Hell's Redemption- The Complete Series Boxset

by Grace McGinty

  I walked into my room, listening to the water run in the shower. Blue had left the door open, probably so he could hear me easier, and steam was pouring into the bedroom, making the room hazy.

  I pulled back the blinds and opened the window, letting the steam dissipate. The water turned off and Blue was suddenly standing in the doorway, a towel wrapped around his waist, his hair wet and shaggy.

  “Everything okay?”

  I nodded, swallowing hard and trying to think G-rated thoughts. “We are going to order pizza and watch Harry Potter. Want to join?”

  Blue let out an audible groan, but nodded anyway. He slipped on some sweats that rode way too low and made my mouth water. I crawled into the middle of the bed and plumped the ridiculous amount of cushion. Then I sat down to watch the show. Not Harry Potter, but the way Blue’s abs moved as he pulled his shirt over his head. I was going to get him a bunch of turtlenecks that were two sizes too small, just so the show could go on longer.

  What kind of insane woman decided to date more than one man at a time? Apparently, this insanity was genetic. Maybe gluttony for punishment was hitched to one of our chromosomes.

  I found the first Harry Potter movie in my computer and sent it to the huge TV in my room. My dad was still a tech geek, and I had all the latest gadgets, usually Oz-ified, which meant they were even better. I could turn on the coffee machine from the shower, and if that wasn’t as close to Heaven on Earth, what did I know?

  “What kind of pizza do you want, Azriel?” Blue asked, on the phone to the pizza place, Azriel just looked at him blankly. “You’ve never had pizza?” Blue asked, horrified. I just smiled at his wide eyes.

  He finished off the order, getting a pepperoni with extra cheese, and came down to lie down beside me on the bed.

  Azriel remained standing, staring at the space on the bed, and at Blue who was pressed right along my right side. I held my breath and tried to look completely casual. This was just another day, no big deal. This wasn’t a test about whether or not we could cope as a unit. Because, Azriel might be willing to fall for me, but I would not, could not, give up the others. They needed me, my lost boys.

  Seeming to settle whatever internal war was going on, he climbed onto the bed, a few inches between us, and I let out the breath I’d been holding.

  This might just work.

  “But why did they not use your human guns? I don’t understand. It would have obviously hurt them, they are still human after all,” Azriel argued, and I rolled my eyes. Blue snored softly beside us, falling asleep sometime after the third movie, though I was pretty sure he dozed most of the way through that one too.

  “Because it’s a movie made for children,” I said patiently, though I enjoyed this outraged version of the Angel of Death, who had consumed an entire pie by himself and then binge watched all eight Harry Potter movies. Even I slept through the fifth and sixth ones. But Azriel could not get enough, and he watched them one after another, wasting twenty whole hours where we did nothing but cuddle, watch movies and eat cereal.

  It was oddly peaceful. Also, angels didnt need a lot of sleep apparently. Memphis and Gus tended to sleep when I slept, so I just assumed.

  I shifted from my spot at the end of the bed and stretched. I realized Azriel was still arguing about plot holes, but I knew he’d loved it. The Boy Wizard had a new fan, showing you are never too old for Harry Potter because Azriel was a million years old.

  Blue stretched, and blinked sleepily at Azriel. “What’s he talking about?” He gave me a drowsy smile. “You’re hot in the mornings.”

  I grinned so wide my cheeks hurt. I went to his side, leaning down to kiss him while he was still in this soft, unguarded mood. “Right back at you,” I said close to his lips.

  “Why don’t you hop bac-“

  Whatever Blue was about to say was interrupted by the chirping of my phone. Ugh, I couldn’t remember where I left it. I patted down the bed covers, it had to be in there somewhere, and then ripped the blankets off.

  “Hey!” Blue protested, and I was mildly distracted about how low his sweats had ridden overnight. They were barely hiding anything.

  He grinned at me, his eyes sparkling with mirth. “Your phone?”

  Oh shit, yeah. I finally found it poking out from under a cushion and dived for it, simultaneous pressing the answer button.

  “Hello?” I sounded a little breathless, and I cleared my throat.

  “Marco says you have to come,” a childish voice said down the line. What?

  “Pardon?”

  “Marco says you have to come, that you have a situation. He said he couldn’t send it in a text, because phones have beetles.” There was a pause. “Bugs. He says phones have bugs.”

  It was a testament to how Harry Potter fried my brain was, that it took me awhile to connect all the dots.

  “Tell Marco we’ll be right there,” I said. “Uh, bye?”

  “Buh bye,” the kid said on the end.

  Blue was already up and getting dressed, slipping on his cool, neutral, killer face. Azriel was clothed in white linen pants and a white shirt, and I grimaced. Dressed in white, he looked inhuman, even without his wings.

  “Uh, we are going incognito. Here, wear some of Gus’ clothes, he won’t mind,” I said, digging around in the drawer that somehow magically started to store Gusion’s clothes. There was a matching drawer for Memphis. Blue had just completely taken over the spare room.

  I handed Azriel a pair of jeans and a well worn band shirt from some indie band that broke up in the 1990s.

  Azriel looked at them like they were rattlesnakes.

  I went and brushed my teeth, and by the time I returned, Azriel was dressed. My jaw dropped. He was sexy as hell. I mean, Azriel was beautiful, but he was too much perfection in a pretty package. Gusion’s clothes dirtied him up a little, made him rougher, more edible.

  “Wow. You look…” I walked over, and stood up on my tippy toes to kiss him. He rested his hands on my hips and pulled me close, kissing me back with enthusiasm. I wrapped my arms around his neck. He was a quick learner in the kissing department, and I squeaked out a surprised noise when he slipped his tongue between my teeth.

  Someone cleared their throat behind us. “I hate to interrupt, but that call sounded urgent.” There was an amusement to Blue’s tone, and I sighed against Azriel’s lips.

  “To be continued,” I whispered, and felt his smile in return. I think I’d move mountains for that smile.

  For the second time in seventy-two hours I landed on Marco’s doorstep. This time, instead of a practically dead woman in my arms, I had the sword of St. Michael strapped to my back. Azriel refused to let me leave it behind.

  I went to knock on Marco’s door, but it opened before my fist had the chance to connect to the wood. An irritated and slightly crazed Marco stood in the doorway.

  I automatically reached out and held his hand. Not out of affection, though I was a little fond of the mute but somehow still gruff, gun-for-hire. But it was the easiest way for us to communicate.

  You have a serious, serious problem. You have to take her away from here. I have kids in the house.

  I stepped through the door, dragging Marco behind me, though I could feel his general dislike at having anyone behind him, especially an almost stranger. Azriel did have an unsettling presence.

  “Slow down and go back to the beginning. She seemed sweet enough and as weak as a kitten. How could Serendipity be any danger to the kids?”

  If I’d thought she’d be any trouble at all, I would have found a different place for her to lay low and recuperate after Purgatory. I’d never knowingly endanger those kids.

  It’s more complicated than you thought, came Marco’s gruff response. She’s not so weak now. Actually, she healed remarkably quickly. Inhumanly fast.

  He stopped in the living room, where Sera sat between Cara, Marco’s daughter and Sammie, Cara’s half brother. They were watching a Disney movie on the TV. Marco rapped on the wall
beside his head, and Sammie turned around. Marco signed something at him, and the solemn little boy nodded.

  “C’mon Cara. We gotta go,” he said, standing. Sera looked over her shoulder at us, her eyes quickly shuttering when she saw Azriel.

  “I don’t want to! I want to see the prince rescue the princess,” Cara whined. Sera pressed pause on the remote, and petted the little girl’s back.

  “Princesses get rescued by handsome princes, Cara. Queens save themselves,” she told the girl with a small smile. “Off you go. We’ll finish it in a moment.”

  Sera had a slight accent that I hadn’t noticed before, and her skin glowed now that it wasn’t covered in rat bites. The bite marks weren’t just healed, they were completely gone.

  “We have a serious, serious problem,” I whispered at Marco. I turned back to the woman on the couch. “Who the hell are you?”

  The woman stood, moving, or maybe floating would be a better term, toward us. She smiled and stepped forward to hug me, but both Azriel and Blue were in front of me in an instant. She shrugged.

  “Serendipity Smith,” she said, jutting out a hand, and I shook it. All I got from her was a fuzzy frequency, relief, pain, angst but overall happiness shone from her emotions.

  “Hope Jones,” I said, and returned her smile. “You’re something else. What are you? Gargoyle?”

  Rella said all the other Gargoyles had died off, but maybe she’d been in hiding. Sera just shrugged. “What are you?”

  Well, touché. I wasn’t about to spill my secrets to a stranger either. “You aren’t human, though.” It wasn’t a question. I could feel the otherness of her,

  “No. But then, neither are you entirely. Let’s sit.” She signed to Marco, who just scowled at her.

  We walked into the kitchen and sat around the table. Well, I sat, and the guys all loomed, even Marco.

  “Marco doesn’t like you,” I said conversationally.

  “Marco doesn’t like anyone, except those kids. And maybe you,” Sera said. She was probably right, but it annoyed me that she thought she knew him so well after barely three days.

  Marco gave the woman a rude sign that needed no translation. Sera just grinned.

  “How long had you been in Purgatory for? I assume you knew it was Purgatory?”

  I watched her face for any sign of deceit. She tilted her head to the side as if she was thinking hard. “Two months, four days, purgatory time.”

  If my stay in Purgatory for 24 hrs had been almost a month in earth time, then that meant she’d been trapped in Purgatory for five years!

  “Why?”

  Sera laughed mirthlessly. “It’s the same stupid, age old story. Got drunk, slept with someone I shouldn’t have.” I remained silent. I needed more than that. She blew out a whistling breathe between her teeth. “I didn’t realize until afterwards that he was more than he seemed as well. I should have known, I’m just so used to humans, you know? I stopped looking for anything more years ago.”

  “Did the angel had a name?” It had to be Uriel. Or even Dalius.

  “His name was Luc, and he was the handsomest man I had ever seen.”

  Holy. Fucking. Hell.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  The chair scraped against Marco’s beige tiles as I jumped to my feet.

  “That’s impossible,” I said, and meant it with every fiber of my being. I would have been less surprised if she’d said it was the Archangel Michael himself. But Luc would never.

  “You lie,” Azriel said, equally as disbelieving. Because he was sane. Any being with two eyes could see that Luc loved Ace, body and soul. He would never cheat on her with anyone, even someone as beautiful as Serendipity.

  Blue stepped forward, and sat down in my abandoned chair. “Describe him.” The cool voice brooked no argument. It wasn’t a request.

  “Tall, perfectly built, eyes that saw into my very soul.”

  My heart sunk into the pit of my stomach.

  “And the most beautiful hair, like a flame.”

  Relief made my body sag. Not Lucifer. Thank god.

  “Uriel,” Azriel breathed. “He’s fallen. No wonder he hid you away in Purgatory,” he said more to himself than Sera.

  “Do you love him?”

  Sera’s face morphed into a terrifying mask that made me reconsider whether or not she was a Gargoyle. She looked deadly.

  “No, we only had sex the once and then he stuck me in hell. Worst morning after ever. If I see him again, I am going to punch him in the balls so hard that he’ll taste them on the back of his tongue.”

  Well, okay then. I was extremely glad that she didn’t have some angelic version of Stockholm Syndrome.

  Marco put a hand on my lower back. That isn’t your biggest problem.

  He pointed toward Sera, and my eyes naturally followed the direction of his hand. Right at Sera’s torso. Right at the small bump where her stomach was. The very round, pregnant bump.

  “No?” Azriel exclaimed, his voice climbing up an octave. “How can that be possible? It cannot be.”

  Blue leaned around to see what we were all gawping at. “It’s either that, or she ate a really big lunch.”

  “I mean, it cannot be Uriel’s. Angels are sterile. Even Archangels. Especially Archangels. It must be the offspring of a human, that is the only thing that makes logical sense,” he muttered to himself.

  Blue slid his eyes to me. “I think Sera broke your angel.”

  Azriel was pacing back and forth, and I was worried that Blue might be right, but I had to deal with this first. I needed to… hell I didn’t know what I should do. I was so out of my depth right now.

  I used the techniques that my Dad gave me for use in business. I made a list of what I knew, and what I needed to know. I knew that Sera was something not human, and she healed quickly. I knew she had an affair with Uriel, and now she was pregnant, with Uriel’s baby. I guess the baby must have gestated at Purgatory pace, and not human time.

  “It is Uriel’s, right?”

  “Who’s Uriel? This is Luc’s baby, yes.”

  I cringed at her words. She was going to have to stop saying that, because if the wrong ears heard, it would lead to one hell of a mess. Ace was more of a ‘kill first, ask questions later,’ kind of person.

  I needed to explain. But what if she was a spy? She’d seemed pretty adamant, and her emotions felt truthful, but we couldn’t be too careful.

  But I’d trusted my gut and my abilities for this long, I couldn’t start second guessing them now.

  I sat down, and I told her most of it, from the very beginning. I left out a few things, like the fact that Michael’s sword was currently chafing my back, or the fact we planned to kill Uriel. But I told her about Ace and my Mom, and Luc’s bet with God about the redemption of damned souls. I explained about Tenebrae, and Uriel’s hand in all this bad, including the human trafficking. Sera’s face got so stormy that I thought maybe she was a Valkyrie. If Gargoyles existed, so could Valkyries, right?

  Silence echoed around the kitchen when I finished. It was an amazing kind of a story, when told from the beginning. I knew only the basics of my parents story, and I’d pieced a little more together from my talks with Memphis and Gus, but everything since I’d been abducted outside UN Geneva headquarters had been a bit of a wild ride.

  The silence was interrupted by a small child hedging around the edge of the room, hiding behind the island bench, until she was close enough to duck under the table.

  Sera’s face softened immediately. “Cara, what are you doing?”

  “Hiding.”

  Sera’s chuckle, and the fondness as she looked down at the child told me I’d made the right choice. “I see. And why are you hiding?”

  “I want to go back and watch my movie. I want you to come and sing the songs. You sound so pretty when you sing,” she cooed, climbing onto Sera’s lap.

  Sera looked at Marco, who was still scowling, but he nodded his approval for Cara to go back to the television,
and the little girl skittered off Sera’s lap and out of the room again.

  Marco really didn’t like Sera. I reached out a hand and fully assessed his emotions. He didn’t trust her, but not because she rubbed him the wrong way. Because she rubbed him the right way. He desired her, but she was a threat to the children, to his way of life. He hated being out of control, out of his element. He was a lot like Blue in that way. I wondered if it was a hazard of the job, the constant need for control.

  But he was right. Sera did pose a risk to the children.

  When Uriel realized she wasn’t in Purgatory. If he realized she was pregnant… I shuddered at the thought.

  No. She had to be moved, but where?

  “What are you thinking?” Sera asked

  It had to be somewhere completely unconnected to me, or my family, or the Mulligan’s. Somewhere wholly unconnected to NRH foundation.

  I could only think of one place, one person, and it was a tenuous connection at best.

  “We have to move you. You can’t stay here with them.” I nodded toward the living room, at the two heads that could only just be seen over the top of the couch. “This changes everything.”

  The wave of loneliness that washed over me made me choke back a sob. She’d been so lonely for so long. I reached over and wrapped my hand in hers.

  “It’s not forever. And I am always here. Whatever it is you are, or what you have been through, you won’t have to do it alone anymore.”

  Blue chuckled. “Hope Jones, collector of the broken, fixer of wings,” he teased, but the tenderness he felt was like a warm breeze that washed away all the filth of the last few months. “You adding girls to your harem now?”

  I gave him a saucy wink. “Maybe,” I joked, but we both knew it wasn’t serious. Sera was beautiful, but I liked my guys too much. The thought of adding anyone else, either male or female, seemed wrong.

  She stood, and I appraised her. She was tall, and her hair was a beautiful golden blonde that hung in a long waterfall to her waist now it wasn’t matted and covered in crap. Her skin was a tawny gold, some kind of mediterranean heritage perhaps, and her eyes were a violet. She was a couple of inches taller than me, but still shorter than Azriel. “I will go gather my things,” she said quietly, the sadness still coloring her aura. She glided from the room like a beauty queen, and I shook my head. She was definitely something else, and maybe one day I would get the truth of what that was. But until then, she needed protection. I thought back to her ferocious expression. Maybe she only needed a little protection.