Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Keenan caught her when she raced outside. He yanked her close even as he put his hand over her mouth to stop her screams.
He pulled her back into the shadows and covered her with his body. “Easy, sweet,” he breathed the words against her ear, and she sagged against him. “We’re being hunted.” And that knowledge had the fury ripping through his skin.
Two coyote shifters were already down—they’d been the welcome party that had launched at him with claws and teeth. They’d managed to make him bleed, spilling his blood all over the foyer, but he’d made sure they paid for those bites.
The fingers of Nicole’s left hand curled around his arms. “It’s you,” she whispered, and he tilted his head so that he could see the fear in her eyes. “They’re not stopping until they get your blood.”
They’d already gotten all he felt like giving.
“Az told me that you could die tonight.”
He nodded once. “Stay here while I hunt.” He turned away.
She jerked him back. Hard. “What the hell? Did you just hear me?” She shoved something—a gun—behind her.
Carlos probably heard her. The woman wasn’t trying to keep her voice down.
“We thought I was Az’s target, but we were wrong, Keenan! It’s you!”
He’d always been aware of that possibility. He knew Az liked to put down the Fallen who walked the earth. Sometimes, Keenan really wondered if Az was killing as ordained or just killing whoever he wanted.
But then he’d fall, too. And Az hadn’t fallen. He’d been sitting up at that heavenly right hand for years.
Her claws bit into his hands. “You’re not dying for me.”
So fierce, his vampire. He brushed back her hair and let his palm linger on her face. “You worry for nothing. Az is trying to frighten you.” He could feel the eyes on him, watching in the darkness. Another strike would come soon. He needed to get Nicole back inside. As long as she was inside, any attackers had to go through him in order to get her.
“Yes, well, he succeeded. I’m scared. I don’t want to lose you!”
Footsteps shuffled to the right. Had to be a human on the street. A shifter wouldn’t make an obvious sound like that. Shifters could retreat and attack in perfect silence.
The game of hide and seek was getting old.
“The coyote is out there,” he told her, “and I’m not letting him get away.” Because if he did, there would just be another attack. Carlos wasn’t going to ever back off. Not until he got what he wanted.
My blood.
Too bad for Carlos. Keenan only planned to bleed for his vamp.
Her gaze drifted over his shoulder and scanned the darkened street. “You mean we’re not letting him get away.”
“Nicole…”
“ We’re not, ” she said fiercely, and she was so beautiful. Silken skin. Dark hair. Lips that he wanted beneath his mouth. Her gaze blazed into his. “I’m not letting you risk yourself out here. You’re the target. I’m going to be watching your back.”
Because of Az. Az had sent her racing into the darkness. You’ll pay, Az. Soon enough.
“Then let’s get hunting,” Keenan rasped. Before the dawn came and weakened her. He kissed her, one fast kiss, because he wanted to taste her lips again. Then he turned into the night.
They hadn’t gone far, though, before Nicole stopped him. He heard the swift inhale she gave before she murmured, “Blood.”
He stared down at the dark cement and saw the tiny drops. “Maybe the bastard is hurt.”
“No, that’s human blood.” She hurried forward. “There’s more. It’s a trail.”
So the coyote was playing dirty. Carlos was willing to sacrifice a human in order to bring in his prey. Not really surprising.
They followed the trail—light drops at first, then deeper spatters on the ground. Fresh blood. The humans they brushed by had no clue about the blood they stepped in as they stumbled down the street.
Dawn would come soon. Even in New Orleans, the party was slowing down now. Keenan needed to find his prey before Carlos came at him again.
Hunt or be hunted. Only two choices here in this world.
They rounded a corner. Jackson Square waited before them, heavy with dark shadows. Just beyond the Square, the triple steeples of the St. Louis Cathedral pointed high into the moonlit sky.
When Nicole tried to advance, Keenan stopped her. “Sweet, you don’t have to face what’s waiting.”
Not just Carlos, but her past.
She glanced his way, and he was surprised by the hard edge that glinted in her gaze. “Yes, I do.”
Then she was gone. Nicole snaked ahead of him and maneuvered easily through the darkness. She knew this place, knew every turn, and he followed behind her. Staying close, Keenan never let her stray more than a foot away from him.
“The trail goes inside,” she said softly as she stared up at the stark turrets. His gaze followed hers, and he couldn’t help but remember another night. One stained with more blood.
Slowly, Nicole crept forward, her eyes now on the crosses that adorned the top of the cathedral. “Why did he bring his bait here?” she whispered. “He can’t know what happened before.”
No, the bastard shouldn’t know what this place meant to them. Not unless someone had tipped him off.
Her fingers trembled as she reached for the cathedral’s left-side door. She pulled lightly and the air blew from her lips. “It’s not locked tonight.”
He caught her hand. “Don’t go in.” He didn’t know exactly what waited but, hell, with all that blood, it had to be death.
But she shook her head. “I should have gone in long ago.”
Then she went into the cathedral, and he followed instantly, not about to lose her to anything or anyone.
Their feet shuffled over the marble tile. The candlelights and the chandeliers gleamed, though Keenan knew the cathedral should have been shut down at this hour. Images of angels and saints stared back at him. Seeming to weigh him. Judging.
“There.” Her whisper. The blood trail led into the wooden confessional booth.
For Carlos to have left a body here, dumped in a church— you’ll regret this move, I promise.
Some sins truly were never forgiven.
Nicole’s head tilted to the left. “I hear…” Nicole gasped and raced forward. She yanked open the confessional door and a scream echoed through the cathedral.
Not Nicole’s scream.
The bait was alive. The woman was screaming and shaking. Thin, bloody slices covered her arms and legs. Keenan knew those slices had been made with a coyote’s claws.
“It’s okay,” Nicole told the woman, holding up hands that no longer sported claws. “We’re here to help you.”
The woman—with tangled blond hair and a short black dress—blinked. Mascara and tears stained her cheeks. She looked familiar to Keenan. He knew he’d seen her before.
Running from the fire at Temptation.
He stepped back and his gaze swept over the wooden pews.
“Where’s the man who did this to you?” Nicole asked. “Where is he?”
“N-not...man.” The woman fell to her knees and made the sign of the cross. “D-devil.”
No, just a coyote shifter. The devil had died long ago. Now someone else ruled for him.
“H-hurt me...wanted to know...”
“Let’s get her out of here,” Nicole urged, and Keenan noticed that she kept her head angled away from the woman. Right, the blood. That smell would be tempting Nicole.
He lifted the woman and held her easily.
“H-help me,” she begged. The woman’s name—had it been Tina?
“We will,” Nicole promised. “We’ll get you to a doctor. You’ll be okay.”
They hurried for the exit. Nicole shoved open the door and the hot night air spilled inside. Dawn still hadn’t come, not yet, but it was edging closer. Nicole hurried down the stone steps. “Come on,” she called out. “We can get her to safety!”
A growl broke the night.
Nicole whirled around and faced the dark alley. Pirate’s Alley. The alley she’d nearly died in six months ago.
No, she had died in that alley. No getting around that truth.
And now Keenan knew that Carlos waited in that darkness for her.
Carefully, he put the woman on her feet. “Can you walk?” He wanted to know.
She just cried. Her bloody hands wrapped around his neck as she held on tightly.
He tried to pry her hands loose but she started screaming, “Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me! ”
Nicole flinched as she glanced back at him. He saw her swallow and she said, “Keep her safe.”
No, no, Nicole wasn’t going into that alley alone!
“I’m not afraid of the monster in the alley anymore,” she told him before she gave a hard nod. Her canines were lengthening. Her claws sharpening. “This time, he’ll be afraid of me .”
Then she was gone. Nicole raced into the alley and ran right toward that darkness—and Carlos.
And while she ran, the bloody woman kept clinging so tightly to him. She was shaking, and—and laughing?
“Kill her,” she breathed, and she lifted her head to reveal the smile on her bloodstained lips. “He’ll k-kill the bitch.”
Fury had him shoving her away. Her head whipped back with the sharp push. “What are you talking about?” Keenan barked.
But she just kept laughing, and he realized he’d forgotten a lesson he’d learned so long ago. Humans lied. They often lied very, very well.
She smiled at him—smiled right through the blood. A willing sacrifice. “She’ll be dead,” she told him, the blood dripping down her body, “long before you can even get to her?—”
He didn’t hear the rest. He was already racing to the alley and roaring Nicole’s name.
When he saw her, the present and the past blurred. She was on the ground, fighting, struggling. But not with a vampire. With a fully shifted coyote. The coyote’s teeth were in her shoulder, and she was pushing her arms between their bodies as she tried to pry him off her.
No, not pry him off her. She was wedging something between them. Something small and black and?—
The explosion shook the alley. The blast of gunfire echoed in the night.
The coyote fell off her. The fur began to melt from his body.
She lifted her gun, aimed, and fired once more.
The animal’s body jerked. Not really an animal anymore. A man now. Naked. Hurting. The man twisted and cried out in pain as he bled out on the stone beneath him.
Nicole rose. Her eyes darted to Keenan. “This time,” she told him quietly, “I was ready.”
“ Sil...ver! ” Carlos’s furious yell. “F-fucking bitch... silver! ”
“Good thing we stopped by that feeding room in Texas.”
The feeding room . He hadn’t even realized she’d kept the gun.
“I’ve got one bullet left.” Nicole stood over Carlos. The gun pointed right down at his chest, and her hand was perfectly steady. “That one’s for your heart.”
His body writhed. Keenan knew Carlos couldn’t shift back with the silver in him. Carlos clawed at his flesh as he tried to pull the bullets out.
“Why did you want him so much?” Nicole asked. “Why didn’t you just stay away? Leave us alone?”
Carlos threw one bullet into the gutter. “ Fuck you! ”
The second bullet was deep in his chest, but Carlos was digging for it. He ripped and tore into flesh and muscle.
“Nicole!” Keenan rushed forward. “ End it! ” She should know better than to play with the hunter.
“Why here?” she demanded. “Damn you, why pick here? Why this alley?”
The coyote shifter’s breath rasped out. The minute Carlos got that second bullet out, Keenan knew he’d shift.
“Because he wanted...” Carlos licked the blood from his lips. “To fuck...with your mind.”
Then he smiled, a smile as wild as the beast he carried, and Keenan knew the shifter had found the second bullet.
Behind the shifter, Keenan saw the shadows thicken. He heard the soft rush of wings.
Time for death.
Nicole fired and the bullet drove into Carlos’s heart. The shifter fell back, eyes wide. Not dead, not yet. Still struggling to breathe, the shifter fought hard to hold on. But death was coming. Walking right there with his arms outstretched.
Az stalked from those shadows. His face was tight and remorseless. The shifter was gasping, choking as he labored to live. Shifters didn’t always die as easily as they should. The beasts inside fought hard for survival.
A footstep whispered behind him. Keenan didn’t glance back. He didn’t want to take his eyes off Carlos. Not until Az touched him. But...
“Blood,” Nicole gasped, and she stepped back. “The woman—Keenan is she alive?”
“Don’t worry about her.” Willing bait .
Az was almost right over Carlos. Only a few more moments.
“Choose,” Az said.
Keenan blinked. What? There was no choice. Never had been. What was Az talking about?
But Nicole was moving, spinning around and screaming as she shoved Keenan to the side.
The woman—the bait—she’d followed them. When Keenan flew back from the force of Nicole’s shove, the bait’s hand lifted, and she plunged a thick, wooden stake right into Nicole’s chest.
Keenan grabbed the woman. Touched her—and she was dead in the same second. He ripped the stake out of Nicole’s chest. Not her heart. Not her heart. Please, no. Not. Her. Heart.
“ It’s too late,” Az said. “It’s time for the vampire to pass.”
Then everything got very quiet as time seemed to slow. Keenan could hear the harsh gasp of Nicole’s breaths. He could feel the warm weight of her body against his.
He looked up and Az was right there, standing over him and reaching down. Az wasn’t there to take the shifter because that asshole was still alive. Carlos was still alive when he should have been dead.
And now Carlos was rising to his feet. He’d dug all the bullets out of his chest. A walking dead man . Death hadn’t taken his prey, because Az had broken the rules.
Bastard!
“No.” Az shook his head, and Keenan realized he’d yelled his accusations at the angel. “You’re the one who broke the rules.” Az shrugged and his wings flared behind him. “I’m just cleaning up the mess you made.”
Carlos shifted. He transformed with a crunch and crack of bones into the thick, furry beast that was the coyote.
“Don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Az didn’t glance at the coyote. His eyes stayed on Keenan. “I know you lust for her, but Keenan, she’s isn’t worth what you have to sacrifice!”
“You’re not touching her.” He pulled Nicole closer and edged away from Az. Keenan pushed Nicole’s lips against his throat. “Drink, sweet. Drink. ”
Az sighed and shook his head. “I’ve done this for you, Keenan. I risked wrath because I know you’re better than this mortal world.”
“Better, huh?” She wasn’t biting him. He could feel the edge of her teeth, but she wasn’t biting. Nicole barely seemed to be breathing. “Fuck you, Az,” he yelled. “She’s the only thing I want!”
“A vampire.” Az’s lips tightened. “A killer.”
“You think we’re so different from her?” Why wouldn’t she drink? “How many souls have we taken, Az? How many ?” He held her so fiercely, but her body was limp in his arms.
“We carry souls. Humans and Other kill themselves.” Az’s chin lifted. “We are just completing our duties.”
Carlos howled behind him. The shifter was fully an animal now, and that shift would have helped him to heal. He should have died from that last gunshot. Az was changing the game.
“You’re stepping over the line.” Keenan grabbed Nicole’s hand. Her claws were still out, barely. He used them to slice his neck and then he forced her mouth back to his throat. Drink. Even if the human had missed Nicole’s heart, his vamp could die from blood loss. There was so much blood.
Her lips began to move on his throat. Lightly, but, she was drinking. Yes. “Stay with me, sweet. Just stay with me.”
Az’s eyes narrowed. “Why does she matter? You were an angel, and you can be again. This world—the hell here—you don’t need it.”
The coyote began to shift once more as he transformed back into the form of a man. Every shift would bring him strength. That was the way of the beast.
Keenan snarled, “I might not need the world.” The pain. The hate. The wars. “But I need her. ”
Az’s wings stretched. “ Why? ”
The angel seemed lost. Probably because he was. “Because I love her.” Simple.
“Angels don’t love!”
“I do.” Nicole’s breath blew lightly against his throat. Good, she’d taken enough blood to keep her alive until he could get them out of there. Keenan pushed her behind his body, positioning her so that he was in front of her and the brick wall was at her back.
“You can’t stay down here.” A muscle flexed in Az’s clenched jaw. “This isn’t the place for you.”
“Wherever she is, that’s where I’ll be.”
Carlos stood now, strong, grinning, with his claws out and his sharpened teeth glinting.
“You going to sic your dog on me?” Keenan charged, and Nicole’s fingers pressed into his back. “You’re the one who sent him here, after all.” Yes, he’d figured that out. The alley. The cathedral. “You’re the only one who knew what this place meant to Nicole.”
Az’s smile held an evil edge. Damn. This guy was supposed to be the good one?
“I thought angels helped people,” Nicole said, her voice weak but clear. “I thought you were supposed to protect humans. To keep them safe!”
“Told you before, you’re not human.” Disgust had Az’s lips twisting. “You should have died that night. Couldn’t you see? We were trying to be merciful!”
Carlos stalked closer.
“How?” Nicole challenged. “By letting that bastard rape me? By letting him rip out my throat?”
“The cancer inside you would have broken your body. You would have suffered for months. Just like your mother, you would have withered away.” Az lifted his hand and snapped his fingers. “Instead, your pain lasted only a few moments.”
Cancer?
“Didn’t know that, did you, Keenan? Why did you think your charge was racing for those church steps that night? Humans always turn to God when they need something.” Az stepped back and cleared the path for Carlos. “Then they turn away when he needs them.” Az pointed at Keenan. “ You shouldn’t have turned away.”
Keenan held Az’s stare and felt his fury rise even higher.
“This is your last chance.” Az expelled a hard breath. “You can still come back.”
You just have to kill her.
Keenan smiled. “Fuck you, Az.”
Az blinked, then his jaw tightened even more. “Then you’ve chosen. I wonder what waits in the next world for an angel that fell?”
Carlos ran toward them, his claws out, long, sharp, and deadly.
Keenan wasn’t afraid. His rage was too strong for any fear. He could touch and kill and he’d take Carlos out.
But would Carlos manage to kill him in that instant, too? It just depended on who could strike first. On who would be the fastest.
But the rush of wings filled his ears before he could attack. Az grabbed Keenan and hauled him away from Nicole. The bastard’s grip was unbreakable, and they rammed into the side of the cathedral.
And Carlos—grinning bastard—swiped out with his claws and struck Nicole.
“No!” Keenan leapt for him.
Az tightened his grip. “You can’t kill me with just a touch.” Az held him pinned to the building. The faint rays of sunlight spilled into the alley. “This time, you will watch her die.”
No, he wouldn’t. Keenan rammed his head into Az’s. But Az just laughed.
Nicole screamed.
Keenan’s gaze flew to her. More blood flowed. Carlos had sliced her arms and chest with his claws.
“A vamp, especially one so new, is no match for a shifter.” Az sounded so detached.
“ Nicole! ”
She swiped out with her own claws and managed to catch Carlos in the side. He grunted at the pain and promised, “I’ll kill you, then I’ll take your lover’s blood.”
“The sunlight will speed up her death.” Az smiled and told Keenan, “Don’t worry, she won’t suffer long.”
Fucking crazy bastard.
“No,” Keenan agreed, “she won’t.” And the rage poured from him and erupted in a ball of red-hot flame that blasted into Az.
This time, Az was the one who screamed. A loud, pain-filled cry as he flew back. Az hit the ground and rolled over and over as he tried to put out the fire that ripped over his body.
“That fire didn’t come from man, asshole.” From me. “I conjured it and I damn well can control it.” Not you. So it would burn the flesh right off Az. Az would heal, eventually, but first, he’d hurt like hell.
“I’ll take his blood and he’ll be my weapon!” The shifter’s taunt.
He spun and saw Carlos still circling Nicole.
“I’m no one’s weapon!” Keenan roared. “Not anymore.” Then he grabbed Carlos.
The shifter died before he could scream.
Carlos’s body fell and thudded into the pavement. Nicole’s shoulders slumped.
“It’s okay.” Fury cracked Keenan’s voice. “It’s over now.”
Her gaze darted over his shoulder. Pain and fear flickered in her gaze. “No,” she said very definitely. “It’s not.”
She grabbed his arm and tried to yank him to the side.
Too late.
Fire slammed into his back.