Avenging Angels (The Seraphim Chronicles Book 1) (26 page)

FORTY-ONE

Evangeline did not understand why her head was spinning though a fog as though on a merry-go-round whirling at Mach speeds. She tried to get her bearings in the darkness, but she was helpless to determine where she was. Her memory was full of holes; she recalled dinner with Jack, then a conversation with an Angel at the Level Ten Crisis Unit. But why had she been in the LTZ marketplace? None of it made sense.

              Her muscles screamed against the knotted cramps in her arms. She shifted her weight, trying to work out the kinks, but she found that her wrists were bound together behind her back. She pushed the rising fear back down and remained as motionless as she could. She took a deep breath to clear her mind and ease her anxiety. She focused on her survival training burned into might through countless drills. The first step to survival was to assess the situation.

She stayed still and focused her attention on the one sense that was not totally inhibited: her hearing. She listened to the sounds of a vehicle traveling on smooth roads, making irregular turns that jostled her body. She heard and felt the vibrations of the moving vehicle through the thin pad she rested upon. A faint recollection crept into her mind and filled some of the gaps of her memory. There had been men, and a delivery vehicle. Her senses were becoming sharper, the haze beginning to clear.

She tensed her legs to swing herself into the upright position only to discover her legs were also bound together. When she tried moving her legs, the tension pulled against the bindings that held her wrists behind her back, cutting into her flesh. She took a sharp breath between her teeth.

“Seriously?” she screamed in her mind. “I’ve been hog-tied?” The vulnerable position caused her adrenaline to spike. Her heart pounded in her chest and she started to struggle against the bindings.

“Easy, Captain,” a voice said. It was a man’s voice, calm but firm, full of authority. “Relax. We had to sedate you to get you out of the LTZ. We’re not going to hurt you. So, please stop thrashing around before you hurt yourself.” A hand rested on her arm, and she jerked away as if the hand were a branding iron.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed, thrashing her body in any direction she could. She heard the sound of her muffled voice and could sense the hood that had been placed over her head while she was unconscious. It was also just then she became aware of the fabric that pressed against her eyes.

“Great!” she thought to herself. “I’m blindfolded
and
there’s a bag on my head.” She lashed about in violent spasms against the agony that had grown in her arms and legs. She tried in vain to connect her boots to one of her kidnapper’s faces, but managed to strike nothing but the mat.

Several pairs of hands placed themselves under her arms and legs and eased her up off the floor. She recoiled from their touch and screamed, “Let me go!” She felt their hands spread apart as her body dropped onto a hard, metal seat. The inertia from her thrashing caused her to lose her balance and tip forward. She braced herself for the impact of her face on the floor, but the numerous hands caught her around the shoulders and pushed her back into a seated position.

She refused to acknowledge their assistance or express gratitude for them saving her from landing face-first on the floor, but she did manage to blow out an exasperated breath of air. There was a low chuckle off to her right while another voice at her left mumbled a sarcastic, “You’re welcome.”

The various hands were continuing to restrain her against the seat of the vehicle until she felt flat strips of an unknown material slide across her shoulders and waist. She heard the click of a safety harness at her chest and the alien hands released her. She continued struggling against the new restraint, but she froze when she heard the sound of a blade sliding from its sheath. “Was it really going to end this way?” she thought.

“Why didn’t you just slice me to bits when I was unconscious on the floor?” she spat at them through the hood, her voice full of heat and venom.

She flinched again as a single hand rested alit like a bird on her shoulder.

“Easy, Captain,” a gentle voice said. “I’m just going to cut your bindings.”

Her body tensed in preparation to attack in the darkness. If she was going to die, she was not going to make it easy for them. She reacted too soon and ended up fighting against the restraints when the voice cut through the air with sharpness.

“If you would kindly stop thrashing about!” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m trying to remove your hood, but the way you’re flailing about I’m as likely to remove your head! Now please, Captain Evans, quit this tantrum before you hurt yourself! You have my word that we will not harm you!”

Evangeline ceased straining against the hand that held her back against the seat and she took a deep breath. Her shoulders relaxed and she nodded her head in silent agreement to his commands.

“Better,” the man said with a sigh of relief. “Now, if you continue to behave, I’ll take off your hood. No one is going to hurt you, but if you keep flailing around, I’m just going to knock you back out for the remainder of the trip. Deal?” he asked with a steel edge in his voice.

Evangeline sat still for a moment and considered her options. She knew that there were two possibilities for allowing an abductee to see the faces of her captors.

They either did not care if she saw their faces because they were going to kill her anyway, or they genuinely did not intend to harm her, and that hiding their identity was not their biggest concern. Her thoughts raced toward Jack and she hoped it was the latter.

“Deal!” she growled, and within seconds, the hood was lifted away. She gulped the fresh air, which was laced with the scents of metal, dust, and sweat. It was a welcome relief from the stale air she had been breathing under the hood. Despite the refreshing new air, she was still agitated that she was blindfolded and her captors remained unidentified.

“Why have you taken me?” she demanded of the faceless voice. “What do you want from me?” Who knows what she may have stumbled upon when she had chosen to tail the mysterious couple through the empty streets? Then she remembered why she had pursued them, and the urgency coursed through her anew.

“Where’s that couple I was following?” she burst out. “It’s urgent that I speak with them! My friend’s life may be at stake!”

“All your questions will be answered.” he replied, his voice calm and even once again. “But not by me, and not right now. I will tell you this; the couple you were following had to make sure
you
weren’t being followed yourself.
We
don’t want anything from you, but there are people we work with who are very interested in your well-being. To answer your first question, it was not our intention to kidnap you tonight, but Felicia decided it was in your best interest under the circumstances. Just please be assured that we’re not here to hurt you.”

Evangeline could not make heads or tails of his cryptic answers, but she took careful note of the name her captor had dropped. Felicia.

“If you’re not going to hurt me, then take off these bindings. Let me see you!” she dared. She could hear three distinct people, men by the sound of it, breathing in the back of the vehicle with her. She heard one of them chuckling under his breath.

“Don’t look at me,” he said. “I told you to not bind or blindfold her.” The voice - she knew this voice. Evangeline strained to recall his face from her memory, but the image eluded her like a firefly in the blackness. She struggled to concentrate, but her mind was still sluggish from the sedative.

She heard a long, drawn-out sigh and the first man’s voice spoke. “The blindfold is for your protection, as well as ours. We can’t risk that you’ll be able to keep our location a secret once you’ve met with the people who want to see you. We’ll be there soon. I’m sorry, but this is the way it has to be.”

Evangeline began to object when she felt a prick in side of her neck. Her dark world started to spin again. She felt her body slump against the safety harness like a sandbag. Her head grew too heavy to bear and rolled onto her shoulder. Her eyelids felt like they had been glued shut with cement.

She did not know how long she slipped in and out of consciousness. The vehicle continued rumbling along and turning at irregular intervals. She became semi-conscious when they slowed to a stop and she heard the creaking hinges of large metal doors being pulled open, another new supply of fresh air thrilling her lungs. She heard the click of the harness and her body became free, floating away from the seat like she was sailing on a cloud.

Just before she blacked out again, she heard the familiar voice whisper.

“It’s okay, Boyd. You’re safe, now.”

FORTY-TWO

Graham finished swimming his last lap of the evening on the far side of his private pool. He leaned his head against the edge of the pool and let his body rise to the surface as his lungs took in their fill. He tilted his head back to see the upside-down view over his balcony pool. The stars were playing hide and seek with the clouds that floated by. A smug grin stretched across his face as he looked over his lavish surroundings. “This is only the beginning,” he mused. “The future will only get better from here. I will have more.” More money. More power. More everything.

He pulled his legs back into the water and admired the luxurious touches he had chosen for his oasis. The waterfall that spilled over a sandstone obelisk was his favorite feature. His heart skipped a beat as he remembered all the times he and Celeste had bathed under the waterfall after he had finished exercising.

His eyes moved from the waterfall to the pool steps where she was bobbing in the water with only her head above the surface. He considered it his reward to gaze on her beauty after each lap he completed. He had chosen the most expensive residence he could afford in Olympus just so he could indulge himself like this, swimming in the evenings and watching Celeste float in the water each night.

He rolled onto his stomach and pushed off from the pool wall. He let his speed wane before he broke the surface and eased into a slow, steady breaststroke. With each stroke bringing him closer to Celeste, he felt the stirrings within him build. In his mind, she was the premium example of Angelic beauty and grace. He could not fathom how he had survived without her. She was beautiful and obedient, his perfect companion.

He floated the last few feet toward her beneath the water, emerging just in time to kiss her on the mouth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back in the way he liked, slow and soft, letting his tongue open her mouth to a throaty moan. When he pulled away, she was gazing at him from under her wet eyelashes with a seductive glint in her eyes. It was enough to melt ice in the fiercest blizzard.

“Let’s go to the waterfall,” he murmured in her ear.

“Whatever you would like,” she replied in a sensual tone.

Just then the home network panel across the balcony began emitting an urgent shrill. Graham sighed in frustration. From the tone of the signal, he knew who it was; the one person for who he was obliged to interrupt the plans he conjured with his sexy companion.

“Wait for me in the waterfall,” Graham whispered into Celeste’s ear.

“Of course, Silas,” Celeste cooed back as Graham sucked on her earlobe. She let out a moan and sucked in a long, drawn out breath. Her eager responses to his overtures excited him beyond logic, but the incessant ringing would only increase in pitch and volume until he answered.

Celeste stepped out of the pool first, and his eyes followed the rivulets of water that dripped down her glistening skin. Padding her way toward the waterfall like a cat, she never looked back to see Graham staring at her, which made him even more frustrated and eager to continue what they started.

Graham sighed in defeat, pushing himself from the edge of the pool toward the opposite side. He pushed himself up and out of the water, letting the water drip across the warm tile as he plodded toward the screaming panel. The pulsating alarm and illumination threatened to alert the LTZ below that this call was more pressing than anything else did. With a bracing intake of air, he pressed his hand to the glass and awaited the inevitable.

On the screen appeared an older woman, with white skin, dark brown eyes, and the austere, chocolate ponytail she had worn for as long as Graham could remember.

“Hello, mother,” Graham huffed, keeping his hand over the camera. “What is it this time?”

“Silas, darling,” she said with a scowl that did not match the brightness in her voice. “I just wanted to call to wish you a happy anniversary.” Her face bobbed around the screen as if avoiding an attacking insect. “Silas, why can’t I see you? Are you covering the camera again?”

Silas did not want to get into another lecture about how Humans and Angels should not engage in romantic relationships together. He mused on the irony of her beliefs since she, herself had more than a few crushes on male Angelic house servants.

“Are you consorting with that Angel again?” she demanded.