When Angels Fall Read online

  When Angels Fall

  BY

  Stephanie Jackson

  eBook Edition

  Copyright © 2012 by Stephanie Jackson

  S.O.S. Publishing ©2012

  Some characters from The Undead Heart by Tate Jackson © used by permission

  Dedicated to Lynn, As always

  With all my love to Rebecca Goppert, Danielle Roberts and Leslie Crutcher

  Chapter One

  1.

  Danielle Coulter sat on the ground in the cooling summer night breeze, crying at the edge of her mother’s grave at Riverview Cemetery in Clarksville, Tennessee. Her mother had loved this place. She remembered coming here with her when she was a child. Her mother had enjoyed doing charcoal gravestone rubbings on warm summer afternoons. Dani had always thought that it was a strange thing to do, but her mother had loved it.

  And even as a child she’d known how hard her mother had worked to put food on the table and pay the bills in their home; a home they would not have had if her Grandma hadn’t have willed it to her mother, so she’d never complained about being dragged here on sunny afternoons; even though she would have rather been playing with her friends. Dani’s mother, Annie Coulter, would tell her about the graveyard’s history while she did the charcoal rubbings, and Dani remembered everything her mother had taught her about the cemetery.

  She knew that the Riverview Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Clarksville and had been in place since the first burial on February 23, 1800, when Clarksville was still just a small village. The land had been donated by the first person to be interred there: Valentine Sevier.

  It was up on a hill that overlooked the Cumberland River, but which now also overlooked the fast food restaurants’ and car lots that wound their way down Riverside Drive. She remembered the Cemetery history, but it meant little to her now. It was hard to believe that she was really here; that her mother had actually died.

  Breast Cancer; it was no way for anyone to die. She hated hearing stories of how a woman fought breast cancer; how the woman wouldn’t give up and how she beat it. Her mother had fought for her life, tooth and nail, and she had never given up. She had clawed her way into remission twice; but in the end, the cancer had taken her anyway. You didn’t hear stories like that; stories of women who had fought valiantly, and lost.

  She knew it was because stories like that would disillusion some women, but the reality was that the majority of breast cancer fights end in death.

  She’d witnessed that for herself three days ago, when cancer took her mother from her; had taken the only family member Dani had had. She was angry, but at the same time she was glad that her mother’s suffering was over. But Annie was gone, and now Dani was alone in the world. She’d come back tonight to say her private good-byes to her mom.

  She’d attended the funeral; of course, but that was more for the friends of the deceased to express their condolences to the family, more that anything else. And condole they had.

  Her mother’s entire church congregation, the All Saints Immaculate Conception Catholic Church of Clarksville, had attended the viewing and services. She couldn’t count the number of times she had heard the phrases ‘She’s gone home’ and ‘She’s gone to be with the Lord’, and her all time favorite, ‘She’s in a better place’. All the things people said to make each other feel better.

  Dani had said thank you to every condolence, but religion had never been her thing. Annie Coulter had tried to get her daughter ‘Right with Jesus’, as she put it, but it had never taken. Dani had gone to Sunday school for years and had heard all the Bible stories, but it had all sounded like fairy tales to her; and Dani had never believed in fairy tales. Not even as a small child.

  It was hard to believe in such childish things when you saw your mother fall asleep at the dinner table because she was exhausted from the two jobs she worked that day, only making enough money to just barely scrape by; or when you’d never had a father because he left before you were even born.

  Her mother had never complained, but Dani had seen the toll that being a single mother had taken on her mother’s life. Dani had sworn to herself that it would never happen to her.

  She wasn’t the virgin her mother would have liked her to be, but she took her birth control every day and had never failed to practice safe sex. Not that any sex had happened in the last eight months of her mom’s illness.

  Dani had broken up with her abusive ex-boyfriend, Buddy, after he had beaten her in a drunken rage, and put her in the hospital for two weeks.

  She’d filed a Restraining Order against Buddy and been back home with her mom, recovering, when cancer came back for her mom full force. There was to be no remission this time.

  Cancer had ridden her mother all the way to the finish line. Dani had dropped everything in her life to care for her mother full time. It’s what her mom would have done for her.

  Dani was a hair stylist, and had a wonderful boss named Candy. Candy told her to take all the time off that she needed, and that her job would be waiting for her when she was ready to come back. Dani had enough money saved to get by for a few more weeks before she’d have to go back to work. That would give her time to grieve a little (she knew that some of her grief and pain would be with her forever), and take care of her mom’s final affairs.

  She looked up at the sky and noticed flashes of lightning in the distance. Thunderstorms were coming. It was time for her to go.

  “I love you, Mom, and I’ll miss you more than you could ever imagine,” she said, and tried to push herself up from the ground.

  Only she never made it all the way up. Someone grabbed her by the back of her hair and threw her several feet, headfirst, into a headstone. Bright lights flashed in her head, and she collapsed onto the stranger’s grave.

  She tried to push herself up again, but just couldn’t find the strength to do it. She heard her attacker laugh; the sound of his laughter echoed in her head.

  “That was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be,” he said.

  He stuck his foot under her shoulder and flipped her onto her back. She tried to see his face, but her eyes refused to focus. Everything was blurry.

  He laughed again, “Come on, Sunshine. We got places to go and people to see.”

  He grabbed her by her ankle and started dragging her across the ground like she was nothing more than a bag of garbage. She weakly kicked out at him; he didn’t like that at all. He turned, leaned down, and punched her it the face. She heard a crunch deep in her ears and felt her nose break. She nearly choked on the blood that rushed into her throat.

  “Be good,” he said, as if he were talking to a small child.

  His breath brushed across her face and gagged her. Even through her broken nose she could smell the unmistakably rank scent of decomposition. He started dragging her again. She was barely holding on to consciousness, but she was too terrified to pass out. She knew if she passed out, she was dead.

  She had dealt with Buddy’s multiple attacks on her (the last landing her in the hospital), but Buddy was a known enemy; an asshole with a drinking problem. This was a different animal altogether, and she knew it. She was trying to formulate a plan of escape when lightning; the brightest lightning she’d ever seen, flashed above her.

  It was followed by a roar of thunder so loud and so close that the ground rolled beneath her. Her attacker dropped her legs at the sound of the thunder, and she did the only thing she could think of to do; she screamed. Once she started screaming, she couldn’t stop. Even when she heard the sound of running footsteps; she couldn’t stop.

  Then, amazingly, her attacker was screaming with her. Though her attackers scream was brief, it was the most beautiful sound she had ever heard. Then her savior
was leaning over her.

  “Hush now,” the man said and placed his hand over her mouth, effectively cutting off her screams.

  It was the last thing she remembered before she fell into the darkness.

  2.

  She woke up on a hotel room bed some time later; how much later, she wasn’t sure. What was going on? How did she get here? She did a quick body check, wiggling her fingers and toes, rolling her head left and right. Everything seemed to be in working order.

  She reached up to gingerly touch her nose, and jerked her hand away in shock. Her nose was fine. It wasn’t even sore. That, of course, was impossible. She had heard and felt it break. She didn’t feel like she was in shock (she’d never been in shock, so she couldn’t be sure), but knew that it had to be what was going on.

  She was sure the pain would come when her mind was more capable of dealing with it. For now, she just wanted to go home; to forget this horrible day had ever happened. She took a look around the room to try and figure out exactly where she was. Her mom had cleaned hotel rooms during the day, so Dani knew what most of the ones in town looked like. This room didn’t look familiar.

  But what she did see made her jaw drop. Standing in the middle of the room was a man; she assumed he was the man that had saved her, and…he was naked. Well, not completely naked. The only thing he was wearing was three inch wide gold cuffs around his wrists and ankles. She wasn’t twelve years old; she had been in a room with a naked man before, but never one quite like this.

  He was huge; at least 6’5” tall with shoulders to match, and his skin was deep golden brown. He was facing away from her, and she could see two white ropey, scars running almost the whole length of his back; one on either side of his spine.

  His frame narrowed at the waist and ended in two perfect, muscular legs. He had to be ugly in the face; nobody had a bodylike that and good looks, too. That would be universally unfair to everyone else in the world.

  “Wait”, she thought. Why was he naked? She looked down to make sure she was still dressed. It would be just her luck to be rescued by a rapist. But she was dressed; even her shoes were still on her feet.

  She looked back over at the naked man. He was facing the wall, and appeared to just be staring at it. He seemed to be unaware that she was awake, or that she even existed.

  “Excuse me,” she said, sitting up on the side of the bed.

  Nothing; no response at all.

  “Sir, are you alright?” she asked, and received the same response; nothing.

  Could it really be this easy? Could she just get up and walk out without him noticing? She didn’t know, but she was going to try. She really appreciated him helping her, but she couldn’t deal with anymore craziness tonight, and this man seemed to have his own issues to deal with.

  She crept across the room behind him and opened the door. She noticed that both of the locks on the door were broken, and that the metal door frame was slightly warped. She didn’t know if this man had done the damage, but she knew he wasn’t getting his room deposit back. She looked back at him one last time. He was still facing the wall.

  “Thanks,” she said softly, and stepped outside.

  As soon as Dani stepped out of the room, she knew exactly where she was. She was at the Inn Over the River hotel on Riverside Drive; not far from the cemetery. It was one of the few hotels that her mother had never worked at. She took a deep breath of the cool night air and looked around her. She expected it to be raining, but it wasn’t. The parking lot, and Riverside Drive beyond it, were both dry. It looked like the thunderstorm had been all flash and bang.

  That was great news considering she had walked to the cemetery tonight. If she took the back way, she could be home in fifteen minutes. She’d lived in the downtown Clarksville area all of her life and knew a back way to pretty much everything. She took one more deep breath, and set out for home.

  She thought about calling the cops to report what happened, but what would be the point? What could she tell them? She hadn’t gotten a look at the guy that had attacked her. She couldn’t tell them how old he was, how tall he was, or even what color his hair had been. What would she say; ‘Look for the guy who’s breath smells like he ate road kill’? That wouldn’t go over to well with the police.

  As for the man that saved her? Dani didn’t want to involve him in her drama. He had been nice enough to help her; no matter what his mental issues were. She didn’t want to repay him by sending the police to his hotel room. Plus, if he responded to the police with the same oblivion that he’d responded to her with, they would probably lock him down for observation.

  Psychiatric observation may not be a bad idea for him, but she didn’t want it to be because of her. And she felt fine; there hadn’t been any real harm done to her, though her attacker had tried. Actually, she felt great; better than she had felt in months.

  She didn’t feel like she had just been the victim of a brutal attack. If she had woken up in her own bed, she would have thought tonight’s events had all been a bad dream.

  She didn’t even feel the grief she’d felt at the cemetery, but she knew, that too, would return when the shock wore off. She wondered if it was possible to be hungry when you were in shock, because she was starving. She hadn’t eaten much since her mom had passed, and it was catching up to her.

  3.

  She was walking up the sidewalk, thinking about making herself a huge sandwich when she got home, when she was thrown into a retaining wall that ran the length of her street. Her shoulder bounced off the wall, and she nearly careened off the sidewalk into the street.

  She couldn’t believe this was happening again. It had been stupid of her to not have been more observant after what had happened at the cemetery earlier. She hadn’t been ready for this.

  But she was ready now. She turned just in time to duck under the punch her attacker was aiming at her head. While his arm was fully extended, she grabbed him by the shoulder and elbow, and flung him into the street.

  She turned back to get a better look at this attacker. Was he the same guy from the cemetery? It had to be him; that, or she was having the worst night in the history of mankind.

  She guessed him to be her height; around 5’8”. Dark skin, dark hair, and even darker eyes. He was standing in the street, smiling at her.

  “You’re going to fight me? Well, isn’t that just adorable?” he said, and started walking towards her.

  “Stay away from me,” she warned, and raised her fists in front of her.

  “Or what?” he asked, raising his foot to step back up onto the sidewalk.

  She pivoted on her heel and kicked him in the chest, laying him on his back out in the street, “Or I’ll kick the ever lovin’ shit out of you, that’s what.”

  The man had one hand on his chest where she kicked him and was using the other hand to try and push himself off the ground.

  “I don’t think so,” Dani said, and stepped off the sidewalk.

  She walked over to him and kicked him in the face. He fell back onto the street.

  “Be good,” she said, mocking what he’d said to her at the cemetery. “What’s wrong, Pumpkin? No smile? It’s not so funny anymore, is it?” she taunted him. “Well, not to you anyway,” she said, and kicked him in the ribs.

  He groaned and rolled over onto his side. She didn’t care that he wasn’t capable of fighting back now. She was pissed, and determined to kick him to death. She stomped on him over and over again; relishing each sound of pain that passed through his bloody lips.

  She was so preoccupied with trying to stomp the man to death that she didn’t hear the person coming up behind her until it was too late. She was suddenly grabbed around the throat and flung to the ground.

  What in the hell was going on!? Was it Kill Dani Day, and she just didn’t get the email? The new attacker was leaning over her, preparing to do God knows what; and then he was gone.

  Before he’d had a chance to do anything to her, he was picked up and smashed
to the ground with bone shattering force.

  She looked up and saw the man from the hotel standing above her, and he was just as naked as the last time she’d seen him. Even in the mist of this new attack she knew that she’d been wrong; this man was far from ugly.

  He stared down at her with eyes the color of blazing blue fire. He had gorgeous, high cheek bones, and beautiful full lips. She moved her eyes further down his body and saw that he was a fully grown man.

  “Are you determined to get killed tonight, woman?” he yelled at her. “Get in your house! Now!”

  She didn’t even consider disobeying him. She ran a few feet down the sidewalk, up the front steps, across the yard, and into her unlocked front door. She locked the door behind her and ran through the house to lock the backdoor as well.

  She did a quick check on the first floor of the house to make sure all the windows were locked, and then ran up the stairs to do the same on the second floor.

  When she was sure the house was locked up airtight, she went back downstairs to call the police. She came to a dead stop when she saw the naked man standing in the middle of her living room.

  “What the hell are you doing in my house? How did you get in here!?” she demanded, and then changed her mind. “You know what…never mind. You can just go on to jail with those dickweeds in the street,” she said, and grabbed her cell phone from the end table she had thrown it on before leaving the house that night.

  She dialed 911 and waited…and waited…and waited. She hung up the phone, dialed again, and got the same outcome; dead air. Damn it! Why was everything going so wrong tonight? She considered running to the kitchen to grab the house phone, but gave up instead. She sank down onto the couch and dropped her head in her hands.

  She didn’t hear him move and just about jumped out of her skin when she felt his hand touch her shoulder.

  “I understand you’ve had a bad day, but I need to talk to you”, he said.