could help Me get this
started?”

“
When would you like for
this to happen?” Michael was looking over the files when he
realized he’d not been answered. “You have already started this,
haven’t you?”

“
I thought it best that we
do some arranging to make sure that the other half of my project
was well within hand for us.” Boss laughed. “Do not look so
crestfallen, Michael. The new group, my Mystics, will be a greater
force than we ever imagined.”

They worked well into the night, and
when Michael left His office, Boss was smiling. Michael would be,
too, if he wasn’t so worried about Tholan. The man…. Well, that
would be something they’d deal with at a later time. But now he had
to give the list of men to him and hope that he didn’t ask too many
questions.

“
It is going to be a long
time before we will be able to say this worked.” Michael heard Boss
laugh and flushed. “You should come with me. He will have a
fit.”

“
Nay, he will not. He is a
good man, but a man who feels he has failed many. You’ll do fine.”
Boss laughed again. “You are the Archangel, Michael. Men tremble at
the sound of your name.”

Chapter 1

Judith Craft watched the men walking
around the room. She could help them. Hell, it was why she’d been
summoned. But they ignored her presence as much as they did the
dead man on the floor. She looked at him again and saw things that
the others never would.

He’d been killed fourteen hours,
eleven minutes, and almost forty seconds ago. And his body, long
since cold, held few clues that the officers in the room would be
able to detect. But she could see them. It was what she was best
at.

There were several hairs on his head
that didn’t belong to him…two were from the female that had helped
kill him, and one was from the man who had found his body. He’d had
nothing to do with this man’s death, but he did rob him as he
waited for the police. The rest of the hairs were from the male who
had helped with his demise. She looked down from his head to the
wound—the fatal one, as it turned out—that had once been his
throat. It had been sliced open with a piano wire.

There was DNA on his shoulders that
would not help them in any way. The cops had a large database of
information, but these people were not in their system as yet. And
even if they were, the dead man had been touched so many times by
others in the room that it would be corrupted and not of any use to
them. But it was to her.

The buttons on his shirt also held
information. This she could use in ways that the cops never would.
It held data that Judith could use to not just capture the woman,
but find her as well. She watched as a man from the hospital leaned
down to look at something and sneezed on the body. Well, she would
have been able to find her. Now all she would be able to find was
the man now blowing his nose, too. Judith looked up when the man
who had called her stepped in front of her.

“
They are ready for
you…no, that’s not right. They’re going to let you see him now, but
they don’t think you can help.” She nodded and followed him to the
dead man. “Just so you know, I think what you can do is amazing,
but there are others that—”

“
They think I’m a kook.”
Benny turned to look at her and smiled. “I really don’t care. You
either want me to help you or you don’t. It matters little to
me.”

“
I know that.” She moved
to the body and noticed something she’d missed before. “The man was
dying. Did you know that?”

“
We don’t have a name as
yet. His wallet and all his personal belongings are gone but for
the clothes on his body. There aren’t even imprints here that
anyone can find. It’s as if he’d been brought here, killed, and
left.”

“
He was.” Judith touched
the small button and shook her head. She’d been right. There was
nothing for her to feel. When she moved to the other side of the
body, she spoke to Benny. He was the only man, the only cop, she’d
ever trusted, and there were days she wasn’t so sure about that
either.

“
His name is Oscar Grand.
He worked for a printing company not far from here. I think he was
on his lunch break or something that had him at a restaurant when
he was taken.” She took the gloves when Benny handed them to her,
but didn’t put them on. She had no idea what he thought she’d feel
from the body if she couldn’t touch it, but continued. “There are
hair strands on the left side of his head just over his ear. They
belong to the female that was here when the male arrived with
Grand. She was here waiting for them.”

“
Two people killed him?”
She nodded and watched as he plucked the hairs from where she
pointed on Oscar’s head. “I don’t suppose you know who they are, do
you?”

“
Not yet.” He just nodded
and she glanced up at him as she continued. “The female is new to
this, but the male isn’t. He’s less hesitant than she is. That’s
why you’ll find some of the stab wounds more sure than the others.
He’s done this before. He is also the one who garroted him. It’s
his…signature, I guess you’d call it.”

“
Do you know if he’s done
this in this state?”

Judith shrugged. She could have told
him that they would find two more bodies soon, both of them killed
by the same man, but she didn’t. She was there for this murder and
not the others. Not yet at any rate. Judith could also have told
Benny how he’d done it, but didn’t.

“
Are they
local?”

She looked up at him with a grin. “I’m
good, but not that good. He wasn’t killed here like you said, but
he did finally die here. They intended for him to die much slower,
but the man pulled too tightly on the wire and he was dead before
they could get whatever they wanted from him. They wanted the
combination to the safe where he works. Apparently he owed the
woman something.”