Angel's Honor

Evernight
Publishing

www.evernightpublishing.com

Copyright© 2013 Erin M. Leaf

 
ISBN: 978-1-77130-654-6

Cover Artist: Sour Cherry Designs

Editor:
JS
Cook

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this
copyrighted work is illegal.
 
No part of
this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written
permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are
fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATION

For those who welcome love in the teeth of fear.

ANGEL’S HONOR

Angel Shifters, 1

Erin M. Leaf

Copyright
© 2013

Chapter One

“I have to go where? Are you crazy?”
Raphael said to his brother. He was already annoyed at having to fly up here to
the mountains where Suriel had holed up for the past year, but then to have his
brother flat-out order him to go to Castle Archangel?
To live
for a year?
Raphael was not amused.

“It’s important,” Suriel said
mildly, pouring water from a battered pewter pitcher into a glass. He handed it
to Raphael.

Raphael stared at his brother, at
the glass, and then put the water down on the rough wooden table set just
inside the cave’s entrance. “You really are insane. I knew it would happen
eventually. No one can live in a cave for a year and not go crazy.” He waved
his hand around. “I mean, look at it in here! You’ve got, hmm. Grey walls. More
grey walls. And oh!
A sleeping bag!”

Suriel sighed, pouring another
glass of water for himself.

Annoyed by his younger brother’s
dramatics, no doubt,
Raphael thought, not feeling very sympathetic. Although, his
brother
did
look more tired than usual. That worried him.

“I still don’t see why you can’t
meditate at home. Why hide out in a cave? You’re probably not sleeping. Are you
sleeping?” Raphael asked him, just to be even more annoying.

“You know damn well why I had to go
‘hide out in a cave’ as you put it, so very many times. And no, of course I
haven’t been sleeping well. I live in a cave.” Suriel’s tone was dry. He took a
sip of water before continuing. “That doesn’t change what I know. You
have
to go down to Seneca Lake.”

“Why?” Raphael asked flatly, not
liking his brother’s intransigence. He didn’t want to go to Seneca Lake. He
didn’t want to go anywhere near Castle Archangel. Their leader, Samael, lived
there. Samael was not a nice person.

He sipped his water, frustrated,
because he
did
know why Suriel had fled to the mountains to live in a
cave. Last year his brother had changed a lot, growing into a power that hadn’t
been seen in the People in thousands of years. If it had been anyone but his
beloved older sibling, he would have been frightened of the implications, if
not the man. As it was, he could never be afraid of Suriel. They’d grown up
together. They cared too much for each other.

“Look, it’s just a feeling I have,
but it’s a strong feeling.” Suriel ran his hands through his dark hair. His
light grey eyes looked almost blue in the dim light of the cave. “There’s
something you need to do there.
Something important.”
He walked to the cave’s mouth and looked out over the valley. “Something is
going to change for the People.”

Raphael shivered. He had no shirt
on and it was mid-winter. He looked down at his arms. The light brown mark of
his genetic legacy was etched into his skin: flowing lines and feathers. When
he shifted into his angel form, his wings were a light brown, very ordinary
among the people. He didn’t see why he, of all people, had to go to the seat of
the Archangel’s power. It sounded like a bad idea. Shouldn’t Suriel go instead?
He could command the winds.

“You have to trust me, Raphael,”
Suriel said quietly. “I feel a storm coming. Every time I fly, the winds ruffle
through my wings, whispering
danger, danger.
”

Raphael tucked his hands in his
armpits, more than a little freaked out. He didn’t know what the hell his
brother was talking about.

“I wouldn’t send you there if it
wasn’t vital. You know that.” Suriel rubbed the back of his neck tiredly. “I
know that Samael has no regard for us or our family, or anyone, for that
matter. You have to go anyway.”

“Samael is evil,” Raphael said. He
didn’t trust the so-called leader of the People. For as long as he’d been
alive, angels had been dying.
Car accidents.
Disease.
Old age.
Random sicknesses.
And their birth rate was non-existent
these days. Samael’s reckless leadership hadn’t helped. His arrogance and lack
of foresight had led to clashes and misunderstandings with the humans. His
abuse of the People had led many of them to flee their traditional homes near
Castle Archangel.

His brother just looked at him.
Everything Raphael had said, Suriel already knew. And he was asking Raphael to
go anyway. Dammit. Suriel was gifted. He had powers Raphael didn’t understand.
He trusted him, but more importantly he loved him deeply.

“When do I have to go?” he asked,
resigned. It didn’t matter that he thought his brother was losing his mind up
here. He knew Suriel wouldn’t ask him to do this if he wasn’t certain it was
necessary. He stood up, walking over to his brother.

“As soon as you can.
I don’t know what’s
going to happen, but you have to be ready,” Suriel replied, relief coloring his
voice.

“I suppose I could collect more of
our oral history,” Raphael said, thinking aloud. “It would help my thesis to
have a more complete set of myths for my dissertation.” He rolled his
shoulders, trying to get rid of some of the tension he’d begun to feel the
moment he landed on the cliff’s edge and caught sight of his brother’s face.
Suriel was worried. And when the first sorcerer born to the People in eons was
worried, that meant that there was definitely something to be worried about.

“Thank you,” Suriel said, pulling
Raphael into a rough embrace.

Raphael hugged him back. “You have
to promise me that you’ll come down from the mountain sometime, though. I worry
about you up here, all alone. If I’m gone, no one will come and bug you to
rejoin the living. You’ll turn into a real hermit instead of a fake one.”

Suriel stepped back and smiled. “I
will come down.
When it’s time.”

Raphael rolled his eyes. “‘When it’s
time,’” he mocked in a light voice. “For God’s sake, why the hell are you
always so cryptic?”

Suriel laughed. “It’s fun.”

“It’s annoying.”

“Older brothers are supposed to be
annoying,” Suriel said.

Raphael snorted. “Mom is going to
have a fit when I tell her where I’m going.”

“Mom will understand,” Suriel said.

Raphael gave him a disgusted look
and walked outside. The small ledge just beyond the cave’s mouth was slick with
melting ice. He grimaced as the cold wind hit his torso. He shifted quickly,
willing his wings to release. When he was in angel form, he didn’t feel the
cold as much. Just before he was about to leap into the air, Suriel’s hand
touched his shoulder. Raphael looked back.

“It won’t be all bad, I promise. I
think you will find that change is not always disastrous.”

Raphael frowned. “The past tells us
otherwise. Don’t try and sell me on your ridiculous optimism.”

Suriel stepped back, a sudden grin
chasing across his face. “Optimism is good for the soul. And who knows? Maybe
you’ll meet a cute guy down there. Not all change is bad.”

Raphael huffed. “Only you would
torment me with that possibility,” he muttered as he launched off the face of
the mountain.

Chapter Two

Gabriel
woke,
skin hot and achy. Instinctively, he rolled over and away from the sunlight,
but it didn’t help. He was still hot. He forced open his eyes, battling the
urge to shift, and stared up at the ceiling of his room, feeling a strange
sense of foreboding. Had he dreamed badly? He couldn’t remember. Was he still
dreaming now? He hadn’t had so little control over his wings since he’d been a
boy. He rolled again, onto his back, grunting as the ache in his body abruptly
intensified, and then just as suddenly disappeared. What the hell was going on?

He lifted his arm, looking at his
skin as he tried to figure out what was happening. When the faint tracing of
his genetic legacy morphed from barely noticeable pale brown to deepest black
before his eyes, he gasped. He shoved his hand into the sunlight, but the
feathers and lines drawn into his skin didn’t fade.
Didn’t
change back to brown.

“Dear God,” he murmured, sitting up
abruptly. The sheet fell to his waist as he stared at himself. The heat he’d
felt was gone, but he barely noticed. His chest was bare—none of the People
slept with clothes on if they could help it. Outside, the sun brightened as it
slipped fully above the horizon, lighting his room with gold. Inside, deep in
his heart, he knew the time he’d feared, hoped for, and worried about had
finally come. He’d had twenty years of wondering if what his father had once
whispered to him in the middle of the night was true. Now, suddenly, his
father’s promise had become real. As an eight-year old boy, he’d wanted to
believe his father. As an adult, he’d known that what his dad had said to him
could have been just a father’s way of reassuring his child that good always
wins over evil. What his dad
hadn’t
explained was that evil could not be vanquished without a fight. Gabriel did
not relish that thought.