Page 42 of Forged in Twilight: The Complete Series

CHAPTER2

A MONTH LATER

Micah glanced up as soon as Sam walked into the office.

Sam shook his head.

His younger brother blinked. “Are you kidding me? They’re still going at it?”

“They were fucking when I went up there”—Sam checked his watch—“two hours ago, and I’m lucky I was able to pry them apart long enough to tell them about the talisman, but I’m betting he’s back inside of her now.”

“Holy shit.”

Sam knew that Micah meant the curse to show how unbelievable it was to him that three days after Raze claimed his demoness soulmate, Becca, he was still keeping her a very willing captive in his bed.

There was a wistfulness to his words that was undeniable, though. Made sense. Considering he lost his own soulmate before he could claim her, Micah probably had four decades of wondering what it would’ve been like—and now, after a whirlwind courtship that shocked both of his brothers, Raze was absolutely devoted to his fated lifemate.

Just like Micah had been once upon a time.

Just like Sam was now, even if it had been a month since he first met Polly Benson, and the sorry sap that he was hadn’t said another word to her since she sashayed out of his office.

Of course, that didn’t mean that he stood back while she walked out of his life. The guardian angel went from watching over all of Sin City to focusing on one single blonde human thief with a penchant for getting into trouble.

Still, while he’d been watching over Polly these last few weeks, he hadn’t been completely out of touch. Micah—understandably these last four decades—was a shut-in; he rarely left the hotel unless he had to. Raze used to be too focused on the casino’s success to willingly take time away from it. Of the three of them, Sam was the only one who felt like his wings were clipped every time he had to do his duties as one of the Angels of Sin City.

Lately, he’d found more and more reason to sneak away, if only because he couldn’t stand to be apart from Polly for long. At the same time, he’d taken the intel that Raze’s new soulmate had passed onto him, confirming through conversations with other factions that all of the royals—the most powerful beings in each faction—had been truly cursed to continue losing their powers unless they found their missing talismans and their soulmates.

He hadn’t known that the other factions had all seemed to misplace their charmed items, too. Millennia ago, Sam was in charge of guarding his family’s talisman—a golden key that opened the pearly gates of Heaven—when it disappeared. It was his fault, and because of his mistake, he and Micah and Raze were kicked out of Heaven. Without it, there was no way to return, and all these years later, it was still gone.

Or, at least, it had been. Until Rebecca Murphy discovered that Lucifer had it.

Because of course he did.

Lucifer’s latest curse might’ve been mere whispers and rumors these last few years, but Sam hadn’t been too concerned. Unlike Raze, he didn’t care about going back to the celestial cities of Heaven. He was more than happy to stay in Purgatory where he could be a guardian angel instead of the harbinger of death.

The way Sam saw it, if the Heavenly Father wanted him to take up the flaming sword and smite down his enemies, he could’ve at least given him a pair of sleek, black wings. Raze’s wings were black. So were Micah’s. Sam? He had fluffy white wings that had never been able to strike fear into the hearts of his targets.

Good thing the fierce, unrelenting look in his black eyes did the job for him.

But that was the old Sam. Samael.

The new Sam? The idea of growing weaker and weaker while Lucifer kept the curse hanging over his head was unacceptable. Not while he had a human soulmate he needed to protect.

He might not be able to claim her just yet, but he needed every advantage when it came to keeping her safe. And that meant getting his hands on their talisman.

Sam didn’t believe in coincidence. He believed in fate to a degree, but not coincidence. When he wasn’t watching over Polly, he was getting in touch with some of his contacts—something else he wanted to tell Raze about as soon as he could pry his brother off of his pretty demoness—and he recently discovered something very interesting about the factions.

“It’s not just Raze who found his soulmate,” Sam told Micah. “You know Blane? The demon king who’s been running the gym here in the City of Sin? He formed a mate-bond with this little pixie. And some of the factions across the pond are finding their mates, too. The dragons, for one.”

“I heard something about that.” Micah pursed his lips. “The vampires sent an emissary to the hotel a couple of weeks ago. I met with one. He mentioned that one of their royals took a sabbatical to play as a human.” His brow furrowed. “In a motorcycle club, if I’m remembering that right. Worked out for him, though, because he found his mate and recently claimed her.”

Sam didn’t believe in coincidence, but he did believe in balance.

“See? Maybe Lucifer’s not as powerful as he thinks he is. He curses the factions and suddenly beings who have gone hundreds or thousands of years without finding their lifemates are tripping over them? Raze—”

“You.”

“Exactly.”

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