Rise of the Phoenix, Shawndra Austin [books to read in your 20s TXT] 📗

In…..out…in…out. Although his breathing was rhythmic, steady, and almost peaceful on the outside, there was nothing inside of him that was peaceful. The darkness of the room did little to help his mind find ease because every time he closed his eyes…..he saw their faces. Mikhail and Yvaine….his best friends….his family. Dead because he had been blinded by his own hunger for battle…..dead because he had failed them.
Mikhail had been his brother, mentor, friend, father figure, and so many other things during the span of their existence together and he’d never been as close to anyone as he had him. When he had Cleansed Yvaine, a Tainted Soul whom Lucifer had sent to kill him, Mikhail had found his Completion, the union of his soul and hers, and become what they were all mean to be. That had given him, Gabriel, hope for the rest of them. For almost a hundred years Mikhail and Yvaine had lived together among the humans, caring for them, protecting them as was their duty. But everything had changed after their child had been born. As a Tainted Soul, Yvaine had become what the humans called Demons. Though she was tricked into it, there was no denying what she was and no way around it. She had imbibed the Tainted blood of Lucifer at one point and nothing could fully cleanse that.
When Mikhail had Cleansed her, he had absolved her of all of her sins and allowed her to regain her own free will but it had not changed her blood. She was still a demon and their daughter had been part of both of them…and the only one of her kind to ever be born. The power of the baby had sent tremors throughout both the Light and the Darkness and it seemed that everyone was unsure about this special child. Some called for her destruction, others for her protection but Mikhail and he had held firm, challenging anyone and everyone who threatened her. He’d been certain she was the dawning of a new era of the two races but…that had all changed when their brother Azriel had betrayed and murdered Mikhail and his entire family including the baby. It was then that everything about him had changed.
No longer was he concerned with bearing the Divine Wrath of the Creator…no his purpose had become somewhat darker and a lot more simple. He was Vengeance, pure and simple, plain and ugly. Mikhail had been the one created from the Creator’s mercy and compassion not him. He could not forgive nor could he forget. No, the Creator had made him purely for one purpose; to punish his arrogant children both human and non-human, divine and dark. He was destruction, a force of raw power that was bound to nothing and no one here on earth with only one purpose: destruction.
Sighing, he opened his eyes and immediately the lights came on in the room in response to his silent command. Meditation didn’t help him anymore. There was only one thing that would heal him and that was the day that he killed his treacherous brother Azriel. Rocking back on to the heels of his feet he stood carefully, stretching as he did so.
“Mmm,” he groaned, rubbing his eyes and cracking his neck before smoothing down the creases in his white jogging pants. Silently he padded through the empty house, his feet cool against the marbled floors, each room as dark as the other. There was nothing of interest here for him at all. In fact he wasn’t even sure why he still stayed here. Perhaps it was time to move on. A new house at least gave him something to do. It took a few days to get all the protective wards and enchantments in line. But even then everything was….empty. It felt like there was a hole in his soul, a void that could never be filled no matter what he did or how he did it. When he had been in the presence of the Creator there had been no such thing. Perhaps it was this place….the severance of his connection to the Divine One that did this to him. He felt like he was completely alone in the world and nothing could convince him otherwise.
Perhaps it was his fate….perhaps he deserved it. No matter. Before he left this world two things were certain. The first was that he was going to kill Azriel for his betrayal and the second was he’d probably not be going back home when he was done. But he accepted both. So long as he got his revenge he was ok with an eternity of damnation. Hell couldn’t be worse than the constant pain in his heart and the regret that came with knowing that he had been the cause of the death of perhaps the greatest protector that the humans had ever had and the best friend he’d ever known.

Publication Date: 11-15-2012

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