Forsaken: The World of Nightwalkers by Jacquelyn Frank Read Free Book Online Page A

daylight activities and necessary tasks for his employers as they took the opportunity to sleep hidden away and protected. At least, Leo thought it was sleep. Hell if he really knew anything about any of this.
    As if thinking about them brought them to life, Max and Angelina hurried to the doorway behind them as they entered the room.
    “Marissa!” Angelina cried, but Max held her back from rushing to her sister’s side. The man recognized the intensity of the situation, could see it was best to keep her away for now. That was probably what he had been doing all throughout this mess, keeping her inside, away from the death being dealt outside.
    The Angel laid Jackson down, legs first, and then gingerly settled his head on the pillow as though she were tucking her sweet beloved grandfather into his sickbed. Marissa rounded to the other side of the bed, climbing up onto it and crawling quickly across the mattress in order to reach Jackson, take up his hand and press his knuckles desperately to her lips. Her hands and clothes were still stained with dirt, and it was obvious she couldn’t care less about bringing that dirt into her bed. Leo had to grudgingly acknowledge the sense of priorities he was feeling from her. Whatever he thought of this situation, whatever he thought of them, there was no denying the fierce sincerity of her emotions toward Jackson.
    “Jackson,” she breathed over the backs of his fingers, her distress and sadness filling the space around the people standing anxiously in wait…in wait for an Angel to create a miracle.
    The Night Angel stood, bracing her feet apart and facing the bed. She reached out her hands, palms down, fingers loosely splayed, like a magician about to make the beautiful assistant levitate into the air. But Leo was hoping she had something better to offer than an illusion.
    “His souls are intact within him,” she said with obvious relief after a moment or two…moments that felt like forever to everyone in the room. “This is very fortunate. Had the imp god excised either of his souls there would be nothing to be done.”
    “How…how do you know?” Marissa asked, her voice tremulous and catching softly as she tried not to sob outright, tried to keep her composure even though it was thoroughly frayed at the edges.
    Yellow eyes flicked over the distraught queen, assessing and thoughtful.
    “If you have Hatshepsut within you, you already know the answer to that.”
    “I-I can’t…I don’t…” She stammered, clearly at a loss and floundering. “I’m not even fully Blended with her yet. I can barely hear anything from her except these…these powerful, choking emotions.” New tears came to her eyes. “As if I needed any more than my own.”
    “I am a Night Angel,” she said with a quiet helpfulness as she reached over to cover Marissa’s hand where it grasped Jackson’s. “We see souls, both inside and outside of their corporeal bodies. Both living within the human body and walking lost upon the earth in spirit. It is our lot in life to ferry the lost ones to a portal leading them to the next stage in their lives.”
    “Lives? But if they no longer have corporeal selves…” Leo spoke up, then wondered why that, of all questions, was the first to come to his lips.
    The Angel turned her head slightly in order to look at him, her glowing eyes brushing over him from head to toe in a quick assessing look.
    “You are human, so I don’t expect you to understand,” she said dismissively. “Suffice it to say, there are stages of the life of a soul far beyond your limited understanding.”
    Well. Shit.
He’d just been snobbily slapped down by an
angel.
Were angels allowed to do that? Then again, were angels allowed to be naked as jaybirds? Or were Night Angels something completely different than, say, your run-of-the-mill angels? She certainly didn’t look like the angels his very Catholic mother had had nailed to every wall and flat surface in her house…except