Synopsis:
Griffin is the Chosen, a representative of the human race who will make the ultimate sacrifice in order to preserve humanity and keep the world from ending. It all started the night she was ripped from her mother's body. One second earlier or later, and she'd have been fine. But she was born at the right time, in the right circumstances, and she is Chosen. It was all downhill from there.
She is tormented through ten events granted to Alaria, a Devil who has been placed as Lucifer's proxy and who has one foot in Hell and the other in Heaven. Alaria's job is to convince Griffin that God has abandoned her. If she can do that, there's a good chance Griffin will Choose Hell and demons will get to rule the world. There's only one problem: Alaria wants what only God can give her, and what only Griffin can ask for: her humanity.
On her 29th birthday, instead of cake and ice cream, Griffin celebrates with demons and hell hounds. After barely escaping alive, it becomes obvious that she needs protection. Dr. Allen Winslow, the doctor who has saved her life several times, also happens to be from Warrior lines. Who better to protect Griffin than the best Warrior alive?
Enter Braxton--a rough and tumble Warrior with a chip on his shoulder, who has been having visions of Griffin since he was four years old--and Gabriel--an Archangel determined to save the world, desperately in love with the one woman he should never have, and torn between playing by the rules and doing what is right. There is only one goal--survive to January 1st.
Griffin's duty is to offer her life as payment for the dubious privilege of being Chosen. The choice she has to make is simple: Heaven or Hell. Unfortunately, she is not simply choosing for herself. Her decision will determine the fate of humanity. As her time gets continuously shorter and the danger becomes more and more real, Braxton and Griffin make unlikely alliances and struggle with unstoppable emotions.
As midnight rushes closer and the battle escalates, the question becomes not whether Griffin will Choose, but whether anyone else will survive to see dawn.
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Excerpt:
When she clearly heard several pairs of feet, she closed her eyes and sent up a quick prayer that Gabriel was close and would come to help. When she opened her eyes and there was no Angel in the room, her throat closed from fear. For all the times that she'd had encounters with demons, she'd only ever faced Alaria alone and Azazel only in a dream. Even when she was at her most frightening, she'd never believed Alaria would actually kill her. The Familiars were mindless shells of the people they had once been. She didn’t doubt Alaria had told her the truth when she said they would tear her to pieces.
The first crash on the door made her jump, and the gun hit the floor as she clapped both hands to her mouth to muffle the scream that tried to wrestle its way out of her throat. Panicking, she dropped to her knees and fumbled with the gun, backing into a corner with it clutched to her chest. Her knuckles turned white from the intensity of her grip on the weapon. The second crash brought tears to her eyes, and the third crash splintered the door.
She saw a mass of hands trying to break the door open, and she forced herself to stand, sliding up the wall and trying to make herself invisible. Slowly, she took a deep breath and pulled the slide on the gun to load a bullet into the chamber. She checked to make sure her extra clip was still in the waistband of her jeans and silently thanked Alaria for making sure she was armed before leaving her there.
She screamed when the door broke and raised the gun. There were at least fifteen, none of them more than twenty years old, all of them charging toward her with eyes that were cloudy gray and looked so blank and empty Griffin knew it would haunt her for the rest of her life. As the first one forced its way past the broken door frame, she gritted her teeth and pulled the trigger. The recoil from the weapon was a surprise and her head slammed against the wall.
The bullet hit home, and the boy dropped to the floor, blood and bits of bone splattering the mob behind him. They didn't even look at him; they just kept coming. Tears streaming down her face, Griffin screamed and kept firing.