Chapter 1 Sneak Peek

“You’d better enjoy that scotch while you can,” said the man next to Edward. “I’ve been told you don’t have much longer to enjoy the finer things in this life, Edward Anthony Cullen.”

“Excuse me? Do I know you?” Edward asked, startled by the use of his whole name.
Edward hadn’t noticed anyone sitting next to him on the late afternoon fight from LaGuardia to O’Hare. He glanced to his right and took in his companion for the short hour and a half trip. The man was huge…like NFL linebacker huge, with short brown hair and the bluest eyes Edward had ever seen. And they…twinkled? What the fuck? Edward thought surely he was seeing things because when he looked back at the man, his eyes looked like every other set of blue eyes he’d seen before. The man was expensively dressed. There was no doubting the Italian cut of the gray suit he wore or the costly, gleaming black Italian leather shoes the man had on his feet.

Edward knew precisely how much the shoes cost, he had the exact pair at home. Isabella had bought them just a few months before.

Isabella…Edward’s wife of five years…five very long, often lonely years for both of them.

Edward picked up his glass and took a sip of the scotch. He shuddered as the liquid burned his throat going down. The stuff was mediocre at best but that was what he got for flying commercial, he thought to himself.
Damn last minute meeting, Edward cursed to himself again. He had had to make the emergency trip to meet with a disgruntled client. Thinking back over the reason for the meeting had him gritting his teeth in frustration. Incompetent fools, he thought.

“My name is Seth,” the large man told Edward in a voice that seemed to fill the entire cabin of the plane. In fact, the voice was so loud he cringed in response but as he looked around, Edward noticed that no one else was affected. Not one person even glanced their way.

As soon as that thought registered with him, his stomach roiled and he cursed the spicy Mexican food he’d eaten for lunch.

Edward very pointedly ignored the obnoxiously loud, beast of a man and thought to himself that the best way to get through the flight home would be to just pretend his seat mate was not there.

“I’m an angel,” the man named Seth said then continued, “in fact; I’m your own personal guide to the afterlife. You have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it, so I’ve been sent to help you along.”
He shook his head and signaled for the flight attendant. Surely he didn’t hear what he just thought he did , he lamely tried to convince himself. He smiled as she approached. Edward Cullen had been using his natural born magnetism and charisma since before he knew what those two words meant to get what he wanted, especially from members of the opposite sex. This time was no different. He was going to demand to change his seat but when she approached and asked what he needed, the words he wanted to say got stuck in his throat.

When he glanced to his right to point out what his problem was…there was no one there. What the hell?!  So instead Edward asked for a refill of his drink.

He felt his stomach churn again and seriously thought about suing the restaurant for serving food that made people hallucinate because there was no way in hell what he thought just happened, really happened. It wasn’t possible.

“She can’t see me, Eddie. In fact, no one but you has the pleasure of knowing of my existence. You should count yourself extremely fortunate,” the deep, rich voice said.

The flight attendant returned with his drink and handed it to him with a bashful smile…and a blush on her cheeks. The poor woman’s reaction to Edward was something that he was quite used to and he chuckled to himself when her breathing picked up when he smiled back at her.

So totally predictable, Edward mused silently, forgetting momentarily the invisible presence to his right. Well, pointedly trying to ignore whatever was going on next to him would be more precise. He picked up the glass and took another tentative sip of the amber liquid. He shuddered again and set the glass down in frustration.
How fucking hard was it to serve a decent scotch on this damn flight? Edward haughtily thought to himself. Again he cursed the meeting and the fact he was unable to take the company jet to New York City. Especially since his brother Emmett and his wife Rosalie, along with their children, were currently comfortably ensconced in it while he was drinking barely palatable scotch and hearing voices after eating what seemed to be spoiled Mexican food.

“That bad huh?” The large man asked from his seat on Edward’s right. Seth chuckled and then waved his hand over the amber liquid. “See if that’s better,” he said with a point of his chin in Edward’s direction.
Edward rolled his eyes, not wanting to play along with his mysterious flight companion, but he picked the glass up and took a tentative sip to appease him. None of this was really happening, anyway, Edward thought as he tried valiantly to convince himself.

It was delicious. His mouth exploded as the liquid flowed over his tongue and down his throat. He was immediately flooded with warmth and the taste reminded him of Isabella. Soft, smooth, enticing. It was the best thing he had ever tasted and he wanted more of it. Immediately. He wished to taste the exquisite elixir every day for the rest of his life if he could.

“What brand is this?” Edward demanded of the man to his right and Seth just shook his head in response. “It can’t be bought, no matter how much money you have,” Seth told Edward and Edward again felt a stab of…something in his stomach.

Those words seemed to carry another meaning altogether but he wasn’t able to pinpoint exactly what.
It was late afternoon and a summer storm was brewing outside the planes’ windows and lightning flashed dangerously close to the aircraft. If his damn plane wouldn’t have been delayed in New York, he’d be on the ground right now; ahead of the storm, Edward thought to himself, and cursed his brother…again.
“What the hell do you want?” He demanded of the big man, tired of playing whatever game he was unwittingly a part of.

“I don’t want anything, Edward Anthony Cullen. Like I said my job, as it was put forth to me, is to help you get your life, such as it is, in order before it is your time to go.” Seth told Edward.

“Go where?” Edward asked the Seth person…being. Whatever the hell he was.

Seth shrugged his shoulders at Edward and said, “Wherever it is you believe your soul goes after you die.”
“You’re telling me I’m going to die soon?” Edward asked Seth incredulously. “Impossible,” he went on. “I’m young, I’m in perfect health. I have more money than I can spend in this lifetime…probably more than I can spend in ten lifetimes. I am a powerful man. I can have what I want, when I want. I am not going to die anytime soon,” he stated emphatically.

Seth shrugged his shoulders at Edward and regarded him shrewdly, “Big deal, Eddie. You are rich and powerful.  You think the world should bow at your feet and you have no time for those you have deemed unworthy of you. But you can’t have everything you want. You can’t buy immortality and you can’t buy the affections of your lovely Isabella either.”

At the mention of his bride’s name, Edward felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest. In fact the pain was localized right where his heart was. Edward gaped at Seth as he tried to rub the pain away but to no avail. Seth watched Edward as he futilely attempted to ease the ache and waited until he said, “Make it stop. Please!”  Seth waved his massive hand again and the pain ceased.

“What the hell was that?” Edward challenged, somewhat afraid of what was happening to him. He couldn’t dispute the pain he’d just felt and he couldn’t deny that there was …something going on that he didn’t quite understand.

Seth turned his blue eyes and Edward cringed from the intensity he saw there. Suddenly, he was very afraid.
“That, Edward Anthony Cullen,” Seth bellowed in such a voice that Edward felt it in his bones, “was only a brief, albeit painful reminder of the pain you have caused our Isabella. I have to tell you in all honesty Eddie my boy; you are one giant piece of excrement.”

The lightning outside the airplane continued to crackle and flash and Edward suddenly felt like he was falling apart. It was as if he were a piece of glass slammed up against a brick wall, shattering into unrecognizable pieces as they fell to the ground. One more brilliant flash of light burned brightly and then the plane lurched and began to fall. Trays and belongings began to fly through the aircraft as the pilot tried valiantly to right the large piece of machinery.

Seth sat docilely beside Edward as Edward was pitched forward against his seatbelt. Edward’s life began to flash before his eyes…and it was not a pretty sight in the least. He didn’t care; he just wanted it to stop. If that meant it was his time to go now, so be it. But after a few moments, he realized he did care.

 He cared a lot.

 He closed his eyes to try to halt the onslaught of images, but it was a wasted effort. Moment after moment after miserable moment he relived in vivid clarity and it was…painful. So much regret, so many wasted opportunities.

“Save me!” Edward begged the so-called angel to his right...