Awaken (Divine Hunter Series) (37 page)

Raziel waited for Michael to calm down before he answered. “
That
we didn’t see coming. But once that demon had killed you, your protection didn’t work anymore. That meant that every creature, every being that knew about you would be able to find you.”

They both sat in silence.

Gazriel.

That was his real birth name. Another memory shot into his mind, this one from further back than the last. The night he’d first met Evo in the alley when he’d saved him from that demon. “
Gazriel!”
it had said before vanishing. That demon had recognized him back then.

Amongst Michael’s memories an idea surfaced. If Raziel had saved him twice from
Hell, then surely he could save his friend. “What about Evo? Can you. . . ” Michael didn’t need to finish his question because when he looked over at the angel, he was already shaking his head. Oh yeah, the mind reading thing.

“It’s forbidden for an angel to enter Hell without
falling
. The first time I saved you was an exception: I had help from my superiors, which is rare. The second. . . I didn’t need to go into Hell. I just grabbed you before you got there.” Raziel looked at Michael, his gaze sympathetic.

Michael walked back over to the bed and plunked himself down, the temporary hope he’d just felt leaving him as quickly as the air from a deflating balloon.

“Sorry,” Raziel said as Michael looked down at the floor. “Besides, where he is, is not an easy place to get to.”

Michael’s eyes shot back up to his. “You know where he is?”

“Yes. And it’s damned unfortunate.”

Yes, it
was. But not impossible.

He had to get going.

Michael got up from the bed and began to walk towards the door. He paused as he looked at the angel. He at least needed to thank him for saving him twice. He had a feeling this wouldn’t be the last time he saw Raziel, but for now he had to leave.

“Thanks,
” Michael said. He sincerely appreciated what the angel had done. Without him, he’d have never gotten out of the pit the first time, and he’d have never met Evo or Lacy.

Now it was time for
him
to save someone.

The angel cocked a brow at Michael and simply said, “No need. Where will
you go?”

Michael smiled. “I’m going to find a way to save my buddy.”

A
biting wind whistled through the tall trees behind Michael as he stood across the dimly lit parking lot of Albert’s Grocery Mart watching Lacy pack her shopping bags into the trunk of her car. Nina was about to put the bag that she’d been carrying in there too, until the handle snapped, spilling the contents all over the floor. Both women laughed as they bent to retrieve the scattered shopping as Michael watched from the shadows with a yearning deep in his heart that was inconceivable.

It had been seven days since Raziel, the angel, had pulled him back from the pit, and for every single one of those days Michael had tortured himself over what to do. He’d wanted to go running straight to Lacy, to tell her everything was
okay, and that he wasn’t in Hell, but something had stopped him.

Finding that he couldn’t risk everything he’d fought for, Michael had refrained from contacting her and it had damn near ended him.

Instead, he’d called Alethia.

The deity agreed that what he was doing was right and wanted to help him. He needed to find his friend and to make sure he destroyed Varesh and his minions so they could never hurt Lacy again.

Only then could he return to her.

He had to know she was safe.

As Lacy looked up from her crouch on the floor, he saw a distance in her eyes that hadn’t been there before. Behind her smiles was a vacant space that he knew he was responsible for.

But this was how it had to be.

She couldn’t know he was back.

“We really should leave,” a
voice said from behind him, pulling him from his thoughts. Alethia had been patient while he’d observed the woman he now knew he loved. But she was right: the longer he was around Lacy, the more at risk she was.

The deity was taking him to the airport where he would be catching a flight to Cincinnati to meet with an acquaintance of hers. Alethia had found out that there was another hunter in Kentucky
, who’d also had a run in with Varesh, and Michael had arranged to speak to him. He knew he couldn’t deal with Evo’s little situation alone with what little information he had, so he needed to cover every angle. Hopefully the guy in Newport would be able to help.

He nodded his head and forced himself to break the intense magnetic force that was holding him to her. Leaving her was the hardest thing he’d ever had to
do, but the knowledge of someday returning to her, without any of the danger that would surely follow him now, was the only thing keeping him strong enough to walk away.

He walked towards Alethia’s BMW but before he opened the
door, he turned to look at Lacy once more.

She was just about to get into her car when her head lifted and she looked over in his direction.

He froze. His heart sank as his eyes met hers. But she wouldn’t know it was him under the dark hood he wore. She got in the car and shut the door.

All he could do was watch
with tortured anguish as the woman he loved drove away from him.

“
I’ll be with you soon, Lacy,” he whispered.

And vowed to keep the promise that he’d made.

T
HE END. . . For now. . .

For updates on the Divine Hunter series visit
www.ljsealey.com

L.J. Sealey was born and raised in a little Welsh town by the sea. It rains a lot, so she often has a great excuse to sit at her writing desk and while away the hours at her laptop.

She still lives in N.Wales and when she’s not travelling around the country working with her husband – who is a professional singer – or singing backup vocals herself, she likes to read and watch her favourite TV shows which normally includes plenty of CSI, The Vampire Diaries and endless amounts of sitcoms. Being addicted to reading about vampires, demons, shifters and angels, she has always had a thing for all things paranormal and is a big sucker for impossible love stories. So it was inevitable that when she started writing herself, she would mix the two together.

Awaken

is the first book in he
r new paranormal romance series

Divine Hunter.

Connect with L.J. Sealey

Website:
www.ljsealey.com

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/authorljsealey

Twitter:
www.twitter.com/lj_sealey

Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com/ljsealey

If you’d like to email:
[email protected]

Please help us to promote this book by leaving a review on the site of the retailer where you purchased it.

DARK DELIVERANCE
: Divine Hunter Book Two

Coming in 2014

PROLOGUE

Denver,
Colorado.

January 27
th
, 1980.

D
awn was near breaking. . .

A wom
an crouched down behind the lectern at the sanctuary of St Barnabus’ church of Latter Day Saints, trembling with fear as the battle continued to rage outside the heavy, wooden front doors. She wrapped one arm around the small swell of her pregnant stomach and prayed like she’d never prayed before.

Just then
, the panicked voice she heard, the one that bellowed through the ancient building she’d taken refuge in, made her chest tighten and a strange sense of relief pushed its way through her fear.

“Larissa?
Larissa, where are you?” the familiar voice shouted and she heard the heavy footsteps of her Saviour quicken down the aisle.

She rushed to her feet and when she saw him, she couldn’t hold back her tears. “I’m here, Samael
.”

“Larissa!”

She stepped around the lectern and began to rush towards him.

“No!” he shouted. “Stay where you are. I’ll come to you.”

When he reached her, she gasped at the blood on his face−some by his left temple and some around the right side of his mouth. It was deeper in color than a human’s, so deep it was almost black, and it made her legs feel weak to see him in that state.

Her angel.

He crouched down, pulling her with him so they were both now hidden behind the wide, wooden stand. He flung his arms around her, pulling her into his hard body. “Thank the heavens you are safe,” he said as he kissed the top of her head.

She closed her eyes as she sank into his embrace. She was still overwhelmed by
him, even now. It was hard to believe she’d fallen in love with a beautiful angel, one who loved her back equally, even though their time together had only been brief.

An
d now she was scared to death; scared for the two of them, and for their unborn child. She knew that she was going to lose Samael. There was nothing they could do to stop it. He’d broken the rules. No angel was allowed to mate with a human. It didn’t matter if that angel loved with all his heart as she knew Samael loved her.

The war had st
arted almost three months ago when the angels had come to earth to collect the rebels who were causing mayhem, raping and murdering innocents in a bid to get revenge on the Creator for tightening the rules of how they existed.

Those
rebels, when the warriors finally caught up to them, were stabbed with a celestial, iron sword which sent them back to the Creator where they would then be tried and punished for their crimes.

The human race had no idea that the war amongst these divine beings
was happening all around them: Angels could not be seen unless they decided to show themselves and that would usually only happen with the rebels while they attacked their prey. They were angry, strong and virile and there was no escaping them, unless, of course you had an angel to look out for you.

Samael had been one of those warriors
sent down to clean up the mess and rid the earth of such hostility. He’d kept himself hidden, just like he was supposed to, until he’d seen Larissa being dragged down a dark alleyway. She winced at the memory of that night and how strong her attacker had been. If Samael hadn’t appeared from thin air to save her, she’d have been one of those poor victims of the rebels. Samael had stabbed her attacker before the violent male had even realized anyone was there, causing him to disappear in a cloud of white smoke before her very eyes.

Later, Samael had told Larissa things that she couldn’t bring herself to believe at first. Angels didn’t rape and murder people. Not that s
he’d really believed that they existed at all, but no bible, no stories had told of such a thing.

After that night
, she’d seen the impossibly beautiful angel again when he’d checked in on her to make sure she was still safe. Then again the next night, and the night after that, until two whole weeks had passed and during their time in each other’s company, something began to stir between the both of them. After they’d fought hard to keep their feelings for one another in check, one night, in a moment of weakness, they ended up sleeping together. The only night she’d lay with him and it had been the best night of her life, perfect in every way.

Heaven.

Of course, the fact that she’d gotten pregnant didn’t help to hide what they had done. From then on the angel, the hunter who had been sent to collect the rebels, had become the hunted.

For
the last two months Larissa and her angel had been fugitives. And every day the pull was getting harder for Samael to fight. The Creator was summoning him to return and admit his fate, but he wouldn’t and he hid from the warriors that had come to send him back.

Now, they were at the end of the line. Larissa knew she was about to lose
him.

My angel.

They both huddled together, and she closed her eyes as he whispered tender words into her ear. Words that made her heart feel as though it were being crushed by an invisible hand.

“I
love you, Samael” she whispered.

He pulled back, grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her
with such fervor the chaos that ensued around them momentarily disappeared. She allowed herself to imagine that they were safe; that while his lips caressed hers, they were somewhere else, somewhere they could be together in each other’s arms forever.

But then the nightmare returned.

The doors to the church slammed open with an almighty thud and Larissa jumped. Samael held her close and she gripped onto him tightly, crying silently into his chest and trembling with the fear of what she knew was about to happen. He’d always said if his brethren ever caught up with him he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of stabbing him. He would leave on his own, and she knew that when she let go, it would be for the very last time.

He knew they’d come for him, knew there was no escaping his fate. They both did.

Samael held her arms, pushing her away a little so that he could look into her eyes. His pale irises were softly glowing, reminding her of when she’d first seen them on their first night together. “I love you too, Larissa. I always will.” He placed one hand on her stomach and gently stroked it. “Take care of our child.”

She couldn’t speak
, just nodded as tears streamed down her face and she took his hands in hers.

The heavy footsteps indicated the
angels were closing in on them. Samael held Larissa’s gaze for one last moment before he rose, bringing her with him and tucking her under his arm.

They stood facing the warriors who were now pacing towards them showing graceful strength. One walked in front of all the others, his wavy, blond hair slicked back from his face. His stare was unwavering as he stood before Samael. “My brother. It is time.”

There was no malice in the warrior’s voice. In fact, Larissa was sure she saw sorrow in the Angel’s eyes.

“Raziel. You know I won’t allow you or anyone else to take me.” She felt him tighten his hold on her.

“I know Samael. We are just here to see that it’s done. I’m so sorry this has happened, my good friend.” Raziel slid his gaze to Larissa for a second then back to her angel again.

Samael looked at her; his eyes glistened with what looked like unshed tears. They were glowing brighter now than before. “I am not.” He bent his head and met her lips for one last lingering kiss before he stepped away from her and held his arms out to the side. Larissa’s heart broke into pieces as she and the other warriors watched Samael become engulfed in bright, white light. Beams shot out from his body, lighting up the whole space.

Then suddenly it was gone.

And so was her angel.