Forbidden Read online

  Forbidden

  Evangeline Anderson

  www.loose-id.com

  Forbidden

  Copyright © January 2011 by Evangeline Anderson

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Loose Id LLC. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author's rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  eISBN 978-1-60737-939-3

  Editor: Sandra Rychel

  Cover Artist: April Martinez

  Printed in the United States of America

  Published by

  Loose Id LLC

  PO Box 425960

  San Francisco CA 94142-5960

  www.loose-id.com

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Warning

  This e-book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language and may be considered offensive to some readers. Loose Id LLC’s e-books are for sale to adults ONLY, as defined by the laws of the country in which you made your purchase. Please store your files wisely, where they cannot be accessed by under-aged readers.

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  Prologue

  The celestial hierarchy is a complicated thing, for there are more angels in heaven than grains of sand on the beach or stars in the sky. From the burning beauty of the great and powerful seraphim to the lowliest guardian angel, they exist to serve the Almighty, to sing his praises, and to do his bidding. They have no need of faith, for they know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God exists. Thus, when they choose to abandon he who they were created to worship, they are damned for all eternity. Their fall from grace turns their purity to evil and their love to blackest hate, but once exiled, they can never forget the glory of heaven. And they never cease trying to get back.

  Past the pearly gates and deep within the inner sanctuary of heaven stand the great golden doors leading to the throne room of God. Within the room, so saturated with holy light, it would blind any but his highest servants, the Almighty rests. He does not sleep—he has no need to. But his all-seeing eyes are turned inward as he contemplates unknowable things, and thus he has been for centuries.

  Since a thousand years is as a day to the Almighty, none can say when he may take an interest in his creations again. In the meantime, the forces of hell plot to overthrow him, and all of heaven is besieged.

  If the seal on the doors could be broken, the Creator might be stirred from his inner reflection. Then Satan and his minions would be cast down to the pits of hell where they belong, and heaven would be at peace once more. But that is not to happen.

  The only beings who can break the seal and open the immense doors are a matched pair of seraphim—an angel twain, as they are called. Ariel and Micah, also called the lock and the key, are two halves of the same whole. Theirs is not a cold or sexless union by any account—they stand before the throne-room doors, forever entwined, embracing each other in perfect harmony and love.

  Only they can summon the Almighty from his ceaseless contemplation. But they are no longer there—at least their souls are not. Their celestial bodies lie together in a feathered heap at the foot of the golden doors, their angelic voices, which spoke of love and eternal fidelity to each other, silenced.

  Their souls have been reeved—ripped from their bodies and cast down to earth.

  Without them, war-torn heaven is in peril. It cannot survive unless Micah and Ariel can somehow be brought together again to break the seal and rouse the Almighty. But there are those who do not wish them to be one again. Indeed, the very beings responsible for the celestial death of the angel twain are plotting to keep them apart forever—by putting them together.

  Chapter One

  “You’re certain this is the right thing to do?” Beelzebub, former general of the armies of heaven, paced before the doors of the throne room, eyeing the fallen bodies of the twain. They clung to each other still, even in death. How very touching. But then, Micah and Ariel never could bear to be parted, not even for an instant. The shining white floor was also littered with the twisted black bodies of vanquished demon warriors, those who could not withstand the combined fury of the angel twain before they themselves had fallen. Beelzebub shrugged. It was a necessary sacrifice and one that had paid off handsomely.

  “Of course I’m certain.” Lucifer, former prince of the seraphim, lounged indolently against a snow-white pillar, as though the holy fire of this most sacred spot didn’t burn him. Indeed, maybe it did not. Before staging his revolt against the Almighty, Lucifer had been in the presence of the one true God daily. Previously as glorious as the morning star, he retained his beauty, though it was tinged with darkness now, shadowed by the evil his soul had absorbed when he’d fallen from grace.

  “But to put them in the same place on earth—the same family even…” Beelzebub fretfully rubbed the short, sharp horns that sprouted from his mottled gray temples. He had not kept any measure of the heavenly magnificence he’d once taken for granted. Unlike the graceful Lucifer, he was as ugly as…well, as ugly as sin. And rightfully so, because sin was his business now. Now and forever.

  “It’s all part of my plan.” Lucifer nodded at the burning sword that hung from the other demon’s belt. The reever had been forged in the pits of hell, its black blade tempered with the blood and tears of the damned who burned forever therein. “As long as you did your part, we should be fine.”

  “I did.” Beelzebub patted the dull, red-covered blade. Its evil comforted him in the alien environment. “Micah fell first, so he’ll be ahead of her by several years down there. He tried to defend Ariel, but the reever bested him.”

  “Certainly it did,” Lucifer drawled. “I saw to its forging myself. No heavenly blade can match it—not even Gabriel’s.”

  “Let us hope we don’t have to put that to the test—not today,” Beelzebub said tightly. “Gabriel still leads a powerful host.”

  “And so do we,” Lucifer reminded him. “The demons under your command have not forgotten what it is like to tread the streets of gold. Remember, my friend, every one of them was an angel, just as you and I were. We all long to return home, but I intend to do so in victory, not as a sniveling supplicant.”

  “And so you shall,” Beelzebub said grimly, indicating the silent seraph. “As long as these two can be kept away from their celestial bodies for long enough. You and I are behind enemy lines here, and a siege takes time.”

  “We have time—an entire human lifetime. That’s seventy earth years minimum—maybe more. Plenty of time for your little siege to succeed.”

  “Forgive me, but…” Beelzebub began pacing again.

  Lucifer frowned. “What is it? Speak up.”

  “I just don’t see how putting them together will keep them apart,” Beelzebub burst out. “Now, if you’d placed the souls in two bodies that lived halfway around the world from each other—”

  “They would have found each other in less time than it takes to tell,” Lucifer interrupted. “Listen, you fool, don’t you see? The angel twain is u