by Cynthia Eden
Her heart shoved into her ribs. Faster, faster, she zipped through the swamp. Northwest. Three miles wasn’t so much.
Except it seemed like a whole hell of a lot when you were running through a damn creature-infested swamp.
Then Az grabbed her wrist and jerked her against him.
“What—” she began, panting.
He covered her mouth with his hand.
“Someone’s following us.” His whisper.
And she heard the thud of pounding feet—coming quickly toward them.
A shifter would be able to pick up their scent and follow them perfectly in the swamp. But if it were just humans . . . humans wouldn’t be able to track them even half as well.
Her hand pressed against Az’s chest. His gaze held hers. They waited.
Humans . . . or shifters?
Az pulled her deeper into the shadows of some swaying trees. His hand slipped away from her mouth. They stood close, bodies brushing. Neither dared speak.
“Dammit!” A man’s angry shout seemed to echo through the swamp. “I saw them run out here!”
“Now I don’t see a fuckin’ thing,” came another voice. Also male. Also pissed.
The sound of her breath seemed far too loud to Jade. And those voices were too close. She rose up on her tiptoes, and, over Az’s shoulder, she caught sight of the men.
Uniforms. “Cops,” she whispered. Cops who were heading in their direction.
She felt the tension in Az’s body. His head bent toward hers. “I can take care of them.” Barely a breath of sound.
No doubt he could. But, if possible, she’d really like to avoid adding the assault of two police officers to her already extensive résumé. So Jade pulled Az closer and tried not to make a sound.
Go away. Head back in the other direction.
“Shit, they could be anyplace by now,” one of the cops snarled.
Not just anyplace. She’d gone northwest. She’d scouted before she picked this house as a retreat spot. She knew how to mark the directions. And this way—it led to the old dirt road that cut around and looped through the back of the swamp.
The cops kept talking, but the sound of their voices grew softer. They were moving away. Going back to the house. Muttering about not getting paid enough to dodge snakes.
She waited until those voices faded away completely. Then she took a deep breath. Jade glanced up and found Az’s eyes on her—well, on her mouth.
Her hand was still on his chest. Right over his pounding heart. She cleared her throat. “I . . . uh, think it’s safe now.” Though the cops could return with reinforcements anytime.
He nodded and stepped back.
Get a grip, girl.
She turned away and headed straight ahead, away from those sheltering trees.
“You sure that you know where we’re going?” He asked.
Glancing back, she tossed him a real smile. “I’m good with escape plans.”
His eyes narrowed on her.
She shook her head. “Come on, angel, let’s get moving.”
They didn’t speak again, not until they’d cleared the swamp. The motorcycle waited under a weeping willow, just where Tanner had promised.
This is too easy. Has to be a setup.
After years of running and struggling to survive on her own, now she suddenly had an angel and a cop who wanted to help her?
No way. Fate wouldn’t smile on her like that.
Az climbed onto the motorcycle. Of course, he looked good—better than good—on it. Hot sex on a summer day better.
But she knew just how dangerous a sexy man could be.
The weight of the gun she’d taken from Tanner pressed into her lower back. Had Az seen her grab the gun and slip it out of the cabin? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, she wasn’t exactly defenseless anymore.
Jade cocked a brow. “I get that you’re the big, tough supernatural and all.” She lifted up the keys. “But I’m the one who knows the area, so I’ll be the one doing the driving.”
He blinked at her.
Jade grinned. “Move on back, angel.”
She slipped in front of him. Started the engine and enjoyed the purr of the motorcycle.
Az’s thighs pressed around her. His arm slid around her stomach.
“Hold on,” she told him and shot away from the tree. A cloud of dust followed in her wake. “Things are going to get rough.”
Just the way she liked them.
CHAPTER SIX
Ten minutes until midnight.
Az stared up at the tombs as they rose over the heavy, brick wall that surrounded the cemetery. The scent of flowers teased his nose, but he knew that scent wasn’t coming from some floral tokens left on the graves by mourners.
You can always catch the scent when Death is close.
A tell-tale sign that an angel was nearby. Death Angels were at their strongest when they were about to take a soul. In those few moments, humans could catch the sweet scent of flowers.
A death scent.
Death didn’t really smell like decay and rot. That smell just came to the bodies after the souls were gone.
Tonight, death was close. Following him.
His eyes narrowed as he scanned the darkness. Who’d be dying tonight?
“Okay, this is as far as you go.” Jade crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him. Her eyes seemed to shine under the light of the moon and stars. “Now you take the motorcycle and go someplace safe.”
His lips twitched. How . . . charming. She thought to protect him once more. She kept doing that, despite what she knew of him. “Trying to get rid of me again?”
She shook her head. “Look, I don’t even understand . . . why do you want to help me? I’m nothing to you!”
Anger stirred within him as the mild amusement vanished. She was hardly nothing.
“I appreciate the white knight routine, believe me, I do, but why?” A faint line appeared between her brows. She stood just a few feet away, on the cracked sidewalk, and asked, “Why do you want to help me? Why are you risking your life for me?”
And the truth came from him. “Because I think you can give my life back to me.”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
He shoved down the kickstand and climbed from the motorcycle so he could close in on her. His gaze tracked to that line of stark tombs that rose over the steep walls. “I’ve been here before.”
“Yeah, well, you, me, and every tourist who wants an up-close look at the cities of the dead—”
“I fell here.”
She didn’t say anything in response to that. Interesting. He’d found that Jade often had plenty to say. Not this time.
Her mouth actually hung open a bit.
He brushed by her and headed for the heavy gates that led into the cemetery. Dark shadows stretched from the entrance. And he remembered . . .
Crashing. Agony. Pain.
“I didn’t know who I was.” Not at first. The descent had been so intense, the fire so hot, that his memories had been wiped from him.
Az crossed the threshold into the cemetery. His gaze swept around, and then he was snaking through the old graves. Left. Right. Moving more by instinct than anything else.
She followed closely behind him. “Az . . .”
“After the fall, no one ever remembers, not at first.” It had been good, too, not knowing. Living in ignorance of the lives he’d taken. The sins he’d committed.
Another turn. Another.
He heard her gasp behind him. Before them, an old crypt had been smashed, and wide cracks spread out from the broken tomb’s middle like spiderwebs. Beside the remains, a broken stone angel looked mournfully at the wreckage.
It only seemed fitting that she’d lost a wing, too.
He stared at that crypt. “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in hell?”
“Yes.”
Frowning, Az glanced back at her.
Her gaze was on him, not the crypt. “We all have our own hell.
” Her hand touched his shoulder. “I-I’m not sure what you’re exactly expecting. I can’t give you back heaven.”
Maybe not.
But maybe . . .
“A witch found me.” He turned to better face her, and Jade’s brows lifted at his admission. “She cleaned me up, gave me food, then, just when I was growing stronger, she turned around and sold me out to a bunch of bastards who got off on torturing Other.”
Jade swallowed. “What happened to them?”
She needed to see him for what he was. “I killed them all.” Well, those Sam hadn’t gotten to first, anyway.
She held his stare. “And the witch?”
“Her time will come.” She wouldn’t escape him unscathed. Az planned to make certain of that.
Jade stared up at him in confusion. “You’re standing here telling me that you’re some heartless badass, but you’re helping me so I—”
“I’m helping myself.” The words fell heavily. “You’re a human. Favored. Weak.”
Deceptively so. Humans were gifted with the rush of emotions. With pleasures. Pains.
He could seek vengeance on those who’d wronged him. Vengeance was his by right. But to give her protection, to aid one weaker . . . now that just might be enough to earn some redemption.
“So I’m just the lucky human you saw about to get an ass-kicking? Who I am doesn’t matter? You would risk your life to save any of us?”
He nodded. “Yes.” He would do what was necessary. Protect the weak. Fight and claw his way back to heaven.
Her sigh held a sad edge. “Not all humans need protecting.” A pause. “Not all humans want protecting.” Then she turned away from him. “We also don’t all enjoy being called a ‘temptation’ by some lost Fallen with some intimacy is-sues.”
He blinked and stared after her. Intimacy issues? He’d never been intimate with another. Angels weren’t allowed the luxury of intimacy. “You don’t understand what the world is like, for me.” So much noise. The feelings. The emotions. They were all ripping him apart.
Except . . . except it hadn’t been so bad in the last few days. Not since he’d been with her.
Jade didn’t look back at him. “Was it really that much better up there?”
He didn’t answer.
At his silence, Jade glanced over her shoulder at him. “I mean, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows down here, but we’re alive. That has to count for something, right?”
Something.
“Instead of trying so hard to get back upstairs,” she told him, “maybe you should consider that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”
With her.
But then she shook her head and looked away from him. “I think that cop stood us up. And being in a cemetery, at midnight, is not my idea of a good time.”
But even as she spoke, Az heard the rustle of footsteps. Sliding away—or coming closer?
Either way, he took a step toward Jade.
“Muggers hide out here,” she told him, voice quieter now as she scanned the shadows around them. “But they’re not even the start of what we need to fear.”
He knew all about the vampires who liked to stalk the cities of the dead. They’d hide in the dark, waiting for victims who were curious—and even willing—and then they’d strike.
Those victims would die.
But it wasn’t a vampire who stepped from the shadows. It was the shifter.
Az didn’t relax his guard, and he could tell by the stiffness of Jade’s shoulders that she wasn’t relaxing hers, either.
“You pack one hell of a punch,” Tanner said as he studied Az. The full moon fell onto them and sent their shadows chasing across the crypts.
Az shrugged. He’d actually gone easy on the guy. If he’d wanted, he could have broken the cop’s jaw with that punch.
Tanner whistled softly. “There’s a very high price on your head, man. You gonna be up for the hunters coming your way?”
He couldn’t wait to face them. A battle would drain some of the growing tension from his body. Tension that increased every time Jade touched his skin.
Want her. He’d stroked her flesh. Tasted her.
And learned why mortals killed for pleasure.
Az shoved those memories aside. “I’m ready.” Fear was the only emotion he’d yet to feel on earth. What was there to fear? What was there left to lose? Nothing.
“He doesn’t have to be ready.” Jade’s voice. Flat. Calm. “This isn’t his fight. I’m the one going after Brandt.” She turned to Az and put her hand on his chest, right over his heart. Her voice lowered as she said, “I’m not your salvation. Helping me isn’t gonna give you some free pass into heaven.”
Her scent slipped around him. His body hungered for hers. Needed.
“And I’m not going to be your temptation, either.” Now a thread of anger slipped into her voice. Anger. Hurt? “I’ve already been there and done that for another. Dammit, I’m more.”
Pain was reflected in her eyes.
She tried to turn away then. He grabbed her hand and held tight. Won’t let go. “You need me.” He didn’t bother lowering his voice. He wanted the shifter to hear this. If they were going into a fight, they’d need his strength to win.
Jade would need him. He didn’t know why it was so important for her to admit that.
It simply was.
“Look,” Tanner growled, “you two can have your lovers’ spat later, but right now, we need to go figure out our plan of attack.”
Az felt the shifter’s eyes on him then. Seeing too much. His hold on Jade tightened as he looked up and regarded the shifter with deeper suspicion. Just because you were a cop, it didn’t mean you should be trusted.
He sure didn’t trust the jerk.
Just because you were an angel, it didn’t mean you were good.
He knew that better than others.
“You didn’t come alone,” Az said, certain.
“Because I’m not so trusting, either.” He shrugged. “And because I know you’re no guardian.”
No, but he was guarding Jade. While angels couldn’t lie outright, they knew how to twist the truth to conceal their secrets.
“So who’s watching us?” Jade wanted to know. With her free hand, she pointed to the shadows.
“My backup plan.” Tanner didn’t look away from them. “Now are we going to stand out here all night, wasting time, or are we ready to get down to business?”
“Business?” Az repeated.
“Brandt’s death. It’s what we both want.”
It was what Jade seemed to need.
“He’s not exactly an easy guy to destroy,” Jade said softly. “In case you haven’t noticed.”
Tanner laughed, but the grating sound held no humor. “I noticed alright. I also know that everything can die. You just have to get close enough to make the kill.” Tanner stalked toward them. “Getting close isn’t exactly a problem for you, is it, Jade?”
She didn’t answer. Az narrowed his eyes on the shifter.
“But there’s close . . .” Tanner murmured, “and then there’s killing close.”
Jade sucked in a deep breath. “Do you have a plan?” she demanded. “Or are you just out here to spout bullshit?”
Az smiled. He liked the woman’s fire. She seemed to have more fury in her than most humans.
So hot, you could almost feel the burn.
Tanner smiled at her, too, and that grin flashed his sharp canines. “I thought a human would be more afraid.”
“I am scared. Scared every single moment.” That wasn’t sarcasm coming from her, either.
Her confession gave Az pause. He hadn’t realized . . .
“I just want the nightmare over,” she continued, “and I want to be able to live like everyone else. So if you’ve got some great plan, then share it, and let’s cut the crap.”
Az listened carefully, not to Jade and the shifter, but to the whisper of sounds that surrounded them.
Another r
ustle. A brush of fabric against stone. The softest of breaths.
There.
Az moved in an instant, rushing toward the watcher, and moving so quickly that he knew he’d appear to be a blur.
He caught the watcher in his grasp even as he heard Tanner call out a warning.
Too late.
He stared at the person in his hands—a person very familiar to him.
Wide eyes. Close-cropped blond hair. Small. Deceptively delicate.
Witch.
The same witch who’d sold him out months before. In that instant, Az knew they’d walked into a trap.
“You’re dying,” he told her. She’d traded his life. Now he’d take hers.
“No!” Tanner’s shout, cutting through the night. “Fuck, no, don’t hurt her!”
It wouldn’t hurt. He could be compassionate. Death could be as gentle as a whisper.
Vengeance is mine.
“Az . . .” Jade’s voice, drifting on the wind to him.
The scent of flowers teased his nose again. A Death Angel was close.
Az looked back. Tanner had his claws at Jade’s throat. In turn, she had a gun pointed right at his heart.
“I think we all need to take a minute and calm the hell down,” the shifter called out.
Az felt amazingly calm. The witch barely seemed to breathe.
“We need each other,” Tanner growled. “Brandt and his pack are too powerful for us to face alone.”
Doubtful.
Az stared back at the witch. A faint smile lifted her lips. “Still think you’re the strongest force on earth, do you, angel?”
“I think I’m looking at a dead woman,” he said.
But she laughed. “Not yet, you aren’t.
Why was he hesitating? “You sold me out once already.”
“And I’ll do it again.” Sounded like a promise. “That’s why you need me.”
Footsteps raced toward them. Jade and Tanner. Not taking aim at one another any longer. Instead—
“Don’t hurt her,” Tanner ordered. “That witch is our ticket into the pack.”
“Witch?” Jade staggered to a stop beside them. Az’s focus shifted to Jade even as he kept his grip on the witch.
Jade’s gaze flew between Az and the woman. “No one mentioned anything about a witch—”