Dark Awakening by Charlotte Featherstone Page B

now, it's okay,” she soothed as she reached for him, pulling him up from his knees. “You've got a daughter. A beautiful, healthy little girl."
    As if on cue, a lusty cry filled the air and tears anew filled his eyes, running down his cheeks.
    "Would you like to hold her?” Another nurse whose face was covered with a mask stood at the door, holding a squirming pink bundle in her arms. He reached out his hands and felt the soothing weight of his child being placed in his arms.
    "Thank you,” he whispered as he looked down in amazement at the life he and Nadira had created. “I will ensure that there is a spot in Heaven for you and everyone who has saved my wife and daughter."
    Both nurses cocked their heads to the side and stared at him. “I believe you,” the one with the mask said. “I believe that you have that power."
    * * * *
    Two months later the three of them were lying in bed. Outside, a snowstorm raged on, while inside they were warm and safe as they listened to the wind that howled through the leafless trees. Gadriel watched his wife and child sleeping, the beauty of it more profound than he had ever expected.
    "Gadriel?” Nadira asked sleepily.
    "I'm here.” He trailed the back of his fingers along her smooth, plump cheek, and she smiled, relief softening her face.
    "I had a dream,” she whispered, coming closer to him so that she could run her hand down his chest. “I saw two angels, and they were falling from Heaven."
    "Were they?” He reached for her hand and kissed her with all the love and ache he harboured in his body.
    "I think they were coming for something."
    "I think you worry too much."
    "I wondered if it was about Mary. She's been in remission for months now. You know the doctors said it wouldn't last."
    "But we know something they don't, isn't that right?” She flashed the smile he adored, and his heart felt as though it would break.
    "Your friend did it, didn't he? He put Mary into remission."
    "Yes. Sammael, along with God's blessing cured Mary."
    "I wonder what Sammael offered in exchange for Mary's life?"
    Gadriel felt his body shudder. How could she have known such a thing, of bargains with God? Did she know of his pact? Was she frightened? Did she fear the loss of him?
    "Talk to me, Gadriel,” she pleaded as she fitted her palm on his jaw.
    "After,” he murmured before kissing her deep and slow. Needing her, needing to be inside her, lost in her.
    Reaching for their sleeping daughter who was sated from her recent feeding, Gadriel pressed his lips against her small back and inhaled the scent of her. Innocence.
    Closing his eyes, he savoured the smell, brought it deep inside himself before kissing her and whispering a prayer against the fragile bones of her shoulder blade. When he opened his eyes, he saw his mark was there, present on her soft flesh. His name in angelic script entwined with angel wings. That was his mark. The same mark he had given her mother when they had created her.
    "Gadriel?” Nadira purred, running her hand along his thigh.
    "Let me put her to bed, and then we can have the rest of the night. I'm going to make love to you, Nadira. Love like you've never experienced before.” Beautiful, perfect love he silently added. Enough to fill you for a lifetime.
    When he came to her, Nadira opened her arms and he fell into them, nuzzling his face into her throat and breasts. He would not think of what was to come. Would not allow his time with Nadira and his daughter to be marred by thoughts of ‘when'?
    "I love you, Nadira,” he told her. “I have loved you since the moment you ran out of your car and into the pouring rain to save me."
    She sighed and closed her eyes, her fingers tracing his shoulders, then sliding down to the raised points between his shoulder blades. “Show me, Gadriel. I want to see them. To be enveloped in them again. I need to feel them around me, to know that you're mine."
    He granted her wish. His wings, unfurling, widened until they cocooned