Angelic Surrender: The Kavanaugh Foundation, Book 2

by Crista McHugh

  Heaven doesn’t want him. Hell is afraid of him. She can see right through him…

  The Kavanaugh Foundation, Book 2

  If the abrupt appearance of Will Vassago on her couch is any indication, knowledge of Anjali’s rare ability to see past demons’ disguising glamours has spread far beyond the Foundation. One thing that hasn’t changed since she accidentally touched him two years ago—his unnerving affect on her hormones.

  Officially, Vassago needs Anjali’s help to find an escaped Skinwalker demon. He’s also got some not-so-official plans for their down time, but if her sensitive gift reveals who he really is—a fallen angel—any chance to fan the embers of desire between them will be lost.

  Anjali tries to get their assignment over with before she loses control entirely. With every encounter, the unquenchable fire in her body burns hotter. And Vassago is startled to realize when he almost loses her to the rifts of Hell he has already lost his heart.

  Then they discover the Skinwalker is only the tip of the iceberg. If they can’t get a lid on the situation, Manhattan will suffer a fate worse than Sodom and Gomorrah, and not even Vassago’s celestial sword will protect Anjali from the Angel of Death.

  Warning: Contains an OCD demon hunter, a naughty angel with voyeuristic tendencies, bedtime wrestling over who gets to be on top and a very inappropriately used sari.

  eBooks are not transferable.

  They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

  577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

  Macon GA 31201

  Angelic Surrender

  Copyright © 2010 by Crista McHugh

  ISBN: 978-1-60928-111-3

  Edited by Bethany Morgan

  Cover by Natalie Winters

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: July 2010

  www.samhainpublishing.com

  Angelic Surrender

  Crista McHugh

  Dedication

  To my daughter, Megan, who shows me each day is a miracle.

  Chapter One

  The smell of brimstone singed Anjali’s nostrils, and she quickened her pace. Heavy breathing and pounding footsteps echoed down the nearly deserted street behind her. Logan had better kick it up a notch if he wanted to keep up with her.

  The scent seemed to call to her like a child’s taunt on the playground. I dare you to catch me if you can. She grinned. Catching demons was what she did best. She raced forward and focused her second sight when the smell became overwhelming.

  “Anjali, are you sure you know where you’re going?” Logan called out after her.

  She jerked to a stop and scanned her surroundings. The dim lights from the lanterns illuminated the red and gold adornments on the buildings. They’d chased the demon from Little Italy into Chinatown. Just what she needed—a confusing maze of twisting alleys. But on the upside, it might be easier to trap it now.

  Logan stopped next to her and leaned over, his lungs working like a blacksmith’s bellows. For all his surfer-boy good looks, he had lead feet. “Thanks for letting me catch up.”

  “You’re the one who wanted to come hunting with me.” She moved forward, scanning each alley. A flicker of movement caught her eye when she passed the third one on the right. Bingo!

  A shadowy figure with clawed fingers nearly a foot long crouched behind a dumpster. She took a step closer, and it tightened into a smaller ball around its bloated belly, revealing the line of spines that decorated its back. A Gaki. Thankfully, this seemed to be a small one, only the size of a grown man.

  “You’ve found it?”

  “It’s behind the dumpster.” She inched closer to have a direct shot at it. “Stay behind me, Logan.”

  That’s when the Gaki charged. Anjali barely had time to cast a quick spell before it collided with her stunned friend. His clothes ignited from the brief contact, and Logan reflexively responded with the whole Stop, Drop, and Roll routine.

  Fury burned at her like the flames on his clothes. I may not be much of a witch, but I know how to handle you. She channeled her anger into the pit of her stomach, allowing it to gather until she had enough to unleash her spell. To the normal human eye, nothing happened, but with her second sight, she watched the magic coil around the demon like a golden rope.

  A shrill cry from the demon’s mouth sent a shiver down her spine. It fell to the ground. The more it struggled, the tighter the bonds became. A hiss rose from the asphalt where it lay.

  Logan stood and examined the burn marks on his clothes. “A little warning would have been nice.”

  “That’s why I told you to stand behind me.” A grin touched her lips, masking her relief that her best friend hadn’t been injured. “Demons aren’t like vampires.”

  “Tell me about it.” He squinted in the direction where her hands pointed. “Do you have it?”

  “Yep.” She added a new surge of magic to the bonds, and another screech echoed off the buildings of Chinatown.

  He shook his head. No one saw what she saw, but then, that’s why she was the only demon hunter in the Kavanaugh Foundation. They had hundreds of employees who could spot a vampire on a crowded street, but she could sense demons in a way none of them could. How was that for a psychic gift? Being the only freak in the Foundation led to dozens of requests to accompany her on hunts. She’d declined all but a few. If Logan hadn’t been her closest friend for the last ten years, he’d be patrolling the streets of Manhattan alone, looking for vampires instead of chasing after her tonight.

  “So, what do you do now?”

  Good question. She never quite understood the “what happens after I catch the demon part”. Up until now, she’d just been happy to cleanse the air of the sulfuric stench of brimstone. “I wait until it gets swallowed up by the earth.”

  “You’re joking, right?”

  “Nope. I catch them, and something else deals with them.”

  “And that doesn’t weird you out or anything?”

  She bit her bottom lip. How could she explain to him when she couldn’t quite explain it to herself? When the earth opened to swallow the demons she’d captured, a shield of magic seemed to wrap around her. It wasn’t a spine crawling experience. More like a warm blanket protecting her from whatever lay on the other side of the rift. Whatever the other part of the equation was, she didn’t fear it.

  The air around the demon wavered, and for the first time, she noticed the distortion took the distinct shape of a man. No distinct features, nothing else to give a clue to her counterpart other than his height and the way his arms grabbed the demon by the magical bindings. She felt the tug and released her bonds.

  Curiosity heightened her senses. She wanted to know more about this invisible man other than the way his hair seemed to sway around his jaw and the rippling lines of his biceps. She reached forward. Firm, warm flesh grazed her fingertips. The brief touch sent a jolt through her entire body, and she jerked back in surprise. He was more than just ethereal matter. He was real, solid like her.

  A hiss zipped through the space between them, and the distortion flinched.<
br />
  Was I not supposed to touch him? Did I cause him pain? She scurried back to Logan, not wanting to cause her counterpart any more distress.

  The ground opened, and the red glow of the underworld illuminated the invisible man’s features—straight nose, pronounced cheekbones, sensual lips. Enough to make a girl feel hot and bothered just from his silhouette. As soon as the demon fell through the rift, the man disappeared.

  She frowned and searched the area for the telltale distortions, but saw nothing. A headache formed in her temples, announcing it was time to stop using her second sight. She sighed and relaxed, letting the world appear normal in front of her once again.

  “So, are you going to tell me what freaked you out?”

  She turned and realized she’d been holding on to Logan during the entire time. She released him and frowned at the soot stains on her hands and clothes. “You’re filthy.”

  “Yeah, and I know how you feel about dirt.” He rubbed his hand on his charred clothes and then on her face. “You’d make a pretty chimney sweep.”

  She wrinkled her nose and swatted at him. The first thing she wanted to do when she got home was scrub her skin clean.

  “Spill it, or I’ll keep covering your face with smudges.”

  “Fine.” She wiped her hands on her jeans, hoping to erase some of the dirt from her palms. She mentally replayed the vision of the man she’d seen in the fiery light and forgot about the soot. “I think I saw someone else.”

  Logan crossed his arms and raised a brow. “Oh?”

  “It looked like a man.” She stepped forward and knelt by the scorch marks on the road where the demon had lain. “He took the demon from me and disappeared, but not before I touched him.”

  “And what did he feel like?”

  “Like you or me, but different. It was like getting hit with magic at the same time.”

  “A warlock?”

  “Maybe. It didn’t burn, so I don’t think he was a demon.”

  He crouched beside her and stared at the black smudge in front of them. “Are you sure you’re not hallucinating?”

  “No, I touched him, whatever he was.” She turned to Logan and cocked her head to the side. “You believe me, right?”

  “Of course, Anjali. With the exception of your OCD tendencies, I’d say you’re mostly sane.”

  Her lips twitched in a grin. “Mostly sane?”

  “Well, you have to be a little bit insane to work for the Foundation.” He helped her to her feet and threw his arm around her shoulders. “Ready to head home?”

  “Sure. Are you?”

  “I’ll have to change my clothes, but other than that, I need to get back to my job. Unlike demons, the undead tend to prowl the streets on a daily basis.”

  “Poor vampire hunter,” she teased.

  Vassago hid in the alley and watched the petite Indian woman walk down the street with her companion. In all the millennia of finding and returning escaped demons to Hell, only a few humans had noticed him unless he’d wanted to be seen. None had dared to touch him without permission.

  Until now.

  He glanced down at his wrist and remembered how odd an uninvited human touch felt. Her warmth had shot straight up his arm and exploded in his chest. It exhilarated him the same way killing an enemy or flying above the clouds did. He wanted to experience it again and took a step after her, only to retreat back into the shadows. He needed to know more about her before he approached her again. For now, he’d watch and learn what made her so different from the rest of the humans.

  Chapter Two

  Two years later

  Anjali juggled the sacks of groceries in her arms and unlocked the door of her Upper East Side Apartment. When she saw the man sitting on her couch, a yelp escaped her lips, and the sacks tumbled to the ground.

  “Good morning, Anjali,” he said with a slight European accent. “Need some help?”

  She fumbled for the canister of pepper spray on her key ring. “Who the hell are you, and what the fuck are you doing here?”

  “I’ve come to see you.” He flashed a dazzling smile that almost made her want to lower the pepper spray and drag him back to her bedroom. Gorgeous didn’t begin to describe him. Straight black hair surrounded his face, the blunt angles of the cut complimenting the sharp curves his cheekbones and the straight line of his nose. A few strands fell in front of eyes that seemed so dark they looked black from where she stood.

  “I’m not in the habit of having strangers break into my apartment and then serving them tea.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. “I’m going to call the cops if you aren’t out of here in one minute.”

  He stood and approached her like a leopard stalking his prey—dangerous, yet beautiful in a brown leather jacket, T-shirt and faded jeans that molded his body like a glove. His dark eyes locked with hers. A feline grin spread on his lips. He seemed to be daring her to carry out her threats. “Come inside, and let’s talk.”

  His voice washed over her and burrowed deep into her mind. Lust replaced fear. How long had it been since she’d been with a man? Her hand trembled.

  His smile widened as her resistance crumbled, and he gently pushed her arm down. A jolt ripped through her body, gathering in the pit of her stomach. His breath tickled her neck as he leaned forward. “Please,” he whispered in her ear. “You’re beginning to make me feel unwelcome.”

  A new wave of anger surged through her, and she squeezed the nozzle of her pepper spray, aiming for his eyes. A cry of outrage echoed through the room. She bolted past him. Her fingers dialed 911. Just before she hit the Send button, he yanked the phone from her hand and threw it into her bedroom.

  “That was rather rude of you.” His black eyes flashed red, and a new wave of fear coursed through her. Whatever he was, he wasn’t human.

  “Then you’re going to hate this.” Her knee landed squarely in his groin, and a grunt of pain escaped his lips.

  Anjali ran into her bedroom to retrieve her phone. Forget the police. She was calling the Foundation on this one. They knew how to handle these kinds of things. She snatched it off the bed and ran for the door.

  He blocked the doorway, preventing her escape. “There’s no need to piss me off, Anjali, not when I came here to ask for your help.”

  She feinted to the left, hoping he’d fall for it and she could squeeze past him. He didn’t waver. Now she wished she had qualified for vampire hunter training. At least they would have taught her a few self-defense moves.

  Was it just her imagination, or did he seem to grow in size, almost filling the narrow doorway. She backed away and eyed the fire escape. “What do you want?”

  “I told you. I want your help on a certain matter involving demons.”

  Warning bells pealed in her mind. Only a few people knew she was a demon hunter, and he definitely wasn’t one of them. “What makes you think I can help you?”

  The cocky son of a bitch had the nerve to laugh at her. “Let’s just say I’ve seen your work.”

  “You’ve been stalking me?”

  “Stalking is such an ugly word. More like investigating you.” He turned sideways and indicated that she go into the living room. “Please, let’s discuss this like civilized people.”

  “You broke into my apartment. You admit to stalking me. And now you want me to sit and chat with you like we’re old friends?”

  “More like business acquaintances.” But the way his eyes flickered over her body told her his thoughts wandered in a different direction than purely business.

  A flush crawled over her skin. Anjali wondered what kind of appeal she held for him. She was just some skinny Punjabi with a nose that was too big for her face. Yet he looked at her as if she could be a Bollywood pin-up girl. Her nipples hardened under his stare, and she crossed her arms over her chest to cover them. His smirk told her she was a few seconds too late.

  “You have five minutes.” She flipped her phone open and began texting the Foundation about t
he stranger in her house as she followed him into her living room.

  “You know I’ll be gone before they get here.”

  A silent curse hissed in her mind. So he was not only inhumanly gorgeous but had eyes in the back of his head too?

  “Let’s discuss logic for a moment, and maybe that will help put your mind at ease.” He stopped inches from her and placed his hands on her shoulders. Instead of repulsion, a calming wave of reassurance passed through her. “I need your help. A dead or injured demon hunter is useless to me. I’m not going to harm you in anyway.”

  Her sex clenched from his silky words. “I’m not worried about you killing me.”

  “Then why do you act like a scared little rabbit?” He tucked a strand of her black hair behind her ear. “I’m not that intimidating, am I?”

  Intimidation had nothing to do with it. Tempting would be more appropriate. Her panties grew damp as she imagined his lips on her skin. Damn, she wanted him, but she refused to let him know that. She shrugged his hands off. “The clock’s ticking.”

  “Of course. Shall we sit?” He sank back into her couch.

  She took a seat on the edge of the chair across the room. With a little distance between them, her mind cleared, even though her sex still throbbed when she crossed her legs. “So, what makes you think you need my help with anything, Mr.…?”

  “Vassago. But please, call me Will.” He flashed another one of his dazzling smiles.

  “Answer my question.”

  His smile fell, and his posture stiffened. “Very well. I’m trying to find a demon that’s gotten loose in Manhattan. Normally, I wouldn’t need help, but this is a—um, special case.”

  “Special in what way? Do you want to capture it and use it for something?”

  “No, I want to capture it and send it back where it came from.”

  “And what makes you think you can do that?”

  He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “Let’s just say I have connections.”