The Fallen
Part One
Grace McGinty
Copyright © 2018 by Madeline Young writing as Grace McGinty
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Also by Grace McGinty
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Note From the Author
Also by Grace McGinty
The Redeemable: The Complete Novel
The Unrepentant: The Complete Novel
The Fallen
Novellas
The Castle of Carnal Desires
Treasure
Hunting Isla (In the SHIFTING DESTINY Anthology)
Coming Soon
The Last Note
Smoke and Smolder
Burn and Blaze
Rage and Ruin
1
I laughed quietly as we walked out of the UN conference. I was giddy with relief. Despite my bravado up on stage, I had been worried. Worried I would blow it.
When my father Tolliver, well one of my fathers, called and said that they were stuck on the Island due to a freak tropical storm and couldn’t make the conference, that I’d have to do it in his stead, I almost refused. The idea of standing up in front of the world’s most powerful leaders, gently chastising them while trying to sway them to the Foundations way of thinking had seemed like an impossible task to ask of a twenty-one year old woman.
But I’d done it, and spent hours afterwards networking and sharing my passion. Sam had said that’s what made me such a good candidate for this presentation, when I called to express my concerns.
“You will convince them because you have an unwavering belief in what we do,” he’d told me gently.” Then he’d laughed. “It doesn’t hurt that you have that little extra spark either.”
I couldn’t wait to call them now and tell them how it went; that I’d garnered the tentative support of the top three governmental superpowers. They’d each been hard sells but I’d used every trick I’d ever been taught by Tolliver to get that commitment from them. I was positively giddy.
“I did it!”
I looked over at my bodyguard JJ, a middle aged former military man. I hadn’t wanted a bodyguard when I started this job, but my parents had insisted. JJ’s eyes scanned the car park in a practiced manner of a man who’d done four tours of duty, as we waited for the valet to bring around the car.
He smiled and clapped me on the back. “Of course you did. You won me over in minutes, and I’m a lot harder sell than some pudgy politician who can’t see past your pretty outer package to the sharp mind and compassionate heart within. They were eating out of your hand the moment you stepped behind the podium.” He grinned again, and I was thankful once more I hadn’t put up much of a fight. JJ had become a friend that I’d sorely needed. It was isolating sometimes, my strange life in front of the tabloids, who were only too happy to pull up the fact my family’s unique polyamorous lifestyle when they were low on news. We defied both western and eastern conventions, and that was guaranteed tabloid fodder on a bad day. JJ didn’t care, and he’d become my friend, and so had his family. His wife Marinette had an easy laugh, and his daughters were around my age. I figured it was what having extended family felt like.
The valet stopped my Prius in front of the little velvet square of carpet that was meant to make you feel important. Tolliver hated my Prius, but then he had a great love for fancy cars and I think he was hoping I’d get a Ferrari or something. He used to have a huge collection, and Mom would still tease him about it sometimes. Then they’d end up kissing and I’d get squidged out. There was always a lot of affection in my household growing up. As a teenager it just tested my gag reflex.
JJ stepped forward to take the keys, and what happened next happened in the space of a single scream. The Valet pulled gun from behind his back, its long shiny barrel letting out two muffled pops and JJ was on the ground before he even had time to draw his own gun. The second valet was suddenly in front of me.
I saw his fist hurtling toward my face. Lights out.
I woke to an angel standing over me, a dagger pointed at my chest. I smiled, well, at least I tried to. The searing ache in my jaw told me it was probably broken.
Azriel. I spoke into his mind and he stilled, his dagger still pressed to my chest. I took a quick inventory of my body. I was one solid mass of pain, and it felt like they’d kicked me into the room. I was chained to a bar, like a side of beef. I was naked.
Azriel, I whispered again. This time he reared back as if I’d struck him. I guess it makes sense you’re here.
I couldn’t draw breath, a rib must have broken and punctured my lung, and my heart was beginning to feel sluggish.
“Who are you?” Azriel hissed, finding his voice at last. His dagger was still pressed firmly to the space above my heart, indenting my skin. “What are you? No human should be able to speak into my mind, Witch.”
I’m Hope. You know my mother and… I struggled to define my relationship with Ace. It was part maternal, part bad influence. And my Ace?
Again, he pulled away as if I had struck him. He had such a beautiful face, achingly perfect even when he was gaping like a codfish.
His dagger slipped to his side. “You were one of her children. The aberrations.”
Hey! I protested, but it wasn’t as forceful as I’d have liked. I was dying, quickly. Finish it. I hurt.
He just stared at me, at the ruins of my face, the length of my bruised and broken naked body. But he didn’t leer. It was like he was cataloguing me, as if I was a puzzle that looked complete, but he still had an extra piece left over.
Luckily, he didn’t grant my request immediately. In the next flash, Luc, my twin Estrella and Memphis sifted in.
“Azriel, no!” Memphis shouted, lunging toward us. Azriel looked between me and the pair of Fallen angels, his face scrunched in confusion as he disappeared.
Estrella was beside me in the next breath. Blood was beginning to spill over my lips and down my chin. Estrella was pale, her beautiful blue eyes huge and wild in her face.
Rella, I whispered. I wanted to tell her that I loved her, and that she had to be strong. We were twins, and we had a connection greater than any other. My death would break her.
“Shh. I’m getting you down and then we’ll get you to a hospital. I got you now. It’s okay.” She was fiddling with the chains and Luc came over, snapping them quickly. Memphis was there to catch me in his arms. I caught a quick glimpse of the naked rage in his eyes before a pain so intense swept over me that I screamed through my broken jaw. Everything in my body twisted, and sadness chased away the rage on Memphis’ face. My empathic abilities were swamped with the depth of his pain, almost drowning out my own. He knew I was dying, that I wouldn’t make it to hospital. I looked around desperately for Rella, wanting to send her one last reassurance, but my eyelids closed heavily, my body desperately trying to heal. Too late.
When I managed to open a single eye, I saw we were no longer in dank basement that was to be my tomb. Instead, sun burned hot against my naked skin.
“Mephistopheles! What have you done?” I turned my face toward the beautiful voice that spoke. If I could have drawn e
nough breath, I would have gasped.
An angel stood before me, more beautiful than any I had ever seen. More beautiful than Luc or Memphis, who weren’t so much beautiful as awe inspiring, or maybe terrifying would be more accurate. He was even more beautiful than Azriel.
“I didn’t do this, Raphael.” Memphis sounded hurt that the other angel had even suggested it. The cold note of vengeance had threaded its way back into his emotions. “Humans did this. You must heal her.”
“Must I?” Raphael almost seemed amused, his hand reaching out to stroke my face. I turned my face into his palm. “Ah, you are one of Acerezeal’s progeny.” He gave me a warm smile, and it felt as if my body was healing itself from the strength of his gaze alone. That, or it no longer cared about dying.
“It is too late, old friend. She is the domain of Azriel now.”
I couldn’t even feel mad that this beautiful archangel had just sentenced me to death, as long as he didn’t stop stroking my cheek. His touch chased away the pain.
“Azriel came and left again. He rejected the call. Isn’t that proof enough? Please, Raphael.” I'd never heard any of the Fallen beg before, but here he was, begging for my life. Kinda gave me the warm fuzzies, or that might have been the beginnings of death. At this point, I didn’t care which.
Raphael was pondering Memphis’ words. “How unusual. Well, I guess if she isn’t slated for ascension by the angel of death, there’s no harm in healing her a little. Most unprecedented, though.”
He pressed a hand to my chest, inches from my exposed breast, and a healing warmth spread through my body. I grimaced as my ribs realigned, and my jaw snapped back into place, but the Archangel was buffering me from my pain. I knew this because he took it into himself. I could feel the waves of pain hitting him through my empathic senses.
My breathing became less labored, every movement no longer agonizing torture.
“There, still broken but not beyond repair. Sometimes the human body needs to heal itself.”
I tried to speak, but the pain in my jaw was still intense.
Instead I spoke into his mind. Thank you.
Raphael raised his brows. “You are welcome, little one.” He turned to Memphis. “Does Michael know she can mindspeak?”
Memphis shrugged, jostling me a little in his arms and I grimaced.
“Sorry,” he grunted at me. “I assume Michael knows. He knows all.”
The Archangel Raphael laughed. “True. But he isn’t as omniscient as some people wish to believe.”
I summoned enough energy to look around. Wherever we were must have been somewhere in Africa, poor and rural, because out the window there was an abundance of children with big smiles but heartbreakingly thin limbs. There was a Red Cross on the door. Some kind of clinic maybe?
Where are we?
“Malawi” Raphael answered, his eyes watching me closely.
The gaunt faces broke my heart. What do they need?
Raphael gave me a smile that threatened to light up my world. “I see you inherited your mother’s warm heart and inability to turn your back on suffering. They need what all these countries need. Food, water and infrastructure. Access to consistent healthcare services. A stable, uncorrupt government and a good influx of funds to help lift themselves above the poverty line.” His emotions threatened to overwhelm me, and I mentally locked them in the box with all the other shit that needed to be processed later. Estrella had always stressed the need to keep my empathy a secret from everyone.
I gave a tiny nod. I’d make it so, or at least try my best.
“You must go now. She will still need someone to set her bones and she has lost a lot of blood.” Raphael turned back towards the door. “Ah, your cavalry has arrived, Hope.”
As he said the words, Luc popped into the clinic with Estrella.
Raphael smiled warmly at the devil. “Lucifer! You look well. I see having Acerezeal back has healed your wounds.”
Then Luc did something that I wouldn't have believed possible if I hadn’t seen it for myself. He hugged Raphael, a full blown smile on his face. “Hello, old friend.”
Rella’s jaw dropped open, and I wished mine could do the same. I’d never seen him hug anyone except Ace. Hell, I’d never seen him give anyone anything more than a handshake. Even as children, we would climb over him like our own personal climbing frame, but acts of tenderness were never offered, and definitely not expected. To see him being openly affectionate almost defied belief.
Luc turned to Memphis and scowled. “A little warning next time. Hand her to me.”
Memphis scowled back, and held me tighter. For a moment I thought he might refuse and then they’d have a tug’o’war over my battered body, but eventually Memphis shifted me to Luc.
Luc held me safe in his arms, his large onyx wings curling around me protectively.
“Ace would have my balls if anything happened to you,” he said, then sifted. I knew what he really meant. It was hard to hide your emotions from an empath. He’d been worried. He felt an affection for us that stemmed from his love of Ace, at least in the beginning. Now, I think he cared for us because we kind of became his surrogate children that they would never have. Though neither of them would ever admit that.
Luc sifted us back to my apartment, Memphis and Rella seconds behind.
I could read Raphael, I told Rella as soon as she regained her land legs, and her eyebrows rose.
As she processed my thought, her forehead crinkled deeply. Secrecy is more important than ever now. You’d be a threat to them all. Even if they aren't Fallen, it doesn't make them the good guys.
I didn’t respond. My body throbbed and it was a lecture she’d given me once a week since we were three. It was an issue for another day. Today, I just needed to heal from near death.
Minutes after we arrived, and Luc had laid me on my bed, Ace sifted in. She took one look at me, a little less broken but I’m sure I still looked like crap, and sifted back out again.
I curled into a ball and Estrella came over and pulled a sheet over my body, covering my nakedness. Probably a little late for modesty. Then she laid on the bed and curled herself around me. We’d slept like this often since we were babies. I was always smaller and weaker, and Rella was always my fierce protector. I petted her hand. She would have been terrified.
I’m okay now, I said soothingly. She let out a shuddering breath, and tension slowly seeped from her muscles.
Ace returned less than a minute later with Mom and Eli.
“Hope!” Mom raced to my bedside, stopping with a horrified look on her face when she took in the state of my face, the bruises on my neck and chest. The blood trained from her cheeks and I thought she was going to pass out. Ace must have thought so too, because she shifted a few feet closer.
Eli stood beside me. “What happened?” His face was just as worried but he’d gone into doctor mode. Although he’d retired from being a neurosurgeon a few years ago, centuries of habit dies hard.
I couldn’t answer him, the pain in my jaw was intense. Estrella filled them in as Eli began to do triage, checking the severity of my injuries.
“She was jumped outside the Summit. Abducted. JJ is dead, executed professionally. Luc and I only found one guard, but he was just protecting the door. A grunt. He told us who paid him and that was it before Luc…” she made a tearing action with her hands, and I winced, as did Mom. Ace just looked satisfied.
Estrella recounted the whole thing without emotion, her own training kicking in. She’d become a cop for the Boston PD. A damn fine one at that. She’d assessed the scene with cool efficiency. “I felt her go down. I called for Luc. We got there just as Azriel was going to-” this time her voice hitched, a single crack in her professional facade.
Ace let out a hiss. “I’m going to kick his fucking ass.”
Not Azriel’s fault. He was just doing his job, I defended to Estrella, who begrudgingly passed it on. Ace scoffed, and so did Memphis.
I hadn't realized Memph
is was still here until he made the noise. He’d drifted into the shadows in the corner of my room. I tried to get a read on him, and flinched back. His emotions were still a torrent of darkness that scared me. I didn’t know why he’d come for me. Memphis, or Mephistopheles, he’d never invited us to call him by Ace’s nickname, didn’t leave hell often. Ace called him a Hellbody. She had a weird sense of humor.
Estrella must have picked up the loud thought. He was with Luc when I called. Luc brought him for back up. Overkill, in my opinion. Nothing on the human plane could take on Luc, let alone Luc and Memphis together.
I could only agree. Luc was petrifying on his own. With Mephistopheles in tow, they were your worst nightmare made flesh. And they’d come for me.
I looked at the dark fallen angel, his almost midnight black skin making the startling blue color of his eyes all the more intense. His wings sucked up the light in the room, casting him in shadow. His face was perfectly smooth, but it was so hard it may have been marble.
Thank you, I whispered. He inclined his head, and I tried to shift past the anger in his emotions, delving deeper. I was rewarded with the hint of something softer, though I couldn't quite reach out fast enough to grab the emotion. It was like a scent on the breeze, barely a hint before it was swirling away beneath the churning rage.
I was pulled from my analysis by Eli’s growl of frustration. “She needed to go straight to a hospital. She’s going to need surgery to pin some of those fractures, and she has lost far too much blood. I’m calling an ambulance.” He was gone, a phone to his ear.
Estrella looked guiltily at Mom. “I didn’t know how I could explain us sifting into an American hospital with her naked and bleeding. The tabloids would have been all over it, considering she was very publicly in Geneva a few hours ago.”
The Fallen- Part One Page 1
