Jade was across the street. She wasn’t alone.
Her head turned toward him, and Az saw her lips move in a desperate scream that he couldn’t hear.
His name.
He roared and smashed through the glass. Two seconds later, he was on the ground, his knees barely buckling as he lunged forward.
Bastion was smiling. His hands were wrapped around Jade.
“Let her go!” Az bellowed. He didn’t know why Jade was out there on the street. Didn’t care. All that mattered was getting her back. Keeping her safe and—
And she vanished. Bastion vanished.
No.
When the earth stopped spinning, Jade collapsed on the ground. Not the rough asphalt of a paved street, but on soft, grass-covered earth. Nausea roiled in her stomach, and she squeezed her eyes shut as she fought for control.
Then she realized she was still alive. Because if she felt this miserable, she had to be alive.
Her eyes flew open, and she shot upright. That fast movement just made the nausea worse.
“Easy.” Bastion frowned down at her. “I’d forgotten . . . humans don’t always react so well to magic.”
She swallowed rapidly. “Magic? And here I just thought you’d . . . done that angel . . . super speed thing.” Second by second, she was getting her control back.
“We needed something stronger this time.” One golden brow lifted. “You weren’t the only one to visit the witch today.”
What? That jerk had totally sold them out!
“Az . . . changed you. Gave you his blood.”
Everyone seemed to keep harping on that.
Bastion lifted his hand and stared down at his fingers. “A simple touch from me can’t kill you. Az’s blood is making your immune from the Death Touch . . . for now.”
That was good, right?
Bastion dropped his hand and stared into her eyes. “I don’t want you to suffer.”
She staggered to her feet and put some precious distance between them. “What a coincidence. I don’t really want that, either.”
His head cocked as he frowned at her.
“So how about you just go your merry angel way,” now she could see the wings bursting from his back. Rather hard to miss them without his extra magic mojo. “And I’ll go mine.”
Bastion shook his head. “I need you.”
“No, you need to get the hell away from me. Once Az gets here . . .” Get here, Az, get your Fallen butt here. “You don’t want to be around.”
“Things have to be set right. Az can’t be allowed to change fate.”
Oh, no. That sounded very bad. “You-you want to kill me.”
“You should already be dead.” He gave a short, hard shake of his head. “Instead, the Fallen attacked an innocent. He brutalized Marna, an angel who’d never—”
“Whoa! Hold on there.” She was gonna ignore that whole “You should already be dead” part for the moment. “Az hasn’t attacked any angel.”
Bastion laughed. “Really? Then how’d I get a brimstone bullet in my gut?”
Ah . . .
“I went to take you, and he shot me.”
He’d shot another angel to save her? Sweet, but, deadly.
“You’re marked for Death, and, once marked, there’s no changing what will come.” His eyes darkened. “I’ve seen you die.”
Jade licked her lips. “Now when you say that, do you mean—”
“You’re on my list. I’ve seen what will come for you. It’s a vicious ending.”
Did he have to sound so chirpy about it? Weren’t angels who still had those precious wings supposed to be unemotional?
“As I said, I don’t want you to suffer, but other plans are already in place. The Death Touch from me would have been merciful, but now, another end waits.”
“Yeah, well . . .” And she dug deep, trying to pull out that new power that she still couldn’t even control. “I’m gonna have to take option B on all this and say . . .” She sent a burst of fire out at him. Not a controlled ball of flames, but a swirling, bulging wall of heat. “Screw your plans.”
Then she turned and ran, not even bothering to see how Bastion stopped the fire. Get away. Fast. That was her priority. Get away. Get to Az. Get—
She hit the dirt. Something hard and strong had slammed into her back, and Jade’s feet just flew out from under her.
“Abomination.” Gravel crunched as Bastion circled around her. “Humans weren’t meant to have such powers.”
She tasted blood in her mouth. Jade lifted her head. Nope, the angel wasn’t so much as singed. He stood about five feet away, not looking winded, but appearing . . . mildly annoyed.
Well, big damn deal for him. She was feeling pretty annoyed, too.
“You’re not going to get away.” Bastion’s wings fluttered in the breeze. They were doing that neat magic trick again where they seemed to just burst right through his shirt. He crouched so they were more on eye level. “He’ll find you soon.”
Now why did those words fill her with dread?
Because he’s setting a trap for Az, and I’m his bait.
Az didn’t bother knocking at the witch’s door this time. He just blew off the right wall of the place and stormed back inside.
Mateo turned at his approach, holding up the small, black bag that Jade had given him. “Ah, back from your psycho moment, are you? Bueno, because I’ve got your bullets—”
And Az had him. His hands locked onto the witch’s shirt, and he yanked Mateo toward him. “You’ve had another visitor.”
Mateo glanced down at the floor. Az was holding him a good foot in the air. “I have many visitors.”
“In a moment, you’re going to be in many pieces.”
Mateo’s gaze lifted. “Your eyes have gone black.”
“Where. Is. She.”
“Some beings are too powerful. When emotions hit them, they lose all control. Power without control can mean—”
“Would you like for me to incinerate you?”
Mateo smiled at him. “I’ve felt fire before, Fallen. Remember where I came from.”
Hell.
Mateo jerked away from him. Wind rushed in the air. “Your friend paid me for a job. The job is done.” He tossed Az the bag.
Az caught it and tried to fight the rage surging within him. Jade. Gone.
Bastion should have never touched her. Never. “Is she dead?” he gritted.
Mateo shook his head.
Az took a breath.
“Now you know better than that . . . there’s a price for information.”
Az let his power rip from him. In an instant, fire engulfed the building. The remaining walls burned. The windows exploded. Smoke thickened the air.
Mateo’s eyes widened.
The flames were less than a foot away from the witch. The fire wasn’t touching him, but only because Az didn’t want Mateo dead, not yet.
“I think you’ve confused me with someone else.” Az’s voice boomed from him, easily louder than the crackling flames. “I’m not Sammael. I’m not here to save your ass and play your games.”
With a wave of his hand, he sent the fire to lick across Mateo’s arms. Agony twisted the witch’s face.
“This isn’t hellfire,” Az snarled. “You don’t control it.”
Mateo slapped at the flames, but they just flared higher as he began to scream.
“So the games end now, or you die.”
Mateo fell to his knees. The flames closed in.
“The choice is yours.”
Jade shoved up to her knees. “Okay, angel, I get it. You’re pissed—”
“Angels feel no emotions.”
Yeah, she’d call bullshit on that one. The guy was a big old vibrating ball of emotion—mostly rage.
“Whatever. So I’m the walking dead, and you want to put me in the ground.” She straightened her shoulders. “But here’s the deal. Az isn’t gonna let you do that, okay?” He’d better not. “When he gets here, he’ll be freaking furiou
s, and you don’t want to be in the area when that guy is enraged.”
She’d hoped her threat would make the angel back off long enough for her to get a running start. But he was holding his ground.
Then his lips curved a bit. “I never said Azrael was the one coming to find you.”
Her heart seemed to freeze.
Bastion pointed to the woods behind him. “Your shifter has found a new base. Just a mile or two over that hill.” In the next second, he was at her side. He grabbed her arm, and sliced her flesh with a knife she hadn’t even seen.
She didn’t give him the satisfaction of screaming. Since when did angels go around knifing people? How was that possibly in their job description?
“Your scent is special to the shifter.” Bastion dropped her hand. “He’ll follow the blood trail, and he’ll find you.” He stepped back. His wings began to spread out behind him. She realized then that the jerk was just going to leave her, bleeding, for Brandt to find.
“Order will be restored,” Bastion said.
She covered the wound. He’d sliced her deep, a cut that went almost from elbow to wrist. “Why didn’t you just drop me on the bastard’s doorstep?”
He hesitated.
“Were you scared he’d slice you apart, too?” Her words came fast and she wouldn’t let her gaze drift over Bastion’s shoulder. Don’t come, Brandt. “For the record, he’s the one who attacked the other angel, not Az. Brandt. The guy is some kind of hybrid shifter and angel mix. He attacked her and now—”
Now she definitely had his attention. Bastion stood right in front of her. “Her wings were sliced from her body.”
More rage. And the guy thought he didn’t feel emotion?
“Yes.” Her voice was soft. “We found her in the woods. A doctor is helping her.” She left out the little bit about Cody being a demon doctor.
Bastion’s brows pulled together. “No, Azrael—”
“He found her. Brandt was the one who got off on slicing her apart.” She swallowed. Don’t look over the hill. “Just like he’s going to slice me unless we leave here, now.”
His gaze held hers.
“I’m telling you the truth. It wasn’t Az.” She swallowed. “Please, believe me.”
“Angels can’t lie.” His own voice had softened.
She knew what he meant. Angels couldn’t lie, but humans could. “Humans can also tell the truth.”
He studied her a moment longer, then seemed to . . . believe her? He pulled her against his chest and held tight. His wings were stretching out again as he prepared for flight. In the distance, she could hear snarls.
Brandt had her scent.
They needed to get the hell out of there.
Now.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Az pulled Mateo from the wreckage. Flames shot high up into the air. Sirens blared as the humans raced toward the burning warehouse.
They’d never arrive in time. By the time the fire trucks pulled up, the building would be ash.
He tossed the witch onto the ground. Mateo had talked. Witches, even half-blood ones, couldn’t take the fire.
Az turned away from him.
“S-saw . . . th-this . . .” Mateo’s words froze him. “You . . . destroy . . .”
He’d destroy anyone who tried to take Jade. “I let you live.” After the witch had deliberately betrayed him. Separating him from Jade had been part of the guy’s plan all along. So she’d be vulnerable. Alone. Then Mateo had whipped up the wind in that room so Az couldn’t hear her screams.
Not until it was too late.
He glanced into the sky. The flames and smoke had dimmed the sunlight. Yet as he stared, the clouds seemed to thicken. A dark shape emerged.
A shape with the wide, black wings of a Death Angel.
His back teeth ground together. If Bastion was coming back to taunt him, he’d make the angel pay.
And it was Bastion. There was no mistaking the angel’s form. But—but Bastion wasn’t alone.
Bastion touched down just in front of the flames. He held Jade against his chest. One of Bastion’s arms circled her stomach, and the angel held a knife to her throat.
“Let her go,” Az demanded. The sirens were growing louder. The fire seemed to shriek behind Jade and Bastion.
Bastion’s eyes were wide. “You did this?”
Mateo climbed slowly to his feet. Blisters covered his right arm. They’d heal. Mateo was too powerful not to heal now that he was away from the flames. “She’s not supposed. . . to be . . . here.”
The tip of the knife sliced her throat.
Az couldn’t hear the screams of the approaching sirens or the crackle of the flames. Jade’s lips were moving but he could discern no sound.
He leapt forward, stopping mere inches from Bastion. “Let her go or die.” If he had to use his fists to pound those brimstone bullets into Bastion’s head and heart, he would.
No one was hurting Jade.
Fear flashed in Bastion’s eyes. Az knew fear when he saw it and smelled it.
“M-Marna . . .” He caught the angel’s whisper. “Tell me, did you take her wings?”
“I already told you,” Jade muttered, “he didn’t.”
Az fought the fury inside of him. His gaze held Bastion’s. “I did not.”
Bastion’s wings curled inward.
“Brandt was the one who attacked her,” Az told him. “He’s more than human. He could see her. And you know what a shifter’s claws can do to us.”
“Not a weapon of man.” Bastion swallowed. The knife lifted. His hands were shaking. “I-I thought you . . .” He pushed Jade toward Az.
He grabbed her, held her close, and smelled her blood.
Az stiffened. Keeping his hand on her, his gaze swept her body. There was no missing the long gash that had torn open her arm.
“Az,” Jade began, with her eyes wide. “Hold on. It was a misunderstand—”
Bastion attacking her wasn’t a misunderstanding. Az pushed her behind him. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
The angel’s head hung down. “When I found them, Marna’s wings were covered in blood. There was no sign of her in the swamp. I-I thought that you’d—”
“You didn’t attack me. You attacked her.”
The angel wasn’t meeting his stare.
“What were you going to do?” Az demanded. The urge to attack, to destroy, was so strong that his body trembled.
Bastion’s chin slowly lifted. “I was going to let Brandt have her.”
“Bad, bad mistake.” He lifted his hand and prepared to beat the hell out of a certain angel.
“Az!” Jade grabbed his hand. “Dammit, we don’t have time for this now!”
Sammael would have said there was always time for an ass kicking.
Perhaps he truly was becoming more like his brother. Or maybe he’d always been like him and just hadn’t realized it.
“The cops are almost on top of us. We need to get out of here.” Fear flickered in her eyes. “There is no way that we want to get caught by human authorities now.”
The too-close shrieks of the sirens filled his ears. Jade was right. They had to leave. Vengeance would come second. Protecting her was his first priority.
He took her hand and turned away from Bastion. His gaze swept the scene. Mateo had vanished. No real surprise. But he’d be finding that witch soon.
Or he will find us.
Az could see the cop cars and fire trucks circling in now. He hoisted Jade into his arms. Her hands slipped around his neck and her body . . . felt so right. She always seemed to fit against him perfectly. “Hold tight,” he told her, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
He lunged forward, but Bastion moved in an instant and blocked him.
“Where is she?” Bastion whispered.
He did not have time for this.
“You know she’ll be weak. If a foe comes at her again . . . Marna won’t survive another attack so soon after the loss of her wings.”
&n
bsp; He wanted to tear Bastion apart, but Jade’s fingers were lightly stroking the back of his neck and some of the tight fury eased from him. Relenting, but still planning for some vicious payback, Az growled, “At midnight, meet us at Sammael’s club.”
A fire truck raced onto the street.
“She’ll be there,” he promised.
Bastion nodded and his wings arched as he rose into the air. The humans wouldn’t see the angel.
But the cops and firefighters would sure try to bust him and Jade.
Police cars were swarming the scene now. Az ran forward. He leapt onto the hood of one patrol car, denting the metal, then he propelled forward and up, racing fast, so fast . . .
The humans would never be able to identify him. They’d only see a blur.
Jade held him tighter and the rest of the world faded away.
Sammael didn’t need to hear the intruder to know that someone had slipped into his home.
After all, there was very little that went on without his notice.
But the fact that some asshole had come sneaking into his house, while Seline was there, well, that pissed him off.
No one messed with Seline.
“Sam?” Her voice was sleepy, sexy, and it instantly made him hard.
Oh, soon enough for that, but first . . . Sam pressed a kiss to the soft silk of her shoulder. “Sleep, love. I need to tend to some business.”
Her brows drew together. She knew all about his business.
He kissed her again and let his fingers skate down her arm. He could hear the faintest tread of footsteps on his stairs. His intruder had gotten past the magical safeguards that he kept in place on his house.
Not a human. But then, humans seemed to instinctively stay the hell away from him.
He climbed from the bed. Waved his hand and instantly had a pair of jeans on his body.
“Want me to call Beelzie?” Seline asked, and he glanced back to see that she was sitting up in bed, her eyes wide and worried.
“No. I’ve got this one.” Because he knew the identity of his visitor. If he didn’t have a faint friendship with the guy—even though he’d been on this earth for centuries, he could count his friends on one hand—Sam would have already attacked.