Angel of Darkness (The Fallen 1)

Not Nicole’s scream.

The bait was alive. The woman was screaming and shaking. Thin, bloody slices covered her arms and legs. Keenan knew those slices had been made with a coyote’s claws.

“It’s okay,” Nicole told the woman, holding up hands that no longer sported claws. “We’re here to help you.”

The woman, with tangled blond hair and a short black dress, blinked. Mascara and tears stained her cheeks. She looked familiar to Keenan. He knew he’d seen her before …

Running from the fire at Temptation.

He stepped back and his gaze swept over the wooden pews.

“Where’s the man who did this to you?” Nicole asked. “Where is—”

“N-not … man.” The woman fell to her knees and made the sign of the cross. “D-devil …”

No, just a coyote shifter. The devil had died long ago. Now someone else ruled for him.

“H-hurt me … wanted to know …”

“Let’s get her out of here,” Nicole said and Keenan noticed that she kept her head angled away from the woman. Right, the blood. That smell would be tempting Nicole.

He lifted the woman, holding her easily.

“H-help me …” She whispered. The woman’s name—had it been Tina?

“We will,” Nicole promised. “We’ll get you to a doctor. You’ll be okay.”

They hurried for the exit. Nicole shoved open the door and the hot night air spilled inside. Dawn hadn’t come, not yet, but it was edging closer. Nicole hurried down the stone steps. “Come on,” she called out. “We can get—”

A growl broke the night.

Nicole whirled around and faced the dark alley. Pirate’s Alley. The alley she’d nearly died in six months ago.

No, she had died in that alley. No getting around that truth.

And now Keenan knew that Carlos waited in that darkness for her.

Carefully, he sat the woman on her feet. “Can you walk?” He whispered.

She just cried. Her bloody hands wrapped around his neck as she held on tight.

He tried to pry her hands loose but she started screaming, “Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me!”

Nicole flinched as she glanced back at him. He saw her swallow and she said, “Keep her safe.”

No, no, she wasn’t—

“I’m not afraid of the monster in the alley anymore,” she told him before she gave a hard nod. Her canines were lengthening, her claws sharpening. “This time, he’ll be afraid of me.”

Then she was gone. Nicole raced into the alley and ran right toward that darkness—and Carlos.

And while she ran, the bloody woman kept clinging so tightly to him. She was shaking, and—and laughing?

“Kill her …” She whispered and she lifted her head to reveal the smile on her bloodstained lips. “He’ll k-kill the bitch.”

Fury had him shoving her away. Her head whipped back with the sharp push. “What are you talking about?” He barked.

But she just kept laughing, and he realized he’d forgotten a lesson he’d learned so long ago.

Humans lied. They often lied very, very well.

She smiled at him—smiled right through the blood. A willing sacrifice. “She’ll be dead,” she told him, the blood dripping down her body, “long before you can even—”

He didn’t hear the rest. He was already racing to the alley and roaring Nicole’s name.

When he saw her, the present and the past blurred. She was on the ground, fighting, struggling. But not with a vampire—with a full-on shifted coyote.

The coyote’s teeth were in her shoulder, and she was pushing her arms between their bodies, trying to pry him off her.

No, not pry him off her … she was wedging something between them. Something small and black and—

The explosion shook the alley. The retort of gunfire echoed in the night.

The coyote fell off her. The fur began to melt from his body.

She lifted her gun, aimed, and fired once more.

The animal’s body jerked. Not really an animal anymore. A man now. Naked. Hurting. The man twisted and cried out in pain as he bled out on the stone beneath him.

Nicole rose. Her eyes darted to Keenan. “This time,” she told him quietly, “I was ready.”

“Sil … ver!” Carlos’s furious yell. “F-fucking bitch … silver!”

“Good thing we stopped by that feeding room in Texas.”

The feeding room. He hadn’t even realized she’d kept the gun.

“I’ve got one bullet left.” Nicole stood over Carlos. The gun pointed right down at his chest, and her hand was perfectly steady. “That one’s for your heart.”

His body writhed. Keenan knew Carlos couldn’t shift back with the silver in him. Carlos clawed at his flesh as he tried to pull the bullets out.

“Why did you want him so much?” Nicole asked. “Why didn’t you just stay away? Leave us alone?”

Carlos threw one bullet into the gutter. “Fuck you!”

The second bullet was deep in his chest, but Carlos was digging for it, ripping and tearing into flesh and muscle.

“Nicole …” Keenan rushed forward. “End it!” The woman should know better than to play with the hunter.

“Why here?” She whispered. “Damn you, why pick here? Why this alley?”

The coyote shifter’s breath rasped out. The minute Carlos got that second bullet out, Keenan knew he’d shift.

“Because he wanted …” Carlos licked the blood from his lips. “To f**k … with your mind.”

Then he smiled, a smile as wild as the beast he carried, and Keenan knew the shifter had found the second bullet.

Behind the shifter, Keenan saw the shadows thicken. He heard the soft rush of wings.

Time for death.

Nicole fired and the bullet drove into Carlos’s heart. The shifter fell back, eyes wide. Not dead, not yet. Still struggling to breathe, the shifter fought hard to hold on. But Death was coming. Walking right there with his arms outstretched.

Az stalked from those shadows. His face was tight and remorseless. The shifter was gasping, choking as he labored to live. Shifters didn’t always die as easily as they should. The beasts inside fought hard for survival.

A footstep whispered behind him. Keenan didn’t glance back. He didn’t want to take his eyes off Carlos. Not until Az touched him. But …

“Blood,” Nicole whispered and she stepped back. “The woman—Keenan is she—”