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An Angel’s Hope
Copyright © 2009 Stephani Hecht
ISBN: 978-1-55487-329-6
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Smashwords Edition
An Angel’s Hope
Archangels Nine
By
Stephani Hecht
Chapter One
Ramiel was sick of the blood, sick of the wounded, sick of the death. Most of all he was sick of his brother-in-law and his smartass mouth.
“I’m serious,” Appolion repeated as he kicked over a smoldering piece of what had at one time been an angel warrior safe house. “You guys give me the word and I’ll harness my powers and shoot a blast there.”
The archangel’s face was smudged with soot and ash and his dark hair was slicked back with sweat, but his piercing blue eyes were alive as always, missing nothing, searching every corner for possible danger.
It was one of the reasons Ramiel continued to take him along on these missions despite how annoying he could be.
“You can’t blow Heaven up,” he replied tiredly as he watched another pair of archangels carry out a stretcher with the body of one of their fallen comrades.
“Why not?” Appolion challenged savagely. “It’s not like we call the place home anymore. It’s only the justice angels and their supporters there now and they could give two shits about us. They were the ones that exiled our asses, not the other way around.”
“I left behind my favorite pair of shoes there and it would kill me if they were vaporized by an Appolion Nuclear blast,” Ramiel shot back. He knew Appolion was just bullshitting, using dark humor as a way to cope with finding yet another one of their angel warrior teams butchered. Hell, he may have joined in if he was capable of laughing anymore.
“I’ll buy you ten pairs if you let me do it. Hell, I’ll get you a hundred just so long as I can give those bastards just a little taste of the fear we have to choke on every day.” Appolion booted another piece of debris with the toe of his ratty tennis shoe. “I’m getting sick of us just grabbing our ankles and having to bend over and take it like some bitch.”
“Interesting visual,” Ramiel quipped as he watched them carry the last body outside. “You always do manage to bring the warm and fuzzy, don’t you?”
“Are you trying to tell me you don’t feel the same way?” Appolion bit back savagely as they went out, the air slightly fresher there than inside of what was left of the house.
“You know better than that.” If any family had paid a heavy price in this war, it was Ramiel’s. First, his brother Cam had been captured and transformed into half incubus, then his youngest brother, Bear, had been possessed by a demon and almost died before they could get rid of it. That was just the highlights, too, he wasn’t even counting the hurt that had been delivered to Derel and Nathaniel. Sometimes it sucked to have such a big family because then there were too many damn ways for someone to come in and attack you.
“It’s just getting so hard.” Appolion ran his hands through his hair in frustration, leaving it in messy spikes. “I don’t know how much more I can take.”
These words coming from Appolion were a testament to how bad things had really got. This guy had literally been to Hell and back and for him to be close to breaking, showed how this civil war with the justice angels was breaking everyone. If Appolion, who could face anything and smile while he kicked its ass, couldn’t handle this then what hope did the rest of them have?
Slim to none and slim just went and took a vacation.
Looking over the rubble, Ramiel was hard pressed to remember that it was other angels who had caused all this, too. Things had changed so much since the angel warriors had gone to war and this brutality was just the tip of the crap sundae
“The Chief just called,” Ramiel’s brother, Case, announced as he ran over. As usual, the twin’s flopping blond bangs were hanging in his face, he pushed them away with an impatient gesture, leaving behind a streak of dirt.
“Oh goodie, I’m sure Michael telephoned to share all kinds of happiness,” Appolion snorted.
“What did he want?” Ramiel asked as he shot the archangel a warning look.
“He said they lost contact with another safe house and since we’re already out, he wants us to check up on them.” Case gave a sheepish shrug when Appolion groaned.
“Is he kidding?” Appolion threw his hands up in the air as a flash of anger briefly visited his face. “I haven’t seen my mate or daughter in three days. I’m tired, I’m hungry and I’m starting to get a bit cranky.”
“Not to mention a bit whiny,” Case muttered under his breath to Ramiel.
“I heard that, jackass,” Appolion bit back, but all the earlier humor in his voice was gone. His gaze was once again fixated on the bodies that were lined up and covered in sheets.
“I know you’re whipped.” Ramiel was suddenly aware of how weary he was, too. “We all are. But Michael can’t send another team because he already has all his warriors out. We’re scrambling to keep up in this damn war with the justice angels.”
Ramiel could relate to Appolion. He wanted nothing better than to go home, too. Of course, he didn’t have anyone special waiting for him, but there was a nice hot shower and soft bed calling his name. Besides that, he had nothing waiting for him back home. Not a soul. Nada. Zip. Nein.
“Not true.” Case shot off a wicked smile. “You do have your fairy fiancée.”
“Stop reading my mind,” Ramiel ordered dryly, hating that he was blessed with a family of psychics. “Besides she not my fiancée.”
“So you’re not going to claim her as your mate then?” Appolion raised one dark brow.
“You know I am.” Done with the conversation, Ramiel started to walk away, but of course Dumber and Dumbass had to follow.
“Then that makes her your fiancée,” Appolion pointed out as he fell in step next to him.
“No, it makes her my pain in the ass. We have an arrangement, nothing more. She agrees to go to the fairies and ask them to help us with this war, I offer her the honor of being my mate. There is nothing lovey dovey or romantic about it.”
“So you’re really going to do it then?” Case asked as they walked further away from the smoldering remains.
They all took deep cleansing breaths.
It was no use, the smell of death still clung to his nostrils. Ramiel had been smelling it so long it was a wonder he even noticed it anymore. “I don’t see any way out of it.” And believe him, he had been nothing but trying to think of one, too. “I made an open-ended vow to her, that if she saved Bear I owed her one favor. My bad luck she decided to collect by way of my ass.”
“Have you tired talking to Michael?” Appolion asked. “He is your uncle after all so maybe he can pull some strings or something.”
“You don’t get it,” Ramiel bit out bitterly. “I gave it to her on my honor as an archangel. There is no out clause when you’re idiot enough to speak those words.”
“Oh.” Appolion paused for a while and he looked to be thinking so hard that Ramiel half-expected smoke to come from his ears. “At least she’s pretty.”
Ramiel grunted in response, because that was one fact he really couldn’t argue. Nissa was more than pretty, she was stunning. With a tiny body, full of curves and muscles, she looked like she was made for tangling in the sheets. Despite himself, he imagined doing just that with her, her long brown hair, with those pink streaks running through it, draped over his naked chest. How would it be to taste those full plump lips of hers? To slowly count the freckles that dusted her tiny nose? To cup those perky breasts and tease her nipples?
Then he remembered how she had tricked him into becoming his mate and he scowled. The last thing he needed or wanted was a mate and now it looked like he was getting one. One that wasn’t even the same species as him for crap’s sake.
No, as sweet and innocent as the fairy may look, he would be better to remember that deep inside she was a cold calculating bitch who had used his love for Bear to manipulate him.
“Let’s go check on the other team so we can get home.” He pulled his sword back out, his arm screaming in protest because it had already been used way too much in the past hours.
They flashed out of the carnage and entered into another mess. Even though Ramiel would have thought it impossible, it was a hundred times worse than where they had just been.
Demons. And not just one or two. There were dozens of the bastards attacking what used to be a ranch-style home that had been serving as a safe house. Two teams in one day. When was it ever going to end?
The demons seemed to sense the angels as they appeared because they all swung their misshapen heads around at once and snarled. Even after an immortal lifetime of fighting the buggers, Ramiel was always taken back by their hideousness.
Once angels, demons began to shift and change as soon as they turned their back on their sacred vows to protect mankind and serve Michael. Overcome by evil from the inside out, they eventually became so damn ugly that not even their own mama would recognize them.