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

already weaved itself into a nice, thick braid, snapped and frayed.  It hung limply, still attached to Eliza’s soul, its end reddish and bloody from where it had been affixed to Norman. 
     
    “That’s it?” Muriel asked, looking at the man’s face.  His eyes were still closed.  He looked peaceful, like he was sleeping.  But his chest had stopped rising and falling.  That ragged breathing that had filled the room had disappeared.  “That’s all there is?” 
     
    Eliza noticed.  She shook him.  She cried out, calling his name, but there was no answer, no response.  The essence of who he had been was now tucked away with the seraphim.  The body that remained was just a shell of who had been.  She wondered if those little golden orbs were the same, just shells, containing the true essence of their existence. 
     
    “Norman!” Eliza’s voice rose, panicked.  “Please! No! Not now, not yet!”
     
    The woman’s tears fell onto the man’s face as she bent to kiss his lips, his stubbly cheek, cupping his face in her hands as if she could bring him back.  The sight of this made Muriel ache all over.  Her limbs shook as she watched Eliza rush to the door, calling for a nurse, a doctor, someone, anyone…
     
    “Why?” Muriel looked up at the angel who had taken the man’s soul, who had plucked it from him as easily as taking an apple from a tree.  She wanted to rail at him—this was his fault.  All of this pain and sorrow.  She glanced at Eliza, seeing her soul had already changed, from that deep amber color, to a dark bronze, dull and cloudy.  Muriel doubted it would stop there. 
     
    “Why do you do that?” Muriel’s voice was just a whisper as Eliza rushed out the door, going to look for help where none would be found. 
     
    “I’m sorry.” The seraphim apologized, wincing.  “It’s just my job.”
     
    “You have a terrible job.” Muriel hugged herself, feeling the bow and quiver on her back shift.  She spent eons joining souls, only to have angels like this one tear them apart.  What was the point?
     
    “Death isn’t the end,” he reminded her as she stood looking down at the man’s still face.  She felt Char’s wings circling, enveloping her, and she turned to face him, feeling herself trembling.  The seraphim pulled her close, into an embrace.  It was a tender, very human thing to do, and it surprised her. 
     
    What surprised her even more was how good it felt.  Is this why humans embraced this way? Touched each other so often? She felt comforted, whole again in that moment.  How strange. 
     
    “You gave this man a great gift today.”
     
    His wings quivered as he drew her tighter so her head rested against his torso.  She was enveloped in softness, pressed against his strong, solid body.  Angels mirrored human forms, but only to some degree.  Humans obviously didn’t have wings.  And angels didn’t have flesh.  Although their bodies were solid, they appeared gossamer, like tangible light.  Cherubim were all silver, almost pearlescent, but all of the seraphim she’d seen were golden, like this one. 
     
    “A lot of good it’s doing him.” Her voice was muffled in the hollow made by his wings. 
     
    “Ah but it is.” Char unfurled and Muriel found herself longing for his embrace again as he reached underneath one of his wings to retrieve the orb he’d taken.  “You gave this soul a chance to shine again.  Look.  Here.”
     
    He handed it to her and she stared down at it, seeing, for the first time, the way the color shifted when she tilted it, as if it were filled with some liquid, something sweet maybe, like honey. 
     
    “But they had such a short time together,” she mused.  The thing in her hand was warm.  She thought it was from being protected under the angel’s wing, but it stayed warm.  It was full of energy, quivering in her hand, as if it might leap away all on its own. 
     
    “Love knows no time.” He tilted her chin