Free FREED (Angels and Gargoyles Book 2) by Brenda L. Harper Page B

stopped caring about one another.”
    Stiles ran his fingers through his thick red hair, pressing the sweat on his forehead into it until it began to darken a little. Then he pressed his hand back against the tree, his eyes again studying Dylan’s face.
    “It is wrong to question the orders given by God. We must follow orders no matter what it means to our own safety. But I began to wonder why we were fighting for creatures that were perfectly happy killing their own. And when the angels came, when the fighting changed, when the humans came together to fight a common enemy, I wondered what would happen when the angels left. Would the humans continue to band together, or would they find another reason to destroy one another?
    “And then this new breed of human began to appear. It didn’t start in places like Genero. It began in places like this,” he said, moving a hand to indicate the grove of trees where they stood. “Angels seducing humans, whether for fun or love, I was never quite sure. But their children…there was hope in them.”
    “There are others?”
    Dylan tried to imagine what the child of a human and an angel would look like, what they would be like. But then she realized that this was exactly what she was. They would look like her, like Sam and Ellie, like Donna. There was no obvious difference between them and humans, or even angels and gargoyles in their human forms.
    So, how were they supposed to know which was which?
    “Many others,” Stiles said. “Quite a few among your resistance, more than you can imagine.”
    Dylan chewed her lip as everything he had said filtered through her mind. “But what does all this have to do with why you’ve been helping me?”
    “Because I am one of a few who believe that you and others like you should be the future. The human race is done, Dylan. They had their chance and they destroyed it. But you, and others like you, will give new hope to this world, to these people.”
    “You don’t think the humans should survive.”
    “I don’t think they should be the only ones to come out of this victorious,” he corrected.
    Dylan turned back toward the path she had followed to come here, moving far enough down it that she could see her friends sitting in the shade. It occurred to her that she didn’t even know what a human was anymore. She had thought she understood, thought that she and her sisters were all human. But now she knew better. They were hybrids. Ellie and Sam, both born in the same city as she, were probably hybrids, too, if not as completely melded as she was. But what about Bobby and Carver? Were they humans? Were their parents survivors of this war, or some sort of product of the war?
    “Why did the angels come here?” she asked without turning, trusting that Stiles had not abandoned her.
    “They saw an opportunity,” Stiles said, his voice just a breath from her ear. “They have always hated the humans. They saw the war as their chance to finally get what they wanted: God’s undivided attention.”
    “And Luc and Lily?”
    “They have always been here,” Stiles said.
    Dylan turned toward him. “What do you mean?”
    “Luc,” he said, “is an archangel called Lucifer. He was banished from Heaven for tempting the first man and woman to eat from the forbidden tree. For his crime, God forced him to remain on earth and be man’s protector. Lilith was the wife of the first man. She was banished when she refused to follow the rules of Eden.”
    “Eden?”
    “The garden where they lived.”
    Dylan shook her head, still confused. “If Lilith has always been here, why was she not affected by this disease that’s killing her before?”
    “A scientist, a human, got ahold of some angel DNA and created a virus that would hurt them, make them weak,” Stiles said, his voice quiet, patient. “It was the humans’ way of trying to end the war. He got the idea from something called bioterrorism.”
    “Where did he get angel…whatever?”
    “An