Soul Mate: A Novella

Ch. 9 Khloe

Laughing I repeat Samael’s words excitedly, “it’s a date!” Giggling, I tell him I will see him tomorrow night and then say goodbye just before disconnecting the line. Standing in the middle of my bedroom, I squeal like a little girl in excitement for the forth coming date. I can’t wait to find out where he’s been. I am upset that he’s taken such a long time to reach out to me but it’s not like I tried to reach out to him either then again, he knew/knows where I work. He could have always stopped by and chatted with me there.

But whatever, he’s willing to see me tomorrow night and I can only hope he has justified reasoning for not having sought me out. Now, however, I get to sit and wait. Well not really, I work at the venue with Cassie and Ginny tonight so at least I’ll have a bit of distraction from my thoughts and then I’ll go home, and hopefully fall quickly to sleep.

~~

Of course, that isn’t what happens, and I end up tossing and turning all night long; the anticipation of seeing Samael amping me all the more. How in the world can twelve hours end up feeling like an eternity? By the time 7 o’clock rolls around, I feel like I’m going crazy. Walking into the diner, I spot Samael looking insanely handsome in his black t-shirt, that strains against his chest. He’s managed to slick his wavy, chin-length black hair back away from his face causing his facial features to appear sharper, his ice-blue eyes to appear brighter and his smile a bit wider.

I sigh in appreciation of his beauty and then walk over to the booth. He sees me walking his way and stands up. “Hey, I’m so happy you came,” he states before throwing his arms around me, wrapping me in a tight hug, crushing me him to his warm body.

“Hi,” I say breathily as he releases me, and I look up into his eyes. “I’ve missed you,” I add shyly. He grins and gives me a wink that makes my heart feel like it’s hammering against my rib cage.

“I’ve really missed you too,” he says taking his seat once more and pointing his hand to the opposite bench for me to have a seat as well. Before we can talk the server comes up and we give our drink order. Once he walked away from us, Samael draped his right arm across the table, his hand open and palm facing up. I automatically place my hand in his and we both jerk as the purple-ish blue current sparks between us again. This time we don’t pull away from each other, our eyes having fallen to our hands, we turn our gazes back towards one another and smile.

Noticing his breathing has become faster, I raise an eyebrow in question. Samael gives my hand a squeeze and I realize the current has lessened though not disappeared completely. He shifts his eyes to our clasped hands and then back up to my eyes. “I wanted to see if the electrical current happened again,” the smile on his face goes wider if that’s possible. “I um, I heard you had a chat with Cassie... is that true?” he asks eagerly.

Both of my eyebrows are raised now, nearly touching my hairline as surprise takes hold of me. “Yeah actually. We chatted a couple of nights ago. Why do you mention this?” A half-cocked grin settles on my face.

“Well, the reason I disappeared so quickly that night on the beach is because I knew at once what that spark indicated, and I got scared. I know, so ‘manly’ of me, right?” He laughs and runs a nervous hand through his hair causing a strand to fall across his forehead. “I’ve got something to tell you. It’s very important but I’m worried you won’t believe me, that you’ll think I’m crazy...”

Samael turns worried eyes to me and waits. I’m not sure what he’s waiting for me to do though. “Sam, the easiest thing to do is just tell me. I will listen, everyone has a little crazy in them anyway, right?” I smile encouragingly at him doing my best to let him know I’m here for him.

A ragged breath escapes his lips, “okay, here goes nothing. We are one hundred percent soul mates.” My heart flutters to hear him confirm this. “There is something that only Rim knows about me, well actually that’s a lie, Cassie just learned about who I am a month ago. Anyway, whew, who knew this would be so hard,” he forces a chuckle from his mouth. “I’m what humans refer to as a Grim Reaper, or Angel of Death depending on the country.” My mouth falls open in stunned silence.

Laughter bubbles up inside me and then bursts past my lips. In between giggles I say, “you can’t be serious! Now tell me what you wanted to tell me.” The giggling won’t stop pouring from me and I shake my head as I wait for him to tell me what he really wanted to tell me.

“Khloe,” Sam takes my hand in his and my laughter seems to calm within me. “I’m telling you what I wanted to tell you. I am a reaper. I take souls to the under realm. I’ve been alive for around two centuries and have just become privy to information about becoming mortal, a human like you!” Realizing he’s being serious; I wiggle my hand from out of his grasp and begin to shake my head no. And I continue to shake it no as I unconsciously stand from the booth and back away from him. “Khloe? What are you doing? Where are you going?” he asks as he stretches his arm out towards me, trying to stop me from walking away.

Ducking out of his way, I turn foot and run out the door. You’ve got to be shitting me! I find my soul mate and he should be locked up in a mental institute. Un-fucking-believable! Once I’m outside the diner I whip out my cell phone and pull up Cassie’s contact info and hit send needing to tell her what Samael just said to me. “Cassie? Can you hear me?” There’s a bit of static between the lines and then I’m able to hear her clearly.

“Khloe? Yes, I can hear you now. What’s up?”

“I need to talk to you, in person. Are you home?” I ask in a rush of words.

“Yep,” Cassie responds, popping the ‘p’ at the end. “Come on over.”

“Okay, cool. I’m just down around the corner from you. I’ll see you in a few minutes.” We both say goodbye and then I disconnect the line, lock my screen and stuff my phone in my back pocket of the faded and worn looking jeans I had chosen to wear. Wanting to make a mad dash up to her place, I take a few calming breaths to get my body under control and then swiftly make my way over to her apartment.

Banging the side of my fist on her door, I wait for Cassie to open it and then quickly make my way inside claiming the closest seat to me, I flop down on one of her two black cushioned barstools and heave a sigh. Running my fingers through my hair in agitation, I fist it and tie the brown strands into a messy bun before allowing myself to look at Cassie’s calm, ocean-blue eyes. “Stars above Khloe, what in the world is going on? You look confounded, baffled, and confused...” She gives a hesitant smile as she waits for me to answer her.

I Scoff and chuckle at the same time; “I probably look more like a hot mess but whatever. I just left Samael in the diner down on the corner. Everything was fine at first, he admitted that he too feels we are soul mates. He even tested his theory by having me place my hand in his and of course the current sparked to life instantly.”

Cassie’s hesitant smile turns into a wide, genuine smile; “yes! I knew we were right. That’s awesome... or uh, not awesome?” She’s staring at me in confusion because my face isn’t one of happiness. “What?”

“I was excited at first, thrilled even to know he thinks we are soul mates too but then he proceeded to tell he’s the Angel of Death or a Grim Reaper. The worst part is, he actually believes what he’s saying! I find my true love and he needs to be locked up in a loony bin!” I say exasperated.

Cassie sucks in air in a gasp. “Well, as much as I would like to tell you you’re right and Sam is crazy, um... I can’t do that. He is telling you the truth Khloe. Samael is a Reaper and assists souls to the heavenly realm or the under realm.”

“Oh my gosh Cassie! How can you say such a thing? You mean to tell me you believe him to be some creature of mythical legends? Have you all gone insane?” I asked astounded. How can people believe in such bullshit?

“Sweetie, allow your intuition to take over. You know Samael will never lie to you. You guys are tied to each other. Your soul knows he’s telling the truth. Plus, I believe him because I myself am an angel. The reason I was M.I.A. for a while was because I was in Heaven’s realm. There’s no cell service up there and I couldn’t call or text you or Ginny to let you know where I was or that I was okay.”

Shaking my head, no, I mutter; “this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. Has everyone lost their fucking minds around here?”

Cassie reaches over to me and places her hand on top of mine. I feel an energy of sorts flowing from her into me and it seems to be causing my body to calm down, relaxing against her touch. “Khloe, I can show you if it will help your mind process all the information it has been given?” I nod in stunned silence because my brain is in overdrive. “Okay,” she whispers in turn. Releasing my hand Cassie takes a couple of steps backing away from me and then pulling her tank top over her head, she tips her head forward slightly causing her black hair to fall towards the floor in front of her giving me a view of her back. I watch in shock as the most beautiful iridescent, sparkling, white wings push through her flesh from in between her shoulder blades just above where her bra is hooked together.

“What in the actual Fu...” the words trail off as I continue to stare in awe at the massive wings that though tucked inward slightly, top off at the level of her head and just brush against her soft grey carpeted floor near her feet. “But, how?” I manage to ask as I shift my eyes back to her face as she stands up straight and looks at me.

“The long and short of it is, I’m a Mashhit or warrior angel in Michael’s army for God. I was sent to earth to find a very important element with my unit. Unfortunately, I made a personal enemy of a Fallen Angel who took it upon herself to try and rid me of this world. She nearly succeeded and even though I’m still not quite sure how I managed to survive an elemental sword that can kill immortals, I am alive and have only recently recovered my lost memories of my life before meeting you and Ginny.”

I think my brain just shut down. Too much to process and I faint. I can feel my body as it falls off the barstool and I black out on Cassie’s floor.