Lone Wolf - J.R. Rain Page 0,64
self-preservation. He thrashed from side to side and lashed out, almost as if he was having a fit.
“This’ll go a lot easier if you stop that,” I suggested as he hissed and twisted beneath me like an inflamed wet cat.
In reply, Atkinson spat in my face and jabbed me in the kidney with his knee.
I was getting a little tired of this scumbag. “Have it your way.”
With Atkinson pinned down, I could deliver a proper punch with some feeling behind it. Atkinson’s head bounced off the floor, knocking him unconscious.
I settled back on my haunches to take stock for a moment and to catch my breath. I’d gotten him. He looked small and helpless now, with a glossy bruise already beginning to show around his left eye. He looked like a victim. But, he wasn’t. Oh, how he wasn’t.
The life of Edward Atkinson had ended in a fiery crash following a lengthy police chase. In the trunk of his car, the police had later found the remains of his final victim. She’d been dead when he dumped her into the trunk, which might have been a blessing given how the car chase had ended, but her death at Atkinson’s hand had been a sickening one. He deserved Hell. And I hoped all his victims had gotten entrance into Heaven.
Heaven…
Pulling the phone from my pocket, I hit a sequence of symbols not available on most phones.
“Claudia.”
The voice that answered was clipped but soft, as was the woman to whom it belonged. Claudia was my only contact with Heaven, a place I’d left some four hundred years ago under a cloud.
“Got him. Atkinson.”
“Your voice sounds odd,” she said. Her voice always sounded like bells ringing.
“Might be missing some teeth,” I admitted.
“Put up a fight, did he?”
“They always do.”
“Good job, Graham. I’ve got your position if you want to step back.”
I stepped back from the prone form of Edward Atkinson. Beneath him, the ground started to glow red, and a low rumbling sound made the walls tremble. Atkinson’s eyelids flickered and they opened a crack.
“Wuh…” he mumbled.
I said nothing, but I saw the look of terror cross his face as the ground split beneath him and he was swallowed up into the chasm, falling back to where he belonged. The ground joined again seamlessly, the rumbling stopped and the red glow faded.
Alone again.
I might have felt satisfied in a job well done, in seeing the man who’d cut me up and battered my face heading towards his deserved retribution; a man who’d caused so much pain and suffering in life. But I never really felt satisfaction as much as a blank numbness. It was just a job. It could be a difficult one at times, but it was mine.
***
Back in the bathroom of the sparsely furnished apartment which I currently called home, I tugged the light switch on and examined my face in the mirror. Atkinson had done a job on it. I didn’t even remember losing teeth, but they were definitely missing. Purple bruises had started to flower over my features, one eyelid was swollen, as were my lips. The worst of all, and what had guaranteed me a seat to myself on the bus ride home, were the marks of the bottle. The jagged glass had sliced my flesh open, and blood streaked my face.
I was a sorry sight, and I spent the next half hour cleaning and bandaging till the man in the mirror looked more like a mummy. Then I went to bed, sliding tired limbs between cool sheets, knowing the pillowcase probably wouldn’t be washable.
By morning, my body would be healed. The bruises would be gone, the cuts sealed (they probably wouldn’t even leave a scar), and new teeth would have pushed their way into the broken sockets.
That’s how it works for an Angel.
Even one condemned to live on earth.
Hell on Earth
is available at:
Amazon Kindle * Amazon UK
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About J.R. Rain:
J.R. Rain is the international bestselling author of over seventy novels, including his popular Samantha Moon and Jim Knighthorse series. His books are published in five languages in twelve countries, and he has sold more than 5 million copies worldwide.
Please visit him at www.jrrain.com.
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About H.P. Mallory:
H.P. Mallory is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. She has eleven series currently and she writes paranormal fiction, heavy on the romance! H.P. lives in Southern California with her son and a cranky cat.
To learn more about H.P., visit: www.hpmallory.com
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