She blinked. “Who?”
Fine. If she wanted more pain . . . He lifted his claws over her neck. “Az-ra-fucking-el.”
A tear leaked from her eye. “Oh, him.”
Right. Him. “I’ve got some demons in New Orleans who tell me that that bastard is supposed to be pretty damn strong.” He paused. “But then, angels are, aren’t they?”
She nodded and his claws scraped over her chin.
Good. She wasn’t going to deny what the guy was. “How’d you find him?” He pulled his claws away from her throat.
A laugh spilled from her lips. Sad. Angry. “I found him naked in a cemetery. He’d just fallen, and I went to help him.”
Brandt didn’t let his expression alter even though his heart was suddenly pounding far too fast. “You’re not exactly the helping sort.” One of the things that had always kept him on edge—Heather could be as brutal and cold as he was.
That was why she’d be dying soon. But first . . . He leaned forward and brushed back the hair that had gotten stuck in the blood on her cheek. Heather watched him with wide eyes. Eyes that had always seen too much.
“Just where had this Azrael fallen from?” He asked, testing her.
She swallowed. “Where the hell do you think?”
Brandt didn’t hurt her. Not this time. “Once upon a time, you told me that you had a vision that an angel would kill you. That he’d destroy the whole world.” Heather and her visions. She’d looked into the dark so many times. At first she’d scryed because he’d wanted to see what the future held. But later, Heather had done it because she’d grown addicted to that wild rush of power.
He knew how tempting darkness was.
When a witch scryed, she looked past life and death. She looked into the very darkness that waited for man and for the Other.
The death and darkness looked back at her. Sometimes, they even struck out at her. Heather had the scars on her body to prove that.
She’d first come to him, young and scared, because of that initial death vision. She’d wanted to find someone to keep her safe from the angel who would be her doom.
She’d turned to the wrong man.
She’d gone back to look in her mirrors, over and over, but her death vision had never changed.
An angel would slay her. An angel who walked the earth without wings. An angel who only knew death.
Cocking his head to the side, Brandt asked, “Has your future changed?”
A ragged breath, then, “Some things can’t . . . be changed.”
“No, they can’t be.” Some people couldn’t change. But he was surprised because . . . “If Azrael is the one who is supposed to kill you, then why is he still breathing? Why didn’t you send him to hell on your own?”
“Because you can’t kill Death.”
Maybe the witch had finally gone crazy. Too much darkness could do that to a weak spirit. Brandt shrugged. “He bled easily enough for me.”
She glanced away. Ah . . . hiding something. No matter. He’d get to that truth soon enough. Right now, he wanted to know . . . “Why is he with Jade?”
“Because he’s fucking her.”
Inside, the panther snarled, even as the man shoved his claws into the nearest wall. A wall mere inches from Heather’s head.
“I made sure of it,” she whispered and she stared right into his eyes as she confessed, “I even . . . helped them along.”
With a yank, his claws came free and chunks of drywall littered the bed. “Your damn spells.”
Her smile had once been beautiful. Now it was just cold. “I simply gave Jade the courage to take what she wanted.” She tried to shrug, but the motion stopped when she winced in pain. “It would have happened . . . eventually. I saw the way she looked at him. The way . . . he looked at her.”
Heather wasn’t a stupid woman. Things would have been easier if she had been. “You know that he dies now.” But that was what she wanted.
“I know he’s starting to want her just as desperately as you do.”
His back teeth ground together. “You want me to kill him.” To make sure that her vision never came true. If this Azrael really was the angel from her vision, the one that she’d feared for so long . . .
“I wasn’t certain that . . . you could,” she said. “But . . . perhaps . . .”
“You’re sure he’s an angel?” Brandt asked because in this world, he knew beings were not always as they seemed. There could be no surprises when they faced off again. Only death.
“I’m sure he’d never known temptation, not until Jade crossed his path. He’d never known sin, not until her.”
That was a load of shit. He’d stared into Azrael’s eyes. That was a man well acquainted with sin.
After all, Brandt knew that look too well—it was the same look that his own gaze possessed.
“He won’t let you have her.” Heather’s breath panted out as blood seeped through her stitches. Perhaps he should have done more than just close the skin. Maybe he should have worked on the internal wounds? Oh, well. Too late now. “He’s . . . guard . . .”
A guardian? From what he’d heard, those angels weren’t big threats.
But perhaps a guardian who’d fallen would be more of a challenge. “If he bleeds, then he can die.” His claws had sliced right through Azrael’s skin easily enough. “Just tell me where he is, and I’ll kill him.” One fast scry and she’d have the guy’s location.
But Heather shook her head. “Too . . . weak.”
Sighing, Brandt climbed to his feet. “Right. You should rest. Get your strength back.”
She nodded.
He turned away. Paced to the nearby table and let his fingers curl around the dark mirror he’d sent a packmate to retrieve.
In an instant, he sprang back to the bed. His claws ripped open her arm and Heather’s blood flew onto the glass.
She screamed.
“Heather, do I look like I give a shit how weak you feel?”
Now the witch whimpered. Yes, she should have known better. “My asshole brother is out there with this angel. Jade betrayed me. Tanner betrayed me again. I want all of them, and I want them now.” He caught the back of her neck. “Before you go to hell, stare into the darkness and fucking find out where that angel is hiding.”
She stared into the darkness. As her eyes began to haze over, he knew the darkness stared back. He shoved her face toward the mirror.
I’m coming, Jade. And I’m going to kill everyone close to you.
It was an old and familiar promise. One she knew too well.
One he’d fulfill, once again.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Why didn’t you tell me about him?” Az’s hand stroked over the curve of Jade’s back. She sat on the edge of the small bed, and, at his question, she glanced over her shoulder at him.
Her cheeks were still flushed, her lips red and plump from his mouth.
She was so beautiful to him. Even now, he ached for her, but . . .
But she set me up.
With an effort, Az kept his voice calm as he asked, “Was there a reason you didn’t tell me the truth about Brandt?” Did you want him to kill me?
She blinked those fuck-me eyes of hers. “I . . . told you. He’s a psychotic shifter. Super strong, super crazy, and—”
“And he’s got a whole lot of angel blood flowing through him.” Now the rage did break past the ice in his words. “Didn’t you think it was important that I knew that little fact? The death touch won’t work on someone like me.” One of the little safety clauses that the big boss had put in place. Angels weren’t supposed to kill each other.
But Jade was shaking her head. “He’s no angel. You saw his claws—hell, I’ve seen him shift! He’s a panther. He’s not like you.”
Az just stared at her as his mind whirled. He’d broken so many rules for her. He’d thought she could offer him redemption, but the chance to get his life back had never been farther from him.
Now they didn’t ju
st have to deal with her bastard of an ex, they also had to deal with Death Angels who’d be on their trail.
“Every Other can recognize their own kind,” he said. It was a rule of nature. Shifters could catch the scents that would identify others of their ilk. Witches could feel the magical pull from those with powers like their own, and as for Death Angels . . . “My touch would have killed a normal shifter.” He lifted his fingers off her skin. The possibilities ran through his mind, then the strongest one clicked in his head. “My guess is the guy’s a hybrid.”
She rose from the bed and turned to face him. The woman didn’t even seem aware of her nudity. That was fine. He was plenty aware of it for them both.
“A hybrid?” She repeated with a little line deepening between her brows. “You mean, like, his dad was a shifter and his mom—”
“Probably was an angel.”
Her eyes narrowed. “He never talked to me about his mother.” She searched the room. Found her shirt. Frowned at it when she realized it had been sliced to pieces.
“So you truly didn’t know?” He rose slowly, stretching. Her scent was on his skin. Az rather liked that. What he didn’t like was the idea that she’d deliberately set him up. While his touch hadn’t been able to kill Brandt, that guy’s claws had done a thorough job of slicing him to pieces.
Shifter claws weren’t a weapon forged of man, so, yes, they’d do the trick when it came to killing an angel.
Is that how Brandt’s mother had died?
Her hands clenched in the torn fabric of her shirt. “You actually think I set you up? To die?”
He stared back at her, waiting.
She threw the shirt at him. “No, jerk, I didn’t!” Then she whirled around and started yanking open closets and drawers. Jade growled when she didn’t find any clothing, then she spun back around with blazing eyes.
Red stained her cheeks, but he didn’t think that glow was from passion anymore. More like fury. “I’m the one that took the claws to the chest in order to protect you. Remember that sweet little moment? Because I sure do. It’s kinda etched in my memory.”
He’d never be able to forget that moment. In that instant, he’d decided—
“So, no, I didn’t think it would be a fun game of shits and giggles for me to set you up so that my ex—who has made my life nothing but hell and blood for the last ten years—could slaughter you. I was really rather hoping that the all-powerful, badass angel would be the one to take him out.” Her chest rose and fell with her fast breaths.
She was strangely beautiful when enraged.
Her gaze dropped to his cock. Narrowed. “Don’t even think it right now, got me? You just accused me of using you as some kind of kill toy for Brandt. That’s not how I work, and you, angel, well, you need to think again.” She stomped away from him.
He should let it go. Let her go. But . . .
“Who did you kill?” Az asked her.
She froze with her fingers inches from the doorknob.
With a wave of his hands, he conjured clothes for himself—and for her. She might be pissed, but he wasn’t letting her waltz out of the room naked, not with the others just a few feet away.
In an instant, soft jeans and a white T-shirt appeared on her body. She didn’t acknowledge the clothing, though she started in surprise. Still not looking at me. He’d make her see him. After what he’d traded for her, she damn well owed him the truth.
“Did Brandt tell you that I’m a killer?” Her voice was soft. “You know you really shouldn’t trust him. He’s a pathological liar.”
“It wasn’t Brandt. It was an angel I’ve known for centuries.” A guy who couldn’t lie. Unlike Brandt, the guy wasn’t a hybrid. Pureblood angels only spoke the truth.
Since the words had come from Bastion, he knew they weren’t a trick. He’d thought she was innocent. In need of protection. But she’d been lying to him all along.
Not so innocent. Not even close.
Why do I still want her so much?
She still didn’t look at him. Her fingers reached for the doorknob. “Then I guess you know the truth.”
Jade opened the door. No. He grabbed her. Slammed that door shut, and in an instant, he had her caged between his arms. “Who was it?”
A faint sheen of tears filled her eyes. “Go to hell.”
He stepped back, shocked more by the tears than by her words.
“Don’t stand there and judge me. You’re a Death Angel. Not some gentle guardian. Death is all you know. How many lives have you taken, huh? Hundreds? Thousands? You don’t know what my life has been like, and you sure don’t understand what I’ve had to do in order to survive.”
Kill.
“Humans adapt, right? That’s our strength?” Her lips curved in the hardest smile he’d ever seen her give. A smile that didn’t match the trace of moisture in her eyes. “Let’s just say I’m a pro at adapting. Now do me a favor and step back.”
He stared down at her and didn’t move an inch. “Do you know what I traded for you?”
“Considering I was ready to trade my life for you, right now, I don’t really care.” She didn’t wait for him to move. Jade shoved him—shoved, and Az flew back five feet.
Her jaw dropped open. “How did I—” She broke off, staring at her hand. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean . . .”
He rose from the floor. The blood. He’d have to tell her what to expect, but . . . he didn’t know what to expect.
Jade whirled around and yanked open the door. She rushed out even as Az called her name. She didn’t get far though. A few steps, and she slammed right into Tanner.
The shifter caught her arms and held her in place. “We’ve got a problem.” A muscle jerked along his jaw.
She pulled away from him. “A problem?” Her laugh held a ragged edge. “Trust me, I think we’ve got a whole lot more than just one problem to deal with here.”
Tanner glanced over her shoulder at Az. “He’s hunting us.”
Az just nodded. He’d figured that Brandt would come after him sooner rather than later.
“We maybe have an hour, probably less than that, before he tracks us here.”
“How do you know that?” Jade demanded as she ran a hand through her hair. “How can you possibly?”
“’Cause I’ve got one friend still in that pack, and he just called to tell me that we need to get the hell out of this place.” He huffed out a rough breath. “Heather’s still alive. Brandt forced her to scry, and she told him exactly where we are.”
So the bastard was coming for him. Fine. “Let him hunt.”
Tanner lifted a brow. “You’re that eager for another ass-kicking? ’Cause I’m not.”
Az crossed the room in an instant. His power might not work on Brandt, but Tanner was one hundred percent shifter. “You knew what he was.”
Jade hadn’t. He got that, now. But Tanner . . .
“Yeah, I knew.”
And with a wave of his hand, Az tossed the bastard through the nearest window. Glass shattered as Tanner sailed toward the dock.
“Az!” Jade spared him a shocked glare before she rushed outside after the now-groaning shifter. “Jeez, a punch would have sufficed,” she yelled back at him. “The slam through the window was a little much.”
Not really. He figured he owed Tanner more.
He conjured a ball of flame and followed her out of the house and onto the rickety dock. Tanner had just risen. He took a look at the flames hovering above Az’s hands and his claws immediately sprang out.
But then Jade jumped between them.
Az held back his fire.
“Is there a reason you didn’t tell us about Brandt’s little, um, side powers?” Jade demanded, voice hot enough to burn like the fire in Az’s hands.
“I thought you knew,” came Tanner’s instant answer. “Hell, I thought there wasn’t anything you didn’t know about Brandt. And if you believed this guy—” He pointed a claw at Az. “Could take him out, then I believed it, to
o.”
Until the moment Brandt had sunk his claws into Az’s chest. Then they’d all stopped believing. “Here’s some angel trivia for you.” Az let the fire die. He could always conjure it again easily enough. “It takes more than the Death Touch to kill our own kind. Angels, even half-breed ones, can’t be killed with mortal weapons.” Give ’em a few more runs through the blood chain, a few more generations to dilute that powerful blood, then you could have a being that would die with a touch. But full-blood and half-blood angels were too strong.
Their magic fought Death.
“So if you can’t kill him, then what are we supposed to do about Brandt?” Tanner wanted to know as he began to pace the length of the dock. “What? Are we just gonna wait around here, let him come and kill us all?”
“That’s not a good plan,” Jade snapped.
No, it wasn’t. “He has the witch.”
Tanner stopped and nodded.
“We need her.” He didn’t like Heather. Didn’t trust her—especially after what she’d done to Jade—but if they were going to take out Brandt, they’d have to save her. “She knew about that brimstone bullet. She might have even—”
“She’s the one who made him the bullets,” Tanner admitted, stopping Az’s words. “She found a wounded hellhound a long while back. She ground up its claws to make the bullets.”
A hellhound, huh?
“Wait!” Jade held up her hand. “He told me that he got those bullets from a witch in Vegas.”
“Yeah, that’s because he originally hooked up with Heather in Sin City.”
“Hooked . . . up?” Jade asked. Then she shook her head. “You don’t mean they—”
“Right. They were hot and heavy, until Brandt met a certain human who got under his skin. Heather told me that once he met you, he left her—for fucking dead, by the way.”
Her hands clenched into fists. “Sounds like Brandt.”
“You knew all of this about her ” Az strode along the old dock as he closed in on Tanner, “And you still trusted her? You sent us in with her and—”