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“Will you stop speaking and just let me finish? Vampires are worse than children.”
“Forgive me.”
His lips twitched. “That’s usually reserved for my Father, but I appreciate the sentiment. I hold in my hands your metaphorical soul. You vampires are so precious about those. We had plans for you, Caleb. Ones that did not involve you massacring your flock. Your soul was stolen by a vampire, your choice taken away. Tonight, I’m returning that choice to you. Tonight, you may choose between your soul and your death.”
He’d barely finished speaking before the words left my lips. “I want my soul.” Without it, death only led me one place, and it wasn’t the pearly gates.
A full-on grin split his lips this time. “You haven’t heard what you’ll have to do to get it.”
“I don’t care.”
“I’m still going to tell you. The Apocalypse is coming. War is already riding free and bringing with her the harbinger. You are tasked with stopping it.”
Purpose I hadn’t felt since I’d been turned burned through my veins. “Yes. Anything. I am at your service.”
“You might not feel that way when the time comes, but I want you to remember this was your choice.”
“There’s nothing that matters more to me than this.”
Gabriel smiled again, and this time I felt as though he was laughingatme. “Very well.” He took a step forward and placed his hand on my head. As soon as he made contact with me, a searing pain suffused my body. I couldn’t breathe. My spine arched and my eyes rolled back into my head as I convulsed beneath his touch.
“What did you do to me?” I panted, falling forward once he released me.
“I linked you to the seven seals. Now you will know the instant they are broken.”
“How am I to know this?”
Gabriel’s eyes took on a haunted cast. “You will feel it.”
“So what do you want me to do to stop them? How will I know what breaks them?”
“You really do expect me to do everything for you, don’t you? I don’t have that information. If I did, I wouldn’t need you, and you’d be nothing but a scorch mark on the snow.” He stiffened, brows drawing together, tension radiating from him. “She is coming.”
My chest caught fire, pain lancing me, burning with agonizing intensity. I tore my shirt off, trying to stop the flames, to save myself, but there was nothing. No fire. No smoke. Just a round brand on my skin, tender to the touch, red and angry.
Gabriel’s gaze locked on mine. “The first seal has broken.”
I glared at him. Feel it, he said. It bloody well cut me in half. “You don’t say.”
“Come with me. It’s time you leave all this behind.”
Getting to my feet on shaky legs, I did as the angel of God said. Then he placed a palm on my shoulder, and the world around me shifted before righting itself. I took in the Gothic estate, the wrought-iron fence, the scent of country air.
“Where are we?”
“Your new home, Professor Gallagher. Welcome to Ravenscroft University.”
ChapterTwo
CALEB
Somewhere over the Atlantic,
hours after abducting Sunday
I’d done it. I’d fecking stolen her from them because I had no choice. Cashel Blackthorne wouldnotget to be the conquering hero in this story. Not if it meant Sunday had to be at his mercy. I was the one tasked by God with dealing with the child, and I was theonlyone who would do everything in his power to protect Sunday while fulfilling my vow. No one else could be trusted.
If that made me the villain, well, I’d been a monster far longer than I’d ever been a man. She may hate me for stealing her away into the night, but I’d do it again. I’d face her wrath and welcome her anger. I liked her feisty anyway.
