Verwandte Artikel zu The Fallen 3: End of Days (Volume 3)

The Fallen 3: End of Days (Volume 3) - Softcover

Buch 3 von 5: The Fallen

Sniegoski, Thomas E.

 
9781442423497: The Fallen 3: End of Days (Volume 3)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1442423498 ISBN 13: 9781442423497
Verlag: Simon Pulse, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Victory is fleeting, but defeat is eternal.

The war between Heaven and Hell rages on. Aaron, half-angel and half-human, commands the Fallen in their quest to protect humanity. But evil forces gain strength at every turn. And lurking somewhere in the shadows is Archangel Gabriel’s instrument with the power to call down the End of Days.

Aaron draws confidence from the girl he loves as he struggles to make peace with his legacy as Lucifer’s son. These are desperate times, and Aaron knows the Fallen will need to forge new, unlikely alliances to survive.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Aaron will stop at nothing to defend civilization—and the girl who holds his heart.  Even if it means facing Hell’s darkest demons.

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Thomas E. Sniegoski is the author of more than two dozen novels for adults, teens, and children. His books for teens include Legacy, Sleeper Code, Sleeper Agenda, and Force Majeure, as well as the series The Brimstone Network. As a comic book writer, Sniegoski’s work includes Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails, a prequel miniseries to international hit, Bone. Sniegoski collaborated with Bone creator Jeff Smith on the project, making him the only writer Smith has ever asked to work on those characters. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his wife LeeAnne and their French Bulldog, Kirby. Visit him on the web at Sniegoski.com.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Victory is fleeting, but defeat is eternal.

The war between Heaven and Hell rages on. Aaron, half-angel and half-human, commands the Fallen in their quest to protect humanity. But evil forces gain strength at every turn. And lurking somewhere in the shadows is Archangel Gabriel’s instrument with the power to call down the End of Days.

Aaron draws confidence from the girl he loves as he struggles to make peace with his legacy as Lucifer’s son. These are desperate times, and Aaron knows the Fallen will need to forge new, unlikely alliances to survive.

With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, Aaron will stop at nothing to defend civilization—and the girl who holds his heart.  Even if it means facing Hell’s darkest demons.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

CHAPTER ONE

The cold milk made Aaron’s teeth ache as he spooned cereal into his mouth, careful not to dribble anything onto the front of his shirt.

He glanced across the kitchen table at his little brother, Stevie. The boy, who was supposed to be eating frozen waffles, was rolling a Thomas the Tank Engine train back and forth in front of his untouched plate.

Aaron was about to tell the boy to eat when his mother entered the kitchen, a smile on her face that reminded Aaron how lucky he was to have her as his mom.

Lori Stanley was actually Aaron’s foster mother, but her smile, and the way he felt about her, made that fact inconsequential. As far as he was concerned, Lori Stanley was as close to a real mother as he would ever know.

“How’s it going here?” she asked cheerfully.

Stevie didn’t respond, engrossed in the repetitive movement of his train.

“We’re good,” Aaron said through a mouthful of sugary cereal.

He needed to finish up or he’d be late for school.

A few more quick bites and he was done. He grabbed his bowl and stood to take it to the sink.

“It was nice, wasn’t it?” Lori asked as he crossed the kitchen. She stood beside Stevie’s chair. The boy didn’t notice, but that was just how Stevie was, lost in his world of autism.

“What was?” Aaron asked, absently placing his bowl in the sink and turning back toward his mother. He wondered if he’d need his jacket. The calendar said it was spring, but it was still cold.

“This,” Lori said, her eyes becoming sad as she gestured around the kitchen.

“Yeah, I guess,” Aaron answered carefully. “Are you all right?”

His mother shook her head, slowly at first, but gradually with more passion. “No,” she said, her voice cracking. “No, I am not all right.”

And suddenly Aaron knew exactly what was wrong.

His mother was dead. So was Stevie.

This life was dead.

Lori looked at him, her eyes awash with tears. “Do you miss it?” she asked, stroking the little boy’s hair as he continued to play with his train.

Aaron found himself crying as well. “Yes,” he whispered, wanting to go to her, to have her take him into her arms and tell him that everything was going to be fine. But something stopped him … something denied him that comfort.

“It got bad so fast,” Lori said. Wisps of smoke began to waft from her body.

“Lori!” Aaron cried as the smoke became darker, thicker, and tongues of flame appeared atop her head like a fiery crown.

“Mom!”

He tried to move but couldn’t, some unknown force preventing him from going to her aid. Fire completely engulfed her now, and smoke obscured the kitchen, but Aaron couldn’t look away.

“So fast,” the blackened skeleton said once more. Sizzling fat ran from its empty eye sockets in a mockery of tears. Her burning fingers still patted Stevie’s hair.

“It’s going to get worse,” the little boy said unexpectedly, lifting his attention from the train to fix it upon Aaron, his gaze suddenly very much aware. “A lot worse.”

Then Stevie started to play with his train again.

As he, too, began to burn.

Aaron Corbet awoke with a start, and stifled a scream before it could fully escape his lips.

He blinked repeatedly, his eyes somehow watering from the smoke of the blaze that had consumed his mother and brother.

“Aaron?” asked a voice in the semidarkness of the bedroom.

He turned his head slightly on the pillow, expecting to see his girlfriend, Vilma, but instead he looked into the worried eyes of his dog, Gabriel, who lay on the mattress beside him.

“Bad dream again?” the yellow Labrador asked in the gravelly dog voice that Aaron had no difficulty understanding.

“Yeah,” Aaron said, reaching over to rub the dog’s golden-brown ears. “But I’m all right now,” he lied.

He was about to ask the dog where Vilma was, but as the murkiness of sleep began to recede, he remembered that she had gone back to Lynn, Massachusetts, to visit her aunt and uncle.

Aaron wished that she were here with him now; he could have used her arms around him, the warmth of her body pressed against his. Her very presence was enough to chase away any nightmare’s lingering effects.

While he loved Gabriel, a Labrador retriever was no replacement for a hot girlfriend.

“Getting up now?” Gabriel asked, sitting up, his thick muscular tail thumping against the bed. “Breakfast?”

“Not yet.” Aaron reached up and gave the dog’s blocky head a final pat, then turned over on his side, pulling the blanket around his ears. “It’s still early. Let’s see if we can grab a few more hours of shut-eye.”

Gabriel sighed with disappointment but didn’t argue, settling down almost immediately. Aaron listened to the dog’s breathing grow slow and heavy as Gabriel drifted off once more.

But sleep eluded him.

He tried to clear his mind, to focus on his dog’s steady snore, but all he could see when he closed his eyes was the vision of his mother and brother in flames, their ominous warning echoing in his ears.

“It got bad so fast.”

“It’s going to get worse.”

“A lot worse.”

Vilma Santiago opened her eyes to the early morning, thinking that things were the way they used to be, that nothing had changed at all.

That the past few months had been only a bad dream.

But, really, it was her old life that seemed like a dream.

She lay on an air mattress on the floor of her cousin’s bedroom and gazed up at the ceiling, at the cracks in the plaster that had always been the first things she saw when she awakened, when this used to be her room. She remembered all the times she’d lain there, early in the morning, before the rest of the house began to stir, wondering what the day would have in store for her.

School, homework, chores, making sure her younger cousins weren’t getting into any trouble. She’d never really thought about that life as she’d lived it, believing it all so predictable, so boring and inconsequential.

If only it could be that way again.

Vilma quietly rose from her bed, careful not to wake the little raven-haired girl who slept soundly in the bed next to her, wrapped in the Disney Princess bedding she’d received the day before for her seventh birthday. She picked up her clothes and shoes, and tiptoed to the bedroom door. Vilma hated to leave yet again without saying good-bye to the little girl, but the last thing she wanted, or needed, was a scene.

Her abrupt departure from the household six months ago had created enough problems, although Vilma didn’t see what choice she’d had. Her life had changed so dramatically since she’d become involved with Aaron. Since she’d learned what she really was.

Vilma stepped out into the hallway, quietly pulling the door closed behind her. She stood for a moment, breathing in the comforting aroma of freshly brewed coffee, then bent down to place her sneakers on the floor and pull on her jeans.

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” asked a voice from behind her.

Vilma zipped her pants and turned to find her aunt Edna standing at the end of the hallway, in the doorway to the kitchen,...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Simon Pulse
Erscheinungsdatum
2011
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1442423498
ISBN 13 
9781442423497
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
384
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande