Angel's Curse
Authors: Melanie Tomlin
Tags: #angel series, #angel battle, #angels and demons, #angels and vampires, #archangels, #dark fantasy series, #earth angel, #evil, #hell, #hybrid, #satan, #the pit, #vampires and werewolves
ANGEL’S CURSE
Book Two of the Angel Series
Melanie Tomlin
First published by Kylani Press, 2016
Cover Design: Mei Teo
Copyright © Melanie Tomlin 2016
http://www.melanietomlin.com/landing
ISBN 978-0-9944502-3-4
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher or author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or places, is entirely coincidental.
To Jane, for reassuring me that my basic understanding of genetics was not as far-fetched as I thought it might be.
Prologue
There was a time that if anyone had told me that my fate, and the fate of many others, was to be decided by something I could not even imagine existed, I would have laughed. The angels
knew
all of His creations, even those that once were, but are no more. We were the keepers of His knowledge and the protectors of His more defenceless creations, whom the demons and monsters that roamed the earth would kill, maim, abuse or corrupt. For an angel’s fate to be determined by something that did not fall into any of those categories, well, it was just plain laughable … until Helena.
— Danizriel
1.
Dreams
It was strange looking through the window of the cottage — our home — and seeing past the garden to the dead and barren forest beyond.
Danizriel — Danny to me — the angel I loved above everything and everyone else, stood behind me and rubbed my arms. He kissed the top of my head, his eyes forever watching for the horrors that awaited us out there.
Danny was holding out for a miracle. I wasn’t so sure. If God meddled in the lives of His creations, then possibly He’d done two things for me already — led Danny to me, and allowed us to live. Wasn’t that enough? Could we really ask for another miracle? It’s not like God was a genie and we’d been granted three wishes. We were lucky to be alive, and for that I was grateful.
“Don’t fret, Helena,” he whispered into my ear, “the forest will grow back. It always does.”
I looked at his reflection in the window. “This has happened before?”
“Many times. That’s how I first learned the cottage cannot be destroyed from outside the confines of the boundaries of the blind spot on which it’s built.”
“What about the animals?”
I thought of cute and fluffy bunnies. Surely any bunnies that lived in the forest were wiry and lean — adapted to survive in the wild. The domesticated fluffy white variety that grew fat and lazy at the hands of mortal owners wouldn’t last long here. They’d be a tasty delicacy worth fighting over. Poor bunnies.
I thought of bears and possums, and the industrious ants and bees, of snakes and lizards — I didn’t care too much for them — and birds too young to leave the nest. Had any survived? Did they understand the warning the angels had given? Did they know the angels were going to devastate the entire area — the only home most of them had ever known? Did the angels care about all the wasted lives?
Danny shrugged his shoulders and kissed my neck. “Casualties of war, Helena. There are always those, in any war.”
I turned to face him and pounded a fist on his chest. “They could have found a way to save them! They’re
His
creatures too. What did they do,” I twisted around and tapped on the glass to draw his attention to the desolation outside the boundaries of the cottage, “to deserve
this?
”
“Helena, please, there’s nothing we can do now.” He stroked my hair and I shivered. “You’re only getting upset.”
“Damn right I’m getting upset!” I yelled, not at Danny, rather at the world in general. “Who else gives a shit?”
I leaned back against the window pane.
“I thought my whole life was a big mistake — a practical joke of the universe, until I met you.” I poked him in the chest. “Then I thought,
maybe, just maybe,
I’d been made to suffer all those years so that when we found each other I’d appreciate what we had even more … but even now,” I sighed, “there’s a price to be paid.”
I rested my head on his chest and cried.
“
It’s just not fair,
” I whispered.
Danny walked me over to the bed and sat me down. He knelt in front of me, his hands on my legs, and looked up into my face. He produced a handkerchief from thin air —
I wish I could do that
— and handed it to me. I wiped my eyes and nose — sometimes that helped me to stop crying — but the sobs continued.
“Helena,” Danny spoke calmly now, trying to make me see reason, “if I’d been captured by whichever side — it doesn’t matter who anymore — and the only way to save me would be to raze the forest to the ground, would you have done it?”
Why did he have to use my feelings for him as a way to get me to put things into perspective?
Dirty tactics!
He
knew
what the answer would be. I’d fight the entire heavenly host if I had to, and kill — yes
kill
— anyone who got in my way.
I let my body fall sideways onto the bed and buried my face in the pillow.
“Go away,” I mumbled. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Suit yourself,” Danny said. I heard him get up to leave the room.
I lifted my head. “Don’t go.”
He chuckled. “First you say leave, then you say stay. Soon you’ll have me running around in circles, Helena.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
Danny raised his eyebrows, confused. “You
do
want me running around in circles?”
“No, silly.”
How hard it was to admit that I was just the same as them — the angels who had rained destruction down on the forest.
“I meant yes, I
would
do it, if it was the only way to save you.”
He walked back to the bed and sat next to me, pulling me into his arms in a comforting embrace.
“It stands to reason,” he whispered into my hair, “for I would do the same for you.”
I started sobbing again, knowing that
he
would sacrifice everything for me. I had so much more to lose than him. I wouldn’t want him to make sacrifices for me — I wasn’t worth it. I was, or had been, a common whore. Why should he waste his life protecting or saving mine? He was patient with me, as usual, and let me get the anguish and tears out of my system.
“You’re a caring soul, Helena. You don’t want any of His creatures to suffer, do you?”
“That’s not quite true, Danny,” and with a savageness in my voice I said. “There are
some
of
His
creatures I’d wish
dead!
”
Danny nuzzled my hair again. He liked the scent of the shampoo mixed with my own scent.
“Be that as it may, you don’t want any of His
innocent
or
defenceless
creatures to suffer. You’re far too caring for that.”
Okay, so he was right. I wouldn’t want to see cute and fluffy bunnies burnt to a crisp because of me.
“Do you really think they’ll believe we’re dead, or are they smarter than that?” I asked.
“The angels, do you mean?” I nodded. Danny continued, “If I transport us anywhere, they might be able to pick up the resonance — my signature, as it were. However, they don’t know
your
signature. Provided you don’t mind transporting us around, and I don’t need to perform anything
miraculous,
we should be able to fly below the radar. Here, at the cottage, I can still do what needs to be done and they won’t detect us.”
I assumed that by
doing what needs to be done
Danny meant he would still complete the basic tasks such as providing hot water, clean clothes and some entertainment. I’d hate to have to wash all of our clothes by hand for the rest of my life, or worse still, drag it to a laundrette in the city to clean.
We’d discussed entertainment at length, as I felt that having been mortal for most of my life — and used to people, noise, clubbing and movies — there was a possibility I might eventually become bored. If we were to stay at the cottage for quite some time I’d need other outlets for my energy, apart from the obvious — hunting and sex, which in themselves took up a considerable amount of time.
We may not have electricity — I wondered why he’d never thought of it, or solar panels at the least — but lots of things ran on batteries, and I’d discovered Danny could recharge them at will. That meant I could have music. Music meant I could teach him the finer points of dancing, both the club and classic varieties — I knew them all.
When I was young — not that I was old now — I used to escape the horrors of my abuse by watching old Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly movies. I watched them over and over again until I knew all the dance steps. I’d even learned some dance moves from
Saturday Night Fever
and
Fame
.
I remembered sticking drawing pins into the soles of my shoes when I tap-danced, so I could hear the sound they made. I would pretend that I was a great tapper, acclaimed the world over, like those Irish dancers or the gorgeous guys who could tap-dance a storm. I dreamed I’d been on Broadway and at the West End, and the applause was deafening — people loved me and I loved them. Those dreams, and the ability to dance, kept me going.