Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
She wasn’t dead. Why wasn’t she dead? Nicole sat up, but didn’t rise far. Her arms were chained to the floor. Thick, dark metal chains secured her.
Where was she? The last thing she remembered…Carlos had been?—
Carlos.
He wasn’t a human. Wasn’t just prey. He was a shifter.
Which brought back the question—why was she still alive?
And not just alive. She tested those chains again. When she stretched her arms, she didn’t feel the lash of pain. She was weak, yes, but the blisters were gone, and the wounds in her shoulder and side were healed. Night had fallen, she could tell that instinctively, but the darkness wouldn’t have healed her. She would have needed blood.
Blood she hadn’t gotten.
A metal door groaned open and a musky scent teased her nose. “Awake, are you?” Carlos shuffled inside, then came to a quick stop.
It was dark in there, but her vamp senses were enhanced so that she could see him perfectly, and she saw the surprise that flashed across Carlos’s face.
He didn’t expect me to be healed, either.
So she’d definitely not been given any blood. But she felt great. Why?
Keenan. The answer whispered through her mind. His blood was different, and it was starting to make her stronger.
“How the hell did you do that?” He sprang at her. His hands slid down her arms. His claws scratched her skin. “You were barely alive. How did you?—”
She lunged for his neck.
He swore and dove back.
“Careful there, shifter,” she taunted, “get close enough again, and I’ll rip your throat open.” And, oh, but she wished she had her silver bullets handy. But, no, that gun she’d taken from the feeding room was back at Keenan’s. She hadn’t thought she’d need silver in order to fight off humans.
Carlos was on his ass now, and his eyes glittered at her. His claws scraped across the cement because, yes, she was sitting on hard cement, in some kind of locked room.
No, wait. Her gaze darted to the left. That window—it was stained glass. Her nostrils twitched. She could smell the shifter now— won’t ever forget what that woodsy smell means again —but she could also smell death.
He laughed. “Figured it out, did you? Well, hell, I thought, what better place to store you?”
Than a cemetery.
She was in a mausoleum. One that had been altered to include her chains. At least he’d taken out the dead body. But she suspected he had plans to leave another body— hers —in its place. “Why am I still breathing?”
“Because I need you to be.” He rose and brushed off his hands. “When you stop being useful, I’ll drive a stake into your heart.”
She didn’t see a stake on him. She pulled at her chains—no give.
“Your friend. The man who was with you in Mexico.”
She stared at him, not letting her expression alter.
“He’s your lover,” Carlos added.
She didn’t speak.
His nostrils flared. “I can smell him all over you! I know he’s been fucking you.”
“If you know, then why’d you ask?” Bastard.
“Because I’m still surprised an angel would fuck something like you.”
He knew about Keenan. Oh, that couldn’t be good. I’m in chains—how can anything about this be good? “Something like me?” Nicole questioned carefully. “What, you mean compared to an animal like you? At least I don’t grow fur and piss on the ground all the time.”
Ah, now the stake was out. He’d had it tucked in his boot. His right hand gripped the stake as he bared his fangs at her. “Maybe your dead body would be just as useful to me.”
The scent of flowers wafted to her nose.
She tilted her chin up. “Maybe.”
He shook his head. “You’re trying to push me, but that’s not going to work . ” He backed up a step. “You’ll get death, but only when I’m ready to give it.”
So why was he waiting?
“He’ll come for you.” His twisted lips mocked her. “As soon as he figures out where you are, anyway. If it takes too long, I’ll just have to make sure he gets a tip.”
“Why do you want Keenan?” If he knew Keenan was an angel, then Carlos had to realize that he didn’t want to tangle with her lover.
“The angel has something I need.” He gave a quick laugh. “Something you need, too.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“When I’m done with him,” Carlos smirked, “dust will be all that’s left.”
Angel’s Dust. Fear shoved into her gut as she understood. She needed Keenan’s blood to live. Hell, his blood was probably why she’d healed so quickly. An angel’s blood. And that vamp in the feeding room, he’d said demons could be killed by Angel’s Dust.
“Guess you’ve already learned how powerful the new lover is, huh, vamp?”
She didn’t speak.
“Since I didn’t see wings on him, I’ll have to drain him dry to get enough for the mix. Guess I’ll finally found out if angel’s blood is as powerful as their feathers.” He lifted a brow. “Is he a bleeder? How long do you think it will take for him to die for me?”
“Screw you!”
His gaze raked her. “Maybe. Later.” His claws tapped against his chin. “You know, I just thought you were another walking parasite, and then I learned you were strolling around with one very precious gift.”
Keenan.
“Do you know how many demons I’ll be able to kill with his blood? Do you know how many Other will fucking bow to me?”
The chains dug deeper into her flesh. “The stories are wrong.” I can’t let him get Keenan. “Demons came from the Fallen, so Keenan’s blood won’t do anything to them!”
“His blood will kill them. What creates can destroy. You should know by now that’s the way of the Other world. Especially once a few magical ingredients are added to the brew by the worst witch I know.”
She swallowed back her rising fear. “He’ll kill you.”
Carlos tucked the stake back into his boot and sauntered toward the door. “I don’t think he will. He’ll be too worried about saving you.” Carlos’s claws lifted, and they were wicked sharp. “Did you know that angels can’t be killed by mortal weapons?” He nodded, not waiting for her to respond. “They’re like the ancient demons that way. But now I know your Keenan’s weaknesses.” He turned away from her. “ Both of them.”
Then he yanked open the door, that echoing groan filled the tomb, and after he stalked out, she was left with silence.
She pulled at the chains. Nothing. “What did he mean?” Nicole whispered to the shadows. Shadows that were too dark near the left wall, right where the floral scent was strongest.
Silence.
She pulled harder. The thick metal dug deeper into her wrists, and blood began to drip onto the floor. “ What did he mean? ” Nicole shouted. “Dammit, I know you’re there!”
The air shifted around her, as if a fan had been turned on. Or as if wings had flapped.
“Answer me!”
“He knows what can kill Keenan,” came the dark, cold voice. Az. Like she’d ever forget the sound of his voice.
“How about you freaking share what that is with me?” Was the chain starting to give? She tugged harder, rising to her knees and straining as she stretched forward.
“Weapons forged by man can’t kill Keenan. They can hurt him, but he’ll heal quickly from them.” He’d moved. She couldn’t see him. She just had the impression of dark shadows shifting. “And he controls fire,” Az added. “Fire can burn his flesh, but it can never kill him.”
Fire’s kiss could sure kill her. “Then what is it? What makes him vulnerable?”
“ You make him bleed easily enough.”
She swallowed. “Yes.” She did. Biting him was as easy as biting a human. A slice right through the skin.
“Because your weapon wasn’t forged by mortal hands.”
Her weapon was her teeth.
Carlos’s weapons would be his very, very big claws—and his teeth. Teeth that were sharper than hers. Not weapons forged by man. Shit. “Get me out of here!” The chains wouldn’t break. “Get me out!”
“I can’t.” Said flatly.
“You’re just going to stand there?” Her eyes narrowed as she strained to see. Az seemed to be a shadow.
“I’m going to wait,” he responded. “My job is to wait and then to take.”
Her soul.
“Do you fear death?” Az asked her, and she could have sworn the angel sounded curious. Great.
“What I fear is what is going to happen to Keenan!” If Carlos got to him, he could take Keenan’s head with a swipe of his razor-sharp claws.
No.
“You care.” Again, the faintest hint of curiosity or maybe it was surprise? “I didn’t expect that.”
“Well, a year ago, I never expected I’d get turned into a vampire, and I’d have an angel stand by and refuse to help me while I’m trapped in a crypt.”
More silence.
But he was still there. She could feel him.
“Don’t you ever get tired of watching people die?” Nicole exploded. The chain was just locked too tightly around her wrist. She’d always had too-sharp, too-big wrist bones.
“I do what I was born to do. Watch. Shepherd.”
“Shepherd?” Yes, the bones were too big in her wrists and her hands—the bones were the problem.
“I take the souls when they are ready to leave this plane.”
“And you’re never tempted? Never once do you think, hey, maybe this woman wants to live longer with her daughter and not die from cancer when she’s only twenty-eight.” Her mother. Nicole was talking about her own life, and the pain still bled inside her. “Or maybe this guy wants to have a chance to see his kids grow up.”
“I know why you were at the church that night.”
That shut her up. Figured he’d know. “I never made it inside the church.” The doors had been barred to her. Talk about a big glowing sign of things to come.
“He watched you then.”
Keenan.
“He watched too much, I knew it.”
“But you didn’t stop him.” Ah, sure sounded just like Mr. Hands Off. “You could have stopped him from falling!”
“If I had, you’d be dead.”
Right. There was no win-win in this game.
“He’s losing himself in you.”
She wasn’t sure what that meant. And the chains wouldn’t break, so that meant there was only one option.
“If he goes too far, there will be no saving him. Once the line is crossed, he’s lost.”
What line? “Keenan’s not lost! He’s had my back this whole time and, by damn, I will have his!” Once she got out of there.
“Carlos can kill him.”
The chain wouldn’t break.
“I can’t see a Fallen’s future. Can’t see what will be, so I don’t know how quickly he’ll die.”
“Carlos wants to use his blood to make Angel’s Dust.”
“The power of the Dust comes from the feathers. Not blood.”
He seemed damn certain of that fact. “So—what? Carlos will just drain Keenan and kill him? For nothing?”
Silence.
Screw this. She sucked in a deep breath and slammed her right hand and wrist into the concrete. Once. Twice.
The chain wouldn’t break, but she could. Her wrist bones were twisted, mangled, but now she could get them out of the chain. One hand down. It will heal.
“Why?” His voice, showing more emotion. This time, there was no mistaking Az’s confusion.
“Because he’s not dying.” She pounded her other wrist against the cement and ignored the waves of pain that rolled through her. She and pain were starting to become good friends. Tears slipped down her cheeks, but Nicole didn’t realize she was crying until she tasted the salt on her lips. She rammed her left hand into the cement. Once, twice more, and the bones shifted. Nicole slid that hand free. “ He’s not dying. ”
“How will you save him? You can’t even fight now with your broken hands.”
“I’ll just get a little bite first.” She rose, but almost staggered from the pain. “Then I’ll be ready.”
“Death is coming.”
Her shoulders straightened. “Death— you —can wait.” She made it to the door. Nicole didn’t even bother trying to push it open. Her hands were a mess. She needed blood, fast, in order to get the strength to heal, and even then, she wouldn’t fully recover until her next rising.
Carlos could be waiting right outside. He probably was.
You won’t get Keenan.
She kicked open the vault’s heavy metal door.
Sam had taken Keenan to a bar, one that looked like a dozen others. But this one was different—his prey waited inside.
“There.” Sam’s finger pointed to the right. The two bikers who’d escaped were at the bar. They were guzzling beers and acting like they didn’t have a care in the world.
He’d make them care.
As Keenan stalked across the bar, smart people got out of his way. Maybe they could feel his rage. It sure burned him.
“Don’t touch them, not yet,” Sam muttered. “We need them alive to talk, remember?”
He jerked his head in agreement. The idiots must have sensed trouble because they both spun around. When they saw him, their eyes widened and fear slipped over their thick faces.
“Didn’t think it was over, did you?” He braced his legs apart. The scrape of chairs filled the room. Folks were leaving as fast as they could. Guess they were used to trouble in this place, and they knew better than to stay around and watch the show.
The guy right in front of him—a burly bastard with grizzled cheeks and a buzz cut—swallowed. “D-don’t know you.”
Keenan’s hand lifted. Oh, to touch…
“Keenan,” Sam warned, “the dead can’t talk.”
The buzz-cut biker blanched.
His buddy—a tall, tattooed guy with a mop of curly red hair—started to sidle away.
“I can kill you with less than a thought,” Keenan said.
Both men froze.
“Where is she?” he demanded.
The red-haired guy shook his head.
Wrong answer. Keenan grabbed a beer bottle, shattered the glass and pressed the jagged edge to buzz-cut’s throat. Since he wasn’t touching the guy directly, the biker wouldn’t die. Well, he wouldn’t die until Keenan sliced his throat wide open with that glass. “I’ll ask once more, then you’ll start bleeding.”
Sam reached for a glass of whiskey that had just been placed on the bar top. He drained it in one gulp, then swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “Better tell him. He’s real good at killing.”
“You talking about the vamp?” This came from the redhead.
“Shut up, Pete!” Buzz-cut snarled.
“They’ll kill us, Bo! I ain’t ready to die!”
Ah, a weak link. Keenan kept his weapon on Bo, but turned his stare on Pete. “Are there a couple more members of your little gang still living? A member or two who took my vampire?”
Pete shook his head. “Not us. Wasn’t us!”
“Bullshit.” From Sam. “I think you should slice this one for lying. A long slice right down his cheek.”
Bo’s eyes were wild. “Pete, shut the hell up! The vamp bitch deserves to die after what she did!”
“I’m not ready to d-die,” Pete stammered. He was younger than Bo. He didn’t have that hardened, been-to-hell look yet. Pete’s breath whispered out. “The other one—he took her. It was all his idea, using the fire. Coming to that house. He’s the one who knew where you were.”
Sam lunged forward and ripped Bo away from Keenan.
“What are you—” Keenan began.
Sam slammed Bo’s head into the bar. Bo’s eyes rolled back into his head and when Sam lifted his hands, Bo slid to the floor in a heap. “Now we only have to deal with one.”
One who looked very, very scared.
“ Who knew?” Keenan asked Pete, struggling for control. Wasting time. He needed to hurry.
“C-Carlos. Big guy, dark hair, said he’d been hunting the v-vamp.”
The thunder of Keenan’s heartbeat filled his ears.
“Heard him tell Big Mike that he’d t-take her to St. Louis Cemetery and leave her. Leave h-her to rot.”
“Ummm.” Sam lifted a brow. “I think that might be all he knows.”
Keenan’s fingers tightened around the bottle.
“Do we let him live?” Sam wondered, eyeing the guy with a hard stare. “Or do we kill him?”
“ Please, ” Pete begged and his eyes were filling with tears.
Keenan stared at him. “You burned her. Your gang attacked a woman. You burned her. ”
“I didn’t throw my bottle! I-I didn’t!”
“But you didn’t stop the others, did you?” Sam leaned in close. “You were right there for the party, and you didn’t help her out.”
Pete started to shake.
“If she’s not in that cemetery, if she’s not still alive in that cemetery…” Keenan ran the glass down Pete’s cheek and let the blood flow. “Then I’ll be back, and you will truly learn to beg.”
Pete’s face couldn’t get whiter. And he was one fast bleeder.
Keenan dropped the bottle.
But Sam caught it before the glass could shatter. Quick as a flash, he turned, and drove that broken bottle into Pete’s shoulder. Pete went down, screaming.
“That will teach you,” Sam said with his eyes slitting. “Next time, don’t just fucking watch while a woman burns. ”
Keenan turned away from the screams. He’d taken two steps when the angel scent hit him. His gaze zeroed in on the shadows near the bar’s entrance. No, not near the entrance, blocking the entrance. “Don’t get in my way, Az.”
The shadows shifted. He glimpsed the wings. Az’s stark face. “You’re losing control,” Az warned.
Losing? Try already lost it.
“Soon you’ll be like him.”
Sam laughed behind Keenan. “Wouldn’t that be damn great? Then you’d have two pissed off Fallen on your trail.”
Keenan rushed for the door. “ Get out of my way. ” Because if he had to, he’d pound his way through the angel. He’d do anything to get to Nicole.
“She’s made you like this,” Az told him. But the shadows lightened as he pulled back. “She’ll destroy you.”
“No,” Sam spoke with certainty behind him. “She’s just making him stronger and that scares you, Az.”
The shadows vanished.
They screamed when Nicole kicked open the crypt door. A guy and his girlfriend, both dressed in goth black, whirled around and their cries filled her ears. They’d been leaning down, lighting candles near another crypt. Leaving offerings.
Didn’t they realize the voodoo queen wasn’t even there anymore? Tourists.
But at least Carlos hadn’t been waiting for her. She’d take the tourists over him any day of the week.
“Look at her teeth! Oh, Sean, look at her!”
Okay, the girl didn’t sound scared. More like excited.
“ Bite me, ” Sean whispered. “ Please. ”
Well, if he was gonna be offering. She lunged forward and sank her teeth into his throat. His blood spilled over her tongue and strength started to push back into her body.
“Sean?” A thread of fear entered the girl’s voice, muting the excitement. “Sean, she’s...really drinking your blood.” Then the girl let out a shriek. Her footsteps thudded as she ran away.
Nicole took more blood from her donor. Not too much. Just enough to survive. When she let him go, her savior slipped to the ground. Not dead, but unconscious.
She pushed her hands against the nearest crypt. The bones popped and snapped back into place as she reset them. Not perfect, not yet, but she’d make it through the night.
“I can’t leave you alone for a minute, can I, querida? ”
Nicole stiffened. Carlos. “No, I guess you can’t.” She licked the last of the blood away and turned toward him. “You should have used that stake when you had the chance.”
He stood between two stone vaults. His claws scraped over them with a hair-raising screech of sound. “I’ll take the chance now. Your angel can just mourn over your broken body.”
No, he wouldn’t.
“The bait’s already set. I wager one of the bikers broke by now and told him where you were.” He pulled out the stake. “Let’s see how fast you can die.”
He leapt at her.
But Nicole was ready for him. She jumped back and the stake missed her. She kicked out and caught his wrist with her foot. This time, the bone that snapped was his. When the stake flew from his hand, she scrambled after it, diving to her knees. Her fingers curled around the wood just as Carlos grabbed her legs and yanked her back.
“I’ll cut off your fucking head!”
She had the stake. She twisted and came up ready. Nicole drove the stake right into his chest. “And I’ll take your heart.” Her whisper.
Another kill. Another death.
What was one more stain on her black soul?
He stared at her, mouth open, eyes gaping, then he sagged back. Carlos slipped onto the ground and blood began to pool beneath him.
Killing again hadn’t been nearly as hard as she’d hoped.
Connor had been right about her. Perhaps she did have a talent for murder. Damn him.
She closed her eyes.
“ Nicole! ” A roar that was her name.
Keenan. Her eyes flew right back open. And it was just like Carlos had said. She could see Keenan now, running toward her, snaking through the vaults. He wasn’t even checking around him for an attack—just running straight for her, his gaze locked on her.
He would have run right into Carlos and never seen the danger until the claws were at his throat.
“It’s okay,” she called out as she rose and hurried forward. “I?—”
Bones snapped. Crunched. Still not hers. Not. Hers . Goose bumps rose on her arms. Nicole glanced back over her shoulder.
Carlos was shifting.
Fur sprang up over his flesh. Thick, brown fur. His hands had already turned into paws. His claws had lengthened, sharpening even more. His face contorted as she watched. Stretched. Elongated. Animal, not man.
An animal with really big teeth—and she knew all about big teeth.
I missed his heart.
Oh, damn.
He was a shifter. He didn’t need blood to heal and kick ass. He just needed to transform.
“Run,” Nicole whispered and then she whirled around to face Keenan as she shouted, “Run!”
Too late. Keenan was almost on her. He reached out to her, but then froze, his fingers inches away. She stumbled for him. “You’ve got to get away!”
A coyote’s high, quavering howl broke the air.
Then that jerk, Sam, he was there. Sam yanked her into his arms and pulled her away from Keenan. “Oh, what the hell?” He huffed out a hard breath. “Now the dogs are in this?”
Not a dog. A coyote. A very big, very pissed-off coyote with bloodlust burning in his glowing eyes. “It’s a trap,” she cried. “He’s after Keenan. We can’t let him get Keenan!”
“The sonofabitch figured it out.” Sam shoved her behind him. She caught a glimpse of the coyote. Way bigger than your average coyote. The beast lunged into the air and leapt right for Keenan.
No!
But Sam was there. Moving with his super speed, he jumped in front of Keenan.
The coyote gave a choked bark and twisted in midair. The beast landed on the top of a shallow crypt.
“Didn’t count on two of us, did you?” Keenan snarled.
Then another coyote’s wailing cry echoed in the cemetery. Another. And another.
If coyotes could smile, she knew that beast would be grinning.
Her head whipped to the right. She saw a black coyote stalking along the high stone wall. The coyote had its eyes locked on Keenan’s back. “Keenan, watch out!”
But her scream came too late. The coyote jumped from the wall and lunged for Keenan. The beast’s mouth—wide with sharp teeth and dripping with saliva—went for Keenan’s neck.
But Keenan shoved his forearm into the coyote’s mouth. The beast stiffened. Its whole body froze and as Nicole watched, the fur began to melt away.
A rolling, mourning cry rumbled in Carlos’s throat, but he didn’t close in on Keenan. No, the coyote jumped back and fled toward the high walls.
And as for the black coyote that had attacked Keenan, it wasn’t a coyote anymore. The fur was gone, the bones still reshaping, but now—yes, now that was a woman.
A dead woman.
Keenan rose and stared down at her body.
The cries from the coyotes became softer. They were all leaving. Retreating.
“Running away?” Sam taunted, voice dark and strong. “Didn’t plan for that, did you, bastards? We’re not as easy to kill as you thought. You want our blood? Then you’ll die for it. ”
Nicole crept closer to Keenan. He was still staring down at the woman. The wind lifted the woman’s dark hair and blew it against her golden cheeks. Her eyes were open, staring with horror, and her lips were parted as if to scream.
Keenan’s gaze shifted to his arm. Faint bite marks were already fading from his skin.
“Keenan.” Nicole reached for him, but he pulled away. She took that snub, right in the heart. He’d killed because of her. And now maybe he was finally seeing just what she was.
His jaw clenched. His gaze rose slowly to meet hers. “Are you okay?”
She put her hands behind her back. “Fine.”
Keenan’s head moved in a jerky nod. “Coming back to New Orleans was a mistake.”
She’d tried to tell him that. Coming home again really wasn’t a good idea. No matter what the damn songs out there said.
“You need to get out of here as fast as you can,” Keenan told her, but he wasn’t looking directly at her. Just over her shoulder. “I’ll take care of the coyotes. You just run.”
Nicole shook her head. “No way, I’m not leaving you to fight without me.”
“I want you to go.” His gaze came back to her when he delivered that knife to her heart.
She realized he hadn’t even touched her. Hadn’t hugged her. Hadn’t pulled her against his chest. She wanted him to. Needed him to pull her close.
Instead, he was backing away.
He knows what I am now.
She glanced at the still-unconscious college goth guy. “I didn’t kill him.”
“No, but I sure killed her. ”
A beautiful stranger. A woman as still as stone now.
“Who do you think came for her? Which angel?” Sam asked, closing in and crouching next to the naked woman.
The coyotes had left the dead female fast enough. Deserted one of their own.
“There are so many flowers out here.” Sam glanced at the vaults. “We never even would’ve smelled them coming.”
But Nicole had scented an angel earlier. She’d known Az was there.
He’s losing himself in you.
Yet Keenan couldn’t even look at her longer than a few moments now.
“Take Nicole out of here,” Keenan directed before turning his back on them. “Get her to someplace safe and just take Nicole out of here. ”
The words hurt. She’d expected them to come eventually, once he realized exactly what she was, but she’d started to hope that maybe things could somehow work out.
That maybe he’d still see me as a woman.
That didn’t seem to be happening. Her spine stiffened. “I’m not leaving you here alone.” The coyotes could come back. Probably would. Or what about the members of that vamp-hunter group that had been after her? Some of those bikers had gotten away. They could try to make a run at her again. Or at him.
“I want you to go. ”
Now that was like a slap. She even stumbled back.
“I saved you, Nicole. We’re even now. I stood back before, but this time…” He still wasn’t looking at her. “I saved you.”
Her hands were clenched into fists behind her back, and the healing injuries burned. “I saved myself,” she corrected. And you.
But he didn’t want to hear that. He was telling her to go. To get the hell out of his life. And fine, she wouldn’t beg.
He wouldn’t look at her. Wouldn’t touch her.
He must finally see the monster that she was.
She turned around and nearly ran into Sam. Her breath heaved out. The guy moved too fast. “I can find my way out on my own.”
“No.” His gaze drifted along the stone wall. “They know what you are.”
A vamp. Right. Seemed like everyone knew.
“They’ll use you against him. You can’t be separated. Not now.”
She glanced over her shoulder, her eyes drawn right back to Keenan, and she saw him turn at Sam’s words.
Keenan clenched his jaw and snapped, “You know she can’t stay with me.”
“Control, Fallen. I keep telling you that you’ve got to have control .”
A burst of wind shoved against Nicole and Sam. “Around her, I have no control.”
Was that good or bad? Around him, she had no control, either. Except she wasn’t telling him to hit the road.
Carlos almost killed me. I hurt. Every part of her hurt. And she just wanted Keenan’s arms around her. She wanted to feel him. Strong, safe and alive against her.
He wanted her ass to walk away.
“Get the control,” Sam warned him, voice snapping. “Get it or?—”
“Or what?” Keenan fired back. “She dies?”
Whoa. Wait. This she ?—
“Yes.” Soft but certain from Sam. “If you lose control, then Nicole dies.”
Well, damn.
Carlos watched the bastards leave. The asshole who’d killed his cousin bent down, brushed back her hair, then yanked off his shirt and covered her face with it.
Carlos’s muscles locked. He wanted that SOB’s throat between his teeth, but he knew if he got too close to the Fallen, he’d wind up like Julia.
One touch, then death.
Killing the Fallen would be harder than he’d thought. He’d have to take the target out without ever giving him a chance to strike back.
They were outside of the cemetery now. As he watched, the three loaded into a black pickup truck. He inhaled, drawing their scents in with the blood and the death. Finding them again wouldn’t be a problem.
Killing them would.
I underestimated my prey. It wasn’t a mistake he made often, and one he wouldn’t repeat.
When the truck’s taillights disappeared down the road, he tossed back his head and howled. Another loss for his meager pack. Another body to bury.
His bones snapped, reshaped. The fur melted away, and he went to collect his dead in the form of a man. He lifted the shirt from her face. In death, Julia’s pretty features were twisted. So misshapen.
She’d been terrified of what she saw in her last moment.
He bent, picked her up, and held her gently. “It’s okay now.” Julia had never feared anything. Until she died.
“They’ll pay.” The other coyotes slunk out of the darkness. “ They’ll pay! ” Carlos vowed. It wasn’t just about getting an angel’s blood anymore.
Vengeance. When the angel died, he’d fear, too. Fear, beg, and suffer.
Just like his precious vampire bitch would.