Saving Grace (40 page)

"NO!" Gabriel's voiced boomed
. It rocked the ground and made me clasp my hands over my ears and cringe. "I will not let him have her. SHE IS MINE!"

"Enough," a small
musical
voice sung lovingly into our ears. It jingled lightly like a breeze blowing through wind chimes.
The voice touched my heart and
a warmth
spread throughout my body filling it with the deepest feeling of love that I had ever known. Shane squeezed my hand and I knew he was feeling that same
feeling.

I breathed in quickly then exhaled a faltering breath. The power behind the voice overwhelmed me and brought me to my knees and Shane slid down to the floor with me.

Th
e musical voice echoed, reflecting its awe-inspiring sounds throughout the expanse of space around us.
Where, for some reason wasn't my apartment any longer.
OH CRAP, am I DEAD?
"
It is a pure soul who can hold true the innocence and timelessness of passion in another soul. Each unveiling the greatest pieces of the other, locked together at the heart for eternity," the music sang. And when it ceased
,
the silence was
vociferous and left me empty, yet whole.

Gabriel slithered back, trying to blend himself into the background of the emptiness but Michael would not have it. "Go back
where
you came
fro
m,
Gabriel. Your evil cannot darken this tale, it was written from the heavens."

Gabriel blanched. His army of fallen angels slowly faded into the all too familiar furnishings of my living room and the life that I had been living. Gabriel's eyes lingered on
me;
his voice whispered softly in my thoughts, "I did truly love you, that was never my lie." Then he lowered to his
knees, unclenched his fists,
and let them fall loosely to the floor. His chest heaved with shallow breaths and his gaze fell away from mine, his body
gradually lost color, evaporating into the air. Then G
abriel was gone, and the tightness
that I had felt around my heart for so long loosened and I felt I could fully
breathe
again.

I looked up at Michael and waited to hear our final fate
. He smiled down at me then looked to Shane. "Do you still want time here, brother?"

Shane didn't turn to Michael to give him his answer. His blue eyes held onto mine and my heart surged, "
N
o,
Michael. I
need
more time here. As long as we possibly can have here,
and then an eternity after that
."

Oh yeah!

The minute the important tubes and machines were taken awa
y and the only thing left was one
IV, I left my lonely hospital bed and climbed gently into Shane's.
His battered and bruised face nuzzled against the crook of my neck and we slept in each other's arms like that for days. The doct
ors and nurses did not complain.
T
hey were actually amazed by our closeness, and the
sheer
miracle of our survival from our horrific
motorcycle accident
.

That's what our fight with Gabriel transformed into
. I guess it was a good excuse as any, it's not like anybody would have believed that we both fought with the devil and won. But, I was beyond pissed that my precious motorcycle had been mangled into pieces all over Fifth Avenue.
I mean, seriously?

I would eventually get another one, and I was happy with that. Material things
are easily replaceable, but angel
s like Shane definitely are not.

"
He
y,
beautiful," Shane whispered. "What are you thinking about?"

I shifted my banged up body gently to face him. I couldn't help but laugh. Even though he was
black and blue from head to toe and
mostly purple in the middle, he was still ridiculous
ly gorgeous. And he was
all mine
. I ran my bandaged hand through his dark
,
silky
,
hair;
I w
ould never get enough of touching him
. "I just keep thinking about
everything that was said and how happy I am lying in this horrible hospital bed with you. Makes we wonder where we go from here. I mean, our lives are open unwritten books, we could do anything together from here, it's just so..."

Shane's
crooked smile sent heat across my chest. His eyes danced and his hand slowly lifted to my lips to run his thumb along the bottom of them. "I know where I want to go from here," he murmured.
If he said
Boozer'
s,
I was going to pinch him hard on the neck, the only place without a bruise on his body.
I waited with pinched up fingers.

"I want to wake up every day I have left to the warmth of your lips on mine, the sound of your voice singing next to me, the feel of your fingers on my skin and your heart beating music with mine." His eyes shined with love and need. "How about becoming my wife?"

I stared at the man that I had searched forever for and my breath caught in my throat
. Tears stung at my eyes. This
was the sort of love that people wro
te books abou
t. R
ight in
the middle of
what I thought was
an ordinary
life;
fate
sent me
a fairytale
, one with a happy ending. A love
t
hat makes someone like S
hane
Maxton
doodle silly hearts on a paper
with my name in his hospital bed
and someone like
me to break down all my walls, trust him completely, and say, "Oh
,
hell, yes!"

Then he brought his lips to mine and he kissed me like it was our very first kiss, and it felt like heaven.

Aha! See, I promised no cliffhanger!

Thank you all for hanging around to see what happened to Shane and Grace. It was a ton of fun to write the story and get to meet lots of readers who were touched by my words. I hope I did justice to book 2! And
YES
, I am writing S
hane's point of view and
it
should be published soon
?

Come visit my blog at
http://christinezolendz.blogspot.com

Friend me on Facebook or drop an email at
[email protected]

Or you can visit me on
Goodreads
. I do have a twitter account, but I always forget to use it!

Thank you to my special Detective in the New York City Police Department who sat down with me to help me formally interview Grace...and help me
...
um
...
with the speaker scene and
...
um
...
all the other scenes that made me giggle and red faced when I wrote them. (Don't get all excited, I'm married to him, we're allowed to do all that yummy stuff.)

And thank
you,
Hailey and
Emily,
for eating lots of mac and cheese and smacking my laptop with your feet every chance you got. Love you both to pieces.