Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
She felt her brows knit. “Really?”
“We are the handiwork of Chaos, the Creator. God was his first creation, and we were told to serve him. So we do.”
That she hadn’t expected to hear. “Are angels creations of Chaos?”
“No, they were fashioned by God. They’re essentially his own version of archangels.”
Interesting. “Is the rumor that you’re one of the Seven also true?”
He gave a slow nod.
That didn’t particularly surprise her either. “Which one of the Seven are you?”
“I went by many titles.” The words were casual, but tension crept up his arms and into his shoulders. “The Destroyer. The Chief of Tempters. The Archangel of Darkness and Death.”
Realization dawned on her fast, making her eyes widen slightly. “Samael.” A whisper.
“Samael,” he confirmed.
Well, damn. A lot was said about him. That he was the most beautiful of the archangels. That he walked among humans. That he wasn’t evil but had a backward moral code.
“For the most part, the Uppers are protective of humans.”
“For the most part?” she echoed.
“They like to tempt the inborn darkness inside humans, and they used me exclusively to do it. I’ve tricked, tempted, seduced, punished, and destroyed. I’ve sparked wars, taken souls, and engineered the falls of ‘the wicked’, as the Uppers refer to them. You’ve no doubt heard the tales of my deeds.”
She had. “You did all this at their bidding?”
Viper nodded. “Which, of course, doesn’t excuse my part in it.” He swiped his tongue over his teeth. “Killing became too easy. It stopped marking me. You get desensitized to the darkness after a while.”
Ella dragged in a breath, her mind working through all he’d revealed. She couldn’t lie—to realize he was Samael was mildly disturbing. She’d heard of his many ‘exploits’. It was really no wonder he’d been endowed with so many grim titles.
Her demon wasn’t quite so disturbed. It actually liked the idea that he knew darkness just as well as it did. Well, what didn’t the entity so far like about Viper?
“I really should have guessed you were Samael. The clue is in your chosen name.” Vipers were venomous, weren’t they? And Samael went by another title: The Venom of God. “Did you choose to fall because you were tired of doing what they asked of you?”
The stiffness in his shoulders bled up to his neck, making the cords stand out. “It was part of the reason. I was … tired. Weary. A little lost. I didn’t like how my responsibilities had increasingly ate at my inner entity. But it wasn’t until a certain person came into my life that I felt truly motivated to fall. I meant to do it a long time ago, but I was betrayed by the rest of the Seven. Convinced they were saving me from myself, they took from me the certain person I mentioned before. Hid that person. Swore I’d never find them.”
Memories of their first conversation at the Red Rooms came rushing back to her. “They’re what brought you to Vegas?”
“Yes. It took me a long time, but I found them. Her.” A triumphant glint danced in his gaze. “When I did, I left the upper realm. It was the only way I could keep this one thing I needed. I wasn’t going to lose her again.” He leaned forward in his seat and rested his arms on his thighs. “The first time you and I met, I knew you by another name.”
“The first time we … I’m sorry, what?”
“It wasn’t in this life. It was in your previous one.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.
“Your name then was Everleigh,” he added, answering her unspoken question. “We fell hard. Fast. You were prepared to accept me, curse and all, if I left heaven to be with you. But things didn’t go as we planned.”
Her lips parted as she gaped at him. “Wait … you’re saying … ”
“I’m saying we were together in another life. You just don’t remember.”
Ella’s thought processes stuttered, her mind struggling to keep up. She knew souls were often reborn. But his claim that they’d encountered each other in her past life seemed so surreal. And yet, it made sense.
She’d always felt that he reminded her of someone—he’d been familiar to her from the start. The first time they’d locked gazes, she’d felt sure she’d looked into his eyes before. More, he’d never really felt like a stranger. She was comfortable with him in a way she generally wouldn’t be with people she didn’t know well.
And hadn’t she always felt that something was missing? Hadn’t there always been a sense of absence that had only disappeared when he came into her life?
Her breath snagged when she suddenly once more found herself recalling the wraith’s words … He will come for you.
It had meant Viper. Samael. The freaking Archangel of Darkness and Death.
No wonder the wraith had laughed its tits off.