Falling from the Darkness (Brotherhood of Angels Series Book 3)

  Falling

  Into

  Darkness

  SIRENA NOIR

  Copyright © 2017 Sirena Noir

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-1978177727

  ISBN-10: 1978177720

  Falling Into Darkness

  To save the worlds...

  He has to kill her.

  Destroying the prophecy is the most important thing and he’s not giving up until it’s done.

  Aiden Hawthorne's powers as a light angel from Nevaeh are strong, but not as strong as when he’s around his twin. Unfortunately, being around his brother has more complications than just the side effects of strength and uncontrollable power spurts. His brother’s desire to fulfill the prophecy goes against everything Aiden has fought for over the last three-hundred years.

  As an angel, Aiden is forbidden to kill anyone – humans or angels. To do so would be worse than death for himself. But his goal is absolute. He must stop the prophecy from being fulfilled. He’ll do whatever it takes. His draw to Sabre is much more than his desire to see the prophecy end.

  Aiden is torn over his duty as an angel and that of an Angel in the Brotherhood. Even if that means he has to kill the woman his brother has sworn to protect. Even if that means he has to kill his own flesh and blood. Because letting them live will be like watching the apocalypse from the front row.

  Chapter One

  Aiden Hawthorne stared at his reflection in the window of the vacant gas station. His white wings glared at him from the shiny glass, mocking his attempt to hide in the early morning shadows. Bold lettering in red-chipped paint blocked his view from having to see his face.

  Joe’s Gas’N’Stop.

  It blocked him from having to see the despair and frustration he knew his green eyes would express. But nothing could block the anger that crawled under his skin, at finding another dead end.

  Three hundred years of separation and Chase still found a way to get on Aiden’s nerves. His brother was never going to give up on unleashing hell on all the worlds and completing the prophecy.

  But Aiden would never give up on finding a way to break it.

  Not even when he had to stare at an empty gas station building in the middle of nowhere. He’d been traveling all over the United States, following small tugs he thought would lead him to his brother. Or to Madison, the girl from the prophecy.

  Except, he needed to admit that it was just another dead end. There was nothing here for him. No Chase. No Madison.

  No end to the prophecy.

  The truth made him feel empty and numb.

  His wings fluttered. The weight of the holster between them was a constant reminder of his lot in life. The tablet was snug in the leather pouch, protected from his brother—protected from all other loreans.

  Then, there were the girls in the prophecy. He had to keep his half of the tablet hidden so no one else could find them. He couldn’t focus on what would happen to them, if they were found. If he did, he might change his mind on what he would have to do himself.

  The draw to Madison burned deep in his wings. He needed to find her. He had only a glimpse of her, which he kept in his memory, but he had never gotten close enough to really see her.

  That night on the road, after her accident, Aiden had a strong pull that was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. But his brother had beaten him to the scene and rescued her from Aiden’s plan. One more thing to add to his list of grievances against his brother.

  Aiden drew out a long breath and walked away from the window of the station. Squaring his shoulders, he stared at the town. If the mortals could even call it that.

  Sitting on the border between Idaho and Nevada, Jackpot wasn’t the most desirable destination. It was only a few casinos, a mom and pop corner store—and a closed gas station. The dry rolling hills were lightening with the morning sun cresting over the hills, illuminating the sagebrush that covered the land. Long shadows stretched, but diminished as the sun rose higher into the sky.

  He kicked at his shadow on the ground which spread before him in an elongated spike that looked mountainous with his wings. He could have sworn the tug had come from this direction. It was like his brother was playing with him. Did Chase know?

  Folding his arms, Aiden stood there, surveying the land. His wings folded back. The tips brushed the gravel, making a rustling as he moved.

  Why had he been brought here? Madison wasn’t there. Nothing was there.

  “There isn’t anything here for us.” Tristan glanced around the empty parking lot. The tall lorean had appeared at Aiden’s side and Aiden had been able to ignore him until he spoke.

  Tristan had been a constant in Aiden’s life, following him almost everywhere. His twin brother would be happy to know his friend had kept his promise to stay with Aiden.

  Almost a little too well for Aiden’s likes.

  Aiden glowered over his shoulder at the lorean. He was about the same height as Aiden, but broader. And truth be told, his wings were whiter. But, Aiden didn’t care about color. He cared about honor and loyalty. Which Tristan had in spades. Aiden only hoped Tristan’s loyalty lie with Aiden.

  Tristan stood with his arms folded, a bored look of disdain stretched across his face in a scowl as he stared at the town. Even his frustration looked beatific.

  Aiden wanted to laugh. Tristan hated these mundane trips Aiden went on. He turned back to watch the highway that ran straight through the middle of town. If Tristan wanted to leave, then he should. There was nothing keeping him tied to Aiden.

  In fact, if he had the choice, Aiden would send him on his way. Aiden wasn’t sure why Tristan followed him everywhere. There was never a place he could go that the other light lorean wouldn’t find him. It was annoying.

  Narrowing his eyes at the angel standing next to him, Aiden growled. He told himself he let Tristan come along because he missed the companionship of his brother.

  He missed Chase. Oh, how he missed him.

  Or maybe, it was because it helped having another light lorean on his side, keeping him from making any wrong decisions. Not that Aiden was incapable of making right decisions. He just found himself in predicaments more so than any other light lorean. It wasn’t really his fault. It was as if trouble liked to find him.

  Aiden grumbled. “I felt her. I don’t understand how she’s moving around so quickly. You go, I’ll keep looking.” He picked up a pebble and tossed it as far as it would go. Closing his eyes, he desperately tried to feel that connection with Madison once again. But it was gone. There was nothing left in its place for him to grab on to.

  He wasn’t sure what bothered him more, the fact that he might never feel that incredible pull again, or that he had to kill her once he found her. Maybe he was suppressing the pull. Part of him might not want to find her because of what he had to do. The strength of that pull and the desire to keep her alive could work in tandem and severely damage his need to keep his goal front and center. He had to end the prophecy. He had to.

  An eighteen-wheeler rumbled past, the headlights revealing the lonely stretch of highway before them, rivaling the brightness of the sun in Aiden’s eyes.

  It was the perfect mix of the start of daylight and the end of night. If Aiden had a perfect time of day, it was sunrise. Sunsets came in a close second.

  Aiden sighed, knowing he had to keep moving. He hated these dead ends. “We should get going. If Chase is blocking me from this girl, then I’ll just have to try harder to keep the connection to her when it comes through.”

  Tristan didn’t say anything.

 
He rarely did.

  Maybe that was part of his annoying traits. Of course it was. His judgment rolled off him in waves and Aiden sometimes felt stifled in his presence.

  Aiden and Tristan had a love-hate relationship. Tristan loved to annoy Aiden, and Aiden hated that he was stuck with the pure Nevaeh, white-winged, do good forever angel. Not that Aiden didn’t want to do good. He had spent the last few hundred years perfecting the term “good”.

  Working diligently to find his brother, kill the girls, and break the prophecy was “good”.

  They walked toward the border of Nevada, continuing their search—in silence, for which Aiden was grateful. He was tired of Tristan hounding him, telling him there were other ways, and reminding him that there would be consequences to Aiden’s actions.

  Blah. Blah. Blah.

  Aiden was well aware of the consequences. Being banished to Outer Darkness wasn’t exactly the most thrilling aspect, but neither was unleashing the Darkness on the world. And if he had to sacrifice himself to ensure that didn’t happen, then so be it.

  That was part of being a “good” angel.

  His white wings shone under the sunlight like a badge of honor. But he wasn’t sure there was any honor in killing. Not even for the greater good. But, he’d do it and he’d grin while he suffered the consequences. Laughing in the face of his fears was the only way to survive anything that scared him.

  And Outer Darkness scared the feathers out of him.

  The Nevada sign glared at him like a beacon. The gold miner gleamed with the morning sunlight, reflecting the reds, yellows and oranges in the sign.

  What was he doing out here? Why was he being pulled and tugged all over the western states with no outcome? He was certain the tug was from Madison. It had to be. She was the one he was actively searching for. The other girl, Sabre, was another dead end. There was no power in any world that he could use to find her. He was convinced she was hiding behind some shield.

  There was no other explanation.

  Each step disappointed him more. He had been so sure Madison was close.

  Which also meant his brother was close. It didn’t matter how frustrated Aiden was with Chase, he missed him. And even a small amount of time with him was worth every agonizing second.

  Aiden had just stepped over the border of Nevada when his wings began to ache from the inside out. The intense burn resonated deep into every feather, pulsing as if it were attached to a heart beat separate from his own.

  He didn’t have time to warn Tristan before he was yanked away.

  Layers ripped past him in a blur until he was tossed through an opening in the earthly layers.

  He hated not having control over his surroundings. Wincing, he stumbled, unaccustomed to being in the dark.

  Where was he?

  The sound of running water splashing against tile echoed on the walls of the room he was in. Slowly, his eyes focused on the closed blinds, blocking out the sun, and an unmade bed. Blankets lay crumpled on the floor next to it. A string of clothes strewn in a cookie crumb path led to the bathroom.

  Aiden followed the clothes to the sound of a woman who was obviously in the shower.

  What was he doing here? Why was he called so urgently to this room? The last he’d checked, he didn’t have any clients who called him with such urgency. The mental bead she pushed from herself didn’t match any being he’d been in contact with. Who was she and where had she come from?

  Why was she calling out to Aiden?

  He stilled, listening intently for more clues.

  Standing just outside the door to the bathroom, he stiffened when he heard her voice. It was soft but broken, as she sang a tune that he had heard before, but couldn’t place it. It was like a memory that had faded long ago. The language was different from the version he knew, but the words were the same. An ache resonated deep inside his chest as he heard his mother’s voice singing in lorean along in his mind with the woman.

  His eyes were wide as he watched the door. Every muscle in his body tightened.

  Call it lorean intuition. Call it fate.

  He didn’t care what it was called.

  He had found Sabre.

  The tug he’d been following wasn’t Madison after all.

  He grinned. He had found the other girl from the prophecy. He didn’t have to see her to know her. A connection to her sang in his wings, pushing him closer to the door. There was more hope in his smile as well. Hope he wouldn’t have to kill Madison after all.

  He could take out Sabre.

  A squeak of a turning handle came from the bathroom and the water stopped. The light switched off and she walked from the room wrapped in a pink towel. Her dark complexion blended in with the shadows of the room. Tear streaks wet her freckled cheeks that even the darkness couldn’t hide.

  Her pain startled him. He didn’t need Chase’s abilities with emotions to know she was hurting. It was written in her expression and drenched the room in sadness. Her shoulders were slouched forward as she held one arm crossed over her stomach as if holding in the pain in her chest.

  Aiden’s wings rustled with a new feeling of protectiveness thinking about her pain. A knot tightened in his stomach. He wasn’t supposed to feel that way. He was supposed to kill her. What was he waiting for?

  She stopped in her tracks in front of him, clutching the towel tighter to her bosom and screamed. “Get out! Who are you? Get out!” She used her free hand that wasn’t holding the towel closed to swat at him furiously. “I said get out!”

  Aiden stood there, withstanding her attempts to shoo him away with amusement and surprise. His heart raced as he took a step back. “You can see me?”

  Anger and then confusion erased the pain on her face. She looked around the room as if he had vanished. She no longer knew he was there. Holding her head high, she jutted her jaw forward and breathed in heavily through her nose, her nostrils flaring as she did.

  Aiden hadn’t meant to scare her. He didn’t want to anger her either, yet apparently he had done both. But he didn’t care. He had found Sabre. That’s all that mattered.

  He went to take a step forward, but an invisible wall stopped him from getting any closer to the girl.

  No. He groaned.

  Not now. He was so close. He didn’t even know where he was so he could come back. Did he have time to search for a landscape or a marker? Something that would hint to where she was? No, wait. What if he held onto something? Was there an anchor anywhere around?

  In the next breath, he was jerked out of the room, leaving Sabre behind.

  Chapter Two

  Aiden clenched his jaw as his feet hit the ground in Nevaeh. They always had a poor choice of when to call him back. He had been yanked from his surroundings, not once, but twice in one day. That had to be new record for him. Usually, the Council just left him with his assignments for days before calling him back—if not weeks. They had to dislike him as much as he disliked them. Seriously, he preferred not to be micromanaged.

  Loreans littered the road to Nevaeh as they came and left the light layer. Aiden didn’t move out of their way as he passed by, his shoulder making contact with at least half of them. But what would they say?

  Nothing.

  Aiden grinned. Light loreans wouldn’t say anything to him about it because it would be confrontational and Nevaeh forbid, they do anything that would be seen as contentious.

  White birch and pine trees lined the granite road, but none of them cast a shadow for him to hide in. The air was crisp and clean, not like the polluted skies of earth. Only the hushed whispers of loreans walking together could be heard. It made Aiden miss the loud crowds and sounds of the earthly plane. It was too quiet in Nevaeh.

  Up ahead, Aiden knew the entrance to the city would welcome him with open gates. Just a little farther… He slowed his step. There was no hurry on his end to return.

  Leaning against a marble post outside the gates, clad proudly in pure white, Tristan waited dutifully for Aiden to ar
rive. It annoyed Aiden that his brother’s friend followed him around as if he needed a babysitter. Never giving him the time to enjoy being on earth.

  The earthly plane was more comfortable than anywhere else Aiden had been, besides HALO. Light and dark resided in the same place there. It was the perfect mixture.

  Aiden smirked, staring at the gates and ignoring Tristan. The humans had it all wrong. They weren’t pearly at all. They were gold and crystal and acted as both a hopeful beacon for those returning to Nevaeh after being on an assignment and a solemn departing symbol for those leaving. For Aiden, it was the opposite.

  If truth be told, he hated those gates. They were like a barrier between him and his brother. So much time had passed, and the longer they were apart, the more the bitterness grew. Why was Aiden stuck on this side? Why couldn’t Chase choose to do what Aiden wanted? Sure, Aiden wanted to see their mother again, but he didn’t want everyone else to die. Aiden’s stomach churned thinking that his brother could never cross through the irritating gates. Darkness can’t remain where there is light.

  Why did Aiden have to be one or the other? Black or white, light or dark, good or evil. What was wrong with being a little bit of both? The one thing Nevaeh had taught him? He’d never be good enough as himself. He had to be what they wanted.

  Aiden shook his head, clearing those thoughts from his head. He couldn’t think like that or he’d end up choosing Cynnistear. As long as he was on the path he was on, he was stuck in Nevaeh. His selfless desire to protect the layers made him deserve Nevaeh. He’d never felt so punished in his life.

  Sucking in a deep breath, he marched ahead, clearing his thoughts and digging deep for the strength to keep his true desires at bay while entering Nevaeh. His brother would do well here—aside from wanting to rip the layers apart. There was a time when Aiden thought they would be in the same layers. It was hard to imagine forever, stuck in the light, without Chase.