An Angel's Advent: The Kalista Chronicles, #4

By Jenn A. Morales

The 4th book in the Kalista Chronicles!

Now we wait…

Kalista is unconscious. No one knows if the Ritual worked or not. The days stretch on leaving Beryx and her family wondering when she will wake up and how she will be when she does.
With no prophecy to tell them, and no Mentakinetic on their side willing to use their power to see into her mind, they try to decipher her incoherent babbling and wait for the day that she wakes from her coma, praying that it will all make sense then.
Beryx refuses to give up on the love of his life. He remains at her side, fighting for her and her sanity, safety, and happiness even if that means putting himself at risk. Because she is the love he's waited a lifetime for.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jenn A. Morales
• Release date: Dec 17, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223993124

Jenn A. Morales

Jenn A. Morales is an Artist, lifetime fantasy reader, and Author of three books with more to come in her ever-expanding Urban Fantasy Saga: The Born Angel Universe For more information about the Author and the book series, including detailed character bios that may contain spoilers, head to the official website:

Book preview

Chapter One

~ Beryx ~

I never imagined that this was how Lashdanôke would end. Violet fire lapped at the portal, and we needed to close it soon, but I wouldn’t do it yet. Not until Kalista was through. The flames spread so fast and were quickly burning everything to ash. We’d barely made it through before they lapped at the gate.

She’ll make it out. Won’t she? Anna, her mother asked from beside me as she pushed her wavy brunette tresses over her shoulders. Fear permeated her aura, and the scent of it was like rot and decay to my nostrils. I took her hand and gently squeezed.

She will, I said, not giving her any more details. The Kalista I met in the past hadn’t remembered anything from this time in her life. She was just as lost as we were, and she asked me not to tell her parents about her future life. There was too much that they would try to change, which would only speed things up, or make things worse.

As it was, I was imprisoned for just over two thousand years, and she freed me seventeen years ago. Maker, had it been so short? It felt so much longer without her, and I fought every day to get through the thick-headed, narrow-minded idiocy that got her imprisoned in the first place.

It was the same reason she went to that Fœmoræ for information. Had she gotten the truth from someone else, she would never have gone to him…

‘And you would still be imprisoned,’ the quiet alto voice of Serenity said in the back of my mind. She wasn’t wrong. I’d still be bound in his basement being used by whoever for whatever they wanted. I rolled my shoulders, and Anna squeezed my hand.

I can feel her power flickering, she said, eyes glowing green with the power she’d inherited from her father and grandfather before her. I looked out through the portal and saw her. Kalista flew toward us at speeds even the most skilled of Angels wouldn’t have dared. Her Angelic skin faded from its dark blue back to her human paleness with its light smattering of freckles and her wings flickered.

She’ll make it, I said. I let go of Anna’s hand and stepped toward the portal with my arms out, ready to catch my soulmate. The flames burned hotter, but I refused to move. As she passed through the portal, her wings disappeared completely, and she plummeted toward me. I caught her and pulled her into me. She wrapped one slender arm around my neck and smiled up at me. The smile wasn’t big or bright. It held exhaustion, but there was also peace and contentment in her violet eyes as she laid her head against my chest.

"See, I’m alive, and I still remember you, Kręætœh," she reassured me. I kissed her forehead over the scar and her eyes drifted closed. They were barely shut when her entire body stiffened, she screamed, and grabbed her head.

Lee, what’s wrong? I asked, hugging her closer. My white, healing fire encased her, but it couldn’t find much to heal. It slid directly up to her head. I erected a metaphysical shield around her mind, and she went limp in my arms.

"Was that Mi’ Keætæ?" Lucifer asked as he ran up to us. I looked up at him but had to use all my concentration to keep the shield around her mind as a powerful Fœmoræ bombarded it. I knew that Fœmoræ. She’d visited me during my imprisonment. I took to calling her the Golden B’aktana¹ so that I could mentally fight her.

Lucifer looked into my eyes and his pupils shrank to slits as smoke poured from his nostrils. He felt her too and knew her. I stared at his eyes and part of me wanted to ask how he knew her, but the sane part of me didn’t want to know. If simply feeling her power invoked this reaction, I did not want to know what she had done to him. He turned from me and metaphysically reached out to Beelzebub, who was across the cavernous room.

Radio up to the surface, and have them prep an ambulance, Lucifer instructed, and Beelzebub not only heard, but obeyed without a thought. I set my forehead to Kalista’s and prayed to the Maker that the shield was working and that Golden B’aktana wouldn’t gain a foothold in my soulmate’s mind.

You know it’s already too late, Beastie, her enthralling voice whispered. I shook my head and looked down at Kalista’s face.

I resisted you, and she will too. She will not be your puppet, I thought back. A hand rested on my shoulder, and we were instantly on the blacktop of Lucifer’s driveway.

Do not take her from him. He is shielding her mind, Lucifer instructed the medical team, using his voice and not his power to convince them to obey. They helped me into the Ambulance and placed wireless patches on her skin. The monitors registered all her vital signs as low.

What is he shielding her from? someone asked, but their voice was unfamiliar, and I refused to take my eyes off Kalista. She needed me and, by the Maker’s Might, I would not let her down again. I would sooner die.

That can be arranged, the Golden B’aktana spat, and I shoved her from my mind, locking myself behind the shield around Kalista. I had to be strong. Had to resist. If that Fœmoræ was working with Vretil and her visit to his Haven wasn’t a coincidence, then this was much bigger than any of us realized, and the Triumvirate of Evil was a larger threat than the Guardians of Justice anticipated. If only we could convince either Council of that, then we might be able to kill them quicker.

Chapter Two

~ Kalista ~

The feeling of safety vanished, pain coursed through me, and my heart raced as I forced my eyes open. Lights flew by overhead as my eyelids fluttered. Everything was a blur of color and sound as faces stared down at me. I was being pulled down a hall on a gurney. The walls weren’t green or blue like they’d been in Lashdanôke. They were a pink color that I would have called mauve if I were thinking. I wasn’t thinking about colors, light, people, or where I was. There was too much pain for that.

It surged through my body in waves of torturous agony that started in my skull and flowed through my body into my feet before retreating into my skull again. I tried to roll over and hide my face from the light that amplified the piercing pain in my head, but straps held me down at my shoulders, stomach, and shins. My breath came in short gasps as memories of a time where I was strapped down like this in the asylum surfaced. It was like a distant nightmare that happened to someone else, but my brain said that someone was me.

I couldn’t think of anything past the pain, the panic, and the need to run, to hide, and get back to that safe place. When the pain eased a little, I tried to think. Tried to remember.

Why was I strapped down? Who were these people? Why did it hurt so much? What happened to me?

My eyelids grew heavy as pain returned, but I didn’t want to close them. Something whispered that bad things would happen if I closed my eyes, but they closed without my permission. My head spun, and I forced them open again.

We turned into a new hallway. This one was green. My world tilted one way and back the other as if someone were shaking a snow globe. I whimpered as my stomach lurched, and someone grabbed my hand.

It’ll be okay, Kalista. Stay calm. You’re safe, a kind, deep voice reassured me. I calmed instantly, but the voice said that I shouldn’t. Something tugged at my mind, and said it was wrong to be calm. He’d called me Kalista… Was that my name?

The gurney stopped in a small room with pale blue walls and two doors. Through the pain, I heard a rhythmic, too loud beeping. The lights were too bright. The voices too rushed. Why was everything too much?

They strapped a breathing apparatus over my face, and I tried to focus on one of them. A woman with long chocolate brown curls and bright sapphire eyes jumped to the head of the bed and pushed my hair from my face as best she could.

"It’s okay, Keætæ², sleep. We’ll be here when you wake up," she said. I slowly nodded, trying to remember her name or anything about her. I found nothing. Why couldn’t I remember? I tried to blink, but when my eyes closed, they refused to open.

I dreamed of burning orange eyes in the face of a man with rough coal black skin. He pinned me to a cold, concrete floor, and pain shot up between my legs. His sharp, angular face, angry expression, and raging aura were all familiar, but I couldn’t remember his name.

"You will never escape me, Keætæ. Not until one of us is dead," a deep, gruff voice came from his black lips, and the pain between my legs doubled. I squeezed my eyes closed and screamed as loud as I could, and someone grabbed my hand again.

My eyes flew open, and my chest heaved with panic. I looked up a pale freckled arm to the face of the blue-eyed woman. My breathing evened out and my mind calmed enough for me to see her aura that was full of love but swirled with pity and pain. Tears slid down her regal face as she caressed my cheek with the backs of her fingers.

"Shh, Keætæ. It will be okay, she promised as a doctor with red hair ran into the room. She’s okay, Larock. It was just a nightmare."

My eyes closed again, and I was taken to another dream.

I stood in a city of rough stone, red brick, and dark wood and everything was on fire. It burned with an unnatural, intense violet fire that was so hot I was sweating. A scream of agony and rage rent the air, and I whirled around as girl with dark blue skin and massive black wings sprang up and flew off.

"Dash’ka, Charka Aknobas³!" The same voice from the first dream screamed from under a pile of burning rubble. The girl left him to burn alive. For what he did to me, and probably to others, he deserved nothing less. He wouldn’t survive being burned alive. That same small voice in my head said that he would, and I stared at the violet flames. I had to know how…

The heat of the flames licked my skin as I watched the fire burn in silence for several long minutes. I wanted… No, I needed to know that he was dead. Through the black smoke, several figures appeared on the opposite side of the pyre. They manifested water and doused the flames, but they only burned hotter.

I threw up one arm to shield my eyes as the man beneath the rubble screamed louder. A smile lifted my lips as I stepped back. They would not save him. One of the men, who was particularly muscular, broke through the front line, and charged the flames.

His short brown hair flew out behind him, his shirtless torso rippled with muscles, and his forest green eyes glowed in a familiar tan, ruggedly handsome face. I saw a flash of him standing over me with blood on his hands before my chest tightened, my breathing shallowed, and I returned to the street as darkness seethed around him. My mind screamed at me to run from him, because if he saw me, my blood would stain his hands again. Again? Who was he? Why should I run? This was just a dream. My mind refused to answer my questions.

One of the other men grabbed him around the torso and pulled him back. Smoke plumed as the pile shifted, but the smoke was too dense to see them. I couldn’t hear them over the crackling flames and the screams of the trapped man either. The screams died as I covered my ears and time sped up. Everything shifted in a blur of color that caused my stomach to clench.

When it stopped, the flames that had once been fifteen feet high were mere embers, and the rescuers were gone. I turned in a circle but saw nothing beyond the rubble and felt no one. Where had they gone?

The distant sound of running footsteps echoed like thunder on the cobblestone behind me. I turned away from the rubble as they rounded the corner and looked right at me.

He was here, a soprano voice called, and I counted five people running toward me. I quickly ducked behind a fallen column, and my heart beat against my ribcage as if it were trying to escape. Her voice was so familiar, but I couldn’t remember where I heard it.

Hurry! He’s still alive. I can feel him, she called to the rest. Panic gripped me. Alive? Was she insane? How could anyone survive that?

I took a few deep breaths and peeked around the column. A new group stood by the smouldering pile of ash, and I studied them carefully. Three of the new group were women. Two were men. The woman that spoke was shorter than the others with willowy curves and platinum blonde hair that fell in waves to the small of her back. She had the warmest blue eyes I’d ever seen in a soft, yet defined face.

The other women were both voluptuous and tall. The tallest was a ginger with deep eyes that matched the dark red hue of her voluminous tresses. There was nothing soft about her face, and her aura matched her features, all harsh and unsettling.

The last woman looked younger than the first two. Her long brunette locks were braided down her back and her golden eyes brought flashes of painful memories that caused my entire body to shake. I looked away from her before I could focus on her face. I didn’t want to see more. 

The men quickly removed the larger pieces of rubble, and I recognized the shorter man from earlier. The second man was more than a head taller with silver eyes set in a strong face. His skin was a tan that some called olive, and a thick black salt and pepper beard covered the bottom half of his face. He was a blank slate, just like the ginger woman.

Faster! I can feel him dying, the blonde cried, voice shaking with fear. I wanted to stop them and say, No, he deserves death! but I couldn’t get my lips to move. They hefted a large beam off the pile and a peeling, blackened hand shot out of the ashes. No, he was supposed to die!

The brunette’s golden eyes widened, and she climbed the pile of ash, reaching for his hand. She grabbed the charred palm, and dropped to her knees on the pile, not caring if it were still warm or what sharp pieces could be buried beneath. She closed her eyes and golden energy enveloped the hand, traveled down the arm, and disappeared into the heap. Moments later, the blackened skin fell away, revealing pale baby soft skin that was scarred yet whole.

The pile rustled, and she stood, helping the man… No, he was no man. He was a Fœmoræ, for only a Corrupt Angel could survive such fire. His eyes glowed with the orange fire from my first dream, but his face was crisscrossed with burn scars. He scanned the group and grinned as his eyes fell on the blonde.

His smile curved all the way back to his jaw socket, and I gasped as more memories slammed into me. My legs shook so badly that I latched onto the beam to remain standing and tried to breathe properly. No one could have survived that. Why did they help him? They were accomplices now… Accomplices? How did I know he was supposed to die here?

"From the Ashes, like the phoenix, I rise. Eh’ Dagas has returned," he declared. My eyes went wide, and I couldn’t look away. How did he survive? He should be dead.

His eyes drifted over the landscape as if looking for something. I held my breath as those burning eyes rested on me. I willed myself to wake, but nothing changed. I pinched myself, but still, I didn’t wake up.

This was a dream. It couldn’t be real. His smile widened, and he turned his entire body toward me. My chest tightened, and pressure built behind my eyes.

"Keætæ," his singsong voice whispered. They turned toward me en masse, and my flight instinct kicked into overdrive. I stepped back, tripped over the rubble, and fell. I braced for impact but fell through the ash and continued to fall, like Alice down the rabbit hole as I focused on breathing. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, then opened them to the pale blue room.

Chapter Three

~ Beryx ~

I watched Kalista through the observation window, and my entire being screamed at me to go to her, to slip inside while no one was looking and save her from her nightmares. I needed to comfort her and banish the fear from her eyes.

It had been forty-four days since we left the Hidden City, and for the last three days, she’d been fading in and out of consciousness. She’d only woken up a few minutes ago, but she looked nothing like the confident, determined woman I left in the city. Her violet eyes darted around, the hospital gown swallowed her body, and her skin was so pale. She looked tiny in the hospital bed that was made for someone larger. I fought not to go to her, but all I could do was watch, because I ‘wasn’t family’.

The only reason I was allowed to be in the hall was because Anna, her mother, asked me to guard her room. I agreed without hesitation. The helpless look in Anna’s usually smiling face chilled my bones and would haunt me forever.

Anna knew we were soulmates and how much it bothered me to be separated from Kalista the last two days. I would’ve been inside the room right now were it not for Anna’s older brother and Kalista’s doctor, Larock who quoted hospital rules as if I didn’t know them.

That wasn’t his only reason for stopping me. He could deny it all he wanted, but he was still bitter about something that happened before Kalista was born, and I loathed him for the same reason. I would’ve told him Kalista was my Ki’Taoahmma and that was better than family, but Kalista’s father, the devil himself, Lucifer rounded the corner to quell the fight before it came to blows. He felt my powers shift, and I chose to walk away and drop the subject. That was five minutes ago. 

I stared at her through the glass as Lucifer took Larock back to the latter’s office. Being so close and not being allowed to help Kalista was torture. My chest ached at the injustice of it, but I wouldn’t leave. I couldn’t. I promised her I wouldn’t.

She looked around the room as footsteps echoed in the hall to my left. I didn’t need to look. Lucifer’s presence was very distinctive. It radiated warmth to his allies and brought fear to his enemies before they saw him. Today, there was worry and pain in his aura even before he approached the window and saw his Keætæ, his heir. He stopped beside me, and we watched her for a few minutes in complete silence before he finally spoke.

"Thank you for watching over her, Troi’Kitran⁴," Lucifer said. I shook my head, and turned to face the Demokæ⁵ of Light, the Angel who had been a father to me and was now a brother.

I couldn’t tell him who my soulmate was because she swore me not to when I was a teenager. I’d been courting Kalista for longer than she’d been alive, and no one would understand that, not for another ten or fifteen years. When I didn’t say anything, he sighed and stroked his trimmed goatee.

How is she? he asked, eyes never leaving her. His face held more worry lines than it ever had when I was under his care, then again, so did mine. His hair lacked the luster it once did and seemed darker than usual, nearly black in the too bright fluorescent lighting. Maybe it was just the lights, or maybe he wasn’t taking care of himself. His tanned face looked paler too, but he was still Lucifer, and we were both worried for his Keaetae. It didn’t matter that it was for different reasons. As long as the goal was the same. We were getting Kalista out of here, and back to normal as fast as possible.

She’s been convulsing and saying random names in her sleep, but at least she’s awake, I said. She turned her gauze wrapped hands over and leaned back against the bed for a moment before she looked around the room again.

Lucifer set his hand on my shoulder, and I turned to him, focused on the crimson red hue of his eyes. Those eyes held so much wisdom, but when Kalista fell unconscious, the darkness that I hadn’t seen since he met Anna returned. It was the same darkness that settled into his soul when Garret died. Did he think we would lose her?

I’ll talk to Alex and see if we can pull some strings and bend the rules, he said, stepping around me to the door. I know you two are close. It would be good for her to see a friend.

With that, he opened the door and went inside. But for a split second, just before he turned his head, I could have sworn I saw a glint of knowledge pass through his eyes. The small, deep voice of my tormentor echoed through my mind from the place I’d locked his presence.

He knows, the voice of my former captor, and the hackles of my bestial form bristled. I couldn’t push him out like I could the Golden B’aktana, but I could ignore him.

Lucifer didn’t know. Kalista was a blank slate to him, she had been since the day she was born, because he gave her a great deal of his power to keep her alive. It was one of many strategic moves in the grand plan of the Fœmoræ, the Corrupted Angels, otherwise known as demons, who were unhappy with Lucifer reneging on their deal.

They wanted him to be their King, but he’d given that up to be Redeemed, and to restore those he damned in his naivety. So, The Maker made him ruler in truth with all the responsibilities and pitfalls. The Fœmoræ were furious. They wanted freedom from Lucifer and The Maker’s rules. They wanted to send a clear message. Deserters were systematically taken out, and their Angelic line cut off. What better way to do that, then to take out the heir to Lucifer’s throne? 

Chapter Four

~ Kalista ~

The room was empty, but I felt someone watching me. I reached down the side of the bed and found the large plastic remote that all hospital beds seemed to have. I raised the top half of the bed to a comfortable upright position and looked around the room, taking in the minimalistic decor.

It was small with pale blue walls and white linoleum tiles on the floor that matched the white panels of the ceiling. On the left wall, halfway between my bed and the door at the end of the room, was a window with plastic blinds that were half shut. Whoever was watching me was waiting to see what I would do before they came inside.

I wiggled my toes and looked at the clean white gauze on my hands. I tilted my head and tried to remember if they’d been wrapped before I fell asleep. Had something happened while I was unconscious?

Someone knocked on the door, and I lifted my head as it opened. A man with tan skin, deep crimson eyes, and an angular, yet kind face poked his head inside. He looked directly at me, but his face was an emotional blank slate.

"Simakti⁶, how are you feeling?" he asked, then paused a moment before he stepped inside. I tilted my head as I thought about it, and he let the door shut behind him. I didn’t hurt, so that was good, right? I tilted my head the other way and blinked at him a few more times, trying to decide who he was, and if I should tell him anything. I saw flashes of memories with him, but I didn’t remember his name.

I’m not sure yet. I’m awake, I don’t hurt, and I recognize faces, but I don’t remember names, I paused, straightened, and set my hands in my lap. "You called me Simakti. That means baby girl in Demoki. Would that make you my Packana?"

His eyes dimmed then sparkled with tears before he slowly nodded. He didn’t trust his voice not to break. I don’t know how I knew that last part. His aura shifted between guilt, pain, and sorrow as he looked over my small body from head to foot then back again.

He took a hesitant step toward the bed, and I offered a small smile. He visibly relaxed, and I lifted my left hand to my curls. I combed my fingers through them using the familiar motion to calm my nerves while I waited for him to say something, because I had nothing more to say.

What is the last thing you remember? he asked. I flashed on the image of the Fœmoræ with glowing orange eyes and my breath caught in my throat.

My vision lengthened, and darkness shrank the edges as I tried to push the image away. A hand grabbed mine, the high keening beep of the machines filled my ears, and sharp pain stabbed my abdomen, banishing the image. I put my left hand over the scar where the Fœmoræ cut me open, and tears streamed down my face. I squeezed Packana’s hand and met his eyes.

"Packana, he won’t stop. He won’t let me go," I whispered as fear tightened my chest. He slid onto the bed beside me and pulled me into his lap unable to speak. He hurt, because I did, and, again, I didn’t know how I knew that. I just did. A familiar presence reached out to me, and I knew if that presence sank its claws in bad things would happen. I set my head to Packana’s chest and grabbed a handful of his silky-smooth shirt in both hands.

Please, don’t leave me, I begged as the door opened. The ginger Doctor rushed in with a syringe in his hand. Before he could slip it into the IV, that was stuck in my right arm, he froze with the needle centimeters from the hole it was meant for. His hand shook as if he fought an invisible force, but I didn’t see the glow of kinetic energy around his hand.

No more drugs, Larock. They are clouding her mind and hindering her healing, Packana instructed, combing his fingers through my curls from my scalp to the bed where they pooled on the mint green sheets.

The Doctor looked at him, then me, and nodded. He gasped as his arms dropped, and he slipped the syringe into the pocket of his clean white lab coat. Instinct told me to watch him, because something about him wasn’t right.

Only if you’re sure, Ashton, he said, eyes on Packana instead of me. "You are her legal guardian."

There was a hostile tone in his voice that said more than his words. He didn’t like Packana, and I wasn’t sure why, nor did I want to know. There was a touch of darkness in this man, the same darkness I felt in my mind, reaching…

I tucked my head into Packana’s chest and watched the Doctor as he went to the door. Tears burned my eyes as the Doctor paused, and the fluorescent lights made his eyes look more orange than amber. Packana set his hand to the back of my head and his power washed over me, calming the fear enough for me to think clearly.

"I will tell Anna when she arrives. Until then, my decision stands. You will not sedate her or administer any more drugs to calm her. They are only making things worse," Packana said with a small push of compulsion. The Doctor’s pupils dilated, and I knew he couldn’t refuse him now, but I also knew it was wrong to compel someone, no matter how right the outcome.

My power can calm her better than any drug, Packana claimed. I lifted my head enough to see Packana’s eyes glow bright red like a ruby in the sunlight and an image of those same eyes in a pale face surrounded by sandy blonde hair transposed over his face.

Do not trust the Master. Do not agree to anything he asks, the blonde man warned. Master… Eh Dagas meant Master in Demoki, the Angelic language, my first language. Had I ignored his warning, or had it already been too late? Why didn’t I remember?

Packana’s hand cupped my cheek and the second image disappeared. I stared into his eyes and the urge to tell him everything from my dream pushed me to speak. I had to tell him about the Fœmoræ before I forgot. I had to tell him that he survived.

"Eh’ Dagas is alive," I whispered, and a telepathic roar tore through my head as that dark power rushed in. I covered my ears, closed my eyes, and screamed, shoving with everything I had until the roar ceased and the power retreated. My hands shook as thick liquid coated them. I slowly opened my eyes and something thicker than tears trickled from them. I pulled my hands from my ears, and they were covered in crimson red. Blood… my hands were coated in my blood. My heart raced, my limbs tingled, and my eyes went wide.

You’re going into shock. You have to calm down, a sweet voice whispered in the back of my mind. A pale hand cupped my chin and lifted. I stared into a pair of deep Sapphire blue eyes, the same eyes of the woman from the hall, except they were in a younger face. Her eyes were wider, her face shorter, but the same fear that was throwing me into shock was there in her eyes.

Allistasia, the voice whispered, and a thousand memories of this girl’s face played in my mind like an old movie reel that was being pulled too fast. I couldn’t focus on the present. Blood trickled from my nose and sweat beaded on my upper lip as the images blurred together until everything went black.

Chapter Five

~ Beryx ~

"Eh’ Dagas is alive," Kalista said. My heart skipped a beat as I recalled what was said in the last Council meeting. Kalista had burned Lashdanôke to ash. When they searched, there were no signs of life. No survivors. How was he still alive?

His presence filled the hall as Kalista covered her ears and screamed. Her older sister, Allistasia ran down the hall, and I tried to grab her, but she ducked under my arm and into Kalista’s room.

I ran into the room and froze. Kalista was on her feet, with blood trickling from her eyes, ears, and nose as Allistasia held her up. Just before they would have fallen to the floor, I scooped Kalista into my arms and Lucifer grabbed Allistasia by the biceps. Lucifer half carried half walked Allistasia out of the room.

"No! Let me go! Mi’ Li’ Kita⁷ needs me!" she cried before the door swung shut behind them. I sat on the bed with Kalista in my arms, and Larock charged into the room.

You can’t just barge in like that! This is a breach of hospital— he started yelling at me, and I growled, eyes glowing white with Angelic fury.

"Would you rather I let her drop to the floor, Setium⁸?" I barked back, calling him a foolish child. Kalista curled into my chest, set her head over my heart where it glowed, and instantly calmed as my soothing power slid over her. Her power swirled with mine in an intricate dance, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

Larock pulled a syringe from his pocket, and my eyes snapped to it. I concentrated on the plastic tube, and it shattered like glass. The neon pink liquid, just like the vials she broke in Lashdanôke, splattered his coat and the floor as he dropped it like a hot potato. He glared at me and opened his mouth to speak but I didn’t want to hear it.

"Ashton told you, ‘no more drugs.’ You will listen or, so help me, I will have you brought up on charges of malpractice, I threatened glaring up at his eyes. He looked away first, and I sat on the bed with her in my arms. Where did you even get more of that elixir?"

Instead of answering me, he walked out of the room, shaking his head, and calling me names under his breath. I didn’t care. I had Kalista in my arms where I could protect her.

As the door shut her face relaxed, and I wished that I could stay with her. It was an impossible dream. If Larock had his way, I’d not only be escorted from her room, but banned from hospital property. I manifested a cloth and gently wiped the blood from her face and fingers before I replaced the gauze with the power she shared with me during our coupling. Lucifer’s presence drifted down the hall again as I washed the curls around her face as best I could with one hand.

I looked up as the door opened, and he froze in the doorway, eyes glued to her face. The left side of his lips turned up, and he leaned against the doorjamb, but his eyes never left her face.

Your calming presence comes to the rescue once again, he said, still smiling as his thoughts went back to a time before the Council of Fire. I looked down at her face and brushed the blood slick curls away with one hand. She snuggled closer to my chest and my heart lifted.

Bear, she whispered, and my breath caught. Did she know it was me, or was she dreaming of me? The heels of Lucifer’s Italian leather shoes clicked on the floor, and I veiled my emotions, behind a stoic mask.

On my way back from escorting Allistasia to the waiting room, I signed a few forms for Alex, he paused until I looked up at him. You can stay with her from now on. It’s on file.

A new darkness filled his eyes, but his aura burst with love. It was a look I’d only seen once before, the day Kalista and her quintuplet siblings were born. He was thinking about the prophecies that mentioned her and everything she still had to go through. He was always thinking about the future, and forgetting the present, which caused him to act without thought of how it would impact the people around him and the future he saw. I dipped my head and sighed.

Thank you for taking care of that. I’m glad that she’s relaxed enough to rest peacefully, I said, leaning back against the bed. He watched, remembering when I held her for the very first time, the day she was born. I was the very first person to