The Kiss of Angels (Divine Vampires Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

more pain medication and he’d nodded off—but his breathing was different.  Harsher.  Eliza had noticed, brow furrowed, as she sat by his side. 
     
    “You don’t know?” The seraphim looked surprised. 
     
    “Well I know,” she replied.  “I mean, generally.  I just meant… I’ve never paid attention to what happens.  After.”
     
    More like, she’d avoided it like the plague.  She liked to think of the couples she joined being together forever.  It always saddened her to know that those bonds would ultimately be severed, if not by divorce, then inevitably, death.  She hated death.  Even the thought of it. 
     
    “Look at the center of his soul.” He nodded toward the bed.  Muriel saw more than a pinprick of light now.  There was a golden orb there, about the size of a golf ball.  “That’s the essence.”
     
    “The essence.  Human essence?” Muriel moved closer, curious in spite of herself.  The man on the bed stopped breathing, just for a moment, like a skip on a record, and then resumed again.  Eliza gasped and Muriel did too, until Norman took another ragged breath.  The alarm in Eliza’s eyes began to fade, although her body remained tense. 
     
    She senses it’s almost over—he’s fading. 
     
    “That’s the soul’s essence,” he explained.  “And it’s what I collect when their time here is up.”
     
    He folded his wings behind him, lowering himself to the floor. 
     
    “So what is all… this?” She gestured to the darkness, reddish-blue now instead of black, surrounding the golden orb.  She would easily have been able to hit that target now. 
     
    “The soul’s experience.”
     
    She remembered Jari’s excitement when she found out they were targeting a black soul .  Such a rare thing.  Strange, to consider someone else’s pain as a prized possession.  Another notch on Jari’s belt, and a considerable one at that, one that might become legendary.  But when she looked at Norman, at the sum of his experience on Earth, she just felt sad.  How could something so beautiful and bright be buried under the weight of darkness?
     
    She found it ironic that, in the human world, gold was so precious.  Did humans somehow know or sense that this golden sphere was at the center of every being? Were they, intuitively, trying to get back to their essence? In the soul’s world, gold was indeed precious, but not because it was scarce.  In the human world, they buried their golden souls in darkness and spent their existence seeking it once again. 
     
    Until this very moment, she realized.  When the soul was returned to itself.  Stripped bare, it was able to shine once more. 
     
    It made Muriel wonder—did angels have souls?
     
    “I don’t understand why they cover it up.” Muriel peered closer at the golden sphere. 
     
    “It’s suffering that makes a soul dark,” he explained.  “Humans can’t prevent it.  The only difference between his soul and hers is their response to suffering.”
     
    “It’s so painful.” It hurt to look at it.  Muriel wanted to look away but she forced herself to stand her ground beside the seraphim. 
     
    “Yes.” His voice was sad, resigned.  “Some people scar and heal.  Some wounds stay open and fester.  It’s the same with a soul.”
     
    “How do you know all this?” She blinked up at him, pondering. 
     
    “It’s time.” He took a step forward, reaching out, but Muriel grabbed him, a silent protest. 
     
    “Wait!” she cried.  Chariel frowned down at her, but he did as she asked.  He waited.  “Will he… will he wake again? Will he tell her he loves her just one more time?” 
     
    “She knows.” His eyes softened and she felt the brush of his wings against her cheek, a tender gesture.
     
    And then he plucked the golden orb, like picking fruit, tucking it away somewhere under his wing.  It disappeared entirely.  Muriel cried out, seeing the thread she’d help create, which had