Read Online Samael by Heather Killough-Walden - Free Book Online Page A

so hard that metal cut through her clothes and into her back. Her vision blurred as pain wracked through her.
    The clouds above them began growing instantly darker, and lightning crashed into the ground less than a mile away.
     

Chapter Eleven
    As soon as Azrael vanished, Angel was running. She put one foot in front of the other, waving her hand to illuminate the tunnel before her. The sound of her footfalls echoed against the tight walls of her confined space. She counted the steps, counted her breaths, and the moment she felt she’d gone far enough, she stopped and cast a transport spell.
    She reappeared in a hotel room in Boston, one she’d purchased out a few weeks before with the contingency that she would come and go over the coming days. She took a moment to look around, taking in the smell of cleaners and laundry detergent. There was also the scent of air fresheners no doubt meant to disguise the cigarette smoke that was coming from the adjoining bathroom. She listened to the sound of kids running down the hall in flip flops, probably headed to the pool, and the distant ding of an elevator as it reached her floor. The curtains were partly drawn, the sink sparkled, and the bed was made.
    Her original plan had been to transport from one place to another in a quick hop-frog sort of fashion until she was at her home, a place she’d created long ago and shielded long in advance, knowing this time would one day come. But she was feeling drained and hungry, and this hotel had room service.
    An hour wouldn’t hurt.
    She made her way to the bed, changed her appearance to what it had been when she’d first made the reservation weeks ago, and flipped on the television. Then she grabbed the phone and ordered a soup and salad dish and a Dr. Pepper.
    *****
    “Sam… what are you doing?”
    Sam ignored the voice in the doorway. Just this once, it was rather unwelcome. Not only was she interrupting him while he was on the phone, he didn’t feel like explaining himself to Lilith, and he most definitely didn’t want to see the hints of disappointment he knew he’d find on her face.
    Instead, he continued with his preparations. His phone was at his ear, and the man on the other end of the line was taking orders.
    He asked Sam a question.
    Sam replied, keeping his voice even and steady – nonchalant. “Five-thirty. Yes. That’s right, Adam. Have the stations ready. All of them.” He paused, waiting as the man asked another question. “What is it concerning?” He smiled. “You’ll just have to wait and see.” He hung up.
    That would get them going. If he knew anything about humans and their love of dirty laundry, every news station he controlled would be waiting in the lobby of a building that sat on the corner of the busiest intersection in Kansas City, Missouri during the busiest time of the day on the busiest day of the week. The coverage would be immediate.
    He hung up, and turned around, expecting Lilith to be gone.
    But instead of leaving, she stood less than a foot away, startling him a little. Not that he showed it outwardly. He was quite good at keeping an outward calm.
    He was wrong about her wearing a look of disappointment. This one was different. If he didn’t know better, he’d say she was angry. Furious, even. There was a strange vibration coming from her, one he’d never felt before. For a split second, she didn’t feel like herself, but like something much bigger and more dangerous than she was, stuffed into a tiny, discreet, if beautiful body.
    “I thought our discussion was over,” he stated casually, re-pocketing his phone and apparently turning his attention to documents on his desk. In reality, he was very tuned into the woman on the other side of the desk. She was unnerving him.
    “Did it ever, even once,” she began slowly, “occur to you and your conceited , fat head and your sadistically selfish tendencies that Angel might have a very good reason for running from you?”
    He didn’t