by Cynthia Eden
Josephine turned on her heel and marched for the witch’s door. Malik’s eyes narrowed as he watched her. He wanted to grab her, pull her back into his arms, and get her to use that wicked tongue for so much more. But…
I’m not alone.
Danger was already there. It was outside, in that piss smelling alley with him. So he let Josephine walk away. She didn’t bother knocking at the wooden door. She just kicked it open and vanished inside.
Only then did he turn to confront the threat that he’d felt.
“Merius…” He sighed the name of the angel-turned-vamp. “Are you going to keep hiding in the shadows or are you going to come out and face me?”
The ex-angel stalked from the shadows. Rage seemed to roll from him. “You can’t trust her.”
Tell me something I don’t know.
“That vamp is going to kill you, Malik. She’s going to kill us both.”
***
The door bounced against the wall, and the scent of blood flooded Josephine’s nose. The scent hadn’t reached outside of the apartment, probably because of the magic that Lawrence used to safeguard his place. But as soon as she crossed the threshold…
Bloodbath.
Her fangs fully extended even as her hands dropped to her sides. “Lawrence?” The place had been trashed. Furniture tossed, potions smashed—
And in the middle of the chaos, she saw the witch.
Blood had pooled beneath him. His hand was still at his throat, as if he could stop the terrible rush of blood. His fingers were stained dark red, and the rest of his body seemed drained of color.
But…
I hear his heartbeat. When she strained, Josephine could hear the faint beat. So weak. She crouched next to him, her jeans getting soaked in his blood. Her hand reached out to him, and her fingertips slid over his cheek. “Larry?”
His eyes cracked open. There was barely any life left in his bleary gaze. “D-didn’t want…”
“Who did this?”
“D-didn’t want…” A hoarse whisper. “B-betray you…ag…again…”
She lifted his hand from his throat. No puncture wounds there. Instead, a giant slash opened his skin. Like he’d been cut by a knife. Didn’t look like a vamp attack. Smart vamps wouldn’t leave this much blood to waste. And she was betting the blade used on Lawrence had been enchanted. Lawrence was more powerful than most believed. It would take more than a normal weapon to bring him down.
“S-sorry…” His eyes gleamed up at her, and Josephine could see the tears gathering there. Lawrence was dying. He knew it.
So did she.
Once, they’d been friends. Well, at least not enemies. That had been a long time ago. Now…
“D-don’t w-want…die…alone…”
No, he wouldn’t want to die alone. Most people didn’t. She took his bloody hand in hers. “Who did this?”
“D-didn’t…know h-him…”
Why would Lawrence lie when he was dying? She didn’t think he would. So the witch really didn’t know the bastard who’d come for him.
“B-but he…knew…you…” Lawrence’s voice was even weaker. “W-wanted…y-your sp-sp—”
“My spell. Yeah, I know. Got to see it up-close and personal.”
His eyes had closed again.
Her hold on his hand tightened. “Did you get the ingredients I needed for the binding chain?” Because if he’d gotten them and that bastard who’d sliced Lawrence’s throat had taken the chain…
“N-no.”
Her breath slid out. That was something, at least.
Lawrence’s lips trembled. “But…h-he…made…made m-me t-tell…” His words trailed away.
“He made you tell—what?”
Lawrence couldn’t speak any longer. He was shuddering and jerking.
Dammit. Dammit. He was so far gone. Her blood wouldn’t heal him. Lawrence had always been so afraid of being turned into a vamp that he’d put a spell on himself years ago. His mother had been turned into a vamp, and she’d gone wild with bloodlust. Lawrence had been the one to put her down.
Then he’d put a spell on himself. Vamp blood wouldn’t heal him. He’d been so determined to never take a drop of a vampire’s blood because he didn’t want to become like his mother.
Josephine couldn’t do anything for him. Couldn’t do anything but kneel in the blood around him and grasp his hand as Lawrence eased out his last breath. And when he did…
All of his magic poured into her. His magic—his power. It hit her like a bolt of lightning, charging her whole body and making her scream.
***
When he heard the scream, Malik immediately whirled for the witch’s apartment. He bounded toward the door—only to find his path blocked by Merius.
The blond vamp shoved his hand into the middle of Malik’s chest. “Don’t be fooled by the scream. She’s not in any danger.”
“Get out of my way,” he snarled.
But Merius just smiled at him. “Or what? You’ll grab me, fly me into the air, and drop my ass? Oh, wait, you did that already.” The smile faded. “An unprovoked attack, I might add. First you steal from me, from the business I’m trying to build now that I don’t have fucking wings of my own. Then you try to kill me.”
“If I wanted you dead, you’d be without a head.” An easy enough way to kill a vampire.
Merius glared at him—and didn’t get out of Malik’s way. “How did you know she wasn’t mine?”
She’ll never be yours. “I didn’t.”
Understanding flared in the vamp’s eyes. “That’s why you dropped me. You thought we were both after the same woman.” His nostrils flared. “I smell her all over you.”
“Get your hand off me and get out of my way.” The scream had died away, and fear pounded through Malik’s veins.
“You fucked her?” A furrow appeared between Merius’s brows. “You still have your wings. You’re still an angel, and you fucked her? You fucked a vamp and you tried to kill one of your own?”
Malik shook his head. “You aren’t an angel. And neither am I.”
“Fair enough.” His fangs were out. “I want the location of the real vamp who bit me. I want her.”
“Then go find her and get out of my way.”
“Josephine—she said the vamp who bit me was her sister. Josephine knows where she is.” His eyes took on a faint glow. “I’ll make her tell me.”
He’d tried to do things the nice way, but Malik wasn’t feeling nice any longer. So he threw the vamp out of his way. Tossed the guy toward the dumpster. He rushed to—
“Not so fast,” Merius whispered in his ear. “Dumbass angel, did you forget I’m a vamp now? A fallen vamp? That means I can move even faster than you can.” And he grabbed Malik from behind and then shoved Malik’s head into the nearby brick wall.
The bricks burst around him, and Malik roared his fury. He spun around as his wings flared behind him and—
“She’s setting you up. Don’t you get that?” Merius demanded. “I did some digging after our not-so-fun meeting last night.” His hands fisted at his sides, but Merius didn’t attack. “She was spotted earlier, here, with a witch named Lawrence. That same witch was later looking to buy vampire tears. Vampire tears, demon fire, and hair from a Fey.”
What was that supposed to mean? Why did it sound familiar? Wait, when he’d been encased in stone, had Lawrence mentioned those items? It had been hard to hear in the enchanted stone, and he’d only caught a few words, but—
“You are so clueless. I forget how freshly fallen you are.”
Really? Merius was going to toss that crap out? “You’ve only been here a few months.”
A smile split the vamp’s face. “But I learn fast. And I have friends in all the wrong places.”
I need to get to Josephine. The scream—
“Those are special ingredients—ingredients that can be used to create a binding spell to hold an angel.” Merius dropped his bombshell with a hard nod. “I’m betting
Josephine hired the witch to make that spell, and she’s in there right now—getting what she needs to bind you. The witch probably enchanted a chain because that’s usually what’s used in spells like this. Josephine will get the chain, then she’ll cuddle up to you. Before you know it, she’ll have you chained and powerless.”
Malik shook his head, even as he remembered Josephine putting another chain around his neck in that very apartment. He remembered the stone surrounding him, trapping him.
“She probably kept you distracted while he worked. Dumb asshole. Why else would she have sex with you? I’ve made it my job to pick up every story about Josephine Saint that I could—”
Because Merius had been obsessed with tracking down the vamp who’d changed him. But it wasn’t Josephine.
Malik knew, though, that he was just as obsessed. And he hadn’t stopped to wonder why Josephine had wanted to have sex with him. He’d just been desperate for her.
“If you go in there, she’ll bind you. She’ll either haul you back upstairs or she will kill you.”
Malik didn’t speak. Mostly because he was choking on rage.
“But I can help you. I can handle her for you.”
The guy was offering him a deal? A partnership?
“She’s strong, some say the strongest vamp out there. But if we work together, we can control her. I’ll help you to stay down here. I mean, if you want to be fallen, that’s your fucking mistake to make.”
No missing the bitterness there. Merius hadn’t chosen to lose his wings. They’d been taken.
Merius lifted his chin. “I help you, and in return, we make her tell me the location of her sister.”
“And what will you do with the sister?”
His smile was chilling. “Whatever I want.”
Staring at him, seeing the absolute emptiness in Merius’s eyes, Malik understood…When we fall, this is what we become.
Monsters.
Malik could already feel himself changing.
Josephine is inside. Josephine screamed. And Merius had kept him from her. Kept him from a trap? Or kept him from the woman Malik had sworn to guard?
“Stop me again, vampire, and I will kill you.” Malik would give no more warnings.
“Angels aren’t supposed to kill,” Merius reminded him.
But Malik had already turned away. He shoved open the apartment door—the lock had been broken, probably when Josephine kicked in the door moments before. As soon as he crossed the threshold, the coppery odor of blood hit him. So strong, overwhelming.
And, behind him, he heard Merius swear.
Malik bounded forward. “Josephine!”
Then he saw her. Kneeling in a pool of blood. Blood on her fingers. The dead man right in front of her.
The witch is dead.
Blood had poured from his throat.
“Look what she did!” Merius bellowed. “She’s a killer! Always has been. Always will be.”
Josephine’s head turned toward them. Her expression was absolutely blank. Her eyes were glassy—shocked. She stared straight at him as if she’d never seen Malik before in her life.
“She might have the spell, be careful!” Merius warned.
Her gaze jerked to Merius. Then her hand lifted and a bright bolt of light shot from her fingertips, and it flew straight into Merius’s chest. He fell to the floor, and the vamp didn’t get up.
Malik stared at her. Waited for her to attack him.
Her head slowly turned toward Malik. She focused on him with eyes that were cold and so very dark. Her skin was even paler than before. Her breath heaved in and out. And her hand lifted toward him.
“Josephine…”
“H-help…me?”
Then she slumped back. His Josephine began to crumple. He’d seen this before. He knew what had happened to her. Her secret. His secret.
Josephine didn’t simply kill because she wasn’t just any vampire. She didn’t just take blood from her prey. Sometimes, she took energy. Power. A power vampire. As far as he knew, Josephine was the only one to still walk the earth. When she killed, she could take both power and magic from her prey.
And sometimes, that power could nearly rip her apart.
He bounded to her in a lightning-fast lunge. Malik reached for her—as he’d done so many times when his job was to watch her. But all of those times, he’d reached for her only to have his hands slide right through her body. He’d been a shadow. Nothing more. His job hadn’t been to be seen by her. He was to observe. To report…
He wasn’t watching any longer. This time, he reached for her, and he touched her. This time, he reached for Josephine, and Malik caught her before she fell. He pulled her into his arms, and her head sagged back, exposing the vulnerable column of her throat to him. In that one instant, she was absolutely helpless.
Holding her against him, he glanced down at the witch’s dead body. The gaping wound in Lawrence’s neck hadn’t been caused by a vamp bite. And Josephine had been holding the guy’s hand.
He turned, and Malik’s attention fell on Merius. The vamp let out a long, pain-filled groan as his eyes fluttered open.
“What—what did she do…to me?” Merius muttered.
Malik’s hold on her tightened as the vampire rose unsteadily to his feet.
Then Merius looked at the dead man. At the blood. His gaze slowly slid back to Josephine. An unconscious Josephine. “Now is our chance,” Merius rasped. “We have the advantage. We have—”
“You have nothing. We aren’t working together. We aren’t partners.” His wings spread wide behind him. “And you will stay away from her.”
“Don’t be a fool!” Merius’s eyes widened. “She’ll destroy you. She’s a killer—the evidence is all around you!”
Malik shot straight up, holding her tight. He burst through the ceiling.
“Don’t be a fool!” Merius yelled again. “You can’t trust her! See her for what she is!”
Malik glanced down at Josephine. Her eyes were closed. Her body limp. He did see her for exactly what she was.
And she is mine.
Chapter Nine
She ached. Josephine let out a little moan as awareness flooded back. She’d been hit and hit hard by the blast that came from Lawrence. Since she hadn’t been the one to kill the guy, she hadn’t thought that his powers would surge into her.
She’d been wrong.
“Shouldn’t have been touching him,” she muttered as her eyes fluttered open. “That was a—” Josephine stopped talking to herself.
Because she’d just realized she wasn’t in the witch’s apartment any longer. In fact, she wasn’t exactly sure where she was.
On a bed. That’s where she was. She was on a bed, naked, beneath the softest sheets that she’d felt in ages. The room around her was lush. Fancy. Smelled of money. Her gaze darted to the left, to the right, and then—to the foot of the big bed.
Malik was there, standing with his hands crossed over his chest. His face was hard, angry, and his gaze blazed.
She had a vague flash of him running inside Lawrence’s place. Of him finding her over the body. Had someone else been there, too? That part was a little foggy, though she did remember—
“She’s a killer. Always has been. Always will be.”
Someone had been shouting those words. She’d gotten angry. What had she done when she’d been angry?
Malik wasn’t talking. He was just staring at her with his intense eyes. She sat up, slowly, and she could feel the hum of power in her body. This scene was about to get bad very, very fast. Because that surge from Lawrence was going to wreck her. Hold it together. Just for a little while. “Where are we?”
“Someplace safe.”
Doubtful. There were no safe places. She’d learned that long ago. “Another penthouse? A fancy suite? You like the top floors, don’t you?”
“Since I like to fly, they work.”
“And you paid for this by—?”
He just stared at her.
She’d deal with that part later. He’d probably gotten the place with more of his magic casino winnings. Her heart was about to jump out of her chest, and her whole body felt too warm. The witch’s power was burning inside of her. She could feel it growing. This is going to be so bad. “I didn’t kill Lawrence. Let’s just go ahead and clear that up.” Her words tumbled out too fast. Like she’d chugged energy drinks and was blasting at one hundred miles per hour.
A faint line appeared between his brows. “Didn’t think that you had. Why would you have wasted all of that blood?”
She wouldn’t have. Definitely wouldn’t have. Especially since she was hungry. She’d needed blood before going inside Lawrence’s place. And the fact that she’d gotten knocked with the power blast hadn’t alleviated her need.
In fact, the surge just made the blood hunger worse. Josephine was barely in control of herself. She struggled through her memories. “Someone else was there.”
He didn’t confirm or deny. But his gaze blazed a little brighter.
“Did I…hurt that person?”
“Merius deserved what he got.”
Crap. Merius had been the one there? “Did he kill Lawrence?” No, wait, Merius was a vamp, too. Why waste the blood?
“I don’t believe he killed the witch.”
Her fingers clenched around the sheets. “Where are my clothes?”
“They had blood on them. I didn’t think you’d like waking in blood-soaked garments, so I removed your clothes. I also cleaned the blood from your body.”
He’d taken her clothes. That meant he’d also taken the chunk of amber that Luke had given her. The amber that had still been in the pocket of her jeans. “Where are my clothes now?”
Malik’s head cocked. For an instant, she saw the shadow of his wings behind him. “Why? You don’t need them.”
Her heart pounded even harder. The magic pulsed inside of her. “You—”
“Oh, wait,” Malik cut in. “Maybe you don’t need the clothes.” He uncrossed his arms. Lifted his right hand. Uncurled his fist. “Maybe you were looking for this?”