Free Angel Tormented (The Louisiangel Series Book 3) by C. L. Coffey Page A

feeling.
    “Angel, stop!” Michael cried, desperately.
It was only because the cry was so feeble – something I would never associate
with Michael – that I turned back. I couldn’t leave him.
    The horn blared again. The train was finally
close enough now that the light was hitting us. Time was running out. I looked
to Michael and saw he knew it too. No, he was giving up too easily. There had
to be something!
    “Cupid,” I said suddenly, pulling my phone
out of my pocket with my good hand. The screen had an enormous crack running
down it but it seemed to work. Only I didn’t have the convent’s number saved.
My fingers desperately hammered at Safari as I urged the page to load.
    “He won’t get here in time,” Michael told
me, his tone had changed from fear to acceptance, sending a fresh wave of tears
to my eyes.
    I looked up at him through blurry eyes and
angrily wiped my tears away with the back of my hand. “Summon him,” I demanded.
“You share the link with him, right? He falls under you? Hell, summon any of
the angels – Cupid will come.”
    “I can’t,” he said quietly. “I’ve been
trying. This trap is blocking me.” He swallowed. “Angel, you need to leave,” he
pleaded. “You don’t need to see this.”
    “I’m not going anywhere,” I snapped. “So
stop telling me to go or I swear to God, I will step in there and join you,” I
informed him as my voice broke. I sniffed and turned my attention back to my
surroundings, frantically searching for something to help me. My eyes fell on
the sword I had abandoned. Could I use that to break the track, and therefore
the trap? “How strong is a sword?”
    “Angel, don’t you dare do anything which
will hurt someone on that train. They are innocent humans.” How did he know I
was fully prepared to derail that train if it meant saving him? “I mean it,
Angel. I’m not worth it.”
    “There’s got to be something I can do,” I
yelled in frustration, trying to make my hoarse voice heard over another horn
blast. There was a lump in my throat I couldn’t swallow and I was shouting as
loud as I could have, but I was too busy looking for some way to free Michael
than care if he heard me.
    “There is not enough time and you’re not
strong enough to pull me free. Angel, please,” he begged. “Please go.”
    I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave him. I
looked at the train. It was close – maybe only a hundred yards away and getting
closer much too quickly. “Michael, I can’t do this without you,” I told him,
turning back to him. “There has to be something!”
    A serene expression had fallen over
Michael. “When you asked me earlier what I would change about you, I said your
vessel,” he said.
    I stared at him, eyes wide. “I’d change
that right now too,” I agreed, looking at my weak and damaged limbs. If I’d
have had a stronger, faster vessel, I would have stopped Valac sooner and
would’ve had more time to get Michael free. A better vessel would have been
able to get help.
    “You misunderstand me,” Michael said. “I
would change your vessel to your original appearance. I wouldn’t change you .
Your vessel is the thing that is not perfect. That red is artificial, a mask,
hiding who you really are. You are perfect as you are,” he took a
staggered step closer to the rail. “I am sorry if I have ever given you
cause to doubt that.”
    The train blasted its horn again; this
time like someone was yanking frantically at it, the blasts short and erratic,
rather than sounding it off with long steady bursts.
    “Angel, my biggest regret has been holding
back with you,” Michael told me. “I should have been completely honest with you
from the beginning about everything – including my feelings for you. My life
had meaning when I met you and has continued to every day since, yet every day
I have questioned whether, if it came to it, would I put you over a human. At
least now I don’t have to test that. Angel, I-”
    The