It's been forever. I've been in a very dark place, pretending everything is alright, unable to bring myself to open the laptop to write because of all the emotional pain, but after every storm the sun eventually comes out, and we need to keep going regardless of the pain and scars left behind. I want to thank everyone who kept writing to me. That helped keep my head above the raging waters. There were times the emails made me cry, touched my heart and made me realize I could not walk away from this. So, here you have it, book number seven from the Alpha Angels Series. Finally. For those who are new, the series is as follows:
AOD
Dark Prince
Angel of Retribution
The Witch and the Dragon
Dark Angel
Redemption (which is where I crashed emotionally. You can tell in the last two chapters of the book)
I apologize for the two year wait. Hope you enjoy this story. I leave you with Seth and Amaranth's prologue and first chapter. More to come hopefully soon. Give it at least two weeks.
*************
Prologue
The gates of Hell burst open, the heavy metal splitting to either side within a pool of blood from the ground. Amaranth flinched when the cold blood spattered her. She turned her face, raising her flaming sword and pressing her wings tight to her body in disgust. A shiver of terror streaked through her at the deathly silence that followed.
She turned, panting, eyes wide. The pool of blood had drained into the gaping hole the gates had once blocked.
Air so fetid and cold blew from the darkened interior. No light emanated from within the abyss. No brimstone and fire. No heat. Nothing, but a dead cold. A cold so horrible, so soul-chilling it burned. All around and as far up as the eye could see, a greenish-black ocean churned. She was in the eye of the most massive funnel she'd ever seen.
With a grimace, she realized her black soctanal was drenched in blood. The blood of the virgin sacrifice?
Who? Who had been slain so that the prince of darkness could be set free?
The darkness, it roiled, moving like a living thing. Grotesque faces pushing against it trying to break free at last. That is when the horrendous screaming began; the screams of countless tortured souls.
Amaranth had fallen to her knees. She was but a girl. Barely seventy-six sun orbits of the Seraphian blue star.
"Davariel," she cried out, holding her holy sword with shaking hands.
Was he not the guardian of the gate in Megdoluc?
Her cry echoed in the sudden silence, nothing but the roar of the waters churning around her.
She panted, eyes riveted to the dark pit before her. All movement ceased for a few seconds.
She blinked as the surface of that void trembled minutely.
Horror is what her eyes beheld next as he rose, head bowed so that the black curtain of his hair covered his face. Inky black wings spread behind his back and in his arms...
"Davariel," Amaranth screamed waking with a start, the vision of Lucifer still emblazoned in her mind, holding what looked like Davariel dead in his arms.
Screams still echoed in her ears. So real. So loud.
The door to her room burst open. Kabiel spilled in, his torso spattered in blood, bright grey eyes wild.
"Hide. He's lost his mind. Possessed," he panted like a madman.
Amaranth's jaw dropped and she squealed in fright when the older reaper gripped her arm and practically flung her across the room.
Her wings hit the heavy armoire that sat near the corner of her room.
Kabiel's wings spread and she watched as he flew against the door, throwing his weight against it.
On the other side, something big thrashed against it repeatedly, but Kabiel had thrown the deadbolts closed.
His eyes, whites showing all around the iris beseeched her.
"Hide," he screamed, grunting when whatever pummeled the door cracked it again his back.
Whatever it was, it wouldn't be long before it broke through.
Kabiel unsheathed his holy sword. "Fuck."
"I want to fight," she argued.
Another blow to the door rattled its hinges and cracked the wall.
Kabiel was upon her in an instant, gripping her arms and pushing her armoire a few inches away from the wall to reveal a niche hidden behind it.
"Please! You cannot die. The prophesy—"
The wood splintered in hundreds of pieces.
Kabi didn't give her any more alternatives.
She was brusquely shoved behind the armoire, the heavy piece of furniture shoved back to conceal her.
A loud roar filled the room, making the hairs on her body raise.
"You filthy, abominable thing," she heared Kabi hiss.
Whatever he spoke to growled.
A demon?
Amaranth sniffed, expecting to smell the fetid aroma of the unclean. The stench of blood filled her nose, but underlying it was a scent she could hardly forget. A scent that brought back the memories of her childhood crush.
His hair was streaked in gold and platinum, and his wings were the blackest wings a reaper ever had. She remembered his eyes, a blue so vibrant it reminded her of lightning. Lightning bolts on Seraphia were a bright electric blue, like Davariel's eyes.
"Nooo," the unholy voice cried. "Your hatred feeds it."
"What else am I supposed to feel," Kabiel shouted back.
Amaranth heard tears in his angry shout.
"You killed Father Gadriel," Kabiel screamed.
Another roar, and Amaranth saw when Kabiel's body hit the wall with so much force, she heard bones crack.
She placed her hands against the armoire to push it out of the way to help Kabi.
"He deserved it," the demon screamed. "He defiled me."
Kabi shook himself and stood on wavering legs, sneering at whatever stood before him.
Amaranth put her entire upper body against the armoire, but it wouldn't budge.
"You defiled yourself, you fucking whore. I saw how you'd flirt with anything, anyone...with me."
Silence.
"But I loved you, Kabi," came Dava's soft voice. A choked whisper.
Amaranth's eyes brimmed with tears. It was him. Oh God in heaven.
"You think I can love what you've allowed yourself to become?' Kabi chuckled, wiping the trickle of blood that escaped the corner of his mouth. His lips twisted into a hateful snear.
"No. Nooo," Dava roared again. "I don't w-want to k-kiiiillll—"
"No problem. Just stand there nice while I gut you, fucking demon."
The sound of swords clashing lasted a pitiful three to four seconds.
Blood sprayed everywhere. Amaranth watched horrified, covering her nose and mouth as she sobbed.
Had Kabi succeeded in killing Dava?
She blinked, her eyes peering out through the sliver of space between the wall and the edge of the armoire.
The heavy piece of furniture moved, slid all the way over to reveal him.
Covered head to toe in blood, every inch of his naked skin. Behind his back flared bright red demon's wings. His fingernails were clawed and his eyes glowed bright, as if a fire burned within them.
Amaranth felt her heart convulse in sorrow. The horrid vision of the angel she once loved shimmered and blurred until she had to close her eyes to it...to him.
She'd loved him as a girl even though it was forbidden for her to ever mate. Her love was pure.
She felt his lips on her face, his tongue dart out and lick her tears. She heard his sob.
She wanted to ask why, but he covered her mouth, his lips pressing hers open as his tongue dipped inside, tasting of blood.
Her first kiss. A bloody kiss from a fallen angel.
"I'm sorry," he whispered against her mouth. "I didn't want to. But the hate feeds it. The hate makes it strong within me and I can't fight it." Another hitch of his breath against her trembling lips, "But you...you love me..."
She opened tear-filled eyes to see him frown.
He hissed then, his hands tightening on her upper arms. "Don't," was all he said before flinging her back and pushing the armoire once again into place.
*******
Almost three hundred and fifty siglons later...
Ashriel had warned her to stay away from the former Edenian Master Guardians. They were led by Devon, Davariel's long lost son.
She'd seen Devon. The sight of him nearly brought her to her knees. He was the spitting image of his father, only with jet-black hair and the physical traits the possessed manifest; snow-white skin, darkened fingernails and lips and whenever he grew angry his darker side grew in strength physically transforming him more.
Dava's words came back to haunt her-"The hate makes it strong."
And yet, whenever she looked at him, she saw it, the holy flame of the heaven-sent. His aura was like fire, with flaring wings of power surrounding him. She saw the same flicker within his woman. The child she carried was the sixth prophesized angel.
There was still one more. The one who supposedly would break open the gates of Hell unless somehow Davariel came back...
Amaranth shook her head. There was no returning from the realm of shadows. Ever.
Dava was gone forever.
She'd finally stopped crying about that. Swore to herself to never shed another tear for another man ever again. Her heart was dried up and dead within her ribcage. Her only mission now was to find the seventh angel and keep the prophesy from taking place. An angel with hair like a shining star and eyes like blue fire would set the prince of darkness free, and the war between realms would begin. The beginning of the end.
Not long after Dava had been cast into the realm of shadows, she renounced her calling. Amaranth was sent to Gramarg to guard its gate to Hell for one hundred siglons.
Upon completing that task, she was free, but she chose o return to Seraphia, still chaste and untouched, save for Dava's kiss.
She was allowed to return into the holy place and two hundred siglons later became the first free reaper to become high priestess. Her only finishing task was to find the seventh angel and kill him or her before Lucifer was set free.
The Edenian Master Guardians had two of the angels. And where there were two, they had to know where the last one was hiding.
She just needed to make contact with them and gain their trust...become their friend until she found the seventh angel.
