Absolution

By Ashley Lucero

For 17 year old Alex Constance, high school has had its hardships. With her parents’ divorce, her brother leaving for the Marines, and not fitting in with the popular crowd at school, Alex thought her life couldn’t get any more difficult than it already was. That is, until her entire world is turned upside down when she sees a man in black and no one else does. A whole new world of weird has been added to her life. Nathaniel, a dangerous man with many secrets, may be her only hope to save her life.
Caught in the middle of an on-going war between fallen angels and angels, Alex begins to learn the truth about herself and her unique family; but will it be enough to save her life or will she become her biggest fear yet? One thing is certain. Alex will not be given a choice, and she may still end up in a psychiatric ward or a body bag.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ashley Lucero
• Release date: Jan 12, 2016
• ISBN: 9780997201697

Ashley Lucero

Ashley Lucero, Is a lover of fiction novels with a passion for genres such as the paranormal, romance and young adult. She currently lives in Littleton, Colorado where she holds an Associates in Art with a Business designation. Although she is a successful business owner/entrepreneur, she has always returned to her love of writing. Ashley’s current book series is inspired by a series of events that occurred during her childhood. Her big loves include: her family, riding her motorcycle, late night sushi, binge-watching her favorite TV shows, and anywhere she can enjoy a ‘toes in the sand’ type of pedicure.

Book preview

Absolution

For 17 year old Alex Constance, high school has had its hardships. With her parents’ divorce, her brother leaving for the Marines, and not fitting in with the popular crowd at school, Alex thought her life couldn’t get any more difficult than it already was. That is, until her entire world is turned upside down when she sees a man in black and no one else does. A whole new world of weird has been added to her life. Nathaniel, a dangerous man with many secrets, may be her only hope to save her life.

Caught in the middle of an on-going war between fallen angels and angels, Alex begins to learn the truth about herself and her unique family; but will it be enough to save her life or will she become her biggest fear yet? One thing is certain. Alex will not be given a choice, and she may still end up in a psychiatric ward or a body bag.

Ashley Lucero

Absolution

Copyright 2015 by Ashley Lucero

Smashwords Edition

Cover Art by Creative Paramita

Cover Image Copyright by Creative Paramita

Ebook Formatting by Maureen Cutajar

www.gopublished.com

Thank you for downloading this ebook. It is licensed for your enjoyment and remains the copyrighted property of the author. It may not be reproduced, copied and/or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Please go to Smashwords to discover other works by this author.

Although several places, organizations, institutions, and agencies are mentioned by name, all of the characters and events portrayed are fictitious.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to my parents Michael Pearson & Wendy Pearson, thank you for your undying support through all of the ups and downs writing this book. I hope that one day I am able to repay the strength, faith, love and support you have always given me.

Thank you to my husband Steven Lucero, whom after countless numbers of sleepless nights pushed me to continue to pursue my passion in life. Thank you for not giving up on me and for the thousands of pep talks and kisses. I love you dearly!

A gigantic thank you to my editor E. Lee Caleca, whose invaluable writing notes and editing skills breathed life into this book and made it real. You are amazing!

Finally, to my brother, Brandon Pearson, you always watched over me and I know you still are. Your strength, encouragement and brotherly love will always be remembered and I will always hold our brother-sister talks, and memories together close to my heart. I hope that you’ve found the peace and happiness you truly deserve. Until I see you, have a cold one for me. This is for you. Semper Fi, we will never forget.

Without their support this book would not have been written.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Epilogue

Prologue

Hastily, I gathered what little belongings I owned and shoved them into my bag. I snapped the gold pendant and chain from my neck and slid it into my pocket. They would be here any minute now…I had to hurry. Several bangs sounded on the door before it was abruptly kicked in and two men advanced into the room.

This isn’t something you can run from, Nathaniel, punishment must be given, one of the men stated as the other man, who I confirmed was Ezekiel, continued his approach.

That order is wrong, you know it is! She isn’t supposed to die, I exclaimed as my attention turned towards Ezekiel who paused at my comment.

It’s not your decision who lives and who dies, Nathaniel! You broke a direct order! You will be punished for it!

I shook my head. This wasn’t right, this can’t be happening.

Ezekiel’s eyes looked pained as the other man nodded for him to continue. His creamy plush wings extended on either side of him and I knew this was it.

This won’t be the last of me, I affirmed, looking at the men.

Ezekiel’s hands raised and I was met with excruciating pain across my body followed by a flash of blinding light and the feeling of falling. Without warning, my body hit asphalt as the pain seared through me once more causing me to convulse and vomit. My wings splayed out behind me and I watched in horror and screamed aloud as they burned before my eyes until nothing was left.

I lay there; trying to process the permanent dark substance that now resided in my veins and the pile of ashes from my wings. I was a fallen one now. I would have to find her.

Chapter 1

It was the first day of junior year, and there was nothing I wanted more than to pull the covers over my head and sleep away the day. But the unrelenting ‘beeping’ of my alarm clock refused to be ignored and made me get up. Groaning, I barely managed to pull my exhausted body from my bed and start the shower so I could get ready. I stepped into the hot water and let it revive my senses. Then it was on to hair, some make-up, and an outfit; the usual routine every girl has.

As I swung my creaky closet doors open, an array of clothes came into view. I studied what consisted of my wardrobe for a while trying to decide what I was in the mood to wear today. The colors stared back at me – black, blue, red, green and a rainbow of others. After an eternity of trying on different shirts I finally decided on a pair of denim blue shorts, black flip flops, and a plain green off the shoulders shirt. As I stood in front of the mirror checking once more if this was really the outfit I wanted, I stared at the girl in the mirror.

She had a well-proportioned 5’6" frame and a slim body, with long straight blonde hair that framed large round eyes. Red and brown highlights had the effect of emphasizing the brilliant emerald color of those eyes, and played against her caramel skin as it cascaded around her shoulders and down her back.

My parents had always told me I was beautiful, or as my mom would say, ‘a beautiful green eyed vixen,’ but I’d never thought that I was anything too special. I could name a hundred other girls who were drop dead gorgeous. I didn’t think I was the best, but I didn’t think of myself as ugly either. After all, what parent doesn’t tell their child they are beautiful?

As I pondered thoughts of beauty, the clock flipped to 7:15 AM. Crap. I’m going to be late. And on the first day of school too. I quickly grabbed my binder and purse and dashed out to my car while yelling good-byes to my father and brother. If I didn’t like the way I looked it was too bad, and besides, I didn’t really care what other people thought about me anyway.

The sun shone brightly as I ran outside and a few puffy white clouds scattered the sky, reminding me that summer was over now, and it would be fall before I knew it.

As I drove to school obeying the speed limit of 45 MPH and being careful not to go over, I dialed my best friend Kate’s number, noticing she had already called me once.

Alex! Kate’s voice echoed through my ear as I cringed from the loudness and repeated the favor.

Kate! I screamed back.

Kate and I have been best friends ever since the seventh grade. She knows all about me and my family just as I know everything about her and hers. She is about an inch shorter than me, with long, dark brown, naturally wavy hair that comes to the middle of her back, and a curvy slim body that mirrored my own. After a couple of seconds of laughter, the questions came flying.

Where are you? You’re going to be late on the first day of school! She shrilled on the other end of the line. Listen lady, if you’re not here in one minute I have to go. I can’t be late, my parents will crucify me!

Kate’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, had always been more along the lines of the strict type. Rules like ‘don’t be out past 12:30 PM curfew’, or ‘make sure you’re home by 5:00 PM for dinner’, were the typical forte at the Jacksons. Other than that though, her parents were pretty cool. Strict, yes, but I viewed them as my second family so they never really bothered me. Plus, they make the best dinners I’ve ever had, and seeing as my family doesn’t cook except on holidays, I relished the dinners I had at their house.

Growing up our family dinners consisted of ‘whatever you can find’; rules were in place, but were breakable and lax. As long as my parents know where I am, and when I’ll be home, they don’t have a problem. They expected what every other parent does, get good grades, be safe, etcetera. Etcetera. Basically though, as long as my brother and I are safe we can do as we please, within reason of course.

I’ll probably be late so you can head in without me if you want, but I’ll see you in math class, k.

Even though walking by myself was not something I extremely enjoyed, it didn’t bother me that much and I didn’t want Kate to get in trouble and not be able to hang out later.

Ok I’ll see you then! Kate cheered until all I heard was the sound of a dial tone.

Mostly I was good at being invisible to others, walking fast to class, and saying hi to the friends I recognized in the hallways. As I parked my boat of an SUV in parking spot number 151 that was assigned as mine for the year, I glanced around to see if anyone else I knew was making a mad dash for the school doors to avoid being late. As far as I could tell I was around the only one, except for the smokers who gathered by the far end of the parking lot and who needed a morning dose of Nicotine before class.

I gathered my things and began speed walking inside. I still had a few minutes left. At least I could make an attempt at not being late to my first class of the day, which happened to be English; one of my best subjects. I have always been good at English, History, and Science; however, math is another story. My dad, a software engineer for a major company in Colorado called Deftech, obviously failed to pass his genius mathematician skills onto me. So getting a ‘C’ in math is a miracle.

As I briskly walked down the blue carpeted hallway, avoiding bumping into other students who were desperately trying to locate their classrooms, a familiar voice boomed from behind me.

Well, well, well, what do we have here?

I knew that voice. The voice of someone who has been one of Kate’s and my best guy friends since freshman year. He also happens to be one of my brother’s friends even though he is my age, and therefore, two years younger than my brother. I slowly turned and put my hands on my hips as a smile formed on my face.

Well, well, well, if it isn’t Trey Banoff, I retorted.

A crooked grin was plastered on his face and before I knew it I was engulfed in a gigantic bear hug.

Trey…can’t…breath, I managed to squeak out. He just laughed and let me go.

Immediately I gasped and air reentered my lungs. Now I was able to get a closer look at him, and yep, he was the same Trey I knew from last year and the year before.

Trey was one of our school’s hockey players and was naturally well-built with broad shoulders in a six foot frame. His shaggy dirty-blonde hair was gelled into a mini Mohawk, and with puppy dog brown eyes, and that lopsided grin of his, he was what other girls at school called ‘eye-candy’. However, as impossible as it is not to notice how boyishly cute and handsome he was, he and I saw each other as friends only.

After walking and catching up with each other’s summer events, I realized Trey had English with me, and to my relief, the bell rang just as we walked into class. Ms. Nethers, our English teacher, eyed us disapprovingly as we each took an empty seat near the back of the room by one another. Her short curly brown hair and her dress that resembled more of a quilt than a dress made her look more ancient then she was.

She tipped her glasses down from her eyes.

As I was saying, tardys can be made up before or after school, and unexcused absences will not be tolerated.

I tuned out Ms. Nether’s lecture and groaned inwardly. Great, I thought, only 230 more days to go. I cringed inwardly at the thought of being in Ms. Nether’s class for 230 more days, but at least Trey had this class with me so I had someone to talk to.

English, Science, and Social Studies went by in a hazy blur, and after hearing the rules and expectations from every teacher I was ready to go home, but alas I had one class left. Math. At least Kate had that class with me so it wouldn’t be extremely boring.

I walked in to Mr. Kritch’s math class and found an empty seat on the left side of the room a couple rows from the back. Pictures of ‘Math is fun’, and ‘Success is through math’ hung all around the walls, and it made me wonder how anyone could think math is a fun and exciting thing to learn.

As I turned to look at the students now pouring into the classroom I noticed Kate and Jesse standing by the doorway talking and giggling. Jesse is Kate’s boyfriend, it’s been that way on and off ever since they met freshman year. Kate immediately had a crush on the 6’ brown haired, green eyed, jock and before she knew it, they were dating.

I had to admit they were an adorable couple, Jesse walked her to almost every class, and they would laugh, flirt, and dote on each other. But, they were also quite dysfunctional. They were constantly breaking up and then making up, and they would argue and bicker one minute and the next be apologizing and kissing. As perplexing as their relationship was to me, Kate had explained that that is what ‘young love’ is, and as long as they were happy I went along with it. As Jesse kissed Kate’s cheek and sauntered off down the hallway Kate walked to the open seat next to me and sat down.

So have you met Mr. Kritch yet? Kate implored as a distraught looking man entered the room carting a stack of papers.

My name is Mr. Kritch I am your math teacher. I don’t accept late work, and as you can see I am a new teacher at this school and I have my hands very full right now, so if it’s not a life or death matter, don’t ask.

The man looked like he could have a heart attack any second, and I tried to wrack my brain and remember CPR in case he did have one. As he took a couple of breaths to calm himself down the class just stared at the old man. Obviously they were in as much shock as I was.

Mr. Kritch brushed off the stares and began with a lecture.

As I looked over at Kate with a raised eyebrow, she chuckled at my expression and whispered, Well at least math class won’t be boring.

I keep waiting for him to have an aneurism or a heart attack. I giggled back before we were silenced by the frustrated glare Mr. Kritch sent us.

The rest of math class flew by relatively quickly, and before I knew it Kate and I were walking out the school’s double doors to our cars.

As we weaved our way through the parking lot a familiar crowd of girls came into view. Beth Ryder and her posse advanced affably towards Kate who smiled and gestured in return. Beth and the four girls that followed her were what consisted of the popular girls at school, Kate had managed to befriend them and said they weren’t as bad as they seemed, while I begged to differ.

Ever since Trey had refused to go out with Beth, she blamed me. Somehow it never occurred to her that stalking someone is not attractive, and instead, thought I had somehow dissuaded Trey from letting them go out. Needless to say she harbored much resentment towards me, and whenever an opportunity presented itself, she sought to destroy my reputation.

As she sauntered towards Kate and gave me the stink eye, I had to be thankful for the fact that Beth was somewhat smart. She never bad-mouthed me to my face, but only glared. She knew that I was not someone who should be provoked, so I was relieved I would not have to endure her; I kept walking to my car and told Kate I would call her later.

I have never been the type of girl who has gone out looking for a fight, but if the chance ever came, I know I wouldn’t be the one to back down. I considered myself more of a peacekeeper. My father always tells me I’m ‘hard core’ but then others tell me I’m quiet, and fun to be around. I’m guessing that means I’m somewhere in between.

My thoughts began to dissipate as I pulled in the driveway and gathered my belongings to go inside; noticing that Trey’s rusty, old, faded blue Ford was halfway on the curb outside our house.

We had recently moved, due to the pending divorce, to a farm house on the outskirts of town. It resembled more of a two story Victorian era home I thought, with huge white pillars that surrounded the wraparound porch and a barn painted the same identical eggshell white as the house that sat farther back to the right, complete with four horse stalls and a tack room. Dad said it had ‘real estate potential’ when we bought it.

I walked up the white wooden steps and opened the door to reveal my brother Derek and Trey in the living room den shouting and cursing one another as they battled in the PS4 game, Call of Duty. I smiled at just how into the game they were before heading upstairs to get rid of my things.

Derek and I didn’t look much alike at all; he took more after Mom with her dark brown hair while I took after Dad. Even with the stresses of the divorce, I had to admit I liked the new house. The stairs are in front of the doorway as you walk in, with the living room den to the right and a spacious wraparound kitchen with stainless steel appliances to the left. Dad’s office is located behind the stairs with a mini library in it, while upstairs, there are three bedrooms; the master is the farthest to the left, then comes my brother’s room, and farthest to the right is my room.

Mom decided to live in downtown Denver in a huge loft. Derek and I each had a room there too so we were free to stay there whenever we pleased. My parents wanted my brother and I to not be affected by their divorce, so they told each of us that we could stay with whomever, whenever we wanted. As comforting as that is, it still didn’t fix the ‘living’ situation. So, I decided that I would keep my things half at my mom’s and half at my dad’s. This way for a week I could live somewhere and the next I could live somewhere else; it made it easier than choosing which parent to subsequently live with.

Derek on the other hand is leaving for the Marines in two months, on October 10th, so until that time he is trying to balance the amount of time he has left between my parents, his girlfriend, and his friends.

After dropping my stuff and bouncing back down the stairs into the kitchen, I grabbed a handful of Oreos and a glass of milk and joined the boys in the den. Just as I was sitting down on the chair, Derek immediately jumped up with his hands in the air and shouted.

I won! I finally killed you! I started laughing at just how seriously they took the game, while Trey just scowled at Derek and me.

Defeated Trey looked at Derek and promised his revenge.

Alright so you won this round, but next time victory will be mine.

Derek just smiled as he sat down and I rolled my eyes as I dunked a cookie in the milk and ate it. Boys are so strange, I thought.

After a while of all of us just hanging out in the den watching T.V., Trey said he had to leave before his mom had a huge fit for him not being home, and Derek went out to dinner with his girlfriend Jessica, so I was left to my own devices on entertaining myself. I decided I would read more of my book, Breaking Dawn, by Stephanie Meyer. I had read the other three books by her, and I was finally on the last one with only a hundred or so pages left. I liked the idea that Bella and Edward could be together, even though they were vastly different. I laughed inwardly. Well of course they’re different, he is a vampire and she is a human. Besides, I was already this far into reading it, I might as well finish the series. I smiled as I grabbed the thick hardcover book on