Dracula's Desires by Linda Mercury

She’d be calm and controlled. Together, they would recover John. Only after her new lover was free would she see if angels could bleed.

C HAPTER 16
    T he faint green grass of spring greeted Lance when he arrived on Earth. Every living being in the area, from the smallest microbe to the unconscious minds of the humans, responded with joy at his arrival.
    Heartened by his welcome, the new angel reconnoitered. He had landed in a memorial. Green lawn spilled in front of concrete buildings. Stairs and old brick scattered the grounds. The parking lot was full of cars.
    As he passed the crowds of people, a desperate mother found her crying child’s lost pacifier. A teenaged girl found the courage to cry at the images in front of her. A lost baby rabbit hopped its way home. A far cry from the futility and effort of his time as a Fallen.
    Underneath the ecstatic scents of trees and grass lay the reprehensible stench of years-old corruption. Much had been lost here. Not even his powers could reclaim it.
    Lance knew this place had been an abattoir before he saw the entrance sign. Why was he brought to this concentration camp?
    Hope still lived here, though. The life-affirming scents of rosemary and apples floated, light and insubstantial, over the remembered pain.
    John and Valerie. How he wanted to embrace them, whisper words of ardor and longing into their souls. He might be an angel, but he would, forever and always, want them with him.
    Lance searched for his earthly beloveds. Finally, he reached a concrete stage in front of a curved wall. An eternal flame burned in a bowl nearby.
    A single figure stood there, hands clasped behind her back. Finally, here was his adored Valerie. She still had her straight black hair and upright spine. Her once-black aura now swam with glittering white and green streamers.
    Hope and life stirred within her. Red speckles danced around her shoulder blades, sparking the gold-embroidered dragon. And some anger, too. He wondered what had happened to change her.
    The breeze stirred his extended wings. The cool air stimulated the sensitive organs until arousal gobbled him whole. He floated closer until the evergreen scent of rosemary petted his skin.
    â€œValerie,” he murmured against her neck.
    Like the well-disciplined warrior she was, she did not flinch. Instead, she merely rotated on her heel until they were nose to nose; their lips mere millimeters from each other.
    Tenderly, he brushed away the hair that had gotten caught in the corner of her mouth. “I have missed you so much,” he said as he leaned in to close the fraction of distance between them.
    She leaned back, her luminous hazel eyes empty and distant. “Where have you been?” she asked coolly. “Finally remembered us?”
    Her disdain cut him into splinters. Merciful love, his body hurt from remembering everything. Her rage, her body, her fierce commitment to her ideals. What had happened that she no longer smiled when she saw him?
    He dropped his fists to his belt where the magnifying glass hung in its cushioned pouch. The hard circle of the lens under the cloth calmed him. Lance would learn the secrets of her heart again. First, he had to find John.
    â€œI came as soon as I could,” he answered. “Where is John? I have much to tell you both.”
    â€œI have much to tell you, too.” Her voice sounded choked.
    At his questioning look, Valerie pulled the wings of her coat away from her body.
    His gaze dropped to the familiar lines of her long, lean body.
    But she was no longer long and lean. Her belly pooched forward. A happy green light pulsed under her navel.
    â€œHi, Dad!” it shouted in his inner ear.
    â€œDad?” he blurted.

C HAPTER 17
    â€œ C annonball!”
    Yet another Fallen Angel launched itself into the Singel Canal, its vestigial wings flapping. A giant splash of holy water landed on the Amsterdam street, drenching the remaining defectors from Hell. They all