Had the soul of Belinda sought him out because she knew of his connection to Rowan?
He loosened his grip on her and glanced at the phoenix. It was circling the lab and left a fiery trail in its wake.
“The phoenix is free,” Rowan said, following his gaze. “Its essence was trapped in the columns.”
Nate, followed by Nico, entered the chamber and it was only when they stopped dead and stared at her that he realized the flames had drawn back from her, encircling them all in a fire-free sphere.
“It’s done,” Nate said with a fleeting glance at the ash strewn floor. His glance took in Azrael’s ripped and bloodied wing and he visibly blanched before fixing his gaze onto the floor. He appeared unable, or unwilling, to look directly at Rowan. Nico, on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes from her.
“What happened to you?” Nico said. The faintest hint of awe threaded through his words and Azrael took an instinctive step closer to her. “I can no longer… feel you.”
The spirit of Belinda enveloped her in an ethereal hug, and he caught a sense of peace drifting from her as she slowly faded. The phoenix swooped low, brushed its wings along Rowan’s face and then soared through the open door and vanished.
She looked shell-shocked, as if mystical secrets had been shared during those few brief seconds. She didn’t reply to Nico but turned to look at him.
“When I died in the fire,” she hesitated, as if she couldn’t find the words to explain. He gripped her arms, and even through the leather of his coat could feel the heat of her skin and although it couldn’t be possible, the heat sank into his blood like a healing elixir. She blinked, as though emerging from a trance. “The phoenix essence in my blood, in my soul, swept through my body like an internal blaze. It was like I was being purified. So I could be reborn.”
Like the phoenix, she had been consumed by flame and risen again from the ashes. He simply stared at her, drinking in the sight of her face and eyes and hair. But none of the external mattered. It wasn’t her physical beauty that had ensnared his heart and captured his soul. Rowan had returned and he’d been given a second chance to deserve her love.
“I sense nothing from you.” Nico sounded unnerved. “You’re no longer a dhampir, Rowan. My blood doesn’t flow in your veins. Neither does Sakarbaal’s.”
She didn’t move from his embrace. “My mother named me Rowan.” Her voice was little more than a whisper. “To prevent the dead from rising. That’s what she wrote in her journal. But isn’t that what I’ve just done? Risen from the dead? What am I, Azrael?”
Before he could reassure her that he didn’t care if she was now a full blood vampire, she glanced at Nico. “Sakarbaal’s dhampirs he sired over the last fifty years are in stasis chambers. They’re not dead, but I don’t know if they can be revived.”
Nico inhaled a long breath. “We’ll bring Octavia and her team here. If anyone can save them, she can.”
“Let’s get out of here.” Azrael wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They’d collect Brad and her friend Lily and then he had no intention of returning to Romania again.
Chapter 41
Rowan
Meg turned her gaze from Brad to Azrael and finally to Willow who lay peacefully in Rowan’s arms. She hadn’t known where else for Azrael to take them but Meg’s private apartment in Sloane Square, since there was no telling what reception they’d get back at the London HQ. Meg, uncharacteristically, had listened without interruption as she’d given her a brief summary of what had occurred in Romania.
She’d downplayed the whole resurrection bit.
“Lily’s parents should know what happened to her.” She glanced at the sheet wrapped form of Lily, who lay on Meg’s chic sofa. Of course, her parents couldn’t be told the whole truth, but would it be kinder to let them know of their daughter’s death, rather than have them wonder, forever, if she was still alive somewhere? Could they ever be told they had a grandchild, a child who was only half-human, a child who—at least for now—was addicted to a preternatural cocktail containing the essence of phoenix?
She had no doubt that Octavia and her team—and maybe even some of the Enclave’s scientists—would create a viable substitute for when the stockpiles ran out. And if, as Sakarbaal had implied, a dhampir’s physiology began to reject the phoenix essence after twenty-seven years, there was hope that at least she and her half-siblings would not be forever hooked on that element of amber acid.
Meg blinked. “There are a great many things the Enclave will have to do now Sakarbaal has been destroyed.”
“Starting with hunting down any of the Electors who escaped Romania,” Brad said, the savage note in his voice a sure indicator that he’d willingly spend the rest of his life hunting those members of the High Council who’d fled the castle.
Meg stepped closer and frowned down at the sleeping baby. Instinctively her hold on Willow tightened, even though Meg had made no move to take the baby from her. Or even touch her.
“You were barely an hour old when I first saw you,” Meg said. There was an odd note in her voice, as if looking at Willow brought back nostalgic memories. “I wasn’t close to your mother, Rowan. But when I looked at you—she must have seen something in my eyes. Because it was then she made me promise.”
Her heart ached for the mother she had never known. Azrael slid his arm around her waist, offering his silent support. Had her mother requested the same deathbed promise from Meg as Lily had from her?
“She made you promise to look after me?”
Meg made an expressive gesture with her hand. “Of course. But I had already decided you would be mine. That promise was unnecessary.” Then she sighed. “She was lucid in those moments, with no medical personnel around. She asked me to find her journal that had been taken from her, and to ensure that you had it when you were older.”
The journal she’d given Lily to read. The journal that had roused Lily’s suspicions.
For all the good it had done her.
“The edict from the Elector High Council, that dhampirs were not permitted to keep anything from their mothers, was presented as an act of mercy. The Enclave was their only family for surely there was no place for them in human society.” Meg gave a derisive sniff. “When I held your mother’s journal, and knew I would go against the Elders wishes, it struck me. The real reason why they never allowed the children any personal mementoes. It was to keep you isolated.”
In their gilded prison.
“Your mother said she hoped you would one day understand. I did not know what she could mean. I read the journal, Rowan.” There was no hint of apology in Meg’s voice. “There was nothing in it I could see that was so important. And yet,” she hesitated. “Her last entries haunted me. Over the years they fed the seeds of doubt I had about the Ancient Ones. Yet it gives me little pleasure to know my suspicions were not unfounded.”
She stared into the sleeping baby’s face. She possessed black hair and Rowan knew she would also have green eyes and a striking beauty. She had no journal of her mother’s, but she would know the truth of her heritage through Rowan.
The whole truth.
Rowan’s mother hadn’t known the truth, but she’d tried to explain something inexplicable to her as yet unborn child. It was her mother’s words that had jolted Lily into refusing her medication. And those same words had pushed Rowan into breaking into the Enclave’s medical records and discovering the link between the dhampirs and their rare blood type.
Maybe, after all, her mother’s journal had helped to save her life. And allowed her to finally lay to rest the innocent souls who had been killed by Sakarbaal.
Goodbye, Steven.
“You won’t be returning to the Enclave?” Meg asked.
She wanted to stay with Azrael. But if that wasn’t her destiny then she still wouldn’t return to the place she’d called home for the last twenty-four years. “No.”
Meg held out her arms. “Then give me the child. I will ensure she comes to no har
m.”
She stiffened, even though she knew Meg would never snatch Willow from her. “Can I have a moment alone with Azrael, Meg?”
Was it her imagination or did he tense by her side? Meg shrugged and she and Brad left the room. Azrael turned to face her, his hands molding her hips.
Her heart ached as she looked once again at his broken, bloodied wing. He’d assured her it would mend in time. Had even told her it didn’t matter if his wing was permanently deformed. But all she could think whenever she caught sight of it was—it was all her fault. He’d lost half his wing because he’d protected her from Sakarbaal’s blade.
She knew, in her heart, that he loved her. Even though he had never said the words. But did he love her enough to accept Lily’s child in their life?
Azrael
Unease stirred deep in his heart. Why was Rowan looking at him as if this was the last time they’d be together?
He battened down the overwhelming urge to contact Nate and get him to teleport them to his planet. At least there he knew she couldn’t escape him. At least there he’d have all the time in the universe to make her see that she belonged by his side.
“Azrael.” Her voice was husky. “I made a promise to Lily.”
His gaze slipped to the baby in her arms. He could guess what she had promised.
“To care for her child.” The baby’s perfect little mouth twitched, as if disturbed by bad dreams, and something deep in his chest constricted.
He’d ensure with everything he was that this little one would have nothing but sweet dreams in her future.
“Yes. I know Meg would care for her. I know Willow has a home at the Enclave. But that isn’t what Lily wanted.” She hesitated, but before he could respond she rushed on. “It isn’t what I want. Willow deserves more than that, Azrael. I want her to have something I never did. A chance for a normal life.”
He wasn’t sure how much of a normal life a dhampir could have with an archangel as her father and Rowan, who had died and then resurrected, as her mother but he was more than willing to try.
“We can do that.” As the words left his mouth light filled his chest. Hope. As if the remnants of guilt, that had remained buried deep inside his heart since confessing his sins to Rowan, had finally faded.
He’d once believed dhampirs should never have been conceived. But he had fallen for one, and another had stolen his heart in less than a moment, in a way he’d never imagined possible.
In all his long existence the thought of having a child had never crossed his mind. And instantly fear choked him. Fear that something might happen to the baby. That he’d be a lousy dad. But most of all the fear that crippled him was that both Rowan and the baby would some day die.
She stiffened and took a step back. His hands dropped to his sides and he stared at her, uncomprehending. A wary look was in her eyes, as though his pledge meant nothing.
“It’s all right.” Her voice was soft but couldn’t hide the thread of pain beneath. “You don’t have to pretend. I’d never try and force you to accept Willow. But it doesn’t mean we can’t still see each other, does it? We could—work something out.”
Work something out? What the hell was there to work out? He’d seen unquestioning love in her eyes in that terrifying moment before she’d fallen into the flames. It had simultaneously been the most wonderful and horrific moment in his life.
“You’re not going anywhere.” The thought of her not being by his side when he woke in the morning or went to bed at night didn’t bear thinking about. “You belong with me.”
A faint smile curved her lips, as if she found his macho display endearing rather than commanding. “I know. And I want to be with you. But I won’t leave Willow. We can make it work. If you want it to.”
He rolled his shoulders and attempted to ignore the white-hot agony that shot through his damaged wing. There was a time, not long ago, when the state of his wing would have consumed him with horror. But it was only his wing. Eventually, it would heal. And even if it didn’t, right now he had more important things to worry about.
“Why would you leave Willow?” He didn’t want to ask but had to know the truth. “Don’t you trust me with her?”
The smile slid from her face. “It’s got nothing to do with trust. She’s a dhampir. I know how you feel about dhampirs. But her parentage isn’t her fault.”
He glared at her and tried to convince himself the ache consuming his chest was connected to his damaged wing.
Except it wasn’t. The pain was deeper than mere physical. It seared the elemental essence of his being and shamed the depths of his soul. Because Rowan still believed he despised the race of her birth.
“I was wrong.” It hurt to admit, but not as much as the knowledge she’d thought he was still entrenched in his former prejudices. “Gods, Rowan. I was so wrong. I should have known from the start. The Nephilim were condemned as anomalies of nature, but only by the ignorant and only because of their parentage. How are dhampirs any different?”
“Sakarbaal is her father.”
He reached out and gently traced his finger along the baby’s soft cheek. “I’m her father.”
Rowan’s bottom lip wobbled. “But the look on your face just now—of horror—as if you couldn’t imagine anything worse than—”
“No.” He cradled her face between his hands. “It had nothing to do with the baby’s heritage. It was—” The words lodged in his throat. How could he begin to tell her of the fear that engulfed him every time he thought of her mortality? Yet if he didn’t, she would forever wonder. “I can’t bear the thought that you and Willow—” It was no good. He couldn’t say the words. What had Gabe told him? You can’t think about it. You just have to take each day and live it to the full.
He’d do that. He could do that, for Rowan and for Willow.
An odd expression crossed her face. “You can’t bear the thought of us dying?”
“Don’t even say it.” The horror of Sakarbaal plunging his sword through her heart would haunt him always.
She hitched the baby closer to her breast, and with her free hand she slid her fingers between his. “Azrael. Willow could potentially live for centuries. And as for me—I’ve already died. I shouldn’t be here with you now, but the phoenix essence inside me changed me in the fire. I’m no longer a dhampir. I’m not human. For all we know I could be as immortal as you. But whatever I am, I’m still me. And I love you. I’ll always love you.”
Her words flowed through him, healing the pain, vanquishing the fear. He didn’t care if she was some unique new species because she was right. She was Rowan. And Rowan was his everything.
He, who had lived for millennia, who had visited countless worlds in a dozen galaxies, couldn’t find the words to tell her what she meant to him.
There were no words. But he could tell her this. “I love you.”
A single tear escaped and trickled down her cheek and soaked into his thumb. “Forever?” Her voice was husky.
He leaned towards her, mindful of Willow, and his lips brushed hers. “Forever.”
If you enjoyed Azrael and Rowan’s romance, please tap here to leave a review for Nemesis!
Read on for a sneak peek of Salvation, featuring the Archangel Nathanael and his heroine, Isabella - also available in Kindle Unlimited.
I just spent the best night of my life with the hottest guy I've ever met. Too bad he turns out to be my deadliest enemy - the Archangel Nathanael...
Half-demon Isabella has dreamed of bringing archangels to justice and there's no way she'll forgive Nate for his deception. Except it turns out he has no idea who she is... can this be the chance for retribution she's been searching for?
There's only one rule I live by. Never trust a demon.
Close to finding a rogue demon he's been hunting for millennia, Nate's not looking for any distractions. Until Isabella turns his world inside out and leaves him wanting so much more. But when he uncovers her true heritage, her betrayal rocks him, a
nd he faces the choice of leaving her to her fate or breaking the only rule in his book.
With dark secrets threatening their survival, there's no way an archangel and a half-demon can work together. But with the clock ticking, and danger stalking every move they make, the only way to save themselves might just be to save each other.
If you would like to know when my next book is available you can sign up for my Newsletter at my website, and receive Catalyst, a Realm of Flame and Shadow prequel, for free. Catalyst is a standalone romance, and shows what really happened twenty-five years ago between Aurora’s parents and the Archangel Zadkiel.
SALVATION
Realm of Flame and Shadow Book 3
Releasing on 8th December 2020
Prologue
Nate
Eleven Thousand Years Ago. Somewhere on Earth.
The Archangel Nathanael landed on a rocky outcrop that gave him an uninterrupted view of the brawl in progress on the sandy beach below. Folding his wings, he recognized the three tormentors. They were minor gods who often hung out on Earth, and their current victim didn’t stand a chance against them.
He wasn’t in the mood for a fight, but three immortals against one frail human was shitty, whatever way he looked at it. Like a lion playing with a mouse.
Sweat beaded along the human’s forehead and a knife hilt protruded from his neck. Even from this distance, there was no mistake. The swirling runes on the knife handle were too distinctive. It belonged to one of the jeering gods, Maahes.
How was the human still alive? Except the answer was simple. He wasn’t a human at all. Intrigued he scanned the creature. His aura throbbed with leashed power, the ancient, unadulterated power that only archangels possessed. But he was no archangel.
Nemesis: Paranormal Angel Romance (Realm of Flame and Shadow Book 2) Page 28