AllFreeNovel
Share Us
CHAPTER5
She was lying.
Damn it!
This wasn’t how he planned on his next meeting with his soulmate to go. Even though he told Micah that he thought it was a great idea to involve Polly in their hunt to get their talisman back from Lucifer yesterday afternoon, he was still waiting to run it by Raze. Then, once his older brother signed on, he would approach Polly and explain how she was his best hope.
His only hope.
After the last month, he still hadn’t worked up the nerve to tell her that she was his soulmate. He could’ve sworn he had good intentions when he first started following her, keeping her safe, but the more time that passed, the more he had to admit that he was so afraid that she would reject Death as her mate that he kept their relationship as it was.
It was just… he didn’t want to do this wrong. Whenever he thought about introducing himself again to Polly, of explaining their fated tie, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about what happened to his younger brother. His mate had been faction, and Micah still hadn’t been able to claim her before she disappeared. As an angel of death, he couldn’t shake the suspicion that Phoenix hadn’t quite died like her coven reported, but Micah mourned her loss all these decades later—and there was no denying she’d disappeared without a trace.
Sam had only known of Polly Benson for a month and he knew that he’d wonder what-if for the rest of his immortal life if anything happened to her. Not that he would ever allow that. The way he saw it, she was his only chance at a happily-ever-after. And just like how he spent thousands of years shedding his former life as Death, choosing to become a do-gooder guardian angel, Sam was a romantic at heart. He wanted the one woman meant for him, and if she was a human soul that he needed to treat carefully, he would.
He didn’t have all the time in the world—she wasn’t immortal yet, though that would change eventually if he got his way—but it had only been a month. He was watching her, getting to know her, keeping her safe all while he dealt with his waning powers, his brother’s sudden switch in personality, and the mocking knowledge that Lucifer had their talisman.
Just because Sam didn’t really give a shit if he ever ended up in the celestial cities again didn’t mean that he was happy with the idea that his former friend-turned-enemy had it down in Hell… and his one shot at getting back? She was currently sneaking out of the back of the storage room as he stood there, clutching the stupid phone that wouldn’t stop ringing.
As his soulmate, Sam could track Polly down anywhere; in Purgatory, at least. Even if he couldn’t tell she was already plotting to leave him as soon as his back was turned, he could sense her on the move already.
Damn it!
And all because Raze had finally decided it was time to remember that he had brothers and a business and goddamned talisman that their faction needed.
Knowing his older brother, the phone wouldn’t stop ringing until he followed the annoying chime right to where Sam stood. The way Sam’s business phone was warded made it so that there was never a chance of “accidentally” missing one of Raze’s calls. Raze had paid Hilda extra for that feature when the witch enchanted it, mainly because his bossy brother insisted on being a major pain in the ass when it came to riding Sam’s.
Ugh.
Well, Polly was already gone; if not, she would be before he could crush his phone and take off after her. And what then? His inexperience with a female who meant something to him had already been on full display while he was talking to her. So surprised that she actually summoned him with his true name, he’d turned into a bumbling schoolboy instead of the suave middle prince most of the factions saw him as.
He’d fucked up somehow. Sam wasn’t sure what it was he said or did, but she was already closing off against him even before the phone interrupted their meeting. So as much as he wanted to blame Raze, he couldn’t, but hell if he wasn’t going to give it a good shot.
Finally answering the damn thing, he brought the phone to his ear and snapped, “Okay, bro. What’s the emergency?”
Through the warded phone, Sam could just hear the way Raze’s brow was furrowed in a mixture of annoyance and confusion. “What? There’s no emergency.”
“You sure?” demanded Sam. “‘Cause I figured that’s the only way you’d willingly pull your cock out of your mate long enough to work a phone.”
“Jealous, Sam?”
“Terribly,” he agreed readily, feeling some of his fury ebb. It wasn’t good for a former angel of death to lose his temper, especially when he was standing on the edge of the casino he and his brothers had built over the last seven decades. Control, Samael, he told himself. Get in control. With a sigh, he added, “But you know that, and it’s my problem, so let’s move on. The phone was ringing for ages. What’s so important it couldn’t wait?”
In his mind’s eye, he imagined Raze narrowing his steely blue gaze. He might even be pinching the bridge of his nose as he muttered in warning, “Samael…”
Unlike when Polly used his name, Raze’s mutter held no sway over him. An angel couldn’t use another’s true name against him, and even if they could? Sam had heard Raze use it so many times over the millennia that it would’ve lost any meaning.
“What? I was in the middle of something.”
Raze huffed. “You’re always in the middle of something. Let me guess. This has something to do with your thief.”
Of course he knew. “Fucking Cael. He went running to you, didn’t he?”
“What do you mean? I haven’t seen Cael yet tonight.” A moment later, Raze made another sound of annoyance. “She’s here, isn’t she? That sticky-fingered human of yours is in the casino. Damn it, Sam. I thought we agreed that you wouldn’t bring her around here until she’s your bonded soulmate.”
No. Raze mentioned the condition, and Sam totally disregarded it.
A couple of weeks ago, Raze told him that he didn’t want Polly interfering with their business until Sam could control her. Knowing that, even if he did manage to bond her to him, controlling his spitfire of a human was never going to happen, Sam asked Raze if he planned on treating his eventual soulmate the same way. At the time, Raze was trying his damndest to conceal Becca, hiding her from Lucifer—and his brothers—by employing her as one of House of Sin’s cocktail waitresses. He thought he was doing a good job of it, while Sam and Micah laughed behind his back at how oblivious the age-old angel was. Neither of them were surprised when it came out that Raze had claimed Becca so soon, and Sam bit back his tease whether or not he had Becca under his control for Raze’s sake.
