Bloodfire Awakening

Kensington Falls 3
Bloodfire Awakening
[Siren Classic ManLove: Alternative Fantasy Paranormal Romance, MM, HEA]
On Kiz Emeral’s home planet homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. Knowing from a young age he preferred men, he and his family escaped to Earth. Alone and untouched, he knows he’ll never find love, let alone his mate.
Raphael was an archangel who never thought he’d fall from grace. But after crossing a line he shouldn’t have, he ended up like most of his siblings—face down in the hell realm.
Now tricked into becoming a protector of a rouge sanctuary, Raphael rescues Kiz, shocked at the magnetism he feels toward the large man. That is till Kiz claims they are soulmates, something Raphael doesn’t believe in.
But when Kiz enters mating heat, his blood pumping through his veins like fire, Raphael learns he’s the only one that can end it. But he fears that once he gets a taste of Kiz, he’ll do anything for another bite.
Length: 39,300 words
BLOODFIRE AWAKENING
Kensington Falls 3
Indiah Winter

Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
Bloodfire Awakening
Copyright © 2019 by Indiah Winter
ISBN: 978-1-64243-980-9
First Publication: September 2019
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2019 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Indiah Winter is a free spirit who is obsessed with making people smile through writing. She spends most of her time sitting in front of her computer mapping out plotlines for her next set of heroes. She is a mother to a mutant cat–Indiah Jr.–who was born with three extra toes; Ms. Winter hates long walks on the beach (all that sand in all the wrong places. Eww!); and has sadly never cooked something that didn’t come out of a box.
For all titles by Indiah Winter, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/Indiah-Winter
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BLOODFIRE AWAKENING
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
BLOODFIRE AWAKENING
Kensington Falls 3
INDIAH WINTER
Copyright © 2019
Chapter One
As he gazed up at the ceiling, unease washed over Raphael at the emptiness he’d never experienced.
Someone is messing with me.
But at the dead silence in his head, he couldn’t say he minded. In the past there had been voices demanding for forgiveness. Others had asked for money, a better body, or for their ex-partner to meet a gruesome end. One had even specified for their significant other to be tied up, covered in honey, and placed on a fire ant mound.
Though having fallen to perdition centuries ago, he’d long since stopped hearing the prayers of humans. Again, no big loss. But the flow of images had ceased. He’d always been able to see bits of the future. Most of it he was barred from, but others were clear as a movie in a theater.
Now he had no clue what will happen next. He’d had his clairvoyance ability for so long it’d become a part of who he is. Now that he didn’t possess the ability, it was like having his eyes gouged out.
Now he saw a haze when he shut his eyes. A black backdrop with a shimmering mist that seemed to flicker like the northern lights. It was devastatingly beautiful, yet it left him feeling small and alone. On the rare occasion he’d became blinded by the image of oblivion it usually lasted for a few seconds. Then it’d vanish before he could make sense of it. He wasn’t powerful enough to understand, and he kind of liked it that way. He was told total consciousness of past and future was scary and left the person unable to function and live in the present.
Raphael liked to think that somewhere there was a being stronger than him who looked out for Earth and its realms. Like the deity the humans prayed to. Little did they know it wasn’t God who answered, but the curatrixae, or guardian angels. Only a few remained, most of them hiding in the Elysium Realm—heaven.
Now with each passing second, the void he was submerged in seemed to be making the walls of shadows in his mind creep together, as if blocking him in. Or was it locking others out? He didn’t know and that terrified him.
He rarely panicked. Anxiety and fear were not emotions he let have free rein. But at present they were chipping away at the glacier in his chest, making it impossible to get the appropriate amount of air into his lungs.
Raph folded his arms behind his head, resting on his mattress. Looking around his room, his eyes roved over the clocks of all shapes, sizes and models. They were all one of a kind that he’d had crafted by master clockmakers over the years. They were spaced chaotically on every available surface, just for the whimsy. A side of him he hoped no one would ever learn about him.
As he listened to the cacophony of clock pendulums click and clack, his cell rang, making him jerk into a sitting position. If my powers were working, I’d have known that would happen. But what made his heartbeat race to uncharted territory was that there was no number associated with his phone. It wasn’t activated. He’d bought it to fill his sleepless nights by playing arcade games. He had an addiction, he knew it, but he’d never admit it to anyone. He just blocked all the answers from his mind and played in his precious time off which he should’ve used for sleep.
Being a Fallen Archangel, he didn’t need as much sleep as humans. But he chose to sleep even though he didn’t need to because it shut down his brain, making it so he didn’t dwell on the small—or large—things.
As Raph’s phone chimed again, he knew that whoever was calling was someone he didn’t want to talk to.
Reaching over the side of his bed to face the floor, he picked up his cell with his forefinger and thumb, dangling it as if it were covered in filth. Glaring at the screen, he felt like cussing at finding the number blocked. But then a picture of one of the last creatures in the universe he wanted to talk to popped in his head.
No visions for hours and suddenly the scum of the Earth called him? Someone is definitely messing with me.
Tapping the screen, he put the phone to his ear and said none too politely, “How did you get this number?”
A laugh answered him, making Raph grit his teeth, his anxiety turning sharply to anger. “Oh, come now,” Othiah purred over the line. “Is that anyway to treat a younger brother?”
“You stopped being my brother when
you fell from grace,” Raph snapped back.
“Why?” his former family member said, sounding genuinely hurt. Raph wasn’t fooled for a second, and it enraged him when Othiah’s attitude made a sudden flip. “Well, you know the last I heard, you took the same crazy pill as well. So don’t go acting like your shit don’t stink, you fuckhead!”
Raph mentally counted to ten. “What do you want, Othiah?”
“Actually, I go by Otho now,” the annoying male said with a derisive laugh.
“Is that why you called?” He was unable to hold back the sarcastic words.
“Of course not.” Othiah paused to yawn exaggeratedly, the sound making Raph want to reach through the receiver like a cartoon character and rip out the asshole’s throat. “I want to invite you to the bar for a little drinky poo. What say you…?” Othiah giggled like a prepubescent girl. “See what I did there? I’s a poet.”
He reached up with his unoccupied hand to massage his temple, knowing he’d never get an actual migraine, being of angelic lineage. But Othiah’s tone was grating on his patience.
Clenching his teeth, he managed to bite out, “You’re going to keep calling till I agree, aren’t you?” Raph already knew the answer. Whoever had put a stopper on his powers had slowly begun to release it. A light began to shine in his head, wrapping around him. A sense of security crashed over him like a waterfall.
Unlike most of his brothers who fell, Raph had managed to swim his way to the surface when he’d been kicked from Elysium into the soul pit. The pit was where fractured life energy resided. Murderers, rapists, pedophiles. They did everything they could to get a hold of an angel’s wing which would allow the monster to open a portal to Earth.
Raph had been blessed that he made it out with both of his wings intact. Not even a feather was missing. Which meant he’d retained most of his abilities. The only other fallen angel who’d managed that—as far as Raph knew—had been Lucifer. The broken souls hadn’t known what an angel wing could do when Lue fell, so he had easily been able to swim to the top.
When his brother had crawled out, he’d hired magic users to create a realm around the soul pit, the Abyss—hell. To protect his realm, Lucifer had created demons and hellhounds to protect himself.
Raphael had lasted longer in Elysium than most of his siblings. Then one mistake—if he could call it that—ended it with him being expelled from Elysium, the only home he knew. Raph had turned into a beast as he’d clawed his way out of the soul pit. He’d become a fiend as he slashed down demons, finding them almost as weak as humans. Once he’d reached the surface, he’d had powers to take him to the Earth Realm. But no matter how hard he tried, he was denied access to Elysium.
“Excellent!” Othiah said cheerfully. “We expect you here tonight no later than eight.”
When the line went dead, Raph looked at the wall finding the clock for Pacific Standard Time—a sawed-off redwood log with golden hands and numbers—and found it was hours away where his younger brother had set up shop. Raph had time to prepare himself mentally.
He would go. He wasn’t a coward. The real question was, how long would it take before he started breaking necks?
* * * *
Kiz Emeral stood dumfounded as the last of his father’s news made it to his ears.
“What?” He questioned calmly in his native language. “I don’t think I heard you right.”
His father looked at him guiltily. “I told you Otho came to me and requested I volunteer you and Korozia for a chance to bed a patron saint.”
Kiz gulped as his twin brother, Koro, gaped and yelled in English, “You what? No fucking way am I sleeping with a guy! You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me?”
“What did you say?” their father asked, looking more pissed that he didn’t understand than that his son was disrespecting him. “Korozia, tell me what you said this instant!”
“No, you old fuck!” Koro continued in English. “First you make me move to this backwoods planet against my will. And now you expect me to offer my ass up to some man? You’ve gone senile, you bastard. Make Kiz do it alone. He’s the one who’ll like it.”
Kiz gulped as Koro turned and stalked down the hall to his room. Kiz watched his brother go, his head feeling like everything was moving in slow motion. I must sleep with a stranger?
“Kizia,” his father said in the soft tone he usually donned with Kiz while alone. “Tell me what he said.”
Licking his lips nervously, Kiz peeked at his father and said with his fingers crossed behind his back, “He said he’ll think about it.”
His father frowned as he shook his head. “I know my sons.” He puffed out an amused sound. “I know he just refused—vulgarly.” His lips quirked up at one corner. “Just like I know you cross your fingers behind your back like a human when you lie.”
Kiz bowed his head in shame. “Please forgive me—”
“No,” he interrupted, resting a hand on Kiz’s shoulder. “I am the one who should be sorry, Kizia… I wish you didn’t have to do this. I did everything I could to get you out of it, but our savior, Otho, said he’d kick us out of the bar if you didn’t.”
The elder man took him by his shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes. “You don’t have to do this if you don’t wish to.” He gulped audibly. “I can find another planet that’ll take us.”
More running? Kiz didn’t want that. They’d just become accustomed to the Earth, and he didn’t want his father and brother to be uprooted again because of him.
The bar Hell’s Mouth was the only thing keeping him and his family safe. If they were evicted, then they’d be deported back to Tibu if his father couldn’t find another suitable planet that had the right atmosphere for them to breath.
Oh, I don’t want to do this.
Bowing his head in respect, he said in a shaky voice, “I’ll do it, Father.”
The hands on his shoulders squeezed him gently. “Otho said to be at the bar no later than eight o’clock. Okay?”
Kiz sighed inwardly, knowing he didn’t have a choice in the matter.
With a quick nod, he turned and seemed to float to his room. Like a ghost in Earth movies.
Once Kiz was at his own bedroom door, just one room down, he heard a loud thump and the splintering of wood and his father’s voice yell, “Korozia, get the fuck over here and tell me what you said!”
Entering his room, Kiz caught his brother saying in Tibutani, right before Kiz closed his door, “Dad, what the fuck is your problem? Why the hell did you kick down my door?”
Running to his bed, he jerked back the covers and crawled under. He was so scared his body shook violently. This was not how he’d planned to spend his day off. He’d wanted to continue crocheting a matching sock to go with the one he’d finished the day before.
Suddenly a loud knock came from his door. He debated whether to answer it, but in the end he didn’t have to when Koro burst in without permission. “Let’s get this over with.”
Sitting up, Kiz wiped at his eyes. “Huh?”
“Just come into the bathroom, dumbass.”
Sliding from his bed, Kiz followed his brother into the shower room. Inside, he watched Koro set a box down on the counter and then began to dig around in Kiz’s drawers. “Where are your scissors?”
“Excuse me,” he said, bowing to his brother before walking backwards out the door. Sighing, he went to his yarn basket and retrieved his scissors. Once back in the bathroom, he held them out to Koro who snatched them. Watching in awe, he gasped when Koro took a hank of his own hair and hacked a chunk of it near the scalp.
“Koro!” Kiz shouted, still in Tibutani. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to get out of this if it’s the last thing I fucking do,” Koro growled, pausing long enough to hand Kiz the box he’d brought in with him. “Here.”
Removing the lid, he looked at the device inside and asked, “What is it?”
“Hair clippers. You use them to shave your hair down to your scalp
.”
“What? We can’t shave our heads, Korozia. What will Father say?” her paused. “Where did you even get these?”
“Look,” his brother said as he turned, getting right in Kiz’s face. “It’s either shave our heads, or signal to the whole fucking world what we did. I’m not going to let anyone know what it is we must do tonight. I’m not going to be laughed at for taking a female role in bed. And if you’re smart you’ll do the same goddamned thing.”
Kiz didn’t quite manage to hold back his flinch. “B-but, Koro,” he tried in English, hoping he made sense with his “baby talk,” as Koro called it. “I think that myth. To scare. I no believe if we—um—join together our hairs will be to turn white.” His brows furred, wondering if that made any sense.
Koro didn’t react like he usually did, by laughing in Kiz’s face. “Fine, do whatever the fuck you want, but I’m not going to give others the opportunity to call me weak.”
Kiz wanted to argue that taking the submissive role in bed didn’t mean you were weak. But in the end he wasn’t sure either. He’d never had sex, but when he did, he knew he didn’t care who got to be on top. He’d be happy just to have someone to call his.
Glancing at his reflection in the mirror, Kiz looked over himself from his deep orange eyes and freckle-free completion. Grabbing his long black hair that came down just below his waist in a twisted braid, he knew he wouldn’t be able to cut it. He liked it the length it was.
Peeking over at Koro, he wondered why they’d both been volunteered. Kiz became horrified thinking the patron saint must have a thing for identical twins. The thought grossed him to no end. Just because the earthling was a protector of Hell’s Mouth—the bar he lived above with other species—and made it safe for Kiz and his family didn’t mean he would just bow down and let the guy crawl on top of him as thanks.