Three powerful siblings are poised to continue their grandfather’s deal with the devil.Cosmiel’s angelic Special Ops team takes the assignments no one else wants. Too dangerous for the ministerial corps and too delicate for the army, these assignments require the best of the best, the angels who go where other angels fear to tread. The pressure is unrelenting, and even one distracted moment could leave an angel stabbed or chained in Hell—but the humans need them.The Ellington siblings seem...

A midwife has a chance to right a seventy-year-old wrong.Tessa delivers babies at night and raises five sons by day. When an angel appears after a birth and asks for help on a quest, her first response is, "Angels don't even exist," followed by a swift, "No."Even after he proves he exists (and lets her call him Martin) she wants nothing to do with his quest: Martin wants to find a relic stolen at the end of World War II, when the town of Barlassina was torched and ...

Everyone knows about guardian angels — and Nezeq knows he should never have been made one. He’s a demon, after all. So instead of protecting the human Joshua, Nezeq tries to kill him. And fails.That’s his first mistake.His second mistake is in coming back to finish the job. There’s not going to be a third mistake.Originally published in Dragons, Knights and Angels magazine, Damage won second place in the 2006 Reader’s Choice Award for short fiction...

A guardian angel whose charge went to Hell, Reflection is stuck. It’s been two years, but still he keeps thinking about William. Always William. When God calls him in for weekly visits, he's certain it's the end.Reflection's not sure he can ever be fruitful again. But someone else thinks he’s a fruitful branch sleeping through a winter season.Originally published in "The Sword Review" magazine, Winter Branches won second place in TSR’s fiction contest and fourth place in th...

No one knows why Tabris, a guardian angel, killed the child he vowed to protect. The boy Sebastian got into Heaven, but the angels don't understand why Tabris isn't in Hell. Instead God's given him a second chance. Another assignment. Another guardianship. The struggles to help this new child, a ten-year-old girl named Elizabeth, Tabris can't escape what he did with Sebastian. Elizabeth's co-guardian doesn't trust him at all, which makes sense because even Tabris doesn't trust himself. Eve...

A rosary in one hand. A dagger in the other. Sister Magdalena never heard of the Catherinite nuns until the day she faced her own death sentence. Rome, 1562. It’s the era of the Index of Banned Books and the Roman Inquisition. Kings still burn heretics. The worst threats come from within the Church itself. Only seventeen, Magdalena killed a priest who tried to rape her within the walls of her convent. His powerful family will see her executed, and then they’ll destroy her mother and young ...

Auto mechanic Lee Singer considers New York City her personal playground, with lots of big engines and complicated tools and today a car that got towed in because those "severe tire damage" signs mean what they say. It only adds to the fun when she pops the trunk and finds it full of styrofoam heads.It turns out the client isn’t a madman with a decapitation fetish. Instead he’s a marine roboticist, and if you send foam objects down to the ocean floor, they shrink under the pressure...

"If I get to Heaven and find her there, I'd rather be in Hell."Six years ago, an ultrasound diagnosed baby Annie with an incurable birth defect. She'd be born, and then she'd die.Doctor Olivia Thackeray walked into the exam room and did the unforgivable. She lied to Annie's mother, badgered her, and finally yelled to coerce her into an abortion she didn't want.Today, Doctor Thackeray walks into the mother's church. And she's still unforgivable.An ou...

It's twenty years after the Resurrection, and rumors coming out of Hell are that Satan's got a new weapon in development, only no one knows what it is. When the archangels Remiel and Zadkiel infiltrate Hell to learn the truth, they discover that new weapon only to unwittingly set it off. The weapon maims Belior, one of Satan's highest-ranking demons, but also leaves Zadkiel blind and Remiel disabled. The angels have a limited time to reverse the effects of the weapon, assuming it can be do...

Every year, thousands of expecting parents start prenatal testing to find out if it’s a boy or a girl…and instead learn the baby is going to die.Anencephaly. Trisomy 18. Potter’s sequence. They’re called “incompatible with life.” But they’re not incompatible with love.Many doctors recommend immediate termination, but more parents are carrying their babies for as long as possible, often without guidance.Carrying to Term: A Guide for Parents after a Devastating Pr...

Everyone knows about guardian angels — and Nezeq knows he should never have been made one. He’s a demon, after all. So instead of protecting the human Joshua, Nezeq tries to kill him. And fails.That’s his first mistake.His second mistake is in coming back to finish the job.There’s not going to be a third mistake.

When Gage Jordan's uncle dies inside a magic circle, and his cousin Jeff can't communicate, no one has the answers. Was Gage's uncle trying to protect Jeff, or was he working black magic? Some claim there's a generational curse while others whisper about demonic possession.The only thing Gage knows for sure is they're in danger. Demons are prowling the Vermont countryside, hunting for him and Jeff as the souls who got away. Gage's father can't help, and he's forbidden Gage to talk ...