SOUL MATES (Angels and Demons Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

something else with it, but he didn’t know what it was, exactly, he wanted her to do with it. So he kept his mouth shut, just watching her with an uneasiness he didn’t know what to do with.
    “Some of us have work to do,” Wilhelm suddenly announced even as Donna—his lover—slapped his arm and whispered a harsh warning somewhere near his ear. “Can we get on with this little meeting?”
    Stiles gave him a dirty look. He was not happy with Wilhelm. He didn’t understand why he even had to be there since this really had little to do with the dark souls. He hadn’t trusted Wilhelm since he’d betrayed the humans during the war. Stiles understood that Wilhelm was working under a misunderstanding, but that didn’t make what he’d done any less destructive. And it didn’t mean that he had to like being in the same room with him again.
    “What is this all about?” Raphael asked, his gaze moving from Stiles to Dylan and the box in her hands.
    “We have reason to believe we’ve found an orb of guardianship,” Stiles said.
    The room fell silent. Raphael stood, crossing the room in two quick strides to come to stand in front of Dylan. Demetria and Wilhelm looked shocked. The others—except for Raphael’s angels—seemed lost.
    “What is an orb of…?” Rachel asked.
    “It is one of the most important artifacts an angel can take out of heaven,” Raphael said. “It’s a source of power. But more than that…it’s like having a little piece of God with you all the time.”
    Raphael knelt in front of Dylan and held his hands just inches from the box, as though he wanted to touch it but was afraid to do so. Dylan smiled softly at him, more serene than Stiles could remember her looking since long before Wyatt’s death. In fact, he couldn’t remember for sure the last time she’d looked that relaxed. She was almost…happy.
    “Where?” Raphael asked.
    “In a house Joanna once lived in,” Dylan responded. “We think she brought it down with her when she fell.”
    Raphael nodded, as though that was what he had suspected she would say. “There were rumors,” he said.
    “Rumors?” Stiles asked.
    Raphael nodded again, turning slowly on his heel to face Stiles. “I heard things. I wasn’t sure what was true and what wasn’t…but now, I suppose I do.”
    Raphael took one last look at the box and then he sighed, rising to his feet with apparent reluctance. His eyes fell on Rachel for a long second, a need Stiles thought he recognized in his expression. Stiles suspected Raphael and Rachel had begun a quiet courtship, but he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t really his business. He tried to keep his nose out of things like that. Rebecca once told him that a woman’s heart was only for her to reveal, so he figured Rachel would talk to him about it when she was ready.
    He just hoped that Raphael made her happy. Rachel deserved happiness.
    Raphael turned toward Stiles, his handsome features clouded with concern. It felt like a confirmation of something Stiles had been unsure of. And he wasn’t sure he liked it.
    “Joanna was to choose a new guardian of humanity,” Stiles said. “That’s why she fell to Earth, why she had this orb with her.”
    “Yes,” Raphael confirmed. “Joanna was to choose from one of the archangels who were already here, preferably one of Lucifer’s legion. God felt that Lucifer’s time as the guardian had come to an end and it was time to bring in fresh eyes, someone who could come to the job with a better point of view.”
    “He was going to replace Lucifer?” Demetria asked, her voice an uncharacteristic breathy whisper. “After all those millennia, he was letting him go home?”
    Raphael nodded. “He’d served his purpose. It was time to go in a new direction.”
    “But who?” Wilhelm asked.
    “Jophiel,” Stiles said even as Raphael began to shrug, to deny knowing. “She was going to give it to Jophiel.”
    “How do you know?” Rachel asked.
    Stiles turned his back on