Archangels Creed Box Set 1-3

by Azure Boone

  He opened his eyes and the terrified gaze before him belonged to his mother. Loathing and hate coursed through his veins. She'd been too scared for herself to help her own child. Females were weak and pathetic. Worthy of, and necessary for, only one thing. Leo had no interest in procreation. And the last thing women deserved was pleasure in sex.

  The cold returned to his spine in a blast of arctic fury.

  They all needed to be punished. And for him, sex was the most rewarding way to make them pay.

  ****

  Dorn stiffened as the defiling excuse for a human refused his call. Damn free will. Kassern's intervene now glare cut into him like a knife.

  He lifted his hand and shot an aqua-colored rope of power into the shell of defecation's skull. Stricken, the man wailed and released the woman, grabbing his head. The miscreant's spine arched with a sound like firecrackers and the glowing sky-blue filament of energy lifted him several inches into the air. Exposed skin pulsed and went translucent, blood vessels becoming visible thick blue ropes that bulged under the stark white skin.

  The male's body slowly contorted like a pretzel while Dorn sought to prove his conclusions about the man's intentions. The most difficult part for Dorn was curbing the sledgehammer of righteous fury he was normally called upon to use. The human's nervous and circulatory systems were like fine china next to the demons he normally dealt with. But the rules forbade any of the archangels from doing irreversible damage without absolute proof, and he had no intentions of being called before Uriel the way Kassern had been.

  Pale blue flames erupted over Dorn's body when he encountered the vile reality of the man's intentions. When he'd finished defiling Jessie in every way his perverted imagination could conceive, he'd planned to strangle her and burn the house around her.

  "Easy Dorn," Kassern warned when Dorn's blue fire turned plasma white with rage.

  Dorn's blood howled with the instinct to utterly devastate evil but he wrestled his righteous fury under perfect control. A little. He squeezed his fist and sliced connections in the brain, disabling most voluntary body functions. Breathing and circulation would continue, and digestion. The man would live, imprisoned and aware. No more walking, talking or raping.

  The male finally crumpled to the floor in a mass of twitching and flailing limbs while the stench of lost bowel and bladder control echoed the judgment.

  The only business remaining between Dorn and the human was his eternal redemption. But that option would come solely with the mercy of a long and painful living death. And the salvation he'd get would be strictly on the spiritual plane.

  He turned to leave, just a little glad that Kassern had the grace not to smirk or gloat at Dorn's miscalculation with the human.

  "What now?" Kassern asked, falling into step beside him.

  "Plan B."

  Jessie fought to control her breathing, refusing to hyperventilate. Leo jerked and twisted on her floor, his body contorting itself to an impossible degree. His eyes, stretched wide open, rolled back to leave only the whites showing. Violent choking noises spewed from his gaping mouth and one side strained down, pulling the entire side of his face out of alignment.

  The whole thing went on forever it seemed, but was really maybe a minute. When he finally went still, the smell of crap hit Jessie. Trembling hands over her mouth, she looked all around.

  Her nurse instincts warred with her fear of the man. Seizure? It looked like it. No, what it looked like was freaking demon possession. If her sister were there, she'd have dumped a gallon of holy water on him.

  What to do? The nurse in her screamed 911!

  She gasped and jumped for the phone on the side table. "Oh God, oh God," she cried when her fingers became dyslexic, refusing to push the buttons in the right order.

  "Nine-one-one. What's your emergency?"

  After she overcame her horror of having to verify that Leo still had a pulse and was breathing, Jessie stuttered through the answers to the rest of the dispatcher's questions while she stared at the man sprawled on her floor, still in pretzel form.

  The dispatcher kept up a stream of questions and small talk designed to calm the caller, but she couldn't hear over the vivid replay of what Leo was doing just before the seizure hit him. Her hand closed around the crucifix at her throat, seeking comfort. My God. She dropped onto the couch when the trembling in her legs became too bad for her to stand, while the horrible replay brought on a nightmare panic attack. She needed to think of something else. Something… nurse-like.

  She screamed when a buzzing noise came from him.

  "Ma'am? Are you okay?" The dispatcher's voice echoed in her ear.

  A cell phone? "Um yeah. I-I-I think his cell phone rang."

  "Don't try to move the victim, ma'am."

  Shit. Who had called him? A friend? An accomplice?

  A wife?

  Jess bounced her legs a hundred miles an hour while the thing buzzed, no longer hearing the dispatcher's rambling. She half worried it'd wake him and wanted to shut it off. She could go through his address book and numbers. Might help if she was going to report what he did. Oh man, who was she kidding? She had no proof, really.

  Finding out if he was married would tell her a lot. While the dispatcher continued his calming routine, she crawled next to the human pretzel and searched for that phone.

  Getting the contraption out of his pocket belonged in a bad horror flick. The women in those movies were always so stupid for not running. She'd never counted herself as that sort, but look at her go.

  The dispatcher's update on the current whereabouts of the first EMS responder actually registered, but she didn't reply.

  The phone finally slid free of Leo's pocket and she scrambled fast and far away like a human crab. Pressed against the opposite wall, she stared, certain he would burst to life any second and come after her like a demonic rabid maniac.

  She screamed when the phone came alive in her hands, buzzing and vibrating, then had to pause long enough to let the dispatcher know what happened. She finally managed to tear her eyes from Leo's still body to look at the phone.

  Lucian.

  May as well have read Lucifer as freaked as she was. Eying the strange man who she'd not thirty minutes ago considered sleeping with, Jessie hit accept before she could chicken out.

  "Hey man, the part came in for that Mercedes, just wanted to let--"

  "I'm sorry, hello?" Jessie firmed up her voice. "There's been an accident." Shoot, her voice cracked.

  "What? With Leo?" The semi-masculine voice with a foreign lilt rose with panic.

  "Y-y-yes, the ambulance is on their way, he-h-he had some kind of s-seizure, I'm sorry, the ambulance is on their way." Jessie turned the house phone away from her ear, silencing the drone of the dispatcher's voice so she could concentrate for half a second.

  The caller swore. "What hospital will they take him to? Who are you?"

  Jess cleared her throat twice only to croak her answer. "St. Joseph's General is closest. And I'm-I'm just a friend."

  "Dammit."

  The line went dead in time for Jessie to catch the end of what the dispatcher was saying. "—have arrived. Unless you respond now, they will assume you are unable to do so-"

  "No, I'm fine. Sorry." The last thing she wanted was for the response team to knock her door in. The whole front of the house rattled with the sudden pounding at the door.

  ****

  "Holy Mary Mother of God!" Sally gasped over the phone when Jessie told her the news.

  Jessie eyed the dark-haired guy, slash man, slash Greek god sitting in the waiting room chair, bent over with his head in his hands. "His brother's here. I feel so terrible." Jessie bit her lip and clenched her eyes. "I need you to come down here. I have to talk to you."

  "What is it?" Sally whispered into the phone. Her tone said she knew something odd was up but was more curious than worried.

  "I can't tell you over the phone. But I need you t
o come here. Please."

  "Please?"

  Jessie rolled her eyes. "You act like I never use the word."

  "Not with me you don't."

  "Please, just come."

  "Wow. Twice. How can I resist? After all, I am about to be a postulant."

  Jessie leaned against the wall. "You're practically a saint already, not sure why you want to be a nun too. Gotta go." She hurried to hang up when Lucian walked her way.

  Leo had been ruggedly handsome but Lucian…no way were they full brothers. Besides no family resemblance, they didn't even walk similarly, as siblings tended to do. Where Leo had been cowboy hard and warm as the sun, this one was…dark as the night…kinda like…Batman. Wrapped in a perfect Greek god body. Sadly he was far more beautiful than she could ever hope to be. Those lips were…what was the word…sculpted, so perfectly full and carved you wondered if they were fake.

  He stopped a few feet before her, shuffling like a man who was unsure of himself. "Thank you. For helping him." He raked a hand through ebony hair, making it stick up on the left before lowering thick black lashes over bright green eyes, the color of new leaves. His gaze roamed over her face, paused at her jaw for a second, almost too quickly to be noticed. "You were injured?"

  "Um, I'm sorry?" Had she not cleaned the blood from the corner of her mouth well enough?

  She tensed at the approach of his hand. He brushed a gentle thumb across her jaw where a low level non-stop throb had taken up residence.

  The touch set off a firestorm of… something that had nothing to do with a perfect stranger having the audacity to touch her so intimately. Her heart pounded and little arcs of electricity zinged over skin. Sally tried to recall if turning into a slut was part of the trauma responses in victims. What was his question? Injury. Her mind flew back in time to see the back of Leo's fist coming at her. "Um, it's nothing. I think his arm bumped me during the seizure or something."

  One black brow arched momentarily, as if questioning the truth of her statement, then dropped back into place. "Okay. Anyway, thank you for helping him. It was a selfless act."

  Jessie gawked at the up-close holy-cow handsomeness. "Oh, not a problem." She clutched her purse tightly under her arm, feeling the nervous chatter rising up like the Rocky theme song. "It was nothing really, I'm a nurse. Your brother, he-he helped me. With my car. He was…just a friend."

  He flashed an odd gaze. Maybe worried? Whatever it was didn't help her nervousness or her compulsion to make light talk. She chewed her lower lip, resisting.

  "You said it was…a seizure?" His eyes probed only briefly before shifting to the activity around him and Jessie couldn't help notice they'd darkened.

  "A seizure, yes. I think so." She nodded too much. "Is he prone to them? That you know of?"

  He shook his head, stepping closer into her personal space to avoid a few rushing nurses. "Never. Not that I am aware."

  The smell of Ivory soap hit her. Such an innocent clean smell. Her eyes caught briefly at the neckline of his black T-shirt and slurped in his glowing bronzish skin. The edge of a dark tattoo peaked from the neckline, prompting curiosity. Bet he was hairless. Jesus. She jerked her eyes up and nodded. "It was a whopper. A real doozy. Straight out of a horror movie." She barely caught her gaspy laugh in time. Idiot! Not everyone considered a seizure to be entertaining, or in the horror genre.

  He shook his head a little then leaned against the wall, hands in the front pockets of close fitting blue denim low-riders. He seemed tense. Worried about Leo? Did Lucian know what kind of man his brother was?

  What were you supposed to say to take someone's mind off being worried? "You don't sound like you're from around here."

  One of his thick, perfectly shaped brows rose in an elegant arch as he glanced at her. "I'm not actually. I came here five years ago. From Romania."

  "Romania. Wow, neat. I knew you weren't from here."

  He shrugged, flicking his gaze at her. "The accent usually gives me away."

  "That and your looks."

  "Uh-oh," was all he muttered, staring at his feet.

  Uh-oh? What did that mean? Did she offend him? Was that an anti-Romanian comment? "Is it bad that you're prettier than any woman I know? Are you gay? I did not just say that, I definitely did not just say that." She watched the hustle of work around her, wishing her sister would appear at the door. Or the floor would open and swallow her stupid butt. His lack of comment confirmed he was gay and only added to her humiliation. Gay guys usually didn't like when other people noticed, did they? It must be worse in other countries, from his reaction.

  Keeping her eyes trained on the door, her mouth proceeded to have severe diarrhea. "I'm a motor mouth, sorry, I say the stupidest things. Put my foot in my mouth twenty-four seven, seven days a week. Look, see? I just did it again. It's because I get nervous in social situations. Especially around guys. Even more so with gorgeous guys?" She gave yet another gaspy laugh combined with a groan, one more nail in the social coffin then finally chanced a look at him, half expecting, half wishing to find him gone.

  Hardly. His green gaze was severe, his lids slightly lowered, brows pulled into a scowl. "I don't think I've ever been called…that."

  Shoot, that didn't sound good. But which? A woman? Or gay? "I'm sorry if it was an insult, I meant it as a compliment. The woman part. Not sure what it means in Rome—ania—Romania." She consciously bit her lip to force the disaster to stop pouring out.

  He laughed.

  Jessie knew all about ridicule first hand, and there it was, in his sexy tone. She was such a loser. The only compensation was the dimple showing in his left cheek.

  Sally finally came through the entrance doors. "My sister, thank goodness." Jessie waved to her and Sally hurried over.. Before Sally could say too much, Jessie introduced her. "Sally, this is Lucian, Lucian, my sister."

  Sally reached out to shake his hand. Surprisingly he shook it. No, not surprisingly. Sally always got the guys.

  Jessie couldn't resist adding, "She's a nun."

  She'd intended that bit of info to dissuade, but the odd fact seemed to only further his interest in Sally. He spoke softly in another language, clearly amazed, and Jessie became captive to his beautiful face and the way he sounded in a foreign tongue.

  "Not a nun yet," Sally admonished sweetly with a speculative look at Jessie.

  Jessie quirked a brow at the I haven't signed on the dotted line and I may not, after meeting him tone.

  "I think that is a very noble thing to be." Lucian nodded, hands back in his pockets.

  "Why thank you."

  Why on earth did Sally pretend to have a southern belle accent? Kind of sickening. "Can I talk to you Sally?"

  "Sure. It was nice to meet you Lucian." She held her hand out again. This time, Lucian seemed honored and captured it in both of his as he nodded and smiled at her.

  Jessie froze again, mesmerized. That smile. No, his entire face with that smile. The man/ god was sinfully beautiful, that's what he was. And it looked like her nun sister was all into bringing his salvation.

  "Oh!" Sally dug through her purse and pulled out a wad of scapulars. "A gift. They're all blessed, pick one." She untangled the rat's nests of strings, each holding a cloth saint, flipping through them like a deck of playing cards, reciting the power-ups each offered or evil they protected you from. Sickness. Depression. Joy. Prosperity. Anger. The list went on and on, with some saints able to kill a few naughty birds with one holy stone.

  More shocking than her sister's spiritual-casino-in-a-purse was how many Lucian actually took! One of each? Maybe he was like his brother.

  "And they're all blessed!" Sally reiterated, clearly ecstatic over her willing…victim errr…customer. "Oh, what am I thinking? Take all of them, your brother could stand a few as well. You can never have too much holiness surrounding you."

  Lucian accepted enthusiastically, nodding with foreign syllables. Jessie watched his lips, not hearing
a word. Astonishing mouth. Truly. She traced the edge in her mind then snapped her gaze up in mortified horror when those lips turned to her with a little sexy half smile, as if he knew her thoughts.

  Jessie swallowed hard when she bumped into his direct green gaze while she tucked her naturally unruly hair behind an ear. "All fixed up?"

  "Thank you again. For helping my brother." The politely distant tone served to remind her there was nothing personal between them. Even if she might wish with all her might there was.

  Jessie wagged her hand with a pfft. "It was nothing. I'd have done the same for a dog." Oh no. Before her mouth could take off in a marathon session of disaster, Jessie reached out to shake his hand. "So nice to meet you, Lucian. Very sorry for all of this."

  ****

  "Plan B." Dorn nodded at Lucian in answer to Kassern's perturbed look.

  Kassern scratched the bridge of his nose and nodded at the young girl named Sally. "That must be your wife?"

  Dorn resisted the urge to grind his jaw at that surprisingly annoying term. He wasn't about to give Kassern the satisfaction. "Yes."

  "She's quite a bargain. And seems…smitten with plan B. Trouble in paradise already," he sighed.

  "That will change when we meet and she knows the mission. Her dedication to God will enable her to overcome her human emotions." Dorn glanced at Kassern. "Rather than allowing her human emotions to lessen it. Brother."

  "Ohhhh, ouch." Kassern jutted his chin at the human named Jessie. "She's original at least."

  Original. Kassern knew as well as Dorn that she was a disaster waiting to happen. Her greatest strength was knowing in a pure way how weak she was. But her greatest weakness—which far surpassed said strength—was her uncompromising belief in her failure. She was a trouble magnet. Her negativity attracted every demon within the immediate vicinity. Only her solid faith in God prevented them gaining a foothold in her soul. She protected her faith secretly and quietly, but hidden or not, it was the one thing saving her. He'd have to babysit that one closely. Dorn bristled at the realization that soon he'd have a wife and two children to nurture while saving the world.