by Cynthia Eden
Sam’s blood chilled. “Rogziel did catch you, didn’t he?”
A sad, regretful nod of Tomas’s head. “You didn’t arrive soon enough.”
Sam could smell the blood that still coated Tomas. He couldn’t see the wounds, but he knew they were there. “Why are you still living?” A brutal question but one that had to be asked.
Nicole appeared again and shook her head. No Seline.
“Rogziel wanted me to trick you—to get you to come in willingly with me.”
Sam waited.
Tomas held his stare. “I agreed.”
“You traded your life for mine?” And to think, he’d once saved Tomas’s sorry ass. A pack of vampires had closed in on the Fallen just days after he’d hit earth. The angel blood was often a lure for the undead—the taste of it made them feel alive again.
I should have let him die.
But he’d been in the mood to kick vampire ass then.
“Something like that,” Tomas muttered. He glanced at Keenan. “You need to get out of Mexico, K. Get out.” His jaw tightened when he saw Nicole. “And make sure you take her with you.”
Tomas hadn’t been real keen on vampires since his attack. But then Tomas said, “The last thing you want to do is leave her unprotected.”
And Sam understood. What was said . . . and what wasn’t. Some angels couldn’t even twist the truth that well.
Tomas was such an angel.
“You know Rogziel’s crossed the line,” Sam said. Az was still there. Not moving. Just watching, waiting. Because he understood what it was like to be Rogziel’s captive?
Because he wanted to find out where the bastard was so he could rip him apart first?
No dice. Rogziel’s mine.
“Yes, I know . . .” Tomas lifted his shirt, and Sam saw the deep claw marks that crossed his stomach. “He let his pet play with me for a while.”
“The hound?” Keenan demanded. “The hound is back?”
“He doesn’t just have one hound,” Tomas told him, shoving his shirt back down. “He’s got two. The second bastard is even bigger than the one I saw at the motel.”
That wasn’t good to know. Sam took a step toward Tomas. “Where’s Seline?”
“Two hounds?” Az muttered. “Two?”
Kill him. The spear was still in Sam’s hand. It would be so easy.
“If you want her to live, you’ll come with me now.”
Angels could twist the truth . . .
“We’ll all come,” Keenan snarled, and his shadow wings flared.
But Tomas shook his head. “Sorry, that’s not how it works.”
Then he lunged forward and grabbed Sam. “When it comes to angels, you were always too trusting.” Then a familiar chant filled Sam’s ears.
Mateo.
Sam didn’t fight. He could have broken free. But if he had, then Seline might suffer. In the instant of time that he had, Sam broke the head off the spear and curled his fingers around the claw. The wood fell to the ground.
Az’s tense face vanished. Keenan shouted his name.
And the world became a swirling vortex of dark gray smoke.
“Something you should know,” Sam grated as wind howled in his ear like demons screaming.
Tomas grunted.
“Mateo knows better than to sell my ass out.” He slammed his hand into Tomas’s chest. “He’s too smart for that.”
The wind stopped howling. The smoke vanished. Sam and Tomas slammed into the ground. But in an instant, Sam was back on his feet. On his feet, and with his weapon pressed against Tomas’s throat. “Obviously,” Sam told the dumbass, “you’re not.”
Tomas glared up at him. “How the hell did you do that?”
He used his left hand to yank at the charm around his neck—a charm Mateo had given him. “Let’s just call it my little get-out-of-jail free card. It’s real handy for breaking spells.” He let the claw slice Tomas’s throat. “You take me to Seline, now, or you die.”
Seline glared down the long, winding road. The sun was rising slowly in the sky, and she was already baking out there.
No one was on this road. That freaking Fallen had dumped her in the middle of nowhere. No phone. No people. No help.
No Sam.
And, oh, damn, she was worried about him. What if Az killed him? What would she do then?
Her shoulders hunched even as her head tilted back, and she stared helplessly up at that stretching expanse of blue sky.
“Please,” she whispered, aware that her voice was thick with emotion that nearly choked her. Az had known her mother. Sam could be dying. “Help me.”
Because she knew Rogziel had gone after Sam. Despite his strength, Sam couldn’t defeat both Az and Rogziel, and if Rogziel brought his hounds with him, there wouldn’t even be a chance for Sam to survive.
Her eyes squeezed closed. She was lost, had no clue, and Sam—
“Sam is stronger than you think.” A soft laugh floated in the air. “He’s stronger than pretty much any angel on earth or above it.”
Slowly, Seline opened her eyes. A woman stood before her. Small, delicate, with close-cropped dark hair and a delicate, almost elfin face.
The woman wore all white, a bright contrast to her light brown skin, and strong, powerful black wings spread behind her.
Seline’s knees trembled. Rogziel usually kept his wings hidden, an old angel trick. This woman—she wasn’t bothering with tricks.
And she also wasn’t standing in front of Seline. The woman hovered about a foot in the air.
Black wings . . . Rogziel had black wings, too. All punishment angels did. And, because of Sam, she knew that all Angels of Death did, as well. Seline swallowed back her fear. “Are you here to kill me?”
The woman glanced around. “Um, no.”
The scent of flowers was strong. Roses. The woman smelled like roses.
“Then you’re a punishment angel.”
“Um . . .”
That really wasn’t an answer.
The woman flew closer. Those wings fluttered behind her. “You look a lot like Erina.”
Seline licked her lips. “So I’ve been told.”
The angel’s bright stare raked her. “It’s a pity you never knew her.”
Her throat hurt when she cleared it. “Yeah, it is.”
The angel’s gaze saw too much. “Why didn’t you call sooner?” the woman asked softly. “All these years . . . it sure took you long enough, Seline.”
She was missing something. “What?”
The angel pointed toward the blue sky. “If you’d wanted help, you should have asked sooner.” A soft sigh slipped from her lips. “As it is, you’ve almost waited too late now.”
“You’re kidding me!” A hot spoke of anger burned in her belly. “You’re telling me that to make this nightmare stop, all I had to do was ask?” In-freaking-sane.
“Ask and you shall receive,” the angel told her with a slight nod. “You asked and now help is here.”
“Here to do what?”
The angel’s feet touched the ground. Her wings curled in behind her, and a hard, fierce expression crossed her face. “To punish.”
“Yeah? Who exactly are you here to punish? Me? Sam? Azrael? Or what about that power-mad Rogziel? Do you know what he’s been doing?”
“I’m not the one who will give Rogziel his punishment,” the angel said in a serene, clear voice.
“So you’re not going to do anything?” Seline demanded, her voice closer to a screech. “You’re just gonna stand there and watch him kill angels?”
No emotion flickered over the angel’s face. “Rogziel is not the same angel he once was.”
“No shit! I figured that out the first time I saw him slice open a vampire and smile.” But how did you get away from someone who had the power of heaven on his side? “I thought you said you’d help me.”
“I will.” The angel’s gaze raked her. “You’re a very fortunate woman, Seline.”
Not so
much from where she was standing. Both parents dead. Raised by a psycho angel. Destined to live off the energy of others, like a psychic vamp. Not so great there.
“You can control a hellhound.” Was that a trace of admiration in the angel’s voice? Yes, a bare whisper. “That means you can be . . . more.”
Seline wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that. “More what?”
Those black wings stretched out. “All your life, you’ve never felt as if you truly belonged, did you?”
“Try being a demon half-breed in a world of humans. You won’t belong, either.” A trickle of sweat slid down her back.
“You don’t have to dwell with them.”
Seline rocked back on her heels. “What are you saying?” Couldn’t the angel just spit it out? “I just want to get back to Sam. I want—”
“He can’t kill Azrael.” Flat, but whispering with the underlying timbre of power.
Seline blinked. “Um, well, then I suggest you use those wings and fly me to them because when I left, it sure looked like it was close to killing time.”
“Brother against brother . . .” The angel’s brows furrowed. “That way leads to destruction. Azrael cannot die by Sam’s hand.”
“If he does . . .” She had to ask. “What happens?”
“Their blood is bound. They were linked from the beginning of time.” The angel’s head cocked and she seemed to be looking far away. Into the past? “One cannot live without the other.”
The fear in Seline’s belly twisted harder. “You’re telling me this now?”
“They were twins. One light, one dark. Now both are becoming dark. There has to be balance.” Those bright eyes bored into Seline. “You have to give them balance.”
The wind began to whip behind Seline. She glanced back, expecting to see a car barreling toward her. No one was there.
“You seek justice,” the angel told her. “You are the instrument.”
No, no, no. Seline’s head snapped back around. “I thought you said you’d help me!”
“I will . . .” The angel rose into the air. “I’m going to help you come home.”
But she didn’t have a home. Never had.
“Seline!”
She jumped at Sam’s shout. She whirled and found him behind her. Him . . . and the jerk who’d dropped her in the middle of nowhere.
But Sam’s eyes weren’t on her. They were above her. On the angel. “Delia! Get away from her!”
His rage blasted through Seline.
Afraid now, she glanced over her shoulder. Delia had a sword in her hands. The long blade gleamed. “Stop him,” Delia told Seline. “Or I will be sent after him. Balance will be maintained, one way or another.”
Then she rose higher into the sky. Her wings stretched, and the angel vanished.
Seline finally took a deep breath.
“You summoned a punishment angel?” It was the dumbass who spoke. Sam had a tight grip on him, and some kind of small blade—looked more like a wicked sharp claw—was at the guy’s throat. “You must have one serious death wish.”
Seline ignored him. She stared at Sam. “I was—” Worried. Afraid.
Sam nodded, and she knew he understood. Then his gaze turned to the Fallen. “Time for you to die, Tomas.” He shifted his hand, placing the weapon right against Tomas’s jugular. “See you in—”
“No!” Tomas’s face flushed. “He’ll kill her!”
“No one will kill Seline,” Sam roared.
Seline hurried closer to them. I want to bring you home. Her fingers pressed against Sam’s back, right over his shoulder blades, and she felt the instant tenseness of his body.
“Not her!” Tomas’s throat was bleeding. “Sierra. My Sierra. The bastard has her. If I don’t bring you back—just you—then she’s dead.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Azrael stared across the clearing at Keenan and his vampire. Blood gushed from Azrael’s wounds while Keenan showed no visible signs of weakness. How unfortunate. “You think you’re going to finish what my brother started?” He couldn’t believe that his brother had actually vanished. Left the battle . . . for a woman.
Sam should know better than to lust for a succubus. They could twist any man, human or Other, inside out. A succubus took and took until nothing was left, then she tossed away the husk of the being—the empty shell was all that remained when she was finished.
Azrael laughed and hoped the sound didn’t show how weak he was becoming. “The sun’s up.” Stating the obvious, but perhaps Keenan hadn’t realized the full significance of what was happening overhead. “And your vamp is starting to look awful pale.”
The sun wouldn’t burn a vampire. That was just a mortal misconception. The sun simply made a vampire weak. Human level.
As Az expected, Keenan immediately stepped in front of the vampire as if to shield her.
This time, though, Azrael could see—and understand—the emotion glittering in Keenan’s eyes. “You truly do love her.”
Emotions. He’d never tasted them until he burned. Sam . . . he knew his brother had never been like the other angels. Angels weren’t supposed to feel. They were just supposed to serve. But he’d seen the flash of rage too many times in Sam’s eyes. He’d known the fall was coming, long before Sam slaughtered those men.
My fault. I should have stopped him.
The Fall had initially washed away Az’s memories, but every day, he recalled more of his past. When he thought of Sam, the guilt gnawed in his chest.
“You’ll never hurt her,” Keenan yelled at him.
Az’s blood stained the ground. “I don’t want to hurt her.”
True enough. He didn’t, not anymore. But Keenan wouldn’t be forgetting just what Az had tried to do to the vampire before. There would be no forgetting—or forgiving—from Keenan.
Keenan blinked, then his eyes narrowed as he studied Az.
Once, he and Keenan had been . . . not friends, but—almost. As close as angels could get to friendship. Then Azrael had tried to kill Keenan’s vampire—the little female currently glaring so fiercely at him as she peered over her lover’s shoulder.
A mistake. He just hadn’t understood how Keenan felt, not then.
Even now, he didn’t fully comprehend, but he could still recognize love when he saw it staring back at him.
“I thought returning to heaven was best for you.” Az admitted his arrogance. He hadn’t seen that arrogance, not while he’d been in heaven, but it had been there, just beneath the surface. When had the emotions begun to slip past his guard? Like a poison, they’d worked under his skin, but, again, he hadn’t realized, not until the fire burned his flesh. “I thought I knew how to save you.”
“You thought wrong.”
The vampire wasn’t speaking. He could see the lines of strain on her face. Still new to the undead world, she wouldn’t have adapted so well to her daytime weakness.
Her weakness would be Keenan’s.
“So I did.” Azrael turned away. His battle was not with Keenan or the vampire.
Sammael. A true brother of his blood. When he’d fallen and woken in that cemetery, a witch had found him. She’d tended his wounds, fed him, and told him that hell would come calling.
One brother would die.
He hadn’t even known who he was then. She had. “Hello, Death. I saw you fall.” Her hands had clasped a darkened mirror.
He hadn’t trusted the witch, with good reason. She’d been the one to turn him over to Rogziel.
I’ll find you again.
He’d be sure that hell called on her one day soon, too.
Az stepped forward and found his path blocked by Keenan. “You’re not going anyplace.”
He didn’t want to hurt Keenan. “I’ve got a millennium on you. You don’t want to get in my way.” Blood loss or not, he could still take Keenan out. He didn’t have to play by angel rules any longer. He could fight as dirty as he wanted. He was leaving. Even if he had to go through Keenan in order to get a
way. “Rogziel is hunting Fallen.” He probably had Sammael right then. “I’m stopping him.” I’m the only one who can kill Sammael. Rogziel didn’t get to end his brother’s life.
“You’re so full of shit.”
Az blinked at the vulgarity. Keenan had truly fallen far.
“You think I believe a word you’re saying? You just want to find Sammael and attack him.”
It was a bit more complicated than that . . . and he wasn’t explaining his plans to the Fallen and his vamp. “Sorry, Keenan, but I have to go.” And he blasted out a path with his power. Not at Keenan. A blaze of fire that charged toward the vampire.
Nicole screamed, and the sound cut into Azrael. Keenan lunged to her aid, jumping in front of her to protect her body from the flames.
Clearing Azrael’s path. He let the fire circle them, but didn’t let it touch Nicole’s skin. After all, he didn’t want to hurt the vampire. Not anymore.
Not that he expected Keenan to believe that.
Keenan pushed his power at the flames, forcing them out, and Azrael smiled as he pumped up his power and disappeared.
Sam glared down at Tomas, rage boiling in his blood like acid. A punishment angel had been close enough to attack Seline. She’d been alone, unprotected, and all because of this prick.
“Please,” Tomas gritted, and Sam knew the angel had never begged before. Not even when the vamps had pinned him to the ground and ripped open his jugular. “Sierra’s human. She doesn’t—she doesn’t even understand what’s happening.”
“And you want me to die for her?” Who the hell did Tomas think he was talking to?
Tomas stared back at him. “I’m planning to kill for her. I was hoping you’d be willing to kill, too.”
Sam hesitated as he met Tomas’s gaze. Despite those words, Sam didn’t trust him.
“Um . . . who’s Sierra?” Seline’s voice was soft behind him. Her fingers seemed to burn right through Sam’s shirt.
“His charge.” Sam didn’t drop the weapon. “Before he fell, Tomas here was a guardian angel, and he was supposed to guard her.”
“She’s psychic,” Tomas whispered. “Her destiny . . . Sierra was going to see things. Change the world. I was supposed to protect her.”