BROKEN ANGELS (Angels and Demons Book 1) by Brenda L. Harper Read Free Book Online Page A

He had no idea what God had planned for him next, and it scared the crap out of him. If he could know, he would. But these people…they were either very brave, or very naïve.
    But it made him admire them all the more.
    He leaned forward and kissed her cheek. Before he could stand, she grabbed his arm and pulled him back down in front of her.
    “Don’t let your grief take you from us, Granddad,” she said, calling him by that title for the first time since she was a small child. “As much as some people resist the idea, we still need you.”
    Stiles looked away, his body hot with shame. His first instinct was to tell her no one needed him anymore; that his only reason for sticking around had been Rebecca, and she was gone now. But then…he was an angel and he was thinking like a human.
    He touched her hand.
    “I promise, I won’t go anywhere.”

Chapter 8
     
    Days passed and more people became ill. Dylan’s class dwindled from twelve students to eight, then six, and then none. She visited the homes of her ill pupils and saw the fear and anger on their parents’ faces. And then they began to die.
    The first was a young mother whose skin had broken out in lesions. Harry said she had gotten a staph infection, and it was that secondary infection that killed her.
    The second was an elderly woman. Harry insisted it was her advanced age that contributed to her death.
    The third was Benji, the small student in Dylan’s class. Again, Harry insisted it was his age and his immature immune system that had contributed to his death.
    Dylan had a hard time believing that.
    “It’s happening in all the cities,” Josephine told them. “None of the doctors have ever seen anything like it before.”
    “What about Rachel?” Wyatt asked.
    Everyone glanced at him. Rachel, Jimmy’s sister, lived in another of the cities—a place called Dytonia—where she acted as something of an historian. She collected the books salvaged from the ruins, repaired them, and catalogued them so that people looking for information from the past—such as doctors studying human anatomy and disease—could go to her and access her wealth of information.
    Josephine shrugged. “She can’t seem to find anything about this, either. She says there are illnesses with similarities, but none that match it exactly.”
    As she spoke, Stiles stood against the wall with that perpetually bored look on his face. But Dylan knew him. And she could see the tension in his shoulders. How many times had she seen him like that in the past only to discover he knew something that could shed light on exactly what they were struggling to figure out?
    What do you know?
    He glanced at her, just the slightest shake of his head was her only answer.
    I know you know something. If you can help these people—
    He straightened and walked from the room.
    Dylan started to follow, but Wyatt grabbed her hand.
    “Where are you going?”
    She turned into him, her lips parting to explain, but he was focused on Josephine, who was still explaining what the council was doing to fight this illness.
    “…several of the doctors believe that they can slow the progression of the disease with something called an antibiotic,” Josephine continued. “They’ve found record of their use and they believe they can replicate it fairly easily.”
    Dylan pulled her hand from Wyatt’s. “If you’ll excuse me…”
    “Mom, we really need your input on this,” Josephine said.
    She paused at the doorway. “It sounds to me like you’re doing all you can.”
    “Yes, but you and Stiles—”
    “And we will do what we can.”
    She turned and left before Josephine or Wyatt could say anything else.
    ***
    Dylan found Stiles in the city park, a lovely strip of grass and trees between the uniform city buildings. It reminded her, sometimes, of the grove of trees behind an old motel where she and Stiles had once met. They were hiding from Wyatt so they could discuss freely the people Wyatt believed to be