by Emma Castle
“Yes,” he whispered. “I’ll do it.” He curled both of his hands around Diana’s. His throat constricted as he struggled to speak.
“Jimiel, swear to me she will have that life you promised. Every joy, every laugh, every love, every glorious moment in the sun. I need to hear you promise me that.”
“I promise. Father promises. She will have it all.”
“Good.” Lucien relaxed, his body, heart, and soul strangely free now that he’d made the decision to let go of his hate. The storm clouds broke about them, and sunlight lit the wreckage of the car.
“I love you, Diana. No matter what happens, I will always love you.” He spoke the words as his throat constricted with longing as he stole one more look at her. Then everything around him blazed brilliantly white.
The scars on his back exploded. The pain he’d held on to for millennia faded away. He had one glimpse of the glittering spires of heaven, and then he heard a voice inside his head.
“Lucifer, my brightest star in the morning. How I have loved you. How I still love you…”
Lucien felt his body coming apart, atom by atom, in an instant, and his last thought and only thought was of Diana. She would be safe. She would be loved by some lucky mortal man. A man who would never know the treasure she was, a gift from heaven. The end was over, and there was no pain. Only endless light.
Lucas Starling cursed the rain as it lashed his windows, and he flicked the wiper blades on. This was seriously dangerous shit. All he wanted to do was get back to his nightclub, but he had to stop by and see a friend tonight.
“I should’ve stayed at the club.” He turned down the highway, flicking his brights on to see through the gloom. Then he slammed on the brakes as a horrific sight came into view. A black sedan was rolled over in a ditch, smoke drifting up from the engine, the headlights piercing eerily ahead into the woods.
“Shit!” He parked his car and raced over, sliding in the mud. A man lay unconscious by the car. Lucas checked his pulse, and it was steady. Shit, he hoped that meant the guy was okay.
“Help…” A weak feminine voice drew him to the back of the car.
“Hold on!” Lucas reached into the shattered window, hissing as pain knifed his arms, but he found a woman and pulled her out to lie across his lap. She wore the most beautiful dark-blue dress he’d ever seen, like some 1950s starlet. Seeing her hurt was like a punch to his gut. A deep gash on her forehead was bleeding heavily. He dug into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, dialing 911.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked.
“There’s been a wreck off Beckett Road. Two people are injured. Please send help!” He held on to the woman and brushed her hair back from her face. She gazed up at him with beautiful gray eyes. Something hit him like a freight train, and he held on to her like the world was ending around him. All he knew was that he couldn’t let this woman die.
“My name is Lucas. I’m here to help. Stay with me, beautiful,” he said.
She smiled dazedly. “You think I’m beautiful?”
“I think you’re gorgeous.” He meant it. He saw a lot of hot women in his nightclub, but they had nothing on this woman. There was something about her, something that made everything inside him go still. She filled him with peace.
“I love your eyes,” she murmured and reached up to touch his cheek. Something inside him stirred, a strange sense of déjà vu, a flash, a memory of someone touching his face just like that.
“Keep talking,” he said. “What else do you love about me?” he teased, hoping to keep her awake and alert. Distant sirens filled him with relief. An ambulance would be here soon.
“What happened?” She blinked, distracted.
“You’ve been in a wreck. But I’ve called for an ambulance. Help is on the way. So keep talking to me, okay?” He brushed his thumbs over her cheeks, completely absorbed by this woman. It was as though she glowed…not that he could explain it, exactly. The rain misted on her face, forming tiny diamond-like drops on the tips of her eyelashes, and he wanted to kiss her like he’d never wanted anything else in his life. Kiss her and make her whole.
“Stay with me?” she asked. “I don’t want to be alone.”
“You won’t be, beautiful. I promise.” And he meant it. Whoever this woman was, he was not about to let her go.
Epilogue
What in me is dark, illumine. —John Milton, Paradise Lost
Six years later
* * *
Diana touched the faint scar at her hairline. Even all these years after the accident, she still couldn’t forget the night that everything had changed.
“Beautiful?” Lucas joined her at the mirror, curling his arms around her waist.
She gazed at him through the reflection. He was so gorgeous, with dark hair and soft brown eyes, and he was wicked too, her husband, a real sin in bed. From the moment they met, she’d felt like she’d known him forever, like they’d loved each other in another life. Diana knew it sounded crazy, but she couldn’t deny it. She loved him, loved him so much it hurt.
“I was just thinking about the night we met.” Their eyes locked before his lashes fanned down as he pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“I still dream about it,” he admitted, his voice hoarse with emotion. “If I had been a moment too late…”
She turned in his arms and kissed away his worries. “You weren’t too late. You were right on time to save me.” She cupped his face and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him again, their lips meeting in a soft, exploring kiss. It was the strangest thing, but sometimes when she kissed him, she thought she saw… But no, that was silly. She was in love. Surely every woman saw castles in the sky and flashes of brilliant light when they were kissing the man they loved.
“Where were you going that night? I never asked,” Lucas said as he rubbed his palms up and down her back.
“You know, I can’t even remember. I just had to be somewhere by midnight…” It was the one thing she couldn’t forget. The need to be somewhere with someone, yet it just didn’t matter now. That night was merely a bad memory, but it had led to something amazing.
“You need to come see this.” Lucas tugged on her hand, and they walked to the back door and looked out at the yard.
“Amara, what are you doing?” Diana asked as she saw their four-year-old daughter clutching something in her hands. It was a long white feather that seemed to glitter as though covered with diamond dust. It was the feather that Lucas had found beside her body the night of the crash. She’d never understood how it had gotten there, or what had happened to the bird in the storm for it to leave it there, but she’d wanted to keep it. From the moment her daughter was big enough to reach for things on the shelves, she’d carried the feather around like a favorite stuffed animal.
“Mommy!” Amara clapped her hands, her blonde curls bouncing in the sun. The light created a halo on the child’s head as she waved the feather. She was much like her godmother, Amara, one of Diana’s friends who owned a rather curious bookshop. They’d met one day when Diana’s car broke down outside Amara’s store. Amara had kept her company while she’d waited for the tow truck, and they’d formed a fast friendship. It had been only a few days before Lucas had saved her life.
“She’s such a little angel,” Lucas said with a chuckle.
“She is indeed.” Diana leaned back against his chest, and they both laughed as the wind tried to steal the feather from the child’s hands, but Amara kept a tight grip on her treasured toy.
“Amara, come inside for dinner. Grandpa and Grandma will be here soon.” Diana couldn’t wait to tell her father the news that her architecture firm was going to be expanding to bigger offices in downtown Chicago to meet the needs of her growing client base. Her new office was close to Lucas’s nightclub, which meant she’d be able to stop and have dinner with him during the week…and most likely they’d end up naked and panting on his desk or the nearest flat surface. Her husband had a healthy appetite
for sex, and he fulfilled every wicked fantasy she ever had.
“What are you thinking about, love?” Lucas asked. He brushed the backs of his fingers along her cheek, and she leaned into him, relishing the warmth of his body against hers.
“About us, about how lucky I am to have you in my life.” She nuzzled his throat before she tucked her head under his chin. Lucas curled his arms around her tighter, as though he was afraid she’d vanish. She’d seen it so often in his eyes, a shadow of fear that this beautiful, perfect life they shared would disappear. But she had faith it wouldn’t. They could face anything together. Diana had everything she could ever want—a wonderful life, a wonderful family, and a man who had brought her back from death itself. Sometimes, deep in the night, she would wake and reach for him, needing to feel his body pressed against hers as the clock struck midnight. And he was always there. Then she knew all was well.
“I swear, my life didn’t start until I met you.” He tilted her head up and gently kissed her lips, but the kiss turned hotter, his tongue slipping between her lips until she was melting against him and forgetting about everything else.
Glittering spires…endless light…love unending.
“I love you,” she whispered.
He nuzzled her neck. “I love you…through death and beyond.”
The vow burned into her heart, like a promise of the ages, and she knew that he meant it. She couldn’t imagine a world without this man in it. Someone had been looking out for her all those years ago. Sometimes she swore she must have been saved by an angel.
Jimiel lingered invisible in the infinite space between beams of light as he watched Diana and her husband kiss in the doorway while their child played with a feather. What a strange and wondrous thing destiny was. The night Lucien gave his life for Diana’s, the world had shifted. All traces of Lucifer had vanished from the minds of the mortals who’d met him. Andras had taken his place as the king of hell. And a human had saved Diana that night, pulling her from the car. A human man who would live a long, full life by Diana’s side, just as Jimiel had promised. Humans said Father worked in mysterious ways, but there was nothing mysterious about acting out of love. Love was the one thing in the world that made sense. And Father had always loved his favorite angel, loved him so much he gave him a second chance to live.
“Have a good life, brother. Shine bright, always.” Jimiel smiled at Lucas.
Lucas would never know, never remember who he’d once been, but that was good. As the brightest morning star, he deserved only the light, not the dark. Midnight always gave way to dawn, even for the devil.
*Turn the page to see EXCLUSIVE graphic art of Lucien stealing a kiss from Diana in his apartment.
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Turn the page to read more about my next book A Wilderness Within! This is the second book in my standalone series called Unlikely Heroes where you meet heroes like Lucien who may seem a bit “anti-hero” yet they win your heart by the end. Don’t miss my brooding sexy delta force soldier, Lincoln Atwood as he faces a contagion and kidnaps a woman to save her life…
About the book:
The world he knows and loves is gone…
Lincoln Atwood survived the contagion that wiped out the nine tenths of humanity. As the last survivor in a secret government bunker and a Delta Force soldier, he knows that the other survivors are scared, angry and dangerous, just like him. After weeks alone with the mummified bodies of his colleagues, he escapes the bunker. But the world outside has changed. Among the empty cities and crumbling ruins of civilization, he loses himself to the wilderness in his soul. When he sees Caroline, a fellow survivor, she is vision of light in a world gone dark. He wants to help her, but she won't trust him, when there's danger around every corner. How can he convince her that fate has brought them together?
She will not go quietly into the night…
Caroline Kelly survived hell when she escaped quarantined Chicago in search of her family after the outbreak. But it's not as easy to travel from Illinois to Missouri with the world gone dark in the space of three months. The last she thing she needs is to get captured by a muscled, bearded mountain man who looks and acts like a damn super soldier. When it’s clear she can’t escape him, she finds herself becoming fascinated with the brooding, intense man who knows how to survive. He makes her heart race and blood pound. When tragedy strikes, Caroline realizes she might have a plan to save the world, but she’ll need Lincoln’s help. Can she trust Lincoln not only with humanity’s future, but also her heart?
* * *
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Turn the page to read the first three chapters of A Wilderness Within!
A Wilderness Within
Prologue
@CDC: We have been made aware of a small outbreak in Beijing created by an unknown disease. The situation is being contained and monitored.
—Centers for Disease Control Twitter Feed
November 3, 2019
* * *
February 2020
Omaha, Nebraska, undisclosed location
The underground bunker had been compromised, and death now stalked the halls, moving invisibly beneath the flashing fluorescent lamps. Lincoln Atwood leaned back against the concrete wall inside the tunnel that would lead to freedom…and likely more death. He couldn’t breathe, his lungs strained for air, but with each panicked gasping inhalation, he smelled the sickly-sweet cloying scent of decayed and mummified flesh.
Much farther down the hall, he could see the shadowy outlines of bodies. It had been seven weeks since those men had collapsed and died where they lay. Seven weeks and the virus that had ravaged their bodies had mummified them. Another two months and there would be nothing left but stark white bones. Before he’d been assigned to the bunker, he’d seen the disease destroy the world, the final tsunami of a pandemic storm that had started four months ago.
He and the other survivors below ground hadn’t wanted to touch the bodies at first, but over the last three weeks as the sickness spread, he’d realized to his horror that he was immune. He could walk among the remains, touch them, inhale the infected air. There was nowhere to lay these last few men and women to rest. So they’d remained where they’d fallen, leaving him almost completely alone with the virus.
The CDC had named the virus Hydra-1. Much like the mythological creature of many heads, this virus was an unstoppable killing machine. Victims bled out and then dried up, but rather than be preserved, the mummified remains quickly turned to dust or washed away in the rain, leaving behind only bones.
“Lincoln…” His name came through the small walkie-talkie clipped to his hip, the sound scratchy and tinny as the signal struggled against the concrete barriers. Lincoln raised the walkie-talkie to his mouth, holding the button down, his hand shaking.
“Yeah?”
“It’s time.”
Those two words hung in the air, sizzling with dread like a live wire in a raging storm.
He stood. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
For a second, a wave of dizziness swamped him. Was it Hydra, or was it the low-protein diet and tiny rations from the food in the bunker? It didn’t really matter. He wouldn’t survive long once he ran out of food and water. He had been in the company of the shadow of death far too long not to fall prey to it. The men in his unit used to joke about death being an old friend, one who would greet them and walk them into the black sands of eternity.
How wrong they’d all been. Death was an uncaring assassin, a complete bastard who stole everything and gave nothing in return, not even comfort.
Lincoln started down the hall, toward the bodies. He paused in front of the first door on the right and
entered. It had been his room for the last few months, not that it had ever been home. The peeling white paint on the walls exposed the concrete, and the metal-framed cot was worse than most prisons.
Lincoln began to pluck the photos he had taped to the wall, one by one. He slid them into a plastic bag and put them in his sand-colored army-issued backpack. He had everything he needed to survive in that bag, or so he told himself. A compass, space blanket, knives, metal wire, rope, two guns, as much spare ammo as he could carry, bottled water, a filtration straw, a medical kit, and a dozen other items.
He picked up a paperback copy of The Great Gatsby and his solar charging battery pack and added them to his bag.
“Time to go,” he whispered to the empty room. He had been living in the cramped space for months. He was the last person alive down here…except for Adam Caine.
It was Adam who needed him now.
Lincoln paused by the door, startled for a moment by his own reflection. His instincts were razor-sharp now, and every movement had him tensing. The bearded stranger, hand resting on the doorjamb, didn’t look like Lincoln anymore. The young, happy face of his thirty-five-year-old self was gone. Hard-edged, cold, hollowed out, his brown eyes were dark with ancient sorrow. He looked like a man lost, who’d stepped into the deep woods of his own soul and had never been seen again, not once the wilderness within had swallowed him whole.
“Lincoln…please hurry.” Adam’s voice echoed in the small room from the walkie-talkie.
Lincoln’s shoulders dropped as he walked the rest of the way down the hall. He didn’t even see the bodies as he passed anymore. Over the last seven weeks, they had ceased to be there in his mind and were almost now as invisible as the concrete walls. To survive, he’d learned to tune out the horrors of the dying world around him.
