Hope in Love by J. Hali Steele Page A

keep her hidden in his domain. He wanted to
see her face light up when she saw all the new things around her. He would just
have to limit how much he introduced her to at one time.
    He also needed to be careful about what he felt for her.
    She would be sent back to Deborah after the babe was born.
    Ram’s head went up and his eyes swirled with blue fire. A
familiar human scent reached him. With it was the essence of another angel, one
he knew well.
    Raphael. Why was he here? Better yet, why did he bring her ?
    He heard the angel’s modulated voice in the main room. Raph
would know he was here. They often came to this establishment together. The
soft knock on the door told him he’d been right.
    Ram didn’t want him near Yael. Especially tonight.
     
    Yael felt tension rise in the air. She saw fire in Ram’s
eyes and wondered what caused it. She also thought his eyes did not seem so
full of pain anymore. On two occasions now she looked into them and the cobalt
flames hadn’t burned there and she wasn’t afraid. They didn’t disturb her as
they had in the past.
    She caught a brief glimpse in his mind of Raphael. Did Ram
feel her in his mind? It shocked her that he did not react. Ram seemed very
upset. She turned crimson at doing something to him she’d asked him not to do.
Yael should not meddle with his private thoughts. She had no right.
    But a more important problem existed.
    Meshing. It had gotten stronger.
    Michael wouldn’t tolerate that. Not after the debacle with
the archangels long ago who took wives on Earth. Many of them were never
allowed to return to Heaven.
    She trembled in fear and hoped Ram didn’t notice.
    “What a pleasant surprise,” Raph said as he entered the room—followed
by Patricia. “Ahh, the lovely Yael. It’s so good to see you again.”
    Still in his mind, she felt Ram seethe as he watched the
angel’s eyes rake her scantily clad body. He wished she’d left the hem on the
now too-short dress and didn’t want her to get a chill without her shawl. She
pulled the material over her shoulders.
    “Raph, what are you doing here?” Ram asked.
    “Oh come now, don’t act surprised to see me. You know I love
this place. You remember Peter’s exulted? Patricia, I’m sure you remember Ram,
and you know the beauty with him.”
    Yael knew Patricia well. And her tie with Ram. Everyone
above had part of the story. She took in the slender body of the exulted and
wondered what men found attractive about skinny women. Patricia could use a
little meat on her bones. She pushed the awful, petty thought aside. Patricia
was considered somewhat of a friend. Yael and Deborah had heard more of the
tale than most.
    Ram had taken Patricia to Spain without Peter’s knowledge.
It was still sketchy what happened there. But the exulted refused to return to
her benefactor. Ram had disappeared and left her to her own devices. Which
seemed to be many.
    Patricia used her power of enthrallment voraciously and had
gathered men to her. She attracted the attention of a very powerful vampyre.
Unable to locate Ram, Michael had sent Lucifer to retrieve the exulted and
return her to Peter.
    Always bubbly and fun, she’d become a shell of her old self.
Patricia seemed sad all the time. She stayed to herself and didn’t venture out
anymore. Yael, in fact, was surprised to see her here.
    There were whispers that Michael put a spell on Ram to teach
him a lesson. Her eyes squinted in his direction as Yael wondered about that.
    Patricia had insisted Ram never touched her. That he only
helped her to go below because of her unhappiness in the heavens and her vile
dislike of Peter. Yael believed her and wanted to do something to help her
remain out of Peter’s clutches.
    “I’d invite you to join us, but we’re about to leave,” Ram
said.
    “Don’t leave on our account. We only stopped by for a
nightcap.”
    “Ahh, then have a good evening. Come, Yael, let’s return
home.”
    “Good Lord, don’t tell me you’re