Samael Read Online Free Page A

your hummingbird. Frankly, despite everything, I think she would be safer with you.”
    Sam did away with his drink by simply making it vanish, then took the paper from her and unfolded it. By the time he’d finished reading it, Lilith had already made her way back to the door across the room.
    She stopped and glanced at him over her shoulder. “But Sam, please remember what I said about flies and honey,” she told him softly. “As it so happens, hummingbirds like it too.”
     

Chapter Four
    Fog kissed Azrael’s eyelashes and curled the ends of his long black hair. He smelled salt, as well as the blood that yet clung to the edges of his senses. He’d left his victim long behind, the body destroyed beyond the end of Pier 19, deserted and desolate this time of night. All that remained of the criminal low life were ashes, and those would be washed away by the incoming tide. But as always, the blood remained with him. It was in his nostrils, in his throat, coating the inside of his mouth, despite the magic he’d used to clean it out. He could always still feel it there.
    He didn’t have to feed from them any longer if he didn’t want to. He had Sophie…
    At the thought of her, he stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes. She washed over him, like a blanket of white light, warm and clean, and for just an instant, he could actually feel her silken hair brush against his cheek. He could hear her laughing.
    He smiled. Then opened his eyes and continued walking.
    He didn’t have to feed from the scum of the world now, but there were too many of them. There was so much evil. He was more than capable of vanquishing at least a tiny part of it. He owed them that much – the people that remained. It wasn’t easy being mortal. It was pain, from birth to death, and loss and fear in-between. The last thing they needed was a superhero who didn’t do his part when he was very much able to.
    Az made his way like a tall shadow back to the Embarcadero, then strode to the very first car he saw parked along the sidewalk. It wasn’t his vehicle; he just needed the car’s door. He could move through the shadows to any other location he desired, but only a door would take him to the Mansion.
    The Mansion may be developing cracks and it may be experiencing tremors, but for the moment, it remained his only home, and it was Sophie’s too. She was there right now, and as usual, he couldn’t wait to return to her.
    “Azrael.”
    Az stopped in his tracks and experienced a series of emotions one after the other. The first was surprise. This was the first time someone had managed to sneak up on Azrael in… well, he couldn’t actually remember any other time.
    The second emotion he experienced was fear. And that was unusual for him. But he recognized this voice. It made him think of ice. And that made him think of Sophie trapped in a castle composed of it, on a glacier in the middle of a frigid nowhere.
    “Gregori.” Very slowly, he turned around. Already, he could feel the flames of his power heating up his eyes. 
    Gregori nodded in genteel greeting, keeping his distance where he stood in his crisp, tailored white suit, outlined by the darkness of the bay behind him. The single light out on Alcatraz winked over Gregori’s shoulder as the light house’s beam passed by, reminding Az of all Gregori had done, especially out on that island.
    “I’m aware of how unwelcome a visitor I am at the moment. However, I’ve chosen to speak with you rather than your brethren for a reason. I believe you to be more capable of seeing the larger picture, Azrael.”
    “Just what picture is it you want me to see, Gregori?” Az asked calmly. “One in which the human race becomes victim to heart devouring re-animated Adarians? Or the one where dragons, gargoyles, werewolves and even my vampires form an army under your reign to do away with all other life altogether?” Every nerve in Az’s body was sparking with magic, at complete odds to his