Authors: JL Weil
Tags: #demons, #indie, #young adult romance, #teen romance, #young adult paranormal romance, #teen paranormal romance, #jl weil, #divisa, #best of 2015
Redeeming Angel
REDEEMING ANGEL
A DIVISA NOVEL, BOOK
5
by
J.L. Weil
Smashwords
Edition
Copyright 2015
by J.L. Weil
All rights reserved.
First Edition September 2015
ISBN-10:
ISBN-13:
Edited by Kelly Hashway
Cover design by Jennifer Weil
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other
people. If you would like to share this book with another person,
please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re
reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased
for your use only, then return it to Smashwords.com and purchase
your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this
author.
This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents are a product of the writer’s
imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be
construed as real. Any resemblances to persons, living or dead,
actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely
coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this may
be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written
permission from the author.
Also by J.L.
Weil
THE DIVISA SERIES
Losing Emma: A Divisa novella
Saving Angel
Hunting Angel
Breaking Emma: A Divisa novella
Chasing Angel
Loving Angel
LUMINESCENCE TRILOGY
Luminescence
Amethyst Tears
Moondust
RAVEN SERIES
White Raven
SINGLE NOVELS
Starbound
It is bittersweet to end
the series that is dear to my heart. This is for every person who
stumbled across Saving Angel and ended up loving Chase and Angel as
much as I do. This is for you. I can’t thank you enough! You gave
me courage to continue this crazy, fun, amazing, and rewarding
job.
Table of
Contents
Part 1
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two
bodies.
Chapter 1
{Angel
}
Like a kid who couldn’t
resist the last piece of chocolate, I wrapped my hand around the
bars of my cage
. A freaking cage!
It only took a second for the searing pain to
register—red-hot burning. I snatched my hand away, swallowing the
scream at the back of my scratchy throat. Hours of screaming taught
me two things. One: no one could hear me. The damn dungeon was
probably soundproof. And two: it was entirely Chase’s
fault.
Bastard
.
My hand was on fire. It felt like the
flesh was literally melting off the bone. I glanced down to examine
the extent of my injury, cursing Chase Winters to a hundred
different kinds of hell. Redness bubbled along my slim fingers, the
skin burning like a bitch. “Damn it,” I hissed, cradling my hand.
The upside, in an hour it would hardly be noticeable, just one of
the many perks from being mutated by Chase Winters.
My egotistical, self-righteous,
determined-to-make-me-miserable boyfriend, who also happened to be
a half-demon.
Pain and anger whirled through me, a
potent cocktail.
So many changes were reeling through
my body. I didn’t know exactly what was going on inside, but for
once it didn’t cause me physical pain. Oh, just the opposite. It
was like an addict, begging and pleading for more, dying to be
released.
Each bond Chase and I fortified had
mutated the cells in my body. We hadn’t known at the time what the
outcome would be, and truthfully, I think we’d both been powerless
to stop the forces of Hell. It was inevitable. Chase had saved my
life, but by doing so, forged a link with my soul—a link that
connected me not to just him, but to his bloodline—to Alastair—his
demon father. My humanity had been pretty much doomed from that
moment. The closer we got, the deeper our bonds and the darker my
humanity became.
Man, I sure knew how to pick
them.
A strangled laugh bubbled out.
“Chase.” His name echoed against the dirty gray concrete walls. The
jerk was going to pay. Who did he think he was, locking me up like
an animal? I was supposed to be the love of his life. What a
freaking joke. Why did it matter that I suddenly embraced the dark
side? Had I not accepted him as he was? All the flaws (not that
there were many), all the danger, and the near death experiences.
Now he just stopped caring.
Bull crap. I didn’t buy it.
He was whipped and would do anything
to save his precious Angel. It was the sole reason I was in this
current predicament. Things had gotten…complicated. I wasn’t
precisely sure how things had gotten so out of hand. There were
dark patches in my memories, but really, why did I care about the
how? It was where I was going that mattered. And I had a purpose.
Being contained in a demon version of Alcatraz was not how I
envisioned spending my first year of college.
Plopping down on a small bed in the
corner, the lumpy mattress dug into my butt. I squirmed, trying to
find a comfortable position, and finally gave up. No amount of
wiggling was going to make this sad excuse of a bed comfortable. I
guess I should have been thankful he didn’t make me sleep on the
floor.
There had to be a way to get to him. I
just needed to appeal to his sappy side, because I didn’t see
another way out of this godforsaken contraption the hunters had
constructed. Leave it to a bunch of whacked-out-of-your-mind demon
hunters to possess advanced yet archaic torture
chambers.
The metal was a blend of titanium and
amber. At least I thought it was amber. The flecks of gold reminded
me of Chase when his demon prevailed his humanity. I eyed the
perimeter with my newly enhanced eyeballs, desperate for a small
crack in its defense, and to my utter dismay, I found nothing.
Nada. Zilch. Zippo.
I was so screwed.
Rage boiled up inside of me. Hot,
scolding, and fierce. There was no fear, grief, or panic…only
power.
It crackled, radiating in
the tiny box, and if it wasn’t being snuffed out by this prison,
its destruction would have been catastrophic. This harboring of
hate inside me
was easily evoked and took
nothing more than a flick of a switch. Keeping it controlled and
reining it in was an entirely different problem I had yet to
master.
Dampness gathered on my
cheeks.
And then it struck me.
They were tears, I realized
slowly.
I swiped at my cheeks,
disgusted
I
was
crying. Weakness wasn’t something I could afford, not when I had a
task set before me. Failing wasn’t an option, but there were these
moments, these little breakdowns, where my humanity peeked through.
Good and bad. Light and darkness. Human and demon. They resided
inside me, but the want for power was resilient. Luckily, the new
and improved me was stronger, able to keep my humanity at
bay.
Yet, I knew there was one very
determined, fearless, and ruthless obstacle in my way. He was going
to be the key to getting out of this dump, considering he was the
only person who actually came down here. Not that I cared one way
or the other. It was the good thing about losing your humanity; you
no longer gave a rat’s ass about feelings. You didn’t care your
friends left you here to rot. I only had one purpose now. Like a
crackhead looking for their next fix, it was all I thought
about.
I sat in the middle of the bed, back
rigid, and stared between the bars. The memories, they were the
kicker, flashes of my former life. My childhood. Mom. And even Dad.
Moving to Spring Valley where my life changed. Even then, I was
happy, so happy it made me sick. The first day in hickville and
meeting Lexi. But it was always the memories of Chase Winters that
did something funky inside me.
From falling in love to thinking he
was the biggest douche in the world. There wasn’t a whole lot to do
trapped underground, so my mind drifted, and I’d relived those
moments over and over again. It was maddening. The memories
actually hurt more than the damn demon-proofed bars.
But the absolute worst were the
memories of thinking I’d lost him. That was a torture I’d rather
not relive, and it shot a different kind of pain down my body,
curling my toes. Both physically and emotionally, it sucked.
Knowing I couldn’t survive without him—the bonds made sure of it
and even the power rippling through my veins knew it.
I blinked at the harsh lights shining
down at me, the only light in the entire dingy room. No windows.
Not that I needed the light or glow of the sun. My eyes saw
perfectly in the dark, a new side effect from being the
keystone.
Also, my very attuned hearing picked
up the approaching footsteps before I saw a face. I didn’t need any
special abilities to tell me who it was. The tingle that spread
throughout was a foolproof detector. My body went haywire when
Chase was near.
So annoying.
It was the times
when
he
came to
see me that were challenging. The good girl inside me fought tooth
and nail to the surface, clawing and scratching just to give
him
false hope I could be
saved. There was no saving me. The darkness was too
strong.
But the other part of me, she was
relentless, screaming his name. I knew he was suspicious, but that
was about to change.
I had a plan.
A dirty, no-good plan.
{Chase
}
When I met Angel, I never imagined
we’d end up here. Back in my pre-Angel days, I had a plan. It
involved me on a crusade, traveling across the country, blaring the
Eagles greatest hits, and killing as many demons as possible. A
lonely road. Life rarely turns out as we expect.
Meeting Angel changed
everything.
The good, the bad, and
Hell.
How many other guys could say their
girlfriend commanded a demon army? None. That’s how many. In a
twisted way, it was kind of hot, until she went all Terminator on
me, glowing red eyes and all.
Bitter anger surged through me. It was
an emotion Angel and I shared more and more lately. It coated my
insides like battery acid as I picked up speed, darting and weaving
past the college row houses, making a beeline toward the trees
surrounding campus. It was early or late depending on how you
looked at it. A streak of whitish-yellow crested on the horizon,
overriding the dark blue sky dotted with tiki torch stars that
would have made an astrologist geek-out.
When I wasn’t with Angel all I could
do was think about being with her. Part of that might have been our
bond, but ninety-five percent of it was just my wanting to be near
her. Each time I saw her, my heart splintered, more painful than
any knife to the gut. Seeing her locked in a cell no bigger than a
cabin pissed me off. Knowing I was the one responsible for putting
her there really pissed me off. The guilt was
ridiculous.