Mystic Realms: A Limited Edition Collection

by Nicole Morgan

  “The ones that took you?”

  Kadie nodded. “Yeah. I wasn’t expecting humans to be on their side. They came into my house in the middle of the day. Dumb assholes. I got one or two in the fight, but they knocked me out and I woke up in that dark room being smacked around and injected with shit. No idea what for.”

  Tabitha rubbed some lotions on Kadie’s wounds and then moved over to me. “You need water. Now.”

  “I know.” Water, the purest water you could find, was the best cure-all for an Angel. But it was the last thing I was looking for after I rescued Kadie.

  Tabitha left the room, then came back with a bucket and a bottle of something green. I eyed the bucket suspiciously. Surely she wasn’t going to…

  Tabitha lifted the bucket up, stepped forward, and tipped the cold water all over my head and chest. “Oh. Fuck!” The pain was incredible and I bit my tongue to stop myself from crying out again.

  I tasted blood and swallowed as the pain began to back away. When my vision returned from the inky depths it had receded to, I realized Tabitha had gone away and she was back with more, dousing my wings and legs with more buckets.

  The pain intensified, and then disappeared as my body began to heal.

  “How did you fly with so much damage, Gabriel?” she asked, clucking her tongue.

  I coughed through the wave of pain, and then when it receded I managed to sit up. That is so much better. “I don’t know. But I had to get Kadie safe.”

  “Hmm, now drink this.” She handed me the bottle of green. “I can’t restore your wings, but this should heal most of your body and make flying easier for you.”

  I reached out and took the potion. “Thank you Tabitha.”

  I lifted the green to my lips, smelling of vile coal, and drank. It burned my nose and throat and I gasped for air after swallowing it all. What was she trying to do? Kill me faster?

  But very soon after, I could feel a new warmth in my muscles, a deadening of the pain in my wings.

  “That’s incredible.”.

  Kadie waved her hand as though to get our attention, and Tabitha and I turned towards her. “So…um…can anyone explain this to me?” Kadie asked, her hands encircling her huge belly.

  I glanced towards Tabitha and then back to the woman carrying my child. A child that looked like it was going to be born much sooner than humanly possible.

  “Tabitha?” I invited my agent to explain.

  The woman rolled her eyes at me and handed Kadie a bag of candy. Jelly beans, if I was correct.

  “Eat. You need some sugar.”

  Kadie dug her hand into the bag, pulled some multi-colored candies out, and threw them in her mouth.

  Tabitha sat down on the end of Kadie’s bed and put a hand on her leg. “I believe you’re pregnant with Gabriel’s baby.”

  It was Kadie’s turn to roll her eyes. “Of course, I am. But how is that possible? And why am I like…full term in a few weeks?”

  “You know?” I asked, surprised by how relaxed she seemed.

  Kadie turned her blue eyes on me. “I haven’t been with anyone else in years, Gabriel. And even if I had, how would I go from not pregnant, to this”—she gestured to her huge belly—“with a human?”

  I loved how matter of fact she was about these things.

  Tabitha sighed. “There isn’t much I can tell you, unfortunately, Kadie. I’m the only other half Witch, half Angel creations that I know of, and ‘ve never conceived a child myself.”

  “So I’m half a witch now? This is so confusing. Seriously, I wish my parents had stuck around long enough to explain some of this to me.” Kadie pouted, then shoved another mouthful of candy past her lips.

  “Well, you’re something special, and I think ignoring both elements would be a mistake.”

  “So, how long, Tabitha?” I asked gesturing to the belly. I didn’t know everything about human physiology, but from the people I had observed, she didn’t look like she had more than a few weeks to go. And that was in human time.

  “Oh. Damn, he moves a lot,” Kadie said as she arched her back and there was an obvious shift of flesh beneath her stretched T-shirt.

  “He?” I croaked. I’d never thought of having a child, but a son would be…incredible.

  “Well, I don’t know what he is, technically. I haven’t even seen a doctor. What would I tell them? I had sex with an Angel a month ago and now look.”

  She gave me a maniacal smile and hope fluttered in my chest. Perhaps eternal servitude in limbo was not my destiny? Could I have a life on Earth, with a family?

  “So, you mean….” Kadie froze and held her breath, grimacing.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked her, wanting to reach out and touch her, but still feeling the tremors of pain in every cell of my body.

  Kadie dropped her head, inhaled slowly, and then exhaled just as slowly.

  Finally, she lifted her head and she smiled. “Oh, that’s better. If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was in… Oh!” She bent right over again, wrapping her arms around her belly as she groaned in pain.

  “Tabitha,” I said, ignoring the pain and standing up. I stepped closer to my lover. “Is the baby coming?”

  Tabitha jumped up as well. “Lay down, Kadie.”

  Kadie groaned and rolled to the side. Tabitha grabbed Kadie’s old, bedraggled skirt in her hands and ripped it asunder.

  “Look,” she whispered as we both stared at Kadie’s swollen belly, the obvious shift of the child beneath her skin as he moved into place.

  “What do we do?” I asked Tabitha.

  Panic rose in my throat, hot and painful.

  “Argh,” Kadie called out, her fingers reaching out for me.

  I took both of her hands in mine and lowered my face to hers. “I’m so sorry, Kadie. So sorry. I had no idea this could happen.”

  She arched her back up, her eyes closing in pain as sweat dotted her brow. When she relaxed again, her eyes opened and her lips kinked in a smile. “I know. But I can’t say I regret it. I’ve always wanted a child. And one with your face would be a wonder, I’m sure.”

  “As long as you don’t mind the wings as well,” I joked.

  Her eyes flew open wide. “Wings? Are you serious? He can’t possibly have…. Argh….”

  She squeezed my hands tightly and screamed as blood-stained water gushed between her thighs. “I think the baby’s coming, Kadie. Can you help him get out?” I asked her, forcing my voice to stay relaxed and calm.

  What would we do if she couldn’t? A hospital was definitely the best place to go for her. They could save the baby, and her.

  “No. No hospitals,” Kadie cried. “In case he’s…not human.”

  Tabitha caught my gaze and nodded. The last thing she wanted was any questions about my babe. But I couldn’t have Kadie die.

  “I’ll be fine.” She panted. “I’m strong. Get my undies off. Now!”

  She screamed and I ripped them off her.

  Kadie pushed herself up to a seated position, her hair slick and stuck to her forehead. “I think he’s coming.” She began to pant and Tabitha went to the place beside her bent thighs.

  I stepped up closer to Kadie’s face, staring into her eyes and squeezing her hands. Willing my strength into her. Please, God, help her. Please. I beg of you. “Please don’t die on me,” I couldn’t help but say.

  Kadie managed a strained laugh, her red face dotted with sweat. Her lips pulled up into a strange grimace. “Not planning on it. Especially since you went to all the trouble to save me from…from… Gah!”

  She broke off again and began bearing down, pushing and panting. Her face grew dark red and contorted as she willed her body into submission. I glanced over at Tabitha who was concentrating on the place between Kadie’s legs.

  What could I do?

  “You were incredibly brave today, my beautiful girl. I couldn’t believe you were still alive when I arrived.”

  “I… Ah…” Kadie was past talking and strained to pus
h.

  Keep talking.

  “You are such a beautiful woman. I can’t believe after all this time alone, I found you.”

  “But what about…about…her?”

  Her? Oh…Teramea. “I don’t dream of her anymore. Only you. Please don’t leave me.”

  I couldn’t shake the feeling that Kadie would die giving birth to this child. And although I wanted a child very much, more than I had ever thought, it was no worth the cost of my little Witch’s life.

  As an Angel, the ability to reproduce was a foreign concept. A human thing. Something I had never acknowledged I was envious of.

  But now…now I would know what being a parent was like.

  “I can see the head. Bear down a bit more. Breathe, Kadie. Good girl. You’re doing great.” Tabitha was saying all the right things and I pressed my lips to Kadie’s feverish forehead and sent up a bargaining prayer to the Almighty.

  I’ll do another thousand years of penance, anything you want. Just please don’t take either of them from me.

  “Argh!” Kadie collapsed back against the pillows and there was a thin cry from behind me.

  I turned around and there he was. Glisteningly perfect. Covered in smears of blood, still connected to his mother.

  Tabitha tied the cord off and wrapped him up in a towel she’d acquired.

  “Take him,” she said and turned back to Kadie.

  He was perfect. Human appearing, I couldn’t see any sings of his paranormal origins.

  “Come on, Kadie. Open your eyes. Meet your son.” I could hear the worry in Tabitha’s tones and I turned around and held up my son to his mother.

  Kadie appeared ashen white, her belly now as flat as it had been a month ago.

  Worry curled around my heart like an icy hand. “What’s wrong with her Tabitha?”

  “I don’t know,” she answered, then began chanting in a language I did not understand. White light filtered from Tabitha’s fingers and threaded into the glow around Kadie.

  “What are you?” I asked, not blinking so I didn’t miss a moment of the magic being woven.

  “I am like your son. My mother was human,” she explained as she leaned forward and pressed her forehead to Kadie’s.

  My son began to cry and I backed away from where Kadie could be fading before our very eyes.

  Tabitha eventually stopped chanting and stepped back. Her shoulders slumped, her face strained with an exhaustion I did not understand. I rocked our babe to soothe him, my heart heavy.

  Tabitha turned to me. “You’ll need to find a woman to feed him, Gabriel. Kadie’s in a trance of some sort. A coma for humans.”

  “But…why?” I didn’t understand any of this.

  “I don’t know exactly. I recognized a poison in her as soon as you brought her back here. I think that’s what they injected into her. Their plan would have been to kill you, and then she would have slowly died also. And perhaps they would have taken your son? I really don’t know. But the baby came early, thankfully, before the poison could take full effect.” She paused to stare over at Kadie with wonder in her eyes. “And she is more powerful than they realize.”

  I swallowed hard and steeled myself against the pain creeping in. “Will she wake up?”

  “I’ve done everything I can. I gave her a potion when she arrived, and sugar to stabilize her. I’ve linked what magic I have with hers, so she has a grounding to come back to. But I don’t know, Gabriel. She is the first I have ever met. My own mother didn’t survive my birth.”

  Our son began to cry and I nodded to my agent. Tabitha had never steered me wrong before and I needed to trust her now.

  The babe needed to be fed and I was sure I could find a woman who would help. A woman I saved last year from the Demons had soon gotten pregnant with her husband after that. I’d go to her first.

  “I’ll take him to be fed. Will you stay with Kadie?”

  “Of course. I’ll watch over her until she regains consciousness, or doesn’t. She can stay here.”

  I nodded and with a last lingering look at my beautiful, powerful and comatose woman on the table, I flew away. My heart ached.

  I held the whimpering baby tightly and took my son to a home just outside Manhattan. I knocked on the door of a bluestone building and Jasmine opened for me.

  “Gabriel!” she exclaimed, juggling a child on her hip.

  “I need your help. Are you breast feeding still?”

  I opened my arms to show her my barely born son. She gasped and nodded, drawing me inside. I knew I must look a mess. Still shirtless, covered in blood, but Jasmine didn’t falter.

  Jasmine put her daughter down in a crib of some sort and took my child from me. “Whose baby is this?” she asked as she opened her blouse and put him on her breast.

  His dark-haired head bobbed around for a moment before settling to feed.

  “Mine. His mother is in a coma, and I didn’t know what else to do.”

  I paced the lounge and for the first time, let the tendrils of anger lift up and grow inside my gut.

  “I owe you my life, Gabriel. If you need someone to look after him until she wakes up, I can.”

  “And your husband?”

  I’d only met him once and to say he was shocked by my presence, would be an understatement.

  “He’ll be fine. I’ve got everything he needs here. Clothes, diapers, milk.”

  I ran a hand through my hair. I hadn’t even thought about any of that.

  “If you could…just for a few days.” He would be safe here with her. And that was the most important thing in my life now.

  Jasmine nodded and looked down on the child at her breast.

  “He’s so perfect, Gabriel.”

  “I know.” Because his mother was perfect. Strong. Good. Resilient. Powerful.

  As long as I knew my child remained safe, I could leave him to hunt down those responsible for kidnapping Kadie. If I didn’t have Jasmine to turn to, I couldn’t go.

  A strange tingle moved up my spine and I sat down on the couch next to my old target. “I must get back to her, but will return tonight. Are you sure you can keep him…safe, Jasmine?” I didn’t want to appear ungrateful for her help, but I now had something much more precious to lose than my place in Heaven.

  “Yes. And I will call for you if I see anything out of the ordinary.”

  She’d gone through Hell herself fighting off the torture of the Demons chasing her last year, and she knew every trick they had.

  “All right. Thank you.” I stood up and turned to leave, but the invisible strings of love tugged me back. I dropped my head and pressed a kiss to my child’s soft hair. “I will be back, my son.”

  I gave Jasmine a smile and locked the front door behind me.

  My destiny had changed in one night.

  I no longer cared if I ever found my way back to Heaven. I wanted Kadie alive and well, and my son safe.

  The hunt had changed and so had I.

  THE END.

  Continued on in Fallen- Book 2.

  About the Author

  Tamsin Baker loves everything erotic. Her books can be long, short and everything in between, but they’ll all be fast paced with snappy dialogue and lots of sex. No Tamsin Baker book is the same except there won’t be a lot of angst in as she wants her books to be everything that a fictional world can be- full of happy ever afters, dirty words and sweet love. ‘Love is love’ and she tries to show that in a range of sub genre’s, from m/m contemporary to paranormal ménage. She has a need to shock people and bring up embarrassing topics at the most inappropriate times.

  Website: www.tamsinbakererotic.com

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  Avenging Aingeal

  Lynn Crain

  Bound by vengeance, she is humanity’s one hope…

  Aingeal Cochran is on a mission to save humanity from itself when suddenly she’s staring head-on at her forgotten past. Lukas Everhard must bring her up to speed regardin
g the real enemy before allowing himself to love her completely. In learning about her past and mission, Aingeal realizes the best is yet to be and she will do anything to protect those she loves. For Lukas, Aingeal is the mission.

  To my husband, Gordon, for all the years, thick and thin, and never allowing me to give up on my dream

  To my boys, Tom and Kyle, you make my world brighter. To my daughter-in-laws, Kim and Bianca, you are so much! And to the grandsons, Joseph and Michael, no, you may be too young to read this now…but someday you will…you will forever keep me young.

  Prologue

  No one knows where we came from really. We just…are. There are so very few of us, roaming the earth, protecting the inhabitants these days.

  We aren’t vampires, werewolves or any other strange creature which roams the dark. We aren’t from God as that entity has his own army, if it could be called such since the group known as angels are both good and bad. We are outside them and yet, we aren’t completely human as we have walked the earth for longer than recorded time itself. We protect and watch and yet none of us knows that for which we watch since we are so far removed from our very beginnings. So, we wait, hoping we will know someday the very meaning of our existence.

  We are like you in many ways but with elemental powers, using those powers to defeat the darkness, whose one goal is destroying our very way of life in our home far, far away. Until they bring the fight to Earth, you will never know we are here unless you need us to protect you from the others who come, and continue to come every day, intent on extinguishing the entire human race.

  I heard the commotion way before the occupants of the house could even blink. The hours before dawn are the worst as humans try to inflict the most damage on each other during the time just before the light. Then again, light has its own issues. Something or maybe I should say, someone, made loud noises somewhere near the garbage and if it were human, it would take little on my part to dispatch them. If it were something else, well, chances are it would take a little more time and effort to get rid of those I call the white-haired goons as I didn’t know or couldn’t remember their proper name.