Chapter 4
Chapter Four
Darkness still cloaked the city. Seline walked slowly down the street as the scent of the river teased her nose. Sam hadn’t followed her. She’d looked back—too many times to count—but she’d only seen the dark water.
She hunched her shoulders as she hurried forward. Just because he hadn’t followed her then sure didn’t mean she wouldn’t be seeing her Fallen again soon.
A rush of wind blew against her face, and her hair flew up, momentarily blocking her vision. Her hand rose to brush it back, but her fingers tangled with?—
His.
“Hello, Seline.”
Her body tightened at that husky rumble.
Half of Sam’s mouth kicked up in a reckless smile. “Didn’t think I’d let you get away that easily, did you?”
“No.” Her hand fell. “I was sure you wouldn’t.” But shoving him into that icy water had felt good. She offered him her own smile. “Enjoy your swim?” Not that she could tell he’d even been in the water. His clothes were perfectly dry. He was breathing easily and not looking at all like he’d just raced out of the swamp to meet her in the New Orleans warehouse district.
His hand brushed back her hair. His touch was gentle, lover-like, but his gaze blazed with a banked fury. Hmmm. Maybe not so banked.
“Tell me where my brother is.”
She ignored the ball of fear swirling in her gut. “I asked for a deal, remember? So either you agree…” She knocked his hand aside and walked around him. Keep walking, don’t look back. Act like you’ve got this. “Or we’re done,” she tossed out as she stared straight ahead.
Silence.
Her lips pressed together, but her steps continued. Four A.M. The city was dead. Well, mostly. The rest of it was un dead.
“I could make you tell me.” And he was in front of her. Just like that. One blink, and bam, hello, Fallen.
She shook her head. “You could try.” Now her laughter came, but it had a hard edge. “Do you really think you’re the first badass I’ve come across? I’m not easy to break.” Bruise, yes, but break? No.
Sam tilted his head to the right as he studied her. “Who tried to break you?” Anger hummed in the words.
You’re just like him. He’s burning, and you’ll burn, too. Only I can save you. Rogziel’s words pounded in her mind. How many times had he told her the same thing? Evil. Hell. Burn.
She’d been trapped with him for as long as she could remember. “I just want to be free,” she confessed, and this time, she was telling Sam the absolute truth.
His gaze hardened.
“I was supposed to kill you.” She could give him that much, here in the darkness. Alone on the street. “But I didn’t.”
He lifted his hand, stared at it, then looked back at her. “You truly don’t know what I can do.” Then he leaned closer. “Do you know how many angels there are?”
Hundreds. Thousands. She’d greedily absorbed every bit of angel lore and gossip that she’d ever heard over the years.
His hand slid down her arm, and a shiver skated over her skin. She was hypersensitive to him. So aware of his touch. His body.
Damn succubus blood. Sometimes, it just made her weak.
“I was an angel of death.”
She didn’t move. “You told me that already.” She’d never met another angel of death. Most people hadn’t. You only saw an angel of death when it was your time to die. The last visit was with the AOD.
“One touch.” The back of his hand slid over her skin. “And I kill.” His head lowered toward her, but he didn’t make the mistake of kissing her.
One kiss, and I can kill.
“You sure you want to push me?” His question was barely more than a growl.
Don’t let him see the fear. She lifted her chin. “You won’t kill me.” He’d had too many chances. “You need me. Right now, I’m your best bet for finding your brother.” She let another laugh roll free as she stared into his eyes. “So give me your word, Fallen, and let’s get this show on the road.”
His jaw hardened. “You’ll take me to Az?”
She nodded. “And when the time comes, you’ll owe me—so you do exactly what I say.” Having an angel of death at her command would be perfect. She’d love to see someone try to take down that particular guard dog.
“Fine,” he gritted out.
Her gaze dropped to his lips. “Want to seal the deal with a kiss?” He was touching her, and she wasn’t running in fear. Surely the big, bad demon could handle one more kiss from her.
His hands closed around her shoulders, and he lifted her up onto her toes. His mouth took hers with heat and lust and wild need, and oh, it was exactly what she craved. A spike of power fueled her blood. More. She wanted to sink into him and let the pleasure take her.
It had been far too long since she’d let go with her lover. When lust could kill, you always had to keep your control in bed.
Even when you wanted to let it shatter.
Sam’s dark head lifted. She saw the same lust she felt reflected in his eyes.
But then his gaze left her as his stare swept the street. “Where is he?”
Right. Business before pleasure. “Close.” She started walking, and Sam fell into step right beside her. Rogziel had a containment center set up in the middle of the warehouse district. A low-profile place on the outside, but one that was well secured and perfect on the inside for the type of work Rogziel preferred.
Good thing she knew just how to get inside that warehouse.
They moved closer to the hulking shadows made by the buildings. They advanced in silence as the path twisted and turned. Ten minutes. Fifteen.
When Warehouse 609 appeared before them, Seline stopped. She put her hand on Sam’s chest. “This is as far as you go.” Her voice was a breath of sound.
“The hell it is.” He rocked forward, and his muscles tensed beneath her palm. “Is he in there? Is he?—”
Her hand fisted in his shirtfront, and she jerked. The fabric tore. He blinked at her. “You don’t go in,” she said, this time making her words an order. Her gaze swept the front of the warehouse. It looked like two guards were stationed outside.
It wasn’t those two that they had to worry about. If Rogziel was inside… Hello, hell.
“My boss could be in there—him and a dozen other guards that we don’t want to piss off right now.” Sometimes, you had to pick your moments. Going up against Rogziel when he had his little army at his beck and call wasn’t a good idea. “Let me go in and scout the scene. Your brother was here, but they could have moved him to a new site already.” Or they could have killed him, and just where would that leave me?
Sam glared down at her.
“We have a deal,” she snapped at him, running a not-quite-steady hand through her hair as she tried to smooth it back. “I don’t want to go in with guns blazing, okay?” Because she did have a few friends who should be in that warehouse. Well, semi-friends. Humans didn’t usually like to get too close to her. “Let’s try to keep the body count to a minimum.”
“Why do you care?” Sam seemed genuinely confused.
Well, crap. What? Did he think a succubus couldn’t feel? She felt too much. “Because I don’t want any more blood on my hands. I’ve already got enough.” She took a deep breath. “Look, I can get inside instantly, I can search the warehouse, and if your brother is still there”—okay, this was the dicey part—“I’ll serve him up to you on a silver platter.” As long as you remember that you owe me.
He stared at her. Time slipped away in silence.
She shifted her weight to her right foot. “Jeez, look, we don’t have all?—”
“Go in.” His shoulders rolled. “But if you try to betray me, it’ll be the worst mistake you make. I promise you that.”
Sam crossed his arms and watched Seline slip away. He didn’t trust her, not for a moment, but…
I want her.
Even though he knew better than to want a succubus. Talk about a lethal package.
She approached the guards. They must have recognized her because they opened the double doors and led her right inside the building.
Is Az in there? His back teeth were clenched. To be so close to his vengeance now… So close .
Don’t betray me, Seline. If she did, if this was just a setup, she’d learn just how painful his touch could be.
“Seline? What the hell?”
She turned at the call and found Alex Graham striding toward her. He wore all black, and a holster circled his shoulder.
A human, one who made it his mission to hunt monsters.
And one who should have been her backup for the night.
She let her face harden with anger because she had a role to play. “Did you forget that you were supposed to be watching my ass?” she demanded.
His eyes swept over her, lingering just a bit on the cuts that still sliced across her wrist and forearm. He shrugged, the move far too careless for her taste. “I thought you were dead. I saw that guy grab you and pull you back inside the house.”
Oh, so he had been watching. Then when things got hot, he’d turned tail and run. Way to leave a woman behind. “You didn’t think about coming to my aid?” That was what a team was supposed to be for.
“That wasn’t my job.”
She took the hit and kept her chin up.
“I was supposed to watch. You were supposed to…well…” His lips twisted, and she caught the flash of disgust on his face. “Do your thing.”
Her thing. Like she hadn’t risked her life for this group over and over again.
“Is he dead?” Alex wanted to know as he came close. Not too close. He never got too close. As if being a demon was some kind of virus he didn’t want to catch.
She’d never liked the man. Seline worked with him because she had to do so. Rogziel wouldn’t let her do anything else.
This is all you have, Seline. Rogziel’s voice whispered through her mind. You want redemption, then you fight for it. You kill for it. You earn it.
The price for redemption was too high. She just wanted freedom.
“Sammael’s not dead.” Now she could mix truth and lie for this part. “I took some of his power and managed to slip away.” She exhaled and shook her head. “He’s stronger than we thought. Much stronger. I need to talk to Rogziel immediately.”
“He’s not here.” A brief pause, then Alex said, “He’s out hunting.”
Well, perfect. Then she could get the Az guy and slip right away. Because other than a few guards, the place was deserted.
“He wants us to relocate to a more secure site,” Alex added.
Ah, that explained the lack of personnel.
“We’ll be transferring out the last prisoner soon.”
“The last one?” Oh, come on, be Az, be…
Alex turned away. “He’s a real piece of work. A Fallen.” He shook his head and kept walking. “Can you believe an angel would be dumb enough to fall from heaven?”
“I’ve seen dumber things.” Like you, just walking away from me right now after you admitted you left me to die. Seline grabbed the nearest object she could find—a metal chair that she lifted easily—and she slammed it into the back of Alex’s head.
He went down, and she leaned over him. “Maybe that will teach you to stop looking at me like I’m a piece of dog shit stuck on your shoe.” She’d seen the look in his eyes, in most of the eyes of the humans who were under Rogziel’s thumb, and she was tired of being trash. Seline yanked the keys off his belt. Alex always had the keys to the cages. As Rogziel’s first in command, he was the one given top access all the time.
She jumped up and hurried down the hall on the left. There wouldn’t be much time before someone found his body.
So she’d better haul ass.
She turned a quick left, a hard right, and still she didn’t see any other guards or personnel. She knew that the most dangerous Other were always kept in containment until Rogziel issued his judgment on them. This area of the warehouse had been reinforced for their containment. Other -proofed, so to speak. Silver cages for the shifters, magic blocks for the witches, and?—
There. She pressed in a fast key code and the door for containment room 107 slid open. She slipped inside and saw— him.
The man’s muscled chest was bare. His head sagged forward, his blond hair concealing his face. Thick chains bound his arms, holding him securely, even as blood dripped from the cuts that slashed open his arms.
The prisoner barely seemed to be breathing. Maybe she was already too late, dammit. Now how was she supposed to bargain with Sam? He wouldn’t pay for a dead body.
She stepped forward, and her shoes slid over the hard floor.
His head whipped up. “Help…me.” A desperate plea that was echoed by the haunted look in his blue gaze.
She pushed the door closed behind her and gripped the keys in her hand. “That’s why I’m here.” Liar, liar. You’re my ticket to freedom.
So this was Az. Now that his hair had slid back, she could get a much better view of him. Perfect face. High cheekbones, straight blade of a nose, hard jaw. Golden skin. Bright blue eyes. Mouth that looked like it should be smiling. Instead, lines of pain bracketed his lips.
Yeah, she could buy him being an angel. Whereas Sam just looked more like the devil.
His voice rasped out, “Who…are you?”
“My name’s Seline.” Giving him her name didn’t matter and maybe it would earn her the trust she needed to make the escape work. She just had to get him out of those cuffs and then slip him out of the warehouse.
Sam could take over the game then.
His brow furrowed. “Don’t…know you…” He shook his head. “Don’t know…”
She hesitated just a few feet from him.
He sucked in a deep breath. “ Who am I ?” Confusion roughened the words.
She blinked. “Uh, run that by me again?” She sure hadn’t been expecting that kind of response from him.
His gaze darted around the room. “Why…am I here?” That bright stare came back to her. “Did I do…something wrong? Did I…hurt someone?” He yanked at the chains.
Seline kept her distance. If he was truly Sam’s brother, then the guy before her might be able to kill with a touch, too. Which makes getting him out of here even harder.
His jaw clenched. “Please,” he grated, “help me.”
There was torment in his voice. And fear. The keys dug into her hand. “Your name is Az.”
He didn’t blink.
Okay, no recognition there. Is this the right prisoner? She walked a bit to the left and tried to peer over his shoulder. She couldn’t see the skin on his back, not with the way he was chained, so in order to find out if he carried the same scars as Sam did, she’d have to touch him. Seline sucked in a deep breath. “I will help you,” she told him, “but you have to trust me.” She lifted her left hand to show that she wasn’t armed. “I need to touch you.”
His stare bored into her, and a faint line appeared between his brows.
“I have to make certain you’re the man I think you are.” Because these days, she didn’t trust a thing Rogziel told her. Not after what she’d seen him do on the last case.
Sam wasn’t the first angel she’d met. No, the first angel she could remember was Rogziel. But he wasn’t an angel of death like Sam. Instead, Rogziel was on earth to punish. Punishment angels were fueled by wrath.
Only she knew that Rogziel had a twisted idea of what constituted guilt. Sometimes, just having demon blood was enough of a justification for punishment in his mind.
He doesn’t kill quickly. He enjoys the pain too much.
The only time Rogziel ever seemed to feel anything was when he was doling out his justice. Then he smiled.
His smile chilled her to the bone.
Swallowing, Seline lifted her arm and let her fingers trail over Az’s back.
He pulled in a sharp breath at her touch, but he didn’t move. Her fingers skimmed up his skin and found the thick, rough scars near his shoulder blades.
Her head tilted back, and she looked deeper into his eyes. His pupils flared as she gazed at him. “You fell.” It wasn’t hard to mistake those marks. Once you knew what they were, the scars were an instant indicator. She’d only touched Sam’s scars in the dream-walk, but she’d never forget them. He’d had wings, once upon a time. So had Az.
Once upon a time…until the fire came, and he fell to earth. Seline cleared her throat and explained, “You fell, and your wings burned away.”
Not a flicker of recognition filled his gaze. He just looked lost.
“Fell from where?” he asked blankly as he blinked and shook his head.
She pulled away, hurrying back a step. Getting out of touching range. “I’ll get you out of here, but you have to?—”
“I woke up in a…graveyard. I was on a broken tomb, naked, I was?—”
Voices shouted in the hallway. Oh, hell. No more time.
She grabbed the chain on his right wrist and shoved the key into the lock. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It does.” He caught her hand the instant the cuff popped open. Now it was Seline’s turn to freeze. One touch.
But his fingers just smoothed over her skin. “You’re…” He broke off and the blue of his eyes seemed to fade a bit. “Danger.”
Oh, yeah, she was dangerous to him, but she wasn’t about to confess to that bit now.
His hold tightened. “Be careful. Evil…it’s at the door.”
What? Chill bumps rose on her arms.
Then the scent of smoke reached her, burning her nose, and Seline’s head whipped around. She could see thick, dark smoke sliding beneath the bottom of the containment room’s door.
Smoke and then—the door exploded inward as a ball of flames swept into the room. Seline screamed, and Az laughed.
Laughed.
Her gaze flew back to him, and she saw that he was smiling. Oh, hell. That smile reminded her far too much of Rogziel—it was the same smile he wore right before Rogziel got ready to punish some bastard.
Playing with the big boys… Had she really thought Az wouldn’t be as dangerous as Sam?
The fire licked her arm, and she screamed again.
When the scent of smoke drifted to him on the wind, Sam stiffened. Then the armed men ran out of the warehouse, one of the humans carrying an unconscious man over his shoulder. They were running away.
Seline, where the hell are you?
The smoke thickened, and the flames began to crackle. Sam raced for the warehouse. A retreating guard saw him and fumbled for his weapon. “Wait, stop! You can’t?—”
Sam flew forward and knocked the guard aside. Sam blasted the warehouse door open with a stray thought and rushed inside. The flames swelled, growing higher and higher. His power pushed out, and he should have been able to instantly quench the fire, but the flames didn’t so much as flicker.
Az. Only another angel could have enough power to stir the fire like this.
Time to find his brother and give him some payback—payback that had been centuries in coming.
Another scream ripped the air. This one echoed with pain.
“Seline!” He rushed after that fading scream, never feeling the touch of fire on his skin as he leapt right through the flames.
And then he saw her. On the ground. Rolling as she tried to put out the fire that burned her flesh. He roared her name and lunged for her.
“Sam…” Her hoarse whisper and there were tears— fucking tears— sliding down her cheeks. He held her close against his chest, and, through the flames, his gaze locked on his brother.
Azrael. The second angel of death created. One without feelings. One who existed only to kill.
One who’d finally fallen.
The fire rose higher, hotter, and those flames seemed to come right after Seline.
Holding her, cradling her carefully, Sam stepped back.
Az was smiling.
“Bastard!” Sam yelled even as he retreated a few more steps from the fire. The fire wouldn’t hurt him, but Seline was a different story. She was shaking in his arms, and he could feel the waves of her fear.
A manacle dropped from Az’s wrist. Still smiling, Az stepped forward.
“I’m going to kill you,” Sam promised him.
Az’s brows rose. “No…you won’t.” Az lifted his hands. The restraints were at his feet, and Sam knew his brother’s power was ready to burst free again. “Not now.” And Az vanished. In less than a second’s time, he simply disappeared.
Holding tight to Seline, Sam sent out a wave of his power and blew out the wall on the right. He ran forward, holding her as tightly as he dared.
The shrill scream of sirens reached his ears. He caught the flash of red lights. A fire truck raced to the scene, leading a line of police cruisers and an ambulance. Sam hesitated.
“No.” Seline’s rough whisper. “Humans…don’t let them see me. They can’t help.”
He risked a glance down at her. The tear tracks were still on her cheeks, and angry red blisters covered her arm.
Az, you’d better run. Run fucking fast. His brother had just earned more pain before his death.
“Please,” she begged, holding his stare, “get me out…of here.” More tears slid from her eyes.
“You’re hurt. You need help!”
“I’m a succubus.” Her eyes closed even as a flash of pain had her face tightening. “Medicine won’t heal me.”
No, not medicine.
He turned away from the cops. He kept his hold on her, and he knew just how to help Seline.
Medicine couldn’t take away a succubus’s pain, but pleasure could.
Rogziel watched as the warehouse burned. His guards had escaped, and Alex waited behind him, swearing and muttering because he had a bruise on the back of his head.
Humans could be so dramatic.
“You’re sure Seline was the one who hit you?” Rogziel asked again, because he had to be certain.
“ Yes! She hit me, and she took the freaking keys. She went after that Fallen.” Alex stalked forward and pointed to the blazing building. “And they did that. ”
Burned their way to freedom?
Maybe.
Or maybe Azrael had just burned Seline and sent her to hell.
His gaze slid over the fire. He’d expected the betrayal from Seline. He’d hoped that she’d stay true to him, but, deep inside, he’d known. It had been just a matter of time.
Blood always tells. Poor Seline had the blood of the wicked coursing through her veins. He’d tried to warn her, but there had been no changing fate. There never was.
“We’ll wait until the authorities secure the scene.” He’d learned how to keep a low profile over the centuries. So he’d let the cops do their work. Let the firefighters fight the blaze that was already cooling, and once the smoke cleared, he’d see if any bodies were recovered.
If Seline had somehow slipped away, then he’d find her. Seline was his. He’d see her dead long before he turned her loose on the world. Because he knew just how dangerous she truly was. The pretty face was a lie. Inside, Seline was a monster, one that he’d been fighting to control since the day he’d found her.
Trash.
Evil.
And the evil ones in this world had to be punished.
Sam took Seline to one of his safe houses. Acquiring a car wasn’t hard. He just took the first one he saw and drove as fast as he could. Within minutes, he had Seline at his place, locked inside, and on his bed.
Carefully, using a gentleness he hadn’t even realized he possessed, Sam removed her charred and ash-stained clothing, and he wiped away her tears.
“You couldn’t…” His fingers hovered over her injured arm. The burns pissed him off and made him want to rip Az apart. “You couldn’t control the fire at all.” Odd. A demon usually had some ability to manipulate the flames.
Her lashes slowly lifted. “I’m not…I’m a hybrid.”
Hybrid. Half-demon. Half…what?
“I can make some fire like I did in the swamp, but I can’t control someone else’s. Not…strong enough.” The last sounded like an embarrassed confession.
He stared down at her, lost, angry. She hurt, and her pain made him furious.
“You know what I need to heal.” Her voice was husky, and her eyes so dark.”
He knew how to heal a succubus, yes, but…
“Kiss me?” she murmured.
Bracing his arms on either side of her head, he brushed his lips across hers. Light. Soft.
“No.” Her growl. “I need more.”
His lips pressed against hers again. Her mouth parted for him, and his tongue swept inside to meet hers. Wet. Warm. She moaned and he stilled, afraid it was a cry of pain. He began to pull back.
Then her hips lifted and pushed against his. She caught his bottom lip between her teeth and gave him a light bite.
His cock hardened. Want her. Need her.
“I’m not human,” she said, and already her voice sounded stronger. Just from a kiss? “ This is what I need.” A pause. “You’re what I need.” Stark.
Sam didn’t have to be told twice. He kissed her again. Her breasts pushed against his chest, and he could feel the tight press of her nipples. He hadn’t removed her sexy black bra, but he wanted the lace gone. He wanted her nipple in his mouth, and he wanted to know that her moans were from pleasure.
But he put a stranglehold on his lust, and instead of stripping her, he took his time with her mouth. Sam stroked with his tongue and his lips, savoring her taste. Her hips arched more, her hands rose to clutch him, and she kissed him back with a raw hunger that had the lust he felt blazing hotter. Her body was a soft temptation beneath him, and the need within him deepened with every moment that passed.
Then her fingers pushed between them, easing along his chest. Both of her hands. But her right arm had been burned…
He pulled back instantly.
Her skin had taken on the faintest of glows. Her eyes were pitch-black, her lips plump and wet.
“Seline, your arm…” He glanced down. The blisters were already gone though the skin still appeared a dark red, as if she’d suffered a sunburn.
“I’m a fast healer,” she told him quietly, “with the right power.” Her gaze met his. “And you,” she told him, licking her lips as if she were still tasting him, “you’ve got more power than any Other I’ve ever met.”
Because he was far more dangerous than any Other she’d met.
But he kept his hands light and easy on her as he stroked her body. “Do you want me to stop?” She’d be all right now. Even without more power from him, she wasn’t in danger any longer. He’d given her enough power to heal.
Sam knew his control wouldn’t last much longer, not with her body pressed so intimately to his and her taste on his tongue.
She shook her head, and the heavy mass of her hair brushed back over her shoulders. “No.” Her fingers seemed to burn through his shirt. “I want more.”
Those words were all he needed to hear. In an instant, his clothes were gone and her fingers were pressing against his bare skin. Lust pumped through him as he kissed her and touched her. He’d learn every inch of her body and have one fucking fine time as he did.
He tossed her bra away and glimpsed her dark pink nipples. She’d stripped on the stage of Temptation, but she’d been so careful, hiding her body just as she revealed a sliver of flesh. He hadn’t seen her breasts then, just the sweet curve of her stomach and the long length of her legs.
Want her. Take her.
He’d been furious that others had been around that night in Temptation. Normally, he could care less who saw the dancers, but Seline was different.
Then she’d danced again…He actually had knocked out two demons and a shifter that second night. They’d gotten too close to the stage—no, too close to her. And if anyone had been going to touch her…
It would have been me.
Not some dumbasses who were still probably nursing the bruises he’d given them.
“Sam?”
Take. He liked the way she said his name. A whisper of sex in the darkness.
Now there was no one else to watch. Rage and hunger twisted within him, and Sam took the woman he wanted enough to walk through flames for.
His mouth became harder on hers. Her breath came faster, and the frantic thunder of her heart raced against him.
Want more. Sam kissed a trail down her throat. Over her collarbone. Down. His lips closed over her nipple. Sweet. So very sweet. He licked and he sucked and he enjoyed the quick rise of her hips against his.
As he tasted her, his fingers slipped between her legs. Her thighs were parted, but a thin scrap of silk covered her sex. He stroked her through her panties, and the soft fabric quickly dampened with her arousal.
Her skin had taken on a light glow, and Sam knew she was absorbing the sensual energy he generated. Yet he didn’t feel any kind of drain.
Instead, he just felt hungrier, for her.
Her nails scored down his chest, and he growled low in his throat.
“You don’t have to be careful with me,” she told him. “Not now.”
Good, because his control was fading, fast.
So he slid down her body. Shoved her thighs farther apart and ripped her panties away. Then Sam put his mouth on her.
She gasped out his name and pushed her hips harder against him even as her fingers sank into his hair. He worked his tongue against her clit, loving the richer taste of her and the way her body shuddered against his.
When the first orgasm hit her, he felt the ripple against his mouth.
And he kept tasting her.
When the second orgasm built, rising quickly and tensing her body, he rose above her. He guided his cock to her wet entrance, pushed inside?—
Her legs wrapped around him. Long, smooth. Her gaze met his. So black but burning with need.
His cock rested just inside her body, her heat and cream coating the head of his aroused dick. The glow had deepened on her skin, and she looked so beautiful that it almost hurt to stare at her.
Her tongue swiped over her lips, and he plunged balls-deep inside her.
The bed creaked beneath him as he thrust. Deeper, harder. She met him with eager lifts of her body. Fighting with him as they raced for the climax.
Their mouths met. She took his breath. Gave him hers, even as her sex clamped greedily around him.
She came with a fast release that rippled along his cock. He drove into her again, lifting her legs so that he could go even deeper into her tight sex.
Her nails dug into the sheets. He heard fabric tear.
The air seemed to crackle with energy. Still he thrust. Wanting more of her. Wanting to take and take.
Bodies met. Skin to skin. The scent of sex drifted in the air. Her power, his, filled the room.
Sam thrust hard once more, felt the silken caress of her tight core, and exploded. The climax whipped through him, seeming to burn his body from the inside out, but this time, the fire felt good.
Better than good.
Pleasure blasted through him, and he held on to Seline tighter than he’d ever held on to anyone or anything in his life.
And he knew…
More. For him and Seline, this would be just the beginning of the pleasure to come.
Sam began to thrust again.
The flames were out. The warehouse smoldered but the fire no longer lit the sky. Rogziel stared at those drifting plumes of smoke.
Seline hadn’t perished in the fire. Pity. It would have made things easier on him.
But she’d escaped and so had that bastard Fallen, Azrael.
“I know she took the keys from me,” Alex snapped behind him. The human, always so impatient and so certain of what he knew.
In reality, humans knew very little in this world.
And Alex knew only what Rogziel told him. Rogziel glanced at his guard dog, because that was all Alex was. A dog that he used to hunt his prey.
Humans did have some uses. Pity they weren’t more durable.
“She hit me,” Alex said, rubbing the back of his neck. Was he still complaining about that bump? The man acted like he’d never known pain.
When pain could be such a wonderful companion.
“She hit me,” Alex said again, his face hardening, “and then she took my keys. She helped that freak escape!”
Angels weren’t freaks. The faintest hum of what could have been anger moved beneath Rogziel’s skin, but then the feeling faded. Feelings always faded for him.
Angels weren’t supposed to experience emotions. They only had duties. No desires.
His duty was to punish the wicked.
Azrael was wicked. Sammael had sinned too many times to count, and little Seline…
Now you’ve betrayed me.
And after all he’d done for her. Years spent—wasted—trying to save her immortal soul, only to have her give in the first time she was tempted by a Fallen.
He’d expected her to hold out a bit longer. Her mother hadn’t caved in so easily.
No matter. The choices had been made. Now he’d have to punish her, too.
“Seline’s gone.” Alex’s voice roughed with the fury Rogziel knew humans carried so often. “And the watchers you put on Sunrise can’t find a trace of Sammael.”
Now Rogziel’s eyebrows lifted. “You think Seline was working with him?”
“I think Sammael saw a chance to bust out one of his brethren, and he took it.”
But Alex didn’t understand. Sammael wouldn’t have wanted to free Azrael. Based on what Rogziel knew, Sammael would want to kill his brother. Perhaps torture him, then kill him, but not help Azrael. Never that. Sammael wasn’t the forgiving sort.
Another sin to put at his feet.
But Rogziel began to understand as his gaze drifted back to the warehouse ruins. Sam, did you underestimate your brother again?
Azrael wasn’t easy pickings, even if he was still a fresh Fallen.
Azrael—Az—they’d once been friends, as close as angels could be to friends, but Rogziel still planned to punish the Fallen. He always did his duty.
Az’s time would come, after Rogziel took care of Sam. Sam had been on his list for centuries, but he was so strong that getting to him hadn’t been easy. Luckily, the situation had now changed.
Good thing I have the right bait.
Sam wouldn’t even realize what was happening, not until it was too late.
No one could escape hell. Not Az, not Seline, and not Sam—and not any Other who thought they could escape him.
Rogziel would make certain of it.
Time for them to pay. Judgment was at hand.