Azazel, p.1
Azazel, page 1
AZAZEL
SPEED DATING WITH THE DENIZENS OF THE UNDERWORLD
A.L. KESSLER
Azazel
Speed Dating with the Denizens of the Underworld
Book Five
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Copyright © 2022
A.L. Kessler
ISBN: 978-1-77357-358-8
978-1-77357-359-5
Published by Naughty Nights Press LLC
Cover Art By King Cover Designs
Edited By: No Genre Left Behind
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Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as "unsold or destroyed" and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.
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No part of this book may be adapted, stored, copied, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Created with Vellum
CONTENTS
Azazel
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Epilogue
Excerpt
Watch for the other books
If you enjoyed this book
About the Author
AZAZEL
Hidden powers, a fallen angel, and a witch, what could go wrong?
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Sybil is being hunted. When she decides it’s safe to venture outside her normal routine, she’s chased into DeLux Café. Unexpectedly invited to participate in the Underworld’s speed dating, meeting the fallen angel Azazel brightens her night, but can he calm the power within her and keep her safe from the looming threat?
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Azazel never expected to find his mate at the speed dating night at DeLux Café, but the fates had a different idea. When he learns that Sybil is being hunted for an ability he bestowed on her bloodline, he knows that he has to protect her at all cost.
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Azazel is book five in the Speed Dating with the Denizens of the Underworld shared world, filled with badass fallen angels, sassy witches, and more.
CHAPTER 1
He stood at the bottom of the stairs, staring up them at the human level of the club. They were loud tonight, almost chaotic, as if something were in the air. The music pounded against the floor.
“You can't just stand there and not sign up.” The woman's voice was pleasant enough, but it grated on him. He didn't want to sign up. He'd only agreed to come because one of the other fallen angels had pestered him to. Something about getting out of hell and away from paperwork. Honestly, when he turned around to face the blonde woman with damn near ringlets in her hair, and met her blue eyes, he wanted to go back to his paperwork.
She held a ballot out to him with a grin. “You never know what the fates might bring you tonight.”
“Fine, Eve.” He took the ballot from her and filled out his name, what he was, and shoved it in the pink box marked 'men.'
The woman laughed at him. “Don't be so forceful.”
He gave her a wicked grin. “It's my nature.”
She rolled her eyes and handed him a number. “This is the table you'll start at.” He walked past her and into the sea of tables covered with pink tablecloths and obnoxious hearts. What was he doing here? Flowers and hearts? Attempting to meet his mate in the basement of a club?
Shaking his head, he searched for the table. Tonight would not end well. He went and found a seat and leaned back in the chair. Soon, others drifted in, and the room filled up. Some women looked good enough to eat, and others looked too soft for his taste. But no one ever felt quite right when they walked through the red curtains dividing the room from the stairs.
Maybe he should have gone up to the human level for their speed dating. At least that way, he could have some fun by scaring the shit out of the other males.
He let out a huff and crossed his arms. A strange jolt went down his spine as a woman walked in. Her pale face was flushed pink. He didn't miss that she tried to hide that she was out of breath. She tucked strands of dark purple hair behind her ears as she searched the room. She sighed and found another table to sit down at.
He had a feeling she also didn't really want to be here. He felt a moment of hesitation. Should he stand up now and go introduce himself or wait until she came to him?
The second option sounded better. Safer. The thought made him pause. His brain was acting like he was nervous. Him, the bad ass fallen angel, who humans once sacrificed goats to, who gave witchcraft to the world, nervous.
That thought made him chuckle.
“Alright everyone, we're going to get started,” Eve's voice called over the crowd. “You'll have five minutes at each table. When the buzzer goes off, men, you'll move to the table to your left. Women, stay where you are.”
He glanced around to see where the woman with the purple hair was. Four tables away. It wouldn't take him long to get there. A woman sat in front of him and gave him a dazzling smile. The timer on the wall started ticking down from five minutes.
“Hi, what do you do for fun?” she asked, her voice too high pitched for his taste.
And the two girls after her went exactly the same way. They had nothing in common, nothing even remotely attractive to him. They were nice enough, but not to his taste. He was sure they'd find other males that would fit their needs.
He sat down in front of the purple-haired woman. The pink from her cheeks had cleared, leaving her pale skin unblemished. She blinked deep brown eyes at him, and her mouth opened in a little 'o' of surprise.
“I'm Azazel,” he started as soon as the buzzer started ticking.
“Sybil.” She smiled. “So... what brings you here tonight?”
“A friend told me I needed to come topside for the evening, so here I am. Eve told me I couldn't stand in the doorway. I had to participate.”
She laughed, and the sound hit him like electricity.
“You?”
She hesitated for a moment. “I needed to get off the street for a bit and a strange woman upstairs told me I needed to come down here. I wasn't expecting to speed date tonight.” She held her hand out. “Pleased to meet you, Azazel.”
He took it and a shock went through him and a voice inside him screamed, 'Mine.'
She took her hand back and gave a nervous laugh. “So, um, what do you do for work?”
“I own a string of occult shops around the country.” As well as supervised the covens that worshiped him and used the shops as meeting places.
She raised a brow. “Really? I work at one here in town.”
That caught his attention. “Which one?” There was no way it was one of his. He didn't keep track of the employees, but fate couldn't have been that ridiculous. Could it?
“I work at Mind Over Magic.”
Yep. Fate was ridiculous. “That one just opened a couple months ago.”
“Yeah. How do you... oh, you own that one?”
He smiled. “Yeah, it's a small world, isn't it?”
She studied him for a moment. “It is.”
The buzzer went off, and Azazel hesitated before getting up, but another fallen angel came and shooed him to the next table.
Something in him almost snapped at the other man, but now was not the time. He knew where Sybil worked, and he could visit her there tomorrow. And that's exactly what he planned on doing.
Sybil walked up the stairs of the club, returning to the human level. The noise had died down some since she'd first run into the club on a whim, but there were still people mingling around. She should have stayed to talk to Azazel more, but she needed to get back to her house. Home was safe.
The club was not.
She glanced outside, searching for the creature that had forced her into the club. There was no sign of it, and everything in the dark seemed more peaceful than it had been upon her arrival. Taking a deep breath, she stepped outside and walked north. Her house was only a few blocks away, and it took everything in her not to run.
Footsteps sounded behind her, but she refused to look back. Just keep moving forward, just keep going, she reminded herself. She kept her eyes focused ahead of her. Many people walked down this street to get home.
But then the noise came, the wind from behind her, and the sound of a sword being drawn. She broke into a full run. Almost to her house. Just a half a block to go.
Her heart pounded in her chest with each beat of her feet against the concrete. She wasn't going to make it. Her fence was in view, if she could just...
It knocked her down from behind, throwing her to the ground. She skid across the sidewalk and turned to face the creature.
Big white wings, and damn near blinding light following it. She muttered a spell and pushed her magic out around her. She hated using it in public like this, but if no one noticed a giant fucking angel, they weren't going to notice her magic.
A blast of heat hit her this time, freezing her in place. She let out a curse as she tried to pull on her magic.
“Don't struggle, little witch. I'd hate to kill you.”
The voice came from all around her. Memories of it flooded her mind from the first time he'd attacked her.
“I need your particular talent, and you will work for me.”
“Go to hell,” she hissed.
She could feel the anger rolling off the creature behind her. “I am not an evil being. I'm not allowed in hell.”
“This feels pretty evil to me,” she muttered. “Attacking innocent people.”
Laughter echoed around her, sending a splitting pain into her head. “You are not innocent. Practitioner of witchcraft, lover of demons and those fallen from heaven. No, you are far from innocent.”
She cringed at the pain. Her head felt like it would explode. “Don't you have other people around that have my particular talent?” She wasn't even sure what talent he was talking about.
He walked around her. “No, it has to be you.”
“Hey, let the lady go.”
She knew that voice. Azazel, from speed dating. What on earth was he doing there? She tried to open her eyes, but the pain became worse.
“Ah, a fallen angel. You have powerful friends, Sybil.” The angel laughed.
She tried to move, but the angel's powers still held her. An ache filled her body as the squeezing feeling became worse.
“I won’t tell you again. Let her go.”
The pain caused the world spun. She tried to remain conscious, but the pain dragged her under.
Azazel snarled when Sybil hit the ground. “You're going to kill her.”
The angel turned around and laughed. “She's fine. Sybil just isn't capable of handling the presence of an angel. She'll be coming with me.” He walked toward Sybil, and Azazel appeared between them.
“You will not touch her.”
The angel raised a brow. “Protective of the little witch? Something special to share?”
“I'm protective of all witches. They are mine.” He summoned his sword. “You know I'm stronger than you. Leave and I'll spare your life.”
The angel smiled. “I know better than to take you on Azazel. That witch there, she'll be mine before it's all done. The prophet has foretold it.”
“Your prophet is a blind old man with one foot in the grave. He knows nothing.”
The angel disappeared, and Azazel turned to pick Sybil off the ground. He checked her pulse and let out a relieved sigh when he found her heartbeat. Glancing around, he tried to figure out where she lived. All the houses on the street look similar, same style, damn near the same color. There was nothing in any of the yards that would have told him that this witch lived there.
No glowing pentagram sign.
Nothing that said 'a witch lives here.'
After a few minutes, he gave up and took her to his home. He knew she'd be safe there, because the underworld was the safest place from angels.
The human world faded away and the black walls of his room replaced it. He laid her on the red bed sheets and sat by her. She made a noise and curled on her side.
Azazel smiled at the way she looked there. Beautiful, ethereal. He pulled the blanket over her and let her be. There was no way to know when she would wake up, and he had paperwork he needed to attend to.
He walked out of the room and left the door cracked behind him. He'd hear when she woke, and if she tried to use her magic, he'd sense it. Hopefully, she wouldn't freak out when she woke up in a different place.
He checked the accounts, paid the invoices, and looked at how the shops were performing.
Glancing at the clock, he sighed. It was past midnight in the human world. Sybil might be out for the night. He yawned and stretched. Looked like he was sleeping on the couch tonight.
He walked into the living room and was about to lie down when a scream echoed through his home.
Well, she was awake.
He appeared in the room to find her sitting in the bed wide eyed and breathing heavy.
“Hey, it's okay,” he cooed, trying to calm her down.
“You fucking kidnapped me!” she screamed. “Why the hell would you do that?”
He paused for a moment. “You were unconscious. I thought it'd be better to get you to safety than to leave you out there.”
“You can't just go picking up unconscious girls off the street,” she growled out. “I don't remember passing out.”
“Yeah, most people don't. It just kind of happens. What is the last thing you remember?”
She was quiet for a moment. “I was walking home and there was an angel chasing after me. And well, you showed up, and then everything went black.” She shook her head. “I was three feet away from the house. I was so close to being safe.”
He could hear the tears in her voice, and he sat on the bed next to her. She seemed to flinch a little before relaxing. “You're safe now,” he promised.
She looked down at the blanket. “I have to go home at some point. He'll be waiting there. He's always waiting for me to leave my house. If it's not the moment I return, it's a month later, just when I think that it's safe.” She shook her head.
“How long has this been going on?”
“Since I moved. Billie and I moved into the house and it was like a giant beacon was suddenly over me saying, hey angel, you want me!”
He chuckled. “Sometimes, that's not far from the truth. It all depends on what Morrah wants.”
“Morrah,” she repeated slowly. “I know that name.”
He studied her as she tried to pull up a memory. He wasn't sure what she was going to find, but the fact that she knew the name didn't bode well. “You've probably heard it in passing. You said that you work at an occult shop. They talk about angels and demons all the time in those.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I think my boss maybe mentioned it.” She shook her head. “I need to get back home. Billie will tear the place up if I don't let her out, and I open at the shop tomorrow. I shouldn't have gone out tonight.”
“Rest first. I'll go let Billie out if you'd like.” Though he wasn't exactly sure who or what Billie was, but he had a feeling Billie was a pet, probably a cat. “Morrah used his powers to knock you out. If you don't rest, you'll certainly feel like shit in the morning.”
Her eyes were already closing. “You need my key, in my bag.”
“I'm a fallen angel sweetie, I don't need a key.”
Her eyes popped open. “No, you'll need the key. It's the only way to get past the barrier without me there to let you in.”
He handed her the purse he'd picked up. “A spell then?”
“A protection spell.” She nodded and then pulled out a house key with a little metal cast of a goat's skull. His symbol.
He grinned. “Cute, you worship me.”
She waved her hand. “Blue house, white fence. Billie head butts.”
He was going to question that last one, but she was already back to being sound asleep. Either she weighed her risks, and he was the safest option right now, or Morrah really did a number on her. “I'll be back.” He disappeared.
CHAPTER 2
Azazel reappeared where he'd saved Sybil. Sure enough, a few feet away was a white fence. He wrapped his fingers around the skull key chain and walked into the gate. He shivered as the magic rolled over him, warning him it could be painful.
He unlocked the door and expected the bark of a dog, but what he got was a terrifying pair of reflecting sideways slit eyes.
