Page 4 of Revelations

Looking around, he thrummed his long index finger against his chin. “Well, there’s nothing extraordinary to connect you to this place.” His finger shot up in the air dramatically. “I know. There’s this lovely manor estate not too far from here. Some friends of mine lived there years ago. The name of the estate always stood out to me as being quite beautiful.”

Emotionally and physically exhausted as she was, he could have called her “Dirt,” for all that it mattered.

A broad smile lit up the stranger’s face. “Fantastic! You shall henceforth be named Greylyn,” he pronounced dramatically. “Now, that is settled, off we go…Greylyn.”

In one elegant movement he stood, turned around and offered her his hand. Once her legs tried out their strength again to find them solid, he took her arm in the crook of his own. His touch had a soothing effect as he guided her away from the small cemetery as the horizon glowed with the encroaching dawn.

The sky lightened into a deep purple hue with a splotch of amber breaking over the horizon. A rooster crowed off in the distance.

With one hand shoved into a pocket sewn into her dismal-looking gown of rough wool, her fingers found a tiny, round metal object. Touching the item brought a sense of peace.

She glanced up at her companion, in awe at the man’s unnatural beauty as the sun’s rays kissed his face, his perfect olive complexion; his aristocratic aquiline nose; and his full lips peeking out between a smooth coiffed mustache and short beard. But it was his shockingly ice blue eyes against the darkness that captivated her imagination.

It was almost as if she dared to look upon the visage of an angel.

Chapter 1 – Dante’s Inferno

Washington, DC

Modern Times

The windows of the three-story building in the heart of Adams Morgan, an eclectic suburb in Washington, D.C., visibly pulsed with a shimmering kaleidoscope of neon colors. Had it only been three months since Greylyn had been in the nation’s capital? Only three months since she had performed the wedding ceremony for Kelly and Matthew? Only three months since she had allowed Kael to kiss her under the gazebo at Gaelic Haven, as if they were a normal man and woman in love?

She had not expected to return for some time. Quite frankly, with everything going on with Olivier’s threats and her search for clues to the prophecy, she did notrelish being back.

Yet, she still had to do her job as a guardian angel—saving innocent humans from their own inner demons or the more nefarious, real ones. Too bad that was now secondary on her list of priorities. At the top was discovering what the prophecy Olivier wanted fulfilled entailed.

Just three months earlier, a few short blocks from here, he had given her an ultimatum—fulfill the prophecy or he would use Kelly and her child to do it. Not wanting to put innocent lives at risk, she had accepted his deal.

A deal with a devil; one who was possibly worse than Lucifer himself.

But now she had guardian angel business that required her attention. Shaking the memories out of her head, Greylyn pushed her way through the line and into the club.

Dante’s Inferno,a popular nightclub, was packed for a weeknight. Its three floors catered to different musical genres to draw larger crowds. The basement belted out country music.The main floor boomed with hits from the ‘80 and ‘90s, and the top floor played modern dance and hip-hop tunes. There was something for everyone.

Greylyn squeezed through the crowd on the second level toward the small corner bar; the walls reverberated from the loud music and the air carriedthe stench of sweat and stale beer as bodies gyrated to the beat on the dance floor. Some patrons sported decade-themed attire, but most did not. However, the guy with the Richard Simmons hair and the Brett Michael spandex pants caught her attention. A couple ofFlashdancegirls bounced around with mismatched legwarmers, spilling their beers everywhere. If nothing else, the comedic entertainment factor would be worth the trip. Maybe it could take her mind off other more pressing matters for a short while.

Screaming for a whiskey shot over the high-pitched sound of Toni Basil cheering on some boy named “Mickey,”Greylyn surveilled the room. There was no sign of Jasper.

Where the hell is he?

His call a couple of nights ago had brought her back to DC, post-haste. He rarely requested assistance, so she felt compelled to join him. Besides, guilt had gnawed at her gut. She had yet to fill him in on the entire prophecy deal with a fallen archangel. In all of their time together, she had never kept a secret from him, except for the Kael thing. She could never tell him that.

Jasper had not provided a lot of information during the call. There was a suspected clutch of vampires targeting young couples at this club. A little research uncovered that, so far, five couples had gone missing. One couple had been found unceremoniously dumped in a water drainage pond close to the city zoo, a few blocks away, with signature puncture wounds in their necks.

The theory was simple. Vampires lured unsuspecting couples in with promises of eternal life spent with their true love. If the couple agreed, they were turned and became bloodsuckers themselves. More importantly, theysharedthe love amongst the group.

Gross. Blood-sucking swingers!

The watered-down whiskey did little to tame the ball of nerves in her stomach. She half-expected Olivier to appear out of thin air and scold her for not making enough progress on the prophecy. Or, worse yet…Kael reappearing just to torment her.

The last time that she hadseen him was still etched into her brain. The scene played out in her dreams, both sleeping and awake; the way gold flecks danced in his dreamy eyes like sparkling topaz. Goosebumps erupted across her skin, as she remembered how he’d trailed his fingertips along the base of her spine as they had danced in the moonlight. The sweet taste of his lips…

Warm breath fanned the base of her neck and a large hand snaked around her waist. For a second, Greylyn allowed herself to relish the sensation as part of her imagination before a familiar feeling washed over her like a warm blanket on a cold night. The memory of Kael shattered into slivers of glass. Instead, she turned to gaze up into Jasper’s ice-blue eyes.

“Hello, darling. Glad you could make it.” He grinned.

Unexpectedly, he planted a kiss on her mouth. His firm lips grazed her own before he playfully nipped her lower lip. Something like that should have earned him a smack across the face, but it was Jasper. Besides, it felt…nice.

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