"He will destroy you for betraying him," Lucifer said.
"I know," Jamin said. "And I choose to pay the price."
Jamin's dark eyes fluttered, for he was still very weak, and when he drifted back to sleep, Lucifer brooded some more.
Nothing had changed. His species still teetered at the brink of extinction. The Eternal Emperor was still oblivious, even callous about the hybrid's plight, and even though he was a god, had proposed no solution to their problem. Parliament was a snake pit of petty, fractured self-interests. And if Shay'tan got his hands on the planet, there would be war. Oh, goddess! There would be a war unlike any the galaxy had ever seen!
Lucifer made his decision. He pressed the button on the communications device he always carried.
“Eligor,” Lucifer said.
“Yes, Sir,” Eligor said.
“Send a communique to General Abaddon, eyes only, A-priority-one, and make sure that message is not intercepted by our enemies.”
"Zepar took the needle, Sir," Eligor said. "We have no way to send a message without broadcasting Earth's coordinates to the entire galaxy."
“There is a string of smugglers which works the uncharted territories," Lucifer said. "Send the shuttle to find one of them. They always leave beacons telling others how to arrange a rendezvous to transport goods or trade. When you find one, use them to send Abaddon an encrypted message giving him the coordinates to this solar system. Be cryptic. Send him constellations that only his wife would recognize. He will retro-engineer our location from there."
"What is the plan, Sir?" Eligor asked.
Lucifer's white wings flared just like a raptor.
"We are about to secure Earth for ourselves,” Lucifer said. "For it is my planet, and I intend to keep it."
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Chapter 117
Time: Indeterminate
Ascended Realms
Bishamonten
The Infernal Palace was a different place any time the goddess of All-That-Is chose to take up residence with her husband, but today as he was summoned, it struck the Cherubim god that except for its ebony ramparts, the Dark Lord's palace positively glowed.
Two singing unicorns opened up the enormous, black-carved doors, and as he stepped through, Bishamonten had to cover his eyes until they adjusted to the blinding, brilliant sunlight. Birds sang up upon the ceiling, and grass obscured the chess squares on the floor. Vines had grown up to mask the chess pieces and make it appear as if they were trees, and everywhere SHE had stepped, there sprouted flowers in every color of the rainbow.
She-who-is danced happily in a circle, surrounded by her creations as she spun the shadows into light. As he watched, SHE picked up one of the shadow-cats which forever begged at her ankles, kissed it and declared, 'you shall be called a Phoenix, in honor of my brother's return.' The shape turned into a bird, complete with a fiery tail.
Bishamonten looked up at the terrifying dark visage that did not look quite so intimidating with HIS horns adored with flowers and hummingbirds dancing around his head. Those pitiless dark eyes rarely displayed any emotion other than disapproval, but when his mate was happy, all of creation was happy, and HE was happy, too.
"You called me, Your Eminence?" Bishamonten asked.
"Yes," the Dark Lord said. He turned to his mate. "Uxor mea," he said, "I must speak to Bishamonten alone. Why don't you take these creatures down to their new home, and when I am done, perhaps you would like for me to join you?"
From the look of hunger in the Dark Lord's eyes, 'join' would include a brand-new bout of much creation, for whenever She-who-is was happy, she indulged her husband's passion.
She-who-is gathered her creations and disappeared with a cheery giggle. Her mood was infectious whenever she was like this, and even Bishamonten was not immune. The light disappeared. Bishamonten waited until his eyes readjusted to the darkness to look once more to the Dark Lord's throne. The flowers melted off of HIS horns and the hummingbirds devolved back into shadow-cats. The Dark Lord took off his garland, and stared sadly at the ruined flowers.
"No matter how hard I try," the Dark Lord's expression was mournful, "I have no talent for preserving such things."
"You preserve HER," Bishamonten said. "And for that, all of creation is grateful for your protection."
"Are they?" the Dark Lord said. "Really? For I have heard the mortals think of me the devil?"
Bishamonten would not lie, but neither would he say words which were unnecessarily hurtful. Such things had never bothered the Dark Lord before, but ever since he had taken Mikhail under his protection, He-who's-not had begun to ask many questions.
"Their mythology is much removed from yours," Bishamonten said. "They cannot understand the truth that the real enemy they must guard against is not the cycle of life and death, creation and destruction, but of unconstrained growth which makes no way for newer things."
The Dark Lord nodded, and then his face resumed its usual stern expression.
"The second Agent has made himself known," He-who's-not said. "I have summoned you here to make sure he does not end up dead."
"I will do my best to make sure Moloch doesn't kill him," Bishamonten said. "Do you have any idea who it is?"
The Dark Lord told him.
Bishamonten sucked in a sharp breath, even though breathing was not necessary here in the ascended realms.
"It is not just Moloch you have to worry about," Bishamonten said, "but Mikhail himself. He shall kill the both of them. Lucifer and his lover."
"Make sure that doesn't happen," the Dark Lord said. "For this will only work if each chess piece plays their role."
Before Bishamonten could protest, HE sent him back to Earth with a snap of his fingers.
END Agents of Ki
BEGIN The Dark Lord's Vessel
Book 4 of the Sword of the Gods Saga
Coming soon…
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A Moment of your Time, Please…
Did you enjoy reading this book? If so, I would be most grateful if you would revisit whatever distribution platform you purchased it from and leave a written review. This book took more than a year of my life to write working diligently for 6-8 hours each day. Unfortunately, without the multi-billion dollar advertising budget of a big commercial publishing house, most independent-press books do not make back the cost to produce them (much less eat while writing them) … unless … readers such as yourself pass along word to others that you enjoyed it. In this day of online shopping, websites rank which books you see and readers decide what books to buy based on reviews left by other readers. I would be oh-so-grateful if you would do me the honor of leaving a written review.
If this book came your way via a gift, library or a loan from a friend, you can still share the love by leaving a review on one of the reader-centric review websites:
www.Goodreads.com
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Feel free to contact me at my Facebook or Google+ page. I love hearing from you and I do write back!
Be epic!
https://www.facebook.com/anna.erishkigal
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About the Cover Artist:
Rochelle Green is a freelance artist out of Palmerston, New Zealand. She has a law degree from Victoria University and a black-belt in Bujinkan ninjutsu. You can see more of her breathtaking artwork at: http://caelicorn.cgsociety.org/gallery/
Like Rochelle's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Caelicorn/261144120697421
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Erishkigal is an attorney who writes fantasy fiction as a pleasurable alternative to coming home from court and cross-examining her children. She writes under a pen-name so her colleagues do not question whether her legal pleadings are fantasy fiction as well. Much of law, it turns out, -is- fantasy fiction. Lawyers just prefer to call it 'zealously representing your client.'
Seeing the dark underbelly of life makes for some interesting fictional characters, the kind you either want to incarcerate, or run home and write about. In fiction, you can fudge facts without worrying too much about the truth. In legal pleadings, if your client lies to you, you look stupid in front of the judge.
At least in fiction, if a character becomes troublesome, you can always kill them off…
Contact Anna at:
Website: www.seraphim-press.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anna.erishkigal
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5823115.Anna_Erishkigal
Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/102296607002432216166
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/annaerishkigal
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaErishkigal
Blogger: http://www.anna-erishkigal.blogspot.com
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A Gothic Christmas Angel
(A Novella)
The ghosts of old miseries are never far behind…
Dumped by her boyfriend on Christmas Eve, Cassie Baruch thought her pain would end when she aimed her car at an ancient beech tree. But when a gorgeous black-winged angel appears and tells her ‘this ain’t no stinking paranormal romance, kid,’ she realizes death hasn’t solved her problems. Can Jeremiel help her exorcise the ghosts of problems past and find a little closure?
Written for anyone who ever wished their problems would just go away, this modern paranormal spin on A Christmas Carol was written to give people hope they can come to grips with the Ghosts of Christmas Miseries Past.
Suitable for adults, new adults, older teens, and anyone who's ever watched helplessly while somebody suffered through a really lousy situation.
Excerpt:
The angel flexed his muscles and stared at his hand as though he was bored. Truth be told, the angel was way hotter than Mauricio. A naughty thought flitted into her mind. Maybe…
"Nice shoes," Cassie said.
“Forget it, kid!” The angel looked at her with disgust. “Even if I wasn’t, oh, a few thousand years older than you, the last thing I’d do is fall for a kid who doesn’t even have her head screwed on straight.”
Oh, great, and he could read her mind…
“I thought angels were supposed to comfort the living?”
The angel laughed; an obnoxious, raucous sound. "You're dead, kid. Remember?"
Cassie glowered at him. “Are you a fallen angel?”
The angel laughed even harder. It reminded her a bit of the way the football jocks laughed when they played a prank on somebody and laughed at them as a team.
“Listen, kid,” the angel said. “I ain’t here to save you. I ain’t no fallen angel. And even if you weren’t dead, this ain’t no stinking paranormal romance where a hot angel falls from the sky to rescue you from your oh-so-boring, tedious mortal life. You … are dead. You got dead because you drove your car into a tree." He shrugged. "It happens. So just go into the light like a good little girl so I can move on with my already shitty day.”
“What light?”
“The light you’re supposed to see when you’re dead," the angel said.
A Gothic Christmas Angel
Available at all ebook vendors
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Other Books by Anna Erishkigal
Sword of the Gods Saga:
The Chosen One
Prince of Tyre
Agents of Ki
The Dark Lord's Vessel (coming soon)
The Fairy General (coming soon)
Children of the Fallen:
Angel of Death: A Love Story
A Gothic Christmas Angel (A Novella)
Leviathan's Deep:
La Sirène (coming summer 2014)
www.seraphim-press.com
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List of Species
(In alphabetical order)
Angelics: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of humans and the keen eyesight and wings of eagles. They carry the highest percentage of human DNA. They act as the Alliance's air force. Due to inbreeding to maintain their animal features, fewer than 7,500 Angelics remain in existence today.
Catoplebas: a naturally evolved, boar-like species that makes up part of Shay'tan's armies. They are known for their pugnacious disposition.
Centauri: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of horses and humans. They act as the Alliance's cavalry. Due to inbreeding to maintain their animal features, fewer than 4,000 remain in existence today.
Cherubim: a naturally evolved species of fierce, ant-like creatures which dwell in hive-like colonies of Monks ruled by a single queen. They are the personal guard of the Eternal Emperor and teeter at the threshold of becoming ascended beings. Their population has remained stable at exactly 1,000 for the past 15,000 years.
Delphiniums: a naturally evolved species of sentient frog-like amphibians. They have almost totally replaced Merfolk as the Alliance's Navy.
Grigori: a species of fire-breathing dragon which disappeared from the galaxy approximately 150,000 years ago. It is rumored Emperor Shay'tan was once a Grigori, a true dragon, a question which always elicits a toothy, enigmatic smirk.
Humans: a species that went extinct after an asteroid hit their homeworld, Nibiru, approximately 74,000 years ago. All attempts to reseed humans onto other planets failed and they died out. It is rumored this is the species which spawned the Eternal Emperor, but the Eternal Palace has refused to comment.
Leonids: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of lions and humans. They are the most animalistic of the four branches of the Alliance military. They act as multi-purpose situational forces. When the going gets tough, the Emperor says, 'Send in the Leonids!' Due to inbreeding to maintain their animal features, fewer than 3,500 Leonids remain in existence today.
Leviathans: a genetically enhanced species of sentient aquatic mammals originating from the same homeworld that humans came from, Nibiru. They evolved separately after being successfully reseeded on a remote planet. Many of their species merged with Merfolk.
Mantoids: a naturally evolved species of sentient six-legged insects. They have supplemented Angelics in the Alliance Air Force.
Marid: a naturally evolved species of blue-skinned humanoids which had begun to spread out in the uncharted territories until the Sata'an Empire annexed their territory three generations ago. They are now divided into two sub-species: the Sata'anic Marid, who serve in Shay'tan's armies, and the Free Marid Confederation, far-flung former Marid colonies who still remain free (i.e., mostly smugglers).
Merfolk: genetically engineered super-soldiers spliced together from a genetic base of humans and aquatic mammals. They were engineered to act as the Alliance's navy. Five hundred years ago their species merged with a sister-species, Leviathans. Only a handful of purebred Merfolk still exist today. The hybrids are known as Mer-Levi.
Muqqibat: a naturally evolved species of sentient serpent-like creatures with short arms and legs and a head that resembles a dragon. They are an 'old species' and many of their number teeter at the threshold of becoming ascended beings.
Saori: a naturally evolved species of gazelle-sized sentient mammals. They supplement and support the Centauri Cavalry, but due to their small size, have not been able to replace them.
Sata'anic Lizards: a species of sentient lizard which make up the largest portion of Shay'tan's armies. They suddenly appeared 74,000 years ago to replace Shay'tan's predecessor species of soldier, the Nephilim, a species which is now extinct.
Seraphim: a sub-species of dark-winged Angelic which was wiped out 25 years ago by unknown aggressors. Only one member of this species survives, Colonel Mikhail Mannuki'ili. The Colonel went missing 9 months ago and is presumed dead.
Spiderids: a naturally evolved species of sentient eight-legged insects. They have supplemented Leonids in the Alliance Air Force.
Tokoloshe: a sentient, bear-li
ke species infamous for its aggressive nature and their disgusting habit of cannibalizing their enemies to increase their social status. The Tokoloshe have spread across the uncharted territories like a plague to carve out the Tokoloshe Kingdom and all species fear them. Rumor has it they are a science experiment gone terribly wrong, but whenever asked, Emperor Shay'tan and Emperor Hashem point their fingers at each other and say 'he did it.' It is rumored this is the motivation behind the Eternal Emperor's strict 'seed world' policies prohibiting interference with emerging pre-sentient species.
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Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) Page 109
