by Sammi Cee
Copyright © 2018 by Sammi Lee
Cover by: Five Star Designs (Morningstar Ashley)
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
REMEMBER:
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places, is purely coincidental.
PLEASE BE ADVISED:
This book may contain material that is only suitable for mature readers. It may contain scenes of a sexual nature and violence.
Contents
Prologue
1. Azorath
2. Denny
3. Azorath
4. Denny
5. Azorath
6. Denny
7. Azorath
8. Denny
9. Azorath
10. Denny
11. Azorath
12. Denny
13. Azorath
14. Denny
15. Azorath
16. Denny
About the Author
Also by this Author
Prologue
Azorath
“Azorath? Azorath, are you listening to me?”
“Always, my creator,” I say.
“Will you do whatever I ask of you?”
“Of course, Ancient One. I was created to obey you. I’ll never forsake your voice,” I reply.
“Then you must find and claim your suflet mwenza, Azorath.”
“What?” I ask. My heart immediately starts racing, and my breath hitches. There’s no way that my creator would ask this of me.
“Claim your suflet mwenza, Azorath. It’s time to take your mate,” his steady voice responds.
“But, Ancient One, you know it’s forbidden for me to mate with a human, to show them my true nature. The council will ban me from Uchawilume to live forever in the mortal realm. I’d never have access to the supernatural world again, and any supes who acknowledged me would be facing the same punishment if it was discovered they stayed in contact with me. Or even worse, the dark realm with the worst of the dead.”
“Azorath, my children have gone too long without their mates. From the beginning of creation, you were each intended to mate with a human. The disobedience of your kind to my ultimate design is causing chaos, not only on Earth for the humans, but in Uchawilume, as well.”
“But the council—” I begin to argue before my creator cuts me off.
“Your council wasn’t created by me. It operates just as the human councils govern, and it’s failing, my angel. I need your help to restore order to Uchawilume. It’s your home, and you’re my most loyal creation. I need your help.”
“My creator, there are many supes who go into the mortal realm who are still faithful to you. I know for a fact that Ophaniel and Caedmon spend most of their time on Earth doing your will.”
The Ancient One chuckles before saying, “Oh, Azorath. I know those are your dearest friends. However, Ophaniel is an angel who spends his time on Earth not to help people, but to drink and have mindless sex. It’s the way I created him that compels him to help the humans while he’s around them. And for Caedmon, a vampire who finds the taste of fresh blood distasteful? He has a dealer now who smuggles him bags of blood from local hospitals. Blood that’s needed by people to live. His purpose is, and always has been, to drain the blood of those in their society creating heinous crimes and getting away with it. As far as I’m concerned, he’s now an offender.”
“My creator, there are so many others still who spend time in both realms. I’m a fallen angel. Most of my interactions are with humans walking the fine line between right and wrong. I can’t poss—”
“Enough, Azorath,” he commands. “You are loyal and faithful and obedient to the sound of my voice. Even with the rules that the council has imposed on the supes in Uchawilume, you have never forgotten your original purpose. So for that, it is you I choose to find your mate first. For that, it is you I give another great reward.”
With trepidation, I ask, “And what is that, Ancient One?”
“You shall lead the resistance against the council.”
Gasping for breath, I sit up, realizing it was all a dream. Of course, it was a dream. There’s no way my creator would sentence me to certain banishment. There’s no way he’d ask me to lead a charge against those who govern our land, one that I surely couldn’t win. Besides, he’s always spoken to me in a still small voice while I’m awake. I’ve been getting my assignments from him like that for as long as I can remember.
Wiping my shaky, sweaty hands on the sheets beneath me, I search my memory for what I ate before bedtime that would cause me to have such a nightmare. Snorting at my own overactive imagination, I reposition in my bed, fluffing my pillow before crossing my arms over it under my head. Suflet mwenza, indeed. The council had outlawed supernaturals revealing themselves to humans centuries ago to keep us safe. Too many human soul-mates hadn’t been able to keep our secret. They had spread stories that became fables and folklore, scary stories to keep children tucked safely in their beds at nights so their parents could have time to themselves.
If the last thought I have before drifting back to sleep is to wonder what it would be like after all these years alone to have someone love me, made specifically for me to adore back—if that’s my last thought, I’ll never tell.
* * *
Denny
* * *
Thank God, it’s almost the weekend. Then I’ll have a couple days to myself before leaving for the business trip with my uncle. It’s so unlike him to allow me to go, but I’m not complaining. We’re going over a week before the shipment even goes out, so I’ll have plenty of time to relax. It’ll essentially be like a vacation for me. Getting excited over the prospect of spending days on the beach and wandering the boardwalk looking for treasures during the day, I’m equally psyched about spending time in the casinos at night. Maybe I’ll take a little money out of my savings so I can gamble, and hopefully, being in an atmosphere where anything goes and people are ready to party, I can find a man a night to alleviate some of this loneliness that’s ensued from being tied to my uncle’s demanding schedule.
Crossing the busy office, I smile and stop to make small talk with several of the employees. There are several of the upper-level staff that I avoid as they’re rude to me. But from the mid-level employee right down to the guys in the mailroom, I have several friends at work. Of course, they all avoid my uncle. Okay, friends may be a stretch since as my uncle’s nephew, they’re still scared to get too close to me, but at least during the day I have acquaintances who are nice to me and ask what I watched on TV last night.
“Hey, Chip. I’m going up to give my uncle one final report before I shove off for the weekend.” I wave said report around in the air so the security guard who mans the desk in front of my uncle’s private elevator to the executive floor can see it.
“Does he know you’re coming, Denny?” he asks with a frown.
“Um. He told me not to leave today without bringing it to him.” When Chip smiles, I sigh in relief. He’s the only one of my uncle’s private security who’s kind to me, so I’d hate it if I’d pissed the guy off somehow.
“Sure, go on up, then.”
“Thanks. You coming with us next week?”
Shaking his head, he says, “Not until right before the shipment goes out. I’ll be here manning the office
, but I’ll be there on the day. No worries.”
The elevator dings so I wave a farewell to Chip and back into the elevator. As the box ascends, I cut my thoughts short on why I’d have to be worried about Chip not being there for an export of electronics. Not for the first time, I worry that my uncle’s company is exporting something more than phones and computers, perhaps something illegal. The growth his company has had in the last several years, and the way he blows through money would suggest that he does. But since he’s my only family, and he’s reminded me time and time again that the deal for him to finish paying for my college after my parents had died was to work for him, I purposefully don’t dwell on it. There’s nothing I can do about it, anyway.
Arriving on the top floor where his office is located, I’m surprised when I step out of the elevator and the receptionist isn’t at her desk. Turning to the right to walk down the long hall to his office, I’m surprised that all of the offices are deserted. Maybe they all left early today. As soon as I get closer to my uncle’s office, I realize my mistake. Several voices are floating out of the office. At first, I think they’re arguing, but once I’m almost up to the door, it sounds more like a celebration. When I peek in to see if it’ll be okay to go in and hand my uncle the report, or if I should just leave and come back later—which I really don’t want to do since I’m ready to go home—the first thing I notice is that the receptionist is sitting on my uncle’s lap behind his desk.
So that answers that question. No way I’m going in there and letting my uncle and all his top execs know that I know my uncle is cheating on my Aunt Rhonda. Standing behind the door for a minute, trying to make sense of what my uncle’s doing having an affair with his receptionist who’s half his age in front of people who work for him, I plot how to slip back down to the elevators as unnoticed as I made it down the hall to get here. The last thing I want is for my uncle to see me leaving and get pissed at me, potentially not letting me go away on his business trip with him.
As I lean my body against the wall behind the door with my head propped back, desperately hoping I’m not going to piss my uncle off this close to a vacation, I hear something that doesn’t make sense, “Well, they need to be able to breathe. That’s a long-ass boat ride,” followed by snickering and laughing. As I’m positive electronics don’t need to breathe, I’m not knowledgeable enough about drugs to have a clue what they’re talking about. That’s when I hear, “Can you imagine how bad it’s going to smell in there by the time they get there? Glad we’re on this end of the shipment. You couldn’t pay me enough to open that container and get them out and clean them up.”
The laughter multiplies, when my uncle’s voice booms above it all, “For the kind of money this is paying, I bet you’d be willing to do either end. Hell, I’d be willing to go in there and clean them up myself. Hundreds of thousands of dollars is worth rubbing some Biofreeze under your nose and dealing with smelly flesh for a few hours.”
What the actual fuck? Not waiting around to hear anymore, I slide my feet quickly for the elevator, sticking as close to the wall as I can. As long as no one walks out of the office right now, I should be able to get away. Getting to the door for the stairwell first, I quietly open the door, and then hold it with one hand while it clicks back into place. Jogging down five sets of staircases until I come to my floor, I open the door back into the office and head for Chip’s desk.
“Hey, Chip,” I say walking up from his side. He glances at me, to the elevator, and back to me again. I’m thankful I spend so much time watching crime dramas because this little detail could’ve gotten me in a lot of trouble. Holding out the folder the report’s in toward him, I continue, “Mariel wasn’t at her desk to send me back to my uncle, so can you give this to him when you see him? He’s expecting this report before the end of the day.”
Eyeing me suspiciously, he raises his hand to hover it right outside grabbing the outstretched folder in my hand, but doesn’t take it. “Where’d you come from just now? You didn’t get off the elevators.” His voice is borderline accusatory, but he still merely looks curious.
“I’ve been toying with the idea of joining the gym. Maybe getting a personal trainer, trying to bulk up a little. So once I realized Mariel wasn’t going to magically appear, I decided to take the stairs down. Yeah, so not happening.”
Laughing at me, Chip finishes grasping the folder and pulls it out of my hand. Letting it go, I step back and give him a self-depreciating grin. “You’re fine the way you are, Denny. You’re young and you worry too much. You’ll find someone.”
Kicking the ground with my toe, and playing up the poor me act, I bow my head and look up at him from under my lashes. “Not all of us can look like you, right, Chip?”
Continuing to laugh, he sets the folder down on the desk in front of him before waving me off with both hands. “Get out of here. Have a good weekend.”
“You, too,” I say before giving him a little salute and striding back to my desk. Thankfully, most of the office has already packed up and left in that small amount of time it took me to go upstairs and have my whole world ripped from under me. The minute I get in my office, I shut the door and turn around to lay my forehead against it while I heave in deep breaths. I can feel the tears swimming just under the surface of my eyeballs, so I tightly squeeze my eyes shut so none can leak. I can’t have a meltdown while I’m still in the office. It’s vital, maybe to my very existence, that I wait until I get home to give into my emotions. All this time I’d been worried that I was participating in drug trade, but I’d been able to reason that off. People who want drugs are going to get them somehow. I rationalized anything I could to keep my head down and keep working. But people? Was my uncle transporting live people? And for what? To who? What was I going to do?
1
Azorath
Watching the clumsy man move around the slot machine, I can’t imagine why I’ve been sent to guard him. The only protection he really seems to need is from hurting himself. In the two hours that I’ve been observing him, I’ve watched him run into multiple huge machines and ding his hip on the edge of a poker table. Not to mention spilling a drink—while drinking water, no less—on himself. Even the waiters have started giving him a wide berth so as not to get close enough for him to knock one of their trays of drinks out of their hands, again.
But the information I was given says that he’ll be influential in a crime against humanity so large that it’ll condemn his soul to the darkest of places with no chance for redemption. Oddly enough, the thought of that makes something in me cry out in mourning. I’ve lost plenty of souls throughout the years. My only job is to befriend them and try to guide them back to the light. I’m saddened when they chose darkness, but I never feel attached to it, I just move on.
From behind me, I hear Ophaniel say, “That one is a real pain in the ass. He’s been here for a week, and I’ve had to save him from drowning in a swimming pool in five feet of water, keep his hand from being smashed in an elevator, and set him up right when he started to fall down a stairwell. I’m not sure he’s right in the head. If he’s your assignment, I’d kick back and relax. Have a nice vacation. Drink a little, gamble a little, and find yourself a nice companion for the night. You spend too much time with your hand.”
Glancing back over my shoulder, I watch as he downs another shot of whiskey. “You know you’re the worst angel alive, right? Helping humans and keeping them safe is part of your job.”
“And you know you’re the most uptight fallen angel alive, right? It wouldn’t kill you to kick back and have a little fun.” He laughs while rolling his eyes at me.
Turning back to watch my quarry, I try to ignore the nagging thought that the only man I’d like to have in my bed is this curious, awkward man. Maybe Ophaniel’s right, maybe I should lighten up a little. Seducing my assignment—Denny—would be friendly, right? A form of befriending him, maybe it would make figuring out what he’s up to easier. As I watch, he runs into yet another wa
iter, causing not only several drinks to fall and shatter, but the tray to hit the floor with a loud clang. Unfortunately this time he isn’t on the carpeted area next to the machines, but right out at the beginning of the tiled hallway.
Starting to think Ophaniel’s right about something else—being that Denny isn’t totally right in the head—I see the panicked look on his face while he tries to simultaneously apologize to the pissed off waiter, jump behind a pillar separating the game room floor from the hall, and is glancing across the hall into the other room housing several poker and roulette tables, trying to stay out of sight. The shattering of glass and clanging from the tray dropping was loud, but surely, he can’t think over the cacophony of voices and piped in music throughout this part of the casino that anyone from the opposite side of this massive room would have heard, could he?
Ophaniel slides up next to me, laughing as we stand shoulder to shoulder watching Denny peeking around the corner toward the other room and quickly pulling his head back behind the pillar, over and over again. “See what I’m saying? Not all there.” Ophaniel slaps me on the back. “Alrighty, what do you want to do tonight? You want to gamble? Go to a bar? I heard there’s a great band at the casino next door. Oh, there’s a kickass dance club on the top floor of this one. I’ll even pay your cover charge just to see you relax a little.”
Giving Ophaniel the side eyes, I say, “Until Denny goes to his room, I’m going to be doing exactly what I’m doing now, following him.”
“Azorath, come on, man. You cannot possibly plan to waste a perfectly good Wednesday night, not on this kid. What’s your deal, anyway? Why are you so serious all the time?”
