Afterlife: A Fall of Angels Novelette Read Online Free

to do about it?” Jeremiah finally spoke.  Even though he put malice in his voice, Cole detected the hints of uncertainty.  “You’ve grown soft.”
    “Oh, I don’t think so,” Cole said, a smile curling on his lips.  He felt that satisfied, wonderful feeling in his chest when he thought of the revenge he was about to have.  “You have forgotten what the man who fought his own branding can do.”
    “Yet they still managed to sink the iron into the back of your neck,” Jeremiah sneered.
    “Which makes me a doubly branded man,” Cole replied.  “Stay away from her, brother.”
    “What a stiff you’ve gone after,” Jeremiah said as he and his companion stepped over Cole on their way further down into the cylinder.  “She doesn’t even drink.  What a bore.  I don’t see what your interest in her is.”
    Cole just closed his eyes as he listened to the two of them descend. 
    This had to end soon or Jeremiah was going to discover Jessica’s little secret.  And then even he couldn’t help her anymore.

 
     
     
    “ ...not without cause is this going to the abyss; it is willed on high...”
    - Canto VII, Inferno, Dante
     
    From a distance, with Jeremiah in his sights as well, Cole saw familiar races gather in an overflowing garden, each dressed color matching clothes.  He could hear Jessica even from this far away.  The family started to get frantic when she didn’t walk out of the building on cue.  He heard Jessica’s cries, heard her tell everything to Alex.  Cole couldn’t hardly believe the boy was real.  With everything Jessica had thrown at him, he was still by her side.
    Then arm in arm, they walked down the aisle and said words that only the world cared about.  They had been so unnecessary.  Even with all Cole had seen, he’d never witnessed two people more committed to each other.  Words repeating the commitment they had already made to each other seemed redundant.
    The wedding was Cole’s final defeat.  He would never have Jessica.
    But he didn’t deserve her.  Cole would never have sacrificed himself for love like Alex had for her.  Like Jessica would for him.
    As Jeremiah withdrew something metallic and cold looking from his pocket, Cole finally made his approach.
    “I would highly advise you put that back where it came from,” Cole said as he stopped at Jeremiah’s side, watching as Alex and Jessica shared their first kiss as husband and wife.
    Jeremiah started, turning wide eyes on Cole, then flashing to the shiny silver gun he held in his left hand.
    “Blood is such a terrible way to ruin a wedding,” Cole said, turning his flat back eyes on Jeremiah once again.
    “What are you doing here?” Jeremiah hissed.  Even still, he put the gun back in his pocket.
    “I should be asking you the same question,” Cole said, anger rising in his blood.
    “You know why,” Jeremiah said coldly.  “She doesn’t belong here yet she hasn’t come to our world.”
    “You have no idea how much you’re going to regret this day,” Cole said, his voice becoming a demonic growl.  Gripping Jeremiah by the back of the neck, Cole squeezed.  Jeremiah buckled to his knees instantly, blackness spreading from his neck, up his face, staining all visible skin.  Cole’s own veins struggled to leap out of his skin.
    “It’s time to go home brother,” Cole breathed.
    Cole stole one more glance at Jessica in her white lace, smiling at all the people who mattered to her, again arm in arm with the man Cole hated almost as much as he hated Jeremiah.  His chest gave a violent squeeze.
    Before he could let the pain cripple him, Cole let him and Jeremiah slide back into the afterlife.

 
     
     
    “ Without fame, he who spends his time on earth
    leaves only such a mark upon the world
    as smoke does on air or foam on water.”
    - Canto XXIV, Inferno, Dante
     
    The fire blaze through the blackened night.   The contrast of the flames against the darkened trees was beautiful.
    Cole had