Angel Hunter- Redemption Book 2

by LaVerne Thompson

  She returned to reading the document on the computer screen. The one Wilhelmina had scanned and sent her last night. The one referencing a document, a lost Chronicle, supposedly penned by Archangel Gabriel. Though the reference was vague, she thought her aunt’s interpretation of it was correct.

  She browsed through another file that also referenced Abel and the end of days. The Chroniclers were well aware of Cain and Abel’s confinement and they couldn’t be released into the world at the same time. Adam was both father and jailer to the men. He kept them separated and out of the human world, but none of the Chroniclers had ever been able to figure out where. They all understood this was necessary for mankind to survive. Perhaps the lost Chronicle contained the true reason why.

  The Chroniclers had theorized long ago that Adam kept his sons hidden somewhere no human could get to them. Perhaps the lost Chronicle told of where this place was. It seemed to be the only thing that made sense. Yet, how did the soulless find out about it? This was the question.

  Eva and her aunts thought perhaps the missing Chronicles from their files might hold the reason. One of which had been in her mother’s possession when it was stolen. The theft of which changed the trajectory of her life. Eva tried to bury this thought, she couldn’t go back to that past of more than fifteen years ago. It would change nothing. But she could change the future and she would focus on that. She suspected the soulless had the missing Chronicles in their possession. They had to, since none of the Chroniclers had ever been able to find them, nor did there seem to be a hint of their presence in the world. Yet for some reason, her instincts screamed to her at least one was here in LA. The one belonging to her mother. The one that contained her mother’s life’s work. Some of it written in her mother’s blood ink. It called to her.

  The Chroniclers had only ever lost two of the active sisters before their time, and almost all of the next generation. All murdered in the protection of the Chronicles. Her mother had been one of the two. None of the living Chroniclers had ever read the missing Chronicles, what they contained being just guess work from references in a few they did have. Eva had only just begun reading the histories, unfortunately this hadn’t been one she’d gotten to read. The thought that she might never read her heritage was like a stone in her heart. She’d already lost so much.

  Her phone buzzed indicating she had a text. It brought her out of her dark thoughts. She sighed as she read the single word on her phone screen: Koi. It was from Devlin, he’d finally chosen a place. She texted back a time, 2:00, so he’d know she’d meet him there then. If only things were different, perhaps Devlin could have been her one. She shook her head. No. She wasn’t going down that road. Her phone rang and she took it out of her pocket again to check the number. It was blocked. She usually didn’t answer blocked calls but she shrugged and turned the receiver on. “Yes,” she said.

  “Hello.”

  The voice was low and dark. One word and the blood warmed through her system and fine bumps rose all over her body at the sound. Her stomach clenched in response to the promise in that tone. Who the hell was this? But some part of her already knew.

  “Evangeline, it’s Michael.”

  “Oh, Michael,” she squeaked. Great way to make an impression. Even the guy’s voice screamed sex, while hers squeaked mouse.

  “I was just calling to confirm our date tonight and to let you know how much I’m looking forward to seeing you again.”

  She grinned. Damn, he was good, confident and strong. “Yes, me too. I’ll meet you at the restaurant about eight.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up? It won’t be any trouble.”

  “No that’s okay. I’m going to come straight from work.” They’d already agreed on the restaurant.

  “That’s right, your bookstore isn’t far from there. I thought you said it wasn’t open yet.”

  “Yeah, it’s not but I have to check on some of the inventory that came in over the last two days. It will still be a few weeks before the grand opening.”

  “I hope I have an invite to that?”

  “Of course.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll see you at eight.”

  She hung up the phone and sighed, fanning her face with her hands. Whew. Even a phone conversation with him had her hot and bothered, and not the hot and bothered in an angry way that Devlin left her. She refused to think about him until lunch. Whereas he gave her a hard time about meeting him for lunch, Michael was understanding and considerate. Since this was their first real date, coffee didn’t count, she felt better driving herself to the restaurant, that way if she needed to leave she could. Even though she thought Michael had a lot of potential, she sensed no malice toward her, a girl couldn’t be too careful. Not in this day and age. Plus, she would be armed.

  She walked into the restaurant about five minutes late but she spotted Devlin before the hostess even spoke. She smiled at the woman. “Thanks, I see the person I’m meeting.”

  Devlin was on his feet as she approached the table. Holding out her chair for her to sit down. “Thanks for coming,” he said, taking his seat.

  “No problem. Thank you. Good to see chivalry isn’t dead.”

  He grinned. “My mama taught me right.”

  The waiter came over to take their drink orders. After he left, she raised the menu to take a look at her choices.

  “Have you been here before?” he asked.

  “No, this is my first time.”

  “But you’ve been to LA before?”

  She smiled. “Oh yes. I did my undergrad at UCLA.”

  “Computer programming, right?”

  “You remembered. Yeah.”

  “You told me a lot but I remember everything. I’ve missed you, Eva.”

  She looked him right in the eyes, steeling her resolve, trying to make him understand. “Dev, don’t. I’m only here to talk about the Chronicles.”

  “At one time, we could talk about any and everything. We did.”

  She could no longer maintain her stare and glanced away before gazing back at him. “Things have changed. Besides, we didn’t talk about everything, not really. We both left a lot out.”

  The waiter returned with their drink orders, so they went ahead and placed their lunch order. Devlin got a bottle of sparkling water and a beer. She stuck to sparkling water, she had a long day ahead of her, plus her date tonight.

  All of a sudden, she was no longer looking forward to that date as much. A sense of guilt enveloped her. Like she was cheating on Dev by seeing another man. Impossible. She and Devlin didn’t have that kind of relationship. Yet, the feeling of it being wrong to be with anyone but Devlin wouldn’t go away. Perhaps that’s why her next words came out harsher than they should have. “So get over it already. Now are you going to talk about the Chronicles or not?”

  He was silent for so long she thought he was just going to get up and leave.

  She sighed, she was being a bitch to him, and he didn’t deserve it. “I’m sorry. This isn’t easy for me. You—you meant something to me at one time, we were good friends. Perhaps we can be friends again. I’m willing to try if you are.”

  He shrugged. “Okay. Fine.”

  She’d meant what she’d said to him but deep down, she knew it would be all or nothing between them, but she had to try. If not for her sanity, then for the jobs they both had to do.

  She took a sip of her water. “Wilhelmina already spoke to me about what the Chroniclers found out about the missing volumes as well as what the others suspect.” Her aunts had been very forthcoming with information with Devlin. They had to be if they were going to succeed in finding any of the missing Chronicles, but she also knew what Wilhelmina hadn’t told him, not even Samuel was aware of this. Evangeline wasn’t the only one marked. Another was marked in a different way but according to their Chronicles able to lead the next generation, if necessary.

  “What I don’t understand is why the soulless would think you can lead them to these missing Chr
onicles.”

  This information Wilhelmina left for her to tell him or not, but she reminded her they didn’t have all the pieces. While some things could be kept from the hunters this wasn’t one of them. “My mother was the keeper of one of the lost Chronicles.”

  His eyebrows rose in surprise. “Your mother?”

  “Yes. She—she died trying to protect them.”

  “Oh baby, I’m so sorry.” He reached across the table and took her hands in his. “We don’t have to talk about this if it’s too painful for you. I’m sorry I’ve been such an ass.”

  Eva squeezed his hands before releasing him and placing her hands in her lap. His touch was just too much for her. She couldn’t deal with the emotions he evoked in her and the story of her mother at the same time. If she didn’t stop touching him, she would have broken down and cried. “We—I was young and wasn’t there when it happened, so the story was told to me. My mother possessed one of the missing Chronicles and her twin, the other.”

  “Twin? Your mom was a twin?”

  The waiter returned with their food and she paused while they placed the plates down in front of them, giving her a chance to mask her reaction to his question. Damn it, she knew better than to slip up like that. So was she, but this information no one could know. “Yes. But they died at different times. My aunt died when I was still a small child and the first Chronicle went missing. Her sisters didn’t realize the connection of the two Chronicles or that my Aunt Wesley had it with her until after my mother was killed. The Chronicle she had contained more information about the end of days and reference to the first accounting. They began going through the catalogs they did have and realized two were missing.”

  “So what happened?”

  “We think it was just an accident that Wesley was found with the Chronicle on her. She must have had it on her person, because if it had been stolen from the hiding place of the other Chronicles, the entire place would have been destroyed. No way would the soulless have taken just one volume and left the others intact. So we believe she had it with her. We have no idea why. Anyway, at least one soulless found her. But she was strong and well trained and would have been a match for just one, unless it was an Olden or more than one.” And Wesley wasn’t in seclusion as she was supposed to be. She’d left the catacombs where she’d lived since she was a child. Sneaking away from those who guarded her and taking the ancient scroll with her. But she couldn’t tell Dev any of that.

  Dev took a bite from his fork. “Go on, what happened then?”

  “My aunt’s body was pulled out of the Thames River. A year later, they found my mother in our house in Texas. We think the Chronicle Wesley had referenced the one my mother had.” She couldn’t bring herself to tell him the rest, not only had her mother been killed at the time but her older sisters too, in protecting her and their younger siblings.

  “Don’t you make copies? I thought you scanned the oldest books or scrolls into the database,” he stated.

  “We didn’t back then. This was long before we started scanning the Chronicles, so we have no electronic copies. Each Chronicler is aware of what they have in their individual libraries, sometimes there’s cross over, but usually each of us only know our own inventory. When my mother and her sister died, that’s when the sisters realized they needed a more efficient way and began to cross catalog things. Then I came along and made it even better by putting everything online, so we can all exchange information and stay updated.” There was so much she couldn’t divulge—that one sister was always a seer, a finder of information of sorts. Wesley should have known what was coming. And they still don’t know why she had the Chronicle on her that night.

  The identical twin not counted among the seven, Wesley was her mother’s twin. In fact, Eva was also a twin. The first born twin who also carried the mark but was the one confined. She always knew who had a particular Chronicle, and the fact all of them had that ability to a certain extent. The seer got glimpses of the confrontations between soulless and hunter as it happened. Sometimes even what led up to it. Not always, but enough that it could make a difference. This wasn’t information Devlin or any of the hunters need ever know. Even Adam, the oldest of the soulless merely suspected.

  “Whoever killed my aunt must have figured out exactly who she was. That led them to my mother and the second book. My mother would not have given up that book without a fight. And she died for it.” Eva’s three older sisters and younger siblings had died too. The current generation of seven, the line was broken. For the first time in their history. It was up to her to start the next generation. Eva had to work overtime to stifle her emotions when Devlin took her hand and squeezed it.

  “Wow! I’m sorry. So sorry,” he said.

  She nodded and removed her hand from his. “Not your fault. Anyway, we think that may be why they are now after me.”

  “Wait, if the first two books are missing and the soulless have them, why would they be after you?”

  “There is a first book. The one that might lay down the laws of redemption for the angels. One we hope explains all of our roles in this. Information that might well hold the keys to entering heaven and releasing hell. The missing Chronicles references these but the thing is we’ve never had access to this book. No Chronicler penned that first book.”

  “So those who took the books from your family think you have this book.”

  “Yes, that I either have it or can lead them to it.”

  “Why and can you?”

  “They know my mother was a Chronicler, so they know I’ve replaced her. But that doesn’t mean I know where the book is. But I’ve been looking for it. I’ve spent most of my life searching for the missing Chronicles and now, the first book.”

  “Yeah, I can understand that. So where does that leave us?”

  “I don’t think it’s coincidence the soulless have been gathering here. More than usual, nor that I was sent here.”

  “You think someone knew you’d be sent?”

  “If they were aware of the Chroniclers and how things worked, yes for sure.”

  “I didn’t know about you all until recently. I think most soulless didn’t either.”

  “That might be true, but they do now. And the one or ones who stole the Chronicles certainly were aware of our existence, just perhaps not the extent of it.”

  “Hmm, do they know a Chronicler tends to set up in the cities where there are a lot of them?”

  “Yes. Or near, that I’m sure they could guess.”

  “Okay. So how did they know that you’d be sent? You…specifically. They’d have to understand a lot more about how the Chroniclers operate.”

  She blinked. “You’re right. We hadn’t thought about that.”

  “When you were in New York had you ever been targeted there?”

  “No. Never before. Last night was my first encounter, up close and personal. My first attempt at interaction.”

  “It seems to me they’ve found out something specifically about you and recently to have made you a target. You are part of the next generation.”

  “There’s no way they could know that I’ll lead the next seven.” She had had both older and younger siblings, each being trained to take over from their aunts. The lead wasn’t always the eldest or the youngest, the one destined to birth the next generation of Chroniclers. It depended on which child bore the mark, always a set of twins. In her family, there were sometimes even more than one set. And she was more than the leader of the next generation, she would birth the next.

  “Maybe, maybe not, but someone knows about your ties to your mother. If that soulless had your mother’s Chronicle or both, then I think you and your aunts are right. They know about the book of the end of days, and they think you might very well have it.”

  She nodded. “It’s probably not exactly a book. But, again, you’re right. They would have to specifically know about me.” This gave her a chill. If they knew about her what else might they know, or suspect? What was in
her mother’s Chronicle? “I’m going to have to talk to Wilhelmina about this.” Warn her.

  “Meanwhile, we still have to find all three Chronicles. Maybe you’ve been going at this all wrong. Maybe instead of trying to find the first Chronicle, you all should try to piece together what might be in the missing ones. Seems to me most of the Chronicles cross reference information. Information most soulless wouldn’t understand the significance of or have anything to do with if they don’t have all the information,” Dev stated.

  “Hmm…you make a few good points.”

  “My guess is the first Chronicle taken might have been by accident, and it found its way into the hands of someone who did understand the significance and deliberately went after the second. Now that soulless is after this first book. It has to be an Olden. Someone around long enough to know the history. The other soulless are too busy trying to feed themselves. They’re not the ones plotting anything other than their next meals.”

  She shook her head. For a while, she forgot he was a hunter, someone who thought the soulless needed to be destroyed. She’d always valued his opinions and found him super smart, she still did on some things. “You might be right about an Olden being behind this. It sounds like something Abel would do.” But Abel was contained these last few months. Even if he had been behind the thefts of the Chronicles, something was still going on right now. Abel had been nowhere around when she was attacked. “I’ll also have Wilhelmina check and make sure Abel is still missing. At least not in the vicinity of LA.” She almost said contained, but there were still some truths they didn’t share with the hunters and this would be one of them.