Gods and Mortals: Fourteen Free Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Novels Featuring Thor, Loki, Greek Gods, Native American Spirits, Vampires, Werewolves, & More (253 page)

I
sat
in the chair like my mother had the night before to watch my father sleep. Ethan now lay in his place.

His eyes were closed, and his breaths even. There was a shadow on his cheeks. I’d never seen him with stubble before—if I didn’t know better I’d think he was just sleeping.

But I did know better.

Aodhan had carried him all the way back to the Bruidhean. He’d used mind magic to get Ethan to sleep, but the glazed expression on his face was still vivid in my memory. I forced myself not to think about the Danaan woman tracing her finger down his jawline.

Aodhan stood guard at the door while we waited for Deaghlan to come alter Ethan’s memories. It felt very wrong to let them tamper with his mind, but there wasn’t much of a choice. If we let him go back to Stoneville as he was, he’d think the women were just a dream, but he’d also be missing a three week chunk of memories. A day and half in Tír na n’Óg meant we’d missed nearly a month back home.

A dark brown curl fell over Ethan’s eye, and I reached out to smooth it back.

Saoirse and Niamh had been here a little while ago. Niamh had showed me, what had happened while we were away from reality so I could play along when we returned. Saoirse’s watery basin was pretty handy when you needed to get caught up to speed on what you’d missed in your life.

The story was that I’d found my mother sitting by the Duck Pond halfway between our house and the house Joanne had grown up in. Life had gone back to normal after that, or as normal as life can be when it’s a bunch of faeries disguised as you and the people you care about. Both Ethan and I had come down with “mono” to keep our interactions with others limited. I could just imagine all the jokes about us both coming down with the kissing disease.

Pop had spent a lot of time going to the doctor. He’d been feeling some discomfort in his chest, and I watched Gram tell fake-Allison that Pop would be fine, that the doctor visits were “just to be on the safe-side.”

Aodhan cleared his throat, announcing Deaghlan’s arrival and breaking me out of my thoughts.

As soon as he entered the room, Deaghlan’s eyes found mine. He walked toward me, and I couldn’t make myself look away. I could feel each step he took in my pulse as he got closer. Aodhan had said Deaghlan was like a wolf, but to me he was more like a tiger. Every move he made was a smoldering combination of intimidating and enticing.

His lips curved up, he knew exactly what he was capable of. I squeezed my eyes shut, pushing together the tiny threads of my mind that hadn’t come completely unglued.

“Allison,” Deaghlan said. His smug expression confirmed that, yes, he absolutely knew the effect he had on me.

My face screwed up into what I hoped passed as a pleasant smile. I drew my knees up under my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs. Tearing my eyes from Deaghlan wasn’t easy, but I managed to somehow focus on Ethan lying on the bed.

Deaghlan stood in front of me, and with one last smirk, he leaned over the bed and placed a hand on Ethan’s forehead. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, not making a sound.

After several minutes, he opened his eyes and stood. I glanced over at Aodhan, still standing by the door. His face was completely blank, but I didn’t miss the way his jaw stood out or that his knuckles were completely white.

“He’s done,” Deaghlan said, clasping his hands in front of his waist.

I looked down at the white tips of my sneakers. “Thanks.”

I heard the sound of footsteps as Liam walked into the room. We all watched quietly as he paced for a moment.

“Liam, what is it?” I asked, unable to keep quiet for long.

He stopped pacing and leaned against the wall. He met my eyes briefly before rubbing his hands over his face.

“Your mother is adamant about not going home. But we don’t have the amulet yet…we can’t break the geis.”

“Not going home?” I said. The rest I had already had to accept.

“She’s panicking about going back to the way she was. I can’t even talk to her.”

I dropped my feet to the floor and stood, not even looking in Deaghlan’s direction. “Where is she?”

“In the gardens,” Liam said. “But Allison, once we get her home safely, I’ll figure out how to break the geis. I will. This will all be over soon.”

Something cold trickled down my spinal cord. “To break the geis,” I said,“we need Aoife's amulet, don’t we?”

Liam shifted. “Well, yes.”

“And where is Aoife?” I looked over at Deaghlan.

I hadn’t said anything about the incident with Aoife to anyone, but Deaghlan and Saoirse must have known she’d somehow escaped the fey sphere.

“You make things so much more interesting, Allison,” Deaghlan said. He arched his brow, a slow smile spreading across his features.

“Aoife will be dealt with,” Saoirse said from the door. “But, now it’s time for all of you to go home.”

“I’ll talk to my mom,” I said, and I slid out the door, happy to let Saoirse and Deaghlan handle the rest of that conversation.

M
y mother sat alone
on a stone bench in one of the many thriving gardens. This one was filled with what smelled like herbs.

Her head hung limp as she stared at her hands folded in her lap. She lifted her chin as she heard me approach, though, and a hint of the mother I was used to stared back into my eyes. Not the Elizabeth from the stories my grandparents told, but the despondent mother I’d known most of my life.

I knew better than to be angry with her. None of this was her fault, I was well aware of that, but something snapped inside of me as I looked at her. Years of frustration and guilt bubbled up in my chest, bursting out in my words.

“You can’t stay here,” I said.

My mother nodded, looking back down at her hands. Her silence fueled my growing anger. Where was the strong, independent woman I’d heard so much about over the years? The rational part of my brain was appalled that I could feel this way, but the irrational side was much stronger at the moment.

“Do you remember my first day of kindergarten?” I said.

Her eyes jerked in my direction. “Yes,” she said. “I was still lucid back then. Sometimes, anyway.”

“I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay home with you and Gram. Do you remember what you said to me?”

My mother pressed her lips together and for a second I didn’t think she’d answer me.

“No, not exactly. I just remember telling you that you had to go to school.”

“You told me that you’d be right there waiting for me when I got off the bus. That’s what got me through the day, knowing you’d still be there when I got home.

“No matter what happens Mom, I will be with you.”

She took a deep breath and stood, looking at me with bright green eyes. I held my hand out and together we walked back inside.

I
tapped
the steering wheel in time with a love song on the radio as I pulled into my grandparents’ driveway. The song itself was upbeat, but the message was that two people in love were lost without each other.

I shifted into park and climbed out into the oppressive mid-August heat, my thighs sticking to the seat. This was the kind of heat that kept my grandparents in the house all day, especially since Pop had started having the discomfort in his chest. I hadn’t had a choice, though—the graduate program I would be starting in the fall was holding orientation, and I couldn’t miss it. I reached across the seat to grab my backpack, the words to the song still echoing in my ears.

The sound of Ethan’s laughter came through my open window from Nicole's pool area, causing my heart to hiccup in my chest. I stood, grabbing the top corner of the door, trying to ignore that sound I loved so much. I hadn’t seen him in the week we’d been back from Tír na n’Óg as we’d both been laid up with “mono.” I’d only convinced Gram I was feeling better two days ago.

I shut the car door and looked over at the fence surrounding the pool area. In a split second, I made a decision. I was tired of lying to myself and to everyone else. It had been a mistake to tell Ethan I didn’t want him. That much was clear after everything that happened in Tír na n’Óg. I couldn’t even remember a time in my life when I didn’t want him.

The thought of him not giving me that stomach-tightening grin every time I saw him made my chest feel like a black hole. I couldn’t be his friend, not now that I knew what it was like to be more.

I couldn’t get to the gate fast enough. I fumbled with the latch, and it creaked as it swung open. I felt a ridiculous grin spreading on my face as I imagined telling Ethan how I really felt.

Nicole stood on the diving board, waiting to see who was coming in. Jeff was holding himself up with his arms resting over the side of the pool, and Ethan sat with his legs in the water of the shallow end. He was still laughing at something a petite blonde said as she stood gazing up at him from the water between his legs.

Dizziness flooded over me, as if all the air had been stolen from my lungs, and I froze as her hands moved suggestively up his thighs. When he turned my way, his smile fell, and for just a second we stared at each other.

“Hey, guys,” I said, looking at Nicole and Jeff. “I just wanted to...let you know that I’m back from orientation.” I tried to back away but stumbled, and my elbow hit the gate in a way that jarred my entire body.

Tears burned behind my eyes as I spun on my heel, and let the gate swing closed behind me. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could but skidded to a halt when I saw the three familiar men standing by my SUV. Liam, Aodhan, and Deaghlan watched as I made my walk of shame back from my cousin’s house.

“Liam?” My mind registered that they must be waiting for me. Immediately my thoughts went to my mother. She should be in the house; I hadn’t heard anything otherwise from Gram. “What’s wrong?”

I vaguely heard the groaning of the gate opening behind me, and a voice calling out to me, but I was caught in Deaghlan’s blue stare again, and he was pulling me toward him like a tractor beam.

“Al?”

The trance was broken when I realized it was Ethan saying my name.

I turned and saw him walking toward me, raking both of his hands through his damp hair.

I couldn’t trust myself to speak, so I turned back to Liam, avoiding Deaghlan completely.

“Hello, Allison,” Deaghlan said anyway as he sauntered over and kissed my forehead. As he pulled back, he stared hard at Ethan.

I peered back over my shoulder to see Ethan’s eyes widen with surprise. He quickly looked over at Liam, his gaze questioning.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Why are you here?”

Liam cleared his throat, looking down at the ground. When he raised his eyes up to mine, his face was ashen.

“Aoife has escaped.”

S
ixteen-year
-old Kara Nightingale is unpopular, awkward and positively
ordinary
—that is until one day she is struck by a bus and dies...

Within moments her life changes from ordinary to
extraordinary
as she wakes up in a mysterious world with a new career—as a rookie for the Guardian Angel Legion. Kara is pulled into the supernatural where monkeys drive the elevators, oracles scurry above giant crystal balls and where demons feed on the souls of mortals.

When an Elemental child is kidnapped, Kara is sent on a danger-filled quest and plunges into a situation more dangerous and deadly than anything she could ever imagine.

“
W
ait for me
!” Kara jogged along Saint Paul Street. She pressed her cell phone against her ear with a sweaty hand. “I’ll be there in two minutes!”

Her black ballet flats tapped the cobblestones as she avoided oncoming traffic, her portfolio swung at her side. She jumped onto the sidewalk and ran through the crowd.

“I can’t believe you’re not here yet,” said the voice on the other line. “You had to pick today of all days to be late!”

“Okay, okay! I’m already freaking out about the presentation. You’re not exactly helping, Mat.”

A laugh came through the speaker. “I’m just saying …that this is supposed to be the most important day of your life. And you,
Mademoiselle Nightingale
, are late.”

“Yeah, I heard you the first time…MOTHER. It’s not my fault. My stupid alarm didn’t go off!” Kara dashed along the busy street, her long brown hair bouncing against her back. The smell of grease and beer from the pubs reached her nose and her heart hammered in her chest like a jackhammer. She knew if she missed the presentation her hopes of landing a scholarship were over. She didn’t have any money for college, so this was her only shot.

Over the heads of the crowd, Kara could just make out the sign, Une Galerie. Stenciled elegantly in bold black letters, the name hovered above the art gallery’s majestic glass doors. She could see shadows of people gathered inside. Her chest tightened. She was only a block away now.

“You know, the presentation won’t wait for you—”

“Yes, yes, I know. I swear I’m gonna kick your butt when I get there!” Kara growled into the phone, trying to catch her breath.

For a horrible moment she thought she wasn’t going to make it on time and considered getting off the sidewalk to run along the edge of the street instead. She looked back to see how bad the traffic was.

Then her heart skipped a beat.

Less than half a block behind, a man stood motionless and indifferent to the wave of humanity that flowed around him. He was staring at her. His white hair stood out against his dark grey tailored suit. Kara frowned.

His eyes are black
, she realized.

A chill rolled up her spine. The man melted into the crowd and vanished, as though he were a mere trick of the light. The hair on the back of Kara’s neck prickled as a sense of foreboding filled her and the urge to scream. Who was this man?

“I think I’m being followed,” Kara spoke into her cell phone after a few seconds, her mouth dry.

“You always think you’re being followed.”

“No! I’m serious! I swear…this guy is following me—some psycho with white hair. I…I think I’ve seen him before. Or at least my mother has…”

“We all know your mother is a little
nutty
sometimes. No offense, I love your mom, but she’s been seeing and talking to invisible people since we were five. I think it’s rubbing off on you.”

“Listen. I was with my mom yesterday on Saint Catherine Street, and she said we were being followed by someone
.
What if this is the same guy? Maybe she’s not as crazy as everyone thinks.” Kara wondered if there was a little truth in her mother’s visions. She loved her mother very much, and she hated herself at times for thinking her mom belonged in a loony bin.

Mat laughed. “Are you serious? It’s bad enough that your mom sees spirits and demons. If you start believing in all that, they’ll lock you up.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence. Remind me why you’re my best friend again?” Kara decided to drop the subject. After all, the strange man was gone and her fear of him was melting away with every step, replaced by nerves and restlessness for her presentation. She focused on the gallery sign as she ran. “Okay…I can see you now.”

Mat was leaning against the gallery’s brick exterior. His head was turned toward the glass doors. He pulled his cigarette from his lips and blew smoke into his phone’s receiver. “I think it’s starting. Hurry up!”

Kara felt her cheeks burn. Her heart pounded in her ears and muffled the sounds around her. She took a deep breath, hoping it would calm the fluttering in her stomach, and she sprinted onto Saint Laurence Boulevard. Her cell phone slipped out of her hand and hit the pavement.

“Crap!” Kara crouched down to grab her phone. “Stupid phone—”

A flicker of movement appeared in the corner of her eye.

“WATCH OUT!” Someone shouted. She stood up and turned around.

A city bus hurtled towards her. She stared, transfixed. The bus kept coming.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

An arm reached out to her. She saw a split second image of two monstrous headlights.

And then it hit.

Thirteen tons of cold metal crushed her body. She didn't feel any pain. She didn't feel anything at all.

Everything around her went black.

A
moment later
, Kara was standing in an elevator.

At first, streaks of white light obscured her vision. She blinked and rubbed her eyes. The elevator was elegant…three sides appeared to be made of handcrafted cherry panels decorated with golden-wing crests. The smell of moth balls lingered in the air, like her grandma’s dusty old closet. When her eyesight improved, she realized that she wasn’t alone.

On a wooden chair facing the elevator's control panel covered in black fur and wearing a pair of green Bermuda shorts from which protruded two hand-like callused feet, sat a
monkey
.

It spun on its seat, wrapped its feet around the backrest of the chair, opened its coconut-shaped mouth and said, “Hello, Miss.”

Kara's jaw dropped, and she swallowed the urge to cry out. She stared at the beast, terror rising up inside her.

His hairless face crinkled into a grin so that he looked like an oversized walnut. His square head sat directly on powerful shoulders. He raised his chin and looked down upon Kara. His yellow eyes mesmerized her; she couldn't look away.

He looks like Old Man Nelson from the hardware store,
she thought wildly.

After a minute, Kara was able to force some words out of her mouth.

“H …hey there, little talking-monkey-person,” she croaked and then whispered to herself, “This is definitely the wildest dream I’ve ever had. I have to remember to tell Mat about this tomorrow when I wake up.” Her throat was dry like she hadn’t had a sip of water in weeks. She tried to swallow, but all she could do was contract her throat muscles.

The monkey frowned. Then he growled. “I'm not a
monkey
, Miss. I'm a chimpanzee! You mortals are all the same. Monkey-this, monkey-that. Might as well call me a
dog
!” A splatter of spit hit Kara's face as the words escaped his lips.

Kara retched as she wiped the spit from her face. It was yellowish green and smelled like a bad case of gingivitis.

“Ah …sorry, monk—chimpanzee.” She rubbed her hand on her blue jeans and made a face. “This is
beyond
weird. I thought you
couldn’t
smell anything in dreams, at least that’s what I thought. But this…it actually smells real and totally gross.”

The chimp glared at Kara with a mixture of disdain and indignation. “
Chimp
Number 5M51, if you please.”

He then began to scratch his behind, and only stopped once he noticed Kara’s disgusted expression.

“You'll be arriving at your destination momentarily.” And with that, he turned his attention back to the control panel.

Gradually, Kara began to feel more awake, as though she had woken from a long, deep sleep. Reality slowly crawled back in along with the fear that perhaps this
wasn’t
a dream. She bit her lower lip as she told herself to
think
.

“Um, what destination? Where are we going?” she asked, her eyes focused on the talking chimpanzee.

Chimp 5M51 turned his head and smiled, exposing rows of crooked yellow teeth. His eyes locked onto hers. “To Orientation, of course. Level One.”

“Orientation?”

“Yes. All mortals who have passed must go through Orientation. That's where you're going.” Chimp 5M51 clamped his feet around the edges of the chair and extended an abnormally long arm in the direction of the elevator's control pane. He pointed to the brass buttons.

Kara leaned over for a better view. The panel read:

1
. Orientation

2. Operations

3. Miracles Divisions

4. Hall of Souls

5. Department of Defense

6. Council of Ministers

7. The Chief

A
feeling
of dread slowly rose up inside her. She stared at the panel, dizzy, her knees weak like she was about to collapse. “This…this doesn't make sense. I…I'm dreaming. This is a dream!”

Kara shut her eyes and pressed her back against the elevator wall, trembling. “It
can’t
be happening. It just
can't
! I need to wake up now. Kara you need to
wake
up!”

“You're dead, Miss.”

Kara opened her eyes. The word
dead
echoed in her ears like some sick joke. The weight of his words started to pull her under. She fought against the overwhelming feeling of panic.

“I'm not dead!” she hissed, “I'm right here, you stupid
BABOON!”

“…Chimpanzee!” Spat Chimp 5M51. “Think what you must,” he said, as he lifted his chin. “But think about this. Can you remember the events before this elevator?”

Kara floundered, trying desperately to remember. Bits and pieces flashed inside her brain: a white light …metal … darkness …

The bus.

Kara dropped to her knees. The city bus had hit her…pulverized her core and crushed her like a tomato. But then she remembered something else, something that didn’t make any sense. It was coming back to her now, like a faded memory sharpening into a clear picture. It flashed before her eyes...she saw an arm reach out and touch her during the bus crash. Someone had tried to save her…

“See? You're dead,” said the chimp matter-of-factly, and Kara detected a hint of amusement in his voice, as though he enjoyed watching her struggle in misery and confusion.

As she pulled herself together she pressed her hand against the left side of her chest, she couldn't feel a heartbeat. She pressed down on her rib cage. Nothing. She clasped her wrist. No pulse. No beating. No movement at all.

“See. No beating. No heart…you're dead,” declared the chimp again. Kara felt herself wanting to punch him.

But before she could make sense of what was happening, she was thrown off balance as the elevator stopped abruptly.

“Level One. Orientation!” The chimp announced.

“Wait!” Kara pushed herself away from the elevator wall and wobbled up to the chimp. “I don't understand. What's Orientation?”

With his finger still on the button, he turned his head. “Orientation is where all the new GAs are categorized.”

Kara stared stupidly into chimp 5M51’s yellow eyes. “What are GAs?”

“Guardian Angels.”

“Huh?”

Kara heard the swish of doors opening. A hint of a smile reached the chimp’s lips. He raised his arm and pressed his hand on her back. Then she flew out the elevator.