She inclined her head slightly. “It is the right thing to do.”
“Yes, and you all always do the right thing.” He hesitated before speaking again. Any other time he might not have but after just putting his sons to bed, in a manner of speaking, the ache seemed harder to bear than usual. What the hell, he had nothing to lose. He’d already lost all. Adam looked at Wilhelmina, knowing if he would get an answer it would be from her. “How is she?” He might have been stating the sky looked blue for all the emotion in his voice but where no one could see or touch inside, he swirled like a tornado.
“You know we cannot speak of this,” she said, not unkindly.
The women moved away from him and Winifred opened the front door, the others filing out behind her.
He didn’t watch them get in the car parked in his driveway and leave. He ignored them. Instead, he stepped outside and stood just beyond his doorway, staring up at the dark heavens, dark except for the twinkling lights. Knowing angels looked down on him and some even wept for him. While he, really, did not give a shit. He finally turned to go back inside, softly shutting the door behind him and made his way to his music room.
He headed straight for the one solace left him. He sat at his piano and played. The tempo of his music held a world of sadness. It would have brought anyone listening to tears. Each note rang of love, his search, his loss, betrayal, endless days and nights ahead of him.
Alone. Always alone.
He played until the early morning rays of the sun stole through the uncovered windows and completely bathed his hands on the keys. And then he stopped. At last, the music drained him. He crawled under the piano, hidden in the shadows, curled himself into a ball and slept like the dead he was.
Sneak Peak at
ANGEL HUNTER REDEMPTION COMING LATE 2015
Devlin and Eva’s story
Prologue
Heaven help us. They be angels. The soulless be banished angels.
Tis day twas me visited by one such. Blindingly beautiful he was in his golden splendor and white wings. Hard ta believe, but believe ye did, ye must. My sisters and I ha been given a task we canna ignore. We are ta continue ta observe and bear witness ta the soulless deeds on earth. We who are merely human. But forbidden ta interfere until we too are called upon. I ha learned other humans are aware of the soulless and even now hunt them. Alas we will observe and bear witness ta the deeds of those who hunt too. We have been given a great responsibility and burden dat will be passed on ta those who come after us.
Thread carefully future sisters mine. As ye judge so will ye be.
Kalipia first Chronicler
Warning to those who follow
Translated by Minvera 5th daughter of the Seventh house.
Chapter One
Clang
The sound of naked steel clashing against the same had Devlin and the two other men with him running between the parked cars. The men hadn’t heard the sounds but Devlin did, and they trusted him enough to follow him blindly into battle. They were human—well at least the two with him were—but enlightened and highly trained hunters involved in a war few other mortals fathomed.
They battled soulless immortal creatures to save human lives.
The soulless are fallen angels, banished to earth, stripped of emotion and charged with finding redemption, but most too often chose to prey on human emotions and destroy life. Willingly, turning blood vampire and emotional succubi. Feeding on blood and sex fueled by strong emotions to nourish the emptiness of their soulless existence. Eventually, their prey give up their lives.
Too bad when the soulless were stripped of emotion they weren’t also stripped of all their powers and strength. But hunters provide a balance. Humans who are aware of the soulless, who stand together to protect humanity against these unearthly beautiful beguiling parasites. They hunt them and stop them by taking their heads.
The lights from several lampposts illuminated the area, making it appear as the middle of the day. The men came to a stop in the large outdoor parking lot. The music resonating from inside the domed stadium behind them was somewhat muted, but the concert was in full swing. So no one saw them. Just rows upon rows of empty parked cars. But not quite deserted, and the reason the men stood there poised to fight.
Large gatherings of unsuspecting humans tended to attract the soulless. Looking to feed off both the positive and negative energies places like concerts generated. Since the soulless had no souls, they also had no emotions. As punishment for whatever crimes they’d committed as angels, God ripped both from them, and banished them to earth with one chance of gaining redemption. Even the memory that they were once angels had been taken from them. Now only need drove them. An insatiable need to feel, the need to fill the hollowness inside with stolen emotions. Any emotion, self-inflicted or not.
There were some who did no harm, those merely drained negative harmful emotions from humans leaving them in a more stable and better condition. Then there were the others. The others that thrived on negative emotions, the ones who deliberately fueled it, caused it. Then sucked their prey dry, feeding off those emotions by draining humans of blood and life energies. The vampires of their kind. Devlin was a hunter and he and others hunted the soulless.
The picture before them had the hunters momentarily stunned. Fangs gleaming in the moonlight, a soulless one, fought with a lone human woman. A silver sword about twenty inches from tip to handle and an inch wide sliced through the air aiming to kill. The moment the woman jumped back to avoid the swipe of the soulless blade to her ribs, Devlin realized she fought back with a short sword of her own, but she’d backed up against the hood of a low sports car. It hampered her movement and the soulless pressed his advantage. The tip of his blade tore through her leather jacket piercing her shoulder.
“Hell no,” Devlin roared.
Devlin felt that prick in his soul. He could smell her blood and knew the woman. Snarling, he leaped the last few feet, doing a somersault up and above their heads. As he rotated he raised his blade and swung it down in an arch. Before his feet hit the asphalt, he’d taken the bastard’s head.
The body fell at his feet and the head rolled near the wheel of the car; he didn’t bother to look down at either. He didn’t need to see the pieces turn to ash, acknowledge the weird wind blowing against his hair, or watch it lift up the ashes to take it away. To hell for all he cared. The only good thing about destroying a soulless creature was no body to get rid of. Even the man’s sword was gone. Nothing to show he ever existed. He turned and his gaze locked on the woman leaning against the hood of the car clutching her shoulder.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he growled, but there was no time for her to answer. Two more soulless rushed them from the shadows.
The other hunters moved to intercept one and Devlin took on the other, who seemed determined to get to the woman leaning on the car.
Over his dead body.
Rage infused Devlin’s normal calm. Twice in one night the woman’s life was in danger. The soulless he fought raised his sword arm too high, leaving an opening, a mistake, and Devlin used it. He chopped the arm off from the shoulder. Dark red blood rushed from the wound like an open faucet and his howl of pain shook the ground. The soulless fell to his knees. Devlin raised his blade again to send the bastard to where he should have been sent in the first place: Hell.
“No! Stop! Don’t kill him.”
Devlin’s blade halted mid-swing.
The plea in Evangeline’s voice stopped him. The other soulless, seeing he was losing against the well-trained hunters, leaped over two cars and rushed into the night. The other hunters chased after him, but Devlin didn’t expect them to catch him. The bastards could move like the wind.
He turned to the woman, but kept his sword aimed at the male on the ground. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes. I’ll be okay. But please don’t kill him. Let him go.” Her gaze rested on the being beside them.
The creature o
n his knees raised his head. The man could have made a fortune from the exquisiteness of his face alone. Like all soulless he was hauntingly beautiful, but he watched her with the dark dead eyes of a soulless one. Eyes no human could hope to look into and not become enthralled, a slave to their will, and a participant in their own deaths.
“You plead for me?” the male hissed.
“Yes,” Evangeline whispered without staring directly into his eyes.
Devlin kept a close watch on them both.
“Why? I would have killed you. Still would. Why would you spare me, let me go?” the soulless asked.
“Because you’re one of God’s creatures and you need to remember who and what you are,” she replied.
The fallen barked a laugh. Not an ounce of warmth in the sound. “Yes, I have heard the story, we were once angels banished to earth, but we are angels no more.” With the speed of his kind he surged to his feet, his remaining hand outstretched reaching for her throat.
Devlin stood ready for him, and had no intention of letting him touch her. Moving faster than the soulless, Devlin cut off the bastard’s head. The only way to destroy one.
The woman in front of him bowed her own.
“You didn’t answer my question, Evangeline. What the hell are you doing here?” From one blink to the next, he picked up right where he’d left off, like the encounter with the soulless didn’t phase him—it didn’t. He knew killing bothered her, though.
When Evangeline first found out he was a hunter and killing was what he did, she’d wanted nothing more to do with him. That both saddened and angered him at the same time. Right now he knew he shouldn’t yell at her. She’d had quite a scare, but dammit she’d scared his shit when he saw her about to get her ass handed to the heavens on a silver platter.
She had no fucking business hanging out in places where she could get killed. Yelling at her was the last thing he wanted to do. He hadn’t been this close to her or spoken to her in months. He’d missed her so much. It hadn’t been until he’d left New York for LA and she’d made it clear their friendship was over that he realized how much she meant to him.
They’d met online, sharing a love for computers and accessing information; they were both hackers. They’d become friends, but it wasn’t until they’d actually come face to face that they’d learned who and what else they each really were. Their people might have an understanding, but that didn’t mean their goals were the same. Hunters, like Devlin, wanted the soulless dead. Chronicles like Evangeline and her aunts refused to pass judgment and condemned them for the hunt.
Still, all he wanted to do was take her into his arms. Kiss her. No. He wanted to bury himself so deeply inside her you’d have to use C4 to pry him lose. But their relationship never got to that point and now it never would. She hated him and what he did.
“It’s been six months, and that’s how you greet me?” she asked.
Six months and four days since he’d last spoken to Evangeline. “That was your choice. You blocked my fucking account, blocked my calls and told me via text you thought it best that I find someone else to consult with.” He snorted. “Even though hunter and Chroniclers now have an agreement. It means shit to you.” He was pissed and he let her know it.
Ever since he’d moved to LA, even before that, ever since she’d found out what he was. She’d distanced herself from him. He was a hunter of soulless and she was a chronicler of their lives. Sworn to neutrality between the war of soulless and hunter, but more than that she didn’t believe in the killing. She believed the soulless could be saved. That the hunters were wrong to condemn them all without at least giving them a chance to show they were harmless to humans or redeemable. To her, that was the whole point of their banishment, a chance for redemption. Especially now that they knew these creatures were once fucking angels.
“The agreement means a lot to me. Thalya and Samuel have proven they can be trusted.”
He snorted. This was an old argument between them. She liked to use his friend Samuel and his wife, Thalya, to prove her points. Samuel was a master hunter, the best they had, as well as a hybrid. His father had been soulless, his mother human. And Thalya had been soulless but found her redemption, and now had a soul. To Eva and the other Chroniclers they were living proof the soulless can be saved.
Like Samuel, he too was a hybrid, his grandfather was soulless, and like Samuel’s father, had regained his soul. But those who regained their souls were few and far between. All of the soulless he’d ever met, with the exception of Thalya, were nothing but deadly parasites feeding and encouraging the negative emotions of humans, bringing them nothing but death.
As far as he was concerned, if a soulless was a bloodsucker they needed to be a dead one. A philosophy of life Eva couldn’t completely agree with.
Only the rise and fall of her shoulders and the sound of her soft tears caused Devlin to relent his off limits stance with her and take her into his arms. He had also promised Samuel and her aunts, the other Chroniclers, he’d watch out for her. Hard to do when the woman you wanted more than your cells needed oxygen hated you and everything you stood for. Evangeline was the youngest but the first of the next generation of Chroniclers.
“Were you following them or me?”
She’d been in LA for almost two months; he’d seen her when she first arrived at the airport, but she hadn’t known he was there, he’d kept his distance. Knowing she wanted nothing to do with him. The only reason she saw him now was because she had been in trouble.
He shrugged. “You.” A good thing he’d kept tabs on her, tonight proved it wasn’t safe for her here. He’d even watched over her at night a few times. But always he’d made sure she didn’t see him. He felt like a peeping tom at times, but couldn’t help himself.
He’d even been present a week ago when she’d met another man. The man had bumped into her and she’d spilled coffee on his shirt. He wasn’t sure if that bump was accidental or not. The man ended up buying her another cup and they sat in the coffee shop window talking for the next hour. Each second she sat with the stranger ripped another piece of his heart out of his chest. Like a masochist he refused to leave and had continued to watch them. He kept telling himself that her meeting someone, someone who didn’t kill for a living, was for the best. Like hell.
He just needed to sleep with her and give them both peace. Once, that’s all he needed to do, sleep with her once. But no, she didn’t want him. She’d rather have some clumsy fucker, the guy had rubbed him the wrong way. Just something off about him, but he’d never actually seen his face. The guy had worn dark shades but his profile showed he might have those strong perfect features like a soulless. Since he’d seen them together during the day he didn’t think the guy was one, though. Most soulless preferred the night because the light of day caused them pain.
Yet, he’d been the one to save her life tonight and she clung to him. He buried his face in her hair and her spicy apple scent enveloped him; a fragrance as close to heaven as he’d ever be. Holding her in his arms for the first time only emphasized how well they would fit together. Perfect. She fitted against him perfectly, and he would do anything to hold her again, and not just in comfort. Perhaps, it was time for him to step out of the shadows.
About The Author
LaVerne Thompson is an award winning, best-selling, multi-published author, an avid reader and a writer of contemporary, fantasy, and sci/fi sensual romances. She also writes romantic suspense and new adult romance under the pen name Ursula Sinclair.
She is currently working on several projects. Both of her daughters are now away at college. However, she and her husband don’t like the term empty nester. She’s added a cat to the household to keep the dog of the house company. Hopefully, writing will keep her sane. Visit her website at http://lavernethompson.com to read excerpts of her books or Facebook to contact her, http://facebook.com/groups/lavernesnews or http://facebook.com/ursulasinclair98 or follow her on Twitter @lavernethompson
BOOKS BY LaVERNE THOMPSON
**Self-Published from Isisindc Publishing
PARANORMAL/FANTASY
Dragon’s Heart- Story of the Brethren
Sea Bride- Children of the Waves
Sea Storm- Children of the Waves
Tatianna (free read at wattpad.com)
Journey of the Princess of Ice- The Elementals- New Adult
Dark Mist- The Hidden Series
Dark Shadow- The Hidden Series- New Adult
CONTEMPORARY
The Ballerina & The Fighter- Book 1 (writing as Ursula Sinclair)- New Adult
Maze- The Ballerina Series Book 2 (writing as Ursula Sinclair)- New Adult
Come To Me
The Three Sisters Series Boxed Set
Ringside-The Three Sisters Series Book 1
Masquerade- The Three Sisters Series Book 3
Take Me A Romance Box Set
ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
Hold On
Sci/fi/Futuristic
Day In The Sun
Shadow Wars Homebound (writing as Ursula Sinclair)- New Adult
**Coming 2015/2016
Living On The Edge
The Otherworlders- Wolfen (Ursula Sinclair)- New Adult
Shadow Wars Ronin Riders (Ursula Sinclair)- New Adult
Sea Witch- Children of the Waves
Skye High
Promises
Chances Are
Kissed By A Rose
Highland Jack
The Dancer – The Ballerina Series Book 3 (Ursula Sinclair)- New Adult
Dragon’s Blood- Story of The Brethren
**From Decadent Publishing
Writing as Ursula Sinclair
White Wedding- The Guardian Agency Series Book 1
Something Blue- The Guardian Agency Series Book 2
Wine and Roses- The Guardian Agency Series Book 3
Angel Rising: Redemption Book 1 Page 29
