Free The Judas Relic: An Evangeline Heart Holiday Adventure by A.K. Alexander, Jen Greyson

together than I’d had in years—not my born-into family of course—not even one I’d chosen, but better, one that had chosen me.
    Clay and I both looked at each other in surprise when the sound of clear and beautiful voices could be heard along the river Thames just across from Ralph and Anna’s neighborhood. The song was, of course, “Silent Night.”  
    “You okay?” I asked Clay.
    His gaze flickered to my eyes. “I’m perfect. You?”
    “Not half bad. Merry Christmas, Clay.” I held up my wine glass.
    “Merry Christmas, Lina.” He clinked my glass with his.
    Ralph then raised his glass. “Merry Christmas to all.”
    We each returned the toast and for the next few hours, I found the solace and peace that only Christmas can bring, with people I never expected to celebrate such a revered day with. Oddly enough though, I really didn’t want to be anywhere else.

    To be continued in:
    The God Game
    A.K. Alexander & Jen Greyson
    Coming February 17, 2015!
    Keep reading for a sneak preview.

Extras

    God Game

    Chapter One

    And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. — Matthew 26:51-52  

    I relaxed into the stylist’s chair. This was a well-deserved luxury and one I didn’t do often. Most of the time my dark hair stayed in a simple ponytail to keep it contained and out of my way. Today’s decadence was a nice reprieve from recent events. I still had a hard time stringing together that a few short months ago, I’d come home from my fiancé’s funeral to be drawn into a search for a trio of relics that together, would open a gate to Hell. Oh, and the guy calling the shots? The earthly man, Enoch, who ascended into Heaven to become the archangel, Metatron.
    Mika, my stylist, drew a round brush through my damp hair and flicked on the hairdryer, plunging me into a welcome sound bubble of my own thoughts. Metatron wasn’t letting me tackle this mission by myself though. Oh, no… He’d given me a fantastic assembly of a team. I had a scholar as ancient as the religious relics he knew as well as the liver spots on his own hand—though with his slipping mind, my confidence level of his wisdom slipped daily, but he made up for those memory gaps with a fierce fervor for this cause. He knew everything there was to know about the Book of Enoch, Metatron’s personal bible of all things heavenly, earthly, and below.  
    Then there was Clay, my partner-in-crime and a brilliant, yet flippant thief who didn’t take anything serious, except maybe the day’s fantasy football picks. Rounding out the stellar grouping was my aging mentor, currently recovering from hip surgery. He’d brought me up and recruited me into the “family business” of assassins for hire.  
    We were a motley crew, to be certain. But based on what I’d seen so far and what I feared lay in store for us, we might just be the best equipped to succeed.
    I sighed and tried to let the tension melt from my body. To say I deserved a day at the spa was the understatement of the year. While Mika’s hairdryer cocooned me in a blanket of warmth and the brush tickled my scalp, I let my thoughts wander to Griffin, my fiancé, murdered in retaliation for my hired kill of a South Asian leader—or so I’d thought. With every new rock we’d turned over, I’d learned that not everything that had happened in my life was quite what I’d been told and Griffin’s death was only the first lie. The Angel of Death, Azazel—a former archangel in his own right—had intercepted Griffin’s soul. They’d boosted it like a painting and carted it off to hell, trapped him there and as his soul mate, I was the only one who could save him. Griffin’s holy soul—was a hot commodity apparently and Azazel was currently trapped in