All Chapters of OUT OF THE ASHES: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

A FEW DAYS AGO Chicago Megacity was a humid, crowded mess on the best of days even after the Apocalypse happened and a lot of people died. Still, the place is far more crowded than other cities, probably because a lot of awakened had come to this place, so the government converted it into a safe zone. So when a Necromancer terrorist group waged war against law-abiding citizens and started wreaking havoc, the Chicago became a shitshow and immediately converted to a worst kind, not even the local normie police could handle. Which meant the best counterattack came not from local human authorities but in the form of government-backed Awakens.“Where the fuck is our cover fire?”Knight Adamson gritted his teeth and raise his hand casting a shield but flinched when magic bullets started raining down at them.He glanced over at his second-in-command and communications and infiltration specialist Sergeant Rina Abello, as she dropped down beside him, magically enhanced AKR-75 assault rifle

Knight didn’t know the name of the bar he ended up in, only that it catered to the techie elite, business-oriented and political types, not your Average Joe or those in the military, and it had a solid selection of brand-name whiskey he’d been drinking like water for the past hour. Shame he didn’t feel anywhere close to drunk, but he rather thought he could make it to buzzed if he emptied another bottle or two of Macallan twenty-five years. As an Awakaned who specializes with his enhanced strength, he couldn’t really get drunk unless he really, really tried. At one hundred dollars a glass, price wasn’t an issue. Keeping his cover intact was the more pressing problem. He’d left Terraces wearing a suit, not a uniform, which meant he needed to steer clear of the bars he and his team usually frequented so as to not invite questions. A strange place put him on edge, but better than having to explain to people with too-knowing eyes why he was in such a shitty mood. Knight chased the last

Without a backward glance, Kira took the elevator down to the dazzling lobby with its understated elegance and didn’t make eye contact with anyone. Walking with the sure stride of a woman who had places to be, Kira exited the building and waited less than a minute for the doorman to summon a cab for her. Kira gave the driver an address that was practically on the other side of D.C. On a Tuesday morning before the start of rush hour traffic, it would still be an hour before she reached it. The clock on the dash said it was 7 in the morning as she got out of the cab. She had less than an hour to change into her uniform, eat something, and suffer through her adoptive older brother’s worried pestering before they needed to get on the road. Kira wasn’t surprised in the least when the door to their temporary apartment in a residence tower opened before she could even put her key in. “Do you have a good time?” Staff Sergeant Xander Reese asked, his gray eyes full of concern rather than

“This is a bad idea,” Xander said in Italian, voice pitched low. Xander glanced at the driver’s seat where the AHDF liaison agent sat, both hands on the wheel as she chauffeured them through traffic.“Don’t you think I know that? It’s not like we had a choice,” Kira hissed in the same language. Xander just scowled at her and crossed his bulging arms over his chest. And Kira glared right back at him, jaw tight as they argued in a series of looks and hand gestures that stemmed more from growing up together as siblings than proper nonverbal military signals. They didn’t trust that the AHDF agent wasn’t fluent in ITALIAN, nor that the car was possibly bugged. They’d been living in the shadows for too long to not be suspicious of everything, even of the people on their own side.On some days, especially the people on their own side. They both had deeply valid reasons for feeling that way, none of which could be discussed in front of an audience.“We’ll figure this out,” Kyle finally said

Rina caught his eye, resorting to telepathy rather than words for their conversation. You’re in a mood.Telepathy was invasive and strange, as if someone had cracked open his skull to shove a microphone into the center of his brain and broadcasted a person’s voice from the end of a tunnel. Rina's mental voice was an echo of her physical one, cutting through the middle of his ears, right behind his eyes. The first few times she’d telepathically linked with him it had hurt like a motherfucker, but with practice, she got better at sending, he got better at mentally listening, and her power was their ace in the hole when comms were no longer an option in the middle of an op for whatever reason.Drop it, Rina.Reese seems worried you might have hurt Martin for whatever reason. And Martin is currently shutting him down, Rina said.Knight fought back a wince, trying not to think about how close to the mark her comment was. We talked, that’s it. I don’t think we’ll have a problem with these