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The Souls of Rain (Heavens Trilogy, # 1)
By Diana Nixon
COMING Out December 18th, 2013
Synopsis
The secrets of the heavens had always been
carefully guarded. Until one day when the angels realized that what they used
to believe in was nothing but a cruel game between heaven and hell.
And Claire’s life
is a part of that game too. She is a guardian angel.
She always thought that her existence was
perfect. But perfection is a very relative term, and no one is protected from
making mistakes.
Everything changes the moment Claire gets a new
assignment. Guarding humans has never been easy, and this time won’t be an
exception.
Alan Rosenford is a spoilt party-boy, whose life
is a hurricane of risk and adrenaline rush. His soul is damaged, his heart is
bleeding, and there are so many things he prefers to keep private….
The words they have never said before …
The sins they have never committed….
How much does forgiveness of the heavens cost?
Or maybe even the heavens make mistakes?....
Watch
BOOK TRAILER:
Trailing my fingers over the lines of your
face,
Kissing your lips and melting in your embrace,
Enjoying the warmth and drinking in the moment,
Leading multiple lives feels like a pure
torment.
Falling even deeper in love with you,
Discovering all the things I never knew,
Evolving into someone better and someone new,
I’ll stay for one more day, or maybe for a few,
To build up my strength to live centuries
without you.
I’ll follow you to the deserts and across the
oceans,
Desperate for changes and overwhelming
emotions;
I’ll stay with you on the earth, or follow you
to the sky,
Only with you can I breathe and feel myself
alive.
Holding hands, we walk between the silver
raindrops,
With the snow-white doves flying around us;
Leaving for the memories we shared, lives ago,
Can we put them back together? No one knows.
Look around and tell me what you see,
There’s no one else in sight, but you and me,
Chasing away the darkness and stormy clouds,
Just the way it was always meant to be.
Living like there’s nothing left to lose,
No one to forgive, no one to accuse.
When the bridges of hope come crashing down,
In the bewitching sounds of love we drown,
As we kiss away each other’s worst fears,
Banishing regrets, pains and bitter tears.
Take a breath and wait for the long tomorrow,
If I disappear in the shadows, find me and
follow,
Rescue me in the midst of my endless night,
Turn the pale moon into bright daylight,
Make this heart of mine miss a beat,
Only with you is my soul complete.
Prologue
Three angels were standing in the
middle of a round, crystal room. Their long, silver cloaks were swaying slowly
in the wind; the rustle of their wings was the only sound breaking the intense
silence. One of them, a woman with curly, strawberry-blond hair that went to
her feet, raised her hand and a huge, white cloud formed in front of her.
“The girl deserves to know the truth,”
she said to the others.
“This is insane,” a male angel
replied, shaking his head. He ran one palm through his messy, sandy hair; his
big, blue eyes seemed to be brighter than the sky itself. “What if something
goes wrong?” He stared nervously at the picture appearing inside the cloud.
“We are losing control over her.”
“She’s right,” the other male
angel said. “It’s not safe to keep her here.” His golden eyes shifted
impatiently between his companions. “We need to send her back to the earth.”
“You will follow her,” the woman
said, looking at the blue-eyed angel. He was the youngest of the three of them,
and his age was the only thing that stopped him from breaking the order. He
didn’t want to spy on anyone. He used to be one of the best guardian angels,
until one day he made a mistake and was obliged to follow the orders of the
top-ranked angels. It was the worst part of his punishment; he hated being told
what to do.
“You didn’t have to say that,” he
snapped, meeting the woman’s emotionless eyes. Sometimes it was really hard to
believe that she was an angel, and not a demon wearing snow-white wings. “You
know I would have never left her unprotected.”
“Right.” The other angel smirked.
“Albert,” the woman hissed,
warningly. Her voice sounded calm, but the intonation said it all — she didn’t
approve fights between her subordinates. “This meeting is over. I’ll see you
two later.” And just like that she disappeared, making the air in the room
crackle. Albert grimaced at the force of energy left after her disappearance.
He wasn’t as strong as she was, and the powers she possessed always made him
uneasy. He looked one last time at the blue-eyed angel and followed the woman.
Left alone, the angel stared at
the picture of the girl he was supposed to spy on. The girl was a guardian
angel. She was slim and beautiful; with long, black hair and big green eyes,
shadowed by the curling lashes.
She was walking down the alley
surrounded by the age-old oaks, watching her fosterling. She seemed to be
relaxed, but in reality her every instinct was on alert. Her wings were
outspread, and though no human could see her like that, the creatures of the
heavens always knew when she was on duty.
“I won’t let you down, Claire,” the angel
swore in a whisper, making the cloud in front of him turn black. “Never
again….”
Chapter 1
I was staring at the file in my
hands. It was thick and heavy, and I didn’t have the slightest desire to read
it.
“What’s this?” I asked Bert, my
trainer.
“Your new assignment,” he said,
walking down the hall that led to the training rooms.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
“My new assignment? Seriously?”
“Yes. Why?” He opened the door to
one of the rooms and led me to the wall with crystal daggers.
“I was reassigned just a few days
ago, remember? No angel changes humans so often!”
“It’s not your call, Claire. They give commands, you execute them. Period.” He gave me one of the daggers to replace
the one I broke last night, trying to kill a demon following my fosterling. “Be
careful with the weapons. You are the only guardian angel who breaks them so
often.”
“I’m also the only guardian angel
who destroys the biggest number of demons.”
“True.” Bert smiled briefly, and
looked at the wound on my right wing. “Close your eyes, I will heal it.”
I sighed and obeyed, waiting for
Bert’s powers to deal with the wound. It didn’t hurt much, but the feeling
wasn’t pleasant either. Guardian angels couldn’t heal themselves. We always
needed the help of other angels, whose powers were different from ours.
My thoughts switched back to my new
assignment, and I sighed again. Bert was right, I couldn’t help matters. And
neither could he. He was just a messenger in this case. I answered to him for
my every step, but when it came to the orders of Santunary, he was as helpless
as I was.
No one could ignore the words of
Ledons — top-ranked angels. They formed the Santunary: the highest and the
cruelest governmental authority, and the most respectful body of the heavens
(except for God, of course). There were no ‘ifs’
for Ledons. They accepted only ‘yes’ or
‘no’. The last word was better not to
pronounce if you cared about your life.
Ledons were followed by Deerons,
our trainers. They guarded the gates of the heavens. No one could come or go
without their permission, even the souls.
Then there was us, the guardian
angels, followed by our loyal servants, the Pastreens. I didn’t know what
exactly their duties consisted of, but they were a real pain in our necks;
always watching us and laughing at our mistakes. Though sometimes they were
really helpful, especially when it came to doing my hair or cleaning my wings.
“So who’s my new baby?” I asked
the trainer. We called humans our babies, because we felt like their nannies
that were always there for them, no matter how bad or good they really were.
“Why don’t you open the file?”
Bert winked at me. Oh, no…it was a sign of bad news.
“Alan Rosenford,” I read the name, written on the file’s cover. “Who
is he?”
“Just don’t tell me you’ve never
heard about him! How long have you been working in New York…for two years? And
you’ve never heard about Alan Rosenford?”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but
I haven’t.”
“Well, this is probably for the
best.” Bert smirked and vanished. Literally.
Angels always appeared out of
nowhere and disappeared as abruptly. But I hated when Bert did that. He never
answered my questions, and he always left without saying good-bye. Not that it
was the only unpleasant thing about my life. Nothing about it was normal
actually.
Sometimes it felt like my life was
an endless cascade of ups and downs. I could fly and I could walk; I could save
and I could destroy. Heaven was my home, and the days I spent there couldn’t be
compared with anything else; they were special.
But there were also days that I
had to spend walking down the roads of sinful earth. Everything about them was
even and painfully predictable.
Unlike those humans I guard, I
don’t need to count seconds; I have a whole eternity to live. I don’t need
sleep or food, though cakes and ice-cream are my weaknesses and the best things
about my perfect life.
I don’t have a family, and I never had one. I
was created by the heavens. I don’t have friends, but I do have enemies. And
all of them are demons — soulless, cruel creatures that make people do things
they will have to spend forever in hell for.
My job is to protect humans from
demons, making their lives better and happier. Funny enough, I’m the unhappiest
creature in the world. It feels like my happiness is always near, and too far
away at the same time.
There are things that I will
probably never be able to understand. I don’t know what love means. It always
felt like something mysterious and too unreal. But unlike humans, I can live
perfectly well without it. As well as without boys, parties and other essential
attributes of every girl’s life.
But there is one thing that I
can’t live a single day without. My wings. They are my faith and an essential
part of me. I can’t show them to humans, and every time I let them see me, they
think I’m just a girl in my early twenties. Too bad no human girl knows how to
cross the distance between two places in seconds.
I closed my eyes and imagined
myself standing in the middle of my sky-blue living room. I liked the color. It
reminded me of my true home and the sky that I liked gazing at so much.
I had a two-bedroom apartment not
far away from Central Park. I didn’t have much time to spend there, but there
were times, like today, when I wasn’t on duty. My last assignment, a
five-year-old Annabel Walders left for a few days to visit her grandparents,
but I couldn’t leave New York, so she was guarded by one of the local angels of
Washington.
It was supposed to be a free
weekend: no work, no demons; only freedom and me. Yeah, too good to be true….
I looked back at the files I was
still holding in my hands. I never read people’s files. I liked making my own
opinion about them. No matter how bad or perfect they were, the only thing I
cared about were their souls. And even a criminal’s soul can be pure. Because
when people kill or lie it means that demons win. It also means that angels
lose. And we lose only if we don’t take our duties seriously. Usually it leads
to becoming Pastreens. Or fallen. Both variants close the doors to the heavens
and leave us wandering around the earth forever. And no matter how heavy the
sin we commit is, we always want to be forgiven and returned to the heavens.
Speaking of sins….
“Nolan, what are you doing here?”
I asked the fallen angel, standing behind me.
“Good to see you too, Claire.” He
smiled, taking a seat on my couch. The guy didn’t need my permission to make
himself at home.
Nolan was the only fallen who
never wanted to be forgiven. At least that was what he was saying every time I
asked him about his life. He liked living among humans. Though I never asked
him about the rule he broke to be kicked out of the heavens.
“I heard about your new
assignment,” he said, turning on the TV set.
“Why do you even care?” I crossed
my arms, watching him curiously. I didn’t understand why Nolan liked spending
time with me. My life was a picture of everything he couldn’t have.
“Because we are best friends. And
friends always care about each other.”
I rolled my eyes. “We are far from
being friends, Nolan. Let alone best
friends. You are stalking me. This is how it calls.”
“Whatever you call it, the fact
remains — I’m here, and I want to know how you feel about being Alan’s new
babysitter.” He smiled again, and I desperately wanted to slap him in the face.
God, forgive me.
“What is wrong with the guy that
everyone is so worried about me guarding him?”
“Nothing’s wrong. He’s a good guy
actually. He likes drinking, smoking, girls, and car racing.”
“Sounds like a typical description
of a good guy.”
“Sarcasm doesn’t fit your pretty
face, my angel. And Alan is a good
guy. You will see.”
“Can’t wait,” I muttered, heading
for the kitchen to get a piece of a strawberry pie I made earlier today.
“How can you think about food when
your human is dying?” Nolan shouted after me.
I stopped and turned around,
barely breathing. “What did you say?”
“Alan Rosenford was taken to the
St. Mary’s hospital about an hour ago. He kissed a tree with a bumper of his
new car.”
No more details were needed. I
closed my eyes and sank into the red vortex of a bittersweet smoke that took me
straight to the hospital ward.
The moment I opened my eyes the
smell of drugs hit my nostrils. I hated hospitals. To me they always looked
overcrowded. Hundreds of lost souls, whose physical bodies died and were not
allowed to ascend to the heavens, were flying everywhere, making people shiver
and shrink from the pure cold they consisted of. Humans didn’t see them, but I
did. And they did see me.
“He doesn’t look good,” Nolan
said, coming closer to the bed where a guy in his mid twenties was sleeping. He
was on a drip; about a dozen multicolored cables went from his body to the
monitors on his left.
“I’m sure you wouldn’t look any
better being him,” I said, examining the numerous bruises and scratches on the
guy’s body. “How bad was the crash?”
“The boy will need a new car. But
I don’t think he cares about a few more scars. It’s not his first accident.”
“You said he’s a car racer, right?
How often does he get into accidents?”
“Every week or so.”
“Does he even care about his
life?” I didn’t like people who risked their lives just to get an adrenaline
rush. It meant their souls were hurt. And they didn’t want to do anything to
heal them. Stupid humans…they didn’t know that losing a soul meant becoming
demons.
“You didn’t read his file, did
you?” Nolan chuckled at his own words. He knew I didn’t. “You should probably
start reading files, Claire. It would save you plenty of time.”
“Thanks for the advice, Nolan.
Maybe one day I will follow it.”
I took Alan’s hand in mine and
tried to feel his soul. I was good at feeling souls. Not every angel could do
that. It was one of my angelic powers that I had been trying to perfect every
day, for the last seven centuries of my existence. And with every passing day I
could tell more and more about the souls I was guarding.
“He is a good person,” I said,
knowing that Nolan was still there with us. Every time I tried to feel
someone’s soul, it felt like sinking into the depths of multicolored oceans,
where every single word, action and thought had its own shade.
“I told you,” he said, and I
smiled; my best friend liked being
right.
I let go of Alan’s hand and
breathed a sigh of relief. Guarding good people was always easier. Demons
couldn’t get to their souls, and fighting them was as simple as anything.
I was good at fighting demons.
They didn’t stand a chance with me. Especially when I was guarding children.
They were like little angels to me, and I always felt sorry for the couples
that couldn’t have them. It felt like the worst curse ever.
My new assignment wasn’t a child
anymore, but something about him wasn’t right. His soul was too fragile and
sensitive. Not a regular picture of a man’s soul. Maybe I should have read his
file after all?…
“Hey…Claire, you okay?” Nolan
asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I replied
absently, still watching the guy on the bed. “How old is he?”
“Will turn twenty-five next week.”
Even with the dark-purple bruises
all over his face and a swollen lip Alan looked much younger than his real age.
I couldn’t say the same about his soul. If I didn’t know it belonged to him, I
would say it was a soul of an eighty-year-old man. Suddenly I wanted to know
what happened to make him get old too soon.
“Read the file, Claire,” Nolan
said, as if reading my mind. “I need to go now, but if you need anything, call
me, okay?”
I nodded and the fallen angel
disappeared. He was always saying the same thing, “Call me, if you need me.” And we both knew that he would never be
able to help me if I actually needed help. We played for different teams.
Copyright @ 2013, Diana Nixon
ADD THE BOOK TO YOU READING LISTS
Cover Design by Jennifer Wieland
(J.M. Rising Horse Creations)
OTHER BOOKS by
Diana Nixon:
Love Lines Series (YA/paranormal)
Hate at First Sight (A contemporary romance)
About the author:
Diana Nixon is a poet and the author of fantasy and contemporary
romances.
She was born in Minsk, Belarus, where she currently lives. In 2008 she
graduated from Belorussian state University. She has a Master of Law degree and
speaks several foreign languages, including English, Polish and Spanish.
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