Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Jade was screaming his name. Fear tightened her beautiful face. She grabbed the cage’s bars as tears slid down her cheeks.
Az didn’t look away from her. Couldn’t. He put his hand up behind him.
Beelzebub whined, then licked him. The beast’s hot breath blew over Az’s skin.
“What the hell?” Sam muttered even as Seline said?—
“You tamed the beast.” Her voice was dazed, but admiring.
“Not exactly a taming.” He pushed his hand into that thick fur. “I guess he decided he didn’t like the way I tasted, so he let me go.” Now he seemed to have a four-legged friend that he couldn’t shake.
And why was Jade up in a golden cage? Was she actually crying for him?
As he stared up at her, her hands slowly released the bars. She swiped at the tears on her face, and he saw the tremble in her fingertips.
“Beelzebub must have liked what he saw in your soul.” Seline walked around him. Az glanced back in time to watch her fingers sink into the hound’s fur. “So no matter what you think about yourself, you really aren’t a heartless bastard.”
The hound pressed against her side. She bent and inspected the jagged remains of his claws. “Come with me, Beelzie,” she told him, voice crooning, “I’ll file those back into shape for you in no time.”
The hellhound followed her like a doting pup.
Az winced as the torn muscles and ligaments in his body began to mend. The blood had finally stopped gushing out of him. A good sign.
“I told you that your woman was a demon.” Sam sauntered toward him with his arms crossed over his chest. “And she’s got more than a bit of power in her.”
The cage swayed drunkenly above him. Az narrowed his eyes. “I don’t remember telling you to lock her up.”
“It was my way of keeping her safe.” A pause. “You’re welcome,” Sam said grandly.
Az grunted. He shouldered by Sam, but his brother reached out in a deceptively slow move and clasped his arm. “Is there a hybrid angel on the hunt you need to warn me more about?”
Az glanced back toward Jade. There were no more tears from her. No emotion at all showed on her face. But the fear and desperation had been there before, and they’d seared him.
“I’ll take care of that bastard.” Az’s words were a promise. “You don’t have to worry about him.”
“I worry any time there’s a being out there that can kill me.” Sam’s hold tightened on his shoulder. “You sure you’ve got him?”
Az turned his head and met Sam’s stare. “Get me a witch who can craft bullets out of those claws, and the shifter is as good as dead.”
One brow lifted. “Oh. Is that all you need?”
He nodded.
“Then consider it done, but, you should know, Mateo doesn’t work for free. There’ll be a cost.”
Ah, yes, Mateo. The magic man who had fought with Sam months before in Mexico. “There always is,” Az said.
With a nod of his head, Sam sauntered away. His brother was even whistling as he dodged the bloody trail Az had left behind.
“Uh, yeah, this is a great family moment and all,” Jade’s tight voice snapped out, “but how about we get me out of this cage ?”
He waved his hand. The cage door flew open.
Jade jumped down. He caught her and held her easily in his arms. Her gaze searched his face. The remnants of fear lit her eyes. “If you ever do that again, I’ll find a way to kill you myself.”
Frowning, Az put Jade on her feet. He hadn’t expected that response.
Her hands balled into fists at her sides and she fired, “We’re supposed to be partners here. When you have a partner, you don’t run off facing the big, bad hellhound on your own.”
“One swipe of his claws would have killed you.” His own anger began to spike even as he felt the continued ache from his healing body. “You really wanted me to risk your life?”
“No, jerk, I didn’t want you to risk yours!” Then she marched over to retrieve the bloody claws. “These!” She lifted them into the air. “They aren’t worth your life.”
“They’re a weapon we need.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to ever be trapped again when I can’t do anything but wait for the screams to come as you die.” Heat flushed her cheeks. “I’ve been there before. When Brandt came after—” She broke off and lifted her chin. “I won’t be helpless while someone dies again!”
He crossed slowly to her. His steps seemed to echo in the cavernous bar. “I won’t be dying.”
Her lip trembled. “You’d damn well better not.”
She cared. He could see that. She was the only woman who ever had.
His fingers, still bloody, brushed over her cheek. “You make me feel things that I shouldn’t.” The emotions seemed to rip him apart. The lust. The need.
But there was more.
He wanted to be by her side in the darkness. Wanted to hear her laugh. Jade didn’t laugh enough. Didn’t flash her real smile often enough to please him. How long had it been since he’d seen the wink of her dimple? Too long.
What would she look like when she was truly happy? Would her green eyes sparkle?
Would he ever find out?
“It’s your lucky day, Az.” Sam’s mocking voice yanked his gaze off Jade.
He saw his brother stride toward him from the direction of the back offices. Sam held a thin piece of paper between his thumb and forefinger. “Mateo’s in town.”
Tension tightened his body. Mateo wasn’t just a witch. He was a caller, the hybrid son of a crossroads spirit and a witch who’d wanted too much power. You had to be careful when you dealt with Mateo, because sometimes, the payment for his services was your life.
Az’s gaze slid to Jade. The last thing he wanted was for her to get too close to Mateo. If Sam had been curious about her powers, then Mateo would sure as hell be fascinated. And having Mateo fascinated wasn’t a good thing.
“Oh, no,” Jade said as she pointed at him with a bloody claw. “Just stop thinking it. You aren’t going to ditch me while you chase after this Mateo fellow.”
“You don’t want to be on his radar,” Az told her. “Stay here. Sam can keep you safe.”
“So I’m baby demon sitting now?” Sam murmured. “How fun for me.”
Az didn’t glance at his brother. He’d burned and bled for the guy back in Mexico, so he figured Sam still owed him.
“You aren’t leaving me behind.” Jade’s eyes narrowed. “We’re in this together, remember?”
But it was Sam who told her, “If you go with him, you’ll pay a price.”
“Fine.” She barely spared Sam a glance. “Then I’m ready to pay. Az is in this mess because of me. Because he was trying to save my life. He’s fighting my psychotic ex, Brandt, and I’m not going to just stand back while Az is faces all the danger.”
One side of Sam’s mouth hitched into a smile. “Isn’t he the hero?” Mocking.
“Yeah, he is—to me.” Not mocking. Flat.
Az blinked.
“And I’m staying by your side, Az,” Jade continued, voice and face determined. “So deal with it. If either one of you tries to toss me in that stripper cage again?—”
“Don’t knock it,” Sam advised.
“We’ll see just how much more fire I can throw.”
Sam scratched his nose. “You sound so fierce.”
Right. Like Sam would ever be afraid of a little fire. Or even a lot of fire. Sam had been willing to walk into hell in order to save his Seline. He’d actually begged to get into hell.
All for love.
Even Fallen could be weakened.
“Go wash the blood away,” Sam advised him. “You can use the apartment upstairs. Then you and your…ah…lady friend can meet Mateo. But you’d better hurry. When the sun sets, he’ll be gone, and the only way you’ll find him then is to call him at the crossroads.”
Not an option. Crossroads deals never worked out well for the fool who did the calling. Sure, the summoned spirit was duty-bound to grant the idiot’s wish, but after that wish was granted, then the spirit started twisting things. You wish for wealth, you get it—but only because your wife dies in an explosion and you get insurance money. You wish to live forever…you do, but only because you’re lying comatose and can’t move as machines keep you alive indefinitely.
Making a deal with a crossroads spirit was as bad as making a deal with the devil.
But it wasn’t like they had a lot of options.
Az inclined his head. “Thank you.”
Sam’s eyes widened.
Had he ever thanked his brother before? Thrown him out of heaven, yes, tried to kill him… yes .
But thanked him? No.
Az cleared his throat. “I owe you.” Az wanted to make sure Sam understood this. “I will find a way to pay my debt.”
A muscle flexed in Sam’s jaw. “You fought to save my Seline. As far as I’m concerned, we’re even.”
No, they weren’t. Perhaps one day they would be.
Az took Jade’s arm. They’d clean up and get back to hunting.
“Be careful.” Sam’s warning. Stilted.
Az looked over his shoulder to find that Sam’s stare wasn’t on him. It was on Jade.
“I was ready to burn to keep my mate with me.” Sam’s eyes flashed with the painful memory. “When I lost her, I lost my control.”
It was too dangerous for a Fallen like Sam to lose control.
“A witch once told me that you’d destroy the world,” Sam continued gruffly. “When she said that, I had to wonder…what could possibly push you so hard that you’d turn on everyone around you?”
Jade’s hand was soft and delicate in his grip.
“Be careful,” Sam warned him again. “Make sure you don’t ever have to face the same darkness that I did.”
Az nodded. Sam had been ready to destroy, to kill, but Seline had come back to him before he’d crossed the point of no return.
What would have happened if she hadn’t been there?
Az and Jade hurried up the old staircase. And as her body brushed his, an insidious whisper had him tensing. A whisper that came from within.
What would I do without her?
Bastion stood in the shadows, watching the mortals as they hurried down the New Orleans street. No one saw him. They couldn’t. No one there was due to meet Death.
His gaze locked on the building across the road. Sunrise. He knew Sammael’s bar well. The Fallen catered to humans and the Other there, flaunting their sins for all to see.
But Sammael had been sinning for centuries, ever since Az had banished him from heaven. One brother, turning on another. An old prophecy.
Az had been right to banish his brother. Sammael had broken the rules. He’d taken souls not his to claim. Az had been given no choice in his brother’s punishment.
He had a choice now. He had a choice—and he’d chosen to attack other angels.
Where was Marna?
To sever her wings…an unforgivable crime. Az had known what lost wings would cost Marna. Wings didn’t just grow back. Angels could regenerate from most wounds, but not that. Never the wings.
She wouldn’t be going home again.
Horns honked. Voices lifted and fell in a soft cadence. The scent of the river drifted in the air. He ignored all of that, too conscious of the sin Az had committed.
Az had taken away the one thing that Bastion cared for in this world.
His head tilted back as he saw the shadow of forms moving on the upper floor of Sunrise. Two people. A man. A woman. Right behind the curtains.
Az had taken something from him, and now he’d take everything from the Fallen.
Everything.
The water from the shower pounded down on Az’s body. Jade stared at him through the thin pane of glass. She wasn’t going to let his sexiness distract her.
Az turned. Met her stare. Crooked his finger.
Sexy bastard.
Don’t distract. Don’t let him distract ? —
But a girl needed to get clean, didn’t she?
Jade yanked her shirt over her head. Tossed her bra. Kicked away her shoes, and had herself naked in about thirty seconds. Not as fast as Az’s instant-clothes-disappearing technique, but still pretty darn good.
But she didn’t just hop in the shower. She could do this right. Make him want as much as she did. Jade straightened her shoulders. Tossed back her hair, and let her gaze dip slowly down his body.
The water ran over those lick-me abs of his. Such sculpted perfection. His wounds were already healed. He was once more all fine-tuned muscle and golden skin. Of course, he was more than human.
Her gaze dropped a little lower. No missing that big, heavy dick. Hungry. So hard. For her.
As she stared at his dick, it swelled even more, and she licked her lips.
He put his hand on the pane of glass.
She lifted her hand and let it rest on the glass, placing it right over his. The glass was cool to the touch. Her hand seemed so much smaller than his. Weaker.
I won’t be weak again.
His gaze held hers through the glass. Steam began to rise, slowly blurring his image.
He slid open the shower door. She stepped inside, being very careful not to touch him. Not yet. Her body slipped past his. Barely an inch of space separated them. She could feel him all around her.
But Az did that. He made her feel him, every moment. He had from the beginning. She let the water hit her. Let it wash over her and slide down her skin.
Az didn’t touch her.
She still didn’t touch him.
Jade turned beneath the shower and found his eyes on her. Hot. Hungry.
The water pounded down.
She smiled at him and crooked her finger.
In the next second, he had her against the tiled wall of the shower. His mouth was on hers. Open. Their lips met. His tongue swept into her mouth.
His hands lifted her and held her hips against the wall and positioned her perfectly. Jade arched against him even as her hand slid between their bodies. She found his cock. Stroked him. Guided him to the entrance of her body.
No foreplay.
No more seduction.
She just wanted him.
When he thrust into her, she wanted to freeze that moment. His strength around her. His mouth on hers. His body in hers. Az.
But you couldn’t stop time. Couldn’t hold it close no matter how much you might want to.
He pulled back. Drove deep even as he cushioned her back with his hands. His mouth became harder. More desperate. She couldn’t even feel the water on her anymore.
She could only feel him.
Her legs curled around him. Her hands held tightly to his shoulders. The pleasure built inside of her, but she fought the climax.
Not too soon. Not yet.
Deeper. Deeper. He filled every inch of her eager sex.
Az’s mouth lifted from hers. His eyes stared at her, nearly blind with pleasure. “Only…you.” His growl. He thrust again. “Only…you…Jade. Only…want… you .”
And he was all that she needed. The past didn’t matter to her. What he’d done, what he’d been. In that moment, he was hers.
The pleasure crested and pounded through her on a climax so intense that she cried out as she arched against him.
He held her tighter. Thrust again. Again. When he came, she felt the hot splash of his release inside of her and the wild rush of his heart against her.
And the water poured down into the shower.
Her sex contracted, holding him close as the aftershocks of pleasure rippled through her. She knew she should say something to him, but she was scared.
Az had come to mean too much to her. She’d made a mistake. A very dangerous one.
She’d fallen in love again.
The first time she’d loved, her parents had died for her mistake. Her lover had turned on her. Changed from caring to obsessed in one wild one-eighty.
Az was different. She knew that. Az was different because she knew he didn’t love her back. Couldn’t.
He lowered her slowly. She squeezed her eyes shut. He wasn’t speaking either, but he was pulling away from her. It seemed like he always pulled away when the sex was done. Take the pleasure, nothing more.
She turned back into the blast of water.
Nothing more.
So why did it feel like he was everything?
Az used his power and conjured a fresh clothing for them. Jeans and a T-shirt for him—a T-shirt that looked damn good as it stretched tightly across his powerful chest.
The jeans he gave her hugged her hips a little too close for comfort, but when she saw Az’s eyes drop to her ass and flare in appreciation, Jade decided she wouldn’t complain—not about them or about the top that flashed a little too much cleavage.
When they reached the bottom of the stairs, there was no sign of Sam. It looked like he’d split with his lady love. Hopefully, they’d taken that hellhound with them.
“So…” Jade cleared her throat and tried to act cool when her heart was actually about to gallop out of her chest. “You think this Mateo will be able to help us?”
“I think Mateo is one dangerous SOB, and when we find him, I don’t want you to leave my side.”
She blinked. Um, okay. “I get the feeling you know him.”
Az cracked open the back door of the club so he could gaze out. “I’ve dealt with him before. He owed Sam a blood oath, so he was bound to pay that debt.” He glanced back at her. “Without an oath like that, Mateo doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to do. For a job like this, he’ll want us to pay.”
She tensed. “Pay what?”
“Whatever we’ve got.” He brushed the back of his hand over her cheek. “If you thought Heather was dangerous, sweetheart, you haven’t seen anything yet.”
In fact, she’d seen plenty. She might not be some centuries-old angel, but she’d seen more than her fair share of blood and death while walking the earth.
“He’s not just a witch. He’s got powers that are dark, and believe me, they come straight from hell.”
She didn’t flinch or back away. Brandt had taught her to never back down. Not even when she was afraid. Especially then. She’d learned that particular lesson well. “Then let’s find him before he skips town.” Find him, get the brimstone bullets, and take out Brandt.
Simple enough plan. So why was her gut knotting with worry? Why did she feel like danger was just waiting to descend?
Because it was.
Az opened the door fully. Sunlight spilled inside the bar. The motorcycle waited outside. Az could probably just use his magic to zip them wherever they needed to go, but that traveling mode wasn’t exactly her preference. They had the motorcycle, so they could darn well use it, and she could avoid the aftereffects of feeling like she’d vomit after speed traveling.
So they hurried toward the motorcycle. Az had the engine growling in about two seconds. Three more seconds, and they were racing down the street.
Racing so fast that she almost missed the shadowy figure across the road. The tall, powerful man who watched her and Az hurtle away.
The angel who’d come for her before. Bastion.
“Az!” Jade tried to shout out a warning to him, but the snarl of the motorcycle’s engine just ripped her cry away. Jade glanced back, her hands tightening on Az, but Bastion was gone.
“Is she gonna make it?” Tanner demanded as he stared down at the pale form on the bed.
A fucking angel. Tears had dried on her cheeks long ago. Her lips, trembling, were no longer breaking with cries of pain.
Her wings were gone. Cody was good, but he wasn’t a miracle worker. Her wings had been cut off, the skin on her back savaged. Cody had stitched her up, he’d drugged her so the pain would stop, but there wasn’t much else he’d been able to do.
Gone.
Tanner had known for years that his brother was a sadistic bastard, but…doing this? To an angel?
She lay on her stomach, with her face turned toward him. Thick, white bandages covered her back. He brushed his hand down her arm. He’d been touching her almost constantly, wanting to comfort the little angel who’d bled and begged.
This shouldn’t have happened to her. This wasn’t her war.
It’s mine.
“She’ll heal,” Cody’s voice was quiet. “But from all the tales I’ve heard, those wings won’t be growing back.”
An angel’s skin could regenerate. Her torn muscles could mend. She’d recover from her blood loss. But, without her wings, she’d be trapped on earth.
“Az can give her his blood.” They’d be seeing the Fallen in just a few hours. “With his blood, she can?—”
“We both know the blood loss isn’t going to kill her.” Cody glanced up with his pitch-black stare. Cody never bothered with glamour when it was just the two of them. Why pretend? Tanner knew exactly what his brother was.
He knew what both of his brothers were.
“His blood won’t make her wings grow back. Only a miracle can do that,” Cody said.
She looked so small. So weak. Not like some all-powerful immortal being.
Cody pulled out a pair of handcuffs from a black bag.
Tanner tensed. “What the hell are you doing with those?”
But his brother just reached for her right hand. “When she wakes up and shakes those drugs out of her system, she’s going to be pissed.”
“We saved her life! She’s not gonna be pissed at us!”
“Our brother cut her wings off. He left her to die.” Cody snapped one cuff around her wrist and stretched her arm to lock the other end around the thin bedpost. “If she’s a death angel, all it will take is one touch to knock us both out of this world. You heard what Azrael said—we can’t let her touch us.”
Cody pulled out another set of cuffs.
“Since when do you carry around cuffs?” Tanner had a grip on her left hand, and he didn’t want to let go.
“They’re supposed to be Other- proof, thanks to a sweet little voodoo queen I met in the bayou.” Cody held the cuffs loosely in his hand. “Provided this little angel isn’t some secret paranormal powerhouse, they’ll keep her hands off us until we can calm her down and help her to see reason.”
“Reason?” Tanner exhaled on a rough sigh and eased back so that Cody could snap the cuffs in place. “Our brother cut off her wings. There’s nothing reasonable in that.”
“No, there isn’t.”
Tanner straightened his shoulders. “You ever wonder…I mean, we’ve got the same blood. What if we?—”
“Become twisted fucks like him?”
He nodded.
“The day I do, that’s the day I want you to take me out.”
Tanner met Cody’s coal-black stare. He’d always known there was a darkness inside Cody. Demons and darkness went hand in hand.
“Promise me,” Cody said, voice thickening “and I’ll do the same for you.”
Take me out. “I promise.” He knew that if the time ever came, he’d be the one to kill Cody. Just as he’d be the one to kill Brandt. His gaze fell back to the broken angel.
Sick bastard.
Then, whispering through his mind… I never want to be like him.
But the fear was always there, hiding in his head. Don’t want to be, but what if I am?
She expected Az to take her to some small shop in the Quarter. A place that promised magic and dreams with a dozen colorful crystals and potions stocked in the windows.
But he drove past the Quarter and left the crowds behind. Her gaze lit on the tossed beads as they headed out. Beads that dangled from lamp posts. Beads that had been shattered in the street.
Only a few more days of Mardi Gras madness were left. By the time the big party ended, what would her life be like?
Jade held tighter to Az as houses began to blur past them. Soon, the houses were gone, and she saw bigger buildings. Old warehouses. They crossed train tracks. Turned to the right. The left.
He braked the motorcycle. She glanced up. Another warehouse. All the windows on the lower floor had been boarded up, but the windows on the second floor shone in the sunlight.
Not exactly where she’d expected to find a witch, but nothing was really what she expected these days.
When she climbed off the bike, Az took her hand. “Remember what I said,” he told her, voice soft. “Stay close. Mateo is very dangerous, very strong, and he doesn’t exactly play by the rules.”
There were rules? Why hadn’t anyone told her about them?
Stopping in front of the double doors, Az raised his fist and pounded. The fierce knock seemed to echo inside. Jade glanced over her shoulder, half-expecting to see Bastion lurking behind her. But she didn’t see anyone.
She looked back at Az. His body was tense, on alert, and she wondered just what?—
The door opened with a groan. A tall, muscled man in a black T-shirt and faded jeans cocked a brow at them. Tribal tattoos circled his shaved head. “I was wondering when you’d be on my doorstep, Fallen,” he said, with just the faintest curl of his lips. “You and your… querida .” His dark stare locked on her.
Az’s fingers tightened on her arm. Mateo’s gaze dropped, noting the movement. He nodded. “It’s like a sickness, isn’t it?”
“What?” Az frowned at him.
“Emotions. Once you start to feel them, they get inside and tear you apart.” Mateo smiled. “They can slice deeper than anything, even a panther shifter’s claws.”
Chill bumps rose on Jade’s arms. “You know about Brandt.”
“There’s very little in this world I don’t know about.” He stepped back and motioned them inside. Once they entered, she expected him to immediately close the doors behind them. Instead, he stepped to the threshold and gazed out with that faint smile still on his lips. After a few moments, he looked back at her. “You’re a wanted woman.”
He was creeping her out. “So I hear.”
He bolted the doors and headed for a rickety staircase on the right. “Come.”
Jade glanced at Az. He shrugged and started following Mateo.
“There will be a fee, of course,” Mateo announced without glancing back. The staircase squeaked as they headed upstairs. Nothing was on the bottom floor. Well, an old desk. Two chairs. Nothing else.
Mateo opened another door at the top of the stairs. This doorway led to an apartment, or at least what looked like an apartment. The whole place had been redone. Kitchen. Den. The room sported a giant TV. Basically one that took up an entire wall. Not what she’d expected. It just looked like any other bachelor pad. Had witches gone mainstream?
But Mateo walked past all that. He headed down a hallway. Opened yet another door.
Ah…and this was where the magic happened. She saw the carvings on the wall. The black and red chalk that had been drawn carefully on the floor. A black table sat in the middle of the room, and she could see the gleaming surface of a mirror resting on the top of that table. A mirror, and a knife.
“Been scrying lately?” Az asked, voice flat.
So Heather wasn’t the only one who liked to gaze into the future.
“Sometimes you need to know what’s coming.” Mateo stopped next to the table. His fingers were just inches from the knife. “You got to be prepared for the enemies who’ll be at your door.”
“We’re not your enemies!” The words burst from Jade. She reached for the small black bag she’d knotted at her hip. “We just…we need your help.”
“ Sí, everyone needs something.”
Az took the bag from her and tossed it to Mateo.
The witch caught it with one hand. “Had to bleed for these, didn’t you?” Mateo asked.
“It was a small price to pay.”
Mateo laughed. “So different now, aren’t you? Not like the angel I met before.”
Jade glanced between them.
“She thinks she knows you,” Mateo said to Az. “Thinks that she can trust you to be there for her in the end.”
Yeah, she was in the room. “ She does,” Jade snapped.
Mateo’s dark eyes found hers. “But does she know that what you want the most in this world…is to leave this place? That you want to get away from the needs and lusts and emotions that swamp humans?”
Jade wouldn’t look away from Mateo. “I know I can count on Az.” She could. No doubt. From the first moment, when he’d come charging in to save her… no doubt.
No one had ever tried to save her before Az.
“He ruled in heaven, now he kills for you on earth.”
Wait, ruled?
“But death has always been his business,” Mateo continued, voice rolling lightly. “It is what he does best.”
Anger stirred inside of her. “He’s more than death.”
Mateo nodded. “And you…you are more than human.”
And there they went again. Was more demon talk coming?
Mateo opened the bag and pulled out the claws. His fingers traced over the razor-sharp edges. “So you think you’ll be able to take out the earthbound angel with these?”
Az stalked forward with a ripple of muscle and menace. “I think I’ll be able to take out the psycho killer on our trail.”
“Sammael’s woman was earthbound, too. When one form ended, she was just born again.”
Jade stepped to the edge of the table. The mirror’s surface wasn’t gleaming now. It was pitch black. “Brandt isn’t an angel.” More like a devil.
Mateo shook his head. “He has the blood. You need to know that killing his human form may just unleash something else.”
What? “You’re saying we can’t kill him?” Not the news she wanted to hear. I’ll never be free.
Mateo placed the claws on his mirror. “I’m saying you both might not survive the battle that comes.”
She put her fingers on the mirror and was shocked by its icy feel. “Is that what you’ve seen?”
He slowly glanced up at her. “To know what I see, you have to pay a price.”
Jade swallowed as fear trickled through her. His stare…how could dark eyes seem to blaze?
“I’ll pay,” Az offered immediately.
“You can only see my future.” Jade spoke quickly, too quickly. “You can’t know about Az because he’s?—”
“I’m not some dime store witch.” Power vibrated in Mateo’s words and in the very air around her. “I can see beyond earth, beyond heaven and hell. When I call, the dead answer me .”
Um, right. She slanted a glance at Az.
“But it’s not his payment I want first.” Mateo’s voice was calmer now. A good thing Or good until he clarified, “It’s yours.”
“No.” Az grabbed her hand and yanked it off the mirror. “I’m the one who’ll pay. Tell me what you want. Tell me the price for those bullets and I’ll pay.”
“You have no wings to trade me. I won’t be getting any Angel Dust from you.” He shrugged. “It’s a pity. An angel’s wings contain such powerful magic. They can bind just about anyone.”
This was the guy who was supposed to help them? No wonder Az had given her so many warnings about him. And, as she watched, the tattoos on his head seemed to alter, just a little. As if they’d just moved the tiniest bit.
He smiled at her. “Now are you ready to pay my price?”
The claws waited on the mirror. “What do you want?”
“A debt.”
Uh, huh. “You’re gonna have to be a little more specific than that.”
But he shook his head. “Not the way it works. I do this for you, and you promise that when I come to call on you in the future, you’ll do what I want, no questions asked.”
Did she look insane? She must if he thought she’d blindly offer him anything.
“No deal,” Az growled.
“Then I can’t help you.”
“You mean you won’t.” Now Az slapped his hand down on the mirror. “But what you don’t understand is that I’m not leaving here without those bullets.”
The mirror’s surface began to swirl beneath Az’s hand. “Az,” Jade began.
“I’ll bleed for you,” Az told him. “I’ll give you a pound of flesh, if that’s what you want. I’ll agree to be in your debt, but you leave her out of this.”
“Why?” Mateo seemed honestly confused. “ This is all about her.”
And it was. Her battle. Her fight. Her life. So why should Az be the one to sacrifice?
“But if you’re truly willing to offer up all that you have,” Mateo murmured to Az, “then I might be willing to?—”
“No!” The denial burst from her. Shit, shit, shit! “This isn’t gonna be you wanting my firstborn, is it? Because that’s not happening.”
Mateo’s gaze dipped to her stomach. That ghost of a grin curved his lips once more. “I do wonder what the child will be like.”
In a flash, Az had the knife at Mateo’s throat. “Cut the game, Mateo.” A trickle of blood slid down the witch’s throat. “Help us or?—”
“Or you slice me open? Why use a blade when you can kill me with your hand?”
“Because I don’t want you dead. I just want you to bleed.” He tossed the knife and shoved Mateo’s head over that swirling mirror. Drops of blood fell on the glass. “Tell me what you see!”
Clouds formed in the glass. Moving faster. Faster . But Mateo just laughed. “I see you dying at Brandt’s hands. His claws tear you apart.” He turned his head and met Az’s stare. “Because you don’t have any fucking brimstone bullets.”
That wasn’t happening. “I’ll do it,” Jade said immediately.
Az spun around. “No, Jade?—”
“Too late.” A faint charge lit the air. A burst of sparks. “There’s no going back now.”
Her heart thundered in her chest. “Just give us the bullets.”
“The deal’s made,” Mateo noted with satisfaction.
“Then unmake it,” came Az’s furious order, “or I’ll make sure you’re never around to collect on the debt.”
“But you’re going to try that anyway.” Mateo shrugged. “You’re going to try and destroy everyone.”
No, he was wrong. Az wouldn’t do that.
“I’ve seen the future, Azrael. I know why that witch gave you up to the hunters months ago. I know why the world should fear you.” The faint lines around Mateo’s eyes deepened even as his tattoos continued to subtly shift. “You were the ruler of the death angels, and you’re going to bring hell to earth.”