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  Once set in motion, the doors moved on their own. Ariel was just shielding her eyes with her wings—for the glory of the Almighty was a fearsome thing—when she heard Micah say, “Ariel! Look out!”

  “What?” She turned from the brilliance of the Creator’s glory just in time to see a horde of demons pouring like filthy water into the pristine white antechamber.

  Suddenly Micah had a flaming sword in his hand and was standing in formation with Jael and Elloria. “We must fight. The doors aren’t going to open in time.”

  “Hold them off,” Jael thundered, and Ariel found she had a blazing sword in her hand. Even stranger, she suddenly understood how to use it.

  Then the demons were upon them.

  As dark and evil as they had once been light and beautiful, they came screaming and roaring, charging four abreast. Ariel barely had time to be afraid before the first one reached her, and her sword sliced through its leathery black hide.

  And then the next one came. And the next and the next.

  Though she would never have believed it was possible back on earth, Ariel realized she was an excellent warrior. In fact, she was like a demon-dispatching machine. It was just the four of them against hundreds, but she had no fear. Her arm rose and fell, rose and fell, and the demons fell screaming beneath her onslaught, shredded to tattered bits by her sword.

  To either side of her, Micah and Jael were doing the same, and Elloria was too. We’re going to win! They’ll never make it. The doors are opening, and soon—

  Her thoughts of victory were cut off by a cry from her right. Micah! My love! She turned her head and saw a huge demon with mottled, blackish gray skin and short, sharp horns swinging a blazing sword of his own. But the flames that covered it weren’t golden; they were red—bloodred. Ariel recognized it at once.

  The reever! He’s got the reever! And he’s trying to use it on Micah! Screaming, she threw herself at the huge demon, trying to deflect him from his intended target.

  But she was too late. The hideous red blade was already swinging down, cutting through Micah’s defense, and then…

  “No!” Ariel cried as her other half dropped in a bundle of lifeless feathers at her feet. “No, Micah! My love.”

  The other demons were leaving, as they realized the doors to the throne room were opening, but not the mottled demon. He stood there laughing, a harsh, croaking sound like a crow cawing, mocking her with his eyes.

  “How could you?” Ariel stared at him in anguish, and then, from deep inside her, words of power came to her lips. “Get thee to the pit!” she shouted at him. “And never return.”

  She lifted her sword and thrust it straight through his black, sin-filled heart. She had the grim satisfaction of seeing his eyes widen in surprise and horror, and then he was gone, forced back to hell, to the lake of fire to burn for all eternity.

  She stood panting for a moment, her sword clutched tight in her hand. That was it; the demon was gone. But that still wouldn’t bring back her love. Nothing would.

  Sobbing as though her heart would break, Ariel dropped to her knees and gathered Micah’s lifeless body to her. “Oh, my love, my love. Please no… Please no.”

  She didn’t know how long she cried, but suddenly the air around her was filled with brilliant, piercing light.

  The throne-room doors had opened.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Well, you got your wish.”

  A rustle of wings. “What are you talking about?”

  “You said you’d miss being a guardian angel. And here we are, guarding them again.”

  “Would you have it any other way?”

  “No.” Softly. “Of course not. I only wish it wasn’t so hard on them, having to go back and be human all over again.”

  “Ariel could have waited for Micah. The Almighty gave her that choice.”

  “Yes, but you knew she wouldn’t. She loves him too much. So much she’d rather endure crawling around without any wings for another sixty or seventy or eighty earth years than be without him even a little while in heaven.”

  “At least they can be together this time. It was merciful of the Almighty to work things out so neatly.”

  “Yes, an arranged marriage. Those are getting rarer on earth now.”

  “Not in some cultures. And even though they won’t meet until their wedding day, you know they’ll feel the connection at once.”

  “Won’t that send them right back to their celestial bodies?”

  A shrug. “If they wish to go. The Almighty thought they might like to experience more of earth this time. Now that they’re allowed to be together, they might like to have human children. Who knows?”

  A contented sigh. “Not me. But I’m glad they’re together. And I’m glad we were chosen to keep watching out for them.”

  “So am I, Elloria. So am I.”

  Loose Id Titles by Evangeline Anderson

  Dangerous Cravings

  Eyes Like A Wolf

  Heart and Soul

  Forbidden

  Hunger Moon Rising

  Marked

  Outcast

  Picture Perfect

  Slave Boy

  Sweet Dreams

  The Assignment

  The Last Bite

  The Lost Books, Vols 1 and 2

  The Punishment of Nicollet

  Marked

  Co-written with Jay Douglas

  INTERLUDES

  The Switch

  (featuring characters from Dangerous Cravings)

  Fireworks

  I'll Be Hot for Christmas

  (featuring characters from The Assignment)

  Evangeline Anderson

  Evangeline Anderson is a registered MRI tech who would rather be writing. And yes, she is nerdy enough to have a bumper sticker that reads “I’d rather be writing.” Honk if you see her! She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.