Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
As Keenan lunged forward, his arm swept out to make sure that Nicole stayed behind him.
She can see Az.
Fear and fury churned in Keenan. “You’re not taking her!”
Az’s eyes narrowed. “You really think you can stop me?”
“I can damn well try.”
Az jerked at the curse. Right. Angels weren’t supposed to curse.
Or to fuck.
Not an angel anymore. And Nicole was rubbing off on him.
“Get in my way,” Az told him, voice deep and dark and promising, “and you’ll die.”
“ No! ” Nicole shouted as she shoved past the arm Keenan was trying to use to shield her. Her clothes were wrinkled, her face flushed, her lips red and swollen—and she was so beautiful.
And she was running toward death.
“Don’t even think about hurting Keenan!” Nicole yelled at Az.
Az blinked, then his light brows pulled low over his eyes. “You can truly see me.” Now he sounded surprised.
What? An emotion? From Az?
No time to dissect that now. “ You aren’t taking her. ”
“No.” Az cocked his head to the side and studied Nicole. Then he took one step inside the abandoned building. Another. The floral scent deepened, but Az wrinkled his nose, obviously smelling something else. “ Sex. ” His nostrils flared. “That’s why you came in here?” His eyes judged Keenan. Found him lacking. “How very human of you.”
Keenan knew the words were supposed to be an insult. “Thank you.” He’d always thought humans got the better end of the deal. Pleasure, passion. Sure, pain was thrown into the mix, too. But you could live through pain.
No expression crossed Az’s face.
Nicole stood between the two men now. Her hair fell over her shoulders and tension held her small body tight. “I thought I had ten days.”
“Um.” Az took another step inside. A step that put him closer to Nicole.
Don’t touch her.
One touch would be all it took.
Keenan caught Nicole’s arm and forced her back. She tried to fight, but he just pulled harder. “He touches you, you die.” Flat.
That stopped her struggles. Her eyes widened and she looked back at Az. “Why do I see him?” she whispered to Keenan.
Only the dying should see Az. Only the dying or?—
“Been drinking angel blood, have you?” Az asked.
The mark on Keenan’s neck seemed to burn. But he hadn’t minded her bite. He’d craved it.
Az shook his head slowly. “We’re not meant to be prey, Keenan.”
“He’s not,” she snapped, and Keenan felt a spurt of pride. Even with death close, she wasn’t weakening.
But Nicole’s words had Az’s eyes zeroing in on her. “I know about you.”
“Good.” She bared her sharp teeth in a cold smile. “He”—her hand tightened on Keenan’s—“knows, too.”
Az measured her with his gaze. “With all that you’ve done, are you worried about what the afterlife will hold for you, vampire?” He offered her a smile in return, and it wasn’t pretty. “I know why you were on the church steps that night,” Az murmured. “You would have gotten a free pass that night. Straight upstairs then, but now fate will be different for you.”
“Get out of here, Az!” Keenan snarled, his control fragmenting.
Az didn’t move.
“You wanted another chance, didn’t you?” Az asked. “But that’s not what you got, you got?—”
Keenan raced forward and plowed his fist into the angel’s jaw. The smash of bones and flesh felt good . Az flew back. The angel crashed through the door frame and stumbled outside.
“Guess what that is, buddy?” Keenan followed him out, and Nicole ran at their heels. “It’s called pain. ” Time for the angel to start learning how humans lived.
Az picked himself up slowly. He lifted a hand to his jaw. His eyes blazed. “No—you can’t?—”
“I can see you.” Keenan stalked closer. “I can touch you. And if you try to come at me again—or send any of the others after us—I will kick your ass.”
Az’s jaw clenched. “You can’t.”
“Yes, well, until about five seconds ago, I’m guessing you didn’t even think I could deck you—clearly, you need to think again.” His hands clenched into fists. “The rules in this game are changing.”
“Because you say so? Who are you to judge?” Fire there, cracking through the ice of Az’s words. “You’re an angel whose wings burned. You were cast down to live in this hell!”
“Watch it,” Nicole warned. “I rather like this place.”
Az’s lips tightened.
“How does it feel?” Keenan pressed.
That blue stare cut to him.
Keenan smiled. “The anger is better than never feeling anything, isn’t it?”
Az’s wings folded down behind his back. Ah, his control was returning as that slight break in emotion vanished. “You don’t want me as an enemy.”
“No, Az, you don’t want me as one.” Keenan shrugged and opened his arms. “I’ve already fallen. What do I have to lose now?”
Wrong words.
Az’s stare immediately shifted to Nicole. “What indeed.”
Keenan lunged for Az.
But he moved too late. Wind whipped against his face as Az’s words floated in the air, “I’ll be seeing you, Keenan.”
The angel vanished.
But Keenan knew Az would be back. After all, angels never lied. They could twist the truth, confuse and beguile, but they couldn’t lie.
Neither could the Fallen.
If you try to come at me again—or send any of the others after us—I will kick your ass.
His words to Az had been a promise.
The sun beat down on Carlos Guerro as he sauntered across the New Orleans street. Sweat soaked his brow, but he didn’t care. He’d long grown used to the heat.
He was alone on this hunt. That was the way he wanted to be. The day he couldn’t kill a gang of humans on his own, well, that day wouldn’t happen. Ever.
He turned the corner and found the old bar just off Bourbon Street. The place was open now, of course, even though it was barely one o’clock in the afternoon.
His eyes narrowed as he went inside. Dim interior. They probably kept the lights that way so the tourists didn’t notice how worn the furniture was or see how the cracked mirror in the back hung haphazardly. The darker a place was, the better it tended to look.
His prey waited to the left. Six men slumped in chairs. Bruises covered the men, and blood stained their clothes. He inhaled, a nice, deep pull, and caught the scent he needed— vampire. Not just any vamp though. Her.
Following her hadn’t been easy, even with the speed of the private plane he’d chartered. But then, he didn’t really like the easy hunts. He’d found a sheriff just over the state line who’d survived her attack. Then he met a female cop in San Antonio who’d been pissed to hell and back about the prisoner who’d escaped.
The San Antonio cop hadn’t been as guarded as the sheriff, so he’d known he could push her. Carlos had flashed his own badge. It paid to keep a fake one, he’d learned that long ago. Once she’d realized she was talking to a brother in blue, the cop had opened up and revealed all about the escapee.
Nicole St. James. A former teacher who’d snapped one night and killed a man in a New Orleans alley. Minutes after that kill, she’d attacked a cop.
Since that night, Nicole St. James had turned into a full-on psychotic killer. Two more men met her, then bled for her. The female cop had said St. James was a serial killer. One who got off on slicing the throats of her victims and drinking their blood.
Good story, but he knew it was bullshit. The serial killer story was often used to cover Other crimes.
Carlos motioned to the bartender. “Whiskey.”
Voices rumbled around him as the glass slid across the table. He took a deep breath, inhaling more of that elusive scent. Then he drained the glass and the fire of the liquid burned his throat. Oh, but it was a good burn. His eyes darted over his whispering prey. The group of bikers looked pissed—and in pain. He wondered about them. Did they pretend the world was normal, too, or did they screw the rules?
“What the fuck are you looking at?” A snarl from the big one. But, to be honest, there were a few big ones.
Big—thick with fat and muscle.
And they’d still gotten their asses kicked. He knew a vamp’s work when he saw it.
“Did you hear me?” the guy shouted again as he jumped to his feet. The table shoved forward and his beer bottle crashed to the floor. His face mottled as he pointed at Carlos. “You been staring at me the whole damn time you’ve been in here! What do you want? See something you like, bastard?”
Carefully, slowly, he put his empty glass on the bar. “I was just wondering…who beat the shit out of you and your crew?”
Ah, not the right thing to say. Now they were all on their feet and storming for him. Good.
He’d been right. They were all big. Had to be over six foot three. Except for that one scrawny guy who was hanging back and nursing two black eyes.
“Boy, you picked the wrong bar.” The leader—a bald bruiser with snake tattoos curving down both arms—smiled.
Huh. He’d never really liked snakes. Carlos lifted one brow. “That a broken hand you got there?” Si . It was. “Guess you touched something or someone you couldn’t handle.”
The leader lunged for him.
Carlos sidestepped and caught the guy’s broken hand. “Now, Mike, you really need to control that temper.” Mike . That was the name the helpful stripper had given him. She’d seen the fellow set the fire at Temptation, and then she’d seen the biker corner a woman and her lover in the alley.
The stripper hadn’t helped the couple. Tina wasn’t real big into helping others, but she’d given him the information, for a price.
Finding prey is always the best part.
“How do you know me?”
For fun, he squeezed Mike’s broken hand. When Big Mike hissed in pain, his men swore and came at Carlos.
“ Don’t .” His snapped order. He dropped Mike’s hand and faced them all, his back to the bar. Carlos lifted his hands, palms out, and made sure that his claws weren’t showing. “I’m not here to fight you.” Yet. His gaze met Mike’s fuming stare. “I’m looking for the woman who broke that hand.”
Surprise flashed on Mike’s face. Then he smiled. A twisted, broken smile. “Hoss, there’s no way you could handle her.”
Carlos let his gaze sweep the bar. Only a few other stragglers remained, and they were high-tailing it out because they thought a fight was coming.
Maybe.
“Let me be the judge of that,” Carlos murmured.
“Dumbass, you don’t get it.” Big Mike stabbed a thick finger—one from his left hand, not that swollen right one—into Carlos’s chest. His voice dropped as he said, “That bitch ain’t even human.”
So what? Was he supposed to act surprised? No, not his way. Carlos nodded. “I know. That’s why I want to take her out. She killed my brother in Mexico.”
The men around him all glanced at Big Mike.
Mike swallowed. “Mine, too.”
What? Really? Carlos almost smiled. Talk about a fucking perfect cover story! He couldn’t have planned that one better.
“I want her to pay,” Carlos said and let his voice vibrate with fury. “I want her to hurt, I want her to beg, and I want her to bleed. ”
“Good luck.” Mike rubbed the stubbly line of his jaw. “That vamp’s got some kind of guard dog. The bastard won’t let anyone close.”
Carlos tried very hard not to let his excitement show at that news.
One of Mike’s gang members muttered, “Probably uses him for fucking and sucking.”
Probably.
“ He’s the one who broke my hand because I was touching his whore,” Mike admitted.
“You were getting ready to stake her...” This line came from the same man who’d spoken before. The one with a big red lump on his forehead.
Big Mike grunted. “He took us all out.” He waved a hand toward his tight-jawed men. “If we couldn’t take him, you damn sure ain’t gonna have any better luck with the freak.”
Maybe. “I will if you help me.”
Now that had Mike looking interested.
“Your mistake was that you tried to take them down when they were together.” Huge mistake, especially for humans going up against supernaturals. “We need to separate them.”
Mike started nodding.
“We want the vamp, right? She’s our target.” The idiot would believe anything he said.
Mike licked his lips. There were murmurs from the men. A few “damns straights” and one “fuck, yeah.” After a minute, Big Mike confirmed, “Yeah, that bitch is the one I want to stake.”
“You’ll get your chance.” Eventually. “But first, we’ve got to break them apart. Break them apart, make them weak, then we attack.” Because Nicole St. James, killer and Taken vamp, wouldn’t be nearly as fierce on her own. Not once she lost the angel on her shoulder.
“So how we gonna do it?” Mike wanted to know. “How the hell are we supposed to get her away from him?”
Now that was the hard part. But, luckily, he had a plan. “Leave that to me. You just get your men ready to jump her.”
Lie. Lie.
Mike and his men were his plan. They were his bait and his distraction. Because Nicole and her angel would be so focused on them that the vamp wouldn’t even realize the true danger until it was too late.
“We’ve got to act fast.” The faster, the better. “We’re gonna need to attack before the sun sets.” No sense in going up against a stronger vamp. Not while there was still daylight left.
“You know where she is?”
Shifters had good noses for a reason. They were the best at tracking. Once he’d caught her scent at Temptation, he’d followed her all the way back home.
He’d always had the strongest nose in the pack. Blood, fire, and sex—it wasn’t easy to miss that combination. Tracking Nicole had been fucking child’s play.
“I know.” He smiled. “Now let’s go and drag that bitch into the sunlight.”
Nicole woke with her heart racing and her body shaking as the nightmare still played in her mind.
The alley. The blood. The monster.
She sucked in a deep breath.
She’d been the monster.
“Nicole?”
Her head turned. Keenan lay beside her in bed, his chest naked, and the sheet loose around his hips. She swallowed. “It’s nothing.” It was still daylight. She could see the sun trickling through the blinds. Could feel the weakness in her body. He’d chosen to sleep during the day? With her? She’d stripped and climbed beneath the covers and basically fallen asleep instantly. She hadn’t even realized he’d joined her.
He stayed with me .
The lump in her chest had nothing to do with her nightmare.
“Something scared you,” he said.
Me. I scare myself. I have for a while now.
His fingers brushed down her arm, and she shivered. “It—it’s really nothing?—”
“Liar.” The word sounded like a caress. “Tell me about it.”
The drumming of her heartbeat wasn’t slowing down. She pulled the covers up and held them with tight hands. In that instance, she needed some kind of shield, and it was the cover or nothing. “Before I was attacked, I-I didn’t even know I could kill.”
“Everyone can kill. People just have to be pushed hard enough,” he retorted flatly. There was a lot of dark knowledge tinting his voice. But then, he’d probably seen everything humans had to offer. Good. Bad. All that waited in between.
Death.
Right. He’d know all about killing.
“You said you saw me before.” Before she’d gotten the stylish new fangs, the bad manicure, and the pretty much unquenchable thirst for blood.
“Yes.”
“ She never would have ripped a man’s throat open. Not once.” Her voice dropped. “Twice. I killed two humans.”
“You were under a compulsion, you didn’t?—”
“I liked the blood.” This was the darkest part of her confession. Her gaze dropped to the hands that balled the sheets. “I liked the rush of blood, the power. I wanted to stop. I knew it was wrong. I knew I was killing them and that voice was in my head, pushing me, but I liked the blood. ”
And that was her shame.
“You’re a vampire.”
Uh, yes, she knew that.
“Nicole,” he sighed out her name. “You’re supposed to like it.”
“Because vamps like the blood so much, that’s why they kill.” Why she’d had to fight her urges. “The schoolteacher I was—the woman who always got in by ten on a work night, she wouldn’t have?—”
His fingers curled over hers. “Why do you keep talking as if she’s someone else?”
Her gaze lifted to his. Why couldn’t he see? “She was someone else. She was someone good. ” She’d tried to be, anyway. Volunteering her time in afterschool programs. Donating canned goods for the homeless. Recycling for goodness’ sake. That woman had been good.
Not a killer.
Not a monster who lusted for blood. Who fought. Killed. Who licked her lips as she stood over a dead man and thought?—
More.
No wonder the dreams wouldn’t stop. “That woman died in an alley,” she told him, holding his stare. Even if she hadn’t died then, she wouldn’t have made it through the year.
His hand skimmed down her arm. Slowly, his warm fingers rose to her chest and pressed over her heart. “If she’s dead, then why do I feel her heart beating?”
“I’m not the same person anymore. The things I did—” Not just the killing. But with Connor… Don’t go there. Her eyes squeezed shut. “I’m not the same.”
The warmth of his hand seeped into her. “You couldn’t be the same and keep surviving.”
She cracked open her eyes.
“The bloodlust is always strongest at first.” He rose, pushing up to sit beside her. “I’ve seen it drive some crazy. They’d lose control and turn on anyone who came near.”
Nicole remembered that first, desperate hunger. The bite that she’d given the cop who’d come to her aid. “Yes.” She’d felt crazy then.
“You didn’t kill the cop you attacked.”
She shook her head. “It was a near thing. I couldn’t stop.” She never wanted to feel like that again. So hungry—the hunger an ache that burned her whole body.
“You did stop.”
Her lashes lifted fully. “Barely.” She wouldn’t let him think she was something that she wasn’t. “I didn’t have control. If I did, I wouldn’t have ever bitten him. I wouldn’t have listened to that voice in my head— I wouldn’t have killed. ”
She had to get away from Keenan. His touch made her weak, and she was already weak enough. Nicole jumped from the bed. She yanked the sheet with her. “Angels are real.” She tossed that out at him and glanced back just in time to see him blink.
“Uh, yeah, we are.”
This was the part that scared her. “I knew that—I always knew that.” She’d been a good Catholic girl after all, before.
His head cocked as he watched her.
“Angels are real,” she said again. “And demons are real. That means after this life…” I already knew this. Always knew. Her knees locked. “After this life, there isn’t going to be any sunshine and paradise waiting for me.” Maybe if Keenan had taken her soul that long-ago night, but now—no.
He stared back at her. Didn’t deny her words.
She choked down the very real fear in her throat. “I want a chance to make it up.” She sounded crazy, but what else was new? “I don’t want Az to take me, not until I’ve had a chance to make it up. ”
He climbed from the bed and didn’t bother covering with a sheet. “You can’t bring back the dead.”
He’d know.
A muscle flexed along his jaw. “And Az isn’t taking you anyplace.”
Nicole could only shake her head. “Why?”
Keenan frowned. Then blinked. “Because you’re not ready to go. You don’t want to go.”
“No.” Her head shook again, fast, as her hair whipped around her face. “Why does it matter to you? Why do you care what happens to me?”
He gave another slow blink, then replied, “I don’t know.”
Well, great. She turned away from him and grabbed for her clothes. Not like she’d expected some big declaration or anything. Keenan didn’t truly know her, he hadn’t?—
He fell for you.
Obviously, that was bull. She yanked on her panties and shoved into her bra.
“What I said, it angered you?”
Her lips pressed together as she snagged her jeans. Jeans he’d bought for her. “It confuses me.” Okay, that was a lie. Half-lie. He confused her and he made her damn angry.
She spun back to him, her shirt clutched in her hands. “You lost everything, you gave it all up, and you don’t even know why.”
I wasn’t worth it. The words just wouldn’t come out of her mouth. She wanted to say them, but couldn’t. She’d told him about her crimes. Her dark needs. He should realize the truth for himself.
Maybe he did. Her shoulders slumped and her chin dipped. Maybe .
“For over two thousand years, I never felt anything.”
That had her head whipping up.
His eyes stared right at her, but Keenan didn’t actually seem to see her. “I saw babies born, parents die, wars, weddings, happiness, life. But I never felt a thing.”
His words were so cold that she shivered.
“I only knew touch...” He lifted his hand and stared at his palm. “When I killed. And then, there was no warmth in the bodies. I took the warmth away before I even touched them.”
His hand fisted.
Silence.
What could she say? “Keenan...”
“I wanted more than that.”
Seemed only fair.
“Humans had more. Even the Other had more—and they were supposed to be the mistakes .”
Was that what she was now?
“Angels were created for a purpose. To protect. To guide. But not to feel.” His fist fell. “No sorrow. No pain. And no happiness either. Just duty. Just…nothing.” He stepped toward her. “I wanted more,” he said again. “I didn’t even realize it at first, but with every soul, I just— wanted more. ”
Wanting. Didn’t he realize that was a form of feeling? Maybe the other angels hadn’t felt any emotions, but he had, and they’d driven him to the edge.
No, they’d driven him to fall.
“With you, I decided to take more.” His fingers curled around her chin, and he tipped her head back. “Silk,” he whispered. “Smooth, soft, and warm. ”
She realized he was talking about her skin.
He lowered his head and pressed a kiss against her lips. “Just as soft here, but the taste...” His eyelashes lowered. “A little sweet, and a hint of spice.”
Oh, he could seduce her so easily. Had, actually.
His knuckles trailed down her neck. “And being inside you...” His lashes rose. “ Pleasure. ”
She wet her lips and wanted his mouth again.
“I was tempted, and I fell.” His knuckles were at her chest now, pushing against the edge of her bra. “Humans get to feel. They get to fuck. They get anything they want.”
Not always. Sometimes, they got nightmares they didn’t want.
“Try living with nothing for two thousand years, and then see just how hungry you are for everything. ”
His mouth captured hers in a hot, hard kiss that she met head-on. She knew about hunger, not just for blood, but for someone to hold you, to kiss you, to want you, no matter what.
Was she just a body for Keenan? Just a temptation? Maybe, but for her, he was becoming so much more.
A man who stayed with her through the good and bad. A man who didn’t care about the monster inside of her. He’d known her before, but didn’t judge her now.
She dropped the shirt. Her fingers lifted to wrap around his shoulders and hang on tight. The future wouldn’t, couldn’t matter. Now was all that mattered. Making a memory, having something to take with her when she went to the next life.
Hell.
Her mouth opened wider.
Then she heard the snarl and roar of engines. Motorcycle engines. Not too near. Not outside their little haven, not just yet.
But coming closer.
She held the kiss for a moment longer. Why hadn’t he just stayed away? I gave him a chance.
Vengeance.
Keenan lifted his mouth. “Nicole,” he breathed her name.
“Mike is coming for me.” She hadn’t wanted to kill.
“You knew he would.”
She just hadn’t expected him to find her so quickly. But a hunter like Mike would have connections and probably eyes everywhere. “He’s coming while I’m weak.” She pressed her forehead against Keenan’s shoulder. His arms were around her and even though death was coming, she felt safe right there with him.
“He won’t touch you.”
Because she had, what, eight days left? Seven? Less? Az hadn’t actually said she had ten... less than ten. Angels might not lie, but she had the feeling they might not always tell the full truth, either. Angel semantics.
“I killed his brother.” Because Grim had thought Jeff was too much of a threat. The hunter had already taken out a dozen vamps. She’d been the bait to take down the big gun. “If I were Mike, I’d come after me, too.” But she didn’t want to kill Mike. Stop him from killing her, yes, but kill him?
I already have enough blood on my hands. Killing him won’t get me any forgiveness.
Like there was a chance of that happening.
Mike wasn’t coming alone. She heard the growls from the other bikes.
“They can’t beat us both,” Keenan spoke with certainty.
No. The humans would lose. They’d die. Because even though she was weak, Keenan wasn’t.
But it wasn’t his fight.
“They’re not hurting you,” he told her and edged away.
She bent and grabbed her shirt, yanking it on as he pulled up a pair of jeans. “I wanted him to walk away.”
Keenan laughed. “And you really think you’re so different from the woman you were before the bite?” His blond head shook. “Sweet, a cold-blooded killer wouldn’t care, human or not.” He turned away. “I’ll take care of them.”
“What? No, you’re an angel, your job is?—”
“Death.” He yanked open the door. “The last time I hesitated, an innocent woman became a vampire.” He glanced back at her. “I won’t make the same mistake.”
Then he was gone—racing out to face the vampire hunters who didn’t want his blood.
They want mine.
She ran after him because Nicole had learned—the hard way—how to fight her own battles. If she had to do it, she’d kill Mike because he wasn’t sending her to hell.
Though it looked like she’d have to send him there.