Summon Dorn (Archangels Creed)

Just in case you missed the earlier books:

Archangels Creed: The series 
~ "Archangels Creed" will explore the story of each of the twelve Archangels as they struggle to complete their arm of the overall mission.

Satan has found a loophole in the rules that govern his battle against Good. The Archangel Uriel sends twelve Warrior Archangels to Earth on a mission to even the odds.

Each Archangel has one month to find a couple, unite them, and use their union's power to create the Holy Warriors needed to defend the world against Satan's unholy creations.

But the mission isn't so simple when inheriting Humanity comes with challenges beyond the Angel's training, and every milestone in the couple's relationship affects the triumvirate's strength.

Summon Kassern:

How can Archangel Kassern get the World's Most Unlikely Couple to fall in love and help him form the Holy Warrior? He's too busy dealing with annoying human traits he picks up along the way.

Desperate to save her best friend, Karly, and herself from a life of prostitution, Devyn takes a chance when the preacher, Troy, offers escape. But someone offers Karly's boyfriend big money, and he can't let them go without a fight.

Called by God to minister to prostitutes, Troy is careful not to get too close to his flock. Sworn to celibacy, he isn't even tempted, until he saves Devyn and becomes embroiled in her desperate life.

Can Kassern keep them all safe from Karly's psycho ex and whichever demon horde is onto their scent at the moment? Especially with the train wreck that is Karly along for the ride?

Summon Dorn:

Perfectionist Archangel Dorn
confidently steps forward to form the second team in the Archangels' Holy Warrior plan. Things go wrong from the beginning, but being teased for choosing a nun as his human partner is worse than having Kassern witness his mistakes. Fortunately, Archangels can learn from their mistakes.

Jessie has the unfortunate habit of making a fool of herself whenever a good looking man is nearby. Devastatingly handsome Lucian seems able to look beyond that and puts her at ease right away, but is he as good as he looks?

After a lifetime of pain, Lucian's heart is a closed door and he permits no one a peek inside, but Jessie blows the locks away. Will she cause him even more pain?

Dutifully heading to the convent, Sally falls into a vipers' pit of evil. With no hope of rescue, she sets out to destroy the horror on her own, even if it means her death.

Can Dorn put everything right again and snatch them all from the jaws of the most devastating evil to ever stalk the earth?

Watch for the next Archangel coming
Summer 2013! The Mercury Archangel, Toren, will have his hands full studying to be a cowboy, wrangling his humans into the triumvirate and hog-tying demons while he keeps a soldier in line, sets a Rodeo Queen straight, and convinces a disillusioned heiress of the sincerity of his love.

Chapter One:

"
No, no, no." Jessie looked in the darkness of her rearview mirror and pulled her sputtering Volkswagen off the road, barely managing to avoid plowing into the ditch disguised as a black abyss. Darn it. Not now, not tonight, heavens please. Short-shift nights, never went well as it was with that century-old nurse that wrote her up for breathing wrong. What a way to begin this one.

She stared at the silvery bit of empty highway leading to the hospital and the nursing job she was a hair away from losing. Late could very well push the Director
Of Nursing over the edge. Her headlights flickered briefly before flaring bright, then dying. She flicked the switch several times, but the lights didn't come back on. Fantastic. 

She dropped her head
onto the steering wheel with a sigh. Whatever. All she knew was she'd be fired and broke if she didn't get her butt to work on time. She blindly ransacked her purse and felt around until she found her phone. Unable to decide who to call, she stared at the lit dial pad, wracking her brain. Couldn't call Sally since they were sharing the car until she left for the convent. And of course, her perfect sister's car
had
to sell the second she put the ad up, instead of waiting like any normal car.

Maybe Liz… No, she would already be in the parking lot, spending every possible moment with her orderly girlfriend. Girlfriend who was an orderly. Whatever. She smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand
realizing she hadn't called her shift supervisor yet.

She selected the number and waited for the voicemail prompt.
"At the tone, please record your message."

The beep sounded and Jessie began her long and painful excuse.
"Hi, this is Jessie Hutchinson. I uh, wanted to let you know I'm going to be a little late, had some car trouble. I'm calling for a ride as soon as I get off the phone, and I'll be in work ASAP. If I inconvenience anybody, I'll be happy to stay longer and make up for it, whatever it is it doesn't matter, just pl—"

Beep.
"Message recorded. If you are satisfi—"

Jessie hung up and released her held breath, praying the old night-shift bitty didn
't write her up.

She moved on to the next dilemma. Who the heck to call for help.

God, she didn't want to call her dad. She'd rather walk to work than hear how irresponsible she was to let this happen. As if her car broke down every day. The smart-phone's flashlight app glowing, she fumbled through the oversized bag again and pulled out her pack of gum. And a card. The second her eyes landed on it, her stomach fluttered. Oh. Oh right. That guy from the bar last weekend was a
mechanic!
A crazy-hot one too.

She popped the gum into her mouth, staring at the glossy black surface with gold lettering.
Leo Dade
. Maybe this was God's way of telling her the guy was truly as good as he looked. Or maybe she was broken down and desperate enough to put aside the whole
he could be a psychopath
possibility.

And w
ho was she kidding? There were no
good
men, not entirely. If she ever got that through her thick head, she might actually get a real boyfriend, instead of the random childish flirtations she'd had since high school. Todd at the hospital was the closest she'd come to a relationship in a decade and he wasn't exactly in much of a hurry for anything serious. Mostly teasing and seductive toying. Just enough to make her hold her breath and wait. But waiting was good, taking time was good. Even if part of her
did
wish he'd hurry up while he waited and took his time.

But this Leo guy…he wasn
't like the guys she was used to. Had to be the
man
factor. Definitely all man, nothing boyish about him, or guy-ish. Kinda scary actually. She could thank her intolerably male father for that fear. Every time she thought
masculine
, she flashed back to one of the hundreds of beatings from her childhood.

Jess
ie chewed her lower lip, staring at the card. Darn, if he weren't so cute, it'd be easier. No, cute was most definitely not the right word. Breath-taking. Gorgeous. No, beautiful. The man was
beautiful
in an entirely male way. And so built. Wow, his body. Sheer perfection. Gee whiz she wasn't helping herself make that call.
"Your eyes remind me of warm mocha on Christmas morning."

Doggoooone
that was…that was what? Sweet? No, no, there was more than sweet in his tone and seductive brown eyes. Yes, brown, but not dark, more like, fan-my-face baked honey. Darn it, she was twenty-three years old. Maybe a man was exactly what she needed. And he'd been the perfect gentleman – the whole masculine intoxication aside. 

Fisting her trembling fingers several times, she
huffed courage into her scaredy-cat limbs and dialed the number. Please don't let him be sleeping. Eleven o'clock on a Thursday evening? Likely not.

"
Hey there."

Ohhh
wow, he knew it was her. "Hi-hi." She clenched her eyes at the stutter.

"
I'm glad you called. I was hoping I'd hear from you. What's up?"

"
Oh, not a whole lot, really. Well. Actually my car is up. I mean, up like…" Jessie cancelled the witty route with a sigh. It'd only make her look like a moron. "I wouldn't have disturbed you if I weren't stranded here on the side of the road needing to get to work on time, which is pretty hopeless at this point and means I'm likely going to be—"

"
Stop." He chuckled, a deep, slide-inside-your-pores sound. "Where are you? I'm coming, don't worry."

She released a held breath a
long with some weird airhead noise. "Gosh, that is so sweet, and of course I can pay."

"
Don't insult me, please. We're friends."

Friends. Thirty minutes of casual chatting at the bar and they were friends. That worked.
"I owe you then. Something friendly of course."

He gave a little chuckle that said he could happily work with that.
"I accept. Now where are you?"

Such a simple question for most people. All the praying in the world didn
't prevent the nervous chatter from accompanying the coordinates. Random stuff no one gave a rat's butt about, nor made a lick of sense, ran from her mouth. If the man found her within the next year, it'd be a miracle.

Finally done, she threw the phone on the seat and let her composure fall to pieces in an
ohhhh myyyy gossshhhh
squeal. She quickly rummaged through her purse and found make-up and fumbled to put it on by the light from her phone in the little mirror on the back of her sun visor. "Shoot, stop your shaking or you'll look like a clown." Who was she kidding? She looked like a clown even when the cosmetics were applied perfectly.

Fifteen minutes. That
's how long he took to get there. Absolutely astonishing. And yet it felt like a life time while she waited. Five minutes of checking under the hood determined she'd need a tow. "Don't worry." He grinned when Jessie started to hyperventilate. "I'll give you a ride to work and get my guy to come pick your car up and bring it to my shop. I'll have you fixed up by tomorrow afternoon."