by C C Sommerly
“I am not ready for this. I don’t have to go, do I?”
Before the angel could respond, Manny interrupted. “Teagan, wait, this is an opportunity for you. You can meet family. You have chance at a normal life, something the rest of us can only dream of,” he said.
“You really think I should go?”
“I think Manny is right. I know we haven’t always gotten along, and I’ve been quite a hard on you, but many of us don’t have our families and the chance to be with a part of our family is one any of us would jump at,” said Ruthie.
“What do you stand to lose Teagan? You can always come back with us. There will always be demons and Demented to hunt,” added Ginger.
“Wait, are the Demented still secure?” I asked and silently cursed myself for getting wrapped up in the angel and his revelations. It was really a bad move for a Marine to lose sight of the objective and I had done just that. We all had.
We rushed over to the now empty enclosure and the missing Merritt. Why would he leave? We came this far to rescue him and saved him from the demons, and he leaves us when help is so close. It just didn’t make sense.
“Can you sense him? Is he close?” I asked of the angel.
“No and that only means one thing, he’s no longer on earth.”
“So, this was all for nothing. We have two dead demons, one captured and no Merritt. We failed,” I said.
“We weren’t going to be able to save Merritt. He had a chance to come with us and still didn’t take it. He’s made his choice and he took the Demented with him,” said Ruthie.
“And now you need to make your choice, will you try for a future. Go with the angel. We wouldn’t be able to teach you how to use angel powers anyway. You deserve this,” said Ginger.
But did I really deserve this? I felt like I was abandoning them. They lost Merritt and if I went, they would lose me.
“And, don’t forget, we will be busy with all of those Super Soldiers. So, we’ll have lots of help once they are trained,” said Reese.
What he made sense, but I wanted my old life back. I had come so far and done so much to have it snatched from me now.
“I need your answer, Teagan. I cannot delay getting such a dangerous demon to the council, where we can better secure him. Say you will come with me.”
Meeting his eyes, I was mesmerized by the kindness and sincerity that I could see in them.
He reaches towards me and runs his hand along the collar of my shirt, “You aren’t as disbelieving as you think,” as he pulled out the rosary and dog tags from the chain around my neck. “Here you have symbols of loyalty to your country” as he dropped the dog tags from his grip. “And here you have your symbol of faith. No matter how much you may doubt God, you still cling to His symbols. Your faith is still there, just oppressed by your logic, fears, and worries.”
Grabbing the crucifix from him, I ripped it off my neck and tossed it on the ground at my feet.
“When God and angels want to be more involved, I’ll put that back on. Life isn’t meant to be spent in the back seat. At least here with the other hybrids, we are actively driving towards a goal.”
Turning my back on the beautiful angel, I said, “Let’s go home.”
After I took several steps, he stopped me and said, “Wait. You can still change your mind.”
He reached out and yanked out a feather from his glorious wings. He said, “Take this. And should you need me for any reason or if you change your mind. Take this feather and say my name and I will come to you.”
Lucian, he whispered in my mind and out loud he said, “My name is for your ears only for names have power. Hold to what I have given you.”
I grabbed the feather and carefully tucked it into my sword sheath. What could I say? He mutilated himself to give me a chance to contact him. Given his painful grimace when he pulled out the feather and giving me power over him with knowledge of his name.
“Ah, thanks. We need to go, and don’t you have a demon to secure?”
Together with the other hybrids, we began the long trip back to The Underground to face the Boss, the consequences of our decisions, and our failure to capture the demon.
The End
Thank you for Reading
I am grateful for the chance to introduce readers to the world of the hybrids and their adventures. If you enjoyed this book, can you leave a review on amazon? I would greatly appreciate it. It doesn’t have to be a long review, just your impression of the book. Reviews help other people discover good books and they help authors by promoting their book.
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Acknowledgements
Writing my first book taught me an incredible amount of humility and gratitude for the process and the people that helped me along the way. I feel immensely blessed that I had such wonderful people, who believed in me, encouraged and pushed me along the way. All of you played such a crucial role in this book and in no particular order, here are my thanks for you:
To my kids: You all never once complained when I couldn’t be out at the pool, playing video games, or traveling because “Mommy had to work.” Instead, you sat next to me as a typed my book and read it over my shoulder. We celebrated every milestone together and you were so kind and encouraging. I’m a lucky woman.
To James: Of all the people that helped me, you probably had the toughest job. You were stuck reading a poorly constructed first draft of my novel – one that was still being brought to life, characters that were barely developed and areas of confused partial thoughts and half conceived plots throughout. You guided me as I wrote the very first one and provided suggestions based on a reader perspective.
To my Mom: I think you read my book more times than anyone else, except maybe my editor. You were a reluctant reader, who doesn’t read this genre and worried about forcing yourself to get through it. Not only did you get through it, but you because a rabid fan, hungry for new content and reading everything as I wrote. You never hesitated to talk through book ideas, point out plot holes, and push me to get my butt in front of the computer and write.
To Larry: I am not sure that I would have the knowledge that I needed to get through all aspects of writing and promoting a book if it wasn’t for you. You also did my awesome author photo, but what helped just as much and maybe more was introducing me to the world of podcasts. Yes, I know that most of readers are well-familiar with podcasts, but I wasn’t. I learned about craft and all dozens of things a new author needs when they are first starting out.
To Jan: My editor, who stuck with me throughout, patiently and diligently bleeding all over my pages, leaving them more red than white. You provided something I desperately needed – help with my craft and showing me strengths I didn’t know I had and helping me overcome my weaknesses that were hard to see without you. For all that and more, I thank you.
To Stephanie: My writing buddy, we started with a day a week holed up in my house writing our prospective books – motivating and supporting each other along the way. You kept me accountable and focused on days when I was tired or overworked or missing time doing anything else, but writing.
To Les: You brought my character to life in a stunning and beautiful way with the cover you created for me. You made getting my cover made painless and easy. Your artistic creativity took the raw clay of my ideas and molded them into something amazing. Thank you.
