by Anna Santos
RED ANGEL
the Angels of Paris Chronicles
Book 2
Anna Santos
Copyright © 2017 Anna Santos
All rights reserved.
Inquiries about additional permissions should be directed to: [email protected]
Cover Design by Laércio Messias
Edited by Amy McNulty
Proofread by: May Freighter
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to similarly named places or to persons living or deceased is unintentional.
ISBN: 1545037981
ISBN-13: 978-1545037980
CURRENTLY AVAILABLE:
Save Me, Prequel for Captive– Book 0
Captive – Book 1
Red Angel – Book 2
Coming Soon:
Celestial – Book 3
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These books are dedicated to everyone who believes in true love.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
RED ANGEL
Book 2 of The Angels of Paris Chronicles
Aria's powers as a Red Angel are something that’s not been seen for a long time. Prince Cedric couldn’t be happier about her transformation. Yet, Aria feels the angel inside her wants to take over her personality and transform her into a ruthless warrior.
To make things worse, the Vampire King regrets rejecting her and wants her back. Aria can't deny the attraction to her former mate, but she wants to stay true to Cedric and the love that had blossomed between them.
Tensions rise between vampires and angels. Philippe and Cedric need to put their differences aside if they want to stop a dangerous drug, Clarity. The trouble doesn’t stop there as vicious creatures will do anything to start a war in the supernatural community and prevent Cedric from surviving the trial.
Chapter ONE
ARIA
I woke up, bothered by the sunlight on my face. I was tired and needed to rest more. Yet Cedric seemed to have other plans for me.
“Come on, sleeping beauty, wake up,” Cedric whispered, softly kissing my nose, my eyelids, and my cheeks.
I sighed, feeling my entire body react to his kisses and melt at his voice. I smiled with my eyes shut, enjoying those last few moments of my sleepiness. It was amazing to wake up with him next to me, kissing me. It seemed a torture to open my eyes and obey his words.
“No, I want to sleep more,” I mumbled, turning my back to him and hugging my pillow. I shivered when he kissed my naked back. The softness of his lips made me sigh with pleasure. I didn’t need to open my eyes to enjoy his caresses. In fact, it just made me want to pretend to be sleeping even more.
He brushed the hair away from my neck, placing small kisses on the crook of my neck. “I know you’re awake and enjoying this, but we have to go.”
I lost my smile. “Where do we have to go?” I asked, moving to see him and melting from love when I saw the smile he had on his face.
I bit my lip, focusing on his tantalizing lips that I had kissed and tasted the previous night. It had been special. He’d let me do whatever I wanted and had been patient. He seemed to be feeling more confident about my feelings for him. Or he understood that I needed time to give in to lust. Whatever it was, I was glad he hadn’t pressured me last night. We only had fun, discovering our bodies and kissing until our lips were sore and we were tired and sleepy.
“Now that you have your wings, you need to practice, so you can use them for flying,” he explained.
“F-flying?” I stuttered. “I’m scared of heights!”
“Aria, your angel isn’t. You need to trust me on this. You’re not going to fly right away. You’ve never done it before, so you must get accustomed to your wings and experience heights. Then, you need to learn how to control the movement of your wings,” he said, caressing my hair. “Do you trust me?”
I nodded, swallowing hard. That made him chuckle and kiss me.
“Relax. I’m going to be right beside you. I’d never let anything bad happen to you.”
“I know.”
“So are you ready?”
“Not really.”
He smirked, making me all warm and fuzzy inside.
“What?” I asked, breathless.
“I don’t need a reason to smile at you, do I?”
“You do when you smile like that.”
“And how did I smile?” he asked with a sly grin.
I felt an urge to kiss him. “As if you… I don’t know how to explain.” I sighed, lacking the words to describe his smiles. He had different smiles, and I was beginning to understand them all.
He tried to guess. “As if I’m extremely proud of you?”
I nodded.
“I am, Aria. You’re a brave girl, don’t ever doubt that,” he said, and I blushed deeper at his pleasant words.
I liked when he was sweet and gentle with me. He was perfect, and I couldn’t understand how I could get mad at him. I was such an idiot sometimes that it was absurd. How could he see anything else in me besides my pathetic and insecure self?
“What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking that I’m really stupid for getting mad at you. I don’t know how you can stand me and my mood swings. I’m a mess!”
“Well, you are my messed-up mate, so I have to forgive you,” he teased.
I glared at him, narrowing my eyes in what I hoped to be a menacing warning. He laughed, and I was fascinated by his laughter and his face. It was difficult to get mad at him when he was so gorgeous and witty.
“Calm down, wild cat,” he whispered huskily next to my lips. I stretched my mouth into a smile, feeling my breath leaving my lungs with the closeness.
“I’m not a wild cat,” I said even if it sounded more like an invite than me being genuinely hurt.
He smiled again and, this time, my body shivered under his. He playfully kissed my lips, making me close my eyes. “Cats are afraid of water. I’m afraid of flying,” I managed to say, and he chuckled.
“I’m here to make you face your fears. I’m here to protect you from everything bad and evil,” he whispered, persuading me to trust him and calm down. “Being afraid is not something you should fear—redundancy intended. One can only be courageous when they face their fears, not when they aren’t afraid of anything.”
“What are you afraid of?” I asked with my arms around his neck, replying to his soft kisses on my mouth and face.
“I’m afraid of losing you. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to protect you. I’m afraid that you don’t believe that I love you and that I’m here for you to make you feel happy and complete. I’m terrified that you won’t want me. I’m scared of not being loved.” His words reached deep inside my heart and soul. “I’m afraid of not being able to love you the way you deserve,” he added.
I shook my head, feeling the tears assault my eyes. I was moved by his doubts and insecurities. He wasn’t so different from me, after all. We were both insecure.
He kissed my cheeks and forehead. “Calm down. I didn’t want to make you cry. I’m not trying to make you sad, honey.”
“I�
��m not sad. I’m just moved by your words.”
“So, what you are afraid of?”
I took a shaky breath. “I’m afraid that I can’t be what you want me to be. I’m afraid of you breaking my heart,” I confessed, feeling vulnerable in doing so. “I’m so afraid that you don’t feel I’m worthy of being your mate.”
“You don’t need to be afraid of that.”
“And if I never learn how to fly?” I asked, aware that I needed to learn how to fly and how to control my powers. I also needed to put a leash on my angel, so she wouldn’t go around and make people burst into flames. She was impatient and didn’t give a damn about anyone other than Cedric and protecting humans from evil. It was wired in her personality that it was okay to kill, and it was okay to be an arrogant angel with a god complex. I was nothing like her.
“Flying is part of you now,” Cedric said as he caressed my head. The tension spread throughout my body. “I’m really proud of you, darling, and I’m not going to force you to do something you don’t feel safe doing. I’m not going to do something evil like push you off a building and hope you get over your fears.”
I opened my eyes at his words, my heart racing with fear. Being flung off a roof hadn’t even crossed my mind, but now that he mentioned it, I was scared.
“We’re going to start with small steps. First, we’re going to try your wings, making them move, so you can float a few inches above the ground. When you manage to control your wings without running out of energy, we’ll try the flying thing. But first, you need to strengthen your wings. It takes a lot of energy to use them. You need to build resistance.”
“How?”
“Moving them around,” he explained, placing his forehead against mine and molding my body to his.
I blushed from head to toe. I got aroused by the contact, and I noticed that he was aroused, too.
“I need to hold you and kiss you just a bit more.” He struggled to speak between kisses, causing my entire body react to his.
My hands gripped his back, rubbing his skin. His tongue inside my mouth, teasing me, was not helping me turn the heat down.
I felt him shiver under my hands when I pulled him harder against me. I was burning up. I didn’t know that it would be so difficult to resist the urge of mating. I didn’t know that I would get turned on by his bad boy side. I wanted and needed all of his attention. Having him ignoring me and acting cold was not a nice feeling. Wanting to do everything to please him was also a consequence of falling in love with him.
“Can we postpone the flight lesson to this afternoon?” I gasped. My skin was ready to explode with pleasure under his lips and tongue. He was kissing down my throat, approaching my cleavage.
“That wouldn’t be a wise decision,” he said. I felt he was simply being wicked for saying that. “We need to get out of bed.”
“You’re just saying that to punish me.” I pouted.
“I’m saying that because we wouldn’t be able to stop. I’m barely able to hold back.” He gasped, staring at my shirt. I was biting my lip so hard that it might have eventually bled.
“Just a bit longer,” I begged and blushed harder when he turned his face to watch me.
He smiled.
Bubbles of lust surfaced on my skin and made me close my eyes and search for his mouth. I grabbed his head between my fingers and kissed him deeper, hungrier, and more provocatively.
My thoughts ceased to exist. All I could do was gasp and move against him. My skin was tingling, I had goose bumps everywhere, and I felt like I was going to burst into air. I was getting insanely aware that I wanted and needed him closer. Things were getting out of hand. He must have sensed that because he trailed kisses up my torso.
“We need a cold shower,” he teased against my lips.
I laughed, feeling his own laughter shake against my chest.
“Yes, we do,” I managed to say.
“I love you,” he whispered.
I stopped laughing to look at his face. I brushed the pads of my fingers along his cheek. “I love you, too.”
“We’re having flying lessons after showering and breakfast. Put on some casual clothes for it,” he instructed.
I nodded, feeling happy to be his mate.
Chapter TWO
PHILIPPE
Josephine entered my bedroom, reached the shades, and pulled them up, letting the sunlight come inside the room.
“Are you mad?” I asked, getting off the chair and running to the shadows.
“No. I was just checking to see if you were suicidal or not,” she replied, smirking at me.
I arched an eyebrow at her as I tried to understand why she wasn’t moving under the sun that was clearly making her skin burn.
“And are you suicidal?” I asked.
“Not quite, but I think that I’m less vulnerable to sunlight. What do you think?”
“It smells like burned flesh to me.”
“Maybe I’m going insane,” she declared.
I pursed my lips and stopped myself from saying anything that would make her physically assault me.
Closing the shades, she asked, “Why aren’t you leaving your bedroom?”
“It’s still daytime.”
My master turned to me with her hands on her hips. “People are saying that you’re sulking here and sighing all over the house. What’s wrong with you? I don’t like when you act like that. It’s not the first time you’ve thought about killing yourself, Philippe.”
“I’m fine.” I sighed and sat on my couch, staring at the shades.
“Is all this because of Aria?”
“I’m just tired. That’s all.”
“It’s because of her, isn’t it? Gerard told me you had sent her things to her new mate’s house and that you’ve been acting funny since you went to see that prick in the cemetery. How could you? Didn’t I warn you to stay away from the necromancer?”
“You could have saved me the trouble and told me what was going on.”
“I couldn’t,” she declared as she sat next to me on another couch. “Are you going to give up?”
I shrugged and sighed. “Her soul is saved. She doesn’t need me.”
“And do you need her?”
I glared at her.
Is she serious? Wasn’t she the one who told me to move on with my life and forget all about Aria?
“Even if I do, what good can that do? She’s no longer mine and…I don’t want her to have this life. To be pushed away from everybody she loves, to stay away from the sun and to drink blood. She deserves better.”
“Oh! You love her,” Josephine gushed as her eyes grew bigger.
“I don’t!”
Frowning, she asked, “So why the grumpy and gloomy face?”
“I’m simply thinking about my life. I have problems besides Aria, you know?”
“Such has?”
“Clarity, business, competition, gargoyles…” I mentioned a few, so she would get off of my back and leave me alone.
She looked thoughtful for a while. I hoped my excuse was enough for her to stop harassing me about my gloomy state. I wanted to be left alone with my misery.
“And what if she was happier with you? Did you ever think about that?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if Aria was happier with you than she is with Cedric? What if Cedric doesn’t make her happy? Maybe she could love you more and leave him.”
“Of course I thought about that,” I mumbled, resting my head against my hand and staring at my feet.
I was acting like a spoiled child. I was well aware of that. Still, there was nothing that would make me want to get out of that bedroom and face the emptiness of my house and my life. What would I do? Go back to my former self-centered self? Donate some money to some orphanage to satisfy my conscience and hope for the best? Continue to have meaningless and unfulfilled sex with random girls? Aria’s arrival had cracked a breach in my heart and it was hard to become numb and go back to what used to
make me endure immortality.
“So?” Josephine pressed.
“She loves him and…he loves her. He does. And I know she’ll be happy with him. She will be a queen and an angel. What more could she ask for? It’s the perfect fairy tale dream. He’s a prince! What am I? The coldhearted vampire who scared her to death and stalked her. Oh, and forced her on a date, so I could see her again. She must be so eager to see me again, no doubt about that.”
My sarcasm made Jo breathe deeply and sigh with annoyance.
“I don’t know what’s worse: arrogant Philippe or self-pitying Philippe!”
I grumbled, “None of the above. The worst was hopeful Philippe. But I should have learned my lesson by now.”
“Oh, cry me a river!” Josephine snapped at me.
It made me stare at her. She was evil sometimes. Why couldn’t she be nicer to me? I was feeling miserable!
She kept rambling. “You have tons of girls falling at your feet, begging to give you their love. Don’t come crying to me and telling me that no one loves you because that’s a lie. A lot of people can love you, but you aren’t able to love them back. Finally, you found someone who woke you up to life and made your heart feel again. Now you’re annoyed because you can’t have her. But life goes on, especially for us, immortal beings. So get off of this couch and go do something.”
“Like what?” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Are you aware how badly you suck at cheering people up? How did you ruin my wallowing in perfectly good misery? Are you aware how twisted that sounded?
“If you’re already feeling miserable, how can I ruin that even more?” she retorted.
“By being a pain in the ass,” I said, enlightening her.
She giggled. “Try to move on and stop feeling sorry for yourself.”
I combed my hair with my fingers and moved in my seat. “Jo, the girl was my soulmate. I lost her. Do you honestly think that I should feel anything but sorrow and sadness? We were meant to be. I thought I loved Sophie. She was my whole world for a long time. Now, I find out that our love was meant to be doomed because there was someone else out there to complete me.”
