Angel reborn, p.1
Angel Reborn, page 1
Angel Reborn
Fallen Bloodlines
Book 2
Violet Howe
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, events, and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.
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www.violethowe.com
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Cover Design: Elizabeth Mackey
www.elizabethmackeygraphics.com
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Published by Charbar Productions, LLC
(e-v1/p-v1)
Copyright © 2025 Violet Howe/Charbar Productions, LLC
All rights reserved.
E: 978-1-7339634-1-1
P: 978-1-7339634-6-6
BN: 9798260323991
For Nancy at RBC and all the other readers who never gave up on Aria…or me
Books by Violet Howe
Tales Behind the Veils
Diary of a Single Wedding Planner
Diary of a Wedding Planner in Love
Diary of an Engaged Wedding Planner
Maggie
THE CEDAR CREEK COLLECTION
Cedar Creek Mysteries:
The Ghost in the Curve
The Glow in the Woods
The Phantom in the Footlights
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Cedar Creek Families:
Building Fences
Crossing Paths
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Cedar Creek Suspense:
Whiskey Flight
Bounty Flight
Fallen Bloodlines:
Vampire Born
Angel Reborn
Soul Sisters at Cedar Mountain Lodge
Christmas Sisters
Christmas Hope
Christmas Peace
Christmas Secret
Christmas Promise
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Sail Away Series
Welcome Aboard
Moonlight on the Lido Deck
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Click here or visit www.violethowe.com to subscribe to Violet’s monthly newsletter for news on upcoming releases, events, sales, and other tidbits.
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Or join her Facebook reader group, the UltraViolets, for fun interaction, advance news, exclusive content and giveaways.
Contents
GLOSSARY
Gwen’s Welsh
1. Aria
2. Aria
3. Aria
4. Aria
5. Nick
6. Nick
7. Aria
8. Aria
9. Aria
10. Nick
11. Nick
12. Nick
13. Aria
14. Aria
15. Aria
16. Nick
17. Aria
18. Nick
19. Nick
20. Aria
21. Aria
22. Nick
23. Nick
24. Aria
25. Aria
26. Aria
27. Aria
28. Nick
29. Aria
30. Nick
31. Aria
32. Nick
33. Aria
34. Aria
35. Nick
36. Nick
37. Nick
38. Aria
39. Nick
40. Aria
41. Aria
42. Nick
43. Aria
44. Nick
45. Aria
46. Aria
Also by Violet Howe
Acknowledgments
About the Author
GLOSSARY
Fallen Bloodlines
Fasucriya (fa-soo-CREE-uh) - Masters of Creative Energy. Includes all Artists & Creatives. NOTE: This bloodline is believed to have no pure descendants remaining.
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Galdorcræft (GALL-dor-kraft) - Masters of Earth Energy. Including but not limited to: Witches, Sorcerers, Enchantresses, Elementalists, & Herbalists.
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Genezerue (JEN-eh-zuh-roo) - Masters of Bodily Energy (the Physical Body). Including but not limited to: Healers & Physical Empaths.
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Turpisi (ter-PEE-see) - Former Masters of Life Energy, now cursed to be slaves to it. Includes only Vampires.
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Vardiyati (var-dee-YAH-tee) - Masters of Cellular Energy. Including but not limited to: Shifters/Mimics
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Veiori (vay-ORR-ee) - Masters of Mind Energy (Mental and Emotional). Including but not limited to: Seers, Psychics, Communicators of the Realms, Emotional Empaths, and those gifted in the Clair Senses.
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PLEASE NOTE: This glossary contains only those bloodlines referenced in this volume and should not be considered a complete list of all bloodlines.
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ALSO NOTE: Descendants, Prodigy, Supernaturals, and Immortals refer to those whose bloodlines are descended from the original Fallen.
Gwen’s Welsh
Cariad : Love/Dear
Er mwyn y Mawredd! : For God’s sake
‘Machgen i : My Son
Mam : Mother
Mam-gu : Grandmother
Nos da : Good night
One
Aria
I had no idea I was dead.
No bright light beckoned in the distance, no path appeared before me, and neither pearly nor fiery gates awaited my arrival.
Instead, there was just a peaceful oblivion deeper than any slumber I’d ever experienced, one I had no desire to escape until my husband’s anguished sobs penetrated the darkness.
Nick was in pain, crying out as I’d never heard him before.
I needed to reach him, to soothe him, to find the source of his torment and vanquish it.
“Aria?” His arms were around me, and I thought I felt his hand brush back my hair. “Can you hear me? Keep fighting. I know you’re fighting. Please, Angel. Be the warrior I know you can be. Please. Don’t leave me.”
Leave him? I’d never leave him. What is he asking me to fight? Why am I fighting, and whom? Why is Nick so distraught?
I struggled to rouse, determined to leave the black void behind and make my way back to him.
My body began to ache as I ventured closer to consciousness, and I groaned in protest. Pain radiated from the center of my chest, and my throat burned with thirst. My mouth was so dry it felt like I’d been wandering in the desert instead of the darkness.
But none of that mattered once I opened my eyes and saw the agony distorting Nick’s handsome features.
He’d begun to sob again, and I reached to cup his face, desperate to comfort him.
“Nick? Why are you crying?” It was only then that I noticed the faint light surrounding him, almost like a crimson mist was seeping from his skin and his clothes. “And why are you glowing all over in red?”
He pulled me to him as his cries of grief gave way to joy. “I thought I’d lost you, Angel. I thought you were gone.”
Sharp pangs stabbed through my chest with the crush of his embrace, and I pushed against him for space and relief. Looking down for the source of my pain, I gasped in horror to see a hole punctured in my flesh. It was a nearly perfect circle except for a jagged edge on one side where the skin had been split and ripped away. There was blood everywhere, and I was freaked out not only by the wound but also by the fact that I had no memory of it. “What happened?”
“We were attacked.” He looked up and scanned the sky as though the threat had come from the stars.
“Attacked? What?” The concept was too foreign to comprehend, leading me to believe I must be dreaming. I even pressed my fingers to the edges of the hole to test that theory, but the pain was immediate and much too real.
Nick gently pulled my hand away from my chest as I clenched my eyes shut, shaking my head to try and clear the lingering haze that seemed to obscure my memories in shadows.
“Who attacked us? And why?”
“I don’t have those answers yet, but I promise you I’ll find them. Let’s get you inside where it’s safe.”
“Safe? We’re not safe?” Immediately on high alert, I tensed, looking around the rooftop terrace in a frantic search for the unknown danger.
“Hey, hey, look at me,” Nick said, grasping my chin to gently turn my face to him. “You’re safe. I’ve got you, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you. We need to get inside though, and we need to get you to a healer.”
He scooped me up against his chest and rose to standing as if I weighed no more than our six-year-old daughter. Then, he took off running toward the glass doors, and the world became a dizzying kaleidoscope around us. I closed my eyes to quell the wave of nausea it caused, wrapping my arms around his neck to hold on, even though he held me so tightly I was in no danger of falling.
In mere seconds, we’d reached the entrance to the building, where Nick leaned forward to bend and look into the glass circle on the silver panel next to the door. A red light flashed behind the glass, and Nick frowned. With a growl in his throat, he shifted my weight in his arms so he could bend and look again, but it still flashed red. He jerked at the door handle with a stream of curses, and then he roared in frustration.
“What’s wrong?
“They didn’t. All the doors on the roof are locked so no one can access the building from here. Only those with clearance can activate the retinal scanner. Security must have removed my profile when I left the Gilde.”
“Who’s going to access the building from the roof?” I couldn’t make sense of any of it as I swallowed against the burn in my throat, frowning at the odd taste in my mouth. “We’re on top of a skyscraper, for God’s sake. They’d have to come in by helicopter or parachute.”
“You’re assuming the intruders would be human. Not everyone needs machinery to get up here.”
That observation only amped up my anxiety, especially when Nick kept looking to the skies and scanning the terrace as though he expected our attackers to return at any moment.
“I need to call someone to let us in,” he said. “Unfortunately, I threw my phone over there somewhere. Do you think you’d be able to stand? Just for a minute?”
“Yeah, sure.”
He set me down gently, keeping one hand on my shoulder and one on my hip until he was certain I was steady. “Just lean back against the wall and take it easy, okay? No sudden movements, and if you feel dizzy, sit down.”
“Who, me? I’m ready to run a marathon.”
Nick frowned at my sarcasm. “I’m serious, Aria. You lost a lot of blood and took a direct hit to the chest, so until we can see a healer, I’m not taking any chances. I can’t bear to lose you again.”
My gaze fell to his shoulder, where a hole had been ripped through the blood-soaked fabric.
“Oh my God, Nick! You got hit too!”
I pushed aside the torn material to examine his wound, surprised to see a fresh pink scar instead of the bloody mess I’d expected.
He reached and pulled my hand away from his shoulder to press my knuckles to his lips. “I’m fine. Already healed, so don’t worry about me. I’ve gotta get that phone. I’ll be right back. Keep your eyes open, and if you see anything move—anything at all—you tell me.”
I nodded, and then he was gone so quickly he seemed nothing but a blur. Under normal circumstances, I might have found the reminder that my husband wasn’t human unsettling, but at the moment, Nick being a vampire was the least of my concerns. If anything, I was comforted by the fact. It would make him a more formidable opponent for whoever had attacked us.
I looked to the stars as Nick had, but I had no idea what to watch for. The fear coursing through my veins and the overall sense of being defenseless felt unnatural to me. I’d worked for years to hone my martial arts skills so that I could feel confident in my ability to defend myself in almost any situation, but I was out of my element here. I didn’t have a clue who or what we were dealing with, and I’d already taken a hit from an enemy I never saw before I even knew there was a battle.
On top of that, I’d never known Nick to be anxious. If he was worried about our assailants returning, then I figured I had good reason to be concerned.
In no time at all, he was back in front of me, holding his cell phone in one hand and the bloodied shaft of an arrow in the other.
Seeing it triggered a memory of looking down at that shaft protruding from my chest, and with that one vision, the fog inside my head cleared, and everything came flooding back.
We’d been at his mother’s charity ball, dancing and talking with people Nick knew. He’d gone to talk to his stepmother and stepbrother, leaving me behind to chat with a couple he trusted to keep watch over me. But then a man had come and said Nick was waiting for me. That Nick had a surprise…something he wanted to show me. The man was in an employee uniform, and Nick’s friends weren’t concerned, so I thought nothing of following him to the elevator and then out to the roof terrace. It wasn’t until we’d reached the roof and Nick wasn’t there that I began to question my decision to go with the man. He assured me Nick would join me soon though, and then he left me.
Only a couple of minutes had passed before Nick burst through the doors. One minute I’d been standing there smiling at my husband, happy to see him and more than a bit relieved, and then, out of nowhere, fire had exploded in my chest, the force knocking me flat on my back as the arrow tore into me.
My entire body recoiled with the recollection of the most intense pain I’d ever experienced, and I looked to Nick, feeling terrified and confused, but also angry and in need of answers.
“What the hell? Someone shot at us with arrows? Who would do such a thing? Why would anyone shoot arrows at us? What’s going on?”
“I wish I knew,” Nick said with a frown, sliding the phone into his back pocket. “When I find out, whoever is behind this is going to wish they’d never been born. But right now, I need to find a phone. Mine’s completely dead now.”
“But if we can’t get inside, we’re sitting ducks. Can’t you just go all big bad vampire and break the door down? You’re like super-strong now, right?”
“These doors are fortified specifically to protect against intruders with supernatural strength, so that’s a no-go.”
“Is there another way inside from up here? Another door?”
“They would all be locked. However, I do know where there may be another phone close by. In the summer, this terrace is filled with plants and flowers, so there’s a gardener’s workshop just around the corner. It should have a working landline.”
“It’s not far?”
“No,” Nick said, looking over his shoulder. “Not far at all.”
“Then, let’s go. What are we waiting for?”
He bent to pick me up again, but I protested.
“I can walk.”
He frowned, his dark brown eyes filled with concern. “Are you sure you’re up to it?”
“Yeah, I think so. You have an injured shoulder. You don’t need to be carrying me around.”
“I told you my shoulder is fine. Don’t worry about me. We can move faster if I carry you.”
“Maybe so, but I’d rather you have your hands free in case we encounter a problem. I think I can walk. You said it’s not too far.”
“It’s not. I just worry about you passing out or falling.”
“I get it, but honestly, I feel okay. I mean, yeah, I’m weirded out that someone tried to kill us, and my chest hurts, but I don’t feel lightheaded or weak-kneed or anything like that. Maybe it’s the adrenaline rush, you know. You read all the time about people walking for miles on a broken leg to get help or mothers being able to lift a car off their babies. I’ll probably be writhing in pain the minute we get inside, but for now, I think I can make it.”
“All right.” He brushed the backs of his fingers against my cheek. “If you change your mind, just say the word, and I’m happy to carry you.”
