Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Az pulled Mateo from the wreckage. Flames shot high up into the air. Sirens blared as the humans raced toward the burning warehouse.
They’d never arrive in time. By the time the fire trucks pulled up, the building would be ash.
He tossed the witch onto the ground. Mateo had talked. Witches, even half-blood ones, couldn’t take the fire.
Az turned away from him.
“S-saw…th-this…” Mateo’s words froze him. “You…destroy …”
He’d destroy anyone who tried to take Jade. “I let you live.” After the witch had deliberately betrayed him. Separating him from Jade had been part of the bastard’s plan all along. So she’d be vulnerable. Alone. Then Mateo had whipped up the wind in that room so Az couldn’t hear her screams.
Not until it was too late.
He glanced into the sky. The flames and smoke had dimmed the sunlight. Yet as he stared, the clouds seemed to thicken. A dark shape emerged.
A shape with the wide, black wings of a death angel.
His back teeth ground together. If Bastion was coming back to taunt him, he’d make the angel pay.
And it was Bastion. There was no mistaking the angel’s form. But—but Bastion wasn’t alone.
Bastion touched down just in front of the flames. He held Jade against his chest. One of Bastion’s arms circled her stomach, and the angel held a knife to her throat.
“Let her go,” Az barked. The sirens were growing louder. The fire seemed to shriek behind Jade and Bastion.
Bastion’s eyes were wide. “You did this?”
Mateo climbed slowly to his feet. Blisters covered his right arm. They’d heal. Mateo was too powerful not to heal now that he was away from the flames. “She’s not supposed…to be…here.”
The tip of the knife sliced her throat.
Az couldn’t hear the screams of the approaching sirens or the crackle of the flames. Jade’s lips were moving but he could discern no sound.
He leapt forward, stopping mere inches from Bastion. “Let her go or die.” If he had to use his fists to pound those brimstone bullets into Bastion’s head and heart, he would.
No one was hurting Jade.
Fear flashed in Bastion’s eyes. Az knew fear when he saw it and smelled it.
“M-Marna …” He caught the angel’s whisper. “Tell me, did you take her wings?”
“I already told you,” Jade muttered, “ he didn’t .”
Az fought the fury inside of him. His gaze held Bastion’s. “I did not.”
Bastion’s wings curled inward.
“Brandt was the one who attacked her,” Az told him. “He’s more than human. He could see her. And you know what a shifter’s claws can do to us.”
“Not a weapon of man.” Bastion swallowed. The knife lifted. His hands were shaking. “I-I thought you…” He pushed Jade toward Az.
He grabbed her, held her close, and smelled her blood.
Az stiffened. Keeping his hand on her, his gaze swept her body. There was no missing the long gash that had torn open her arm.
“Az,” Jade began, with her eyes wide. “Hold on. It was a misunderstand?—”
Bastion attacking her wasn’t a misunderstanding. Az pushed her behind him. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
The angel’s head hung down. “When I found them, Marna’s wings were covered in blood. There was no sign of her in the swamp. I-I thought that you’d?—”
“You didn’t attack me. You attacked her .”
The angel wasn’t meeting his stare.
“What were you going to do?” Az thundered. The urge to attack, to destroy, was so strong that his body trembled.
Bastion’s chin slowly lifted. “I was going to let Brandt have her.”
“Bad, bad mistake.” He lifted his hand and prepared to beat the hell out of a certain angel.
“Az!” Jade grabbed his hand. “Dammit, we don’t have time for this now!”
Sammael would have said there was always time for an ass kicking.
Perhaps he truly was becoming more like his brother. Or maybe he’d always been like him and just hadn’t realized it.
“The cops are almost on top of us. We need to get out of here.” Fear flickered in her eyes. “There is no way that we want to get caught by human authorities now.”
The too-close shrieks of the sirens filled his ears. Jade was right. They had to leave. Vengeance would come second. Protecting her was his first priority.
He took her hand and turned away from Bastion. His gaze swept the scene. Mateo had vanished. No real surprise. But he’d be finding that witch soon.
Or he will find us.
Az could see the cop cars and fire trucks circling in now. He hoisted Jade into his arms. Her hands slipped around his neck and her body… felt so right. She always seemed to fit against him perfectly. “Hold tight,” he told her before pressing a kiss to her forehead.
He lunged forward, but Bastion moved in an instant and blocked him.
“Where is she?” Bastion whispered.
He did not have time for this.
“You know she’ll be weak. If a foe comes at her again, Marna won’t survive another attack so soon after the loss of her wings.”
He wanted to tear Bastion apart, but Jade’s fingers were lightly stroking the back of his neck and some of the tight fury eased from him. Relenting, but still planning for some vicious payback, Az growled, “At midnight, meet us at Sammael’s club.”
A fire truck raced onto the street.
“Marna will be there?” Bastion pushed.
“Meet us there,” Az snapped back.
Bastion nodded and his wings arched as he rose into the air. The humans wouldn’t see the angel.
But the cops and firefighters would sure try to bust Az and Jade.
Police cars were swarming the scene now. Az ran forward. He leapt onto the hood of one patrol car, denting the metal, then he propelled forward and up, racing fast, so fast.
The humans would never be able to identify him. They’d only see a blur.
Jade held him tighter and the rest of the world faded away.
Sammael didn’t need to hear the intruder to know that someone had slipped into his home.
After all, there was very little that went on without his notice.
But the fact that some asshole had come sneaking into his house, while Seline was there, well, that pissed him off. No one messed with Seline.
“Sam?” Her voice was sleepy, sexy, and it instantly made him hard.
Oh, soon enough for that, but first…Sam pressed a kiss to the soft silk of her shoulder. “Sleep, love. I need to tend to some business.”
Her brows drew together. She knew all about his business.
He kissed her again and let his fingers skate down her arm. He could hear the faintest tread of footsteps on his stairs. His intruder had gotten past the magical safeguards that he kept in place on his house.
Not a human. But then, humans seemed to instinctively stay the hell away from him.
He climbed from the bed. Waved his hand and instantly had a pair of jeans on his body.
“Want me to call Beelzie?” Seline asked, and he glanced back to see that she was sitting up in bed with her eyes wide and worried.
“No. I’ve got this one.” Because he knew the identity of his visitor. If he didn’t have a faint friendship with the guy—even though he’d been on this earth for centuries, he could count his friends on one hand—Sam would have already attacked.
He stalked forward. Yanked open the bedroom door. And found Mateo standing in his hallway.
A rather blistered, ash-covered Mateo.
Sam lifted a brow. “Been visiting hell again, have you?” Shaking his head, he asked, “Why don’t you just give up that place and?—”
“We have a problem.” Mateo’s voice was flat and cold. His gaze drifted over Sam’s shoulder, probably to find Seline.
Mateo had always watched her a bit too much.
Sam shifted his body to block the view. “You’re damn right we do. Some bastard caller just busted into my house.” Mateo had been the one to put the charms and protections in place. It figured that he’d be the only one who could slip right past them.
Mateo’s jaw hardened. “You’ll have to stop him. No one else will be strong enough.”
He knew Seline could hear every word they said. “Stop who?”
“Azrael.”
Fuck. “What’s happened?” He didn’t let any emotion show on his face. Thanks to his time in heaven, he knew just how to camouflage his feelings.
“It hasn’t happened yet. It will happen.” Mateo exhaled and the scent of smoke deepened around him. “I’ve seen what’s coming. I know what he’ll do.”
“Yeah? Well then cut through the BS and tell me. Because I never fucking liked riddles.” And he didn’t like the hard gnawing in his gut, either. Even since his fall, he’d planned to get back at his uptight, rule-following ass of a brother. Then Az had started hunting him. Az the asshole.
Sam had thought he’d have to kill Az during those days.
But since his own fall, his brother had changed. Az had sacrificed. Nearly given his life in order to protect Seline.
So he’d let Az keep living.
Had that been a mistake?
“His human will die tomorrow, and when she does…” Another long sigh from Mateo. Only this one carried the scent of death. “He’ll break.”
Sam found he couldn’t speak.
“When Az breaks, he’ll go after anyone in his path. He’ll kill everyone. Do anything.”
No, no, this was bullshit.
“She dies tomorrow,” Mateo repeated, “and that fate won’t change. It can’t. So you and I damn well have to figure out a way to stop him.”
Az was fond of his human. No, more than fond. Sam had seen the way his brother looked at the woman.
The same way I look at Seline.
And he remembered what he’d felt like when he lost his Seline. Remembered how desperate he’d been. Desperate enough to take on hell and heaven.
“If you don’t stop him,” Mateo’s gaze searched his, “if you don’t kill him, we’ll all suffer.”
Sam still didn’t speak.
“Will you really just stand back and let him destroy the world? All for one lost human life?”
Not just any human, though. Not just any life.
A Fallen’s mate. Death couldn’t take her away, not without one hell of a fight.
“Many have said that Az is the embodiment of all that is evil.”
He’d heard the tales. “They say that about me, too.” Some tales were just stories to frighten children.
“With Az,” Mateo continued, “the chains of heaven held him in check.”
Sam knew that was true. Az had always clung so tightly to his control, because he knew well the beast that waited inside.
“There are no chains now.” Mateo’s gaze was stark. “There is nothing to stop him. The veneer of good will crack, and the true being that is Azrael—that being will emerge.”
Sam glanced back over his shoulder. Seline was safe in the room, protected.
Seline—his life. “My brother is still chained.” Not with chains forged in heaven, but with a delicate chain that had been created on earth.
As long as his female lived, Az was bound to Jade.
But when she died, Azrael’s dark side would definitely be coming out.
And it might just be one coming out party that the world couldn’t survive.
The world didn’t stop spinning for Jade. When Az slowed down his super speed, she found herself inside what looked like a bedroom. Gleaming wood surrounding her and?—
And Az kissed her and the spinning continued. His tongue pushed into her mouth and his hand skated down her body. The kiss was hard, almost brutal in its intensity, and she knew it was fueled by rage.
Jade didn’t want his rage. She’d had enough rage to last a lifetime. She turned her head away. “Az. Stop .”
He instantly stilled.
There was so much to say, and Jade was very much afraid there wasn’t enough time to truly say anything. Nothing that mattered, anyway.
Az drew in a deep, shuddering breath and stepped away from her. “I should…see about bandaging your arm.”
The arm didn’t hurt anymore. Actually, the deep wound was closing. Probably thanks to the angel blood still pumping through her body.
“Don’t worry about it,” she whispered as she lifted a hand to her head. That super speedy bit just didn’t work so well for her. “Az, I’m sorry.”
He blinked. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
Yes, she did. Jade turned away from him. “Where are we?” She just threw out the question to buy herself more time. If Az had brought her there, then she knew it was a safe place. She trusted him.
He shouldn’t trust her.
“It’s one of Sam’s safe houses in New Orleans.”
Ah, Sammael again. The Fallen who liked to be prepared.
“While I was…following him a while back, I found this place.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Jade lifted a brow. “Following him?” Jade inquired carefully.
“I intended to kill him.”
“Not very angel-like of you,” she whispered.
His head cocked and his gaze sharpened on her. “But then, I’m not an angel, am I?”
Was she supposed to be afraid of him? “I should never have brought you into this mess.” By helping her, he’d lost the one thing he wanted most.
That big trip back upstairs.
“I chose to help you.” The wooden floor creaked beneath his feet.
“And I knew the minute I saw you,” she stared down at her hands, realizing that she’d clenched them into fists, “that I would use you.”
The words fell into the room and were followed by thick silence.
Her heart raced too fast, and she forced herself to lift her chin and face him. “That’s why I’m sorry, Azrael. You came to my aid, and I— selfishly —knew just how powerful you were. I tried to play on your emotions. I wanted you to be willing to fight for me. To do anything for me…because I realized you were the muscle I needed to destroy Brandt.” She swallowed. He wasn’t talking, and she was just digging one very big hole for herself. “I didn’t care what you wanted or what kind of life you might have. I just wanted to use you to kill the nightmare stalking me.”
He deserved this truth. They had the bullets now. She could take them and face Brandt on her own. Az could walk away.
Maybe even get his heaven back.
“You played on my emotions?” Az repeated, voice quiet. “How?”
Now this was her shame. “By seducing you.”
She waited for his rage. Instead, he just laughed.
“Uh, Az?” Did he laugh when he was really pissed? Was that his thing?
Slowly, his laughter faded. “I was using you.”
That hurt, but the truth often did.
He stalked toward her. “A human. One being hunted. Pursued.” His head cocked to the right as he studied her. “Helping you was going to be my first step toward redemption.”
“Instead I just led you deeper into hell.” What had he called her? His temptation.
She wanted to be more, but knew now that would never be. “You need to walk away from me,” she told him. “You’ve already crossed too many lines.” Fighting other angels. Cheating death. “If you want that redemption, then leave me.”
“Is that what you want?”
“I want you to have the chance to get the things you need. I want you to be able to go back home.” Jade licked her lips. “I won’t let you trade your dreams for my life.” That didn’t seem like a fair exchange to her.
His gaze dropped to her mouth. “There is no trade. Heaven is gone. I won’t be going back.”
Her heart ached. “If you had the chance?—”
“I’m not leaving you.” His mouth took hers. Rough, hard, but without the rage of moments before. Just wild heat and hunger and a passion that burned her from the inside out.
Her hands came up and pressed against his chest. She leaned into his kiss, helpless to back away this time. Desire quickened within her.
One more time.
Just once more, before the end game. Once more.
His lips lifted from hers. “I was…afraid.” The confession was gruff, and the last thing she expected.
Jade could only stare up at him.
“Bastion took you when I should have been protecting you. If you’d died…” His gaze darkened. “I’m not sure what I would have done.”
The cold whisper of fear chased over her skin again. She kept being told that Az was dangerous. That she shouldn’t be with him.
She’d had one monster for a lover already. Seen just how wicked he could be. Evil hid so easily behind a handsome face.
When she looked at Az, she saw another handsome face.
Was it one that hid evil?
No. The certainty was soul deep. “You don’t have to worry. I’m not planning on dying anytime soon.”
He wasn’t leaving her. She wouldn’t leave him. Maybe…maybe they could make this work. Hope was small, fragile, but stubborn inside her, growing even when she knew better.
It had been years since she hoped.
But maybe…
Her fingers slid down his chest. Found the snap of his jeans. He’d given to her. This time, she’d be the one to give to him.
Pleasure.
The snap gave way beneath her fingers. She carefully slid down his zipper. Her eyes were on Az’s as she knelt before him.
“Jade?”
She shook her head and wanted to offer him a smile, but the moment was too tense.
He wore no underwear and his cock sprang toward her, thick and full. Her fingers curved over him as her knees hit the floor. She stroked him. Pumped him gently from base to tip, and Az flexed against her, the sensual move almost helpless.
She didn’t want him helpless. Never that. Never him.
Her head bent forward, and she licked the tip of his cock. The head was firm, his taste salty because he was so ready for her and a drop of his essence had spilled out. His cock bobbed eagerly toward her mouth.
Her breath blew lightly over him.
“Jade.” No question this time. A heated demand.
Her mouth opened over him and she took his cock inside. She licked him and let his cock slide over her tongue. Her cheeks hollowed as she drew him in deeper, and he thrust into her mouth.
When Jade swallowed, he growled his pleasure.
Her hand curled around the base of his erection so that she could keep control as she tasted him. Back and forth, his cock slid over her tongue. She sucked him. Licked him. Learned the feel of his cock and grew wet as she savored him.
Her nipples were hard. Aching. Her hips moved restlessly because a fierce need tightened within her.
His fingers were in her hair, sinking deep and holding her as she held him. But she couldn’t seem to get enough of him. His flavor was hot and wild and it was driving her crazy.
She wanted more. She wanted him to come and?—
Az pulled away.
Breath panting, she stared up at him. His eyes were blazing with need. His cheeks stained with a surge of hot color.
“In…you.” That was all he said. In the next second, he had her pinned on the floor. A rug protected her back as he yanked off her jeans and tore away her panties. Then his dick was there, pushing up between her legs. She was slick and ready and in one hard thrust, he’d embedded his cock balls-deep within her.
It wasn’t enough.
Her heels pressed against his back as she arched up against him. Each downward thrust sent him pounding hard inside of her and the lust and need Jade felt had her moaning.
He pushed up, separating their bodies just enough so that he could palm her breast. His fingers plucked her nipple, then his mouth replaced his hand. His tongue licked her even as his hips pounded down against her sex.
More, more, more.
The whisper wasn’t just in her mind. She was pleading. Demanding.
He rolled, repositioning their bodies, and Jade found herself staring down at him. Her hands flattened on his chest as she rose up, then brought her hips back down almost frantically. She just couldn’t get enough. The pleasure was close, just out of reach, and she stared into his eyes and his cock filled her, every single inch of her and?—
She came on a blast of pleasure that shook her whole body. Az kept thrusting into her, and the deep push of his cock into her just made the pleasure intensify. She wanted to cry out but couldn’t catch her breath. Her nails sank into his chest as she rode out the wrenching climax.
His eyes flashed to pure black when his release hit him. His body tightened, turning to steel beneath her touch, and he shoved even deeper into her. When he climaxed, she felt the hot surge in her core, and the pleasure whipped right through her.
Her heartbeat raced too fast. Jade gasped as she stared down at him. There’d never be another lover for her like Az. Never be someone that could make her scream. Who could make her come so impossibly hard.
Because she’d never love another the way she loved him.
The truth terrified her, but she’d suspected it for some time now.
She’d given her heart to her Fallen. Her head lowered toward his, and she pressed a light kiss to his mouth. Not wild and desperate any longer. Softer, heavy with emotion.
He was so strong beneath her. So powerful.
Her head slowly lifted.
And Jade realized that the darkness hadn’t faded from his gaze.
“I would have hunted him down.” Az’s words were gravel rough.
She held his gaze.
“I’d already gotten a tracking spell from Mateo. I was coming after you.” His hands were around her hips, loose, but an unbreakable hold. “Brandt never would have gotten to you. I would have found you, and I would have made sure you were safe.”
He was still trying to protect her.
“You can’t…” He was already firming again in her, and she wanted to lift up her hips and feel the delicious slide of his dick within her. Wanted to, but…“You can’t always save the world.”
“I’m not interested in the world.” He thrust up into her and her sensitive core responded with a ripple of pleasure. “Only you.”
Only you.
The words seemed to bind them, but then, she’d been bound to him from the very first moment she’d seen him.
She just hadn’t realized how deeply she’d fallen.
Past heaven. Past hell. Into the arms of an angel who’d burned.
Brandt stared down at the blood drops that stained the earth. Jade’s blood.
The panther began clawing up from the inside, maddened with fury. He’d thought the angel had been protecting Jade. Her lover, her protector.
But the distinctive scent of an angel still drifted in the air around him even as Jade’s blood littered the ground.
Hurt.
Jade must have been trying to come back to him. She’d sought him out. She must have remembered that he’d used this area for a base once before.
Jade never forgot anything. For a human, her intellect was fascinating. One of the many reasons she was his.
She’d sought him out, been coming to him, but the angel had found her first. He’d stopped her. Hurt her. Taken her away.
Claws burst from Brandt’s fingertips.
He would forgive Jade. She’d be punished, but forgiven because she’d tried to do the right thing. She’d tried to come back to her mate’s side.
But the angel…there’d be no forgiveness for him. Brandt would slice the skin from his body, one slow strip at a time. The angel thought he knew of hell? Not yet, he didn’t.
But soon… soon.
And Brandt began to follow the drops of Jade’s blood. It was a perfect trail that would lead him back to his mate.