Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
It was the beeping that woke her. A slow, steady beep of sound that gradually penetrated Jade’s consciousness. She opened her eyes, then immediately squinted against the light.
“You’re back.”
She stiffened at the deep voice.
“Don’t worry.” A warm hand covered hers. “You’re safe here.”
Jade turned her head and met Tanner’s worried stare. She licked her lips, swallowed back what tasted like ash on her tongue, and managed to ask, “Where am I?” Her voice came out cool and…normal. Why had she thought that she’d be hoarse? Why did the memory of screams whisper through her mind?
“Ah.” He exhaled. “Okay, don’t freak on me, but we’re at my brother’s place.”
In an instant, she yanked her hand away from him and snapped upright. Something sharp yanked on her arm. Quickly, she glanced at her right arm. What was that? A needle? An IV? She hated needles. Jade ripped it out and tossed it away from her. “You sold me out!”
“Easy.” He lifted both of his hands in one of those I’m-harmless gestures that people did. “I’m not talking about that brother, okay? Not the insane, psychotic prick who wants us both dead.” He jerked his thumb behind him, to the wall of bandages and medicine and what looked like hospital equipment. “My brother Cody is a doctor, and after you were injured?—”
“You mean after you and that bitch witch friend of yours tried to kill me?—”
“You weren’t going to make it back to the city alive.”
Okay, that stopped her. “I knew I was dying.” Crazy, but, she’d almost felt Death touching her.
“Your angel wasn’t real keen to let you go.”
Angel.
Her gaze flew back to his.
“This isn’t my first ball game, lady. I knew what he was from the beginning. And when we got here and he started talking to people that I couldn’t see and my nose”—he tapped said nose—“kept catching the scent of flowers, I also knew Death was standing close by.”
Now Tanner had lost her. “Flowers? What are you even talking about?”
“An old legend. At least, some folks think it’s legend. When an angel’s close by, if you pay attention, you’ll catch the smell of flowers in the air.”
“Az doesn’t smell like flowers.” Man. Power. Not petunias.
“That’s because he’s not exactly an angel anymore, now is he?”
She swallowed. “No, he isn’t.” The bandages on her chest were pulling on her skin. She didn’t want to look down and see the mess that had been made of her flesh. She could still feel Brandt’s claws sinking into her chest.
Jade took a deep breath and forced her head to lift. Tanner’s gaze was full of sympathy and that just made her feel vulnerable. And a little sad. “How am I still alive?”
“You’re alive because your veins are pumping with that not-quite angel blood.”
Shock froze her for a moment.
“We rushed you here,” he explained. “My brother got you on his table, did his best to patch you up, and then Az gave you the dirtiest blood transfusion that I’ve ever seen.”
“Blood transfusion?” Goose bumps rose on her arms.
“Um.” He inclined his head toward her. “I thought you were dead, but that ex-angel of yours brought you right back to life.”
She didn’t remember any transfusion. She didn’t remember a doctor. Only…black wings, rising above her. A monster with eyes darker than night.
Jade licked her lips. “Where is Az?”
Tanner glanced toward the shut door. “When we saw that you were starting to wake up, we figured it might be best if you didn’t see him or Cody first thing.”
“Cody?”
“My brother.”
Brandt had never mentioned him. But then again, he hadn’t told her about Tanner, either.
Jade rolled her shoulders. The doctor must have given her some fabulous drugs. She didn’t hurt at all. Actually, she felt stronger than she’d ever been before. But…“Why would it be best for me not to see them?” That part didn’t make any sense.
“Because the last time you saw the two of them, you screamed so loud and long that we had to knock you out.”
Shaking her head, she said, “No, no, I didn’t?—”
“Your screams damn near deafened me.”
He didn’t look like he was bullshitting her.
“We wanted to make sure you woke up feeling calm and safe.”
A shifter was supposed to make her feel safe? She would’ve felt much safer with Az. Jade glanced around the room as she levered up into a better sitting position. She was in a bed. A small, twin bed that had been pushed against the far right wall. Faint sunlight trickled through the thin white curtains. “How long was I out?”
“About ten hours.”
So long?
A light knock rapped at the door.
Tanner didn’t take his gaze off her. “You ready for this?”
She gave a light laugh that just came out sounding lost. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You will. Because you aren’t the same anymore.” He squared his shoulders. “Just remember that you’re safe. I’ll be right beside you.”
She wanted Az beside her.
“Come in!” Tanner called out.
The door opened. A man’s dark head appeared. Not Az.
The guy came in. His broad shoulders pushed past the doorway. His head was down, and his long hair brushed over his cheeks. “Glad you’re awake.” His voice was a deep rumble of sound. “You were starting to worry us.” His head lifted, and his eyes met hers.
Black eyes. Completely black eyes. Even the sclera. Every single part of his eyes were black.
Jade didn’t make a sound.
She knew about the demons who walked the earth. Hell, she’d tried to hire demons at Sunrise. So she was hardly going to act shocked to be confronted by a demon now.
Some demons possessed enormous power, enough to level a city block. Others were barely more than human. But, according to the stories, they all had the same eyes. Eyes as black as the night. They used glamour to change the color of their eyes and fool humans so they wouldn’t realize what monsters stood beside them.
This guy wasn’t using any glamour. He was showing her his real eyes.
He reached for her wrist. She managed—barely—not to yank her hand back from him. Brandt’s brother, and a demon. Talk about having two strikes against you.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” Two fingers pressed against her inner wrist as he checked her pulse. “I’m not like Brandt.”
She couldn’t look away from his gaze.
“You see me for what I am, don’t you?”
“I-is there a particular reason you aren’t bothering with the glamour magic?” Maybe he felt safe in his home.
“I am using it. You can just see right through it.” He released her wrist. “You saw me the moment his blood filled your veins.”
So now she was seeing demons? Great. What she needed to see was an angel. “I want Az.”
“You sure about that?” Tanner had moved to the foot of the bed. He was watching her with that half-worried, half-sympathetic gaze that was making her feel increasingly antsy.
“You seemed to want to be away from him when you saw him last.” Now that bit came from the demon doctor.
“I was out of my head then.” The doctor reached for the bandages that began near her shoulder. “I want Az,” Jade repeated.
His fingers brushed the tip of the bandages. “Lay back down and let me check your wounds. Once I’m sure you’re healing well, I’ll call him in.”
Tanner offered her a faint half-smile. “Cody’s afraid you’re gonna freak out again and mess up all his fine handiwork.”
She slid back down on the bed. “Check me out, then get me Az.” She needed him.
When Cody got to work slowly pulling back the bandages, she stared up at the ceiling. Faint cracks crisscrossed the white paint above her, and she focused her gaze on them. The sick feeling in her gut told her that she’d have scars on her chest that looked just like those cracks. Long. Jagged.
A light touch of air hit her skin when the demon pulled back the bandages.
“How…?” Surprise roughed the word even as the doctor leaned closer to her. “I’ll be damned.”
She’d been avoiding looking at her wounds but now Jade risked a fast glance down. She only saw the doctor reaching for scissors. Tweezers.
Her gaze immediately jumped back to the ceiling.
After a moment, she felt a light tugging on her chest. Then he pulled something out—stitches? She had to look like Frankenstein’s monster, and she knew it was weak, but Jade didn’t want to see those wounds just yet. Give her a few more hours, and she’d woman-up and do the deed but right then…
“You’re healed.”
Lie. But her eyes darted down to the ravaged flesh that she hadn’t wanted to see. Only it wasn’t marred. Not so much as scratched. Completely smooth. No sign of the deep cuts that had torn through flesh and muscle.
“Az!” Jade screamed his name because in that moment, she was terrified of what she’d become.
The door flew open and slammed back against the wall. Az stood in the entranceway, filling the space. His hands were clenched. His eyes blazing. “Get away from her!” Az roared. And in the next second, he’d leapt across the room. Az grabbed the demon by the back of the neck and hurtled him against the wall.
Jade realized she was naked from the waist down. She yanked up the sheet and ended the peep show.
“Easy!” Tanner lifted his hands when Az rounded on him. “We weren’t hurting her.”
“I was…just…” The demon rose and winced. “I was merely checking her out.”
“I saw that.” A lethal edge underscored Az’s words. He spun to face the doctor, giving Jade his back, and that was when she actually paid attention enough to notice his wings.
Not real wings. More like shadows. Thick and black, they rose from the area of his shoulder blades and extended high above him.
They were dark and so beautiful.
“She was scared,” Az snarled as he closed in on the demon. “I heard her fear.”
Uh, oh. Jade kept a hold on her sheet as she hopped out of bed. Her knees didn’t so much as jiggle when her feet touched down on the wooden floor. That angel blood sure packed a powerful punch.
“Because she realized—we both realized—” Cody spoke quickly now as he pressed his back against the wall in an attempt to put more distance between him and Az. “We realized that she’s healed.”
Jade crept up behind Az. Tanner didn’t move. She reached out and her fingers skimmed over those shadowy wings. She could almost feel them against her skin. Like silk.
Az stiffened. He’d loved it when she stroked his scars before. What effect would it have on him when she touched these shadowy remnants of his wings?
“Jade.” Her name was a rasp, heavy with need. Lust.
She stroked the shadows once more.
This time, he shuddered.
“She’s healed,” Cody said again. “And?—”
Az turned to face her. His jaw was locked, and his eyes still burned hot enough to scorch her. And Az looked like he could eat her.
Oh, my.
“I think it’s time for us to get out of here.” Tanner hurried over and grabbed Cody’s arm. “They need to…talk.”
“Talk? I don’t think talking is what he has in mind.”
Tanner knocked his brother’s head into the wall then hustled him out of the room.
The shifter made sure to slam the door closed behind him.
Az’s wings were out of her reach now, but she wanted to touch them again. “I can see them,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Nothing’s there. The wings burned away when I fell.”
Maybe. But those shadows were still there. She stepped closer to him. Jade kept one hand on the sheet that she’d hurriedly wrapped around her body while her left hand lifted and touched those shadows. “What does it feel like when I touch them?”
“They aren’t there.”
Something was. Her fingers went right through the silken remnants.
He stepped back and put enough distance between them so that she couldn’t touch his wings. Then he caught her hand and held tightly. “You’re seeing what was,” he gritted. “My blood’s in you. Only those with an angel’s blood can?—”
“Thank you.” Her soft words cut him off.
He blinked. Shook his head.
“You saved me.” That she knew with certainty.
His fingers tightened on hers. “I was afraid I was too late.”
No. Leave it to an angel to know just how to cheat Death.
“Are you afraid of me?” Az asked as his eyes searched hers.
She let the sheet drop. It pooled on the floor between them. “No.” Jade ditched the panties she wore and moved closer to him.
His head lowered toward hers. “You’re sure…?” Only inches separated their mouths as he asked, “You’re certain you aren’t still hurt?”
She smiled up at him even as her heart raced in her chest. “The demon said I didn’t even have a scratch.”
He still didn’t kiss her. “You scared me.”
The big, tough angel?
“Don’t ever do that again,” he ordered, then, finally, his mouth took hers.
It was as if an inferno ignited inside of her. With the touch of his lips against hers, lust seemed to fuel her blood. She opened her mouth. Her tongue met his.
He tasted even better than she remembered.
Since his chest was bare, her breasts pressed against his skin. He seemed hot, so strong, and rippling with muscles.
His hands were tight around her—tight, but not hurting. Az knew his own power too well.
Her hips pushed against him. The thick length of his arousal was impossible to miss. Her fingers unsnapped the button at the top of his jeans. With a low hiss, his zipper slid down.
His cock sprang forward, heavy, straining, and she stroked the tip.
Az pulled his mouth from hers. “Should go slower.” His breath rasped out. “Should take care.”
“Yes.” She licked his neck. Bit lightly with her teeth. “You should definitely take care of this need I have.” Only for him. She’d never wanted anyone so quickly or so much. “Show me that I’m still alive, Az. Show me .”
He lifted her up. Held her as if she weighed nothing. To him, she probably did. Two steps, and he had her on the edge of the bed. His cock pushed between her legs.
No foreplay. No soft words. No fake promises.
Sex. Lust. Need.
Life.
He thrust into her. Filled every inch of her. Stretched her so fully she ached.
Then his fingers pressed against her clit and that ache changed into a delicious curl of pleasure. Her sex clamped greedily around him. She loved the thickness of his dick in her body.
Az stood between her spread legs. He leaned over her as he thrust into her. When he pulled back, his cock slid over her sensitive core. Then he thrust balls-deep into her body.
Their eyes held. Her heart thundered in her chest. The bed was soft beneath her. He was hard in her.
The rush of pleasure was consuming. She arched up again, but his hands clamped around her hips, stilling her. His eyes seemed to burn her. She’d never had anyone stare at her with such raw lust before.
Brandt had acted as if he owned her. Az acted as if he’d die without her.
His cock filled her completely. Since he held her locked against him, she couldn’t force him to thrust with the arch of her hips. But Jade tightened around him and squeezed his cock with her inner muscles.
His pupils flared wide.
Then he began to thrust and withdraw again, but, this time, it was different. The consuming hunger was still there, held barely in check. He moved a little slower. Softer.
Sweat beaded his brow. His hands, though lethally strong, were careful on her body.
Gentleness. She’d only expected heat and hunger.
“I won’t break,” Jade told him.
“I’ll never let you.” A vow.
He kept the easier motions. Lighter, but still just where she wanted him. Now she could arch her hips against him. One of his hands moved between their bodies, and his fingers rubbed over her clit. Her breath shuddered out and his maddening touch drove her closer and closer to the edge.
“I won’t lose you,” he said, the words a rough growl but his hands remained gentle on her body.
Her body was tightening and preparing for the release that was just moments away. She could feel it building inside her. Az leaned close to her, and Jade bit the curve of his shoulder.
He shuddered, but the control he’d grabbed didn’t break. He thrust slow. So slow. Forcing the pleasure on her with each movement of his body.
No, not forcing pleasure. Giving it to her.
She wanted to give to him.
“You make me want more than any other.” Both his hands rose. Found hers. His fingers threaded through hers and held them locked to the mattress. “How?”
She could only shake her head. “Az!” Jade trembled beneath him. “Harder.”
But he wasn’t giving her harder. He was controlled. Measured. And she was about to go out of her mind. “Az!”
He drove into her. Again. Again. He bent and his tongue swirled over her nipple. Her sex contracted hard around him.
“This time, we take it slow.” His jaw clenched as he gritted, “I almost…lost?—”
She spread her legs wider, lifted her hips, and he sank in deeper.
Her head tipped back at the hard stab of pleasure. Good, but…
He lifted her arms above her head. Caged her wrists with one hand. Then Az let his right hand stroke between their bodies once more. His broad fingers pushed down between her legs. Found the center of her need.
“I want to see…you.” Voice rougher, his touch became more demanding. He thrust?—
She came on a long, hot explosion of pleasure.
His control broke. Yes. The small bed rammed into the wall with the force of his thrusts. He plunged into her, so deep she cried out. Not in pain. Oh, no, not pain.
The orgasm continued to rip through her. His thrusts seemed to double the pleasure, making the climax stretch longer on a wave that never seemed to end.
Az stiffened against her and called out her name. Not a gentle whisper. More of a roar as he came inside her. His shadow wings rose above them. His blue eyes darkened so much they appeared black. And he held her so tightly she wondered if he would ever let go.
In that one instant, she actually thought he never would.
“You’re not dying.” Brandt grabbed Heather’s chin and yanked her face toward him. “The bleeding’s stopped, and you’re all stitched up.”
The witch’s eyelashes fluttered, then her eyes opened, just a crack. Dried blood had hardened on her face and neck. Brandt dropped her chin and crossed his arms as he looked down at her. “I’m not quite as talented with a needle as my brother is, but you won’t be bleeding to death anytime soon.” Well, at least not until he was finished with her.
Her pale hand lifted and, with trembling fingers, she traced the twisting path of stitches that cut across her chest and neck. Heather blanched.
He smiled. “Now, unless you want me to start slicing you back open…” Brandt let his claws burst out of one hand. “You’ll answer my questions.”
Heather’s too plump lips trembled. “I-is that why I’m…alive?” Her voice was a broken rasp. Probably from all that screaming she’d been doing when he stitched her up. Eventually, she’d passed out.
Eventually.
“I let you live because you were the one to bring Jade back to me.”
Now she tried to smile.
“Her and that fucking bastard that you led straight into my camp.” He lunged forward and sliced open the two stitches across her collarbone.
Heather screamed. Good, now her smile was gone. The witch wasn’t gonna play him. In this game, he was the one with the power. Time for her to recognize that fact.
“Don’t fuck with me,” he warned her. “I went to a lot of trouble to save you.” He’d never saved anyone before. It had just felt wrong. Heather had screwed him over. She’d attacked Jade. The witch had deserved her punishment.
Yet he’d saved her.
Brandt exhaled and rolled his shoulders. Tension was making his whole body ache. “If you aren’t going to be useful, I’ll just rip open your throat and hunt them down myself.”
Her ragged breathing seemed too loud in the small room. She kept her wide eyes on him.
Brandt lifted a brow. He could almost see the gears rolling in her head as she schemed. “Trying to pull together enough magic to work against me, huh?”
“As soon…as I’m…stronger…”
“Blah the fuck blah.” She was never going to be stronger. He’d seen to that. The witch didn’t even know what he’d done. She would. Soon enough. He sat on the small bed next to her and rather enjoyed the way she flinched away from him. As if she hadn’t begged him to touch her so many times in the past. “Tell me everything you know about Azrael.”
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 bastard 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?” Brandt 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.
He knew how tempting darkness was.
When a witch scried, she looked past life and death. She looked into the very darkness that waited for humans 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 twisted truth.
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…guarding…her…”
So what? “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 Azrael’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.