Angel's Power by Erin M. Leaf

ANGEL’S POWER
     
    Angel Shifters, 2
     
    Erin M. Leaf
     
    Copyright
© 2013
     
     
     
    Chapter One
     
    Ariel stared at her bare arms, then roughly dragged her shirt sleeves down to cover her
legacy marks, the symbol of the People. Every angel shifter was born with them.
Hers used to be ordinary brown and smoothly drawn. They were supposed to look
like tattoos of abstract lines and feathers drawn on her skin, stretching up
her arms and over her shoulders, but now they were all wrong. Broken , she thought to herself, a pang
of fear lodged in her sternum. She swallowed it down. She didn’t have time for
this, no matter how much the mottled blue discoloring the brown remnants
bothered her. In some places a hint of silver edged the marks. Worst of all,
when she changed, releasing her angel form, her wings were mottled, too. She
didn’t know what the hell was wrong, but something was. Her wings were changing
and she had no idea why. The tips of her feathers flashed silver when she held
them up to the light.
    She shoved the heavy drapes away
from the windows and stared down over the stone circle. The full moon lit the glittering
snow, making it almost as bright as day in the clearing behind Castle Archangel.
In another ten minutes, she had to go down there and support her brother,
Gabriel. He was their Alpha. The leader of their people. And their species was
in the midst of a crisis, even more than they’d been a few decades ago when
they’d been outed to the humans. They’d all thought that would be the end of everything.
It hadn’t been, even though everyone found out the truth: that the angels of
myth were shape-shifters, another sentient species that co-evolved along with
humans on Earth. And sure, it was difficult as the world grappled with the
revelation, but it was nothing compared to what was happening now. Demons
walked among them once more.
    Ariel rubbed her face, then forced
herself to stand up straight and confident. She was her brother’s first advisor.
One of the People’s most important councilors. She had no right to mope around
just because her wings were changing colors. Her brother’s had changed from
brown to ebon when he’d become Alpha. His mate’s wings had changed from brown
to snow white when Raphael became Omega, their People’s healer. Maybe whatever
was happening to her wings was meant to be, too. Perhaps she was drifting into
some destiny she couldn’t predict and it was all part of God’s plan.
    Yeah, right, and pigs will fly
across the castle grounds tomorrow, she thought skeptically as she
strode through the large chamber. More likely she had some sort of illness and
she’d drop dead any day now with no warning. If Gabriel could hear you
thinking that, he’d kick your ass, she told herself. She stopped in front
of the door leading onto the second floor landing of the huge stone building,
trying to press her worry down into nothing. She failed. Instead, she took a
deep breath and curled her fingers around the brass handle. It warmed in her
hand, the metal suddenly glowing with heat. She jerked her arm away and stared
at it. The metal looked pitted. Deformed. Shit. She shook her head. She’d have
to deal with this later. She was out of time for self-pity.
    “Time to be a grown-up and fake it,”
she murmured as she shoved the door open with her foot.
    ****
    “Are you sure it’s wise to go to
Castle Archangel?” Suriel’s mother asked him, not for the first time.
    He shrugged, wishing he had a good
answer for her. “I don’t think any time will ever be the perfect moment to go,
but the longer I delay, the more likely something terrible will happen to the
People. They need my protection.” He shoved a pair of jeans into his pack.
    “There are angels here, too. The
People don’t only live at the castle,” his mother replied.
    Suriel grimaced. “I know, but the
danger I sense isn’t here. It lies to the south. I can’t let the first true
Alpha in years wander around