I love you.
Oh fuck. “I love you too.”
She melts away but she is still here, in my heart, in my soul. And my weary body has renewed purpose. I wash quickly.
I have a fallen original to speak to.
* * *
Samael’s quarters are on the east side of the Keep, directly above Lilith’s private chambers. I know enough about my mother to be aware of the secret passage that leads to his rooms. The one hidden in the large armoire in her dressing room.
I take the passage now, climbing the dimly lit staircase to push open the hidden door to Samael’s quarters.
The sun is setting, and the room is bathed in red light. The floor to ceiling windows are open, and the gauzy drapes billow and fall with every icy gust of air. The bed to the left is rumpled and unmade, and clothes are strewn across the floor, but my attention is drawn to the majestic figure standing on the balcony behind the drapes.
Samael is a head taller than me. His shoulders are wider, his stance sturdy, and his wings—even folded against his back—are magnificent to behold. Two sets of wings, unheard of for any other fallen or for any other celestial.
“Samael?” I know better than to approach unannounced. Lilith’s lover has been known to maim when in a delirium. Except there is a calmness to him right now that draws me closer.
“Samael?” I stop at the entrance to the balcony.
He sighs. “How long has it been?”
“How long?”
“How long have I been lost?”
A rare moment of lucidity then. “It doesn’t matter,” I echo the words I’ve heard Lilith say to him. “All that matters is that you’re here now.”
He turns to me with a frown. “Do not patronize me, boy.”
Whoa. His mercury eyes are sharp and intense as they bore into me. “You were a child when I lost myself and now you are a man. How long?”
My pulse thuds hard in my chest. “Centuries.”
He lets out a ragged sigh then holds up his hands. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”
I assume he’s speaking of Lilith. “No. Lilith is alive. I can feel it.”
He turns fully to face me. “Not Lilith. The other one. The one with Eve’s face. She’s dead, isn’t she?”
“Fee? How do you know about Fee?”
“Answer me!”
Shit. What is this? “No. She lives. She died, but she was brought back.”
“Yes, that would also do it. Her death has freed him, and now I too am free.”
“I don’t understand.”
“No, you wouldn’t. You were simply charged to protect what would be mine.”
He looks lucid, but nothing he says makes sense. “Samael?”
“She is my daughter. A seed we cast out into the ether to return when the time was right. Mine and Eve’s insurance that when the time came, when Cain became too strong, there would be a part of each of us in existence to fight him. We linked her to his bloodline, which is why you were charged to protect it. To preserve it so he would remain trapped until… Until he couldn’t be held any longer and our daughter was born.”
He’s talking about Fee. “Fee is your daughter?”
“Yes. She is my blood. Eve’s blood. She is the best of us both, and only she can stop Cain now.“ He rubs his temples. “Cain is my son, but he was troubled and riddled with darkness, so I marked him to connect him to me, to give him strength to fight the dark parts of his psyche. Unfortunately, the mark also unlocked a new power, one which he used to slaughter a whole village. He was unstoppable. Immortal because of the mark. Eve and I locked him away. We used a vast amount of energy to do it, and we knew it wouldn’t last forever, and so we consulted with the Oracle who advised us to cast a seed into the ether.”
“Fee…”
“Yes. Only Fee can stop him now.”
“How? I thought he couldn’t be killed—because of the mark?”
He shakeshis head. “That part wasn’t revealed to us. We were told she would be a cure, a saviour, but not how or what path she would need to take.”
Eve’s curse was all about keeping Cain trapped. My heart races. Does Fee know? I need to tell her.
“He will seek his revenge,” Samael says. “He will wreak havoc on the human realm just as he did before.” He stares at his hands again, turning them over. “The mark is still active, so there is hope of tracking him. I must speak to Lilith.”
“Um, that might be a problem.”
Samael glares at me. “Where is Lilith? Where is my wife?”
* * *
Samael stares at the scroll and turns it over in his hands while Conah watches him closely.
Lilith being taken has come as a shock to him, but he’s recovered fast while I’m still reeling from the revelations about Cain.
Cain is the murderer not only of his brother, but a whole village of innocents, and now he’s out there. Free. Samael is confident Cain has no idea what Fee is or what she can do. He’s confident that Cain has no interest in the demon realm. His agenda is to rule over humanity.
But I’m not taking any risks. Right now, Fee’s safer here with me than in Necro City. Yes, he says she’s the only one who can stop him, and she will. But with me by her side, once this shit is over. No way am I letting her do it alone.
And then a thought occurs to me. A potential way out for my soulmate. “This mark you put on Cain that makes him immortal … Can you not just take it back. Strip him of his immortality and stop him that way?”
Samael makes a sound of irritation. “It doesn’t work that way. I can’t take it back. Cain would have to give the mark to someone else, and the recipient would need to be willing and of my bloodline.”
Fuck. No way would Cain give up his immortality.
“I’ve read about the mark of Cain,” Conah says “I’ve never come across that proviso.”
“You won’t find it in any text,” Samael says. “The mark is a gift from me and only I, and a handful of trusted others, know how it fully operates.” He sounds almost haughty.
So, it’s up to Fee to stop Cain then. Fuck. I’ll leave to fetch her as soon as I can get away.
Conah goes back to the blank scroll he needs Samael for. “Do you know what it is?”
My Dominus brother is back to being more intrigued by the scroll than in Samael’s sudden freedom from his delirium, but my mind is still reeling over the fact that by containing Cain, Samael cursed himself.
If only Lilith had known. How different things would have been. Cain would probably still be in slumber because his progeny would have thrived.
Samael nods curtly to himself. “I need a dagger.”
Conah’s gaze flicks to me.
Give the newly lucid original fallen a dagger?
Samael raises his mercury eyes to Conah, and his lips thin. “Is there a problem?”
I jerk my head at Conah who hands Samael one of his obsidian coated daggers.
Samael turns it over in his hand. “Good workmanship.” And then he slices his palm open.
“Shit!” Conah says.
“Calm down, boy. This is necessary.” Samael slaps his bloody palm to the parchment. A second passes and then dark lines spread out from his hand, valleys and mountains and symbols bloom across the scroll.
A map.
It’s a fucking map.
Samael holds it up. “The pit. It’s been a while. I remember the day we made this…Lilith and I. We still reeked of the abyss and Satan’s blood.”
I’ve heard the myths about the daemon Satan. A powerful entity that held the Underealm in his control. The stories say that when Lilith and the original fallen came to this world, they were faced with Satan’s wrath. It was Samael and Lilith who slayed the beast in the abyss deep in the pit, and it was his final breath that tainted the air for eternity.
Samael looks almost wistful. “Mammon was there when we took the fortress. Satan kept his prisoners there, females and males he forced to please him. We set them free, and we
sealed the fortress with our blood. Mammon would be able to access it because his blood was used. But to get inside you would need my blood, fresh from the vein.” He ducked his head. “Unfortunately, my time linked to Cain and this mark,” he pulled up his sleeve to reveal a puckered-up scar, “has changed me. I don’t think my blood will open the doors to the fortress.”
“Shit,” Conah says.
“But there is someone else whose blood will.”
I know who he’s referring to. “Fee.”
“Yes. And this map,” he holds up the scroll, “is incomplete without its counterpart. There is another scroll somewhere in this library.”
“There are scrolls tucked into the nooks and crannies all over the place,” Conah says. “No filing system at all.” He sounds pissed. But then that’s Conah. He thrives on organized chaos. “It could take hours…days to find.”
“Then we best get started,” Samael says. “This map is useless on its own. There are dangers in the pit that are mapped only when the two scrolls are placed on top of one another.” He lightly runs his fingers over the parchment. “It was Lilith’s idea to etch it in two parts. One for each of us so that neither of us could navigate the pit without the other. And so, we each hid a half of it in this room.” He straightens. “I will help you search and you—” His attention bores into me. “Bring my daughter to me. Now.”
It looks like I’ll be going after Fee sooner than expected, and damn, does that makes me glad.
Chapter Seventeen
Fee
I’d touched Azazel. I touched him, and I did stuff to him. Our soul bond was getting stronger, more powerful, and the ache in my heart at missing him was a little less for it.
I stretched and bathed in the warm rays of the sun. Grayson had left to attend to pack business an hour ago after ordering me to go back to sleep, but instead I’d somehow reached out to my soulmate.
My fingers strayed to his mark on my chest.
I missed him, but at least he was safe.
I rolled onto my side and let out a shriek at the sight of two beady, black eyes staring at me.
“Fucking hell, Cyril, you scared the crap out of me.”
My python friend raised his head. “I needed sssome air.”
I hadn’t seen him in several days. “Where’s Delphine?”
“Nesting.”
Yes, he’d mentioned that the last time we spoke, and at the time it hadn’t clicked what he meant, but now it did. “Wait…do you mean… Are you going to be a dad?”
“It would ssseem so, although it’s all happening so quickly.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, I’d say Cyril was nervous. “Do you love her?”
“Delphine isss wonderful. She’s my mate.”
“But you don’t want offspring?”
He was silent for a long beat. “I’ve never thought about it. It’s not something in my nature. Offspring are just…offspring.”
I’d read about ball pythons. The females hatched the eggs but after that the babies were usually left to fend for themselves, but Delphine was something else. A mystical snake that lived on Keon’s back. Or had done until she met Cyril.
“If you love her then support her the best you can. Find out what it is she needs and see if you can give it to her.”
“And if I can’t?”
“Then you need to be honest with her. She deserves to know.”
Once again Cyril was silent and then he slid off the bed and was gone without another word.
Shit. Maybe I should have said more?
Cora appeared at the bottom of my bed. “Do you plan to lie there all day? So, you almost died? Pfft, big deal. You’ve lounged enough. Let’s go out.”
I pushed thoughts of Cyril aside for now, and sat up, pushing my hair off my face. “I can’t. I should get onto my reaper duties.”
“Sorted,” she said.
“What?”
“I spoke to Dayna and we got you covered. Today is about manicures, pedicures, and facials. I booked us in at the spa.”
“You did?” I was suddenly wide awake.
Cora grinned. “Get your ass in gear so we can start the day. Girl time.”
* * *
It turned out that girl time was just what I needed, and the pretty barbie pink toes and fingernails were the icing on the cake.
“I missed this,” Cora said, slinging her arm across my shoulders and pulling me close. “Hangout time.”
“Me too.” I leaned my head against hers as we walked down the street together. Passers-by turned to stare, and why not? We were two powerful, alpha females, and we were hot. Yes, I felt hot and kick ass, and today was an epic day.
“Wanna get a bite to eat before we head back and I’m forced to hand you over to all the testosterone?” Cora asked.
I stifled a giggle. “It’s not that bad.”
She arched a brow. “Uh-huh.”
“Fine, maybe there is a lot of testosterone in my life.”
“But you love it.”
“I do. I love them, and I—”
My wrist tingled and my vision blurred, and I was looking at Leana as she smiled up at me and handed me my change.
Shit, I was in Cain’s head. Looking through Cain’s eyes.
I think it’s time we spoke. You know where to find me.
“Fee? Fuck, Fee!”
I snapped out of the vision to find Cora in my face, her eyes wide with concern.
“What the fuck?” she asked.
“I know where Cain is. We need to go now.”
She took my hand and dragged me onto an empty side street. “Where to?”
“Lumiers.”
We made the jump, materializing in Lumiers’ back yard then took the alley to the street.
“You’re sure he’s here?” Cora asked.
“Yeah. He invited me to join him.”
“Damn.”
We got to the doors, and Cora grabbed my hand. ”I’m staying close. Like touching distance close. He tries anything, and I’m poofing us the fuck out of there, got me?”
“Um, Cor, the wards.”
“Fuck.” She winced. “Still staying close.”
“Hell, I’m not arguing.”
I slid the cuff of my wrist. “I need to get this cuff on him, but I think it’s best if you hold on to it. I mean, his attention will be on me, so hopefully you can snap it on him before he can stop you.”
Cora studied the cuff and then pressed the catch so it sprang open. “I got this.” She slid it into her jacket pocket. “Let’s go catch us an immortal.”
* * *
Leana looked up from wiping the counter and beamed at us. “Well if it isn’t my two favorite customers.” She didn’t even ask what we wanted but set to work on the drinks. Mocha for me, hot chocolate for Cora.
“Hey, Leana?” Cora said. “Any interesting new customers lately? Male?”
Leana’s mouth popped open in surprise. “Actually, there is a guy. Been in a couple of times. Kinda strange—talks funny but real cute.” She jerked her head up at the balcony. “He’s here now actually.” She frowned. “Ordered a mocha and a cinnamon swirl—your usual order.”
Cain.
It had to be.
“Um, thanks Leana. Can you hold the drinks for now?” Cora said. Her gaze flicked up to the balcony.
Leana tensed. She must have sensed something was off. “Is something wrong?”
“The guy might be dangerous,” Cora said. “But you have wards. It’ll be fine.”
She nodded curtly. “If you need back-up, just holler. I have a carafe of steaming coffee to hand at all times.” She tutted. “He looked so gentlemanly. Just goes to show, you can never tell.”
“Thanks, babe,” Cora said.
She nodded at me, and I went up the steps first. I had no idea what this guy looked like, but my gut told me I’d know him when I saw him, and sure enough, there he was: broad, regal, long dark hair, hawkishly handsome features, and slate gray eyes that matched mine in
color, and strangely, shape too.
He locked gazes with me and raised his mug to his lips to take a delicate sip. Yes, this was Cain, and he was expecting me.
I approached his table, positioned by the back wall. Hell, he had his back to that wall, and I knew that move. The move that meant no one could sneak up on you.
I pulled out a chair and sat. Cora did the same. His gaze flicked to her and then to me.
“You didn’t need to bring a bodyguard,” he said.
My insides quivered at the sound of his voice as the memory of the last time I’d heard it stirred and surged up to grip my mind. Yes. This was Cain, the voice from Purgatory. The immortal who’d gotten into my mind and tried to kill me.
“I’d like to apologize,” he said softly. “For my tulpas’ attacks and for my invasion of your mind. None of it was personal, I hope you understand that.”
Fuck if his tone didn’t drip with sincerity, but Eve’s words of warning filled my mind. I couldn’t trust this guy. He was powerful—so powerful he’d had to be locked away. So powerful he’d manifested tulpas to kill me from his enchanted slumber.
“You asked me to meet you.” I’d make this about him and let him think he was driving.
“Yes,” Cain said. “I felt it was time I met my sister in the flesh.”
Wait, what? Had I heard him right?
“Did you just say sister?” Cora asked.
Cain ignored her and kept his attention on me. “You remind me of him, you know. Abel. He had the same silvery hair.
Eve had commented on my hair. I’d assumed she was comparing it to Cain’s, but she’d obviously been talking about her other son.
“His death was…unfortunate,” Cain said. He sipped his coffee with a sigh.
Death? Murder more like… But wait. I was still hung up on the sister thing. “I’m not your sister. I’m your descendant.”
He smiled thinly and shook his head. “She didn’t tell you, did she?”
“She?”
“Eve. I assume she drew you in for a tête à tête once she realized I was awake.” He sipped his mocha. “You’re my sister, Seraphina Dawn. Yes, you were born into my bloodline, but you are Samael’s and Eve’s daughter. I sensed it when I was inside your mind.”
Reaper Unleashed: Deadside Reapers: Book 7 Page 9
