Angel's Assassin

by Laurel O'Donnell

  His angel.

  Then darkness descended over him.

  Chapter Forty One

  Aurora stared at Damien as he lay stretched out in her bed at Castle Acquitaine.

  When she had returned to Castle Acquitaine, she discovered her father had jumped from the highest tower and was dead. She mourned his loss and buried him in the family crypt. She prayed every night for him, and for Alexander, and hoped her father’s troubled soul would finally be able to rest. She kept the happy memories of their times together close to her heart.

  Now she focused on Damien. He had been unconscious for almost three full days. Alexander and her father were already gone. She couldn’t lose Damien, too.

  Her heart ached and she clutched Damien’s limp hand tightly, refusing to let him go. For every second he did not open his eyes, for every moment he lay without nourishment, the chances of his recovery grew increasingly distant.

  How could she have ever doubted him? Damien always protected her. It was difficult and painful to think he killed her mother. But she understood why. He believed he had no choice. Roke had manipulated him. Roke had tortured him. Roke held his freedom and used it against him. Damien had not been strong enough to resist him.

  Now he was. Damien defeated Roke.

  It shouldn’t be enough to forgive him for killing her mother. Taking a life was a mortal sin. But he was not the same man he had been. And she wanted to forgive him. Because she needed him. She needed him at her side. She needed him with her always. So that she could love him.

  And she did. Lord help her, but she loved him. She loved him enough to forgive him. She prayed to God to give her the chance to tell him.

  She kissed his hand. “Do not do this, Damien. You are stronger than this,” she whispered. “I will not know what to do without you.” Tears filled her eyes again. And then, she must have drifted off, for he stood before her, the gates of heaven at his back.

  She took a step toward him, holding her hand out. “Don’t go.”

  He did not even look at the gates. His gaze rested on her, only on her. Those black, black eyes, mistaken by many to be emotionless and cold. But she knew what rested in his soul; she had always known.

  “Damien,” she called, pleaded, begged.

  Something heavy rested on her head. Something pulled her away. She didn’t want to leave him.

  “Aurora.”

  She fought to remain asleep, fought against the tug of wakefulness. Someone shook her gently. She opened her eyes, afraid Damien would be gone, afraid she had lost him. She lifted her head, angry and fearful.

  His eyes were open, gazing at her with concern.

  Aurora gasped through a sudden onrush of tears. She dropped to her knees at his bedside, touched his face. “Damien,” she wept. “Damien.”

  “I could not leave you,” he admitted, stroking her cheek with the same anguished concern that rumbled through her.

  Aurora embraced him, kissing the warm skin of his neck, his jaw, his cheek. His lips.

  “Are you hurt?”

  His question startled her and she pulled back to look at him lying in the thick covers of her bed. The irony was not lost on her. He always protected her. Now, it was her turn to heal him. Her gaze fluttered over his face, touching every scratch and every cut. “No,” she answered sincerely.

  He looked around the room. “Where are we?” His body stiffened. “Where’s Roke?”

  Aurora soothed and calmed him with gentle touches of her fingertips over his strong shoulders. “He is dead.”

  Damien looked at her with an intense, direct stare. “You saw his body?”

  Aurora nodded. “Charred black by the fire. As black as his soul.”

  “You’re sure it was him?”

  Aurora looked into Damien’s concerned eyes and nodded. “I have no doubt. He still wore the ring with his heraldry on it.”

  Damien’s eyes slid over her face. “Did he hurt you?”

  Her heart ached with tenderness. “Hurt me?” All the years of his life he spent as Roke’s prisoner, all those years living under Roke’s rule and Damien was worried about the one day she spent with him.

  “Did he touch you?”

  Aurora shook her head. “He never laid a hand upon me.” Her fingers found the white scar from a whip on his upper arm. “What you must have endured…” She shook her head.

  Damien did not deny her words.

  Her heart lurched for him. It was time he was given what he deserved. She lifted her chin to meet his gaze. “Sometimes, even good people must do bad things to overcome evil.”

  Damien’s hand dropped from her shoulders.

  It took Aurora a moment to realize he thought she was condemning him for his actions. “You are the bravest man I have ever known. And the most admirable. Forgive me for ever doubting you.”

  Damien did not move for a long moment. “No, Aurora,” he whispered. “Forgive me. Forgive me for all this evil I have brought to you.” His throat closed around his words. “From the very beginning, you believed in me, despite my warnings. You knew who I was from the beginning and you had faith in me.” He lifted both of her hands and pressed kisses against her knuckles. “It was your undying loyalty that made me this strong. You never doubted me. You called to me and guided me into the light. You are my salvation. You are… everything to me. Please forgive me for what I have done to you.”

  Aurora lifted her hands to frame his face. “I know now you were following orders when you killed my mother. But even then, you could not hurt me. It was you I have been searching for all these years. We were meant to be together. I love you.”

  Damien’s world erupted in joy. His fear washed away in the light of her forgiveness. He leaned forward and tasted her lips, relishing the feeling of her. She was his. Despite all that was between them, and maybe, just maybe, because of all that was between them, she loved him anyway. Damien smiled beneath her kiss. As the fact that this glorious woman had chosen him above all others sunk in, Damien leaned his head back and laughed in elation for the first time since his childhood. He pulled her close, holding her. Then slowly, a slight scowl crossed his brow. “There is one thing. How did we get back here?”

  Aurora stood up and walked to the door, opening it.

  Gawyn stepped into the room, his usual mocking grin etched in the curve of his lips. “Hello, brother,” he greeted. “I knew the flames of Hell wouldn’t keep you from your angel.”

  Aurora sat on the bed beside Damien. She collected his hand into hers. “With the room in flames, it was Gawyn who came in. He saved you, Damien. He saved us.”

  Shocked, Damien’s brows rose.

  Gawyn smiled. “It was my one chance at redemption and I wasn’t going to pass it up. I was not going to leave you this time.”

  Damien’s stoic stare softened to acceptance and true gratitude. He held his hand out to his brother. “This time, I won’t miss my chance either.”

  Gawyn clasped Damien’s hand tightly.

  Epilogue

  “You worthless, contemptible dog,” the taskmaster screamed. He pulled his hand back to slap the young boy hard across his face.

  “All hail Lord of Acquitaine!” The proclamation filtered through the floorboards of the Redemption.

  Otis grumbled and shoved the boy back from him. What the devil was a lord doing aboard the Redemption? He had been taskmaster of the ship for twenty years. Not once did any lord come aboard this dirty ship.

  The footfalls from overhead headed toward the stairs. And they did not stop there. The Captain’s voice could be heard from above, calling to the Lord of Acquitaine. “You don’t want to go down there. It’s dirty and—”

  The top hatch whipped open, spilling sunlight into the hold. Otis shielded his eyes from its brightness.

  Suddenly, impeccably polished black boots appeared at the top stair and proceeded down. The Lord of Acquitaine was a tall man and had to duck beneath the hatch. He stopped at the bottom of the ladder, straightening, his gaze tak
ing in the entire hold. Many young eyes stared back. Even the older men gazed in awe at the lord who dared dirty his boots by coming into the bowels of hell.

  Maybe he came for a reason. Otis stepped up to him. “Good day, m’lord,” he greeted. “We have tender young flesh here, if that be yer liking.”

  Fuming black eyes turned to meet his. Otis shrank back from the fury burning there. And yet, an inkling of familiarity tugged at the corners of his memory. Did he know this lord? Otis bowed apologetically. “M’lord—”

  “Damien,” the Lord of Acquitaine corrected.

  Damien. Otis replayed the name and a memory of a child came to mind. He knew him. Damien! The only boy who ever dared to fight him, the only boy who dared to defy him. But it couldn’t be the same child! The Damien he knew had been beaten, cowed, and sold into slavery.

  The whispered name echoed in awe from lips in the darkness like a soft breeze spreading through the room.

  There was such animosity shining from those black eyes that Otis stepped back.

  “Free them,” Damien ordered and turned, heading back up the stairs. “Free them all.”

  ***

  Damien had not remembered how foul the stench was below decks. Urine. Rotting decay. He had not remembered the sense of hopelessness permeating the air. But he remembered the fear.

  Captain Blackmoore raced up to him. “Damien… M’lord, you can’t—”

  “I will take all of them,” Damien announced.

  The captain began to smile.

  “And your ship.”

  “My ship?” the captain echoed, blandly.

  Damien strolled toward Rupert who awaited him at the starboard side. “Burn it,” he commanded. “Burn it all to hell.”

  “Aye,” Rupert nodded solemnly.

  Damien turned his back on the exclamations of shock and disbelief sputtering from Captain Blackmoore and the ogre. He scanned the dusty street where he told Aurora to wait.

  She headed up the gangplank. He grimaced and shook his head. She never listened to him. He quickly moved to her, blocking her way onto the ship. “I told you not to come here.”

  Aurora strained to see around him. “What is it, Damien? What don’t you want me to see?”

  A sudden coil of fear clamped down on his heart. He didn’t want her soiled by the slave ship. He didn’t want even a toe of her beautiful foot to land upon this ship of sin. “My past,” he said and put a hand to her back, urging her down the gangplank.

  She resisted for a moment as she stared deep into his eyes, searching.

  Damien would never let her be tarnished by his past. It was a part of him he wanted to put behind him, a part he wanted to put a permanent end to. It was over and his life began anew when he met Aurora. She turned, allowing him to escort her from the ship.

  A large garrison of soldiers waited for their lord and lady in the street. Damien paused before Imp. He lifted Aurora’s hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her soft knuckles. His fingers stroked her palm, fingering the new ring he had given her. The gold band encircled her finger, a beautiful glimmering angel on its front. A new family heirloom, he had told her.

  Aurora looked at the ship. “What is this ship?”

  “The Redemption,” he answered, not bothering to look at the cursed vessel.

  Aurora swiveled her head to him then.

  The slight furrow on her brow, the concern in her bright eyes and the way she gripped his hand protectively, were all indicators of her worry over his happiness.

  Damien wiped away the lingering doubt with a kiss to her brow. “You need not worry. Everything is as it should be.”

  She nodded and turned to mount Imp.

  “Aurora,” Damien called.

  She paused and looked at him.

  Damien could only stare at her. She was the loveliest woman in all creation. His light. His good. His redemption. He nuzzled her temple and whispered in her ear, “I love you.” The words came easily, effortlessly, earnestly.

  Aurora’s lovely brow lifted and then her chin shot up in imperial disbelief. “Now I know you are a liar, m’lord,” she teased. “You don’t believe in love.”

  He looked her deep in the eyes, his heart aching with gratitude. He was the luckiest man alive. He touched his lips to hers, never quite able to get enough of her. “You made me believe.”

  The End

  Thank You from the Author

  I’d like to thank you for reading Damien and Aurora’s story. It has been a long time coming. I started writing it in 2006. When I thought it was worthy of readers, I shipped it out to some contests in the hopes of seeing what others thought of it, to see if others enjoyed the story as much as I did. In 2007, Angel’s Assassin took third place in the Marlene contest. Followed by third place in the Mary Reade Writers Choice Award, third place in the Winter Rose contest, third place in the Romance Through the Ages contest. Damien even garnered fourth place in the Legend award, a contest that judges the strength of a story’s hero. That was awesome! Finally, Angel’s Assassin won the Happily Ever After contest. Now, I am delighted to be able to bring this story to you myself. Angel’s Assassin truly is a work of love for me. The book of my heart.

  I hope you liked Damien and Aurora’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please drop me a line and let me know what you thought at http://www.laurel-odonnell.com/contact.html

  Again, thank you for reading!

  About the Author

  Laurel O’Donnell lives in Illinois with her husband, four children and five cats. She has always enjoyed escaping into the medieval era, including spending a summer interning at the renaissance faire in Wisconsin where she learned to sword fight and recite Shakespeare. Now, she spends her time reading a good book, watching Sam and Dean battle evil in Supernatural, or working on her next novel…

  Laurel is the author of numerous medieval romance novels, a medieval romance novella, a vampire romance novel and an urban fantasy series. You can find the full list of her available titles on the page below.

  Laurel O’Donnell Book List

  Medieval Romance Novels

  The Angel and the Prince

  In this exciting medieval romance, the French lady knight known as the Angel of Death wages a battle of wills and desires against her dreaded enemy --- the English warrior known as the Prince of Darkness. An epic medieval romance.

  - Nominated for the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award

  Champion of the Heart

  Fox Mercer watches in horror as his father’s knighthood, lands and nobility are all torn from him. Banished into disgrace, Fox waits for the moment to strike to avenge his family’s honor. And that moment arises when a tournament is announced --- a battle of champions wherein the winner gets to claim a very lovely prize…

  A Knight of Honor

  Taylor Sullivan is a raven-haired hellion fleeing the flames that destroyed her family. She arms herself with a quick sword and a sharp tongue, hiring herself out as a mercenary, willing to do whatever it takes to survive. Slane Donovan is a knight of honor, sworn to uphold his oath and his word. He seeks the woman who wears the Sullivan ring, determined to bring her back to Castle Donovan. A fast paced medieval romance filled with action.

  - Winner of the Holt Medallion Award for Best Medieval Novel

  Midnight Shadow

  Disguised as the legendary hero known as the Midnight Shadow, Lady Bria Delaney swears to rid the land of Lord Terran Knowles’ cruel tyranny. She is stunned to encounter him in her father’s castle --- one of the many suitors vying for her hand. Captivated by his darkly intent gaze, Bria struggles to suppress her fierce attraction to the very enemy she has secretly promised to destroy. A Robin-Hood style medieval romance with a twist.

  The Lady and the Falconer

  A mysterious falconer infiltrates Castle Fulton during a siege, intent on reclaiming what is rightfully his. When the handsome stranger lays eyes and hands on Lady Solace Farindale, all of his plans of revenge start to crumble around him..
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  Medieval Romance Novellas

  The Bride and the Brute

  Jayce Cullen has been fighting her fear of thunder and lightning ever since she was a child, but nothing could have prepared her for the fury of her new husband. Feeling deceived and betrayed into a loveless marriage, Lord Reese Harrington wants nothing to do with his new wife. Trapped in a marriage with no escape, the beautiful young bride must battle the demons of her husband's past and hope that she can weather the storm his brutish behavior unleashes.

  - Available for FREE at many ebookstores! See the author’s website at www.laurel-odonnell.com for a full list of stores where this free ebook can be found. This free ebook also contains free previews of many of Laurel’s other medieval romance novels listed above.

  Paranormal Romance Novels

  Immortal Death

  Jade Smith’s supernaturally fast ability to heal has made her a freak. After years of fearful reactions from others, she stays hidden in the shadows of life. The one thing that keeps her sane is her writing -- and her wonderful hero Demetrius, an imaginary character she created in her online stories. But when Demetrius suddenly appears in her apartment demanding answers, her life changes forever…

  - Winner of the Indiana Golden Opportunity Contest