The Faithful: The Faithful, #1

By Maya James

In the suburbs of small town New Jersey, a chain of events set in motion years before is about to come to a head. Hidden in plain sight amongst humans, disgraced members of a mythical race called the Faithful live their lives in penance, hoping to gain favor by completing their assigned tasks.

Samael, once an exalted warrior among the Faithful, is only months away from completing his punishment and he is ready to return to his place up above. He is given one simpe task: bring death to the human man named Lee that he has watched over for years. Yet when the time comes, Lee's daughter Abby stumbles into his path and suddenly his ticket to salvation is put on hold.

Abby doesn't know why she is so drawn to Sam, but suddenly everything about her smoldering neighbor sets her blood on fire. As much as she fights, she cannot stay away, and soon she understands exactly what it means to belong to a fallen angel.

As Abby is drawn into his world, Sam must make the choice to follow through with his duty - or risk it all for the one human who stands in his way.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kirkbride
• Release date: Sep 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386702481

Book preview

MAYA JAMES

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

The Faithful Part 1

Copyright © 2017 by Maya James

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

In the suburbs of small town New Jersey, a chain of events set in motion years before is about to come to a head. Hidden in plain sight amongst humans, disgraced members of a mythical race called the Faithful live their lives in penance, hoping to gain favor by completing their assigned tasks.

Samael, once an exalted warrior among the Faithful, is only months away from completing his punishment and he is ready to return to his place up above. He is given one simple task: bring death to the human man named Lee that he has watched over for years. Yet when the time comes, Lee's daughter Abby stumbles into his path and suddenly his ticket to salvation is put on hold.

Abby doesn't know why she is so drawn to Sam, but suddenly everything about her sexy neighbor sets her blood on fire. As much as she fights, she cannot stay away, and soon she understands exactly what it means to belong to a fallen angel.

As Abby is drawn into his world, Sam must make the choice to follow through with his duty—or risk it all for the one human who stands in his way.

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.  And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe. So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.

— Revelation 14:14-20

PROLOGUE

THE NURSE WRAPPED THE squirming bundle in soft pink flannel before placing her in his waiting arms. Lee wondered if nurses always swaddled babies up that way, or if they did it to make it easier for a trembling old fool to hold his daughter. She barely filled his arms, so he held her that much tighter to make sure she would not drop her.  Not that he could fathom such a thing.  As he returned her curious newborn stare with a sleepy grin of his own, he knew one thing for certain- he would give his own life before he let any harm come to her.

A cool wisp of breeze tickled the back of his neck, and he shivered as a rash of goose bumps climbed up his arms.  Had he heard a voice?

A father’s joy...

His eyes scanned the sterile white hospital room. His wife remained undisturbed in a peaceful post-birth slumber, and the door to the room was closed.  There were no open windows in the hospital, nor a vent above his head.  He let out the breath of air he had sucked into his lungs and shook his head with a chuckle to himself.  Must have been imagining things.

Abigail.  He should call her Abigail.

He heard it again, a murmur that rippled through the air, the remnants of an ethereal conversation he should not have been privy to, yet he was fairly sure the exchange was meant for his ears. As he rolled his eyes upward and searched the shadows of the dimmed room, he knew he would not find the source of the whisper. A memory from his past surfaced and he relaxed a bit. They never meant any harm.

The knowledge was both strange and comforting. It had been a long time since they paid him any mind.

The baby began to squirm in his arms. Maybe she sensed them lurking? He tucked his daughter’s blanket more securely around her bottom, patting the infant in a rhythmic motion as he soothed her.

So it appeared his new daughter was special to them as well.

He sat down on the edge of his wife’s hospital bed and reached out to gently shake her shoulder. Dina rolled toward him, her face creased with a contented smile.

Honey, I think we have a name, he said.

Oh, yeah? What is it? Dina replied.

It’ll be...Abigail.  We can call her Abby.

Dina brushed the baby’s cheek with her fingertips and nodded.

It was the perfect name.

CHAPTER 1

Sam

SHE’S UNPACKING HER truck all by herself. Lee’s too weak to help her.

Sam continued to stare at the television screen above the workbench, his feet crossed and propped up on the wooden crate coffee table. The football game was near finished, but he could not recall which teams were playing or what the score was. Daren, who should be sitting at his side, was instead perched by the opened garage door. The towheaded archangel wiped his oil-stained hands on a rag and stared across the yard, seeming nonplussed that the neighbors might see him spying on them.

Stop staring. Humans consider it stalking, Sam replied. He finished off the beer he had been nursing and continued staring at the game, hoping his companion would drop the subject.

Yes, he was fully aware Abby Mansfield was home from college. How could he not know it? The moment she pulled up in her truck his skin tightened, his true nature surging up beneath the shielded exterior he was forced to assume. Around most humans it was not particularly painful to shield himself, and after all he was quite accustomed to lying low. Yet from the second she arrived he could hear her clearly inside his head, as if she screamed even the most menial of her human thoughts to the heavens. Her worry over her father’s health echoed so loudly in his skull that he could have sworn she was standing next to him. Sam shook his head to chase the connection away, something he had been trying to do all afternoon without success.

Abby was a different creature entirely. With her, he had always