Crescent City
(An Alec Winters Series, Book 1)
Chariss K. Walker
Author Bio
Chariss K. Walker, M. Msc., an award-winning author, writes fiction and nonfiction books with a metaphysical/visionary message. All of her books are sold worldwide in eBook, paperback, and many are in large print. Chariss currently lives in Amarillo, Texas.
Description
Crescent City is a dark, adult urban fantasy/thriller. Alec Winters is angel-redeemer to those he protects and demon-destroyer to the wicked. Often, perpetrators don’t get punished for the atrocious crimes committed. In New Orleans, Alec Winters makes sure these evil men and women get exactly what they deserve.
Book excerpt
Alec Winters is now home. At long last, he’s free to follow his true passion and, at this moment, it’s exactly what he did. He sat very still, only moving on occasion to sip a café au lait, while he observed the family in front of him. People-watching was a pastime for the forty year old native of the Crescent City. People-reading was a gift.
After a breakfast of the famous beignets, that included coffee for the adults and hot chocolate for the young daughter, the family prepared to leave. They exited Café du Monde, crossed Decatur Street, heading up St. Ann toward Jackson Square. To the casual observer, Bill, Katie, and Jenny appeared to be a normal family on a Saturday outing in the French Quarter.
To Alec, they were not.
The girl, about nine years old, walked between her parents, wide-eyed and stiff-as-a-board. Not because of the scenery or the special excursion to the Quarter that day, but because her step-father lasciviously stroked the inside of her palm with his middle finger. His aura, reddish-orange, grew larger and uglier from the slight contact. He frightened her; she dreaded that she’d soon be left alone with him while her mother shopped.
Jenny had long, golden-blond hair, braided in two sections, hanging along either side of a flawless face. Her eyes were large blue sapphires. Her aura was a brighter shade of rich yellow than her hair and held a reddish tinge around the edges, giving off the impression of a sunset.
“A frightened sunset,” Alec silently mused.
Katie, in her early thirties, had lustrous brown hair that glinted auburn streaks in the sunlight. Her eyes, once emerald green, were now hazel. They were pretty eyes to go with a remarkably pretty face and a slender, youthful body. Alec keenly observed that the green orbs were flecked with brown spots, indicating years of refusal to see what was directly in front of her. Windows to the soul, eyes revealed the cries of the spiritual body. Katie had stopped looking into her own eyes and wasn’t even aware of the change.
His eyes saw that sort of thing where it went unnoticed to other, more normal folks, unless they still retained their child-eyes. Most, lost the ability by the time they were eight or nine years old, but they could get it back if they so desired. The truth of the matter was that people, in general, didn’t want to see. Child-eyes saw everything and a lot of what was seen could be disturbing. That uneasiness was responsible for disavowing the ability and refusing to see.
Katie’s aura was also green in varying shades—it was an aura of growth and healing. She would recover from this bad relationship if she only allowed herself to do so. The look on her face, at this time, had lost all hope and was vacant and dead, frozen as stiffly as the one on her daughter’s. She’d married a man nearly fifteen years her senior for security, for a home, and a better life for Jenny. Katie had placed her trust in Bill when he didn’t deserve either her loyalty or love. He deserved a different fate and Alec would make sure he got it.