Fallen Into Hell: Fallen: Book 2 by Layna Snow (best books to read all time .TXT) 📗

are trying to gain attention. Malyk, I need you to gather information on a new Angel that has Fallen; I want to know why. I’ll give instructions when you find her. The rest of you have your tasks. I will-“

Before he could finish, the door opened to reveal a woman in what looked like fetish gear. She had a short skirt that was made up of overlapping brown leather flaps, with rivets holding them together at the top, to a low hung belt, a drinking horn and small satchel tied to the band. Her top was small and made of the same leather, the rivets this time looking more like decoration going along the bottom of the corset.

Her long blond hair was loose, flowing around her as she stalked into the room, her tall heeled boots clicking as she stepped.

“Sasha, you’re late,” he told the Valkyrie, although he was sure that she knew the time. Sasha liked to be ‘fashionably late’ as she liked to call it.

“Women’s problems,” she said ominously, and looked around for a reaction. “Come on, that always worked in high school. Fine, I was showering, Kay? I spent too long in the morgue and smelled like dead people.” As she rounded the table for her chair, she passed by Eden and took a moment to place a hand on the shy woman’s shoulder before chuckling.

Eden blushed again looking away.

“I told everyone what you found. Was there anything else you learned at the morgue?”

She sighed. “Yeah, the guys we picked up from Club-Overcompensate were definitely poisoned. I’d say they either bit into a capsule in their mouths or released it another way. The team are analyzing their blood as we speak. I should know the chemical component soon. Looked a little like a concoction that I saw in the 90’s. Same side-effects. They weren’t Human, though. The county morgue noticed. We had to take the bodies before anyone else knew. We spiked his coffee, so no one believes him. It’s weird though, that the Alliance didn’t get to them first. Either the Alliance is getting sloppy or they wanted these bodies found.”

“Let me know if anything changes. We will have to get more data. Now, I’d like to announce that as of two weeks from now, I will no longer be actively running the Hunters.” Axel said, only to be met with confusion.

“I’m not leaving. I’m not giving up. I’m going to be undercover again. I’m going to infiltrate one of the Alliance’s compounds. We need this stopped and the only way to do this is to get in and get knowledge. This means that I can’t be linked to any of you. So until this is complete, Gage will be in charge. I will report in to him whenever I can. Our identities are already linked as cousins, so they won’t take notice if I call him.”

The others were still surprised, Axel noticed, looking around at their faces. Julian even continued to swear. Finally Malyk spoke up. “Wait, no. I’m the one who does undercover work. I can do this. You look into the Fallen.”

He knew that the other man would offer. And on the surface it seemed smart, he was the head of the Hunters, and as such he was important. However Malyk couldn’t do this, Axel couldn’t investigate the Angel. It just wouldn’t work. “You have your instructions.”

“You don’t trust me, do you?” Malyk asked, sitting up straighter in his chair to glare over. “I’ve shown my loyalty but you won’t give me a truly important case. I’m just supposed to find someone? Why put me on lost-and-found duty?”

Annoyed, Axel leaned forward as well. His bulk making him much more intimidating than the slight Elf.

He might have allowed them too much say in what was happening day to day. Gave them too much leeway.

Maybe Gage would change that.

Frowning, he moved closer to the table so that he could put his fisted hands on top. “Don’t question my orders. I am still the leader here and that isn’t changing for a few weeks. She was my battle partner when I was an Angel and she would recognize me. You also have the skills. She will be difficult to find. I’m giving you a very important case to me. Screw it up and, undercover or not, I will find you and dismember you. Got it?”

Something in his tone must have come across, because Malyk swallowed and nodded.

“Dismissed.”

With that, everyone left, or almost everyone. Gage stayed behind.

When the other man walked up to Axel, he sighed, rolling his shoulders. “Why are you really doing this?” Gage asked, leaning against the table.

Axel had met Gage the year after he had Fallen. Gage had been summoned from Hell by a brother whose sister was killed by a Hidden. Gage killed the rabid Wolf-Shifter easily, but soon realized that there was no one policing the Hidden. He too made it his mission to track down these powerful beings and hold them accountable for their actions.

Since they met, they were close, and only Gage was allowed to argue with him. At least that was how he used to be.

Maybe he was growing soft.

“It needs to be done. I didn’t start this group so that we could investigate and sit idle while bad things were happening. We aren’t here just to clean up messes afterwards. We need to be proactive.”

Every bad Hidden that he had killed, another took its place. It was never-ending. There needed to be more warriors. They needed to get the people higher up.

“We’re doing a lot to bring the fuckers down. We have people patrolling at night, and teams on missions. This just started 10 years ago. Nothing is fixed overnight.”

Axel nodded, stretching his back a little as he regarded his friend. All this deep talk was uncomfortable, but they never