Avenger's Angel: A Novel of the Lost Angels Read Online Free Page A

to find a date for Thursday night.” He had a “gala” in Dallas to attend that night.
    “Ask one of the multitude of women who come to your signings.”
    “I’d rather not.” Uriel shook his head. “It feels wrong—like I’m pitting my fans against one another or something.”
    “Oh, listen to yourself.” Gillihan rolled his eyes.
    Uriel cocked his head to one side, his green eyes sparking with warning.
    Gillihan sighed again. “You and your brothers are more trouble than you’re worth. You wanted this, remember? You swore you had to have it.” Max leaned forward, placing his elbows on his knees. “I bet you don’t even remember why you were sent down here in the first place.” He shook his head and gazed at Uriel over the top of his glasses.
    Uriel frowned. “To Texas?”
    Max shook his head. “Earth, genius. A few piddly thousand years go by and you all get so mired in what it means to be human that you take your very existence for granted.” He paused and considered something. “Except, perhaps, for Michael. He rides the other end of the spectrum and takes himself too seriously.”
    “I haven’t forgotten,” Uriel told him firmly. And it was true. He hadn’t forgotten why he and his brothers had been given humanlike forms and allowed to reside on Earth two thousand years ago. It was just that they had been looking so long without finding any sign of even one archess that they’d gotten to the point where they just didn’t think about it most days.
    That was all.
    “The least you can do is quit your whining and get on with your increasingly meaningless existence without giving me any more trouble,” Gillihan told him flatly.
    Gillihan’s words were abrasive, and they were meant to be. But Uriel knew that, deep down, it wasn’t the guardian’s fault. He’d been down here for as long as Uriel and his brothers had and it was simply too long for anyone to go without accomplishing something and gaining a sense of fulfillment, no matter how immortal he may be.
    “I’m sorry, Max,” Uriel said softly.
    Gillihan blinked. He sat up straight, and then blinked again. “You are?”
    “You’re right.” Uriel shrugged and slapped his hands on his jeans in a gesture of defeat. “What have I got to complain about? Chicks dig me. I should be happier than a pig in shit.” He smiled that smile that had women swooning in the aisles. “That is what they say down here, right?”
    Max laughed. “It’s what they used to say, mostly. But close enough.” He shook his head and turned in his seat to reach his arm through the opening between their cabin and the driver’s seat. Just as he was signaling for Nathan to head back around to the storefront, a shrieking sound drew his attention to the windows.
    Uriel looked too. And then his eyes grew very wide. “Is that what I think it is?”
    “I’m afraid so,” Gillihan replied.
    “They’re blocking the exit,” Uriel said, his tone laced with shock.
    There was no time to formulate a plan. He could either stay inside the car indefinitely and wait for the cops or escape from the car and run. Fast.
    Uriel threw open the door of the limousine and bolted out of the backseat. Behind him, he heard Max calling, but he ignored the guardian and headed directly for the bookstore.
    Later, and in retrospect, he would realize that heading toward the bookstore instead of away from it was, at the very least, a bizarre decision. Especially considering that the throng of teenage girls now racing toward him like a medieval village mob was coming from said store.
    However, there was little thought involved. The girls were coming around the corner from the front of the store, which gave him a clear shot at the back door. It was mostly instinct that propelled Uriel across the lot to the locked back exit of the establishment. And it was superhuman strength that then allowed him to wrench the door open against the lock and rush inside.
    He sensed that the alarm wanted to go