The Avenging Angel

By Frank Tropea

This book is the sequel to my first occult thriller, GO ASK THE DEAD. In THE AVENGING ANGEL the central protagonist, Amanda Manning, despite a wonderful marriage and children, resumes an obsessive affair with the very handsome ghost William, despite his very bad character. Her obsession destroys her marriage an

• Language: English
• Publisher: Frank Tropea
• Release date: Sep 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781649992727

Book preview

THE AVENGING ANGEL

FRANK TROPEA

Copyright © 2020 by Frank Tropea.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any mean, electronic or mechanical, inculding photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrievel system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

978-1-64999-271-0 The Avenging Angel Paperback

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Chapter 1

Coming home to the mansion her great-aunt Lavinia had left her, Cholding her precious baby girl in her arms, Craig smiling as he walked behind her – now is a most wonderful time for her, considering how troubled her life was in the past. The baby girl she cradled in her arms was devastatingly beautiful, with pale gold ringlets for her hair and a pair of wide, long-fringed, ultra-blue eyes.

Amanda was a little apprehensive about what she noted was a decided resemblance to her mother, Aurelia, who had been murdered. But she was just two months old and had been christened at Saint Mark’s, an Episcopalian Church she and Craig joined shortly after they married again, the church where they had Craig Junior baptized, too.

Delia, wonderful Delia, had fully come back into her life when she’d had little Craig. She and Craig Weston had remarried soon after the delivery.

Delia had been so happy for her. True, Delia had shuddered a bit at first seeing that little Craig resembled his biological father, the now totally vanished William. But as she got to know the baby, she found the baby boy sweet and good and didn’t ask Amanda any more probing questions about her son’s real paternity.

The little boy was four now and was utterly delighted to have, at last, a very beautiful little sister. But what about resemblances? Though Amanda loved her son completely, every time she looked at him, seeing William stamped so on his handsome little face, she was a bit disheartened, to say the least.

True to his word, when she’d given birth to the baby boy, Craig had fully accepted the infant as his own and now father and son really seemed to love each other and were fully bonded. And, also, true to his word, when some thoughtless person was a bit puzzled as to the total absence of resemblance to his so-called father, Craig just said the baby boy took after a great-grandfather, a Civil War Confederate hero of his from a long time ago.

Fortunately for Amanda, her daughter got her light blonde hair and dark blue eyes. The baby had been christened with the lovely name Angelique Rose. The baby’s resemblance to Aurelia Mannon did not pose any problem at all. Most of their present friends and associates had never seen Aurelia and Amanda did not anticipate any questions about that matter.

Still, her new baby’s resemblance to the late, nymphomaniacal Aurelia caused some unsettled trepidation on her part. Old Delia was right back to working for and with Amanda now and had babysat young Craig for their baptism of the baby. The child seemed to love Delia and she knew Delia, whatever her disquietude about the boy’s resemblance to William, loved her sweet little son as her own. Everyone who saw and got to know her young son did.

He was already so incredibly handsome with his black, black hair and blue, blue eyes. Sometimes when she looked at him she remembered her past relationship to William and her heart would ache. The ghost William had always taken her to heights of erotic ecstasy that her husband Craig never seemed to, now or ever.

But William and his evil Confederate ghost friends had made her life an abysmal nightmare and Craig had helped her defeat and rout them all the way to hell itself. She loved her brilliant lawyer-husband Craig. He was so wonderful to her and her young son and their new baby daughter and if their intimate life wasn’t that exciting for her, then, that was life.

For in her heart, she did love Craig and knew very well how to hide her disappointment at his blasé love-making. He was such a good husband and a great father to her two children, she counted her blessings and considered herself a lucky woman, indeed. Sometimes, in her most secret heart, while looking at her darling young son she did inevitably think about William.

She wondered how he and his Confederate ghost friends found hell itself now. They, at the very least, must be very unhappy and miserable there and she thought vengefully they all deserved to be.

From what Delia told her, hell itself was worse, far worse than any Nazi concentration camp ever devised by Hitler, Himmler or their sadistic SS could have ever been. And the flames of hell burned but did not consume and while really suffering in that ghastly place, no soul was given the luxury of dying and ending their eternal torment.

Well, William and his cohorts deserved it and if they did not deserve it, not any of the magical powers she possessed or might ever possess could have so effectively banished William and company there. For God was not only a loving God but a just one, too.

Well, sometimes late at night or waking up early besides the still sleeping Craig she would think to herself how William was so sly and crafty he could and inevitably would find his way out of it even if he had to make a deal with the devil himself. That she didn’t doubt at all for a moment.

When she thought that disquieting thought she hugged Craig’s sleeping form to her and shuddered all over, kissing him because his love was her protection and she was so grateful for it.

Just then, hearing her and Craig’s footsteps, Delia came out in her stylish maid’s outfit leading young Craig by the hand. For a moment, she stopped short looking at the beaming little boy’s face – already he was so devastatingly handsome. Just like William!

She quickly handed little Angelique Rose to her husband and the little boy screamed at the top of his lungs in his sweet little boy’s voice, Mommy, Mommy, Daddy, Daddy! and ran to her, to both his parents as he understood it to be.

Amanda swiftly bent down and embraced her little son, sweeping him up in a shower of kisses!

Oh, baby, she said to him, I’ve missed you so, so much in those four hours at the church. Now give me a hundred kisses!

The little boy began delightedly kissing her face and lips all over. It was a little game the two of them had developed when he was only a little over two and they still played it together. Then Craig Senior came up and gave the baby to Delia’s waiting, soft maternal arms and then enfolded both mother and son in his strong embrace and said, Well, where are my kisses, too, little one ?

And little Craig yelled loudly, Daddy! and began slobbering kisses on his supposed father. Both he and Craig Senior had bonded early and well and the little boy was so excited to be taken on a fishing trip with his father next weekend, even though Amanda had thought her son too young for that. Still, she was really pleased to see father and son bonded so well.

And little Craigie was so smart. He already knew his numbers and alphabet and could make out certain simple words in the children’s books of nursery rhymes and fairy tales she’d bought him.

"And how did young Craig behave with you when we were gone, Delia?

Was he good and well-behaved?"

Delia looked at little Craig and said with a troubled expression on her face,

"Why, the little one was as good as gold. Why, he’s my little angel and you 3

know I loves him a mighty lot.

But, she whispered to the parents so the little boy would not hear her,

"there is just a little something I needs to tell to you. It concerns me a lot.

When both of your babies are asleep."

Amanda looked worried and said, Well, young man, your little sister was as good as gold, too, at the church, when Cardinal Newman threw some baptismal water on her forehead. She only made a funny little face and did not cry out at all.

Then, to her son, she said, "Well, it’s time for your nap with your sister –

you in your bed and her in her little cradle.

I’ll read you your fairy tale as you go to sleep. All right?

Yes, Mommy, but can I hold the baby a little? I promise I won’t drop her.

I know you won’t because I, too, will be holding the baby while you hold her.

So, the little boy held his little sister while Amanda still held the baby.

He said, I’m so glad I have a little sister now. She’s so pretty, Mommy, and he kissed the baby who only looked up and gurgled and smiled at him.

I’m glad you are not disappointed that it’s not a baby brother for you to play baseball and sports with later. You are always going to be little Angelique’s big brother and always protect her from harm and bad people, OK?

Oh, I will, Mommy – I will – I promise you. I’ll love her and protect her always.

OK, darling, now let’s you go up to your bedroom for a nap and little Angelique in her cradle. . .

Craig Senior took the baby from her arms to deposit her gently in her cradle in her pastel little room and Amanda led Craigie upstairs to his bedroom.

Amanda was soon reading his favorite fairy tale, The Sleeping Beauty, to him and Craigie fell fast asleep, smiling in his dreams.

Before he drifted off on his nap, he said to his mother, I think baby Angelique is as pretty as a princess.

Moved, she said to him, Yes, she is, and, at this, he serenely drifted off to sleep. After both Craig Junior and the baby were fast asleep napping, Amanda went into the parlor of the mansion. Delia and Craig Senior soon joined her. He sat in the big chair he favored across from her. Delia sat on the little couch between them.

Amanda motioned to Delia and said, Alright, Delia, what is it about my son?

Delia inhaled briefly and deeply and said, I don’t mean to trouble you, Amanda and Craig, but your son is very -ah – different.

What do you mean, Delia? asked Amanda, suddenly afraid to learn whatever truth it was about her son that Delia knew.

That little boy can see ghosts like you can. He sees them and talks to them, too. And he’s not afraid of them at all.

Besides that, when I had told him to pick up a little ball he’d thrown in the den and he said, Watch, Aunty Delia."

"And that little blue ball floated up into the air and landed soft at my feet

– and I about fainted dead away!"

Look, whatever powers this boy has, coming from you and William, he must be taught not to use them in front of people or them will never let him alone to be what he is – an innocent little child.

He must be taught not to even show his powers or the world will never let him alone. He’ll be a magical little freak to them!

Oh my God, Delia – you’re right! I suspected it a little after he was born, but what could I do? I love him! I think he’s inherited a whole ton of witch powers from me and who knows what kind of powers he’s inherited from his ghost-father, William!

If he should ever turn bad, what could he do to the world?

Craig rose up to his full height and went to Amanda, touching her hands in reassurance.

Amanda, Amanda, our little son will not turn out bad, no matter who is real father is! Craig said calmly and certainly.

He’s a warm, very loving little boy who has a ton of natural charm. If he were going to be bad we would have seen a streak of it by this time.

Oh, he is stubborn and willful when he doesn’t get his way, but bad – I don’t think ever.

And we both love him very much, don’t we? We will teach lovingly but firmly not to use or show his powers to anyone else other than us. We will, we will!

Yes, Honey, we will. And not just for his sake but our own, too. We don’t want to be stigmatized as a freak family, do we?

Delia then came over and kissed Amanda like she was her natural daughter, as she was, in a way.

And so the three of them hugged and kissed and vowed to teach and protect the little boy all three of them loved so very much.

Chapter 2

Later that very night Craig made love to her in his usual way. While she experienced some climatic pleasure from him, it wasn’t the scorching fireworks and indescribable ecstasy she’d experienced with William. But, this was the man who still madly loved her and had come to rescue her from a horrible situation she was in not that long ago.

In her own quiet way, she did love Craig and she owed him big-time. She owed him that much, at least. That it wasn’t all bliss and wanton ecstasy she’d experienced with William, the ghostly demon-lover who led her to such heights and sheer ecstasy, was her present lot in life.

Craig was so handsome for a mortal man, so sweet and so, so good. He was so intelligent and gifted, too. He was a great, highly skilled lawyer, too, and had come to head the law department he had in Richmond where his very name was renowned for upright morality, probity and compassion for his clients, many of whom he helped pro bono as they were often unable to pay his fees.

He felt compassion for the underclass and life’s unfortunate ones who, through stupidity or sheer ineptitude, but not deliberate malice, had run afoul of the law. He would never defend a cruel and evil person