An Angel Lost Episode Three: An Angel Lost, #3

By Odette C. Bell

The Brotherhood has attacked – the first volley of the war for Saint Helios.
The Army will respond with deadly power. They've sent Michael, the top soldier in their Arc Program, to track Misa down. If she feeds and fails to share her light, he'll have her. Even if she does share, it'll still be impossible to hide.
For Misa starts changing. Slowly the body she once knew slips away from her to be replaced with something from legend.
If there's one person who can save her, it's Farley. But to a man whose hated Arcs his whole life, saving her will prove too hard to bear.

….

An Angel Lost follows a forbidden angel and a brooding detective fighting through a dark city for answers. If you love your urban fantasies with grit, punch, and a smattering of romance, grab An Angel Lost Episode Three today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Dec 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386403654

Book preview

1

Farley Jones

I’m dragged away.

I don’t even have the luxury of screaming. One of the Majes holding me punches me hard across the jaw until I hear the unmistakable crack of splintering bone. As my head falls between my shoulders, stars explode through my vision.

I catch sight of the stairwell as I’m pulled down it. Every jolt slams hard into my body.

Things become blurry until the next thing I know I’m being hauled up and strapped to a chair. It’s metal, and its legs grate against a stone floor.

There’s the sound of footfall, the harsh, sharp clicking of heels.

Someone pauses in front of me. That Majes struck me with its full force, and I’m only just holding onto consciousness. I manage to wink one blood-covered eye open.

There’s a woman staring down at me, and from her blond hair to her sharp, sharp blue eyes, she has an eerie resemblance to Sapphire. She crosses her arms in front of her chest, never blinking as she locks her cold, deadened gaze on me. I’d rather be up there questioning that bitch than down here. But as I’m one of the few who can take you through the regression process, so be it. But know this, I’m going to take my frustrations out on your mind. By the time I’m done with you, you are going to be nothing but a vegetable. She shoves in fast, gripping my shoulder as she hisses into my ear.

I don’t bother leaning away from her. I stare into her cold eyes.

Now. Cast your mind back to eight years ago. You witnessed something we are all very interested in.

If you think I’m gonna play along, get fucked, I spit.

She takes a moment to chuckle. It’s cold and dark, reminding me of a black, pitiless night. How I managed to get manipulated by her sister without knowing it, I don’t know. But that just brings my mind back to the one horror it can’t afford to go to now. Misa. When I think about what Janine is doing to her….

The Majes jerks back, presses a hand against her lips, and rubs her finger down her chin. That’s it, little human. Let out all that raw emotion. It will make it so much easier to control you through the regression process.

I don’t bother to snap that there’s no way I’m going to allow her to regress me. I tip my head back and stare coldly into her eyes.

She stares back. You may think you have a strong mind, little detective, but you’ve failed to appreciate that I was trained by the best – the Army.

Though I’m telling myself not to react, that’s the second time someone’s mentioned this – Army trained Majes. Majes who were created in the crossbreeding program.

You hear those kind of bullshit conspiracy theories on the Net, but….

She ticks her head to the side again. It’s such a quick move, I’m surprised her neck doesn’t crack. You’re overwhelmingly confused by what I am, aren’t you? I can sense that. Hell, she takes a step forward, picking up the back of her heel and tapping it rhythmically against the stone floor, we can pretty much read minds. So I know what’s going through yours. You’re scared. But not necessarily for yourself – for your partner. And you’re right to be scared – Janine is going to kill her. Slowly. After she’s torn through that little bitch’s mind. You, on the other hand – I’m going to keep you alive and squeeze out every last fact I can. But first, do you know what I am?

Blood continues to drip down the side of my face from the massive gash I got when those Angelus punched me.

It stings my eyes, but I still keep them open as I stare through them.

Though curiosity blazes through me, I won’t let it get the better of me. I just stare on.

She laughs again. There’s such a murderous, brutal edge to it that it reminds me of some of the worst serial killers I’ve dealt with. People who can’t really be said to have minds anymore. What they have instead is the twisted remnants of their instinct and their broken worldview. A series of complicated immoral forces that will allow them to do whatever they can as long as it means they can take their frustrations out on other people.

She keeps watching me, eventually spreading her lips wide. You don’t need to say anything – that’s the beauty of what I am. We’re the perfect interrogators. With her arms still crossed in front of her chest, she leans down and brings her face close to mine. You don’t need to speak. You don’t even need to scream. On the word scream, a blast of air hits my cheek. All you need to do is feel. And I will pick it up. She slaps her chest. And once I’ve got it, she brings her hand up and clenches it into a fist, I will twist that emotion, feed on it, and use it against you. Now, you can do this the easy way, she purrs, or the hard way. Cast your mind back to the murder you witnessed eight years ago. Her voice changes. So do her eyes. All Angelus possess a different set of irises. One that resembles human irises, and one they primarily use when they’re feeding. Necros and Gills have blue-black pupils. Arcs, on the other hand, have luminescent eyes. Majes are somewhere in between. As I stare unavoidably into this woman’s face, I watch her eyes open, the blue deepening to the color of a storm-filled sky struck by lightning. Remember that day, Farley Jones. The weather, the time, the smells, the sensations—

My mind starts to… elongate. It’s like somebody’s shoved it on a kneading board and they’re rolling it out with a pin.

Just before I can start to lose awareness of where I am, I shake my head. I clench my teeth. What are you? Some kind of experiment? I manage.

Though asking her is contravening my law about not getting involved, it’s the only way I can stop her from starting this regression – or at least delaying it.

She smiles, the move sinking into her lips as she presses them hard into her cheeks. I wouldn’t call me an experiment.

Then what exactly would you call you?

She leans down, locking a hand on my shoulder as she brings her face close to me. Her blond, loose hair slices around her lips as she stiffens them until they’re two white whips. Evolution.

A thrill of fear chases up my back and pounds hard into my skull.

I watch her nostrils flare as she smells it, see her eyes widen, her irises flecking with color as her Angelus side starts to feed on me.

There’s nowhere I can go. I’m tied to the goddamn chair, and it’s not exactly as if I can push away. But I recede, every muscle contracting and pulling away from her as the primal side of my human brain screams at me to run.

But there’s nowhere to run, Farley Jones. She keeps staring into my eyes, and with every passing second, more flecks of color infiltrate her irises until they almost glow. I’m not going to stand here and tell you my life history. I have no intention of bothering to explain to you just how far the humans went to eliminate the threat of the Angelus. It won’t matter, you see – because you’re going to die. Slowly and shamefully. Her gaze ticks down my body, lingers on my chest, and jerks back to my eyes. I’m going to turn you into a vegetable, wringing out every last memory until you’re nothing more than an empty husk of a human. Then I’m going to throw your body onto the streets of your precious city so that the few who still care about you can cry over your remains. Now, won’t that be fun? She purrs.

I force my muscles to relax. No more fear. No more desperation at the fact I’m in this Majes’ clutches and that there’s nowhere I can go. I slowly tilt my head to the side until I’m staring right into her eyes. I face her with the defiance of a man who doesn’t care that he’s about to die. She may think this will be a shameful death, but if I keep my head up high, it will be an honorable end.

I take a breath and force my white lips open. Do your worst.

She leans even closer until her hair brushes up against my stubble-lined cheek. With pleasure.

2

Misa Fairchild

I understand now. The one fact I’ve been running from my entire life. The one fact that has been hammering on my door for the past two weeks, never relenting, never stopping.

This world will not change.

As long as we are in it – as long as humans and Angelus are forced to live together – these wars will continue.

And sins?

The sins will flow in.

I stand there, head directed at the ground, messy hair a fan in front of my face.

Janine has her head tilted to the side, her arms crossed in front of her middle as she obviously listens for any sign that Farley is putting up a fight.

He isn’t. He’s been dragged to the basement of the building, and now some Majes is threatening him.

This is where I should blast through Janine, rip her to shreds and go and save Farley.

… But… I’m locked on the spot, swirling desperate thoughts tumbling through me. Because even if I manage to save Farley this time, what about next time?

The Brotherhood aren’t going to stop—

Janine rounds on me, shoving me backward. It’s a well-timed move, and as she pushes into me, she stretches one of her long legs to the side, hooks it under the metal chair, and drags it forward.

I fall into the chair with an echoing bang that ricochets around the room like a bullet against metal.

My hair sways and dashes around my