by Cynthia Eden
Tanner whistled as he came closer for a better look at the bullets. “You actually got them.”
“Was there any doubt?” Jade asked as her brows rose.
Az almost smiled at her. Instead, he glanced at the shifter and said, “Guaranteed to stop an angel,” even an earthbound one, “in his tracks.” He closed the chamber with a snap of his wrist.
“And what if he . . . changes?” Sam asked, and Az glanced at him, struck by the odd note in his brother’s voice. But Sam’s face was perfectly blank as he said, “Seline’s a hybrid, too, and when her human body died, the angels just took her to work upstairs.”
Az knew that had been the moment Sam’s real hell began.
He spared a glance for Jade and saw worry flicker in her emerald gaze. Can’t have that. I don’t want her to worry.
“If that happens, I guess I’ll just chase his winged ass down and make sure he stays dead.” The gun was a light weight he barely felt in his hand. “But something tells me after all the crap he’s pulled, heaven isn’t going to be real eager to welcome him past those grand gates.”
“They’d better not be,” Cody muttered.
“So what’s the plan?” Tanner wanted to know. The shifter’s body seemed to vibrate with barely leashed energy. “You want me to go out and track the bastard?”
Screams trickled through the shut door. Shouts. Pounding footsteps.
“I don’t think that tracking will be necessary,” Sam said as he strode toward that door. His fingers curled around the doorknob as he yanked the door open. The screams spilled into the room then. “Something tells me our boy has found us.”
Jade’s eyes widened as she stepped toward the door. Az blocked her. “No way.” If Brandt thought he was getting his hands on her, the guy could think again. The hybrid shifter would have to go through him first. His gaze flew to Tanner and Cody. “You two stay here with her. Make sure no one but me comes back in that door.”
One entrance. One exit. Two powerful Other. They’d keep her safe.
Or he’d make them wish for death.
He glanced over his shoulder. Sam was already gone. The guy had disappeared into the screams and the chaos.
Jade grabbed his arm. “So that’s it? I just stay here while you run out and risk your life?”
That was the general plan, yes.
“Let me help you.”
Az shook his head. “I won’t risk you again. Brandt almost killed you before. He won’t have you tonight.”
He could hear animalistic snarls now. Brandt and his men had shifted to attack. With humans there? They really were crazy.
Bending, he kissed her. A fast, hard press of his lips. “It’ll be over soon.”
She didn’t speak, but just watched him with worried eyes.
Then it was Az’s turn to follow the screams. He raced outside of the private room and saw the stampeding mass. He’d been wrong—Brandt’s men hadn’t shifted, not all the way, but they were using their claws to slice apart anyone who got in their way. Slicing, laughing, and snarling like panthers as the blood flowed.
Sam was already running toward them. One touch, and the laughing asshole to the right of Sam went down.
His brother was fast.
Az was faster.
Another shifter cut a redhead, slicing her right across the stomach. Az jumped forward and ripped her away from the guy. He pushed her behind him even as he shoved his hand against the shifter’s chest. Before that panther hit the ground, his body was stone hard and his eyes—wide, horrified—stared at nothing.
Two down. The rest of the pack to go.
Az smiled in anticipation.
No way. Jade watched Az’s powerful form rush from the room. She wasn’t just going to stand back, to hide, while Az went out there and faced her nightmare.
The guy had forgotten, she wasn’t just a human anymore. As the adrenaline pumped through her, Jade’s body began to heat up with a charge she’d felt before. Burn, baby, burn.
If she had to, she could burn her way right through that pack.
I won’t let you take all the risk, Az.
The guy needed to think again.
She strode forward. Tanner’s fast grip on her arm jerked her right back. “Just where do you think you’re goin’ now, ma’am?”
Jade narrowed her eyes. “I think I’m going into the fight.”
Snick.
She glanced down at her wrist. The gleaming, gold cuff that he’d taken off Marna now locked around her wrist.
Snick.
The other cuff circled his thick wrist.
Son of a bitch. She really hadn’t seen that one coming. Sneaky shifter.
“Don’t think so,” Tanner said softly. “You see, despite what you may think, I don’t have a death wish, and I don’t want that Fallen lover of yours coming to send my ass to hell.”
She yanked on the cuff.
His brows lowered. “Settle down. Once we hear the shots, and we know it’s all clear . . .” He glanced over at Cody. The demon had taken up a position blocking the now closed and barred door. “Then we’ll go out and you can take as many swings at me as you want.”
And she would. Settle down, my ass.
But then she heard a groan. A long, shuddering groan that seemed to be shaking the building itself.
“Fuck,” Tanner spat and whirled toward the right wall.
A long crevice was sliding down the white surface. Breaking it open, breaking—
An explosion rocked right through the wall. Bricks and boards flew into the air, fire roared, and Jade and Tanner both slammed backwards before they hit the hard floor.
The explosion froze Az. Two shifters surrounded him, each using human females as shields, and when the thundering reverberation rocked through the club, they started to laugh.
“Too late now,” one said, and he tossed the sobbing blond female at Az.
Az grabbed her, barely stopping her from crashing into the ground. She clung to him, desperate. Hysterical.
“Should’ve left the humans to rot,” the other shifter muttered as he sliced his claws down the brunette’s face.
She shrieked in pain and fury.
Az shook off the blonde and jumped forward, but the shifter had already jerked back and tossed aside his prey like a piece of trash.
All of the shifters were pulling back now.
They dumped the wounded humans on the floor and laughed at their pain.
Az’s heart thudded in his ears. The shifters were in his way. Deliberately lining up so that they stood between him and the winding hallway that led back to Jade.
The explosion had come from that side of the building.
“Divide and fucking conquer,” Sam snarled as he maneuvered to Az’s side. “The animals are smarter than we thought.”
“Yeah,” the shifter in the front said. His green eyes almost glowed and his fangs glinted as he grinned. “We are.” Then the guy yanked open his jacket and pulled out a thin, white vial.
What the hell—
“Oh, shit,” Sam snarled as he shoved at Az.
But that guy wasn’t the only one with a vial. Two other shifters also pulled them out. They tossed the bottles at Az. At Sam. The glass shattered, and white powder spilled around them.
More vials hit him from the back. Other shifters who’d closed in. Others who’d been armed.
Ready. Too ready. He wasn’t the only one who’d come packing a magical weapon.
He tried to step forward and found himself trapped. No big surprise.
Because he knew by the scent that it wasn’t just powder that those bastards had tossed at him.
It was Angel Dust.
The one weapon powerful enough to hold a Fallen trapped in place—because it was a weapon forged from the wings of an angel.
“I guess the bitch’s wings didn’t go to waste after all.” The green-eyed shifter smirked. “Brandt was right. You grind ’em up, and they really are as good as gold.”
Az’s h
ands slammed into an invisible wall.
“Now . . .” The shifter’s fangs sharpened even more as he glanced around. “Let’s torch this place.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tanner’s body slumped on top of hers. Choking on smoke, Jade shoved up, trying to push the guy to the side.
But in the next instant, Tanner was tossed away from her—well, tossed as far as he could go with those cuffs locking them. She tumbled after him, but was brought up short by the iron-hard grip on her waist.
She’d know that too-hard grip anywhere. Especially in her nightmares.
“Hello, Jade.”
The flames were flickering around her. She choked down the ash and forced herself to look up and into Brandt’s bright eyes. “H-how did you—”
“Plain, old-fashioned explosives.” His rather boyish grin widened. “Humans do come up with some good inventions, you know.”
Tanner groaned.
Brandt’s smile vanished. He stared at the cuffs, then reached down and tried to yank them apart.
His shifter strength would have shredded normal cuffs, but in this case . . .
“N-not gonna work,” Tanner managed as he shoved what looked like a dislocated shoulder back into place. “You’re not . . . gettin’ her away . . . from me.”
Brandt’s eyes narrowed. “Wanna bet, brother?”
Az—where are you? He must have heard the explosion. He’d be rushing in, any minute, with gun literally blazing. He’d better be. She just had to stall Brandt long enough for her angel to arrive.
“Th-they’re Other proof,” she whispered to Brandt. “You have to find the key to unlock them.” She tried to look weak and defenseless. While he searched for the keys, Az could have more time to burst in and—
Brandt just laughed. “I don’t have time for a fucking key.” Claws burst from his fingertips. “I’ll just cut off his damn hand.”
He lifted up his claws and sliced down.
“No!” Jade screamed as she dove for Tanner. She slammed into him, and they rolled across the floor.
Rolled, until they came up against the still form of Cody.
The demon’s neck was twisted. His eyes closed.
And the sickeningly sweet scent of flowers hung in the air around him.
Jade sucked in a fast breath. “Az!” She screamed his name as loud as she could. “Get that angel ass of yours in here!” Hurry!
Brandt’s fingers sank into her hair, and he wrenched her head up. “The angel’s not coming.”
Her blood chilled. The screams from outside had nearly died away now. She hoped that meant all of the humans had gotten out.
As for Az . . .
“Did I ever tell you,” Brandt asked as he tilted up her head and forced her to meet his gaze. “Just how my father killed my mother?”
She didn’t want to know this story.
“He cut off her wings.”
Like Brandt had cut off Marna’s wings?
“Then he ground them up until they were the finest dust. It felt like silk on my fingers.”
She swallowed the bile in her throat. He’d touched that dust?
His expression tightened as he stared at her. “I learned then that wings are full of magic. Full of power.”
She did not like where this was going.
“When I saw the pretty little angel coming for you in the swamp,” he said, “I knew I had to get her wings. I just couldn’t let that power go to waste.”
It felt like he was about to rip her hair right out of her head. “Let me go,” she managed.
But he didn’t. Not even when Tanner lunged up at him. Brandt just drove his fist into Tanner’s jaw and the shifter fell back.
“That fine powder . . . some call it Angel Dust. It can kill demons, and it can trap angels.”
No.
His lips kicked up in a grin, and she knew that Brandt was enjoying her fear.
“If you surround them with the dust, angels can’t move. They’re trapped in a prison, one made of their own power.” His grin slipped away and shadows chased into his eyes. “My father trapped my mother in the dust. Then he used his claws to cut out her heart.” He leaned toward her and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “Just like I’ll cut out your Fallen’s heart.”
Fear was choking her. Not Az.
“Unless you come with me now.” He eased away from her. “Come with me, and I won’t take his heart tonight.”
He could be bluffing. Totally bullshitting about the Angel Dust.
But his eyes told her he wasn’t. And if Az had been free, he would have been in that room by now. He would have come to help her.
“D-don’t . . .” She made sure her voice held a weak, trembly edge. Brandt always felt stronger when she was weak. She wanted the guy to think he was in control. Right until the moment she ripped that control away from him. “Don’t hurt Az.”
She caught the faint hardening of his eyes and knew she’d made a mistake. He always hurt those she cared about.
Jade reached over Tanner’s body and fumbled in his pockets. He groaned beneath her, and his eyes began to open. “Jade?”
Her fingers curled around the key.
“Stay down,” she whispered, but she knew Brandt would hear. With his shifter ears, there’d be no way for him to miss her order.
She pulled back. Her hands were shaking as she unlocked the cuff on her wrist. She dropped the key onto the floor.
Brandt caught her arm and yanked her away from Tanner. His gaze darted between them.
“Don’t,” Jade said, voice hardening despite her efforts to play weak.
But Brandt just smiled. “Death should have come for him long before.” His claws sliced down as Jade yelled and grabbed at his arms.
Tanner lunged up in the same instant. His hands caught Brandt’s wrists, and he held those razor-sharp claws away from his face.
Fury beat at Jade. Brandt had taken so much from her. Too much. “No more,” she gritted and the fire seemed to burn beneath her skin. Burn, burn . . . Her fingers heated where she touched Brandt.
He slowly turned his head to look at her.
She lifted her hands and stumbled back. They were so hot they burned. I’m burning. “No. More!” She yelled and a ball of fire shot from her fingers—and flew right at Brandt. The fire slammed into his chest and the scent of burning flesh stung her nose.
He fell down, flames eating at his flesh, screaming.
She grabbed for Tanner and hauled him to his feet. “Get Cody!” That demon had better be alive. He’d saved her before, and now they’d damn well save him.
Tanner nodded and hurried toward his brother. The cuff banged against his wrist as he lifted Cody and rushed for the door.
Jade followed on their heels, moving as quickly as she could—
“No,” Brandt’s growl. His fingers, blistered, singed, curled around her wrist, and she felt the lick of heat scorch her from his touch. “You’re not getting away from me that easily.”
Body tensing, Tanner glanced back at her.
“Get him out of here!” She yelled at Tanner. She could summon more fire. She could attack Brandt again. Dammit, she wouldn’t be afraid.
Not anymore.
Tanner slipped away with Cody.
At least they’re safe.
Brandt yanked her against his chest. The fire had melted away his shirt and the flames had charred his flesh.
But—but that flesh was healing before her eyes.
“Aren’t you full of surprises?” he murmured as he bent his head toward hers. His breath, carrying the scent of ash, blew lightly over her face. “Since when can my human play so well with fire?”
“Since someone was willing to risk his life for me. Since he gave me life.” And didn’t just try to destroy everything she had.
The faint lines around Brandt’s eyes tightened. “You think he’s so damn special, don’t you? But I know what he’s done. I followed the blood. He’s hurt you.”
“No.” Her chin
lifted. “Never him. He wouldn’t. Az isn’t like—”
He yanked her up against him, and her toes left the floor. “Me?” Brandt finished, the word a savage snarl.
She nodded.
“So I’m the fucking bastard?”
Yeah, he was.
Brandt shook his head as if denying something to himself. To her? “You loved me once.”
This was it. The moment that she’d known would come. Jade stared him in the eyes, refused to let the fear take her, and said the words she knew would break him. “And now I love him.”
She expected an eruption of rage. An attack. Jade would take the pain. It would buy Tanner and Cody the time to flee. Buy Az time to get out of that Angel Dust trap.
But Brandt didn’t erupt. He pressed his forehead against hers. “That’s a mistake.” His lips feathered over hers. Gentleness that she knew cloaked a killing rage. She could feel his fury, feel it even as—
He slammed her head into the nearest wall.
“You can’t love a dead man.” His whisper followed her into the darkness.
Flames danced around Az. Bright, dark, gold, and red. The fire was so hot that it scorched his skin.
“I can’t believe this is happening again,” Sam snarled from the trap just beside Az. “This is it—my next club will damn well be fireproof, no matter how many witches I have to hire to enchant the place.”
The sprinklers installed in the ceiling of Sunrise had shot on moments before, but they couldn’t stop the blaze. Especially since the fire just flared higher and higher because the shifters were pouring liquor everywhere. Soaking the place and growling in triumph when the flames burned brighter.
Those flames were rushing across the wooden floor toward Az now.
So close, but not close enough. Not yet.
Come closer.
Through the smoke and fire, he caught sight of Tanner’s tall form. The shifter was carrying something—someone? Someone who wasn’t moving.
“Jade!” Her name burst from his lips, but Tanner didn’t slow down. The shifter swiped out at two attackers who lunged for him, and then he raced outside, away from the flames.