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Angelic Redemption
Copyright © 2009 Stephani Hecht
ISBN: 978-1-55487-221-3
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
Angelic Redemption
Archangels Six
By
Stephani Hecht
Dedication
To Great-Grandma-Golden Girl.
Chapter One
It’s amazing how things can always get worse. Just when you thought life couldn’t possibly get any shittier, it always managed to take a nosedive. As Cam donned a cloak to disguise who he was from the various demons and rogue angels milling around the slave compound, he pondered just how bad things had got in the span of ten minutes.
For the past few months, his brother, Derel, had been held captive by a slaver. His owner, Santar had quickly realized Derel had powerful gifts and made sure to keep the angel under heavy guard at all times. Something had obviously gone very wrong though because now the angel was in a gladiator pit fighting for his life.
Derel was an angel warrior, but he was also a healer. Since injured healers couldn’t heal, they were taught to fight with long distance weapons, like bows and arrows. Thinner in build then archangels, they were trained from birth to stand back unless absolutely necessary. They sure as hell were never taught hand-to-hand combat, which was what Derel would need if he was ever going to survive the battle ahead.
Cam, his other six brothers, their sister, Ana, and several other dozen angel warriors had come to break Derel and his mate, Heather, out and bring them home. Cam just hoped they’d made it in time.
“You go save Derel,” Michael ordered. As Chief of the angel warriors, he held rank over even Cam, leader of the empath angels. “I’ll go rescue Heather.”
Cam nodded and motioned for Appolion, Ramiel and Bear to join him. They mingled with the crowd walking into the stadium. Cam pulled down the hood of the disguise, which was rank with the demon stench of its previous owner, hoping to hide his features. Even though he was part incubus and had cat-like eyes and fangs, his Lehor blue eyes and blond hair would still give him away to any demon that looked close.
The crowd in the stadium let out a collective gasp before they started chanting, “Derel! Derel! Derel!”
“Looks like he’s got a fan base,” Bear observed with a sneer. The baby of the family, his blond hair was dyed green today and the errant spikes of it poked out from under his hood. “Disgusting, bloodthirsty bastards. Make sure you fry all of them, Cam.”
Feeling sadistic, Cam smiled. The urge to start throwing his flame was so strong his hands were starting to feel twitchy. He was going to fry some demons and rogues all right, starting with the fucker who’d taken Derel in the first place.
“Let’s do this,” Cam declared as they rounded the corner and entered the stands.
* * * *
Derel collapsed to his knees, holding his shredded stomach. The blood from his wound soaked through his shirt and started to drip through his fingers. The droplets mixed in with the dirt, forming dark muddy patches beneath him. The demons continued to snarl at him and make threatening moves. He tried to lift his sword arm to defend himself, but the loss of blood left him too weak to do anything but just sit there and wait for the end to come.
He had done a pretty damn good job at fighting the assassins at first, if he did say so himself. But it had been a losing battle from the start because he’d been outnumbered, since it had just been him and young teen who was half elf, half angel fighting against at least a half dozen demon assassins. At first, the kid, Jordy, had tried to protect Derel, trying to use his elf agility and grace to their advantage. However, it had been Derel that had protected the kid once he had been quickly and viciously wounded by the demons. Even now, Derel was shielding the young angel from the demons with his own body. Concerned, Derel reached behind him and touched Jordy’s prone body. He could hear him moaning, other than that, the kid didn’t move. At least he was alive, but not for much longer if the demons had their way.
Derel started to laugh and he knew it sounded manic and hysterical. His brothers were coming to rescue him, but they were wasting their efforts on what would soon be a corpse. Ironic. Pure fucking ironic! Derel’s biggest regret wasn’t the fact that he was about to die, it was that he had been unable to protect Heather.
The demon assassins started mocking the two wounded angels. Taunting and toying with their prey like a cat with a mouse. Derel finally got sick of their little show and shot a nice lougie in their direction. With one last burst of energy, he tried to lunge at them only to end up on his ass when he legs gave out from under him. So weak from blood loss, he couldn’t even stand to piss if he wanted to let alone fight.
“Just get it over with you assholes,” he growled to the demons. Not wanting to see the deathblow coming, he closed his eyes and waited. Then a loud cheer from the crowd made him open them again.
Four robed figures had jumped from the stands into the center of the ring and they stood there silent, shielding the two injured angels from the demons. Derel caught a glimpse of the robed figures footwear and smiled to himself. Two of them were wearing battered tennis shoes and he knew of only two idiots stupid enough to go into battle without combat boots, Bear and Appolion.
Opening his mind up to the rescuer’s telepathic signature, Derel knew instantly the other two were Cam and Ramiel. The crowd and the demons froze with baited breath as they all waited to see what the four were going to do. Unlike Derel, they still had no idea who the disguised figures where or why they were there. Derel could hear the questions swirling around the demon’s minds. Were they there to attack the angels? Were they going to fight the assassins? Who were they?
As one, the four rescuers whipped off their robes and tossed them to the side. As soon as the crowd saw who the angels were, they all got to their feet and roared. Cam immediately shot off a fireball and incinerated the nearest demon assassin. Appolion shot off his own bolt of energy and took out another. Bear ran over to Derel, using his daggers to slash at the demons that separated them.
“Holy crap on a bagel, they worked you over good,” Bear choked, his voice trembling as he touched the deep wounds.
“Heather?” Derel let his baby brother gather him up in his arms and help him to his feet.
“Michael, Nathaniel and the twins went to go get her, don’t worry. Ana’s here, too, we all came for you.”
Derel gestured weakly with his head. “Don’t leave the kid behind. He really tried hard and he’s one of us so long as you ignore the pointy ears. I promised not to leave him.”
“Don’t worry, nobody is going to be left behind. Why do you think Michael brought so many of us? He’s going to free everyone.”
Appolion, Ramiel and Cam had finished off the demon assassins, showing no mercy in the process. Derel took some grim satisfaction in that. His only regret was his owner, Santar wasn’t there to meet the same fate. Appolion ran over and threw Jordy over his shoulder, fireman style. Several guards were coming their way, pulling swords and other various weapons out on the way. Cam took care of that that by shooting several fireballs at the stands. The crowd shrieked and stampeded as the arena burst into flames. The group blended into the panicked crowd and easily made it out of the arena. Bear started to take Derel out of the compound, but the healer struggled as he felt the overpowering urge to protect his mate.
“I’m not leaving without Heather,” he argued.
“I already told you, Nathaniel and the others are getting her right now,” Bear talked slowly and calmly, like he was trying to sooth a child.
“I’m not leaving without her,” Derel countered, emphatic.
Bear impatiently brushed the sweat off his brow, leaving behind a streak of Derel’s blood. “In case you haven’t noticed dork, you’re injured. We need to get you out of here and to a healer fast.”
Derel decided to plead his case with a higher authority and leaned over until he fell into Cam’s arms, streaking him with blood, too. Cam had no choice but to catch him or else Derel would have fallen to the ground and been trampled by the crowd.
Derel grabbed Cam’s shirt with both hands. “I mean it, I’m not leaving without her.” He knew he sounded half delusional and he probably was. He didn’t care though. He just needed to be able to see Heather with his own eyes, to hold her in his arms, to know she was safe. Cam closed his eyes and cursed, and Derel knew he had won. Although Cam bitched the entire way.
“You’re getting blood on me while I’m hauling your ungrateful ass all over hell and back. I should have left you in that arena. Do I even get a thank you? Hell no, everyone just expects ol’ Cam to come running whenever they snap their fingers.”
Derel tuned him out and frantically scanned the crowd, looking for Heather’s familiar brown hair and snapping brown eyes. When he finally spotted her in the chaos, he almost cried in relief. She was standing next to Ana and the two females were fighting a pair of guards. Someone had managed to get Heather a new whip and she was using it with ruthless efficiency. If he hadn’t been so injured, it may have been a turn on. Okay, it was a turn on, injured or not. As soon as she saw Derel, she fought her way to his side, her eyes filling with tears when she saw the injuries.
“Oh my God,” she stammered in a shaky voice. “What did they do to you?”
“I’ll be okay.” Derel closed his eyes and savored the feeling of her fingertips brushing against his face as he drank in her scent. The stab wounds and slashes on his body throbbed in time to his heart, he could feel his strength drain out with his blood and his hold on consciousness was wavering, but it was all worth it. She was alive, that’s all that mattered. “Did those bastards touch you?”
“I’m fine, I was able to fight them off until help came. You should have seen Michael, he was seriously angry. He tore those guards apart all by himself.”
A battle cry that was louder than the rest drew all of their attention. Belora and her guards had entered the fray. Derel watched in horror as Nathaniel stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of his missing mate. Finally seeing the female he’d once loved and now knew had betrayed him, Nathaniel seemed paralyzed with emotion. Derel choked back a sob of his own as he thought about the pain his brother must be going through. To know that your mate was really an evil monster must be torture.
Nathaniel yelled something at her, but the sound was lost in the roar of the battle. Her lips moved as she answered him and what she said must have been a doozie because Nathaniel lowered his sword and a devastated look passed over his face. One of her guards took advantage of Nathaniel’s weak moment and cut the archangel down at the back his knees. Belora stood over her fallen mate, her sword raised above her head.
Cam raised his Glock, but he froze. Derel felt his gut clench in horror and shock. He’d been in countless battles with both Cam and Nathaniel and he had never seen one of them hesitate. Now he had seen both of them do it in the span of five seconds.
Belora brought her sword down on Nathaniel and Derel could hear Ana screaming in protest. Cam still hadn’t moved. He just continued to stand there with the gun in his hand, unable to fire off the bullet that should have ended Nathaniel’s mate’s life. In the end, it was Michael that finally brought up his own Glock and shot Belora in the head. The last image Derel had before he passed out was of a red spray of blood.
Chapter Two
“Babies always smell so good after a bath,” Dina declared as he gave Ariel’s poufy blonde hair a kiss before switching the subject. “I heard that you had a bit of a confrontation with some healers?”
“It was nothing really.” Amadeaha squirmed a bit under her cousin’s approving stare.
They had just picked the baby up from Cliona’s and were making their way back to Amadeaha’s quarters for the evening, and she was hoping watching the young angel would help take her mind off the fact her mate, Cam, was off on a dangerous mission. It was always hard for her when he went off to fight. To make matters worse this time, the two of them had a huge fight right before he’d left and they hadn’t settled the matter.
“Nothing?” Dina echoed, bringing her back into the current conversation. “You really impressed the empaths that witnessed it. They have been running around the compound bragging about how their Lady took out Thomas for harassing Jules. Are you going to tell me what’s going on with her?”
Amadeaha hesitated, not wanting to betray Jules’ confidence. There was no way she could tell Dina Jules had fallen in love with Thomas any more than she could tell him how Jules had gone down on him in the backseat of his car. Or that poor Jules had gagged when Thomas had gotten overexcited and jerked her head down. She couldn’t even tell Dina the worst part, that the very next day Thomas had dumped Jules and picked up with a female healer. So instead she said, “It’s difficult, Dina.”
He accepted this with a nod of his head. “I did notice Thomas and his friends waited until Ray and I had left to start in on Jules. Damn cowards.”
For the millionth time since Cam left, Amadeaha looked down at her cell phone. “You’re sure that it would tell me if I missed a call?”
With a heavy sigh, he shifted Ariel on his hip. “Yes it would. Didn’t Cam include the instructions for that thing when he gave it to you?”
“Yes, but they were boring so I stopped reading them.”
Dina said something to her, but it came out all muffled because as soon as he opened his mouth, Ariel thought it would be fun to stick her pudgy hands in. He pulled them out and tried again.
“Don’t worry, Cam will forgive you for hitting him.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s always forgiven me.”
That simple statement struck at Amadeaha’s heart. She hadn’t forgotten what the others had told her about Dina’s past mental illness. She just hadn’t had the courage to bring it up with him before now. “You hit him?” her voice was small and timid.
“Yeah, I did…a few times. He knew I was going through a real rough time though and refused to give up on me even after I attacked him. That’s the way he is, always putting everyone else’s problems first. It’s like he is trying to make up for what he thinks he did wrong in the past.”
Amadeaha stopped and fully looked at her cousin. With his dyed black hair, ear plugs, piercings, tattoos and all dark clothing, it would be easy not to see the wisdom hiding under all those layers of Punk armor. “You’re so much smarter than anyone ever gives you credit for, Dina. You know that?”
Never one to take a compliment, he blushed. “No, I’m just good at observing things. You should stop beating yourself up about that argument anyways, you were right.”
“Right to hit him?” Cocking a brow at him, she let him see her confusion. Dina was the one who’d chastised her in the first place for having a public argument with the leader of the empaths. In his opinion, Amadeaha should show Cam more respect. While Amadeaha agreed with him to a certain extent, that didn’t mean she was going to let Cam walk all over her either.
“No, right about him needing to talk about his past. I think it would help him if he did.”
Amadeaha was pleased that at least one angel agreed with her. “So are you going to tell him that?”
“Hell no.”
They rounded a corner and almost tripped on a young angel curled up against the wall, a book in his lap. Even though Amadeaha had never met him before, she instantly recognized it was Cam’s cousin, Dominic. Cam mentioned that the kid was a dead ringer for Michael and Amadeaha could see he hadn’t been kidding. Dominic had the same dark blond hair, brown eyes and strong jaw as the Chief. Although he didn’t have the same cocky attitude or arrogant swagger of his famous uncle, if anything, the young angel looked terrified of drawing too much attention to himself. He pressed up tighter to the wall and looked down at his battered tennis shoes. Amadeaha noticed that all his clothes looked worse for wear. The blue jeans were ripped and not in a fashionable way while his shirt was so faded it was impossible to tell what the original color may have been.
“What are you doing out here so late?” she asked. This kid should be in bed or at the very least sacked out in front of a TV. He sure as heck shouldn’t be hiding out in a cold, lonely hallway. Then she noticed Dominic had a bruise forming on his right cheek and all her worst fears were confirmed. Dina sucked in his breath as his eyes honed in on the same mark.
Dear God, someone was using this kid as a punching bag. She didn’t need to see the bruise to know that. The defeated way he carried himself screamed it. She had seen it countless times on Dina while they were growing up. Instantly, she felt an irresistible urge to protect the young angel.
Dominic scrambled to his feet, his eyes wide with fear. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that I was doing anything wrong. I’ll go back to my quarters right away.”
Amadeaha put a hand on his arm and pretended not to notice how he flinched. “That’s okay. You just startled me is all. Dina and I were just going back to my quarters to watch a bad B-movie. Why don’t you come with us?”
Dominic hesitated, longing briefly visiting his face before he hid it. “I don’t know.”
“We were going to make pizza,” Dina added. “I make a mean pepperoni.”
Dominic gave one last look down the corridor to where his quarters were. “I guess it would be okay. My mom is sleeping, so she shouldn’t need me.”
Amadeaha had to work hard to hide her anger. By the sounds of it, not only was Dominic being abused by his mother, but he was playing the role of her caretaker as well. She wondered who took care of him. Was there anyone there when he got hurt, had a nightmare or was afraid? Amadeaha had the sudden urge to take him and keep him hidden away from his mom. “You know, if you ever need anything,” she told him in a soothing voice, “I’m here for you. I’ll understand.”
The teen looked doubtful. “It’s not what you think.”
“Still—” she stopped short when Dina let out a loud gasp and grabbed her arm. Surprised she looked over, expecting him to tell her not to push the teen too hard, but instead the empath had a distant glazed look in his eyes. “Dina?”
Dina cocked his head to the side and his brow creased in confusion. Taking a deep sniff, he acted like he was testing the air for something. “Do you feel that?”
Alarmed at his odd behavior, Amadeaha looked around, but only saw the empty hallway. “Feel what?”
“There’s something nearby, something bad.” He shivered violently and clutched Ariel tighter.
“I haven’t felt evil this strong since…” Breaking off, he shook his head like he was trying to push away some memory.
Amadeaha touched his arm and she was shocked to feel him trembling. “You’re just imagining things. We’re in the middle of the compound that’s guarded not only with angel warriors, but protection shields. There’s no way that any demon could get through.”