Bleeding Heart of the Underground

By Gil Hough

Jessie is suppose to be taking his final exams at college not trying to stop the apocalypse.

But, Jessie and his friend's Belinda and the Angel Jophiel are the only ones who know that Lucifer has tricked the angels of the Throne of God to Earth. When things quickly go from bad to worse Jessie and his friends show that sometimes when you dig down deep and do the right thing you just might survive.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gil Hough
• Release date: Oct 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311226860

Gil Hough

Gil Hough was born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised on the waters of Lake St. Clair, spending the majority of his youth reading and boating. After graduating from Grand Valley State University, where he mostly studied his love of the sport of rowing, he left for various adventures. Which included several years of non-violent reconciliation work in Northern Ireland with the Brethren Volunteer Service. He also worked with refugees from Central America seeking political asylum and teaching English as a second language in Torreon, Mexico.Gil settled in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he resides today. After spending four years organizing Appalachian communities with SOCM, he worked as the Tennessee Director of Renewable Programs at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, until he moved on to developing renewable projects with RSI EnTech LLC. He is a founding member of TenneSEIA (Tennessee Solar Energy Industries Association), where he also serves as Executive Director, advocating for the orderly and sustained development of solar energy.I enjoy hearing my readers' thoughts on my books! You can email me at [e-mail] or learn more at my web site www.gilhough.com

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BLEEDING HEART OF THE UNDERGROUND

By Gil Hough

The Second Novella in THE THRONE OF HEARTS series

First Edition

Copyright 2015 Gil Hough

Cover Art and Design by Ginny Manning, 2015

Discover more about the author at: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5315482.Gil_Hough

License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgments

Writing has been my lifelong dream, and it has only been made possible due to the support of many people, notably my amazing wife Kelly and our wonderful children Jonah, Steven and Autumn. A special thanks to my great editors Marsha Luthenauer and Autumn Hough; who helped make the story come alive.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - The Vue Forward

Chapter 2 - Appointment with Danger

Chapter 3 - Blood Tea

Chapter 4 – Home Sweet Home

Chapter 5 - Long Odds and Heavenly GPS

Chapter 6 - Bringing the Fire

Chapter 7 - The Long Dark Night of the Troll

Chapter 8 - Dancing in the Dark

About the Author

Chapter One

The Vue Forward

So this seems like a really bad idea, said Belinda.

What, breaking into a crime scene to steal a truck from a powerful corporation that makes its living killing powerful creatures?  Why is that a bad idea? responded Jesse as he carefully made his way through the hole in the fence he had just cut.

It was broad daylight and a beautiful, blue butterfly was flying around his head as he held the fence open for Jophiel.

The slim angel wearing Jesse’s over-sized insulated flannel shirt stepped through in a usually awkward movement. Jesse guessed that she was not used to squeezing through fences. Then again, if he understood things correctly, she was not used to having a physical body.

Belinda shook her head at Jesse with her usual look of frustration at his attempt to turn everything into a joke. Jesse understood that the young woman was out of her comfort zone at least as much as he was.

He just did not see what the point of complaining about their current situation was. I know, this is not a good idea, but neither of us has the money to rent a car. I doubt my old Vue would make even the four hour drive to Atlanta. Plus you know the truck that the specialists were using was full of vampire hunting gear that we might need.

Belinda nodded, the sun shining on her deep ebony skin as she ran her hand over her short cut hair.  She was the blackest black person that Jesse had ever known.

He had been wondering about asking her about her heritage, he guessed her parents might be direct immigrants from Africa, but he had not found an opportunity to bring up the topic without being even more insensitive than he normally got away with.  

So Mr. Breaking and Entering, she said, any thoughts on what we do if one of your cop friends catches us wandering around? As Belinda spoke, she waved her hand towards the old river side industrial site that was located on the Tennessee River that they were sneaking in.

Do you think they will fall for the old, ‘we lost our wallet’, line and were just looking for it? asked Jesse.

That might work if we were sneaking into a movie theatre, but I ‘am not sure that will work for a crime scene, said Belinda.

I still do not understand why we can’t simply tell the truth, said Jophiel in her light, musical voice. If we explain that we are fearful that my capture by the Master Vampires who fed on me was an attempt by Lucifer to weaken the highest choir of the angels, The Throne of Hearts, and we need to travel from this community of Chattanooga to the larger city to the south called ‘Atlanta’. As law keepers of the community, would they not support us gathering a resource we might need for such a mission?

Spoken in her earnest voice, Jesse found himself nodding in agreement. There probably was a small possibility of that happening. Something about Jophiel made you want to agree with her when she spoke. He guessed it was an angelic gift or just a mortal man’s instinctive desire to not be in conflict with a being who was a direct servant of God.  

It was Belinda who immediately spoke in contradiction, though Jesse knew that as a very serious Christian, she usually hated to disagree with the angel.

"Jophiel, you are right they should and they might try to help.  But, trust me I just got out of jail for fighting vampires and their servants. The cops, even when they are trying to help, do things their way.  Atlanta, while only four hours away, is in a different city and state than here. They would need to forward our concerns through their bureaucratic channels. It would probably be weeks before they did more than process the report. We don’t have any real proof of any Vampire activity in Atlanta, much less to convince them that we are fighting the apocalypse. I have trouble believing it myself."

Jophiel seem to agree but added, We can warn them about this D’avent creature.  

Belinda nodded something weary about the hold of her shoulders and her expression made Jesse think there were bad things that Belinda was leaving unsaid, I am not saying anything against the police, but my experience with them in Atlanta is...  not good.  I think the only people we can trust, is us.

An angel with her wings cut off, a college student who is supposed to be taking his last final exam, and a young woman out on bond from a manslaughter charge, said Jophiel in a factual voice.  No emotion in the comment, she was just stating the facts.

Belinda had a lost look at that comment so Jesse jumped in, the two most kick ass members of a Slice and Dice crew, all jacked up with the best supernatural steroids on the market; the heart of a Master Vampires full of angel blood. Not to mention an angel of the highest kind in heaven. We got this folks. Now we need to stop yakking and start walking. I don’t really want to be out here at night.

The other two gave Jesse a long look, but just nodded.  He led them deeper into the old rusted industrial complex. He had looked at a Google Earth view of the site and, from his past recent visits, he was pretty sure he knew where he was going.

They were walking on cracked concrete with tall weeds and