Dark Awakening (7 page)

"I will be ready,” he murmured, as shudders racked his body.

"Sir?” The nurse was looking out through the operating room door. “Come, now, it's okay,” she soothed as she reached for him, pulling him up from his knees. “You've got a daughter. A beautiful, healthy little girl."

As if on cue, a lusty cry filled the air and tears anew filled his eyes, running down his cheeks.

"Would you like to hold her?” Another nurse whose face was covered with a mask stood at the door, holding a squirming pink bundle in her arms. He reached out his hands and felt the soothing weight of his child being placed in his arms.

"Thank you,” he whispered as he looked down in amazement at the life he and Nadira had created. “I will ensure that there is a spot in Heaven for you and everyone who has saved my wife and daughter."

Both nurses cocked their heads to the side and stared at him. “I believe you,” the one with the mask said. “I believe that you have that power."

Two months later the three of them were lying in bed. Outside, a snowstorm raged on, while inside they were warm and safe as they listened to the wind that howled through the leafless trees. Gadriel watched his wife and child sleeping, the beauty of it more profound than he had ever expected.

"Gadriel?” Nadira asked sleepily.

"I'm here.” He trailed the back of his fingers along her smooth, plump cheek, and she smiled, relief softening her face.

"I had a dream,” she whispered, coming closer to him so that she could run her hand down his chest. “I saw two angels, and they were falling from Heaven."

"Were they?” He reached for her hand and kissed her with all the love and ache he harboured in his body.

"I think they were coming for something."

"I think you worry too much."

"I wondered if it was about Mary. She's been in remission for months now. You know the doctors said it wouldn't last."

"But we know something they don't, isn't that right?” She flashed the smile he adored, and his heart felt as though it would break.

"Your friend did it, didn't he? He put Mary into remission."

"Yes. Sammael, along with God's blessing cured Mary."

"I wonder what Sammael offered in exchange for Mary's life?"

Gadriel felt his body shudder. How could she have known such a thing, of bargains with God? Did she know of
his
pact? Was she frightened? Did she fear the loss of him?

"Talk to me, Gadriel,” she pleaded as she fitted her palm on his jaw.

"After,” he murmured before kissing her deep and slow. Needing her, needing to be inside her, lost in her.

Reaching for their sleeping daughter who was sated from her recent feeding, Gadriel pressed his lips against her small back and inhaled the scent of her.
Innocence.

Closing his eyes, he savoured the smell, brought it deep inside himself before kissing her and whispering a prayer against the fragile bones of her shoulder blade. When he opened his eyes, he saw his mark was there, present on her soft flesh. His name in angelic script entwined with angel wings. That was his mark. The same mark he had given her mother when they had created her.

"Gadriel?” Nadira purred, running her hand along his thigh.

"Let me put her to bed, and then we can have the rest of the night. I'm going to make love to you, Nadira. Love like you've never experienced before.” Beautiful, perfect love he silently added. Enough to fill you for a lifetime.

When he came to her, Nadira opened her arms and he fell into them, nuzzling his face into her throat and breasts. He would not think of what was to come. Would not allow his time with Nadira and his daughter to be marred by thoughts of ‘when'?

"I love you, Nadira,” he told her. “I have loved you since the moment you ran out of your car and into the pouring rain to save me."

She sighed and closed her eyes, her fingers tracing his shoulders, then sliding down to the raised points between his shoulder blades. “Show me, Gadriel. I want to see them. To be enveloped in them again. I need to feel them around me, to know that you're mine."

He granted her wish. His wings, unfurling, widened until they cocooned them both. They were still black and he watched as Nadira's gaze widened as they came around her and beneath her.

"They're so beautiful, Gadriel. My beautiful, fallen angel,” she said with such reverence in her voice. “I would not want you any other way."

"But wouldn't you want them white and soft as they sheltered you?"

She traced his mouth with the tips of her fingers. “No, Gadriel. I want you as you are. Come inside me,” she encouraged, opening herself to him. “You're trembling, I can feel your body shaking. Let me love you. Let me take your worries away."

This was what it was like to be human; the beauty of possessing a soul. This was what it was like to love unselfishly, to be born of clay and sculpted into a beautiful, caring creature.

This was why his brothers had fallen, because not even Heaven was as beautiful as sliding into the woman you loved and filling her with all of your being.

Heaven truly could not compare to what he had found down here on Earth. His life with Nadira, their child and the sweet baby's breath that came from her parted lips when she slept on his chest. The nights, when he gathered Nadira close to him and made love to her. The mornings, when she made him breakfast and poured him his tea, or the nights when they lounged in their bed and he brushed her hair.

No, there was nothing in Heaven to rival that, that feeling of rightness and peace.

"Nadira, when I nearly lost you,” he said in a strangled voice, “I ... made amends with God. I promised—"

"Shhh,” she whispered against his cheek. “I know what you promised. He came to me as they were putting me to sleep. He whispered in my ear and told me what was to be. He promised me we would be together for eternity. And I have faith that it will be so. I believe you'd never willingly leave me or our child, Gadriel."

"I wouldn't,” he said, his voice cracking.

"I have faith in His plan, and so too, must you."

Gadriel looked down at his wife and allowed one tear to escape down his cheek. “I believe in
you
, Nadira. I believe in what we have, and that will see me through any dark times that may lie ahead. “I'll never leave you,” he vowed as he made slow love to her. “I will always be able to find you. Believe that, Nadira."

"I believe,” she said as his arms came tight around her, and he wrapped his wings tighter around her. “I will always believe in you, Gadriel."

"Swear it,” he demanded, filling her deeper, harder, until she arched her back and pressed her soft, full body against him. “Swear you will always believe, that you will love me forever."

"Always, Gadriel. Forever. I have found my faith. It was you, Gadriel."

I'm a Cannuck, born and raised in the ‘banana belt’ of Canada, which is Southern Ontario. But don't let the nickname fool you, we can still have snow here for Thanksgiving (early October in Canada) as well as hunting for Easter eggs through the white stuff in April!

In truth, though, I'm a total Anglophile! I love England—so much so—that my new contemporary series is set there, just so I have an excuse to go back to London to do research. Now, of course, I have another excuse, a fabulous UK publisher! My husband cannot grumble about the expense of a trip now. Not when he knows the value of research and good publisher/author relations!

As far as writing goes, I have wanted to be an author since about the age of nine, after reading A Witch from Blackbird Pond. I can honestly say that after reading that book, I knew I wanted to create stories that people would want to hear and love as much as I loved that book. That book changed my life and shaped my destiny.

I've always been a daydreamer and spent many an hour up in my room lounging on my bed, listening to music (it was the Cult and The Cure and those dreamy guys from Duran Duran in those days). I idled away the hours, lost in the music and my imagination. Not surprisingly, it was always romantic images and stories whirling through my mind. And also not surprisingly, music is still a huge influence and inspiration in my writing.

I put off my dream of writing to get a ‘real’ job. So I trudged off to university and became a nurse. Nursing pays the bills, writing feeds my soul. One day, maybe it'll do both!

Email: [email protected]

Charlotte loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at www.totalebound.com.