Shattered Dawn (Fallen Guardians Book 5) Read online

  Shattered Dawn

  Fallen Guardians

  Georgia Lyn Hunter

  GENRE: PARANORMAL ROMANCE

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, businesses, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Shattered Dawn

  Copyright © 2020 by Georgia Lyn Hunter

  First Edition: November 2020

  Editor: Celia Breslin

  All cover art copyright © 2020 by Georgia Lyn Hunter

  Cover artist: Montana Jade

  Images: © Shutterstock.com, Obsidian Dawn, ISOStock@DeviantArt

  All Rights Reserved

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

  GLOSSARY

  Absolute Laws: Forbids the mating between mortal and immortal. (so no offspring would be born with the immense powers of gods and angels) If broken, the couple is executed. These laws do not apply to demons.

  Ancients: The mystical forces that watches over all realms.

  Archangel: Michael: Leader of the Fallen Guardians (also referred to as “Arc.” A term coined by Týr, and used by the others)

  Ater: A place like Hell for dead, evil Empyreans.

  Celestial Realm: Home to the divine angels.

  Dark Realm: Where the species with dark souls dwell, along with other amorphous entities.

  1.Blood Demons: A genus of demons that live on blood, they revel in the high of human blood.

  2.Caligos: Mist entities that thrive on emotions and steal human or corporeal bodies to inhabit.

  3.Jaedas: Like the Caligos, but prefer immortal bodies to inhabit.

  4.Demonii: Demons who have consumed human souls, and in turn lose their natural dark ones. But human souls fade within days, and they need to constantly replenish it with another. Human blood consumed temporarily extends the life of the soul.

  5.Demons: Supernatural beings with dark souls who resides in the Dark Realm.

  6.Otiums: A species of demons, more docile in nature. Many of who escaped the tyranny of their realm to dwell on the human world. They usually live below the radar not keen to draw attention to themselves, except for a few twats.

  7.Wyverns: Seven-foot or taller lizard-dragon-like creatures.

  Empyreans: They were created in the image of the divine angels but enjoy a more carnal life. Two level denizens:

  1.Higher-level: The Lords (With vast powers)

  2.Lower-level: The working class (limited or lesser powers)

  Elysium: Like the mortal Heaven, but where the dead Empyrean go to for eternity.

  Fallen: Angels who fall and give up their wings and stronger abilities when they leave the Celestial Realm.

  Fallen Guardians: A formidable group of fallen immortal warriors banished from their realm for past misdeeds. They swore their fealty to Gaia to protect humans from supernatural evil, and now reside on Earth. Some of whom are referred to by their pantheon’s name.

  Gaia: A powerful mystical Being who watches over Earth and mankind.

  Healer of the Veils: Usually an angel born with the ability to heal the tears formed in the mystical veils which protects the world from supernatural evil—a gift Echo inherited through her angelic ancestors.

  Nephilim: Half angel offspring born from human females and divine angels mating.

  Others: A collective term for other supernatural beings: gods, faes, vampires, etc.

  Obsidian dagger: A mystical weapon gifted to the Guardians from the goddess Gaia. When a Guardian’s destined mate touches the weapon, it instantly connects to the mate, and the warrior loses the ability to summon the blade, only his mate can now.

  Pantheons: Where the gods of various religions dwell.

  Psionics: The human descendants of the Watchers. (All females)

  Rogues: Angels who refuse to lose their wings and stronger powers. They escape from the Celestial Realm and go into hiding on Earth.

  Seraphim: The highest-level angels who oversees all things in Heaven.

  Sins: The Seven Deadly Sins, counterparts to the Ancients.

  Tartarus: Where immortals are incarcerated.

  Throne: Third level divine angels, created for war.

  Urias: Spawned from Chaos, Creator of the Empyreans.

  Watchers: Higher-level angels who were tasked to watch over fledgling mankind, but fell in love with mortal women.

  Whitefire: A heavenly immortal flame that can cause untold destruction. Used to destroy the wings and abilities of angels who fall.

  Name pronunciation:

  Blaéz: Blaze

  Týr: Tier

  Dagan: Day-gun

  Aethan: A-thin

  Loráed: Lo-raid (Lore)

  Terms used:

  Greek

  Lígo machitís: little fighter

  Moró: baby

  Agápi mou: my love

  i kardiá mou: my heart

  Skatá: shit

  Indian

  Mātā: (Sanskrit)-mother

  Mera beta: my son

  Naga: snake

  Latin

  Filius: son

  Soror: sister

  Fragmen stercore: piece of shit

  BLURB

  Bound to a malevolent curse…

  Solitary warrior Nikkos ices his emotions to survive the rampaging evil trapped within him—his only gratification is hunting and destroying demons. When guardian duty leads him to infiltrate a trafficking ring, he collides with a feisty human who stirs his long-dead heart. There is no place in his violent life for this beautiful crusader, yet she becomes the lone spark that ignites his indestructible armor.

  A past lost, a future uncertain…

  With no memories of her former life and surrounded by enemies, Shadow takes refuge in the hazardous maze beneath the city and spends her time trying to save the other lost souls who congregate there. Until a maddening, hardcore immortal storms into her life, throwing her world off-balance. Despite her unexpected attraction to the sexy, tattooed Guardian, Shadow cannot let him close, not when her very nature makes her one of the creatures he’s sworn to destroy.

  A destiny that won’t be denied…

  No matter their mile-high barriers, a dark hunger burns, drawing them closer. But their happiness is threatened when danger finds Shadow and their enemies strike, propelling Nik and Shadow into battles unlike any ever faced, with an end neither could have foreseen…

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33<
br />
  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Georgia Lyn Hunter

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Three…two…one!

  Bells tolled midnight, their dissonance ringing in the New Year as snowflakes floated down. Distant cheers resonated from central New York, miles away to where Nik roamed a dank alley in the Fish Market area.

  For the denizens of this world, it represented a time for renewed resolutions, expectation, and optimism, a shining future to look forward to.

  Him? Same shit, different year.

  Sulfur. Hunt. Kill.

  But with most of the festive mortals congregating in Time Square, demoniis were a no-show in the alleyways. The soul suckers were probably hibernating for the night, given the lack of prey in these passageways.

  Uninterested in hanging around and listening to the humans’ merriment, Nik headed deeper into the slushy alley. But having to fit in with humans togged to their eyeballs, he retrieved his skullcap from his coat pocket and pulled it over his buzzed hair.

  An eerie sensation slid over his already iced-up psyche. Nik slowed. The chilly night air tasted acrid…sulfur. Demons. Perfect.

  Nik dematerialized and followed the strain, taking form in the industrial area and near a war zone. Shrieks from humans and demons fighting ricocheted off the brick buildings and blasted his ears. The dark energy residing within him stirred in anticipation. He stood there for a second, watching some of his fellow Guardians wading through the ruckus like bare-knuckled boxers, unable to use their mystical weapons or powers with humans about, to kill the supernatural shits.

  Good thing they still had fists, and Nik relished in getting up close and personal.

  With preternatural speed, he blurred and dove between two scuffling figures. He sent the human stumbling away with a mind-shove and rammed his fist into the demon’s face.

  What’s all this about? he telepathed Týr.

  Who the hell knows with these dumb shits? “Fucking hate this time of the year!” the Norse growled out loud. “You think they would simply enjoy the New fuckin’ Year and chill since they chose to live on this realm, but no, the dickheads just have to stir up shit—”

  “Fuck you, too,” the Otium demon snarled. “No one gets in on our turf and swings their dicks here.”

  “Oh, motherfucka,” Týr taunted, an evil grin spreading. “Bring it on.”

  His danger radar buzzing, Nik spun around with an airborne kick, sending the demon hurtling at him face-first into the brick wall.

  Gang wars were the bane of the city’s slums, and these Otium idiots always ended up dragging the Guardians into their territorial fracas with the humans. He scanned for Dagan. Where the fuck was he?

  Nik telepathed him. Need to clean up this shitfest and do a mind sweep of humans fast before the local authorities wind up here. He ducked a knife flung at him. Or we’re in a fuckload of trouble—

  Dagan appeared, moving through the chaos faster than a speeding bullet, his bronze features molded in stone.

  The humans instantly detached themselves from the fight and strolled off as if without a care. Yeah, Dag was ace in mass-clearing the memories of idiotic mortals who had no clue as to what they went up against in these battles.

  But the demons remained, seeking vengeance.

  Grunts and thuds ricocheted in the frigid backstreet as the fight continued. A sinister hiss sounded, Nik pivoted and ducked a hellfire bolt flying past him, inches from demolishing half his skull. Growling, he flashed and grabbed the demon’s arm, twisting the appendage behind the idiot’s back. “Really?”

  The scourge’s thin face darkened, lips twisting, eyes streaked red. “As long as you’re dead, I don’t care.”

  “You wanna test that theory?” Nik bent the arm harder, and the demon shrieked. “Here’s the thing. Unlike my fellow Guardians, I don’t give a fuck who sees me destroying you. Unfortunately for you. I. Cannot. Die.”

  In the gloomy alley, Nik let his corporeal self morph into a gray, misty shape, becoming one with the darkness. One of his weird-ass abilities—to take on a smoky serpentine shape—courtesy of his mātā’s protection spell as an infant. Wispy tentacles slithered around the demon, trapping him.

  “Try to leave…” Nik’s voice lowered, indistinct amidst the uproar. “I dare you. And I’ll show you how easily I can sssuck the life out of you fuckersss,” His sibilant tone became eerier in this form, his amorphous hold constricting the demon like a smoky boa.

  “No, no…” His teeth clacked. “Let go…”

  “Just so you know, dark sssouls are my delicacy,” Nik lied. “Enlighten me as to why you’d bring notice to yourself in thisss realm?”

  “It’s over t-territory,” the demon whimpered. “They accuse us of trespassing on their turf.”

  “Usss?”

  “Hade’s Disciples.”

  “With a name like that, can you blame them?” Nik grunted, reforming once more. “Now, the real reason. Lie, and I will snuff out your pathetic life.”

  Terror leached the color from the demon’s face. “Their women have gone missing. The Vipers claim we took ‘em.”

  Nik pinned the demon with a bored stare, running his tongue piercing against the roof of his mouth. Truth.

  He let him go, and the skatá took off like the wind. Nik was aware of homeless kids being abducted, but not females.

  Thwack! The dull sound of a gunshot, one muffled with a silencer, echoed.

  Seriously? Gun wounds weren’t lethal to Guardians or demon-kind, merely irritants, but to humans, they could be fatal.

  A female moaned in pain, distracting him. His gaze snapped toward the cry just as a swish sounded. Nik jerked back, barely avoiding the dagger swinging inches from his carotid. He flung out his hand, releasing an ice spear, nailing the pest in the torso.

  The demon stumbled and glanced at the lance sticking out of his chest. Snorting, he grabbed the ice, broke off the end, and laughed. “Is that all you have, Guardian? This useless ability? At least it’s not the Detonator or the one with the Blitz.”

  So, the idiot knew of Blaéz, and Aethan. That didn’t surprise him. The former killed with a thought, and the latter leveled everything to ashes in seconds with his power of whitefire.

  “I have a casualty—” Týr’s clipped voice drifted from afar. “I’m getting her outta here.”

  Nik’s focus remained on the smirking demon. “Then you should have wished it was one of them who got you. Me…” He shrugged, watching the piece of ice sticking out of the demon’s chest burrowed into him like a worm. “I like the time it takes to die.”

  After all, he’d died many times, each one slow and agonizing.

  The demon’s brow scrunched. A spasm of coughing broke free. Terror twisted his face. He scratched at his throat, struggling for breath. Nik watched impassively as the demon slowly froze into an icy statue, crimson-streaked dark eyes taking on the cloudy hue of death.

  Nik walked up close, and with a flick of his finger, the statue shattered. A dark, churning fog slid out of the ice-crushed demon, hovered—shit. Nik hastily leaped out of the way, but the soul slammed straight into him instead of being pulled down into Purgatory.

  Fuuuuck, he grunted, lurching back, panting like he’d run the planet a million times over as the rest of the fragmented ice, mixed with gore and plasma, began to dissipate into the ground.

  He just had to be the one bastard who drew dead demon’ souls like a fuckin’ sponge. It was why he usually avoided standing in direct line of the departing life-forces. With no way of getting rid of them, his body twitched and shuddered. Shit. Nik rubbed his face, struggling to tighten his psychic shields before the ones he already harbored escaped.

  As the commotion in the alley died down, Blaéz’s hard voice cut through the endless, agitating darkness consuming
Nik. “This is worse than we thought. Someone from those damn gangs is abducting human females and selling them to demons.”

  “The Arc’s gonna go batshit,” Dagan grunted.

  “A great way to welcome the New fucking Year,” Aethan growled.

  “Greek, anything from the asshole you decimated?” Blaéz called out.

  “Nothing.” Nik dropped his hand. “Later,” he rasped. Teeth gritted against the malevolent souls battering his mind, he dematerialized before the others sensed something was off.

  Hell, he was a walking hazard—a fucking time bomb. And this was why he preferred working alone. If he did shatter, then no casualties.

  Nik reformed again. A sharp breeze blew, sending flurries swirling, enveloping him with a chill he didn’t feel. The crisp smell of greenery and fir crowded his nose. Head lowered, his mind held in a haze, he tramped across the snow-covered ground, his boots crunching through the layer of white while he tried to get his thoughts back on track, hoping the silence here would override the perilous agitation within.

  Tall trees surrounded him, edging rows upon rows of tombstones. Only two places he ended up after nights like these when his mind felt as if it would explode into fragments. Here at the East River cemetery or the old ruined church in Hudson Valley.

  A handful of humans remained huddled near headstones.

  Dammit. With him teetering on the edge of his sanity, he needed the place to quiet down—didn’t want to sense their beckoning bright souls when his own was undoubtedly as dark as the ones trapped in him.