Jaxon (Blood Angel Chronicles Book 1)

  Copyright © 2020 by Jennifer Field

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher and author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical review and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  The book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authors’ imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

  Jaxon

  Photographer: Stuart Reardon

  Cover Model: Stuart Reardon

  Edited By: Carolyn Depew @WriteRightEdits

  Cover Designer: Golden Czermak @FuriousFotog

  Interior Formatting: J.M.Walker @JustWriteCreationsBack

  Cover blurb: @BlurbBitch

  Beta Team: Tricia Welzyn, Barbara Bouchard, Lizz Marzano, Lenore Renee Chouinard, Deborah Pannone, and Melissa Fought

  For my mom,

  The strongest woman I know.

  Without you, nothing would ever be possible.

  Love you.

  PROLOGUE

  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

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  COMING SOON

  OTHER BOOKS

  Themis sat perched on her throne inside the judgment chamber, a regal and ruthless goddess. It never failed to amaze me how stoic yet beautiful she was. Her long red hair cascaded over her alabaster shoulders and down her slender back. She was as old as time itself, yet her age was seen only in her wisdom, never in her beautiful face. Her hazel eyes watched me intently as the guards escorted me inside, not an ounce of emotion reflected in them.

  Though our encounters through the years had been few and far between, I would never have entertained the notion that we would meet again under the current circumstances — me standing before her bound and shackled, waiting for her to pass judgment.

  The ethereal chamber of judgment was my current surroundings. It was as opulent as one would expect from the goddess of justice. The white marble floors glistened and sparkled in the light as if diamonds danced across their surface. Her throne sat center stage against the open-air balcony overlooking all of the heavens.

  I was well aware that there hadn’t been an Archangel judged since Gabriel, nearly a millennium ago. And though I had never been close to him, I had always considered him to be a noble Arch and a gifted fighter.

  We had trained together and fought side by side in many battles, and I had, on numerous occasions, entrusted him with my life. Regardless of his prior brave deeds, he had deserved to fall from grace for his sins. He had, by all accounts, deserved death.

  However, there had been speculation that he had been given a choice. That Themis, for all her spouting of eternal balance, had allowed him to fall from grace instead of being put to death as he should have been. After all, he had only committed genocide—why shouldn’t he be allowed to live.

  Sadly, I don’t think I will be given the same consideration, despite my indiscretion being far less damning.

  The sound of the guard’s footsteps retreating, leaving me alone to face my punishment, echoed in my head. I watched as Themis rose from her throne and approached me, her golden gown billowing and dancing around her legs as she walked.

  The clicking of her heels was the only sound I could hear other than my heartbeat, which seemed to suddenly be threatening to beat out of my chest as she approached. I made a futile attempt to kneel and give her a proper greeting befitting her station, but my actions were thwarted by the shackles adorning my wrists and ankles.

  Finally, she stood before me. Though I towered over her, there was no denying her power. Our eyes locked, and while it was customary to look down when you were about to be judged, I refused to cast down my eyes, and I had no remorse for my actions.

  “Jegudiel, you are aware of the charges against you, are you not?” Her soft and feminine voice echoed throughout the chamber.

  “I am.”

  “Yet you look me in the eye without repentance. Why?”

  My throat was tight and constricted as I spoke, knowing my words would only damn me further. Nonetheless, I couldn’t deny them. “Because I would do it again. My only regret was that I was too late to save the woman I loved—to save Marra.”

  I fought to hold back my emotions as I spoke Marra’s name. I had broken so many laws that I deserved to die a permanent death, just as she had. Arches, along with all who resided in the heavens, were not allowed human contact. I had known that. None of it mattered. Once I saw her, I knew there would be no life for me without her in it.

  Marra’s blood had stained my hands and stopped my heart as she died in my arms. Her heart had been pierced by an angelic blade—my blade. As I stood shackled to the wall, Marra’s death replayed over and over in my head. All I could do was await my fate.

  Marra had been a slave in a small village. I was only meant to look after the humans who resided there. She captivated my heart like no other ever had. Her beauty was the stuff of legends, but her laughter and kindness drew me in. With one touch, one soft kiss, I was forever hers.

  Over time we had fallen in love, even though I knew there was only one way we could be together. I was more than willing to give up everything to be with her. I had gone to her village to tell her that we would no longer have to hide. That we would find someplace to go where we could be together. But before I had gotten there, she had been sold. I had searched for days before I finally found her. I watched her from afar as she gathered water from a stream, the sunlight dancing across her chestnut hair that hung long against her back.

  When she turned around and spotted me coming over the hill in the distance, my heart broke. Her beautiful face was swollen and bruised, nearly unrecognizable. The vibrant woman I had fallen in love with was a shell of who she had once been. In my haste to get to her, I had thrown down my weapon, an action I will regret forever.

  She begged me to leave, told me that her new master was a tyrant. I had been too distracted with my concern for her and hadn’t heard her master’s approaching footsteps. She pushed out of my arms and went to him, fell to her knees, and begged him to forgive her. He had my sword, and before I could stop him, he thrust it through her chest. If he had used his sword— a human weapon—I could have saved her.

  Instead, I had to watch her die in my arms, and I held her until there was no light left in her blue eyes.

  When night fell, I went and slaughtered her master’s entire house, then took his li
fe with my own hands so I could feel his death and look in his eyes as he struggled to take his last breath, just as she had.

  “Jegudiel.” The sound of my name broke me from my memory. Themis circled me as she continued to speak. “Then you are aware of the severity of your actions and the penalty that comes with the taking of human life.”

  I gave her a nod of my head. After all, there was no point in speaking — my actions, no matter how noble the cause—were still punishable by death. I felt the bindings fall from my wrists and ankles. It was the first time in… I didn’t know how long they hadn’t hung heavy, and the momentary freedom of my limbs felt good.

  “There will be no jury. This judgment is mine alone, and I will bear its burden.” Her voice was soft, and I could hear the pain laced through her words. She, indeed, would bear the burden of my death.

  The marble floor in front of me dissolved before my eyes, leaving me gazing down through the clouds and blue skies. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting. Fire and brimstone, perhaps. A black hole where souls went and never returned.

  The magnitude of my fate suddenly rested heavily on my shoulders, but I was ready to die. I had seen life with love, and any chance for happiness had perished with Marra.

  Themis now stood so close to me I could feel her breath against my skin as she spoke. “Jegudiel, you have been found guilty of crimes against humanity. Deplorable acts against those you had sworn to defend.”

  The irony of her words was not lost on me. I had failed to protect Marra from the monster that took her life, and I had been unable to defend him against the beast that I became.

  “For your crimes…” My heart stopped beating as I waited for her to sentence me, thankful that with my death, the memory of Marra’s blood-stained body would finally vanish. “For your crimes, you will fall from grace. You will no longer be allowed to bask in the light of the gods.”

  Her delicate hand came up and rested on my shoulder. I could feel the heat radiating from her palm across my skin. I glanced down at my arm as the searing heat worked its way past my elbow. My skin was momentarily taking on an almost translucent appearance — my veins below the surface pulsed a bright, visible crimson.

  “From this day forward, you will be a Blood Angel. You will feed on those you once swore to protect.” The heat of her touch radiated up my neck, into my throat, and fire permeated my gums. Pain invaded my mouth, and I let out a yell as my canines morphed and extended down. With my tongue, I felt the unmistakable sharp prick of my new, sharp fangs.

  I fought to stay upright as the scalding pain from her touch moved to my back. My golden wings, once a symbol of my high rank as an Arch for eons, caught fire. I could feel the burn and smell the singeing of feathers and flesh. I tried not to wretch as the stench permeated my nostrils. When she finally lifted her hand from me, my skin felt different, almost foreign. I had a set of sharp fangs, my golden wings were now black as coal, and I had an indescribable hunger in my belly.

  “Jegudiel, you must fall of your own free will, or be put to death for your crimes.”

  A choice. She had given me an opportunity for redemption. I had to choose death or become a monster of people's nightmares. “How long?” The words came out of their own accord, nothing more than a muffled whisper, my speech garbled by my new fangs.

  Why had I even asked? I knew a fall was eternal.

  “Forever, child. Forever.”

  An unfamiliar feeling coursed through my veins—fear. It was the first time I had felt fear since I had left the Arch training camp and stepped into my first battle.

  I met her gaze one last time. She was my executioner from the only life I had ever known. She sentenced me based on an archaic list of rules set forth eons ago by gods that no longer ruled. It was the new gods' inability to change that would be their demise as well.

  I gave her a curt nod. I wasn’t going to thank her for the choice. I was to become a monster that fed on those I had protected. I closed my eyes and inhaled one last breath of heaven. Its sweet scent of jasmine and honey would have to last me an eternity. I would tuck it away, along with the memory of love and of Marra.

  With that, I let myself fall forward through the chasm in the floor. I felt the sun searing my flesh as I passed through the gates of heaven. I was falling, falling, falling.

  “Fuck.” I sit straight up in bed as sweat covers my skin and my heart pounds in my chest. I am disoriented as usual after the nightmare that has plagued me for nearly a thousand years.

  My gaze moves to the floor-to-ceiling windows and the familiar twinkling lights of the New York City skyline. I know who and where I am.

  Present Day

  JAXON

  The familiar nightmare has my heart racing, and my fangs extended. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I slowly come back to reality and run my tongue along the sharp ends of my extended canines. The pains of hunger I feel are no longer just for food. I need blood, and soon.

  I grab my phone that lies haphazardly on the nightstand next to the bed and swipe the screen awake. It’s just after nine, and I’ve overslept. My fangs retract back with nothing more than a thought. The need to feed is beginning to take its toll on me. I haven’t been in full bloodlust for hundreds of years, yet there is no denying that if I don’t feed soon, that is precisely where I’ll be.

  I’ll have to make a point to feed tonight. Find a hot young donor to sink my fangs and cock into. Finally, I’ll rid my mind of the nightmares and the memory of Marra. Well, at least the dreams. Her memory will be something I’ll carry with me for eternity.

  “Fuck.” I groan as I roll out of bed, trying to shake the vision of Marra’s face from my memory. After nearly a millennium, it's still etched in my mind. Even after all this time, she still haunts me.

  I shake off the pang of guilt and let out a sigh, knowing that the nightmares are only going to get worse—more vivid, more blood-soaked—the longer I go without feeding. I don’t know why I’ve been putting off the inevitable. At my age, I only need to have blood about once a month to keep up my strength and apparent sanity, although the latter is beginning to be debatable.

  When my feet hit the floor, they automatically venture to the floor-to-ceiling windows that adorn my entire penthouse suite. Some might think that having such a thing with my aversion to sunlight is reckless, but I’ve always liked to live on the dangerous side. Besides, the miracle of modern technology allows for the auto blinds to rise with the setting sun, and custom-built UV protection windows provide safety during the daylight hours.

  With the screens up, I gaze out over the city lights that dance like urban stars for as far as the eye can see. The sun set about a half-hour ago. Sadly, even at my age, the long summer days aren’t something I have had the pleasure of truly enjoying for quite some time. It isn’t that I can’t venture out during the daylight hours. I can for short periods, with minimal skin exposed. However, you definitely won’t find me lounging on the beach anytime soon.

  As Themis so eloquently put it, I can no longer bask in the light of the gods. But what that bitch meant to say was, I’ll no longer be able to enjoy in the sunlight—ever. That’s something that would have been nice to know during those first few days after my fall, when my flesh seared and burned under the sunlight, nearly causing my death. If it wasn’t for Gabriel, I wouldn’t have survived the first week.

  Gabriel was the first of us to fall. He has never spoken about his first few hundred years when he was here, alone. None of us have very vivid memories of that time in our new lives. We’re nothing more than our most basic of instincts. Hunt, feed, and fuck and not always in that order. Our mind isn’t our own, and we have no one to help guide us back to sanity.

  Without that guidance, things on Earth would have come down to survival of the fittest, and humans would not have won that war. Over the next few hundred years, the seven of us who are the only born Blood Angels formed the council and passed laws on everything from feeding and fucking, to turned vampires.

>   Turned vampires, yet another one of Themis’s oversights, I’m sure. Just like any species, new or ancient, the need to ensure the survival of the race is right up there with feeding and fucking. Little did we know the latter isn’t going to ensure the survival of our species.

  No, in the throes of bloodlust, sometimes there are moments of clarity. Moments we are more than a feeding, killing machine. Moments of compassion for our unwilling victims. As it turned out, a full Blood Angel can bring someone back from the brink of death. Yet the process damned them to the same fate with which we were cursed and crated an unbreakable blood bond between them.

  My dark thoughts are interrupted by the ringing of my phone. One glance at the screen puts a smile on my face.

  “Good evening, sir. I take it you slept well?” Kap’s sunny voice never ceases to put a smile on my face. She has been my business liaison and personal assistant for nearly twenty years. She’s also CEO of the Lenox Hotel Corp, one of JDL International Holdings subsidiaries, and runs my business like a beautiful instrument. And lucky for her, she also gets to keep me in line. She’s as loyal as they come, as is her family line, who have been with me for hundreds of years.

  “I’ve had better day’s rest. Thanks for asking.” There is no point in lying to her, she’s known me her entire life, and she’s seen everything…twice.

  I can hear a loud sigh of frustration, and I have to roll my eyes. I’m about to be mothered by one of the most feared women in business.

  “Are the nightmares back? Jaxon, you know you can’t go indefinitely without feeding. Do I need to remind you what happened to you in 2011 when I found you mad, nearly in bloodlust? Let me set someone up for you at the Lenox.”

  She knows better than to bring up my last moment of weakness. She came to my penthouse after repeatedly trying to contact me for days with no luck. When she found me, I was a mess, having stretched my need for blood to almost two months. I was nothing short of a beast in full bloodlust. She forced me to take her blood to save me from my self-destruction. Since then, I’ve never let myself get even remotely close to that point, until now.