by Cynthia Eden
He grabbed her. Grabbed her, spun her around, and pinned her against that damn bar. The same bar that he’d just fucked her on top of. Only…
It hadn’t been just fucking.
He could feel power humming in the air around him. “You don’t matter a little bit.”
She flinched.
He kissed her. Drove his tongue deep and took. Then… “Baby, you matter more than the rest of the whole world. You are my world. I love you, and hurting you, fuck, yes, that is the way to break me.”
“You…love me?”
“I’ve loved you for centuries, Mora. I’ve searched for you. Dreamed of you. And I swore, if I ever found you again, I wouldn’t screw up another time. I’d hold you tight. I’d do anything necessary to make you happy.” Because Leo had thought he could make her happy. Before his life had been changed…
He brushed a lock of her hair behind her ear. “I’m going to kill Ramiel.”
She caught his hand. “You’re not supposed to kill an angel.”
He smiled at her. Then he lowered his head and put his mouth right next to her ear. This secret was theirs alone. “And I’m also supposed to be the good one, but we both know I’m not.”
Not any longer.
Yes, he’d felt the change inside of himself. The growing anger. The hate. The twisting desire to destroy. A darkness, getting bigger and stronger with every moment that passed.
“It’s what Ramiel wanted,” Mora said and there was sadness in her words. “To push you over the edge.”
He thought of the angel he’d mistakenly trusted. The angel who’d let his own kind suffer. The angel who’d made Mora suffer. “He’s about to see what happens when I go over that edge.”
And he’s about to die.
He turned from her. It was time to cross the final line.
Good and evil…such a thin, damn line.
Chapter Eighteen
“You don’t…you don’t have to take this path.” The words slipped from Mora as her heart thundered in her chest.
Leo stilled and glanced back at her. His face was hard and angry, cut into grim lines of determination. It was hard to believe that the same man had just so tenderly said…
I love you.
She wanted the words again. Even more, she wanted to believe them. But she wouldn’t allow herself that luxury, not yet. She tried to smile for him, to give him hope. “You don’t have to kill Ramiel. Once you do, that’s a step that can’t be taken back.” A final nail in the coffin. “You have a choice. You’ve always had a choice.”
His eyes glittered at her. “You are my choice.” His voice was low and rough. “And when someone hurts you, that person pays.”
Ramiel would know that. He wanted to destroy every bit of goodness inside of Leo. He’d been working at him, chipping away for years—Mora could see that now. Ramiel wanted Leo out of the way, and he’d used her to accomplish his goals.
“I’ll see you soon, love,” Leo promised her. “As soon as I end an angel.” He stalked for the door.
No, she wasn’t going to be left behind. Mora bounded after him just as Leo stopped in front of the door. She reached out for him, thinking that maybe he’d changed his mind. There was still good in him, it was just down so deep—
“Vampire.” Leo spat. His eyes were on the door. Fury radiated from him as he grabbed that door and yanked it open.
She strained to see around him, but when she saw the man in the doorway, Mora became rooted to the spot.
She couldn’t be looking at a vampire…maybe a ghost, yes, but no way was that guy a vamp. Was he?
“Merius?” Leo’s voice was strangled.
The fellow she’d met—the angel she’d met just hours before—stood in the doorway, his broad shoulders filling the space. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt that was too tight. Rain had plastered his blond hair to his head. She hadn’t even realized a downpour had erupted outside. She’d been too distracted by the things happening inside Resurrection.
“I woke up…” Merius’s voice was halting. “There was only ash there. You were gone. Trina…gone. And I was…hungry.”
She could see his fangs, peeking out behind his lips. Long and wickedly sharp, they were the unmistakable fangs of a vampire.
Merius raked a hand over his face. “I…almost attacked a human. What…what is wrong with me?”
Leo’s hand locked around Merius’s shoulder. “I should have fucking thought…remembered…I am so sorry, Merius.”
Her palms were literally itching to touch the guy. She was desperate to see just how fate had played with this vamp, but it didn’t seem like the right moment to burst forward and put her hand on him. Mora rocked back on her heels. “You should come inside.”
Merius glanced at her. Hunger flashed on his face as his gaze dropped to her neck. Mora’s hands flew up and covered her throat—and her rapidly beating pulse.
“Don’t even think about it,” Leo ordered him curtly, but he yanked Merius inside the bar.
Merius shook his head, sending droplets of water flying. “Feeding is all I can think about. The hunger is constant…It’s driving me mad. It was…the first thing I felt when I woke up.” His head sagged forward. “My wings are gone.”
“Because Ramiel fucking took them from you.”
At those low, snarled words, Merius’s head snapped up. “What?”
Mora cleared her throat. They had a new vamp in front of them, one battling a severe case of bloodlust. Driving the guy into a killing frenzy didn’t seem like the best plan to her. “You don’t remember what happened?”
His thick brows lowered as Merius recalled, “I was attacked…from behind. Something—someone’s claws sliced into my wings and I hit the ground. I…never saw who hit me.” He shook his head. “Ramiel?” Even as he said the name, his face twisted with rage. His fangs seemed to grow even longer. Merius’s face had hollowed, his cheek bones becoming more pronounced.
Since she’d lived for such a long time, Mora knew a few things about vampires.
First, the newly awakened—like Merius—were often the most dangerous. New vampires felt only hunger. They understood only bloodlust. When the bloodlust got bad enough, they’d attack anyone near them. Everyone near them.
Second, a vampire’s rage was a decidedly deadly thing. Rage and bloodlust blended together, creating a perfect killing machine.
Third, no way on earth could an angel-turned-vampire beast be some weak paranormal. Mora knew she had to be staring at a powerhouse.
“Doesn’t make sense,” she whispered.
Merius twitched.
“You would have needed to be bitten, at the very least, by a vamp.” Actually, he would have needed a blood exchange. “You couldn’t just lose your wings and then wake up as a vamp. It doesn’t work that way.”
Merius gave a bitter laugh. “She marked me long ago.”
Mora slanted a worried glance at Leo, looking for some help. “She?”
Leo nodded grimly. “Merius was bitten by a vamp who broke every rule that I had in place. Angels were never supposed to be on the paranormal menu, but she found a way to get close to him. She seduced him.”
Now that was interesting to know. “I didn’t think angels were supposed to feel anything.” So how had he been seduced?
“I always felt…” Merius growled, “I felt it when Josephine was close.” His eyes were practically burning with bloodlust as he said the other woman’s name.
“Okay.” Mora cleared her throat. “But a bite doesn’t just do it. You would have needed her blood—” She broke off as understanding hit. She snapped her fingers together. “Your Josephine must have found you, after Ramiel attacked. She saved you.”
But Merius gave a bitter laugh. “Josie hates me. She would never do anything to save me.”
Don’t be so sure. “Sometimes, love and hate are closer than you realize.” Helplessly, her gaze was drawn to Leo. She’d spent so much time cursing him. Hating, yes, she’d done that, too. And
then he’d come back into her life.
Everything had changed.
Only not all of the change was for the better.
“Someone saved you,” Leo told Merius after a long, hard stare. “Because I couldn’t.” He ran a hand over his jaw. “You’re a newly turned vamp—you should have been pulled toward—”
“The Lord of the Dark,” Merius finished grimly. He stared straight at Leo. “Yes, I know.” His teeth snapped together. “The hunger…it’s driving me insane.” He licked his lips. “I need blood.”
A newly turned vamp could be savage in his need. If he attacked a human…
“Help me,” Merius pleaded with Leo. Then, “Stop me.”
Leo locked his hand around Merius’s shoulder. “You need blood? I know just where to get you some. One bastard is begging for a bite.”
Merius gave a grim nod. As one, he and Leo moved toward the door.
She was rooted to the spot. A fallen angel turned vampire? And Leo—no, no, this was going to end very, very badly. “You can’t just leave me here!”
But Leo didn’t look back at her. “This is the safest place for you. I can’t have you near Ramiel. I can’t risk him hurting you.” His shoulders rolled back. “All of the hellhounds were sent back to the fire. They won’t be able to get back for a while—Luke told me it took twenty-four hours for them to rise after a summoning.”
Her heart lurched. “You think Ramiel is going to summon them again?”
He opened the door. “He’ll try. But I’m about to stop him.”
“Leo…”
But he was gone. He’d grabbed Merius and they’d moved so fast—just vanishing. Mora ran outside, her gaze searching frantically for them, but they were nowhere in sight. She wrapped her hands around her body. “Dammit, Leo, you said you were going to stay with me!” Her words were shouted angrily into the storm cloud-filled sky. “You don’t get to just fly away!”
“He thinks he’s keeping you safe.” The low, rumbling voice came from right behind her.
Mora spun around.
A man was standing near her bar’s entrance, his shoulders pressed against the wall as he leaned there, studying her. The rain fell onto him.
A man with Leo’s face. Leo’s eyes. Leo’s…power.
“Luke,” she said his name like the accusation it was. “What in the hell are you doing here? And why didn’t Leo sense you?”
“Because he was preoccupied with other things.” He straightened away from the exterior wall and sauntered toward her. All slow and easy, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Maybe he didn’t.
She backed up a step.
He laughed at her retreat. “Come now, Fate. You know I’m not here to hurt you.”
The tension didn’t leave her body.
“No?” He quirked a brow. “Don’t know that?” He extended his hand toward her, offering her his palm. “Then how about you just take a look and see for yourself?”
“I…you’re like Leo. So powerful that I’ll need more than a touch.”
He laughed once more, but the sound was dark and a little threatening. “Of course, you do. Tell me, what do you need?”
Mora stared into his eyes. “I’m going to need you to bleed for me.”
***
“Stay out of sight until I call you,” Leo ordered Merius. The guy was looking bad. Like warmed over death. His fangs were out, his eyes lined with dark shadows, and his nails had turned into claws. Leo had thought that his fire had destroyed Merius’s body. When he’d let his flames loose to clean that horrible scene in the desert, Merius should have turned to ash.
“Can’t…last much…longer…” Merius panted.
Leo squeezed his shoulder. “You won’t have to. When the blood starts flowing, you come running, got it?”
Merius nodded.
They were about fifty yards away from a small house, one that sat, huddled and alone, at the end of a deserted street. There were no other homes nearby, just that little house. Its yard was overgrown, and the paint was peeling away. The place appeared deserted, only…It’s not empty now. Leo had tracked Ramiel’s scent to that house. The angel was in there, hiding.
Or maybe summoning hellhounds to do his bidding.
Either way, things were about to end for Ramiel.
“He should never have hurt her,” Leo said. “Come when you smell the blood.”
“Leo?”
He ignored his friend’s worried voice and started walking toward that house. Slowly. Steadily. And with every step, his rage grew. The rain pelted down on him.
I can never forgive…because of Mora.
***
She used a knife to slice a small line across Luke’s palm.
“Ouch,” he said.
She glanced up at him, her body tensing.
Luke smiled. “Just kidding. It takes a whole lot more than that to hurt me.” His gaze drifted around Resurrection. “I was sure I’d heard that this place had been torched recently.”
She put down the knife and headed behind the bar. She grabbed for the mirror, trying to yank it down off the wall. “It was.” The damn mirror was heavy. “Leo fixed it for me.”
“Did he?” And Luke was behind her. He pulled that mirror down effortlessly and placed it on top of the bar, right near the claw marks that had been left on the side of the wood. “How very good of him.”
She ignored the jibe. “Put your hand over the mirror.”
He did. Drops of his blood fell onto the glass.
“This is the part where I’m supposed to reach for your hand.” Her words came out a little too fast. “I’ll see what’s going to happen for you.”
She didn’t reach for his hand.
He waited. “I’ve always believed my brother had an unfair advantage. An advantage that he got by seducing you.”
Mora took that hit and flinched. “You think he used me.”
“Isn’t that what you think?” His blood dripped onto the glass.
She swallowed and didn’t answer his question.
“Did you really send my Mina to me?”
She was staring at the blood, not his face. “Yes.”
“Why?”
Her lips trembled. “Because maybe…I thought he had an unfair advantage, too.”
Luke laughed. “Part of you hated my brother, isn’t that so?”
A bigger part of me still loved him. “And maybe…maybe I sent her to you because I thought you deserved…” Now her eyes lifted to pin his. “Something good.”
His jaw hardened. “Take my hand, Mora. Let’s both find out what’s going to happen.”
Her breath eased out slowly. Her hand rose, but she didn’t touch his fingers. “Once, I looked for Leo, and I saw you killing him.”
His hand fisted. “What?”
“I could see the battle between the two of you. Leo…he didn’t fight back when you attacked him. He just stood there, and he took the blows. He took the attack, and then he was dead at your feet.”
Her fingers hovered over his fist. She could feel warmth from his skin—they were that close. “He never wanted to lift his hand against you.”
“Why not?” The words seemed torn from him.
She gave him a smile. “Because he was your big brother. Born two minutes before you. He thought he should always protect you. Always look out for you. And taking your life was the thing he swore to never do.”
Luke shook his head. “No. No. Leo has been a cold bastard for centuries. He has not secretly been working to save me.”
“You’re right. He hasn’t been working to save you.”
He nodded and appeared relieved. “Exactly. He’s—”
“He’s been trying to find a way to save you both.” Her attention turned back to his fist. “Let’s see if he succeeded.”
***
Leo kicked in the front door. It was wood—weak and flimsy—and when his boot-covered foot hit it, the door flew inward. He strode into the house, his nostrils flarin
g. “Ramiel!” He bellowed for the angel. “I know you’re here!” He walked over an old, faded rug that was on the floor. Raindrops fell from his body.
Chairs were inside. A small table. The house looked normal. Books were even carefully arranged on a bookshelf. It looked—
“They’re dead.”
Ramiel walked from the hallway. He stood there, right next to the empty fireplace. “Trina and Merius…” His shoulders slumped. “They both died during the attack. The…the wolves got them.”
The bastard dared to lie to him? “Look at me,” Leo ordered, his voice colder than ice.
Ramiel’s head whipped up. Grief was stamped on his face. “I saw them get attacked. The humans were screaming. I tried to save them. I tried to save them all.” His mouth tightened. “But I barely escaped myself. Your brother’s werewolves were vicious. They were destroying everyone and everything in their path.”
Leo’s jaw was locked tight. He advanced with heavy steps, moving to stand right in the middle of that woven rug. “Wolves didn’t attack. Hellhounds did.”
Shock flashed on Ramiel’s face. “What?”
Leo’s claws were out. And when he exhaled, smoke came from his lungs. His beast was far too close. “You stood at my side for centuries. And all along…you were betraying me.”
Ramiel’s lashes flickered. “I don’t know what you mean.” He walked toward Leo and then he knelt on the rug, lowering his head in a pose of subservience. “You are the Lord of the Light. You hold dominion over all the angels.” His hands slid into the pockets of his jacket. “I serve you.”
“You lie to me.” His claws lifted. He wanted to drive them right into Ramiel. “Your visions? How many of them were tricks? How many—”
Ramiel glared at him. “I don’t know what lies she has told you,” he said as he knelt before Leo. “But I only deal with truth. I’m an angel. My visions are real. They don’t come from the dark. They show me what should be.”
Leo put his claws to Ramiel’s throat. “Trina and Merius aren’t dead.”
For the first time, part of Ramiel’s mask seemed to crack. “Wh-what?”
“I sent all of your hellhounds back to the fire. Trina survived. And Merius…” Leo smiled. “Let’s just say he can’t wait to see you again.”