Blurb:
Jamie spent his life running from the past, ignoring it like it didn’t exist. To make up for what he couldn’t change he helped children in need. Now his back was against the wall and soon he’d be dead but he wasn’t going out alone.
Angel was a monster at least that was what he was told growing up. Now he was on earth looking for an honorable death. It was the only way to escape becoming the monster he was called.
Angel never counted on meeting Jamie. He was the one man who not only stood up to him but insisted he was so much more than a monster or a fiend.
When death was knocking at Jamie’s door, Angel was there. Now they both have a second chance. Will they find a way to navigate the streets and the aliens that want to see them take their last breath?
If they do, something better than life might be in store for them. Can they find love in the midst of a world that insists that neither should be allowed to live?
18 years and older
Prologue:
Angel
Shit!
Pain!
I stumbled through the street. It was well past three a.m. any traffic I would have encountered was asleep. I banged against the side of the building bringing my hand to my abdomen. I had assured anyone who could help me that I was fine. Nothing to see here folks. They knew I was lying, and I knew it too.
“Tired already?” Michael taunted me. “The great Angel can’t keep up?”
He moved again, silent and lethal. I pushed myself away from the building to chase after him. He wouldn’t get far. Not that he couldn’t have left me behind since I was barely alive. No, he wouldn’t get far because this was all staged for my benefit. There would be no thrill if he didn’t see it to the end.
“Join me, brother,” his seductive voice came from the darkness ahead of me.
I closed my eyes to follow him. Human vision was so limited. The more I called on my natural resources the closer I came to death. A good death is what I needed one that would allow me to close my eyes in peace. I didn’t deserve one of those. Agonizing pain was ripping at my insides. No, a good death wasn’t in store for me.
My body shuddered making me stumble even while using my superior senses. It wouldn’t be long now.
“I bought you a present.”
I stopped; Michael wasn’t that far ahead of me. I could smell the stink of death. More than one body lay in the alley he brought me to. I could smell something else. It was human, young, vital, alive.
My tongue came out to lick my lips as my hand ran over my abdomen. I couldn’t stop walking if I wanted to. I turned the corner and opened my eyes. Sometimes only sight could do justice to what was before me.
There she stood a young girl maybe ten earth years old. I knew that on this planet, she would be greatly prized for her white-blonde hair and her blue eyes. She was small, petite. I knew that too would be thought of as a plus.
“I bought her for you brother,” Michael’s words curled around his tongue with seductive gleefulness.
“I could have picked any child off the street, but then I saw this one. They were selling her to the highest bidder. I had to have her; I knew what you would do to this delectable morsel.”
I growled, and he went quiet. It wouldn’t last for long, but long enough to allow my eyes to rove over the gift he was providing me. She was only ten, but I wanted her.
The pain of hunger lit my belly. The understanding of all the ways I could use her fired me up inside.
She was crying. I opened myself up to find out about her. Like a play, the recent events of her life passed before me. She was going to school, but she never made it. Someone snatched her. I took the time to concentrate on the face of her kidnapper. They beat her, humiliated her, but she wasn’t breached. They could get so much more for her if she was pure.
I wanted her. I was much worse than the men who took her hoping to sell her to a pedophile who treated children like pets. I didn’t want her body; I wanted her life. Her essence, her life force, her soul, call it whatever you will. I wanted that one thing that made her, her. It was so bright it called out to me. I wanted to suck her dry and then watch as her blue eyes clouded in death. I wanted to trade my death sentence for her young life.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist her when I saw her. It’s so easy Angel. They are so easy to kill.”
Michael walked over to her, holding her in place. Her fear was already making sure her feet stayed planted on the dirty concrete.
“Can’t you already feel her life force invading your body mending all the broken places within you? She’s so strong I bet you can live off her for a year. I’m not even asking to share this time. Remember that Angel when the time comes. Think of all I have done for you.”
My feet moved without conscious direction from me. The young girl was pulling me closer.
“What’s your name?” She shivered the tears tracking down her face faster. “What’s your name?” I asked again.
“Brenda.” It came out so low and broken I almost didn’t understand her.
“Don’t play with your food Angel,” I could hear my matrin tell me.
“You’ve been holding out Angel. Did you really think you had the strength to be better than the sum of your parts?”
Michael reached out and tugged on the girl’s life force. A soft cry of pain came from her. She knew, that little one, that she was going to die. She also knew that there was nothing she could do about it.
I tried to stop moving, to once again imagine the honorable death I needed. It wouldn’t come all I could see was the silver of her life force beckoning me forward.
“Together we will rule this planet. The humans will allow us to live for eons before they no longer exist.”
Michael’s laugh was enough to stop me for a minute. Had he learned nothing from our history? Did he forget the people before the humans that fought back? The humans were a sad race, but they came from warriors. I had no doubt they would fight back. Still, two Seraphal’s against a planet of humans wasn’t something I’d laugh at. I liked our odds.
“Come brother drain her and join me in my glorious reign of terror.”
I was so close now I could feel her body heat radiating out to me. More importantly, I could feel her life force entangling with my feelers.
“Michael?”
“Yes?” His voice lilted. He was always a fool.
“We’re not brothers.” I snatched him up before leaping into the air.
“You fool we could have had it all.” He switched into our natural language calling my matrin and patrin names they would have destroyed him for.
“You could have hunted anywhere except this planet.”
He was right I was too weak. I was coming apart even as we fought. He kicked my body away from him. Not to escape me, now the tendrils that he kept close came from him. He was going to drain me before he drained the girl.
“You’ll taste so sweet.”
I waited not giving him the pleasure of hearing my voice. When he reached for my life force, I turned it around moving towards him, driving his tendrils back into his body until his mouth opened. He changed forms until I could see the real him.
“Angel, please.”
How easy it is to beg when it's your life that hangs in the balance, but he thought nothing of my life or the child’s life. My body unwrapped as the need to feed poured over me. I sank my tendrils deep into him as a moan of pure ecstasy left me.
This was nothing but a brief stay of execution. I would still die, but not today. I dropped to the ground. The girl was still where she lay in the filth. Not too far from her were the corpses of other children whom Michael drained dry.
In my fury, I lit his body erasing him from this planet like a blight with fire.
“You saved her life.”
I looked over to see Dante staring at me.
“She needs a hospital.”
“Take her to one.”
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Get her help, Angel.” He disappeared. I think it was his favorite trick.
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