Dark Angel (Anak Trilogy)

by Sherry Fortner

  “Is this what death feels like?” I wondered. It felt more like I was floating on a cloud than in the jaws of a monster. The pain was horrific but quick. There was no pain now.

  “Annie, are you OK?” I thought I heard Zell’s voice. This isn’t so bad I thought. There is no pain, and I can still remember Zell’s voice.

  Then I felt his warm lips pressed to my forehead, and his strong arms were around me.

  “Am I dead?” I asked.

  “No. No, you are not dead. You are very much alive,” he whispered.

  “Where is the monster?”

  “Still in the woods,” Zell replied.

  “Where am I?” I whispered softly.

  “You are with me,” he answered pressing his face to mine. I could feel rather than see tears escape his eyes and fall against my face.

  “You found me,” I said simply.

  “Yes, I found you,” he whispered holding me close.

  Only then did I open my eyes. No longer was the moon faintly peeking through the trees. It was big, bright, and large. It looked so close. It was with that thought that I realized we were airborne. I felt safe. Zell’s arms were around me, and I could hear his heart beating against my cheek as he held me to him. If I died now, death was acceptable. Zell had come for me and found me. I was at peace.

  Zell had spotted Jon on the lake and followed him to me. He had swooped down, and the impact and tearing of flesh that I had felt had actually been Zell diving from the sky to steal me from the monster’s jaws and ripping me free from its deadly grip.

  “I have to get you to a hospital. That thing bit you,” Zell whispered against the wind of the night his voice breaking.

  “Bit me?” Then blackness consumed me again for the second time today.

  11. ZELL

  THE HOLLOWNESS OF THAT MOMENT confounded him. He dreamed of her for too long. When Annie was born, belonging was birthed in him. He knew that with her was where he belonged no matter where that journey took him. He always dreamed that if he ever revealed himself to her that she would know she belonged to him, too. That’s not exactly how it played out. She did not like him at all. She fought his every move to protect her. Though lately, he could tell her feelings were changing.

  He had always wanted heaven. He grew up striving for that place. When he touched Annie for the first time that night in the parking lot at school, he found his eternal world in her. In all his wanderings through this world of grief, he finally found her—the other half of his heart. All of everything came into existence in Annie. She could not die on him. A dry sob escaped from Zell’s lips as he held Annie as close as he possibly could.

  Annie’s eyes fluttered open for a brief moment and focused on him. She smiled warmly at him.

  “Zell, I . . . ,” Annie began weakly and ceased to breathe.

  Don’t miss the sequel and second novel, Forever Girl, in the Anak Trilogy.

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  Forever Girl

  GUILT

  JON RAN FOR ONLY A FEW YARDS WHEN HE suddenly stopped. Annie, how could he leave her there with that . . . that thing? Undecided, he stood there. He loved Annie. Ever since that new guy Zell had come to school, she had not given him the time of day. He wanted to make her pay for ignoring him. He wanted to make her pay for dropping him and giving Zell all her attention. He wanted to make them both pay for the humiliation that he felt in the cafeteria. He had made it clear to the guys at school that Annie was exclusively his. He had thoroughly terrorized them, so no guy dared to speak to Annie for more than a few minutes.

  Then, Zell showed up, and he couldn’t be intimidated. Every time he had confronted Zell, Zell had stood up to him. He silently dared Jon to continue. Jon knew Zell would pursue Annie if he wanted, and there was nothing he could do about it. If he stepped over the line with Zell, he knew there would be a fight. Jon enjoyed a rumble now and then, but not one he couldn’t win. He didn’t think he would win a fight with Zell; though, he had nothing to give him that feeling but instinct. Something about that guy was different. He exuded an aura of perpetual danger.

  He loved Annie, yet he had left her there for a monster to tear to shreds. Would Zell have left her? Somehow he didn’t think so, and the thought shamed him.

  What was that thing? It had been several feet taller than him who at six feet, three inches and two hundred and twenty pounds of muscle was a tenacious force himself. Fingers of panic and remorse grabbed at his chest. He couldn’t leave Annie. He started back toward the sound of Annie’s scream. He had just made it back to her when he saw the creature had her in its grasp. He had thought the creature might have been a large bear, but this thing that had Annie was no bear. It was a hairy mountain with long, sharp teeth. This was a monster from the pit of hell. One thing Jon was sure of, this was not a natural creature but a supernatural one.

  As he stood by helpless, trying to figure out how to distract the monster. Another creature swooped from the sky and scooped Annie right from the mouth of the beast. The creature tried to clamp its jaws down on Annie to prevent her escape, but its enormous fangs just ripped through the flesh of her legs as if they were butter when the being tore her from its jaws. The great beast stood on its hind legs and screamed into the night. Jon covered his ears. The sound terrified him.

  What beast was this that had Annie now? Jon knew it had wings, but it had dropped from the sky so swiftly and snatched her so quickly that it took him and the creature by surprise. Jon disappeared behind a tree and leaned against it. Where was Annie? The thing that snatched her had great wings and was amazingly huge, but it was some form of a man—of that he was sure. Had the creature saved her or was she in even more danger? For all he knew, the second creature may have already killed Annie. What was it people said when something like that happened? Out of the frying pan and into the fire? The monster was still roaring and screaming. Jon was trembling. He climbed into the midst of some plant overgrowth that was growing between several trees. He curled into a ball and waited there for the monster to stop screeching and leave.

  Jon was filled with remorse. This was all his fault. Annie’s blood was on his hands. He brought her here. He was sure she was dead, and he had made her last hours alive horrific. He had kidnapped her, thrown her in his truck, and brought her to the cabin in the woods. She had escaped and run from him when he had driven to the nearest store for supplies. He had kidnapped her in a jealous rage, and he had not planned this well at all. When he got to the cabin, there was nothing to eat or drink. He didn’t plan on letting her go anytime soon, and that made a trip to the store a necessity. He was going to keep her until he was ready to let her go, and that wouldn’t be until she was in love with him. He was going to make her love him. She would be his and his alone before he would take her back. She would forget all about Zell. Zell would not want her anyway after he finished telling him all the intimate details about their nights alone in the cabin. Zell would hate her, and that is what he wanted.

  Annie was gorgeous. The most beautiful thing about her was that she didn’t realize how beautiful she was. Her blond hair fell to her waist, and her big, blue eyes were always smiling. She had a peaceful spirit about her that was the opposite of his tumultuous one. She was slim but perfectly built, and Jon had decided in seventh grade that he had to have her. Then, he came. Jon was so consumed with jealously that he never considered what would happen to him if somehow Annie freed herself and went to the police. Blindly, he believed that if she were alone with him, she would forget all about Zell. Now, she was gone, and he would never see her again. Jon put his head in his hands and began to weep silently. It was then that he heard the snapping of twigs and branches all around him. He shook violently. Was the creature still there? Were there more of them? Was it looking for him? Jon held his breath and waited. He could barely control the violent shaking that overtook him. He had to control it, or the monster would find him. The monster roared and screamed again only feet from the brush where Jon was hiding.

  A
retired school teacher, Sherry Fortner, now writes romance and paranormal novels fulltime from her home in Southeastern Tennessee where she lives with her husband, Ray, her horses, Misty, Gummy Bear, and Spice, two Yorkshire terriers, Elvis and Belle, barn cats, Boo-Boo Kitty and Cloud, and assorted chickens. Dark Angel is her debut release in the Anak Trilogy. When not writing, Sherry can be found outside in her garden, riding around her ranch, or playing with her grandchildren or animals. Visit Sherry at her website at www.sherryfortner.com .