Afterlife: A Fall of Angels Novelette Read Online Free PDF Page A

Followed by second-cousin Catherine.
    “What have you done?” Jeremiah finally breathed, his voice sounding on the verge of cracking.  Cole smiled when he observed Jeremiah’s quaking hands.
    “I warned you,” Cole said calmly as he watched the next person being escorted to stand before the council.  “You should have left her alone.”
    “And this is your revenge?” Jeremiah’s voice did finally crack.  A small whimper escaped his throat when he looked at the woman before them.
    Even with her face covered, there was no mistaking this was the woman Cole had let burn for just a bit too long in the fire.
    Jeremiah’s daughter.
    “You didn’t,” Jeremiah barely managed to make his voice work. 
    “I did,” Cole said, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat.
    “You’ve taken them all,” he said.  “Everyone I cared about.”
    “Do you understand what regret feels like now, my brother?” Cole said quietly.  All of his insides felt very still as this woman’s life started to be read.
    Jeremiah didn’t respond.
    All the more regret filled Cole, accompanied by surprise, as this woman’s deeds were read aloud.
    He wasn’t expecting to have to brand her.
    Everything within him felt heavy as he gave a beat of his wings and landed on the walkway besides her.  Accepting the branding iron, Cole turned toward the woman.  As if on instinct, she shrank to her hands and knees, letting her blond hair fall from her neck.
    He’d never felt anything but glee and satisfaction before when he branded someone.  But then he felt only dead.
    She screamed.  They always screamed.  Taking a quivering breath, Cole pulled the iron from her skin and threw it out into the air, where it turned over for just a moment, and then fell to the below.
    Taking one of her hands in his, Cole helped her to her feet.  Daring further wrath from those around him, he pinched the white fabric between two of his fingers and pulled the sack from her head.
    “You,” she breathed.
    Cole stilled as his eyes met hers, green quickly fading to black.
    “I didn’t think you were real,” she breathed.  Her entire body shook from pain and fear.
    “All too real now, I’m afraid,” he said simply.  He then turned and took his position again.
    Cole didn’t even care about all the hard and confused expressions his fellow leaders gave him when he returned.  There was a pause for just a moment, everyone debating if this was the time to rebuke Cole for his continuing erratic behavior.
    “Cambria Blake,” the blue-eyed leader finally spoke, moving on.  “Judgment has been placed.”
    Cole squeezed his eyes as the masses leapt at this woman.  He tried not to wonder if, had he not taken her before it was her time, if she might have turned the scrolls of her life around.
    Jeremiah sat very still next to Cole, as still as the stone he sat on.
    “I won’t bother her again,” he finally said as the council started to leave.  “It seems you deserve your position after all.”
    And then Jeremiah jumped into the below.
    Cole closed his eyes again.  He heard the whispers, felt the eyes flickering to his face.  It was only guessing, but for the most part those guesses were correct.
    And just like that, Cole had gained all respect back.  He was a man to be feared again, a man none of them would challenge.
    Cole was tempted to go below and seek out Cambria, thought about forming some kind of apology.  But he would wait until she had reunited with her father.
    Finally Cole thought about Jeremiah’s promise.  He no longer had to worry about his brother harming Jessica, about him exposing Jessica for what she had become.  He didn’t have to avenge her any longer.
    But he knew he hadn’t seen the last of her.  Everything within him told him that somehow he was going to continue helping her.
    Cole was not a good man, hadn’t been in centuries.  But there was something about Jessica.  Something only she was able to dig out inside of