He was still, lifeless.
Oh, God. “Simeon?” I jolted forward, taking hasty steps to the side of the bed and felt relief when I noticed his lungs expand.
He clasped his hands and moved them from in front of his eyes. What I saw raised gooseflesh all over my body. Gone were the sparks of silver, the shiny confident glints in his eyes. Instead, a dull gray peeked up at me.
“Leave me.” His voice was so hoarse I barely understood.
I tried not to take it personally. He wouldn’t get rid of me that easily. My ego could take a nap for the rest of the day as far as I was concerned. Simeon may not have wanted me here, but he certainly needed me. I leaned over and touched his cheek. It was feverish, even for a demon. Dangerously feverish.
“You won’t heal unless you’re hydrated,” I said. “I’ll get you some water.”
“No, Abigail,” he croaked. “Please, just go.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Hiding the hurt, I stepped out into the hall where Harley was waiting. “He needs water,” I told her. “And new bed linens. I’ll get the water if you know where to find the linens.”
She gulped and nodded. “I do.”
We separated, each on our own mission. I hurried back to Simeon with a tall glass of room temperature water, not wanting to jolt his system.
Slowly, he propped himself up on his elbow while pulling a bile stained sheet up to his waist. He took the glass but didn’t look at me.
“I still don’t want you here,” he said and gulped down the water.
Okay, that was it. I’d had enough. “I know you’re mad, but you’ll just have to put up with me until you’re well.”
He shook his head and pulled the sheet up farther to his chest. “I don’t want you to see me like this. I’m repulsive.”
Ah. He was embarrassed of his appearance. But what he didn’t he realize was all I saw before me was a loving and generous man who’d risked his life for me. More than once.
“Simeon Keller.” I kept my voice even. “Not one part of you is or ever has been repulsive. Okay, maybe you smell a little bit right now, but I’m going to help you into the shower, and you’ll be back to a burning hunk of man in no time. Got it?”
“Stubborn,” he simply said. His eyes were already gaining back their shine as they rolled up at me.
“Yep, that’s us. Stubborn. Come on. Let’s get you cleaned up.” I lent him a hand, but he ignored it.
“I can manage,” he grumbled but wobbled unsteadily as he stood.
“I know you can, Mister Man, but I can’t seem to keep my hands off you.” I wrapped an arm around his waist, avoiding the fresh scars that trailed across his back, and together we made our way into the bathroom.
He slumped down on the toilet seat as I turned on the showerhead and let it heat up from cold to lukewarm. “What are you doing?” he asked when I kicked off my shoes and started to unbutton my jeans.
“Undressing.” I waited for him to argue, but he only watched as I stripped off the rest of my clothing.
Perhaps I should have felt self-conscious under his attentive stare, but I figured he’d seen me naked before. He hadn’t complained then, so why not now?
Not to mention he looked like he was going to collapse from exhaustion at any second. Sexual thoughts were probably the last thing on his mind. I tossed my bra and panties to the floor and held a hand out to him. This time he didn’t protest.
He stepped into the shower before me and gripped the handrail, letting the water beat down on him. His sallow color seemed to wash right off his body, yet it didn’t tint the water as it rushed down the drain. Weird. It was as if it simply evaporated or sank into his pores. It was amazing what a little hydration will do for an immortal.
Simeon rested his head against the shiny black tiles and closed his eyes. I grabbed a fresh washcloth and a bar of soap and started scrubbing the crusted vomit and bile that had somehow made a scattered path from his mouth to his thighs. All the while, I took an inventory of the wounds and scars that were disappearing before my eyes. And took note of how much weight and muscle he’d lost. According to the ribs defined against his skin, at least twenty pounds.
“This is humiliating,” he said but didn’t attempt to stop me.
“Consider it foreplay.” I winked up at him.
He didn’t look amused. In fact, there was a darkness in the back of his eyes that told me a thousand unimaginable stories of pain and anguish. Unimaginable to me, that was. He’d lived through nearly a month of it. I remembered MOG’s description of Hell and shuddered. It was like living your worst nightmare and not knowing if you’d ever wake up.
I finished quickly, not bothering to wash what was left of his hair. Considering there were several bald spots, I figured he’d have to shave it off and start from scratch. I shrugged to myself. Might be kind of sexy.
After wrapping a towel around him, I guided him back to the toilet and made him sit. “I’m going to change your sheets. I’ll be right back.”
“Abigail,” he started to say, but I left him before he could continue. If I stopped to think too long about how much he’d suffered, I’d break down. If I stopped to listen to him protest about my presence, I’d break down. I had to keep moving. I had to keep telling myself that he needed me here.
I grabbed his silk robe from the hook on the door, tied it around my body, and went back out into the hallway. Harley was sitting against the wall with the fresh linens in her lap. When she saw me, she jumped to her feet.
“Here.” She pushed the sheets into my hands. “How is he?”
“He’ll be fine. You can go on home. I’ll stay with him tonight.” The other Angels would just have to take on a few more cases to cover my shift.
“You sure?”
“Positive. And Harley, thank you again for calling me.”
She lifted a shoulder. “If you send him there again, I’ll kill you,” she said and turned on her heel.
“Okey-doke.” I didn’t have a comeback for that one, so I went back into Simeon’s bedroom and changed the sheets. I heard him brushing his teeth and then gargling mouthwash. Good. He was feeling better already, I thought, until I walked back into the bathroom and saw him staring into the mirror with wide-eyed horror. He was trembling and white-knuckling the side of the sink.
“Simeon,” I whispered carefully, but he still jumped. I didn’t waste time apologizing. I pulled him to the bed and drew out the blanket for him. I’d comfort him the only way I knew how.
Wearily, he dropped the towel on the floor and eased onto the mattress. I slipped his robe off me and curled up next to him. His eyes were still red-rimmed, and I knew it wouldn’t take much for him to fall into sleep.
I pressed my cool body to his feverish one and trailed my fingers gingerly across his shoulders and chest. Up and down and from side to side. If I’d had any kind of a voice, I’d have sung him a calming lullaby. But God hadn’t blessed me with that talent, so I continued to soothe him with my hands.
The quivering settled, as did the temperature of his body. And when I laid my head against his chest, I listened as his heartbeat grew steady.
“I missed you,” I said. Please don’t hate me.
“Oh, Abigail.” He cupped his warm hands to my face as his lips pressed to my forehead. “My Angel,” he whispered. “There are no words to describe how much I missed you.”
“Really? You’re not angry with me?”
“I love you, sweetheart.” He kissed my cheek and pulled me closer to him. “The vision of you in my head was my only refuge. You gave me a reason to survive, to come home. I swear I’ll do everything in my power to never go back there again. Never.”
Hot tears burned my eyes, and the tarry guilt that slugged through my veins thinned, freeing me. The man in my arms wasn’t a demon. I knew that now. Demons couldn’t love, couldn’t be loved. No, there was no doubt in my mind that Simeon didn’t belong anywhere but on this earth with me.
I found his hand and twine
d our fingers. “I’ll see to it that you never ever get deported again,” I said. “I promise.”
Then I prayed to God I could keep that promise.
From the Author
Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed Angel Vindicated, please consider giving it an honest review on your favorite review site or online retailer.
About the Author
Viola Estrella loves a story with humor, flawed characters, paranormal elements, and romance. She tries to include these aspects in all she writes and loves every minute of it. When she’s not reading, writing, or designing book cover art, she’s spending quality time with her husband and sons in their Colorado home.
Viola is a 2010 RITA® finalist. Also in 2010, she was honored by her local RWA® chapter, Colorado Romance Writers, with the Writer of the Year award.
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A Wolf’s Touch
Christine Donovan
Prologue
One thousand years ago a witch cast a spell upon Troy. He would live from that day forth until his death as a werewolf, a slave to the spell coursing through his veins linking him to the moon’s cycle. Not many years later he died by his own hand after losing the woman he loved. His beloved Serena was killed by his brother, Gray, likewise inflicted by the same spell.
Once again, people he loved were in peril and needed help. Troy reached out through his mind with every molecule his body possessed. Of course, being dead and in the netherworld didn’t leave him much body. He summoned up power regardless and contacted the one he needed through mind-walking.
“Here me leader of the Saviors of the Night Clan. I seek your aid. I have accumulated many enemies. They are determined to wipe out what is descended from my blood and loins, including yourself.” Troy conjured up in his mind’s eye one of four last remaining blood links to him and his beloved Serena.
One of theirs was in danger from his worst rival—his brother. Her death was eminent unless Troy intervened.
“I reach out to you, Ethan Brown, as you are one of my last four surviving blood descendants. You must seek out a young woman who knows not what she is or what powers she possesses. You are her only hope for survival. You must find her and teach her our ways. Her time to join our race has come.”
Ethan mumbled in his sleep, “Who, who is she?”
“She comes from my blood, my dear Serena’s blood. She also comes from your blood. She is one of us, a mind-walker. If Gray succeeds in destroying all that is mine, then the mind-walkers, except for my evil brother, will walk the earth no more.”
“A mind-walker.” Ethan struggled to wake, but his subconscious wouldn’t let him. “What are mind-walkers?”
“Ah, so you do not know? I surmised as much. You wouldn’t unless you met another of our kind. This woman is our kind as are two others spread across this vast world. But she is my concern now. Gray knows. He is planning her demise.
“Find her. Save her. Teach her as she is your destined mate.”
Ethan’s pulse slowed, his breathing deepened as visions of a young woman entered his mind. He reached out trying to touch her. She looked at him, no, not at him, past him. Turning, he looked and saw nothing. Only blackness so vast it encompassed everything. Puzzled, he turned back to her. He tried to warn her. Too late as she stepped into the abyss, leaving Ethan’s heart and soul crushed.
He clutched his chest as he sprang up, dragging in large gulps of air trying to pacify the inferno in his lungs. The rapid beat of his heart continued to assault his rib cage. And underneath it all his beast roamed beneath his skin.
“Not now,” he yelled as he dragged his hands through his hair and yanked, hoping the pain would clear his brain and control his body. “Better,” he sighed as he reached for his cell phone on the nightstand and read the time. Shit, he might as well get up and start his day. He had two classes and one lecture hall. He loved teaching college, but days like today his mind would be elsewhere.
The woman he needed to protect and introduce into his world was close.
Chapter One
The sharp click of Kate Stewart’s heels on the pavement echoed around her. It harmonized with the crickets, tree frogs, and other nighttime creatures. She absolutely loved the campus of Patriot University where she recently obtained a position teaching art history after the previous teacher left one day, never to return.
The campus, situated smack dab in the middle of the Fenway section of Boston, had much to offer. There was nothing quite like seeing the Green Monster lit up at night during a Red Sox game. Since graduating from Mass College of Art and then BU with her master’s degree she could not have picked a better university to teach for.
Regardless of being in the heart of Boston, the campus, modest in size, had pockets of expansive gardens and green common areas aplenty. During the day they were breathtaking, but at night a little desolate and creepy with the three quarter moon casting eerie shaped shadows.
Breathing deeply, she smiled as the moist, clean air flooded every nerve ending in her body. She lifted up her head and eyed the storm clouds drifting by, which left an ebony sky full of vibrant stars and mystery. In an instant everything changed. Her body shivered, and she wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the strange coolness overcoming her.
“What the…?” Mist rolled in, thicker, heavier than she had ever experienced before. It wrapped her in its tendrils, and her heart jumped to equal her runaway pulse. Blinded by the dense, gray fog, she turned in circles, disoriented. Her lungs constricted—her heart ready to burst as panic gripped her.
“H-h-hello, is anybody there?” Although she tried to yell, her voice came out as a whisper. “Please don’t answer. Please don’t answer.” She waited—hearing nothing but the blood pounding a staccato in her ears.
“Whoever you are, I don’t scare easily.” Wasn’t that the biggest lie ever. She prayed she didn’t pee her pants. She had plans later on at the home of her best friend. Wouldn’t she be a sight showing up with wet pants at Deanna’s house? What would Gray, her boyfriend of barely three weeks, think?
Gusts of wind howled in her ears and swirled her hair in all directions. The momentum picked up, causing her body to spin around like a tornado. The wind ceased as swiftly as it began, and she found herself crouched low. Her lungs dragged in much needed air while she brushed her hair out of her eyes and stared into a pair of golden-yellow eyes attached to a long-haired dog. She shut her eyes then opened them and focused once again. Not dog…wolf. She shuddered as long sharp fangs glistened in the moonlight, promising violence.
“Easy, boy, easy now.” She lifted one hand in front of her body as if the gesture could indeed stop the animal if he charged her. Standing slowly, painfully slowly, she inched backwards and fought the urge to run. Then she realized running might not be an option as her knees suddenly locked up tight.
The large furry animal stared at her. A deep, hoarse voice spoke to her mind, telling her to run. He liked a challenge. Run. Run. Run.
And so she ran as if the devil himself charged after her. In some ways he did. The heaviness of her unsteady legs, the animal screaming in her head, and the lack of oxygen entering her lungs hampered her progress.
“Help me!” escaped her lips as the beast tackled her from behind, knocking what little breath she had left out of her. Fright seized her, the likes of which she’d never known, as the animal flipped her over and clawed right through her clothing, exposing her breasts and stomach. Its deadly talons swept an inferno of pain deep inside her belly. Boiling heat radiated up into her throat, rendering her mute. Tears stung her eyes. All hope of yelling for help seemed lost to her.
For one fleeting moment, she envisioned her gruesome death. Her mutilated body being found by terrified college freshmen. Adrenaline bub
bled up to explode like a volcano inside her body. She twisted left then right, fighting to throw the creature off. He outweighed her by a ton, but she continued to struggle.
“Please,” she pleaded, “what do you want?”
“You,” he growled in her mind.
“Me?” she stuttered.
“Ahh yes, you. You find that strange because…”
Was he serious? Then she whispered, “Because I’m human and you’re…”
A new dimension of dread possessed her body as his warm, wet snout pressed to her ear. He licked her, his foul breath hot and moist and his tongue long and slimy. Bile shot into her throat. She swallowed it down, reached out with her hand hoping to gouge his eyes out with her nails. She failed. Razor-sharp claws sliced through her neck.
Kate’s mind exploded as excruciating pain encompassed her. It took several seconds for her to realize the animal gnawed on her body. It was eating her alive! Please God, anybody…someone, please help me. Her mind screamed as she choked on her own blood. Somewhere close by a loud, angry howl reverberated in the dark. It should have terrorized her more. It didn’t. Then the world closed down around her as she fell into a black void.
“Easy, don’t try to get up. Save your strength.” Ethan Brown locked all the windows and doors before he closed the light-blocking drapes. His brownstone was immersed in complete and utter darkness. His sight stayed as sharp as ever.
“Where am I? What happened?” Kate asked.
“You’re safe,” he replied. At least for now. He’d almost been too late. Nearly let Troy down. It had been a simple request. Keep the human, Kate Stewart, safe. Shit, he was better than that. He’d spent most of his life in battle, leading his pack in the dangerous world of humans and non-humans. He should have prevented the attack.
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