I woke panicked, confused and disoriented. Darkness blanketed me like silk, threatening to suffocate me as I thrashed out at the blankets that tied me down, trying to escape. It took several moments for my mind to wrap itself around my surroundings and several more before my heart slipped back from my throat to its proper place beneath my breast. I leaned back against the plush headboard of my king-sized bed and combed my shaky fingers through my long, dark hair, pulling it away from the nape of my neck. Remnants of sweat dried on my skin in the chill air of my empty apartment. A shiver ran through me, raising goose-flesh, and I was unsure whether it was from the air-conditioning on my damp skin or the fresh memories forced up by my subconscious mind.
It had been the dream again.
It had started only a few months ago, though I do not know how many times it has woken me anymore. The sound of her voice echoes through me even in my waking hours; I cannot escape it, sweet words, whispered in the dark too many lifetimes ago to count. And if I closed my eyes, as I did in that moment, I could see her face. Her honey-colored eyes had overwhelmed me, intoxicating. I had been lost from the moment I looked into them; the prisoner of a human heart.
With a deep-rooted sigh, and an intense feeling of claustrophobia, I slipped quietly from the bed, successfully knocking the blankets the rest of the way to the floor, and made my way through the darkness to the living room and the large bay windows that looked out over the breathtaking city that I called my home. Seattle. I had come here when it had been nothing. Now, as I pulled open the thick shades, the lights of the vast city illuminated my darkened apartment, chasing away the pitch black. I could see a ghost of my own reflection in the rain spattered glass, my skin pale, the color of my eyes too dark to distinguish the lashes casting shadows on my cheeks. My attention focused closest on my own lips. Oh, how she had loved my lips and the tiny crooked smile that pulled at the corners of my mouth. She had never failed to brush her soft fingertips across the pout formed by my bottom lip between kisses. I let my eyes drift shut, the city disappearing as my memory took over.
Her face was just inches from my own, her soft brown eyes examining every line of my face as I stood before her. I knew this memory. My heart lurched painfully in the depths of my breast as she leaned in, her lips inches from my own; to take the first kiss she had ever taken from me.
It all shattered as I opened my eyes, looking out over the city lights below me, and noticed the blurry semi-reflection in the glass. My own reflection stood out in stark contrast beside it, my breath a fog on the window pane. I sighed.
“Samael.”
“It’s been a lifetime, sweet Haden.”
His voice dripped with honey and venom and made my skin shiver with anticipation. I turned to take in the sight of him. He was leaning casually against the arm of one of my large leather chairs, his bleach tipped hair tousled, his black cashmere sweater so soft looking it made me want to touch him. There was a smug look on his face that said he knew something that I did not, likely something that I was not going to enjoy. I stifled the growl that rose in my throat. “Yes, it has been too long. To what do I owe this pleasure, my Lord?” I choked over each word as they came out of my mouth. It was never a pleasure to have the Seducer arrogantly propped against your furniture in the middle of the night without an invitation. He was, after all, a Prince of Demons and I had abandoned my post over six hundred years ago.
“Business, mia figlia,” he said. The Italian pet name rolled so casually off of his serpent tongue, I knew that it meant nothing to him, but the reaction it caused in me made my skin crawl. My cheeks flushed at the intrusion of his power which filled the room like a thick haze, almost solid enough to touch, and a low heat ignited in my abdomen, waiting to be stoked into a blaze. I turned away from him, with a shudder that I prayed he did not notice, and made my way to the overstuffed leather chair opposite the one he was leaning on. I settled in and made myself comfortable; this was already turning out to be a long night.
“Are you here as the Seducer or as the Prince of Demons?” Samael smirked at my daring nonchalance and my heart plummeted into my stomach, causing an uncomfortable tingle. I was not afraid that I had stepped out of my bounds, I knew all too well the game he played with me, but my pulse quickened anyway, shattering the belief that I was immune to his numerous charms.
“Ah, if only it was that kind of business, my darling.” He sighed and slipped casually into the chair he had been leaning on, one leg draped over the arm. The move caused the soft material of his sweater to tighten across his chest and my breath caught, involuntarily. “Alas, it is not.”
He sounded genuinely disappointed. Surprise, surprise. I forced myself not to smile as I looked directly into his eyes; eyes that were slowly bleeding into a black as dark as pitch. He truly meant business. My mouth was dry and I could feel my lips chapping. I licked them before I spoke. “So, Prince, may I ask what business brings you here?”
A spark lit the pitch of his eyes, and they began to smolder with an inner fire, a mixture of anger and desire. I bit my lip and his eyes dropped to my mouth. So, he wasn’t entirely immune to me. My heart lurched forward in excitement and just the tiniest bit of fear. I leaned forward a bit in my chair, showing honest interest in whatever business he had brought my way along with just the barest hint of pale cleavage. I could have sworn he growled, but then I could have been imagining things.
“I have an assignment for you,” he said in an intense whisper. Ice ran through my veins. I could feel my heart stop beating and I knew he could hear it. The silence was deafening and it lasted far too long for my comfort.
“It’s been a long time,” I stated flatly.
“And now I need you.” I did not miss the implication in his choice of words, but I did ignore it as he continued. “This is of the utmost importance. I can trust no one else with this and I have allowed you the time you’ve taken in sabbatical, undisturbed by your duties. Will you not do this for me?”
I nodded, knowing too well that it would be my soul if I did not. I had never been foolish enough to imagine that my disappearance would have gone unnoticed. I had been Samael’s best. And here he was not only proving that I was findable, but also offering me a chance to redeem myself to him and go unpunished for my desertion.
“There is a soul preparing to transcend,” he explained without further acknowledgement. “A powerful soul; word of it has spread in all realms, and it must not reach fruition. Do you understand?”
“Do you wish me to turn it?”
“No!” His voice echoed through the room in a booming wave that pierced my ears and threatened to overwhelm me. I withdrew into myself, pulling back from him in reflex. The energy in the room crackled.
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