Saving Grace
A novel by Christine Zolendz
Saving Grace Copyright (c) 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Book Cover Design by okaycreations.net
Editor - http://frankiesfreelanceediting.blogspot.com
Dedication and Thanks
This book is completely and utterly dedicated from the bottom of my heart to...
Samantha Baer Taylor and the awesome reviewgasm she gave me. To the Blog Queens, without them I would not know what the hell to read! Maryse at http://www.maryse.net, Lori at http://lorisbookblog.blogspot.com and Minha (Brazilian Girl) for all her support!
Life is about living every single moment like it's your last. If you treat each goodbye, each hello, each hug, each day, and each kiss like it was your last... how amazing would each moment of your life be?
Thank you all for waiting so patiently for Saving Grace (and some of you not so patiently, I loved your daily messages!) And thank you all for taking a chance on an Indie author, who can't write a lick of words, but loves to tell stories...
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Happy-Epilogue-After
PROLOGUE
There's a very old story that was found written on an ancient scroll hidden on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea. There were many stories written on many scrolls, but the one in particular that I am talking about is called the Book of Enoch. You may have heard of it, or maybe not, but I feel I must tell it. The story is about the Grigori, a band of angels that were dispatched to the earth to watch over the humans because they were fragile and precious and needed protecting. Blah, blah, blah. And of course without complaint, the angels did as they were told, nicknaming themselves the Watchers.
Now, as time passed, the Watchers began to notice how beautiful the human women were (of course), and took for themselves human wives. The offspring from these unions were called the Nephilim, who grew into mighty savage giants that pillaged the earth and endangered all of humanity with their chaos.
To rid the earth of its poison, the humans and Nephilim were destroyed in a continuous raging storm, and the angels were thrown into a dark abyss in the middle of the earth for eternity.
But what the book doesn't say, was that not all of them shared the same fate. One angel and one human shared but one kiss. The angel of course, because his brothers were of a jealous nature, was treated like the rest of the fallen angels and was imprisoned along with them. The human however, was to live the rest of her eternity as a lost soul in search of the angel that she once loved.
The Book of Enoch was once cherished by many religions throughout the world. However, it later fell into the disfavor of many powerful theologians for the simple opposition of the controversial deeds of the fallen angels. So it was kept hidden, and most of humanity does not know this story to be a true part of its history.
But, I know it's true. Because I'm the freaking lost soul. And just when I finally found my angel, all hell breaks loose to try to keep us apart. Seriously.
Chapter 1
I didn't have a clue how long I had been walking. All I was aware of was the sun slowly setting behind me, far in the distance. The fiery orb slowly melted into a horizon littered with sand and rock. A lone asphalt strip traveled through the center of this expanse of land. My feet quietly moved over the gravel and crushed rock that it was made of.
A thin mist settled all around me. As I walked along, it thickened and the raw smell of wet earth filled my senses. Large drops of rain fell against my face, landing on my eyelashes and splattered cool sparks of fire along my cheeks. The rain stung my face and arms. It bit my scalp and shoulders; yet it was a relief from the blasting sun. I raised my head to the sky, but not one cloud could be seen.
I kept walking.
So far, I hadn't seen another soul out there. I didn't even know if there was real. The only thing I was sure of was that somewhere the beautiful body I had been living in for the last ten years was laying in a coma in a hospital bed. So here I am stumbling through the freaking desert trying to find my way back to it, my body and consciousness.
Oh, and let's not forget that there seems to be a gang of idiotic, fallen angels after me. Honestly, they could all kiss my ass. I set my mind on one thing. Okay, two things. First, I was getting that body back. Second, I was going to find Shane and punch him square in the face (maybe, and I mean MAYBE, after that, I'd kiss him. May...Be.)
I had a lot of time to think about it on that desert road. The more steps I took, the angrier I became. In all of existence, and yes I mean ALL, I have been wronged more and longer than any other human. EVER. I have been punished for...truly, I don't even know the exact number of centuries, for a single kiss. One freaking kiss. One earth shattering, heart stopping kiss, but still, it was just a kiss!
But the thing that really gets me angry. The thing that really makes my fists clench and my skin tight, is that perfect kiss, that kiss that I saw a glimpse of heaven in, was with someone who ended up to be Shane Maxton. Shane Maxton, New York City's very own personal Man-Whore of the Year.
Shane. I would have never thought it would be him. I mean, yeah in a cheesy romance novel, chick flick kind of way I should have probably guessed it was him all along. My God, for someone who has been around as long as I have, I sure am naive. Yeah, I know you're agreeing with me, thank you so much for rubbing it in. Like I don't have enough issues right now.
Shane. The last time I laid my eyes on his perfect face, I could see his heart breaking while I walked away with another man. If I knew who he really was, that he shared the same secret as me, that he was the one I'd been looking for all these centuries, I would have never left his arms. Ever.
But that was before. Before Gabriel showed me how Shane tried to forget my existence, how he tried to erase the memory of me. And now, I'm just seriously pissed off at him.
An enormous black bird flew down through the raindrops, screeching its piercing caw right above my head, stopping my thoughts short. What the hell, is that a vulture? I jerked to a stop as the bird landed in front of my feet. Not a vulture, those things are butt-ass ugly. This was a beautiful sleek feathered raven. Its head tilted up towards me as if to say hello. It had secrets too.
Folding my legs beneath me, I slowly sat down on the road, meeting the birds black gaze.
"What are you doing here? Are you in a bird hospital
in a coma too?" I joked.
The damn bird cawed at me loudly and bird hopped closer.
"Okay, you're a pretty bird and all, but seriously, if you come any closer to me with that sharp-ass beak I'm going to kick you hard," I said.
The bird tilted its little birdy head at me again and flew away in a cloud of soft black feathers, raindrops and wind.
I watched the bird spread its giant wings and soar through the rain toward the direction I was heading. In the distance, I could make out the shadowy shapes of buildings that weren't there before. "Wonderful. Thanks bird. That must be the Secret Garden and I must be Mary freaking Lennox. Fan-freaking-tastic."
I stood up, with my hands on my hips, raindrops continued to blast their little electric spikes of heat onto my face. I chewed at my lower lip, wondering if I should just walk in the opposite direction. I hadn't even thought up a plan yet. I had no idea where the hell I was. Was I dead? I couldn't be. When I stood completely motionless, I could still hear the sharp beeps and hisses of the life support machines hooked up to my body somewhere. Low somber sounds just a breath above the desert silence.
My head swam with dizzying thoughts. The assault of the rain on my skin sent bursts of sheer adrenaline just underneath the surface. What am I going to do if the archangel Gabriel was here? How do I fight against him?
The raven reappeared and circled high above me. My lives would be complete if it crapped on me, seriously.
Without thinking more about it, my legs started moving. Long strides over the wet desert sand. I figured I would need to deal with things as they came. One foot in front of the other was a saying I've lived by for centuries. But this nonsense has to end. The let's drag Selah's soul through hell campaign stops now. I walked toward the buildings with a mission.
The dusty streets were deserted except for the slow ghostly roll of a few tumbleweeds. The drowning of the sun behind me washed the bricks and mortar of the buildings with graying reflections of color.
The raindrops ceased in their attack against the deserts stillness. I stood at the entrance to the small city of concrete buildings and watched the last of the sun's rays glimmer and fade. A slow, sad death of day. A powerful sense of the unknown, the supernatural, cast itself along the emerging shadows of the buildings. I shuttered thinking about what ethereal creatures lived within its darkness, since I knew the evil of the creatures that lived within its light.
A loud sharp scream erupted from deep inside one of the large edifices. It called my name in a low raspy melody. The hairs on the back of my neck rose as I wondered if that could possibly be the person I so desperately wanted it to be.
My quick strides crunched over the broken gravel to the building where I knew the voice had come from.
I stood before the door as if I was looking at a gateway into some unknown plane, an alternate universe and moving forward through it would bring me to a place from where I would never return.
What was I really up against? A band of fallen angels who were led by Gabriel. Gabriel the Archangel who wanted to create more Nephilim with yours truly, so he could rule the world. Gabriel, who said he's always loved me.
What did I want? Did I want my punishment to end? Oh, yes. Did I want to be Grace, the body of the person I had lived in for the last ten years? Oh, hell yes. I wanted to live the rest of her normal life, whatever that held, for as little time she may have left and then cease to exist. I didn't want to live anymore lives. I didn't want to die even one more time and jump into another empty humans body. I was done being a lost soul. I had found the angel I had been looking for and he turned out to be a piece of shit. Okay, so I was just really angry with him for becoming so human as Shane. Maybe I was acting like a child. A jealous, selfish child. But I didn't deserve any of this and I planned to go down fighting. We were going to play by my rules now. I didn't want to even think about Shane being my angel right now. I was not thinking clearly enough to form a definite answer to how I felt about him, or if that bond of what we shared was gone. The mere mention of his name in my mind caused me to think of his lips, his hands on me and that brokenhearted look on his face when I choose Blake over him.
My heart sunk deep in my chest. It folded in on itself and hardened into a solid granite rock. Unmovable and unbreakable.
Because seriously, let's think about this, shall we? I just spent centuries saving my heart and soul for someone, while that someone had been trying to erase the memory of me through the lacy thong, dirty-ass panties of New York City's most self-loathing, easy, skanky little.... Okay, I'm just really angry. And jealous, oh my God am I jealous. What girl in the world likes to learn that they are easily replaceable and forgotten? Not. Me. And then, THEN he tells GRACE that he loves her! Yes, technically I was Grace, but still! He didn't know that!
Do you see how unfocused and crazed that man makes me?
After taking a deep breath, I yanked the door open and walked in.
Oh crap.
I collapsed to my knees. Straining my eyes to see through the dimness, I tried to take in everything that was around me. All my senses were heightened to a painful capacity, almost snapping me in two. Pure raw bliss enveloped my body, wrapping itself tightly around me, draining me of all my hate and anger.
The smell of the most exquisitely fragrant flowers rushed past my cheeks on the sweetest breeze of air I had ever experienced. As my knees slammed painfully into the cold granite slabs of the floor, I could hear the slow sweet melody of an ancient choir of voices caressing their soft words against my soul. My hands grasped at the coldness of what lay beneath me; I needed an anchor, something to hold on to so I didn't feel like I had been knocked off the face of the earth.
What was laid out above me, I had only seen through a kiss lifetimes ago. Spreading from my raw fingertips to the soft pads of my toes was the warm feeling of coming home. Yet, a shadowy covering encased the edges of what I was seeing as if I was looking at the heavens through a dirty window.
A lone hazy figure gradually emerged from the depths of the shadows, and a desolate humorless laugh broke through my lips. I couldn't let myself believe for a second that this was my entrance to heaven. What? Was someone going to try to sneak me in the back door?
The background of the heavens dimmed gently and along with it went the sounds and smells of paradise. I remained slumped on my knees in a small room beautifully lit with the soft glow of dozens of candles.
There was something about the eerie silence of the room that seemed to unravel my nerves. I couldn't help but think there should be some sound of life to be heard, but I supposed everything would seem dead and silent after you've had a glimpse of heaven. My body shook violently in its withdrawal.
The figure I had seen before, now sat in the corner of the room deep in the shadows. The candlelight threw small impressions of light against it but it gave me no clues to who it was. The person, I couldn't tell if it was human or angel, leaned forward in its seat with its head held in his hands. Silky clumps of short dark hair hung over the hands and a tiny nip of a butterfly's wing quivered somewhere deep within me.
I caught a flicker of tight toned muscular arms as hard as stone pillars holding up an achingly beautiful face. The shadows and soft flashes of candlelight danced along the perfectly sculpted arms revealing the dark lines of the sharp beauty of his tattoos. I now understood the story behind them. The beauty of the swirling clouds, the dragon-like serpent devouring their innocence, ending in the broken winged dove. Shane?
My windpipe tightened as if invisible hands were crushing it. I was suffocating from his beauty, from my anger and hurt, and from how much I loved this being. My jaw clenched tight as the tears blurred my vision of him.
Shane sat shirtless, his powerful lean muscles flexed with the slow movement of lifting his ancient eyes to mine. The glow of the candles shifted and flickered brighter, allowing me to see into the depths of the blue eyes that were once my hearts captive for centuries. Did they still have a hold on my soul?
"Grace."
The quick streaks of tears burned down my cheeks and I sputtered a small unintentional whimper. I wanted to close my eyes against his beauty, against everything that he stood for and everything he was. Yet, at the same time, I wanted to throw myself at him and never let go. I tightened my fists and waited for him to speak.
In a blur of motion, he knelt on the floor before me; his ancient blue irises echoed his rage and agony.
"I didn't know it was you," he breathed. "Everything is perfect now. We will be together and no one will ever hurt you again."
I cringed with each word. They didn't sound right. They didn't sound real. It didn't sound like him. Or, did I just not care anymore?
I balled my fists tighter, pulled back and punched Shane in the face as hard as I possibly could.
Chapter 2
Shane looked at me deadpan with accusation and hate in his eyes. The expression seemed to cause a riot of butterflies in my belly. Maybe they sensed the danger. I almost apologized to that beautiful face. Almost. I swallowed back the apology because I was not the one who should be sorry. If it weren't for any of these fallen angels, humans would still live in Paradise.
Something didn't feel right and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. How could Shane be here with me? "Thanks. But I think I'll pass on the bullshit," I replied. I stood up. "I'm done. Game over. Pick a new toy to play with." I turned my back on him and walked away.
Shane was in front of me in a flash, his eyes barely an inch away from mine. "Never."
"Never what?" I asked, quickly taking a step away from him.
"I will never let you go." He moved forward with me.
I stepped back against a wall that wasn't there a minute ago. Shane leaned in closer. I tried to swallow, but it only got caught in my throat. Suddenl y, Shane's face was so clos e, I couldn't even think straight. His hands moved so fast I didn't even see them coming. He crashed his body against mine, hammering his open hand into my throat and then taking hold.