by Zoey Marcel
Table of Contents
Title Page
Chapter One:
Chapter Two:
Chapter Three:
Chapter Four:
Chapter Five:
Chapter Six:
Chapter Seven:
Chapter Eight:
Chapter Nine:
Chapter Ten:
Chapter Eleven:
Chapter Twelve:
Chapter Thirteen:
Broken Vow: Fallen Angels Trilogy, Book Two
by Zoey Marcel
ISBN: 978-1-937831-60-8
A Pink Flamingo Ebook Publication
Copyright © 2012, All rights reserved
Prologue
The Underworld 1854
A cold hush fell over the interior of the ancient temple. The silence was broken by the steady chorus of footsteps on the hard stone floor. The cold which provided the affectation of a desolate wasteland was hardly lifeless. The cries of those enshrined in stone could almost be heard in the consuming silence as Sully perused the demonic statues carefully.
It had been forty years since a being was freed from his stone prison. According to the law, a troublesome demon that had been turned to stone by an angel could be freed from captivity, but the drawback was that only one could be released every forty years. The forty year period was at hand once more and one demon would be set free. Just one.
Sully stood before the stone monument he'd been looking for. He often wondered about this demon. His father, Jude had told him stories about his other father and about Sully's mother who betrayed them by becoming a black angel and forsaking her family. Sully had never met her, but he was about to meet his other father, Nimbus.
The sound of cracking filled Nimbus' ears and darkness became filtered light as the rock encasing him broke and crumbled to pieces around him. The impact made his feet collapse out from under him. He found himself surrounded by hunks of broken stone and staring up into the face of a man he'd never seen before. A man whose features were oddly familiar.
“What happened?” The sound of his own voice was strange to him. Silence had filled his ears for so long and now the quiet in the temple around him proved deafening.
“Do you know who I am?” the man asked.
Nimbus shook his head, the movement rendering him dizzy for a moment. Talking was hardly pleasant when his mouth felt so dry. “No. Should I?”
As if reading his mind, the man knelt and brought a canteen to his lips until he quenched his thirst.
“I'm Sully...your son.”
Nimbus stared at him in disbelief. He should have seen it before. The slanted eyes resembled his own, though the silver-blue color more closely matched Jude's irises rather than Nimbus' olive-green ones. Sully's hair was flaxen-blond like his own, but his full lips resembled his mother's. She had beautiful lips. Lips she'd used to profess her love for him and then later to renounce her allegiance to him in the pursuit of redemption. His heart ached with sorrow even as it clenched in anger.
“You're a man,” Nimbus managed to utter. Sully had been an infant last time he saw him. “How long was I under?”
“Forty years,” Sully replied.
The news surprised him. “It's 1854?”
His son nodded. “The time to release a demon was at hand, so I chose you.”
“I appreciate that. Your other father, Jude raised you I assume.”
Sully nodded.
What did one say upon seeing their grown son again for the first time in four decades? Sully was the product of a double vaginal penetration during a mating ritual. A ritual that was supposed to be sacred. Nimbus tried to shove the dark-haired beauty from his mind, but he couldn't look at his son without being reminded of Sully's mother and the fact that she was gone...by choice. Damn her.
“What have you been about these past four decades?” Nimbus inquired.
Sully shrugged. “Seeing the world and discovering the depths of my powers. I'm currently harassing a young man who had the nerve to cast me out of an old man years ago. He was raised religious, but now he's an outlaw tormented by his past and the fact that I seduced him. I leave him alone just long enough to give him false hope and then reenter his life and torture him again. It's an effective strategy for revenge, using pain, sex and guilt to control a person and take away their hope.”
“Yes,” Nimbus agreed. A most effective strategy indeed. Perhaps Sonya needed a taste of it. His son's words finally registered. “You favor men then?”
Sully grinned. “I enjoy men and women. Does that disappoint you?”
“Your life is your own. I hold no objection to any form of sexuality.”
A three-headed dog with russet fur came bounding into the temple and washed Nimbus' face with his tongue. The dog's ears were pointed and his muzzles were long, resembling a golden jackal.
“I have missed you as well, Cerberus.”
Sully became serious. “I'm sorry to say we only have a half hour for you to make your decision.”
Nimbus sighed. “To drink from Lethe or to return to my prison.”
His son nodded.
Nimbus weighed his decision carefully. To be free one was required by the Almighty to drink from the River Lethe so that they would forget the former things and not repeat the offenses that earned them a fate sealed in stone to begin with. Should the demon refuse, he would be trapped in stone again. None of the inhabitants of the underworld approved of this law, but one did not argue with an ordinance mandated by God lest one be thrown into the fiery darkness of the abyss before their time.
In order to find Sonya again and unleash hell on her for her betrayal, Nimbus must drink from Lethe so he might be free. But how was he to find her when he would be thrown into a state of amnesia?
The mating bond. It was the only chance that he would ever find her again. The connection they shared transcended death and a single lifetime. The bond was indestructible and would last an eternity. He must trust it to find her.
Sully offered him a golden chalice filled with water from Lethe. “What is your decision?”
Nimbus hesitated, recalling the sweetness of his last kiss with Sonya. The softness of her lips pressed against his and the steamy warmth of her captivating mouth just before the cool hardness of stone replaced it. The light had disappeared and he was plunged into darkness, separated from the one he loved...because of the one he loved.
He felt his eyes narrow in hostility as he reached for the chalice and drank. “My decision is revenge.”
Chapter One:
Prophecy
Portland, Oregon 2010
Sonya stood on the edge of a towering building looking down on the chaos. She could clearly see the silver dragon below, striking terror in the fleeing civilians and the cars trying desperately to speed away from the beast that seemed hell-bent on causing destruction.
The massive dragon had yellow eyes which glowed like polished citrine and sharp-looking horns that tilted back on a slight angle toward his long, thick tail. He alternated between stomping through the streets and roaring at the panicked pedestrians and spreading his enormous wingspan so he could fly over the city and shower it with fire and ice as he was currently doing. The fact that the creature could breathe both fire and ice intrigued her. He must be a mix of demonic breeds.
As a black angel, she was only permitted to slay and drink the blood of vampires for sustenance, but she'd been informed by Blade, the leader of the black angels, that this dragon was part soul devourer. Since he had some vampire in him, she would be commissioned to slay him.
Sonya couldn't believe a disturbance of this magnitude had occurred so close to home. She thought of her roommate, Tansy, at home waiting for her. Sonya had called and told her to stay inside once she realized the city was under demo
nic attack.
Sonya drew in a deep breath and spread her black angel wings. With her sword in hand, she flew down to Hawthorne Bridge where the dragon currently wreaked havoc. He seemed spurred on by their screams and fleeing. She landed on the hood of a parked car. She would've called the demon by name if she knew which one it was, but there were legions of them and it was impossible to be sure.
“Hey!”
The dragon glanced at her with a swift jerk of his head and hissed as her with his forked tongue. She raised her sword, dodging off the car when the beast sent a breath of fire hurling toward her. He used his tail to smack another crusnik off the bridge along with a few humans, seeming amused over his own action.
Sonya used her strength to swipe the side of his leg with the celestial sword. The dragon roared his pained irritation and knocked her out of the way with his mighty tail. The force sent her flying and the sword fell from her grasp as she landed on the ground with a great thud. Before she could regain her breath, the demon sent a huff of ice toward her. She managed to move just enough not to become trapped in it, though her lower body was in the line of fire and became frozen, immobilizing her.
The dragon moved in for the kill, but something passed through his eyes when he looked at her. He studied her for a moment as if trying to place her from somewhere, or perhaps he simply fed off her soul.
“Sonya!” Blade's voice called her name from in the background, but the sound was nearly muted.
The dragon snorted a few sparks so the ice around her lower body melted and Sonya was free. He stretched out his clawed front foot as if to grab or crush her. She didn't know. She used her power to bring the sword back to her and plunged it into his chest. The dragon roared and his eyes flashed with agony and rage.
Blade swooped down and pulled Sonya to safety before the beast could retaliate. The dragon fell to the ground just before he embodied his human form again. His silver-blue eyes beckoned to her as he drew his final breaths. “Mother.”
The title startled her, but before she could question the entity about it, his partner in crime was by his side and they exchanged a final farewell before the demon disappeared. The male, a demon stood and clutched his sword as he slowly closed the distance between him and Sonya. She was somewhat dazed from the way the one she'd slain had referred to her to even think of self preservation at the moment.
A male lion came charging toward the demon and tackled him to the ground. She could tell he was a shape shifter by the scent. The lion bit him on his shoulder and Sonya realized the beast was claiming him. The demon threw him off and with one swift strike of his sword he turned the lion to stone. He was about to cut the beast's head off when a woman's voice called his name. James apparently.
He turned and walked toward the woman. Sonya couldn't hear their conversation, but from what she could tell of their facial expressions they were in love. The demon seemed to want her to join him on his path of destruction. The woman had tears in her eyes, betraying her heartbroken refusal.
Sonya took her own sword and touched the stone lion, turning him back to flesh. She looked up to see the woman kissing the demon male just before she plunged a knife into him and started bawling. James gasped and suddenly light entered his eyes as though his soul had suddenly been restored and he'd been made human again. He said the woman's name and her eyes widened when she realized he wasn't evil anymore. And then he fell to the ground and went silently to his death before disappearing.
The lion hurried over to the woman and she wailed into his fur. Sonya finally understood. If by some unconscionable chance the dragon she'd slain was her son, Sully, then the other male demon, James, was probably the man he'd been prophesied to harass long ago. She guessed the woman and the lion shifter were in love with James from what she could tell, but because he'd been claimed by the other demon, it turned him evil and he had to be destroyed.
Her heart bled at the sight of their brokenness. If the lion had claimed James before he died and he was his true mate, then the bond James had with the demon would be destroyed. But would it be enough to raise him from beyond the grave and bring him back to his true mates? Sonya hoped so.
Thoughts of her own demon mate, Nimbus, floated to the forefront of her mind, but she quickly slammed the door shut on them. It hurt too much to think of him, even though nearly two centuries had passed since then.
Parts of the city were in shambles, but a mind sweep of the terror to cause the citizens to forget the day's harrowing events as well as a miraculous restoration of the city helped return things to their former state.
Sonya sat on the edge of a building when it was all over, praying there was some mistake. She sensed Cassiel's presence.
“Are you all right?” the archangel asked. His blond hair was so light it glowed with the brilliance of a white fire.
“I don't know. It's hard having to see something this horrific occur so close to home.”
“They are getting bolder.”
She dreaded asking her next question, but curiosity compelled her to. “Cassiel, what kind of demon was that?”
He hesitated. “He was part incubus, part soul devourer and part fallen angel.”
Her heart was in her throat. She knew of only one being who embodied that description. “He called me mother.”
The angel said nothing.
“Tell me his name.”
Cassiel's sigh amply conveyed his sympathy and reluctance. “His name was Sully.”
Something died inside of Sonya as her eyes squeezed shut and the tears fell in torrents down her cheeks. “It was me. I was the black angel prophesied to kill my son.”
“I'm truly sorry.”
The tears came faster, tasting salty and bitter where they rested at the corners of her lips. “The only reason I became a black angel was to save my son's life and to prevent him from ever being killed by one. And all this time I was the one destined to end his life.”
Cassiel stood behind her and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
“Nimbus was right. In trying to avoid my destiny I actually sealed it in stone.” She sobbed audibly now. “I never knew Sully. What was he like?”
Cassiel didn't offer a reply to her rhetorical question.
Sonya stood and faced him, tone pleading. “Please tell me where Nimbus is.”
“I can't do that.”
She choked on a sob, sniffling in anguish. “I just lost my son. I have to know where his father is. Please, I'm begging you.”
He held her beseeching gaze, seeming astounded and possibly hurt. “Sonya, it's been one hundred and ninety six years since you parted with Nimbus. Do you mean to tell me that you still imagine a life with him?”
She brushed away the tear stains, hoping he didn't report her traitorous thoughts. “No. I just have to know what happened to him after you turned him to stone. Where did he go? Is he okay?”
“I'm not allowed to tell you. I won't damn you.”
“Cassiel, I'm not going to go back to him. My redemption means more to me than he does.”
The archangel raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Does it?”
“Of course it does,” she snapped. “I just need closure. Not knowing haunts me.”
“Perhaps knowing would haunt you more.”
Sonya averted her eyes in frustration.
Cassiel's voice softened. “Even if I was permitted to say, I really don't know where he is now.”
“If you did and you were given permission to tell me, would you?”
He paused, violet eyes glimmering with sorrow. “I don't know. You must decide for yourself which path you will follow, but it would be utterly devastating for me to have to stand by and watch you damn yourself with him.”
Sonya forced a weak smile. Cassiel had been the one to persuade her to stay when the great divide occurred in heaven and Nimbus had urged her to come with him when he was cast out for switching his allegiance over to Lucifer. Deep down she'd always been torn between her love for Nimbus and he
r loyalty to God.
Nimbus hadn't given up on her, though. He later tricked her into selling her soul and seduced her into his bed and over to the dark side. It wasn't until after they had a child together and she witnessed Sully kill someone, that Sonya realized the height from which she'd fallen. She'd gone to Cassiel and asked him to turn her into a black angel so she might have a chance at redemption by slaying vampires to protect mankind. Nimbus had tried to stop her and Cassiel turned him to stone.
She'd spent the past nearly two hundred years hunting down vampires of every type. Never once had she ran into Nimbus again. While Sonya always feared what might happen if they met up again, deep down she sometimes wished she could see him one last time and touch him. But to do so would damn her.
Besides what would her mate say when he found out that she was responsible for the death of their son? She couldn't ever see him again, or reacquaint herself with the heaven that lay within his touch. She had sworn a holy oath to hunt vampires and protect humans from them. She must never permit a vampire to bite her or sleep with a demon ever again. To do so would mean damnation and no one was worth breaking her vow over.
* * *
Sonya lay awake in bed next to Tansy. The soft, curvaceous Asian woman had been her companion and closest friend since the day Sonya became a crusnik and helped the woman escape from slavery from her sadistic master, Jude. Tansy had been called Less back then because of the word Jude engraved on her forehead. Another one of his slaves had the word Hope carved onto hers. When they stood next to one another, they spelled the word that Jude sought to torment them with. Hopeless.
Sonya started calling Less Tansy once they escaped, since it was the woman's birth name. Tansy had learned witchcraft through the years, partly out of interest and partially for the purpose of finding a spell to erase the scars Jude left on her forehead. She'd eventually found a spell that made the scar wear off for about twelve hours, but it always came back. Aside from the temporary fix, a permanent solution had yet to be found.
Sonya had her back to Tansy as she listened to her breathe in the warm darkness. She was glad the witch was safe and grateful that she had someone to come home to after exhausting battles between good and evil. Some were lost and others were won, but the damned war never seemed to end. At times she wished Christ would return and establish his reign on the earth so she could have peace and know that she'd been forgiven by proving faithful in her duties as a crusnik.