Archangel Zach

by Lisa Hughey

  Table of Contents

  Archangel Zach

  Copyright

  The Seven series

  Prologue

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Author’s Note

  Glossary of Terms

  Lisa Hughey Books

  About Lisa

  Excerpt from Archangel Rafe

  Excerpt from Stone Cold Heart

  Archangel Zach

  by Lisa Hughey

  Copyright

  May 2015

  Lisa Hughey

  ISBN: 978-0-9964352-0-8

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written consent from the author/publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events, or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  The Seven series

  Archangel Rafe (A Novel of The Seven #1)

  Angelina Guerisse has too many responsibilities, kids, sister, grandmother, an ex-husband, and not enough time. The only respite from her overwhelming life is in her dreams with a stunningly hot angel. But when the angel from her dreams shows up in real life, claiming she is descended from a line of matriarchal healers and possesses a rare healing gift, she's not interested in another obligation.

  Raphael, the Archangel of Healing, has a problem. He lusts after an intriguing and totally off limits Angel. Every moment he spends with Angelina is an exercise in torture and getting the overworked, hard-headed Angelina to accept her destiny proves harder than anticipated….

  Until an unexpected threat puts both the Angelic Realm and the Earth in jeopardy. But will it be too late?

  Archangel Jed (A Novella of The Seven #2)

  Jed, Archangel of Wisdom and Knowledge has something to prove. Luci, a human Sage, has a dark secret. While on a quest to find a book that contains the knowledge to protect both their worlds from their mortal enemy, a forbidden love blossoms. But can Jed save her when the truth is revealed?

  Archangel Zach (A Novel of The Seven #3)

  For three hundred years, Zach has suffered under the crushing guilt over his part in the death of his one true love. Since then he’s hidden himself away, dispensing his forgiveness far from the human realm and the threat of more heartbreak...until the day that he is conscripted into war against the angels’ most dangerous enemy…the Grigori.

  Every night, Shasa Jefferson dreams the same scene—a far off island, a gorgeous, magical man, and sizzling passion that curls her toes. But getting lost in dreams is no way to live a life…until the day Shasa’s mystery man appears on her doorstep spouting terms she doesn’t understand and forcing her to confront her deepest fears.

  Zach is amazed to find the soul of his true love in Shasa, but how long can their rekindled passion survive with the shadow of the Grigori and Zach’s own past transgressions threatening to tear them apart?

  Prologue

  Three months earlier

  Zachariel, Archangel of Forgiveness, sliced through the silky salt water like a stiletto through skin, sharp, smooth, and with purpose.

  His lungs burned, straining for oxygen, as he punished his body for his sins.

  He burrowed under the water, executed an easy flip against the stone wall, and then rose to the surface again, powering through the motions with a drive only the tormented can achieve.

  He kept his eyes open, letting the salt sting.

  His muscles trembled at the punishing pace, but he kept going, trying to out swim his memories, his regrets, his future.

  Frigid water encased his skin, and he wished the icy cold could freeze his memories, his emotions. But since he couldn’t forget, his only option was to lose himself in the oblivion of physical exhaustion. A difficult task for an Archangel since they didn’t sleep or age like regular humans.

  No need for sleep was beneficial for overseeing the Earth and her citizens, but a serious pain in the ass when he just wanted some respite, a small break from the demons that haunted him.

  A shimmer of light seeped into the dark cavern of the swimming arena, teasing at his peripheral vision.

  “Zachariel,” the imposing, melodious voice of Nora, Madame Throne, head of justice in the Angelic Realm, the highest authority over the Third Sphere interrupted his swim.

  For a moment he thought about ignoring her in the hopes she would go away. He purposely increased his pace, the tops of his feet slapping against the surface of the water, the bubbles frothing around his body, drowning out her summons.

  But he couldn’t outswim her presence, and as he approached the opposite side of the pool, Nora’s white dress shimmered into his view again. She’d purposely moved right above the exact spot where he would hit the wall.

  He dove under the surface with a dolphin kick and then powered up toward the waiting head of the First Sphere of the Angelic Realm.

  Whatever she wanted, it wouldn’t be good.

  Delaying the inevitable was pointless. Zach swam to the side, then reached for the limestone shelf and with an easy press, pushed up onto the edge of the salt water pool. The saline sluiced off of his naked body, skimming down muscles so fatigued, his arms actually shook.

  “You rang?” He purposely cultivated that insolent tone. He wanted everyone to stay away.

  A pristine white towel dangled from her delicate hand.

  Zach took the towel and rubbed it over his tired face. He wondered if this would be the moment of his punishment. Finally. Some days it felt as if he’d been waiting an eternity. The Universe knew he deserved one.

  Because he had been so focused on Uriel’s perceived transgressions, he’d missed the bigger picture. Rafe, Archangel and healer, and his human Angel had nearly perished while fighting the Grigori, their mortal enemies, Fallen Angels who had escaped banishment and were attacking both the Angelic Realm and the Earth.

  The Archangels had ultimately triumphed, no thanks to Zach. So even while trying to do the right thing, he’d messed up epically.

  Nora settled onto the granite bench about ten feet away. He knew he should push to his feet, stand at attention, and then bow with deference. After all, Nora was the head of the Thrones. The Angel who handed out justice like Halloween candy. Depending on your sentence. Instead he sat on the edge of the pool and waited for her to speak.

  “Is this it?” he asked finally after a period of silence. He still hadn’t looked at her.

  “Rise,” she commanded softly.

  Zach rose gracefully to his feet and tucked the towel around his waist. No sense in disrespecting the woman who held his future in her hands. He settled his customary scowl on his face.

  “I want you to go to Earth,” she said abruptly.

  The worst punishment imaginable. To be that close to all those humans and know, know that one day his actions could wipe out their existence would be torture. If she wanted to punish him, this was the perfect revenge.

  “I know what you’re thinking.” Nora ran a finger along the scalloped edge of the bench, her gaze following
the path of her finger rather than looking at him. For Nora that was unusual and suddenly he wondered exactly what was going on.

  “This is not a punishment,” she insisted.

  Zach snorted. “Right.”

  “Your task is to find Uriel.”

  Nora wanted Zack to find Uri? Uri wasn’t Zach’s biggest fan. Understatement.

  He’ll love that.

  Uri, the Bringer of Peace, had disappeared when Raphael had saved his human Angel from the Grigori. Uri had been on the trail of Remiel, the leader of the Angels who had escaped binding and imprisonment. Remiel now seemed intent on wreaking havoc on the human population of Earth. Uri had been following Remiel’s trail and then he’d vanished.

  Before Uri disappeared, Zach had accused Uri of harming the humans. Zach really had believed that Uri was negligent but he wasn’t exactly rational about the subject. And the Universe knew he’d been a little on edge lately.

  “Still no sign of him?”

  “No,” she replied softly. Zach truly looked at the beautiful Bringer of Justice. He had known about her illicit relationship with Uri for a while. He’d kept their secret. Kept the knowledge to himself. However, when he’d thought she might be favoring Uri and ignoring the facts, he’d pushed hard, in public in front of the entire Realm Council, for her to sanction Uriel.

  He knew enough about forbidden relationships to know they didn’t end well.

  “Michael is a better tracker.” He didn’t want to go into the human realm. Yes, the Angelic Realm Council had decreed that everyone had to spend more time on Earth after the latest debacle but Zach had been hoping his surly attitude would give him a free pass. The absolute last thing he wanted to do was spend time with humans.

  “But you have a vested interest.”

  How could she know that he felt guilty? How could she know that he wondered daily what the hell had happened to Uri? One more black mark against Zach’s soul.

  Nora stood with a fluid grace and floated toward him until she was less than a body’s breadth away. “You need to find him...in whatever condition he’s in, and bring him home.”

  She was right. Damn her.

  He was the perfect Archangel for the job. Because he hated to lose people on his watch and he hated, absolutely hated, that Uri had disappeared when he wasn’t guilty of anything but caring too much.

  “Any ideas on his location?”

  “No.” The word was strangled. The flat calm of her face was gone, replaced momentarily with agony. “None.”

  In that instant, he saw what he’d missed before. He knew that look, he’d seen it in his own mirror for countless of centuries when he remembered his Shasa and remembered that he was responsible for her death. Her loss had changed him, hardened him, tormented him. Was doing so still.

  More than three hundred years later, and he still wasn’t over his role in her death. In his chest was a barren, gaping hole where his heart should reside, filled instead with a pit of anguish for failing to save the one woman who meant everything.

  The sick churning of his stomach, the low burning in his gut whenever he thought about Shasa were physical reminders of his failure to save his one true love. And Nora had the same expression in her startling, light blue eyes.

  She was in love the Archangel Uriel. And Zach had forced her to accuse Uriel in a very public forum.

  “He would forgive you.” Even though she’d reprimanded Uri during the Angelic Realm Council meeting, she’d ultimately taken up in Uri’s defense. Though Zach understood why, he still thought she hadn’t meted out justice properly. He knew what it was like to be responsible for the downfall and death of someone you loved.

  He’d always wondered if the tragedy with Shasa had happened because he had broken the rules. He’d shattered the absolute unbreakable law. Don’t have sex with a human. Even if no one in the Realm knew of his transgression, perhaps the Universe meted out punishment in a karmic manner whether anyone else was aware or not.

  Nora shrugged elegantly. “Maybe.”

  “I forgive you,” he replied quietly.

  “It isn’t me you need to forgive.” She shook her head, her gaze full of pity. “It’s yourself.”

  One

  Jamaica

  1692

  “What a glorious day!” Shasa swirled around in the ocean, twirling with joy until she was dizzy with pleasure.

  Sunlight rippled across the softly shushing waves as she lifted her face to the invigorating warmth of the midday sun. Her Maman was going to be very displeased but she didn’t care. While everyone else hid from the heat, she reveled in the glory of the day.

  Most people who came to Port Royal haunted the night.

  Wenching, drinking, gambling were the pursuits of the residents, both temporary and permanent. But Shasa loved the daytime and the cleansing rejuvenation of the ocean.

  Seagulls squawked, swooping and diving at her basket abandoned in the sand, her lunch still wrapped in cloth. The silky salt water slid over her body as she crawled through the waves and enjoyed the cool caress against her skin.

  Her simple cotton shift clung to her body like a lover. Or what she thought a lover would feel like. Maman was trying to keep her innocent but in a depraved and amoral place as Port Royal, her loss of innocence was just a matter of time. Not that she was complaining.

  She’d already picked out the man who would divest her of her maidenhead. If only she could convince him. She shifted onto her back, lazily waving her arms through the ocean, trailing her fingers through the clear turquoise water, and imagined trailing her fingers through his beautiful, thick dark hair.

  Shasa closed her eyes and daydreamed, letting the images play out in her mind.

  He would take her in his strong, trustworthy arms and hold her gently. His kiss would be tender, reverent, nothing like the rough and aggressive carnal acts that the privateers and the bankers visited upon the floozies. She would gaze into his eyes, the same warm brown as her mother’s best rum, and grow intoxicated by his adoration.

  Her heartbeat accelerated, booming in her chest as she imagined how it would be.

  “What are you doing out here all alone?”

  She shrieked and jackknifed away from the gruff voice before she registered that it was him. “Zach?”

  Her heart thundered in her chest as she tread water and stared into his serious eyes. Her legs churned through the gently lapping waves.

  Her thick braid lay heavy on her shoulder, leading down to her breasts, barely covered by the surging and ebbing water.

  “It’s not safe for you.” The deep rumble of his voice seductively teased her ear.

  “I-I’m fine.” She wanted to roll her eyes at her brief stutter. That was not mature or sophisticated. He would never kiss her at this rate. “Besides, you’re here.”

  “What if I were someone with nefarious purpose?”

  She glanced away from the hypnotic thrill of his dark rum gaze after committing his features to her memory. His fringe of black lashes were spiked from the water, and his thick black hair slicked away from the striking bones of his face, except for one errant hank that fell onto his forehead.

  “But you do not have a nefarious purpose.”

  He’d clearly doffed his shirt before coming into the ocean after her. Droplets of sea water shimmered like tiny points of light across the smooth expanse of his chest. She found herself enthralled with the play of illumination on his bare skin.

  It was most improper for him to be without a shirt and yet she couldn’t bring herself to protest. She licked her lips searching for moisture to erase the sudden dryness plaguing her mouth.

  “You’d be surprised,” he whispered. Zach cupped her cheek with hard, callused fingers. Every place his hand touched her face burned with an odd fire. The sensation was unfamiliar yet pleasant.

  He tread closer, his legs tangling with hers.

  The hot brand of his other palm against the cool shift at her waist shocked her. But her heart beat in a steady s
ure rhythm as she understood her dream was finally, finally going to come true.

  She moved closer to the heat of his body, the waves pushing them together as if by an unseen hand. A strong swell lobbed her into the hard wall of his chest. The inferno from his body, and oh, the fire in his gaze compelled her, drawing her closer yet.

  This was improper.

  Very improper. And she was thrilled when his soft breath feathered over her lips. Everything faded into the background, the gulls searching for their lunch, the soft shush of the ocean breaking upon the sand, the gust of warm wind cooling her heated desire.

  Slowly, oh so slowly, so as to give her time to pull away he lowered his mouth toward hers.

  Her world narrowed to the intense, primal hunger in his gaze, as if he were tortured by some invisible force.

  She held her breath, everything zeroed in on Zach. Her heart beat a rapid tattoo against her ribs while anticipation buzzed through her.

  At the first brush of his mouth, her lips tingled. The contact was so barely there that she thought perhaps she’d imagined that tentative graze of flesh against flesh. Then, he closed his lips purposefully over her bottom lip, and tugged gently before covering her mouth with his.

  The pressure ever so slightly more.

  No coercion, no demands, just a sweet subtle caress that had her leaning into the hard embrace of his arms.

  Then he broke away.

  She lifted her lids slowly, the wonder of her first kiss dazzling her. Awe spread through her, lighting her body with the incandescence of the sweet moment.

  Her first kiss.

  The perfection of her first intimate embrace: in the ocean, her favorite spot in the entire world, with the sweet, gentle man of her dreams. She couldn’t wait for him to do it again. Finally, finally.

  It couldn’t possibly be wrong.

  Sedona, Arizona desert

  Present day

  It was getting worse.

  Her whole body ached. She was having trouble sleeping. When she did sleep, invariably, she had the dream. The same one she’d been having for years. Herself as a young girl frolicking in the ocean.