by Cynthia Eden
He didn’t look back, and he didn’t see Mateo’s slow smile.
Jade sucked in deep gulps of air and stared after Az. Really? He wanted her to just . . . stay there?
It sucked being human. Or, half human—or whatever the hell she was these days. Dammit, she—
Tanner took off toward the left, running as fast as he could. Jade blinked. The left? Now why would he run that way?
I got his stench. Those had been Tanner’s words, and Tanner had sent Az running into the opposite direction.
Why?
Because Tanner wants to be the one to take out his brother.
Oh, hell. She raced to the left and followed him. Tanner was overmatched in this fight. He couldn’t defeat Brandt, not when the guy had the strength of an angel on his side.
The graves whipped by her. Or rather, she whipped by them. Thick and white, the tombs seemed to reek of the dead. A few candles flickered near the ground, silent offerings to the spirits, promises to a long-gone voodoo queen.
“You son of a bitch!”
Jade rushed toward that yell. A turn to the left. To the right. The graveyard was a twisted maze and—
And Tanner had Brandt pinned against a tomb.
“It ends tonight,” Tanner growled at him. “You don’t get to hurt anyone else.”
But Brandt just laughed. And he drove his claws into Tanner’s stomach. “You never could stop me.”
“Tanner!” The horrified cry burst from her.
“W-watch me . . .” Tanner managed and he sliced his own claws right across Brandt’s throat. Brandt’s blood flew out, soaking him, and Brandt didn’t even have a chance to scream.
Brandt’s gaze turned to her. His eyes widened. He smiled.
Tanner yanked away from him, and Brandt’s claws slid from his chest with a wet slosh of sound.
Brandt fell face-first onto the ground.
Jade stared down at him, stunned, as her breath heaved out.
Slowly, Tanner turned toward her. “I d-did . . . i-it . . .” His shirt was soaked with blood. His skin ashen. His whole body was shaking.
Jade rushed to him. She grabbed Tanner as his knees buckled and eased him to the ground. “You have to shift,” she told him, voice desperate. Her gaze flew over his wounds. They were bad. Brandt had ripped right through him. Ripped things out of him. “Shift now.” Jade forced steel into her order.
His lips were paler than the moon. A ripple shook his body and fur burst out on his arms, only to vanish a moment later.
She realized that Tanner wasn’t strong enough to shift. And if he wasn’t strong enough, he’d die in her arms.
She ignored the scent of flowers. The scent was deepening around her. The scent . . . it wasn’t from an Angel of Death. Just flowers from the graves. Nothing more.
Nothing . . .
Tanner’s claws retracted.
“You don’t get to die like this!” She snapped and slammed her palm into his chest. “You don’t get to—”
Hands grabbed her from behind. Strong hands. Hands that knew too well how to hurt.
Brandt wasn’t done yet. Or maybe the devil just hadn’t wanted him. “Tanner never was as strong as me,” he whispered into her ear.
Her breath choked out as horror and fear swamped her.
“No.” Az’s voice. Cool and lethal and cutting right through the night. Cutting through her fear and giving her hope. “But I am,” Az promised.
Jade’s head whipped up. Az stood before them, just inside the gateway of tombs.
Damn that man looked sexy. Strong. Determined. Pissed. He lifted his gun. “Let her go.”
Brimstone bullets, asshole. Choke on them. If she hadn’t been trapped against said asshole, she would have smiled.
“You’re not going to shoot her.” Brandt was mocking now. Something wet slipped down her shoulder, and she was pretty sure that it was his blood.
Jade twisted and turned to look at Brandt. Only the thinnest cut remained from the torn hole that had been his throat. Damn—that was some fast healing. But his clothes were soaked red and now so were hers.
Brandt met her gaze. His eyes were glowing with his rage. “You did this,” he told her. “You should’ve just been happy with me.”
“And you should have left my parents alone, you sick freak.” Her head whipped forward. She stared right at Az. “Shoot.”
Brandt laughed. “He won’t—”
“This is the best chance we have, Az. Shoot!” She yelled.
But Az wasn’t firing. She could see the struggle on his face. He didn’t want to hurt her, but she was all for taking a bullet or two if it meant they could get Brandt out of commission. “Kill him, just kill—”
Snap.
She didn’t feel any pain, but, suddenly, Jade’s body was falling. She slammed into the earth. She didn’t feel that either. She couldn’t get her fingers to move. Her legs were numb and her heart . . .
Thunder rumbled. Once. Twice. Someone was screaming. Yelling.
Wait, that wasn’t thunder. Gunshots. Az had fired. He’d fired—and Brandt’s body crashed onto the ground beside her. His face was inches away. Blood trickled from his mouth. Brandt’s eyes were wide open—and empty.
Dead.
Jade wanted to turn away from that empty stare, but she couldn’t move. And why was she so cold?
“Jade!” Her name was a roar. But panthers roared, not angels, and that was Az’s voice, wasn’t it? “Don’t do this!”
Do what? She’d just fallen. She’d be fine in a few minutes. Brandt was dead. They’d all be fine now. Better than fine. She could live again.
“Do n’t!”
Strange. That word had been choked and so full of pain. She didn’t want Az in pain. Had he been hurt? Had Brandt managed to attack him before Az fired his gun?
She tried once more to turn her head and look at him, but couldn’t move. Everything was getting dark. Perhaps the moon had gone behind some rain clouds.
The light would come back soon. She’d figure out what was happening in a few moments.
Her heartbeat seemed so weak in her ears.
The light would come back soon.
But then the whole world vanished.
The bastard had broken Jade’s neck. One hard snap of his hands, and Brandt had taken her life away.
Brandt’s chest was full of brimstone, and he lay dead on the ground, but he’d taken her away.
Bones snapped and popped behind him. Tanner. Az didn’t glance at the shifter. He couldn’t.
He bent his head toward Jade’s. Her eyes were open. “Sweetheart, it’s going to be—”
Empty. Her eyes were empty.
Az grabbed her and yanked Jade up into his arms. He held her body against his chest. How could she already feel so cold? Jade should be warm. Her silken skin should singe him with a touch.
Not ice. Not her. She’d only been cold once before, when death had come too close to taking her.
Her head hung limply, and his heart stopped. “Jade, dammit, come back!” A desperate order. A painful plea.
She wasn’t moving.
He bit into his wrist. Forced his blood into her mouth. His blood had helped her once. It would help again. She’d be okay, she’d be—
“You know it doesn’t work like that.” Sam’s voice. Quiet. Sad. He didn’t even know how Sam had gotten there, and he didn’t care.
There was only one thing he cared about. One person. Her. “Tell me how to bring Jade back.” His hand smoothed over her dark hair. Had he ever told her how beautiful her hair was? Had he ever told her that she was beautiful?
You are, Jade. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Better than even the golden streets in heaven.
“I . . . don’t know how to bring her back.”
“Then get me someone who fucking does!” Rage beat at him. A constant scream echoed in his head. She’d been looking at him when she fell. When that asshole had snapped her neck, she’d been looking right at him and begging him
to shoot.
He hadn’t. “I didn’t want to hurt her.” Az’s lips feathered over Jade’s cold cheek.
“I know.” Sam’s hand closed around his shoulder. “She’s not hurting anymore.”
Az stiffened. “Bring her back.” A demand. His control was splintering. He could feel it inside. A darkness opening up, yawning, swallowing everything.
Sam didn’t move his hand. “I can’t. I don’t have that kind of power.”
He couldn’t take his eyes off her. His Jade. Had he ever told her that he’d been . . . happy . . . when she was near? That he’d started to dream when he slept. He’d never dreamed before. Until her.
All of his dreams were of her.
His hands were shaking. “Seline came back to you. She died.” He knew. He’d been there. “You got her back.”
“Seline was half-angel.” Sam’s voice was soft, still with that sad, sympathetic edge that was tearing into Az. “Your Jade . . . she isn’t built to come back. Even with the blood you gave her, she’s human at heart.”
His blood had smeared on her cheek. “Summon Mateo.” The witch was close by. He wouldn’t have been able to flee this quickly.
Sam’s fingers tightened. “He can’t help you.”
“Someone had better.” He wasn’t letting her go. Az rose, holding her close in his arms. She was so still. “Fucking. Summon. Mateo!” He roared the words, and the tombs around him cracked. Skeletons fell onto the ground as the earth buckled beneath him. “Witch, get back here!”
He turned and found Tanner standing, weak, pale, but alive. Why was he alive, when Jade wasn’t? He hadn’t seen a Death Angel, would have fought the bastard if he had, but he’d seen no signs of dark wings.
She shouldn’t be dead. There’d been no Death Angel.
But Jade was still and quiet in his arms. Her heart didn’t beat. No air swept into her lungs.
Had the angel just come and claimed her too swiftly? Had he been so blinded by his grief that he’d missed that desperate moment? The scent of flowers was so strong in this wretched place. So many angels had been there. Were still there?
Tanner was alive. Az’s rage focused on the shifter who’d sent him on the wrong path. Why did Tanner still live? Why?
Why was anyone alive? If Jade couldn’t live . . .
Deep crevices opened beneath his feet. More tombs shattered.
“You had her for a little while. That will have to be enough,” Sam said as he backed away a few steps. His face was tight, his eyes staring at Az with—fear?
He should be afraid. Everyone should. Az wasn’t going to let her be taken from him.
The rage and grief tore through him. Brandt had broken her beautiful neck. In one, fast, brutal instant, Brandt took her from me. Az swallowed and tasted hate. “Is the time you have with Seline . . . enough?”
His brother flinched. “No.”
“Then get me that crossroads spirit.” The fury was breaking through. Fire burst beside him, racing right over the graves and scorching the ground. He tilted back his head and glared up at the starlight sky. “Bastion!”
“You can’t call back the dead.” This came from Tanner. Az pinned him with a scathing stare. The shifter swallowed and straightened his shoulders. “Even you aren’t that strong. It hurts, I know, but you have to let her go.”
He didn’t want to let her go. “I . . . need her.” She was so slight in his arms.
Why were his cheeks wet?
His gaze fell to her once more. “I-I love her.” Love. A human emotion. But a human had slipped into his heart. Now that human was breaking his heart.
Was this his true punishment? For all the sins he had committed, was this the end he’d been fated to receive?
Don’t take her. Please.
She should live. Be happy. Be free.
You aren’t that strong. Tanner’s words echoed in his ears. The shifter was right. He wasn’t strong. Without Jade, he was weak.
The angels should have known that. They should have taken better care . . .
Wind whipped against his cheeks. The scent of flowers teased his nose. The angel had heeded his call. Az kept his eyes on Seline and simply said, “Give her back.”
“I tried to tell you what was coming.” No emotion shadowed Bastion’s voice. “I am sorry, Azrael. But this was meant to be.”
The words drifted in and out of his head. Jade’s face had bleached of color and raindrops began to fall on her face. Rain, from a cloudless sky. But thunder was rumbling. Lightning flashing across the heavens.
Power leaked from him. Holding her with one arm, he raised his gun and aimed it at Bastion. He still had two bullets left in the chamber. “Bring her back or see what it’s like to die.” His head pounded and the scream echoing in his mind just wouldn’t end. That scream—it was Jade’s voice. Jade calling his name, over and over. She wanted him to help her.
Jade.
Flashes flew through his mind, images of her.
Jade . . . smiling at him.
Kissing him.
I . . . wasn’t using you, Az. I was loving you.
And he’d been loving her, but he’d just been too blind and foolish to realize it sooner.
“I can’t,” Bastion said, almost sounding regretful. “It’s too late. She’s gone—”
The screams in his mind grew louder. Jade is calling me. Az fired. The bullet burned right through Bastion’s chest. “If she’s dead, then so are you.”
A howling filled his ears, blending with the chaos of the screams. The fires around him flared higher, hotter, destroying everything in sight.
“Azrael!” Sam’s horrified yell tore through the blaze. “What have you done?”
Smoke drifted from the hole in Bastion’s chest. “He took her.” Az knew he had. Bastion had been close the whole time. And when Jade’s neck had broken . . . “He took her from me—took her, when I’d just found her!” A woman who could love the darkest of the angels.
Gone.
Sam stood behind the line of blazing fire. “You’re out of control. You need to—”
Az aimed the gun at him. “I told you to summon the witch.” Angels couldn’t help him. Rule followers. But the witch . . . Mateo followed no one’s rules. He’d cheat death.
For the right price.
Sam frowned at the gun. “So now you’d shoot me?”
No. Yes. He couldn’t think. His heart was gone. Ripped from his chest. Jade’s scent—strawberries—surrounded him and the fire’s heat told him that only hell waited for him. He wouldn’t see Jade again when he left this earth. He’d never see her again.
“The world doesn’t go on without her,” he gritted out. Tanner screamed as the fire caught him and burned his flesh. “It doesn’t.”
Swearing, Sam leapt through the flames. He grabbed for the gun.
Az tried to yank the weapon back. He wasn’t letting go of it. He wasn’t letting go of Jade.
Never let go.
The gun fired. He was staring straight into Sam’s eyes. He saw the shock in his brother’s gaze. The flash of pain.
Then he saw the whisper of life leaving as Sam’s spirit was pulled from his body.
Sam fell to the ground, dead at his feet.
One brother, killing another . . .
The ground split around him. No longer small crevices, but deep, giant fissures that seemed to stretch all the way to hell.
A prophecy had been made once. When one brother kills another . . . hell comes.
Jade’s scent faded until he could only smell brimstone. And the screams in his mind had finally stopped. Now he could hear laughter. Whispers.
Hell comes.
He dropped the gun. Held her cold body even tighter. “Mateo!” The witch would appear. The witch would save her.
Or . . . at least . . . kill me.
Because the chains that had always held him in check were broken and only fury raged within him.
“Mateo!”
Jade was dead. He’d destroye
d his brother, and if Mateo couldn’t kill him . . . Az was afraid he’d destroy the world. “Mateo!”
“I’m right here,” the witch said as he shook Az. “Look at me, Fallen. Look.”
Az realized he was kneeling on the ground. His whole body shook, and sweat soaked his skin. He glanced up, and found Mateo staring down at him.
“Bring her back,” he whispered, his voice broken.
Mateo sighed. “She’s not gone yet.”
In an instant, Az was on his feet. But he stumbled, his knees weak, and he shoved his hand out—
And touched blood.
He turned his head slowly and stared at the wall of the crypt beside him. The blood looked black in the moonlight, but he knew what it was. Blood covered the side of the crypt, twisting and turning in a series of ancient symbols.
A broken mirror lay shattered at his feet, and his heart was still trying to jump out of his chest.
“It’s always been thought that a Fallen Angel would be the one to open the gateway to hell. At least, that’s what my sources downstairs told me.” Mateo’s voice was carefully emotionless.
Az swallowed and tasted ash. “Where is Jade?”
“Right this second? She’s racing through the cemetery on the far left side, running after Tanner and Brandt.”
What? “She’s . . . not dead?”
“Not yet.”
Az turned away.
“Did you learn anything?” Mateo’s sharp voice stopped him. “Or do you not even realize what the hell just happened here?”
I lost everything.
“I gave you a very special gift, Fallen. I used my own blood and my own power to show you what could be if you chose wrong tonight.”
What could be . . . Jade dying. Tanner burning. Him killing Sam.
“You need her. I get that.” And the witch was suddenly before him. “But everybody else needs you to fucking hold it together. Don’t let that rage eating through your gut break free.” Mateo’s eyes glittered. “Make the right choice. Change fate. Do you hear me, Fallen?”
Fate can’t be changed. All angels knew that.
And he realized he’d just whispered the words by rote.
“Then I guess the angels are wrong. Or maybe those precious rules have changed.” Mateo glanced up at the sky. “Maybe someone wants them to change.” His gaze fell back on Az. “What do you want?”