Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
“Jade.” Az held her easily against his chest. She felt right in his arms. Her body soft, curved. Mine.
No, no, a human couldn’t belong to an angel. That path had been tried before, by others. Those angels had fallen for their lust. They’d suffered.
I’ve already fallen.
Her eyes were closed, casting dark shadows onto her cheeks. She seemed too pale in the waning light. She’d wanted protection. Instead, she now had a vengeful angel after her.
He bent his head. His lips brushed over her hair even as he inhaled her scent. After the hell she’d been through, how did she still smell of strawberries?
Her arm hung limply around his neck. Halfway through the journey, she’d fallen unconscious. A human’s body, even one fueled by angel blood, simply couldn’t withstand the speed he’d used.
He strode forward into the cabin. A bed waited just a few feet away. For now, this place would be their temporary shelter.
Their time together would come to an end all too soon.
I don’t want to let her go.
Why couldn’t he keep something of his own, just this once? Would it be so wrong?
Her lashes began to flutter. Clenching his teeth, he lowered her onto the bed. His hands wanted to linger, but he forced himself to step back.
Her eyes opened and seemed to find his instantly. “Az?” Jade breathed his name, her voice the same husky purr that it was during sex.
His hands clenched. “You’re safe, Jade.”
She glanced around the cabin. “Where are we?”
“Where angels fear to tread.” The smart ones, anyway. Sam had been the one to tell him about this place. “Unhallowed ground.” At least that’s what his brother had called it. More like cursed ground. Ground that had once been soaked by the blood of vampires and demons in an epic battle. Sam had actually witnessed that battle as he’d gone to collect the dead.
The power had been great here. The whispers of magic still floated in the air. Magic and evil.
Witches had used many spells here over the centuries. Spells to hurt. To kill. The taint of dark magic was in the air, and it pressed down on him like hands shoving upon his back.
As long as he could keep the darkness at bay, they’d be safe there.
As long…
He’s not the good guy. Bastion had taunted him, but…angels couldn’t lie.
“He was…following us.” A faint line appeared between her brows. “I saw him. Flying after us with those great, black wings.” She pushed up onto her elbows. Studied him. “Is that what your wings were like?”
“Yes.”
“That Bastion…” She licked her lips. “He’s an angel of death.”
Tell her. Az paced to the window. He wasn’t even sure who’d built this cabin, but Sam had used it when he needed to lick his wounds after battles. His brother had been through plenty of battles.
“Az?”
He forced himself to turn back to her. Jade was sitting up, and her hair was a wild tangle around her face. She looked tired. Pale.
Still beautiful.
Why were mortals so weak? So breakable?
He saw her gaze dart over his shoulder. Curious, he asked, “Can you still see my wings?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
Then his blood was still fueling her. Perhaps she wasn’t as weak as he feared.
A lone howl echoed in the distance. Jade shivered. “This place kind of creeps me out.”
It was supposed to. Humans could feel the vestiges of magic in the air—magic that had been used to keep them away. Without his blood, she probably wouldn’t have been able to set foot on the land.
“You can’t leave my sight,” he told her, deliberately keeping his distance. Going to her then wasn’t a good idea. The magical power was pressing on him. Pushing against the darkness he’d kept chained inside for so long. “It’s far too dangerous now.”
“Because of Brandt?” She exhaled and rose. The jeans he’d conjured hung low on her hips, and he caught a flash of her smooth belly. “So we’re out of bullets. We can come up with a backup plan.”
He was working on one. He could try ripping off the panther’s claws and using them to slice the bastard’s head from his shoulders. That would work. No, it should work. But he suspected that the hybrid had been using magic to amp up his power.
No wonder Brandt had taken the witch as a lover. What better way to get up-close access to magic?
In order to take Brandt down, to be certain that he’d have the strength to defeat that bastard, Az knew he would have to increase his own power.
Though a magnification of that sort brought risks.
“What is it?” The old hardwood creaked beneath Jade’s feet. “Something’s wrong.”
Everything was. He could kiss heaven goodbye now. There’d be no going back upstairs. No forgiving and forgetting for the things he’d done. Or for what he’d do.
The darkness shoved from inside his chest. He’d tried so hard to do the right thing. He’d chained the whispers inside, and done his best to defeat the dangerous needs that called to him. He’d fought them every moment that he’d been on earth.
Until her.
“Az?” The floor creaked again as she took a step toward him.
He held up his hand. “Stop.” She couldn’t touch him. Not now. “Bastion was right.”
She stilled.
Time for his confession. “You haven’t even asked why I fell.”
“And you haven’t asked how I wound up with a jerk like Brandt.”
Surprised, his gaze flew to her face. She was watching him with an intent stare. Focused, but not afraid. When would she learn that she needed to fear him?
“I’m not perfect,” Jade said quietly even as her chin notched up. “So I don’t expect you to be.”
But she also didn’t expect him to be a monster. To bring hell to earth. The witch, she’d expected that of him. Promised him that he’d destroy everything and everyone. She’d warned that one day he’d break through the binds that contained the monster inside—and no man would be able to stop him.
“I killed Brandt’s father.” Jade tossed the words out so casually that Az blinked. “He was the big, bad alpha leader. The man who’d tortured his son for years. The man who thought he was going to torture me, but I killed him.” Her laugh was bitter. “He didn’t sense a threat from me. Because I’m just human, right? Weak. Helpless. No danger to a tough bastard like him.”
She was dangerous. The ache in his chest grew. This place was pressing too deeply into him. Bastion would never venture here. He was too good to survive this place. As for Brandt, he wouldn’t expect Az to ever bring Jade to such a dwelling.
Evil.
It was growing thicker in the air, as if enjoying her confession.
“I met Brandt when I was seventeen years old.”
He didn’t want to hear about her time with the panther. The drumming of Az’s heartbeat began to pound louder in his ears.
You ever need to recharge, go to Devil’s Lake. Consider it a safe house, of sorts. The magic there will fire you up, but be careful, brother, it comes with a high price.
Sam’s warning. Az hadn’t been afraid of paying, but now as the fury in his body built, he wondered just what he’d be sacrificing in exchange for the power coming his way.
Why hunt another witch when you can steal the power they left behind? It had seemed faster, smarter, to come here and soak up the remnants of magic.
Sometimes, you had to fight the dark with?—
“He seemed perfect when we met.” Jade sighed. “Strong. Handsome.”
I don’t want to hear this story.
“I left my family to be with him. They told me to be careful, that I was too young, that I didn’t really know him.” She shook her head and stood there with her shoulders slumping a bit. “But I loved him, he loved me, and I knew we were supposed to be together.”
Loved him.
He could almost feel the stretch of his phantom wings. “He wasn’t for you to love.” The fury inside roughened his voice, but he held onto his control. This place wouldn’t break him. He’d take the power. Keep Jade safe. Destroy anyone who tried to take her away from him.
“At first, everything was perfect.” She took another step toward him.
Az tensed. His cock was hard and swollen. His body tight with need. Whenever she was close, he craved her. But he didn’t want to take her here. Not in this place.
Not her.
“Brandt can be charming. He can be seductive.”
He could be a dead man with his head severed from his body.
“But I started to find… more in him.” Jade’s eyes held memories he didn’t want to see. “My mom had always told me that the devil was a good-looking man, so perfect that you wouldn’t see past his beauty until it was too late.” Her lashes lowered and shielded those memories. “I saw too late.”
Brandt raced back to his makeshift base. In the form of the panther, his powerful legs flew over the earth. A snarl broke from him even as the scent of blood filled his nose.
Two of the men he’d left behind turned at his approach. Still in human form. Their eyes were wide. Their hands raised up as if they’d calm him.
Jade’s scent.
She’d been there. While he’d been out, searching so desperately for her, she’d been there… with him. The fucking Fallen.
Brandt launched into the air and took the throat of the first fool who should have captured Jade. Blood burst into his mouth, and he drank the shifter’s last breath.
The other shifter tried to run.
There was no place to run.
Brandt tackled him. Let his claws rip into the bastard’s flesh. Severed his spine.
And more blood flowed. The beast always wanted more.
“I didn’t even realize what he was, not at first.”
She was too close to him. Az wanted to back away, but needed to be near her. Needed it more than humans needed their breath.
“Guess I couldn’t see the monster hiding right there behind the man’s smile. I didn’t see it until it was too late.”
Everyone had a monster inside. Other. Humans. A dark side that some fought. Some embraced.
Some kept imprisoned.
“It had been a month since I ran away with him. Love seems like the only thing that matters when you’re seventeen.” She blinked quickly, and he wondered if she realized he could see the tears on her lashes. “But I missed my mom. My dad. I missed them, and no matter how many times I called, I couldn’t ever get them to answer the phone.”
Az waited. He wanted to hold her, but he was afraid to touch her.
“So I slipped away one night. I stole a motorcycle—Brandt had been the one to teach me to hot-wire them—and I went back home.” Now a teardrop slipped down her cheek. “They were dead. They’d been dead since the night I left. Th-the neighbors told me it was some kind of wild animal attack. My parents had been killed, buried, and I didn’t even know.”
“An…animal attack?” His own words sounded like the rough growl of a beast.
Her eyes closed. “Even then, I still didn’t realize the truth. Brandt found me. He comforted me at their graves. Told me that he’d make everything better for me. That our life together was just beginning.”
A life bathed in blood.
“Then one night,” she licked her lips, “this man at a bar started flirting with me. Brandt got into a fight with him. I saw…his claws came out. He sliced the man. Cut his chest right open. I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t.”
A human would be no match for a shifter.
“I ran from him. But Brandt found me, and he told me that I’d never get away. He said we were meant to be together, forever. That nothing or no one would ever come between us.” She swiped away the tears on her cheeks. “And he told me…he admitted to killing my parents. He said they would have gotten in our way eventually, so he helped me, and he got rid of them.”
Fucking bastard.
Her voice grew ragged with pain. “I didn’t want them gone. I loved them. But they were dead, and I was left with a man who could turn into a monster.” Jade’s laughter was broken. “He thought I should appreciate what he’d done. I kept wondering when he’d kill me, and he kept saying how he’d proven his love for me.”
Az couldn’t stay away from her. The darkness was still there, pressing on him, but Jade needed him. Az Az reached for her. He wrapped his arms around her even as she continued her tale.
“He took me to the pack. We’d been staying on our own, in cheap hotels and cabins, but Brandt said that since I knew the truth, it was time to take me home.”
Home to hell.
“There wasn’t a chance to get away from him. He was always watching me.”
Guarding her.
“Brandt—he had scars all over his body. Scars that I realized—too late—came from claw marks. He got them when he was a kid, long before he ever shifted for the first time.” She pulled away from him and stared up into his eyes. “His father is the one who marked him. He got off on hurting Brandt. On hurting anyone that he could. When Brandt went out on a hunt, he left me with that bastard. That night, they both made a serious mistake.”
I killed Brandt’s father. He searched her gaze. “How did you do it?” A human against an alpha panther?
“A silver knife to the heart. I’d been hiding the knife for days. Waiting for the right moment. I-I thought I’d use it on Brandt, but his father came at me. Hitting. Clawing.”
There was more. He could see it in her eyes. “Jade?”
She blinked and seemed to push back the past. “While he was trying to rape me, I shoved the knife into his heart. I twisted it, and I made sure he died.”
The darkness swelled even higher within him as the rage burned. “Good.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. You’d better be burning, bastard.
“And then I left. I ran as fast and as far as I could. I never wanted to see Brandt or any of those other shifters again.”
“But he kept hunting you.”
Her smile was sad. “That’s what he’s good at doing.”
Brandt followed Jade’s scent into the witch’s room. He padded inside and sniffed the body. Heather had finally found her hell. She’d never understood that he’d only needed her power, not her.
Only one woman had ever been strong enough for him. Only one had ever battled for him.
Jade.
She’d fought the one thing he feared in this world. She’d given him freedom. Life. All by dealing out a little death.
The panther inhaled the scents around him. His body tensed. Azrael. And…another.
He rushed outside. His pack—some still in the form of panthers, some standing back as men—tensed.
The beast swept past them. He ran. Ran, following the trail Jade had taken.
Then he stopped.
Because the trail had vanished. The panther tossed back his head and roared.
“I thought I’d be able to get away from him at first.”
Lightning flashed outside, sweeping in with the growing darkness. A storm was coming in with night.
“I thought I could find a safe place to hide from him. That I could just start a new life, and he’d forget me.” Her smile faded. “I’d have nightmares about him, but I would get my life back.”
Az waited, his body tense.
“Time passed. Eventually, I stopped waking up, screaming. I got a job as a waitress at a diner in Arkansas. I even met a man who didn’t scare me.”
She’d backed away, just a step, as if she sensed the dark energy that had come to surround him. But Az was fighting that darkness—fighting it, even as he drew the energy from the magic that stained the land like blood. When she’d backed away, his hands had fisted so he wouldn’t touch her again.
The darkness had already touched her enough.
“Brandt killed Paul in front of me. Told me that I couldn’t be with another. That I was his, forever.”
Not his.
“I screamed and I begged, but Brandt sliced his throat open. Paul’s eyes were on mine when he died.”
You could always see the life drain from a human’s eyes at the moment of death. When the soul left, nothing remained.
“How did you escape from him that time?” Az wanted to know. Brandt would have been on guard then. Even more desperate to keep her at his side.
Thunder rumbled, echoing his words. He glanced toward the windows. The storm had rolled in so suddenly. Angry. Rough. And Az realized that his powers were slipping past his control. He was pulling in the storm even as he pulled in the latent energy from the unhallowed ground.
“Brandt actually thought I’d be glad to see him. He acted like he’d done some grand gesture for me.” Her lips twisted. “He sent his men away. We were alone together. I don’t think he ever even realized I had the knife. Not until I drove it into his chest.”
Az blinked, surprised. And impressed.
She caught his stare and inclined her head. “Let’s just say that at that time, I never went far without a silver knife. When it didn’t kill him, I thought I must have missed his heart. I knew I wouldn’t get another chance right then, so I ran like hell.” Jade wearily rolled back her shoulders. “I think that’s when he started to enjoy the hunt.”
The fur melted from Brandt’s body. Bones contorted. Broke. His back paws turned into feet. Human fingers gripped the dank earth. He bowed his head a moment and sucked in deep breaths.
Jade.
Then he looked up and found his men assembled around him. They feared him, as they should. He’d earned the alpha title when he sliced his way through all those who came into his path.
Now, they waited. Ready for orders.
“We’re hunting,” he told them, voice calm despite the beast still clawing inside. But he was always calm on a hunt. It was easier to track prey without emotion.
Find. Hunt. Capture.
But this time, his prey was different. Because this prey had stumbled right into his path. You’ll give me the power I need.
“Jade?” Duncan demanded. Ah, Duncan. He’d just joined the pack when Jade had first escaped. He knew how much Brandt valued her.
But Brandt shook his head. “Not this time.” Not yet. Because before he could get to Jade, he’d have to take out her protectors.
Two. Two men not of this world.
“First, we’re catching us some angels, and we’re gonna show them just what hell on earth really means.”
“For years after that, I was afraid to get close to anyone. But…I made a mistake.” Her shoulders slumped. “Found another man who was so kind. Johnny. We’d barely even begun to date when…when Brandt found him.”
And killed him. Yes, Az could figure out how that story ended.
“After Johnny, I knew the only way to truly stop Brandt was death. Either his or mine.”
Lightning flashed. Bare inches separated their bodies. Don’t touch. “You’re not dying.”
Her laugh doubted him. “Then why do I have an angel of death after me?”
“I’m not?—”
Her fingers pressed against his chest. His heart raced even faster. “Not you. The other one. Bastion.”
“You weren’t meant to see him.” Had it not been for Az’s blood, she never would’ve known about Bastion.
Her eyes seemed so deep as she stared up at him. “What did you do?”
Brandt had killed to keep her. And Az—he’d been ready to fight Death for her. His jaw clenched. “You shouldn’t touch me.”
Her hand pressed harder. “I don’t think I’m supposed to be here, am I?”
Thunder rumbled.
“If an angel of death is pissed and on my trail…” She exhaled softly. “I’m guessing that means I should be dead.”
No.
“It wasn’t your time,” he said. I made sure of it.
Her gaze searched his. “I don’t want anyone else to die for me. I can’t stand there again and watch?—”
He broke. The cabin shook as the wind howled around them. Thunder rumbled so loudly it sounded like a drum. Az grabbed her. Lifted her up against him. “And I will be damned if I watch you die before me.”
His lips crashed onto hers. Control, control— a frantic shout in his head, but a shout he couldn’t heed. His body was burning with need and lust and rage and…fear.
Fear, the darkest of all emotions.
Won’t lose her. Can’t.
She was the only thing he’d ever wanted more than heaven.
Jade didn’t push against him. Her hands curled around his shoulders, and she opened her mouth wider for him.
Her taste just fueled his frenzy. A wave of his hand had her clothes falling off her body and dropping to the floor. Two steps, and he had her on the bed. Her hand went to his cock, to the aroused flesh that strained toward her, but this time, he needed more than just the wild rush of release.
He needed everything.
Az’s hands wrapped around her thighs. Such smooth, supple skin. He parted her legs. Stared down at her pretty, delicate sex.
Knew he had to take a taste.
His fingers stroked her first. Sliding lightly over her, he found her wet and hot. A push of his index finger showed just how perfectly tight she was inside.
Take.
But first, he’d taste.
When he put his mouth on her, Jade’s hips arched up against him. His tongue swept over her. Sweeter than strawberries. So much better. He licked. He kissed.
His fingers pushed into her even as his tongue stroked over her clit. Jade’s fingers fisted in his hair, and she jerked when she came against his mouth.
The first time.
Because he wasn’t done. Az was just getting started. His hands locked under her hips, and he forced her sex even closer to him. He held her, kept her trapped just where he wanted her, and he tasted every inch of Jade’s sweet core.
Her breath panted, her body trembled, and she cried out his name as the climax hit her again.
He could taste the pleasure on his tongue.
His cock ached. His cock felt so big and swollen that he knew he’d come any moment. Az rose up. Licked his lips, and tasted her again.
Lightning flashed.
The rain beat down outside. A hard, driving rain that washed everything away.
Everything…
He positioned his cock at the entrance of her body. Kissed her as he thrust deep.
The rain fell.
Her legs locked around his hips. Held tight. His thrusts grew harder. Rougher.
The thunder was so loud it drowned out the squeaks of the old bedsprings. Az kissed his way down Jade’s neck. His teeth scored her throat.
Her sex gripped him so tightly. Every move sent pleasure spiking through his body. Faster. Harder.
Her nipples were taut peaks against him. Perfect for his mouth. He tasted one nipple. Licked and sucked. Thrust harder.
She met him with her body and held on to him as fiercely as she could. Her right hand grabbed the sheet on the bed. Clenched it as she tossed back her head and squeezed her eyes shut.
More pleasure. More heat.
Temptation.
“Jade.”
Her eyes flew open. Bright. Wild. Lost.
Did his look the same?
Her hand rose. Stroked over his shoulder and onto his upper back. Her caressing fingers traced the outline of his wings.
“So beautiful,” she whispered. “My angel.”
Not an angel. Didn’t she see? Couldn’t she feel the darkness?
But her touch was all he needed. Az erupted inside of Jade on a hot, nerve-shattering explosion of release. The pleasure gutted him as it ripped through his body and left him gasping for breath.
After a time, the thunder quieted, and his heartbeat slowed.
Az rose onto his elbows and stared down at Jade. Her breath still panted out, as did his own. He brushed back her hair. “You shouldn’t be with me,” he said, even as his body began to thicken within hers once more. He just couldn’t seem to get enough of her.
But she was already running from one monster. She didn’t need to be in bed with another.
Jade’s gaze seemed tender as she looked up at him. “There’s no one else I want. Only you.”
She didn’t realize how dangerous those words were. Surely, she didn’t. To offer them to a man who’d never had anyone want him before.
“You know all of me now,” she told him, voice husky—sex and sin. “I’m not perfect. I’ve done some pretty terrible things. Things I know I’ll never earn forgiveness for.”
But she wasn’t asking to be forgiven.
She was fighting. Planning to destroy the man who’d taken her own life away.
“You know me,” she whispered as her hands traced down his shoulders and skimmed over the thick scars that remained on his back. “So when do I get to know you?”
He’s not the good guy. Not even close.
Fuck Bastion.
Az never wanted her to know the truth about him. He wanted her to keep looking at him like he was a hero. Like he was a protector. A man she could count on. A man she wanted. Not a monster she feared.
“You know all that matters about me.” He began to thrust again. Slow, easy movements. “The rest is just hell and death. It doesn’t matter.”
He wasn’t the same as he’d been before. Jade made him want to be different.
For her, he would be.
She sighed softly, the sound so sweet and lush that he bent and caught it with his lips. This was need. This was pleasure. This was life.
So very different from a world of death.
Her hands clasped his. He rose up and stared down at her perfect breasts. Not even a hint of scarring marred her chest. He’d stopped Death’s touch.
And he’d do it again.
Bastion wouldn’t have her. Az had given up the witch to death. He’d let her go, but Jade— no.
His fingers tightened around hers. Jade wouldn’t die. She wouldn’t slip away.
Not when he’d just found her.
And if he had to fight all of the angels in heaven in order to keep her, then he damn well would.