Embracing Eternity Read Free

back to Hell and she was not facing Lucifer again so soon.
    Meela pressed a fist to her churning stomach and willed it to settle.
    “Come, Meela. Let us leave this place.” Evan held out his hand in invitation.
    He’d said things like that before, once upon a time when she was still an angel and he was anxious to catch her attention. She’d never taken him up on those offers. He’d seemed too quiet, too serious, while she’d craved fun and excitement.
    She wasn’t about to go with him now, either. She was no longer Heaven’s darling, and they could not be considered even casual friends.
    “I think not, angel. My dinner is waiting and you are not invited.” She made a shooing motion and did her best to look as if she didn’t give a shit he was there.
    “Your dinner died and his spirit has already left this place.”
    The forced smile fell from her face. No, it couldn’t be.
    She rose and stepped around Evan. The human sat slumped against the wall, his glassy eyes fixed upon nothing and his body but an empty shell. Evan was right. The human’s soul was gone.
    No spirit. No power. The bastard had overdosed.
    Shit .
    She’d needed that meal. She’d spent too much energy finding and tempting him to come away with nothing.
    “This is your fault. You distracted me so I wouldn’t take his soul.” Desperation welled and she lashed out, needing to blame someone.
    “He was gone long before I arrived.”
    “Liar!” She let her claws out and swiped at him. He’d cost her a meal, cost her the power she needed just to survive in this realm. Without it, she’d be forced to return to Hell a failure, and the price of failure was more than she could afford to pay.
    But her weakness hampered her. He easily stepped away from her claws and she was thrown off balance.
    Evan caught her before she could fall. Wrapping an arm around her, he held her to his chest, steadying her.
    Ah, he was warm, and so peaceful. For a moment she let herself sink into his heat, let his heavenly aura push back her fear and hunger. His power enveloped her, fired her blood as his flavor coated her tongue. It was tempting, oh so tempting to stay there, pressed against him, taking in small tastes of him.
    But he was her enemy. An angel. The one temptation a demon could not indulge.
    She tried to push away from him but didn’t budge. His arms didn’t relax in the slightest.
    “Come with me, Meela,” he said again, and a tingle of trepidation crept down her spine.
    “Come where?”
    “To Heaven.”
    No, he couldn’t take her. She’d be a prisoner.
    Panic hit and she shoved at him, taking another swipe at his face. His arms fell free as he dodged the venom-tipped points. She stumbled. Her shoulder hit the wall and she fell back into the corner, held upright by the aging plaster and trapped off balance by the angel before her.
    What did angels do to their captives? Was it anything like what they suffered at the hands of demons?
    An image of the last angel held prisoner by demons came to her.
    Renatus. He’d once been a friend, a lover, and she’d been the one who’d worked to lead him astray. Because of her he’d been trapped, a prisoner of Lucifer and his minions.
    The basest of Hell’s creatures had fed on him, left him broken and bleeding, his feathers ripped from his wings as they devoured his flesh. They’d taken him as close to death as an angel could go, only to leave him in agony while his power returned and his body restored itself.
    Then they fed again.
    And so had she.
    She’d known then that she’d pay for her sins.
    “Let me go.” Her tremulous voice transformed the demand to a plea.
    “Come with me,” he said yet again, this time stepping close until his feet were between hers and his wings pressed the walls on either side of her. He sheltered them, captured her.
    A willing prisoner? She thought not.
    Meela raised her clawed hands once more and swung, aiming for his eyes.
    She never touched him. Before she even saw him