Angel of Mercy
Shannon Dermott
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Edition
Copyright 2013 Shannon Dermott
All rights reserved.
ISBN:
ISBN-
DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to the fans of the Cambions series.
Contents
DEDICATION iii
Chapter One 0
Chapter Two 5
Chapter Three 10
Chapter Four 16
Chapter Five 28
Chapter Six 37
Chapter Seven 43
Chapter Eight 46
Chapter Nine 50
Chapter Ten 58
Chapter Eleven 64
Chapter Twelve 70
Chapter Thirteen 75
Chapter Fourteen 79
Chapter Fifteen 86
Chapter Sixteen 89
Chapter Seventeen 96
Chapter Eighteen 103
Chapter Nineteen 109
Chapter Twenty 114
Chapter Twenty One 119
Chapter Twenty Two 123
Chapter Twenty Three 130
Chapter Twenty Four 135
Chapter Twenty Five 140
Chapter Twenty Six 146
Chapter Twenty Seven 152
Chapter Twenty Eight 159
Chapter Twenty Nine 165
Chapter Thirty 170
Chapter Thirty One 175
Chapter Thirty Two 179
Chapter Thirty Three 183
Chapter Thirty Four 187
Chapter Thirty Five 192
Chapter Thirty Six 197
Chapter Thirty Seven 203
Chapter Thirty Eight 208
Chapter Thirty Nine 214
Chapter Forty 219
Chapter Forty One 224
Chapter Forty Two 230
Chapter Forty Three 236
Chapter Forty Four 244
Chapter Forty Five 249
Chapter Forty Six 255
Chapter Forty Seven 260
Chapter Forty Eight 264
Chapter Forty Nine 269
Chapter Fifty 277
Chapter Fifty One 284
Chapter Fifty Two 290
Chapter Fifty Three 294
Chapter Fifty Four 299
Chapter Fifty Five 306
Chapter Fifty Six 312
Chapter Fifty Seven 317
Chapter Fifty Eight 323
Chapter Fifty Nine 328
Chapter Sixty 334
Chapter Sixty One 340
Chapter Sixty Two 345
Chapter Sixty Three 354
Chapter Sixty Four 363
Chapter Sixty Five 365
Chapter One
The broad colorless sky let loose puffy flakes to fall without mercy. The soft powder coated everything in a world of white. It was on days like these that school was closed. Unfortunately, not on a Saturday. Not on that day, during the single most important test of my life. Everyone said how critical it was to fill in the right ovals, to see through the convoluted questions and answer correctly. Yet I was frozen, my pencil in hand, wondering how I was going to make it through this test. My eyes were glued to the winter land just on the other side of the window, an escape that wasn’t likely to happen for another few hours. It all seemed so pointless. In the big scheme of things, why did it matter how well I did on this exam?
Still not looking to the bubble sheet that could rule my destiny, I surveyed the room and the other students whose lives depended on this one test. Where they all looked intent and focused, I felt scatterbrained and disillusioned.
It felt like I single handedly ruined all my friends’ lives. Maggie, Luke, Flynn, and Paul. I was like a bad penny that needed tossing out. So what was the point to this stupid test? There were just so many other important things to worry about. Demons and demon hunters were trying to kill me. My mom kept secrets that I had no way of getting the answers to unless I wanted to forfeit her life.
And it was a matter of days before we would know if Maggie had become a werewolf. She, on the other, hand seemed to be handling things much better than I, with her number two pencil filling in ovals like no one’s business.
I stared down at the question I’d hesitated on. A synonym for licentious. I’d used that word against him that very first night. Tightness seized my chest with the thought of him. I pushed back the grief, I just had to get through this; then the tears could fall.
Images however, flashed in my mind, Flynn with a hatchet protruding from his chest, his mouth speaking those three words and me pressing my lips to his to save his life. A single tear tore from my hold and raced down my cheek to blot an answer I hadn’t yet managed to fill in. It had almost been two weeks since that day.
Despite the clock ticking down the time left to work on this section of the exam, I couldn’t stop myself from being sucked into the memory of that moment.
It was as clear as if I was back in that moment. Willing all I had into him, I hoped for him to live. Solid hands came around my waist and wrenched me from him. I screamed in protest but felt all my energy leave me with that last breath. My vision tunneled like a fox falling down a dark rabbit hole until there was little more than nothing.
“She wasn’t kissing him, she was trying to save his life,” an accented voice said through the shadows. I knew that Scottish lilt anywhere. Sebastian. “Are you going to just hold her or are you going to use that angel light of yours?” So, Luke was here.
With a gentle kiss to my forehead, I was laid carefully down. Total darkness had encased me but I could still hear. The voices were growing softer, getting farther away.
“Nina, come over here and help.” Luke’s voice was panicked. “Sebastian do you think you could get our hands directly on the wound?”
Desperate to know, I tried lifting my head, but it was far too heavy. What I deduced from his words was that Luke must not be able to save him alone. Was Sebastian going make their hands disappear inside Flynn’s chest?
“I have to hold both of your hands while we do this,” Sebastian said, his voice now barely a whisper
Just as I’d begun to lose myself to the void of awareness, Nina’s voice popped in, a sharp, annoying intrusion. “Is this sanitary?”
I wanted to yell at the girl that none of it matter if he died. But it was too late for that. I lost my battle with consciousness.
The footsteps of the teacher monitoring the exam snapped me back to the present. I wasn’t even halfway done when the first warning of the dwindling time was called. I skipped over the licentious question. I just couldn’t do it. Each vocabulary word brought me back to a moment in time to remind me just how messed up things were. Paul was still in a trance. Luke went out of town with Sebastian to look for answers. And with Maggie across the room, her eyes and attention trained to the task before her, I never felt so alone.
Despite the tick t
ick ticking of the clock, I managed to bungle my way through. The math section, which should have been a breeze for me, was an utter disaster. I couldn’t concentrate. There would be other test times, I thought, even though I wanted to be done with it. I might just have to take this exam again if things ever calmed down. But for now, I was so done with SAT words.
When time was finally called, I walked out the doors of the testing facility. My first action besides heading to the car was to delete the word of the day apps off my phone.
With the sun breaking through and glaring off the blindingly white snow, I shielded my eyes to get a better view of Maggie as she caught up to me in the parking lot. She exuded relatively calm and at peace. Why wasn’t she in the same state of turmoil as I was? Making my way over to the passenger side of her car, I waited for the click that signaled that the doors were unlocked.
However, when the doors stayed locked, I looked into her probing green eyes. They told me she was worried about me. “So, how’d you do?” She sounded too bright and cheerful. Her red hair was pulled back for once in a smooth ponytail revealing more of her lightly freckled face.
I shook my head. “Not good.” My own signature ponytail shifted side to side with my movement.
She smiled but I could tell she was forcing it. “It’s okay, we can always take it again,” she said, trying to be positive.
I nodded, thinking what a bad friend I was being. She was the one in need of comfort, yet here she was coddling me. “Yeah,” I muttered before I opened the door and jumped in.
We rode home without speaking. Music streamed through the car radio to fill the silence spaces. And even in the quiet, I knew Maggie would be there for me. “So, you want to watch a movie or something?” she asked when she pulled up to the house.
My half smile and a quick shake of my head said it all. When I went to grab the door handle to get out, Maggie said, “This is all fucked up, Eme. It is. But it will work out. Somehow.” Her voice trailed off.
Feeling like the biggest jerk, I turned and gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m sorry, Maggs. I should be there for you. I just haven’t been sleeping well.”
“Luke, huh?” she asked. There were no more secrets between us. She knew the whole story and then some. Feeling like a bobble head doll, I nodded again. Now, she squeezed my hand. “Maybe later then.”
“Yeah,” I said for like the thousandth time. Giving her another small smile, I exited the car.
One glance over at Flynn’s dented Hummer that still sat in its same spot where he’d last left it, I hurried to my room. I took off my Harvard sweatpants and hoodie and got into bed with only a tee-shirt and underwear, forcing my eyes closed. I’d heard my mom in the kitchen but lately even cooking hadn’t soothed my mind like it had in the past.
Burying my head under the covers wasn’t going to solve anything, I knew, but I was tired and my emotions still felt raw. I thought about the closed door down the hall, the one I had avoided. I closed my eyes willing myself to sleep, hoping for oblivion and a release of all my shame and guilt.
Chapter Two
With a gasp, I awoke and rose like the living dead. I choked on the air in my lungs. The nightmare of Flynn dying clawed at my throat with a scream caught in its grasp. The light of the day still streamed in my window and a quick check of the clock let me know that I’d only slept an hour.
Unable to stop my feet, I was up and out of bed. Then, I headed down the hall. Tears were threatening again and I prayed I wouldn’t run into my mother. She treated me like cracked glass but her cautious care shattered me every time. No one but Maggie knew what I was going through. Even Luke didn’t know, because how could I tell him everything? There was no way I could tell him the last three words Flynn had uttered to me.
My hand curled around the doorknob with white knuckles. It took a long time, me staring at the wood of the door, before I pushed it open.
The door eased open without a whisper of sound. Light filtered through the windows bathing his still form with light.
With the door closed behind me with care, I crawled into the bed and stretched myself next to him. His splayed arm left a gap for me to curl my body into his. The gentle movements of his chest, the soft breath at my neck, only confirmed that he was sleeping. Tears threatened with every movement so I just listened to him inhale and exhale softly.
His breathing changed just before his arm came around me. Tilting up my head, I saw his eyes were still closed. I let out a relieved sigh, knowing I hadn’t awakened him.
I couldn’t have predicted what happened next even if I’d tried. Before my next thought, I was underneath him. The quickness of the action shocked me. My eyes trained to his, which were still closed. He appeared to be dreaming with me in the cast. My leading role included bare naked skin because his hand was under my shirt and moving up fast. His leg was in between mine, making space for his other one. I opened my mouth to say something to wake him, but his mouth descended on mine. His tongue searched for my tonsils. Only a gasp escaped me before I had a moment of clarity to shift my arm and place my hands on his bare chest. Only a bandage stopped my entire palm from touching his heated skin. When his hand skimmed just below my braless chest, my reason came back to me. I shoved. Flynn’s eyes popped open even before he landed on the bed beside me.
My labored breathing was a confession that he’d affected me. My cheeks flamed as the air from our movements reminded me that my shirt was pushed up well past respectable limits. Taking the hem, I tugged hard to cover my exposed skin to my thighs.
“Mercy,” Flynn finally said, hoarse and sultry. Turning to meet his gaze, I saw shock before it all dissolved into anger. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
Okay, I hadn’t been expecting that. “I–” I tried to say.
“You need to leave,” he demanded.
“But,” I sputtered. The tears that had threatened before spilled from my eyes and I felt even more foolish. What I wanted to say was ‘Aren’t we friends?’ ‘I was worried about you.’ ‘I’m scared after what happened.’ Instead, as I scooted off the mattress onto my feet in shame, I uttered, “You said you loved me.” My words were whispers.
In a rush of sudden movement, my body was pressed to the wall. He looked down on me with menace in his eyes. With a free hand, I wiped the remnants of stray tears and lifted my chin. I’d come in friendship and if he didn’t accept it, then it was his loss.
Glowering at me, he said in a cold voice, “I thought I was dying. I didn’t mean it.”
Pain lanced my chest. A feeling of betrayal grew there. I wouldn’t argue the point. I wouldn’t ask why in death, he would he choose to lie about something like that. “You’re such a jerk,” I lashed out.
“Yeah, you’re a tease.” His face was less than an inch from mine. The hand that cupped my chin and stroked my cheek belied his words. There was tenderness there. But his other hand went to my thigh and it was my body’s turn to betray me. Heat from the warmth of his hand on my bare thigh turned me into a puddle of lust.
Slapping one hand away from my leg and then the other from my face while I still held reason, I said, “I am not a tease. You’re misinterpreting my actions. You nearly died for me. But don’t think anything has changed between us. Your tenacity will always lead you to a dead end. You’re vulgarity is a laughable defensive mechanism. I came because I care not because I want you.”
Amusement filled his expression but it was the cold sort. “You may lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me.”
“Whatever,” I said, trying to push him away. But he was an unmovable force that repelled my attempt to put space between us.
As if to prove he was in control, he stepped into me. He put a hand on my waist and the other on the wall next to my head. Leaning in, his intention was clear; he was going to kiss me. This was the moment where I should turn my face. Yet I didn’t.
Brushing past my lips, his mouth was at my ear. “Luke is my best friend.” There was a small pause as if to punctu
ate that statement. “He saved my sorry ass again. And I won’t have you coming in here trying to tempt me.”
My jaw dropped. I had so not come in here to have sex with him. Yet, I could still taste him on my tongue from the kiss on the bed. The burn of his hand still lingered on my body. The pulse of him had been pressed against me sending shouts of excitement all over me.
My brain was fogged in a haze of him. His next words jolted me to the present. “You need to leave and don’t come in my room dressed like that unless you want me act like the demon I am. Go back to your virginal room and stay the hell out of mine,” he chided.
With a shove, he pushed himself off the wall. When he took a step away from me, for a second I missed barricade of heated flesh that had held me in place. With a closed mouth and narrowed eyes, I walked the plank of shame. I didn’t even slam the door as I left. It would only make his day to know he’d pissed me off.
Through the door, I heard him say quietly, “One, four, three,” but I had no idea what that meant. What I did know was that he’d kicked me out. No jokes and no two hundred dollars for passing go.
Besides earning his scorn, I’d noticed his bandage was stained red by the time I’d left. His man handling of me caused him to bleed and I had no idea why. He should have been healed by now.
Still standing in the empty hallway outside his door, I looked at the rug that ran down the middle. I couldn’t stay here, so I willed my feet forward. My current course would lead me to my room at the end. The other option was the stars. They weren’t too far from me and would lead me further away from the stupid mistake I’d made.
Looking down at what little I wore, I knew he was right. It had been dumb for me to go to him dressed as I had been. But I’d left without a thought except the need to remind myself he was still alive. I headed in my ‘virginal’ bedroom. My teeth ground together. I wanted to curse him and the day he was born. I wanted to tell him what a fool I’d been for thinking he had a heart. Instead, I let the last of my tears fall because they would be the last. No more crying over Flynn McCallister. No way, no how.
Angel Of Mercy (Cambions #3) Page 1
