Angel of Darkness (The Fallen 1)

“Let go of my hands.”

He didn’t let go. “I mean, if he’d just moved faster, just touched that vamp who attacked you that night faster, you’d still have your nice, picket-fence life. Hell, maybe you’d even have met your prince charming and be getting ready to settle down.”

Her claws were coming out.

“But he didn’t move fast enough, did he? Because of him, you suffered and you changed and you lost everything you held dear.”

She would have lost it anyway. No matter what Keenan had done, there wouldn’t have been a prince charming or a picket fence for her. “I don’t want vengeance.”

He laughed. “Good thing vamps can lie, huh?” Finally, he dropped her hands, but he still stood between her and the door. “In order to stir his powers,” he said, “Keenan needed to let his emotions go. Angels don’t feel emotions, did you know that?”

She didn’t answer.

“So when they fall, they get slapped with them. The emotions are what strengthens us here, and what weakens us.” His head cocked. “To get Keenan to conjure and control his fire, he needed rage. He got that rage when your life was threatened.”

And in order for him to kill …

“That’s right.” Sam’s eyes gleamed. “He just had to feel the killing fury. He needed to want to kill. When Big Mike attacked you …” A soft laugh. “The only thing Keenan wanted was to kill.”

“Good for you.” She glared at the jerk. “You let the tiger out of his cage.”

“No, I let the Fallen loose. Or, rather, you did.”

“Because you set us up!” Everything—was it just a game to him? And why did it matter? “No wonder Keenan didn’t want me close. If he touches me, he’ll kill me.”

That shouldn’t have made her feel relieved. It should have terrified her. Made her shove Sam aside and haul ass for the door. But, no, she was there thinking … He wants me to leave so he can’t hurt me.

Figured. That was her angel. No, her Fallen.

“He won’t kill you.”

She blinked. Sam sounded real sure of that.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Sam exhaled on a hard sigh. “I said he kills because when he touches, he wants to give death. When he touches you …” One brow rose. “I bet death is the last thing he’s thinking about.”

Her teeth were burning. “I … have to go.”

“To get blood?” He smiled at her. “Why go out? You can dine right here.”

“Keenan wasn’t exactly offering—”

“I am.”

That shocked her. “You’d trust me? At your throat?” Oh, no, wait, this game she understood. “When I touch you, will you kill me?” Because he was Fallen, just like Keenan. Only maybe he could kill at will. He’d been on the human plane longer, so perhaps he’d gotten total control over all his powers.

He smiled at her. “I promise not to kill if you promise not to bite too hard.”

Her eyes measured him. “Are you hitting on me?” Impossible. No way.

He moved in a blur—didn’t he always?—and grabbed her hand once more. “You’re still living.”

Her heart slammed into her chest.

“Trouble’s coming after us. Those coyotes will be howling at the door soon. If you’re going to listen to Keenan and run out of here … which, by the way, I don’t recommend because they’ll just follow you and hunt you down eventually, so that idea pretty much f**king sucks …”

Uh, yeah, it did.

“Unless you’re leaving tonight,” he said, “you need to get strong, and you need to get strong fast.”

His blood. She inhaled and caught his scent. She could hear the thunder of his blood. So close. Her tongue slipped over the edge of a fang. “Most Other … they think it’s an insult to get bitten.” Especially the shifters. She’d heard those guys would rather die than get bit.

“I’m not most Other.” His gaze burned her. “Besides, I know there’s pleasure as well as pain in the bite—that’s a mix I rather like.”

He was offering. She needed the blood. Nicole pushed up onto her toes and pressed her lips against his throat.

If the coyotes were coming, and she didn’t doubt that part of his story, then she wouldn’t have time to find other prey. Not that she’d even been particularly good at finding prey to begin with.

Her fangs scraped his skin.

“That’s it,” he whispered. “Have a taste.”

Her teeth pressed—

“What the hell are you doing?”

She spun around, but didn’t go far. Sam had her clasped tightly to him, his arm a steel band around her waist.

Keenan thundered down the stairs, his eyes flashing black, then blue, as he raced toward them. “Get your hands off her! What are you thinking? You could kill her!”

Sam didn’t let her go. “Only if death was what I wanted.” She felt his shrug. “I don’t want death for her.”

“Let her go.”

“She’s holding me.”

Oh, crap, she was. Her hands were still on him. She dropped them instantly. “Keenan, it’s okay, I was just going to—”

“Have a bite,” Sam finished and Keenan jumped down to the landing. “After all, you left her weak, Fallen. Burned, broken, weak. What did you expect her to do?”

Keenan staggered to a stop less than a foot away. His hand lifted, then his fingers clenched into a fist. “Nicole, get away from him. You can’t trust him. He’ll turn on you in an instant.”

Like that was something she didn’t know.

“You want her, then take her.” Sam’s voice was mocking. “Touch her, take her, if you think you’re strong enough.”

Oh, so that was what this was about. Nicole jabbed out with her elbow, as hard as she could. Sam’s grip loosened, just a bit, and she sprang away from him. She didn’t hurry toward Keenan, but rather backed away from them both. “She doesn’t need taking by anyone,” Nicole said clearly.

But the two fallen angels were too busy glaring at each other to listen to her.

“Don’t ever touch her again,” Keenan ordered.

“I don’t touch her … you don’t touch her … that’s gonna be one lonely vampire.”

Keenan growled.

“Just back off,” she snapped right back at him. “You’re the one who told me to leave, remember?”