Archangel of Mercy

by Christina Ashcroft

“She’s no longer injured,” Zad said. “We were just keeping her unconscious. Same as you.”

  “Me?’ He pulled his wrist free. Damn, that hurt. Felt like Zad had cracked a bone. Disjointed fragments of memory surfaced. Aurora was Eleni. But somehow that wasn’t important right now. The only thing that mattered was that Aurora wasn’t critically injured. “She’s safe here from the Guardians, right?” There was only one reason why they’d come back for her and that was if they’d discovered her unique heritage. It wasn’t what he wanted for Aurora, but if the only way to keep her alive was to keep her on his island then that’s the way it would have to be.

  Mephisto unfurled his wings and clenched his fists.

  “Forget about E for just two seconds, will you?” He loomed over Gabe, and his eyes flickered scarlet. “The Guardians fired on an archangel. According to the ancient protocols, that gives us the right to decimate their ranks. But since they claim this fucking archangel appeared from nowhere after the beam was fired, the case is not clear-cut.”

  “Aurora is not being sacrificed to the Guardians.” Gabe glared at Mephisto and ignored the worrying fatigue that snaked through his body. “If Armageddon is what they want, then Armageddon is what they’ll get.”

  “Like I said.” Mephisto offered him a feral grin. “Not that clear- cut. I’ve spent the last six weeks negotiating with those bastards. Six weeks while you lay here, oblivious. And I finally managed to broker a deal.”

  Gabe reared off the bed and grabbed hold of Mephisto’s shirt. “Six weeks?” It was the only thing his bruised mind could latch onto. Because what the hell did Mephisto mean by saying he’d negotiated with the Guardians? “Cut the crap. What’s going on?”

  “The blast from the Guardians went straight through you and hit Aurora,” Zad said. “You were knocked out cold and she almost died. She would have died—there was nothing we could have done to save her, Gabe. Except—we’re not sure how—your souls entwined. You kept her alive. Gave her time to heal.”

  A shudder inched along his spine. Souls didn’t entwine. It wasn’t possible.

  He released Mephisto, who oddly hadn’t retaliated, and looked down at Aurora. She looked as if she was just asleep. Since the moment he’d met her so many long-held convictions had crumbled. Just because he’d never before come across the phenomenon of entwined souls didn’t mean it was impossible.

  Just as it wasn’t impossible for Nephilim to be reborn.

  “He kept her alive”—fury sizzled in every word Mephisto uttered—“but at what cost? His fucking immortality.”

  Gabe staggered back and sat heavily on the bed as Mephisto’s words pounded through his brain. They made no sense. His immortality? He’d given up his immortality so Aurora could live?

  “We don’t know how it happened.” Zad gripped his shoulder. “We tried to separate you but it wasn’t simply a case of you keeping Aurora alive. The connection went both ways. Your life forces were as one.”

  He was mortal. He couldn’t comprehend the magnitude. But if he was mortal, he wouldn’t have to exist for countless centuries after Aurora died. If his and Aurora’s souls were entwined, neither could live without the other.

  Wild hope flared deep inside, heating his blood, illuminating the dark abyss of his no-longer endless future. Aurora would be reborn, and so would he. And they would find each other, life after life, for eternity.

  “In exchange for holding off your Armageddon—and let’s face it, you’d be fucking useless in that battle as a mortal—the Guardians have agreed to relinquish all rights over Aurora and her direct bloodline.” Mephisto folded his wings and slung Aurora a black glare. “I also told them I made you a mortal as a consequence of your actions. And the fucking idiots believed me.”

  “It doesn’t matter what they believe, Meph. All that matters is they’ll never dare touch Aurora or her descendants.” Zad finally tore his gaze from Aurora and glanced at Gabe. “Her parents are safe, too. Meph constructed a magnificent defense. He argued that they were immune from the Guardians’ jurisdiction because it was love alone that had allowed her mother to breach dimensions. And since the Guardians have no concept of love, they had no rebuttal.”

  “Shut the fuck up, Zad.” Mephisto sounded livid. Obviously he hadn’t wanted Gabe to know of his involvement in protecting Aurora’s parents. “Everything I did was for the sake of a fellow archangel and reincarnated Nephilim. On the other hand you watching over a couple of oblivious humans for six weeks, just to ensure they don’t fall apart over their missing daughter, smacks of inanity to me.”

  Gabe gave a hoarse laugh. “The universe is a screwed-up bitch.” He’d wanted a second chance to save his beloved. He’d wanted to be with Aurora. He’d never imagined his wish would be granted so completely.

  So perfectly. For once the universe had got things right.

  —

  AURORA STRETCHED LANGUOROUSLY, her muscles feeling oddly disconnected as if she hadn’t used them in a while. Arms held her securely around her waist, strong, comforting. Familiar. With a half-smile she opened one eye.

  She was lying on top of Gabe. She raised her head and saw they were in the exact same place where Gabe had first entered her life. A week ago? She frowned, trying to remember. The last thing she could recall was being here with Mephisto, and then Gabe suddenly appearing in front of her. So what had happened? Where were the Guardians?

  “Hey.” Gabe tightened his hold on her. “Are you feeling okay?”

  She felt fine. Just a bit . . . disoriented.

  “Where did Mephisto go?” She levered herself up so she could look at Gabe properly. “It’s the strangest thing, but I have this weird feeling of Zad—oh my god.” She gripped his shoulders and stared at him, shock thudding through her senses. “Your eyes, Gabe. What’s happened to your eyes?”

  “Huh?” His grin faded. “What’s wrong with them?”

  “They’re blue.” A beautiful blue to be sure. But where was the swirling kaleidoscope of greens and silvers?

  He grunted. “That’s not the only thing that’s changed. Do you remember—in the second the Guardians fired on us—our minds connected?”

  Memories flooded through her mind, like a dam had burst deep in the mysterious, unexplored sectors of her brain. Memories of another life, another time. Memories of Gabe, of Helena, of Zad.

  Eleni’s memories.

  Her memories.

  “I came back.” Her voice was awed. And then she tried linking to him telepathically. “And you found me.”

  “If I’d known”—his voice in her mind was tortured—“I would have searched for you, Aurora. I would have found you years ago. You would never have put yourself in danger with the Guardians if only I’d found you sooner.”

  “Stop it.” She speared her fingers through his glorious hair. “You know what this means. You’re stuck with me forevermore. Since I obviously possess a soul you can bet your life I’ll be back on a regular basis.”

  “Aurora—”

  “Gabe.” She cradled his temples, gazed deep into his eyes. It didn’t matter what color they were. Because they were his. “Don’t you see what this really means? It means everything we believed—everything we were told—about Nephilim and their descendants not having a soul isn’t true. I don’t know if it’s got anything to do with my trans-dimensional heritage. Maybe it takes an extraordinary pairing of DNA or something. But the point is—we can be reborn. Helena—our baby—she could come back, too. It’s possible. You know it is.”

  She saw the hope, the longing, glitter in his eyes. Felt his struggle as he attempted to overcome millennia of ingrained inevitability. Finally he rolled her onto the ground so they faced each other.

  “Yes.” So much heartache echoed in that one simple word. “It’s possible. Anything’s possible.” He heaved a sigh. “I’m no longer an immortal.”

  “What?” How could that be? She pressed her hand against his heart and something grazed her palm through the material of his shirt. “But y
ou’re an archangel. How can you not be immortal?”

  Gabe was no closer to understanding how that had happened than he had been an hour ago when Mephisto had told him. “I don’t know. All that matters is I’m here. We’re together.” With the fortune he’d accumulated over countless years they could enjoy a luxurious, decadent lifestyle anywhere Aurora wanted.

  And then he remembered his limitations. So long as it was on Earth.

  Somehow he knew that no matter how wealthy they were, she’d be happiest here in Ireland—or maybe London. Somewhere she could continue with her research, even if physically breaching dimensions was off limits.

  “You’re right. That is all that matters.” As she spoke she slid her fingers into his shirt pocket and pulled out a delicate chain.

  “Shit.” He focused on the blackened pendant that dangled from the chain. It had once been her substitute angel wings. Now it resembled a shard of fossilized charcoal.

  Aurora curled her fingers around the necklace at her throat. No ethereal pulse warmed her flesh. “Gabe?” She didn’t know what she was afraid of, but she was afraid anyway. “What’s happened?”

  Frowning, he unclasped the pendant and opened the wings. She peered down and saw the scorched rainbows, the black specks. There was nothing magical or beautiful about it anymore. It looked as if all the life within had been extinguished by fire.

  “Oh.” The word choked her throat. “I’m so sorry, Gabe. You kept this safe for so long and now—now I’ve ruined it—”

  “Gods.” He sounded awed, shaken. “It was the angel wings. That was the conduit between us. Somehow, in the moment the Guardians fired, your necklace and this one fused our life forces together.” He gave a disbelieving laugh. “The spark of eternity within the rainbows and gold dust reversed. It sucked out my immortality in order to save you.” He looked up at her, as if she was his everything, and her heart ached. “My beloved.”

  “I love you.” She whispered the words that filled her soul. “I’ll always love you.”

  He tangled his fingers in her hair. “I fell in love with you, Aurora, before I ever knew you were Eleni. It was you I wanted to save from the Guardians. Do you believe me?”

  “Yes.” Of course she believed him. He had fallen for her, believing he betrayed Eleni. And now, finally, he could begin to let go of the past, unburden the guilt that was never his to carry.

  “And you love me, do you?” He brushed the tip of his nose across hers, and deep in her ancient memories she remembered all the other times they had touched like this. “Even though I’m no longer an archangel? Even though I’m just a normal, regular man?”

  She shook her head and sighed. “I don’t know, Gabe. I don’t think you could ever be normal or regular no matter how hard you tried.” And then she wrapped her arms around his neck in a fierce, protective hug. “You’ll forever be the Archangel Gabriel. But I fell in love with the man. Haven’t you always known that? It’s always been the man I’ve loved.”

  About the Author

  Christina Ashcroft is an ex-pat Brit who now lives in Western Australia with her high school sweetheart, their three children, an eccentric Maltese-cross and three regal cats. She can’t remember a time when she didn’t write, and always managed to include an element of fantasy or the paranormal in her English essay homework. Luckily her English teachers didn’t mind, despite the fact that these stories generally finished with the hero or heroine (or both) coming to a dire end. Thankfully, by the time she hit fourteen she discovered romance novels and the wonder of a Happily Ever After. She now writes about hot archangels and the women who capture their hearts for Penguin/Berkley Heat, and her books always have a happily ever after. Visit her online at www.christinaashcroft.com.