by Maya Nicole
Copyright 2019 © Maya Nicole
All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
For permissions contact: [email protected]
This book is currently available exclusively through Amazon.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real people, living or dead, businesses, or locales are coincidental.
Cover design by www.OriginalBookCoverDesigns.com
Edited by Karen Sanders Editing
Created with Vellum
Contents
Social Media
Other Books by Maya Nicole
Playlist
Author’s Note
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Coming Soon!
Social Media
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Other Books by Maya Nicole
Celestial Academy
Ascend
Descend
Transcend
Playlist
Lover - Taylor Swift
Muddy Waters - LP
ADHD - Joyner Lucas
Come Back For Me - Jaymes Young
Life Support - Sam Smith
Million Eyes - Loïc Nottet
Creep - Radiohead
With or Without You - U2
Power - Isak Danielson
Oblivion - Bastille
Take What You Want - Post Malone ft. Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Scott
Bitter End - Rag'n'Bone Man
Author’s Note
Descend is a reverse harem romance. That means the main character will have a happily ever after with three or more men. This book also contains male/male romantic encounters, as well as several romantic encounters together as a group.
Some scenes may trigger some readers due to PTSD flashbacks, abduction, bullying, and a relationship with a teacher in a college academy setting.
Recommended for readers 18+ for adult content and language.
Prologue
Lucifer
18 Years Ago
I stood next to the gaping hole in the ground, the mahogany casket staring back at me. It was an inanimate object, but somehow I felt it was mocking me for opening my heart.
Opening my heart only to have it shattered to pieces.
The casket was the color of her hair; rich brown with a million other shades woven intricately in the strands. It was the reason I chose it.
I had walked into the funeral home with a pearlescent white casket in mind, but when I spotted the glistening mahogany, I knew it was the one.
I never thought instead of picking out an engagement ring, I'd be picking out a casket. I had the engagement all planned out. I would fill her coffee shop with a thousand lilies.
It didn't escape me now that lilies were also a funeral flower. The florist informed me they represented innocence being restored to the soul. Everyone ordered lilies for funerals.
Was that fact supposed to bring me peace?
It didn't.
I ordered them because they were her favorite flower. They were her namesake, Lily. Several wreaths of them lay atop the closed casket.
I stared at them, willing for this to be a twisted nightmare I was stuck in. It wouldn't be the first time I was stuck in a nightmare.
My whole existence had been one.
I looked to my left, and several feet away, stood John Adamson with his pregnant wife. She was due any day now. The two women had bonded over pregnancy stories and the excitement bringing a baby into the world brought.
I had wanted to kill John when he came into the waiting room, covered in blood, to tell me she was gone.
My Lily. Gone.
In that moment, it had taken every ounce of my being not to rip his throat out. I had wanted to be in the operating room, just in case.
I could have healed her.
He had said there was nothing to worry about. That the baby was showing no signs of having wings in the womb. That she was just a healthy baby girl and the birth would be standard.
A standard pregnancy. A standard birth. And it was, until it wasn't.
The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. She was in distress. Cesarean section or she would die. He told me to let him do his job.
Now Lily lay dead in a casket. She didn't even get to hold our daughter.
My chest tightened and my eyes burned with unshed tears. I wasn't a crier. At least until five days ago.
I brought the sleeping bundle in my arms closer to my body. She was a quiet newborn. She only cried when I cried. Somehow, I think she knew.
"Sir? Are you ready?"
My eyes snapped to the priest who looked at me with concern and pity. I was too tired and broken to care how he looked at me.
I nodded. I wasn't ready.
He pressed a button and the casket began to lower into the ground, taking my heart with it. I had given her my heart completely.
I was a fool for believing I'd ever find happiness.
My daughter made a small noise and I looked away from the scene in front of me and down at her tiny face. She had Lily's nose.
How was I going to do this? Raise a baby, alone, without Lily?
Her eyes opened for a moment and then shut, her tiny fists coming up near her chin and a smile forming on her face. My own lips twitched as I looked down at her.
I felt someone next to me and looked to find John and his wife. The small service was over. I had wanted to be alone for this, but John had convinced me to let them attend.
"Have you decided on a name for her yet?" He reached over and touched her little fist.
She would be a fighter, I could tell. She would have to be.
I looked back down at her, her mouth still curved in a smile as she slept. She was my world now. The one I would fight for, give my heart to, bleed for. Without her light, I would be lost in darkness.
"Her name is Danica."
Chapter One
Danica
I sat straight up, my heart pounding, my mind not quite sure where I was. I sprung from the bed, my legs getting twisted in my sheets. The floor met my face and a sharp pain went through my nose.
"Fuck!" I rolled over onto my back and pounded my fists on the floor. I stared at the ceiling, wondering if the nightmares would ever end.
My nose felt like it had been hit by a soccer ball and I brought my hand up to rub it. Luckily, it didn't bleed from its intimate acquaintance with the hardwood floor.
My nightmares seemed to be getting worse as the days went on. My only reprieve from them was on the weekends when I was with Asher.
On Sunday nights they would start and be manageable, but by Thursday, they were enough to make me want to bash my head against the wall. Now they were, apparentl
y, enough to almost break my nose.
Oliver's comfort superpower didn't help. Tobias just worried too much with his never-ending questions. The only comfort from the nightly terrors was to sleep at Asher's house. It was like when I was near him, my body knew he was safe and not lost forever.
It had been three weeks since Olly and Tobias returned with a newly unfallen Asher. Three weeks since they told me I was part of a cryptic prophecy delivered by a psychic. Three weeks since finding out my mother was possibly the Lilith.
"Your mom is Lilith."
The name played over and over in my head. What was I supposed to do with that?
I felt like I was on an episode of some prank show where at any moment a camera crew would jump out and scream "gotcha!" It had to be a sick, twisted joke.
I wasn't well versed in the Bible or even stories surrounding the Bible. But what I did know from television and fiction was that Lilith was not one of the good guys. There had to be a reason for that.
I held hope that it was all wrong. What I thought I knew about angels was certainly all wrong.
As soon as I had been alone after her name was uttered, I had done the worst thing possible. I had internet searched the hell out of her. It was very similar to looking up medical symptoms. One minute it was just a name, and the next it was like a flesh-eating amoeba was gnawing at my insides and I only had three minutes to live.
There were so many stories about Lilith and none of them left me with a warm fuzzy feeling.
To add insult to injury, it was highly probable that the mysterious woman behind the angel abductions was her. John Adamson was involved. It couldn't purely be coincidence that the doctor who birthed me just happened to also be involved in an elaborate scheme to steal angel blood to open a gate to hell.
Everything had returned to normal. Most of the abducted angels that hadn't been part of the rescue operation were in heaven, healing mentally from their torture. Angels might not be able to die, but draining their blood day after day did a number on them.
Olly and I were back to school, Tobias resumed teaching his classes, and Asher continued to run his business.
Their guardian duties? Me.
Everything seemed normal, but it wasn't. I was freaking out.
I sat up from my place on the floor and glanced at the clock. It was only six. I had barely fallen asleep at two. I was exhausted and knew trying to sleep for another hour would be pointless.
I trudged to the bathroom and turned on the shower before peeling my damp pajamas off. I felt like I had run a marathon in my sleep, and looking in the mirror, I looked like it too.
Today was the last day before Spring break and most angels had guardian assignments to protect drunken college students partying it up in exotic locations. Warm waters and sandy beaches sounded like just the reprieve I needed.
I wasn't invited to the party because I wasn't an angel.
I showered quickly and attempted to cover up the dark circles under my eyes. They had progressively gotten worse throughout the week. I didn't need Tobias or Olly hovering over me because I looked like hell.
I had Spring break plans of my own and didn't need them worrying about me.
I dressed in my uniform and sat at my desk, opening my laptop. Most of my morning had become ritualistic lately. I would wake from a nightmare, shower and get dressed, then research Lilith and John Adamson.
I needed to know more about Lilith. It had become an addiction and scenarios ran through my brain constantly throughout the day. Someone had answers and that someone was John Adamson.
So, like any completely rational person, I decided to go to the man who had overseen my birth. The same man who was behind draining angels of their blood. Completely a good idea, if I do say so myself.
I pulled up my password protected folder and opened a screenshot of the party invitation Ava sent me.
Every year, John Junior had a Spring break kick-off party. It was the party of the year, and even though I was still pissed as hell about what had gone down between us, I was going. I had a mission to accomplish, and since John Senior was seldom around, it would be easy to accomplish.
At least I hoped so.
The movies always made it look like a piece of cake to break into an office. If nothing else, I would snoop to try to figure out why John Senior would involve himself in such nefarious activities.
I closed the image of the party invitation and opened a document containing my mother's obituary. From what little my dad had told me growing up, she had no family. I thought nothing of it before, but now those little details raised red flags.
Lily Judith Gardener, age 25, passed away quietly on January 20, 2001. She was born April 30, 1975. She owned and operated Viva La Vida Coffee, a Montecito award winning coffee establishment. Lily was strong in spirit and brought light into the lives of those she met. She is survived by her life partner and newborn daughter.
I had read it at least a million times, and each time my heart ached at the words "life partner." She had been my father's life. Had everything been a lie?
The obituary was short and simple, which was Lucifer's style. It didn't give me much information, other than she was not very creative with her name if she really was Lilith.
I had scoured the internet for her, but besides the coffee shop, there were no traces of her. These days it was hard to remain anonymous in the world, so it seemed she had sprung up out of nowhere.
That was the exact reason I was going to John's party. To find information on a person that was buried over eighteen years ago.
Lying is infinitely easier when you use Lucifer as your alibi. Not even Tobias, Asher, and Olly, would dare call him to verify that we were going on a father-daughter vacation. They had given me a slightly skeptical look though.
On a scale of one to ten, this lie was right in the middle at a five or six. My lie wasn't hurting anyone but it would certainly piss Tobias off. Asher would be frustrated but then move on. Olly would see my point of view.
I pulled my car into the garage and breathed a sigh of relief. So far, operation Who's My Mommy? was off to a great start. Who doesn't love lying to the men they love?
After turning off the alarm, I walked into the dark house, turning on lights. Besides the impromptu stay when I thought Asher was gone forever, I'd been gone for almost three months. I missed the freedom the house gave me, especially when Lucifer wasn't around. It might sometimes be lonely with a semi-absent father, but it was better than living with the staff members of your school.
This week away was just what I needed to refresh and try to regain my sanity. Alone. The word felt wrong somehow as it echoed in my head. Or maybe that was just my guilt.
I pulled out my phone and messaged my angels that I had made it. They were under the assumption that my dad was flying us to Hawaii. The thought of flying over the ocean angel-style gave me the heebie-jeebies and that should have been their first clue that I was pulling the wool over their eyes.
Asher was the first to respond. Make sure to send us plenty of pictures of you in a bikini.
I rolled my eyes. I should have said we were going somewhere cold instead of to Hawaii. I wasn't sure what they were going to do when they found out I deceived them. They cut me too much slack most of the time, but this might push them over the edge.
I needed to do this on my own, and they would just complicate matters. Walking into a party with three men, two of which were well into their twenties appearance-wise, would raise a lot of eyebrows. The attention would complicate my stealth-mode operation. At least that was what I kept telling myself.
Maybe this was a bad idea.
I carried my bag up to my old room and plopped down on the bed. Ava would arrive soon to get ready for the party. I was a bit nervous about John Junior and how much he knew about me. Had he been in Los Angeles when I was abducted and brought to the port?
I would soon find out just how much he knew when I showed up at his house uninvited. It wasn’t like I could
hide out once I was there. I had lots of friends and acquaintances, and word would spread through the party like wildfire.
My phone buzzed with a text from Ava and I practically flew down the stairs to let her in. It had only been three weeks since I last saw her, but when I opened the door it felt like it had been a lifetime. How can someone change so much in less than a month?
"Ava! What the hell?" I grabbed her arm and yanked her in the house, looking behind her. Clearly she'd been body snatched and it was possible the culprit was right behind her.
She let out a frustrated sigh and put her hands on her hips. I shut the door and turned to stare at her.
Ava had always been unassuming, wearing her long blond hair in a braid or ponytail. She dressed modestly by today's standards. Now she was sporting royal blue hair, styled in large curls that fell down her back. Her makeup was thick and her eyes rimmed with eyeliner and fake eyelashes. I had never once been able to get her to try them and here she was with falsies.
Her clothes were what concerned me most. Typically, for a party, she would wear jeans and a blouse. Maybe a dress if she wanted to dress up. But now, my best friend had on booty shorts over fishnet stockings and a corset-like top. Her boots looked like something a stripper might wear.