Mercy for the Wicked Read online

  contents

  Copyright

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

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  Mercy for the Wicked

  Fallen [2]

  Lisa Olsen

  (2011)

  *

  Rating: ★★★★☆

  Tags: angels and demons

  angels and demonsttt

  Mercy for the Wicked gets off to a running start, as we pick up right where the last book left off with Mercy finally filling in dependable boyfriend Detective Ben Gates on her trouble with angels. Of course she glosses over the fact that she’s still secretly lusting over sexy, fallen angel Adam and we can count on Adam not to stay away for too long, despite his best intentions for keeping her safe. It’s encouraging to see Mercy take more of an active role in her plight, no longer the damsel in distress. Mercy for the Wicked introduces a cast of new characters including fallen angel Azazael who wants to use Mercy to escape his dark prison, and a host of demons who kidnap Mercy for their own agenda. We find answers to many lingering questions left by Angel of Mercy, but just as many new ones surface for an eagerly awaited sequel.

  Product Description

  “How do you tell a guy you’re being stalked by demons without sounding like a fruitcake? Even if he really cares about you, there’s bound to be that moment when he looks at you like you’re a total nutbar, right?”

  Mercy is back, and in a world of trouble as factions from above and below vie for her attention, pulling her from the carefully constructed ‘normalcy’ of her life. After confessing all to boyfriend Ben, Mercy is counting on fallen angel Samael to help protect her while she deals with the sting of Adam’s abandonment. But self control has never been Adam’s strong suit. When Mercy is pursued from all sides, will Adam be able to resist playing the hero? Or will Mercy get tired of waiting and save herself? In the end, Mercy must decide, is the enemy of her enemy her friend? Or just a worse enemy?

  Mercy for the Wicked

  By

  Lisa Olsen

  Copyright © 2011 Lisa Olsen, all rights reserved.

  This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, copied, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any other format or changed in any way, including the author’s name and title, and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The use of any real person, company or product names are for literary effect only and used without permission. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

  Visit the author’s website at http://www.lisaolsen.net

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to my family for being supportive in this new endeavor, you make it much easier to devote so much time to the creative process. Especially Emily, who powered through the proofreading in one night! Thanks to the ladies of Havensport for their feedback and support. Thanks to Randi Pandi for kickin’ it from P-Town like it’s old school style. And to my husband James, my dove, my sweet, my dulcet darling… thanks for such great cover art as usual, for designing a whole new one when I changed my mind, and for not complaining (too much) when I went back to his original design.

  Chapter One

  How do you tell a guy you’re being stalked by demons without sounding like a fruitcake? Even if he really cares about you, there’s bound to be that moment when he looks at you like you’re a total nutbar, right?

  Don’t get me wrong, Ben was great, which is why I was so hesitant to drag him into all of my drama. I’d fought long and hard to restore a bit of normalcy into my life, not all that easy to do when you’re not exactly human anymore. Not that I’m some kind of monster or freak, or a vampire… No, this story is about angels and demons, and I fall somewhere in between them for the most part.

  My name is Merceline Renault, though everybody calls me Mercy (except my mother). When I’m not wrapped up in all things supernatural I’m a bartender at a little club named Eden in downtown Seattle. I don’t look particularly angelic, unlike my best friend Daphne, who is the epitome of innocent beauty with her perfect, long, blonde curls and bright blue eyes. Well, I do have the blue eyes now. Ever since I picked up the angelic Grace, it transformed my dark brown eyes to a luminous, cerulean blue; a startling contrast against my dark hair. It took a little while to get used to in the mirror, but most people assumed I wore color contacts, so it wasn’t all that difficult to explain the change.

  Ben was completely in the dark about it all, not an easy feat considering the fact that he’s a cop, one of the nosiest professions in the universe. I often wondered, was Ben a cop because he was nosy, or was he nosy because he was a cop? There was no time to get into a chicken/egg debate with myself. Not when Ben stared expectantly at me in the club, since I’d uttered the magic words, ‘we have to talk’.

  “Okay, let’s talk,” he nodded equably, and I was remarkably impressed by his restraint. Sam had just left after delivering particularly disturbing news and I knew Sam wasn’t on Ben’s list of favorite people. It probably had to do with the fact that he thought Sam was a criminal. Technically that was true. Does it count as being a criminal when the laws you break are at God’s behest? Sam didn’t seem to think he was subject to human laws, don’t get me started about that.

  “Not here,” I replied, my eyes traveling to where our friends gathered. Daphne shot me a smile with a little shrug, thankfully giving me the space to handle it, even though I knew she must have been dying of curiosity once she’d seen Sam leave.

  “Alright, where then?”

  “Let’s go back to my place. It’ll be better if we can talk in private, and this… could take a while.” I tugged on his hand, leaving the bar behind and leading him to the door.

  “Hey, where are you guys going? The party’s just getting started!” Parker called out, sounding disappointed to see us go. The Halloween party at Eden was kicking into full swing, and it was way too early for us to leave.

  I made my voice light, belying the anxiety roiling inside since Sam’s visit knocked me for a loop. “Sorry boss! Something came up I have to deal with, we’ll try to come back later.” I know, that was a total lie. I knew in my heart we wouldn’t be coming back that night, but he did look somewhat relieved at hearing it.

  “Is everything alright, Mercy?” Daphne appeared at my elbow, and I gave her a strained smile.

  “I don’t know yet,” I whispered, “I’ll call you later, okay?”

  She leaned closer. “You’re going to tell him everything?”

  Great job Daph, he’s standing right there… What if I wasn’t about to tell him everything? “Yep, that’s the plan. We’ve gotta go though.”

  Daphne nodded, laying a hand on Ben’s arm. “Go easy on her.”

  “Uh… yeah, sure,” B
en blinked, not quite sure how to take her remark, and I urged him towards the door before it could get any more uncomfortable. “Mercy, what is this about?” he asked as soon as we stepped into the cool night air. My eyes tried to look everywhere at once, a bit of paranoia setting in, despite Sam’s assurance I wasn’t in that grave of danger.

  “Wait ‘til we get to my apartment,” I replied in a tone that brooked no argument. “Follow me over, alright?” I wanted to have my car available in case the conversation didn’t go over very well. Luckily, Ben didn’t argue, instead he gave me one of those long suffering sighs that let me know he was trying to be patient.

  The whole drive over I wasn’t sure whether to keep my eyes on the skies or every shadowy corner on the ground. Given the fact that it was late October in full darkness, there were shadows a plenty. After I nearly missed a red light, I decided I was being ridiculous. Nothing was going to come bounding out at me from the darkness. No, the new threat was much more subtle if Sam was to be believed. Otherwise, I think he would have stuck around, whether Adam wanted him to or not.

  Adam.

  The name alone still had the power to rile me up, and depending on the day, it could be either in a good way or a bad way. On a bad day, he made me so frustrated, I hoped I’d never see his smirking face again. But on a good day… On a good day I could still feel the warmth of his breath on my neck, the rasp of his cheek against me, the feel of his lips chasing after mine, and the rush of pleasure mingled with pain as I felt him say goodbye.

  A honk of the horn drew me out of my reverie, a flush of guilt creeping over me as I sat in the car daydreaming about another guy while my boyfriend waited patiently for me to move through the green light. Best to forget about Adam for the time being, and focus on the problem at hand.

  On the street outside my apartment building, I waited for Ben to get out of his car before I got out of mine, wanting his comforting presence before I risked the darkened stairs on my own. My four story apartment building wasn’t big enough to have an elevator and most of the time the stairwell didn’t bother me, but since my imagination had been kicked into overdrive, I wasn’t taking any chances. My cat, Mimsy, came running to greet us with one of her squeaky meows, and Ben leaned down to give her a pat while I hung up my purse and coat.

  “Would you like something to drink?” I offered, a little nervous now that we were alone.

  “No, I’m good.” He shook his head, handing over his coat.

  “Are you hungry? I know you were expecting food at the party…”

  “Mercy…” His one word spoke volumes, and I knew he knew I was stalling.

  Alright, maybe I was stalling, but what would you have done in my place? I still had no idea what I’d actually say to him. “Right,” I nodded, moving to take a seat on the couch. “You’re probably wondering what Sam’s visit was about?”

  “That has been on my mind, yes,” he said mildly.

  “And I know I haven’t been exactly open in telling you much about him…”

  “Or anything about him.”

  I deserved that. We did have a history with a few… rough patches, and my need for keeping secrets was at direct odds with the nosiness of him being a cop. Sam and Adam were both at the center of the rough patch that had almost broken us up for good. “Because it wasn’t my secret to tell,” I interjected. “Not exactly. When you hear why, I think you’ll understand.”

  “I’m waiting,” he prompted.

  “He’s an angel.” Ben’s expression didn’t change, not at first, as he waited to see if I’d say more. As the silence stretched between us, I felt the need to elaborate. “You know, as in from heaven, with wings?” Though I’d never seen his wings, Sam said it was a sin of pride to show them.

  “An angel.”

  “Well, a fallen angel, but he used to be a regular one originally.”

  “Mercy…”

  “I’m serious. He’s a real live fallen angel who was cast out of heaven for his sins, and when I was knifed in the alley attack he healed me with his Grace.” Ben’s expression was dumbstruck, and I could tell this wasn’t what he’d been expecting to hear at all. “Only, when he healed me, some of that Grace sorta… rubbed off and now I’ve got some of it too.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean, it rubbed off on you?” His brows drew together into a single dark line.

  “It means I’m not entirely human anymore. Not quite superhuman, but not an angel either. Something new, Sam likes to say.” All it meant was I had a few nifty parlor tricks, and I was on God’s radar.

  “You seriously expect me to believe you’re not human?”

  “Why would I make up something like that?”

  “Because you’ve slipped a gear?” Ben rose from the couch, his hand scratching the back of his neck as he paced in agitation.

  See, I was right, he thought I was a fruitcake. “Do you want me to prove it?”

  “Yeah, this I’ve got to see,” he muttered, coming to stop across the coffee table from me.

  Only I wasn’t sure what to do. Sure I could see auras (his was a pretty, deep indigo color that I normally found soothing), my Grace protected me like my own personal stun gun whenever I was afraid (I didn’t relish the idea of zapping him with that), and I was getting better at healing, but I didn’t think he’d let me near him to test that out. That left just one thing. “Alright then, close your eyes.”

  “Close my… what are you going to do?” Skeptical didn’t even begin to cover the look on his face.

  “I’m not going to do anything to you, just… fine, don’t close your eyes then. Look at the kitchen for a sec.” That was all I needed to make myself disappear. Not quite as good as invisible, but when he looked back I was gone. As long as I didn’t speak, I was pretty much imperceptible. Only I hadn’t prepared him for that, so of course he though I’d taken off.

  Ben frowned at seeing the empty spot on the couch. “Running away isn’t going to solve anything,” he called out in the direction of the bedroom.

  “I’m not running, I’m showing you what you asked me to,” I said calmly, breaking the effect and popping back into view. Ben immediately took another step backwards, almost colliding with my TV.

  “Where did you… how…?”

  “I told you, I got some of his angelic powers with the Grace.”

  “Copperfield can do that on stage, it doesn’t make him an angel,” he insisted stubbornly and I rose with a drawn out sigh.

  “Fine…” Stepping up to the dish drainer, I grabbed a knife, little thinking how a cop might react to such a move.

  “Put the knife down, Mercy,” Ben approached slowly, one hand stretched out entreatingly, the other moving slowly closer to his belt. Was he carrying a gun? Had he really gone to a Halloween party armed for trouble?

  “I’m not gonna hurt you,” I rolled my eyes, lifting the knife to the inside of my arm. I hated that part. “Look…”

  “Don’t…” Forgetting about the gun, Ben rushed me, grabbing for the knife but not before I slashed it across my arm, the cut instantly welling up with blood. “Christ, Mercy, what the hell were you thinking?” he demanded, tossing the knife into the sink.

  “It’s fine,” I winced, grabbing a paper towel off the counter because I didn’t want blood all over the place before I could concentrate enough to heal it. “Relax, okay? Ben?” I tried again because he went back to pacing. “Could you just… come over here and watch? Can you do that for me? Please?”

  “Mercy…” he started to protest, but I cut him off.

  “Please? Let me do this. I swear you’re gonna be amazed.” Gratified to see Ben come to a decision that at least was willing to give me the benefit of the doubt, he approached me warily as if he expected me to pull out another knife at any moment.

  I wasn’t the best at healing traumatic wounds, mostly because my concentration wasn’t what it should be whenever blood gushed. Sore muscles, headaches, minor aches and pains, that was more my speed, and much less obvious w
hen I was the one doing the healing. A cut like that one I could manage though. Dropping the paper towel, I cupped my hand over the wound, focusing on sending the Grace out to work its magic. A soft, golden glow emanated from my hand, bathing the injury in warm light. As we watched, the skin knit itself together as if the cut was being erased, leaving no trace of it except for the spilled blood.

  “Now there, you see?” I said softly, wiping away the remains of the blood before I looked up at him. “Ben?” I repeated, because his eyes were a little wild. “Ben, it’s alright, I promise. Maybe you should sit down…”

  “Yes, maybe I should,” he nodded, looking a little shell shocked. “How did you do that?”

  What had I been saying for the past fifteen minutes? “I told you, I have some of Sam’s Grace. That gives me the ability to heal and it lets me move about unseen if I want to.”

  “What else can you do?”

  My brows drew together with a touch of annoyance. Did he expect me to perform like a trained monkey all night, or were we going to get to the real reason why I’d come clean about all of it? “You’re missing the point here. Do you believe me now when I say that I’ve got angelic powers?”

  Dumbly, he nodded.

  “Good,” I sank onto the couch beside him, my head spinning a little because I’d forgotten to ground myself before using my healing. I let him process it all for a moment while I tried to connect to the calming energy of the Earth, sending out roots like a tree in my imagination.

  “Sam’s an angel then?” His voice surprised me, and I opened my eyes to see him watching me warily.

  “Yep, a fallen angel.”

  “That means he was kicked out of heaven? What did he do?”

  I could practically see the wheels turning in his mind. For whatever reason, he was bound and determined to see Sam as a bad guy. It was laughable, since Sam was the most gentle, honorable man I knew. If you could overlook the whole angel of death part of his past, that was. “I… can’t get into that,” I shook my head. Telling him what was going on with me was one thing, spilling all of Sam’s deep, dark secrets was quite another.