“I’m sorry, Azrael.” Bastion’s voice came from beside him and barely rose over the crackle of the fire.
“Don’t be sorry,” Az snapped right back at him. This wasn’t the end for him. “Just get ready to collect all the souls I’m about to send your way.”
Then he saw her. Brandt walked right through the fire, and he had Jade held tightly in his arms. Brandt’s gaze met Az’s.
No. For an instant, it seemed that even the flames stilled.
“I have to do it,” Bastion’s voice was tense. “You know there’s no choice.”
Az’s fist slammed into the magical trap. “Get me out of here, Bastion!”
Sam was dead quiet next to him.
The flames burned higher.
Brandt stalked toward him. Jade’s eyes were closed, and her head sagged against his chest.
Bastard. I will rip you apart.
Brandt lifted Jade and positioned her so that she hung over his right shoulder. “I had wanted her to watch . . .” The shifter began.
“And I want you to beg for death.” Death’s ready for you.
“But I guess we don’t always get what we want.” Brandt’s claws burst from his fingertips. He lifted his hand.
And slammed right against the invisible wall of the cage that had been forged by Angel Dust.
“Dumb asshole,” Sam’s voice called out. “You’re angel, too. It keeps us in, and you can’t cross it, not unless you break the line.”
Brandt’s gaze dropped to the fine line of dust on the floor. When he looked back up, Az had the gun in his hand. He aimed it right at Brandt’s face. “I’m betting these bullets can get out though,” Az said. He bet they could get out and kill Brandt where he stood.
Brandt didn’t hesitate. In a flash, he hauled Jade in front of him.
Her eyes opened slowly, and, with growing fear, she stared down the barrel of the gun that Az had pointed right at her.
“Go ahead,” Brandt taunted him. “Kill me, but kill her, too.”
Bastion had vanished. The other panther shifters raced for the door. The flames just grew bigger and hotter with every moment that passed.
“Az . . .” He saw her lips move but no sound slipped from Jade’s mouth. Her gaze held his. So deep, so intense.
He lowered the gun.
Brandt hauled her back. The grip he had around her throat had his claws just an inch from her flesh.
“Don’t hurt her,” Az ordered, voice booming.
But Brandt didn’t answer.
“Dammit, don’t hurt her!”
“I wasn’t just using you, Az.” Jade’s words were being swallowed by the flames. He had to fight to hear her as she said, “I was loving you . . .”
Then the flames flared higher. Brandt took her away.
“I am sorry,” Bastion’s whisper filled his ears as the angel appeared once more.
Now Az knew just why the angel was apologizing.
“No!” Az clawed at the invisible wall, but it wouldn’t give. The magic was too strong. The fire burned.
And Jade was gone.
The shifters had split, running away into the darkness as soon as they escaped the growing inferno that was Sunrise.
Brandt moved quickly with Jade and her body bounced and ached with each step since she was tossed over his shoulder like a damn sack. Snarling, Jade kicked out at him. Her nails dug into his back.
He didn’t slow down.
They rounded the corner. Sirens wailed in the distance. Those fire trucks damn well needed to hurry.
“Fire won’t . . . kill him,” she managed to grit out. Her hair dangled over her face as all the blood rushed to her head. “He’ll come after you.” Flames wouldn’t stop Az for long.
“I’m rather counting on that.”
Cocky bastard.
Another turn. This time, she recognized the street. Hard not to recognize Bourbon Street. Partygoers strolled around, laughing, and beads crunched beneath Brandt’s boots as he stalked forward.
“Help me!” Jade screamed through the fall of her hair.
She managed to temporarily shove that hair out of her way and saw two men glance her way. Oh, come on, even during Mardi Gras, it wasn’t cool to just let some asshole run away with a struggling woman over his shoulder.
The guys realized that. She heard the thud of their footsteps running toward.
“Hey, man, let her go—”
Brandt growled at them, a deep, inhuman growl. “Stay away or die.” She had no doubt that he was flashing fangs.
But the guys didn’t back away.
“Look, freak,” one snarled right back, “let that lady—”
Brandt tossed him away with one hand.
The other guy’s feet beat a hasty retreat.
Brandt dropped her to the ground. As she scrambled to her knees, he stared down at her with eyes that glowed with his fury—and with the power of the beast inside him. “Call for help again, and I’ll cut the head off the first dumb asshole who comes to your rescue.”
He would.
Brandt grabbed her arm. “Let’s go, baby.”
The flames licked their way across the floor, slowly destroying everything in their path. Too slowly.
Sam alternately snarled and swore as the heat and smoke thickened in the room.
Az didn’t move. Not now. He just waited. The flames only had to come a bit closer.
Just a bit.
The fire crackled over the edges of the Angel Dust. The dust ignited, flaring in a blue-white flame.
And the prison was broken.
Az lunged from the trap and shoved out his hands. The flames lanced his skin, but he ignored the fire and pushed out with his own power. A bitter wind swept through Sunrise, howling like a wolf, and the flames died in an instant.
Slowly, his head turned to the right. Toward the door that Brandt had used when he took Jade away.
Bastion was gone. The angel had better not be near her.
Az took a step forward.
“Uh, yeah, brother,” Sam’s voice stopped him. “Before you head out to kick ass and save the day, do you think you can do me a favor and get me the hell out of here?”
He glanced back. Sam stood with his arms crossed over his chest and managed to look both pissed and bored.
Az shook his head. “You’ll just try to stop me.”
Sam’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“It’s my fight.” He took a breath. Tasted ash and death. His eyes closed. “Good-bye, Sam.”
His brother screamed his name, but it was too late. Az used his enhanced speed to rush out of the bar and to whip right past the dazed-looking firefighters who stared up at the smoldering scene.
He raced forward two blocks and only stopped when he was sure no humans were around. “Bastion!” The angel had better heed his summons. “Get down here, now!” Az might have been kicked out of heaven, but he still possessed plenty of power.
He’d ruled the Death Angels, and even those still dwelling in heaven knew to fear him.
Wind blew lightly against his face. Not wind—air stirred by wings. Bastion’s form appeared before him. No expression was on the angel’s face.
“Where is she?” Az demanded.
Bastion gazed silently back at him.
“If she’s in the damn book of death . . .” His book—once, he’d been the one to note the names and the passages of lives. But those names hadn’t mattered to him. Collecting souls had been his duty. Jade mattered. “If Jade’s in that book, then that means someone is keeping track of her pretty much twenty-four seven.”
The angel didn’t deny or confirm that.
Az grabbed Bastion and shoved him against the alley’s brick wall. He yanked out his weapon and put the gun to Bastion’s heart. “It’s loaded with brimstone. I won’t shoot your stomach this time. I’ll shoot you right in the heart.”
Bastion swallowed. “No, you won’t. You won’t shoot at all.”
Testing him? The guy should know bett
er.
“You . . . of all the angels . . . you understand duty.” Bastion didn’t struggle in his hold. Just stood there as the barrel of the gun dug into his chest. “You know what must be done.”
Az’s finger tightened on the trigger. “Tell me where she is or get ready to say good-bye to heaven.”
Bastion shook his head and held his ground. “It’s . . . you I’m protecting. You need to let her go.”
Gravel crunched behind them. “I’ve got his scent,” Tanner said. “Forget the angel, I can lead you to Brandt.”
Az tensed. “What about Cody?” He knew the form that Tanner had carried out of Sunrise must have been the demon doctor.
“He’ll make it.” Though Tanner didn’t sound so confident. “Demons can heal from just about anything.”
Az stared into Bastion’s gaze. “If I let you go, you’ll try to take her.”
“No.” Bastion shook his head. “My touch doesn’t work on her anymore, remember? I won’t be the angel who takes her life. The one who loves her will be.”
What? He frowned at the angel, lost. Then understanding sank in, understanding and horror.
He spun away. “Get me to her, now,” he barked at Tanner.
Tanner, fangs bared, nodded.
As they rushed away, Az could feel his control ripping. He had to get to Jade before it was too late.
I was loving you.
And he . . . had he been loving her?
Hold on, Jade. Hold. On.
Brandt took her to the cemetery. The rest of his shifters appeared from behind the heavy, white tombs, coming out like ghosts as they surrounded her.
The broken tomb that Az had fallen on so long before lay in pieces just feet from them all.
“This is where he dies,” Brandt said. “Heather told me about this place . . . how he fell.” His lips curled as he glanced up at the starlit sky. “It seems only fitting that I send him to hell at this spot.”
She rubbed her arms. A chill was in the air, beating down on her. “He’s stronger than you are.”
Brandt’s smirk said that he doubted that. “I kicked his ass once before.”
“Only because he didn’t know what you were then.” Az hadn’t been prepared for Brandt’s strength.
Brandt’s gaze cut to her. “And just what am I?”
Evil. If only she’d seen it from the beginning. “Half angel, half beast.”
The others were transforming around them. Changing with the pop and snap of bones as the moon shone down on them.
Brandt held up his hand and stared at the claws that burst from his fingertips. “I always thought it was a curse, having her blood in me.”
She edged away from him.
“My father said it made me weak. Made me too softhearted on our prey.”
“Yeah, well, your father was a dick.” She needed to find a weapon. Her gaze darted around the area. Those panthers would be done with their shift soon. She needed to attack before then. They were always at their weakest during those moments of transformation.
There.
One of the tombs had been separated from the others by an old-fashioned, wrought-iron fence.
“My father was the most vicious shifter I’ve ever seen.” Brandt rolled his shoulders. “But you put him in the ground for me.”
She stumbled toward the fence, deliberately tripping so that her hands had to fly out and catch onto the iron for support. Slowly, she turned toward him. Her hands locked around one of the posts. “I didn’t do that for you. He was trying to rape me. I killed him for me.”
“Fair enough.” A pause. Brandt’s head tilted to the right as he studied her. “I killed your parents for me.”
Bile rose in her throat and her hand tightened around the fence post. Jade kept her eyes on Brandt even as she pulled on that post. She thought she heard the iron groan, and it seemed to bend in her hand.
Oh, please, angel blood, don’t fail me now. Because that blood seemed to be giving her the strength she needed to get this makeshift weapon.
“I knew you’d go back to them eventually. Once you realized what I was . . .” He lifted his hands, and the moonlight glinted off his claws. “You’d run away like a scared little human.”
Because she had been a scared little human. What was so wrong with that? A seventeen-year-old, scared girl.
“I had to make sure you had no one to run to. So I killed them.” He shrugged. “I made it quick, though, if that makes you feel better.”
Sick freak. “You’re as crazy as your father was!”
He lunged at her and wrapped his hands around her throat. “No,” his voice was lethally soft. “I’m not.”
She didn’t speak. Mostly because she couldn’t. Brandt was crushing her windpipe.
He leaned his forehead against hers. He’d done that move often in the old days, back when they’d first started dating. Pressed his forehead against hers. A gentle, almost affectionate gesture. Only back then, he hadn’t been choking her when he leaned in so close.
“I don’t want to be like this,” Brandt whispered so softly she almost didn’t hear him. “But I just can’t stop myself.” He sounded . . . lost.
And, for one instant, he was the boy she’d met. The boy with the sad eyes and wistful smile. The boy who watched her like he was watching a rainbow.
The boy she’d loved.
Not the monster she feared.
Except the boy was strangling her. Jade’s left hand pulled away from the fence, and she clawed at his hold on her throat.
Brandt blinked and the past faded from his eyes even as his hands fell away from her. “We’re going to start fresh. Get the hell away from the South and do things right.”
She sucked in a couple of deep gulps of air. “It’s . . . too late for that.” Surely he knew that. “I don’t love you, Brandt.”
He stiffened.
Part of the fence gave way but she didn’t lift it up. Not yet.
“You think you love him?” Disgust tightened his face.
“Yes.” She just wished that she’d told Az sooner. She’d been afraid to trust anyone else after Brandt. After being so blind, Jade had been terrified she’d make another mistake with a man.
But Az wasn’t just any man. He wasn’t a man, period.
Her Fallen. Her lover.
Hers.
“How will you love him when he’s dead?”
She shook her head. “He’s not dying.” A smile curved her lips. She’d been waiting for this moment ever since she’d stood over her parents’ graves. “You are.” She swung up with the chunk of broken iron and slammed it into the side of his head. There was a loud thud, and he went down.
She raised the iron over her head. She’d broken off the top of the fence, so the sharp point would be perfect for driving right into his heart. “Tell your dad I said hi—”
The panthers were snarling.
Jade froze, then looked up.
Oh, hell. They’d finished their shift from men to beasts.
The panther pack leapt into the air and attacked.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Before the panthers’ claws could tear into her skin, he was there.
Az appeared right in front of her, in front of them, and he wrapped his arms around her. “Close your eyes,” he told her.
She did, but she felt the force of the heat on her skin and knew that Az had used his power to burn and destroy.
The whimpers of the panthers filled her ears—whimpers from the beasts and screams from the men as they transformed.
Her feet left the earth and when they touched down again, she was a good ten feet away from the flames sputtering on the ground. The shifters were still alive, but out of commission.
And Brandt—
Where was he?
“Are you okay?” Az’s hold on her arms was too tight. “Did he hurt you?”
She still had the iron in her hands. “No.” Not any pain worth mentioning. Her throat would heal. Az had arrived just in time.
She was so glad to see him that tears wanted to fill her eyes.
The injured shifters began to edge away. “Brandt.” She licked her lips and blinked away the tears. Now wasn’t the time to get weak. “He was just here!”
“My bastard brother ran as soon as the fire started.” Jade jerked towards the sound of Tanner’s voice. He’d just grabbed a fleeing shifter and knocked him back on the ground. “Don’t worry, I got his stench.” He pointed toward a small space between the tombs on the right. “That way.”
Az nodded. “Stay here.” In the next second, before she could even get the breath to argue, he was gone, racing away after Brandt’s trail.
And leaving her behind.
Rage pumped inside of Az as he streaked through the cemetery. That bastard had dared to touch Jade again. And he’d let his pack of sadistic shifters get killing close to her.
No more.
Az pushed ahead even faster. A few quick shots from his gun, and this would all be over. Jade would be free. She wouldn’t have to spend her days looking over her shoulder and wondering when her psycho ex would pounce.
She could have a life again.
A life with me.
Because if she’d have him, he wanted to spend all of his days with her. Heaven could wait. He’d found something he wanted more.
Jade.
To him, she was . . . everything.
He’d make her happy. Get her to laugh. To smile not just with her beautiful mouth, but with her eyes.
She’d live again.
He paused at the heavy stone wall that marked the edge of the cemetery. Had Brandt left the cemetery? Run back into the city? Where had he—
“There’s something you need to see.”
Az spun at the voice and came face-to-face with Mateo. Not exactly the asshole he’d wanted to see. “Out of my way,” he growled. The witch had betrayed him once already. He didn’t intend to give the guy a second chance to screw him over.
“I can show you the way,” Mateo said, eyes dark. “You just have to trust me.”
He wouldn’t trust that guy any day.
Mateo pointed to the right. “Come here, and see . . .”
Hell. Az could smell blood. He surged forward, heading down the path Mateo indicated.