Angel of Darkness (The Fallen 1)

Her elbows banged into the wall. Nowhere else to retreat. “You mean all he had to do was be a good soldier boy and kill me.”

“You shouldn’t matter.” He stopped, less than two feet away. His perfect brow crinkled, and he stared at her as if he were trying really hard to understand what the hell Keenan was doing with her. “You’re just a vamp. A parasite to be exterminated.”

Now he was trying to piss her off. She grabbed the nearby lamp and threw it right at his head. The porcelain shattered but he didn’t blink.

No weapon made by man. Right. And the lamp was probably made in China, and not forged by magic. Dammit!

Looked like she’d have to get creative them. “Maybe I’m not the parasite.” She shoved back her hair. “I’m not the one who takes souls, that’s you.”

His eyes widened. “I’m an angel, created to be superior, created to—”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this spiel.”

He blinked.

She smiled. “You ever think maybe you’ve got it wrong? Maybe you aren’t the superior one. You can’t feel, can you, Az? Keenan can. He can feel and need and want and—” Love. But she bit that part back. She hoped Keenan could love.

Because she was sure falling for him, but she wouldn’t give Az that weapon over her.

“Maybe humans are the superior ones,” she told him instead. “You’re supposed to guard us, right? Protect us.”

His great wings stretched back behind him and their black tips brushed the ceiling. “You’re not human anymore.”

He’d just taunted her. The bastard.

Her gaze dropped to the floor and measured that distance between them again. Yep. Two perfect feet. “You can kill me.”

He smiled.

Bastard. He could kill her, so why wasn’t he? Why was he waiting for her to die?

Because angels had to follow orders. They didn’t pick the moment of death. They had to wait and follow the rules and touch only when—

“No.” She breathed out the word and took a step closer to Az as the understanding crystallized. “You have the power to kill with a touch, but you can’t kill me. Not yet. Because you have to follow your orders, right, Az?” Another good soldier boy.

His eyes narrowed at the corners.

“You can’t touch me, not until it’s time. You can’t kill me, not until it’s time.” Her claws were coming out, and her teeth were sharp and ready. “You might want to hurt me—”

He took a step back. “I-I don’t …”

Bullshit. “Right. You expect me to believe you don’t want some payback after I took one of your precious angels away?”

She caught the flicker of his eyelashes. Ah … “I’m the one who took him. Me. Keenan fell.” She let her own smile curve and knew that it would reveal her fangs. “He fell for me, a vampire, a parasite, and he doesn’t want to go back with you.”

“You will destroy him.” Stark.

This was the guy who wasn’t supposed to feel? Maybe all the angels were boiling with emotions—and getting ready to explode. “Are you worried?” She asked him. “Because it seems like maybe you aren’t the perfect angel anymore, either—”

“I never was.”

That stopped her.

His wings were still spread wide. His hands were fisted at his sides. “Do you care for him, vampire?”

“Yes.” Absolute truth.

His head tilted. “How much?”

She stared back at him, her brows pulling low. What was he doing now?

“Do you care enough to trade your life?” A brief pause. “Because that’s what he did for you. He gave up everything he had. He burned as he fell. Keenan crawled through hell, just so he could come to you.”

Hell? Wait—

“So I ask … what would you do for him?”

She realized the shouting from downstairs had stopped. Too quiet. Her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. She ran across the room and saw a big black bag near the nightstand. She yanked it open and found her clothes. All of her clothes had been brought over from Keenan’s place—Sam had known she’d be back. She yanked out the clothes—and she found her gun nestled inside. Thank you, Sam.

“Would you fight for him?” Az pressed. “Kill?”

“Yes.” Said without hesitation as her fingers curled around the base of a gun—the same gun she’d taken from that vamp feeding room in San Antonio. Got the silver this time, ass**le.

“Would you die for him?”

Anger boiled in her blood as she whirled back to him. “I don’t know what kind of sick game you think you’re playing—”

His gaze didn’t so much as drop to the gun. Right, ’cause why would he fear a gun? He wouldn’t … but Carlos should fear the silver bullets that were still inside.

Az watched her with his bright gaze. “We both know Carlos isn’t hunting you. It’s Keenan’s blood he wants because he needs an angel’s blood to get power. So I ask again …” His voice seemed to whisper through her, “Would you die for him?”

That silence was too thick. Her hand tightened on the gun. There were only a few bullets left.

“Angels can die,” Az told her, still in that whisper that sent chills over her. “Everyone can die, and believe me, vamp, you won’t both survive the night.”

Keenan?

She sprang for the door.

“Get ready to choose!” Az called after her. “I see death coming. I see it.”

The image of that last moment. Dammit, sometimes angels sucked.

“I see you and Keenan. I see the stake, and I see blood.” He shook his head. “The blood is on Keenan.”

No. He wasn’t supposed to die. She nearly tripped over the stairs as she raced down them. “Keenan!”

“Death will come.” Az’s voice followed her. “Before the sun comes, death will take a soul.”

“Stay away from him!” Nicole shouted, but she didn’t know if she was shouting the words to Az or to Carlos.

Then she hit the ground floor and she saw the broken glass that littered the floor. Two naked men—had to be shifters, they were always supposed to be naked when they transformed back to human form—lay on the floor.

But Keenan was gone, and there was no sign of Carlos.

“Better hurry …” She glanced up the stairs and saw Az staring down at her. “Time’s running out.”