Angel Betrayed (The Fallen 2)

Not exactly a giant declaration of love there.

“She doesn’t look like an angel,” Nicole muttered.

If she could have, Seline would have laughed. She knew exactly what she looked like. Sin. She’d been told that often enough over the years—both by lovers who thought they were seducing her and by humans who thought she should be repenting.

“You said she was a succubus.” Now Keenan was talking again. “A succubus can’t control a hound.”

“She’s only half-succubus.” From Sam. His fingers trailed down her throat and rested over the pulse that beat at the base of her neck. “As for her other half, well, there’s no doubt . . .”

“She’s angel,” Keenan said.

And there was the shame she’d tried so hard to hide. Mixed-blood daughter of an angel and the incubus who killed her. Abomination. Living sin.

“She’s crying.” The woman’s voice was soft now.

Seline realized a tear had leaked from her eye.

“I thought you put her under,” Keenan charged, and for the first time, she heard anger vibrate in his voice.

“I did.”

More creaking of floorboards. “She’s hearing everything we say.” Nicole was the one to state the obvious. “And she sure doesn’t like what she hears.”

“She’s fully aware.” Keenan’s voice had taken on a definite edge. “Hellhound callers don’t have to be able to speak to summon their beasts. They’re linked psychically. If she’s screaming for the beast in her mind . . .”

“Then it’ll be at the f**king door,” Sam growled. His hand slid under her hair, and he tilted up her head. “Seline. ”

She felt a push of power, and it was like a curtain lifted from her body. Her eyes opened. She blinked away the teardrops that blurred her vision.

“Tell me you didn’t call the hellhound. Tell me.”

Her right hand curled into a fist. She licked her lips. She could move everything again. So she moved that fist and swung for him.

But he caught her hand before it could hit him. “I gave you one free hit. No more, sweetheart.” He dropped her hand.

Bastard.

Seline leapt from the bed she’d been lying on. She lunged for the door.

Only to find it blocked by a woman with pale skin and black hair. “Not so fast,” Nicole told her, and Seline caught the flash of her fangs.

Vampire.

No wonder the woman had been so quick on the whole kill urge. Vamps were made that way.

Seline squared her shoulders and sucked in a deep breath a she prepared to punch and claw her way past the undead girl. But, before she could attack, Sam grabbed her left hand. Pain stole Seline’s breath as the agony throbbed down from her shoulder. Jeez . . . what had happened to her shoulder?

Sam forced her to face him. “The hound is coming.”

She glared at him, feeling so angry that she expected her skin to start burning. “I trusted you.” She’d been so foolish. “I fought for you!” He’d wanted to kill her.

Silence in the room.

“You’re an ass**le, Sam.” An ass**le who’d—dammit!— broken her heart. She’d actually thought he was different. A man strong enough to stand beside her, no matter what came.

No one else had even come close to hurting her like this. It seemed as if she were splintering apart on the inside. “I didn’t turn on you! I didn’t set you up. I helped you!”

The others—the female vamp and the deadly looking male with the shadow of black wings on his back—weren’t moving.

“I’ve never summoned a hellhound in my life. I didn’t even know they were real until that thing came out and attacked us. Us, okay, not just you. The hound came for me, too!”

“But the beast didn’t so much as scratch you.”

No, it hadn’t. The hound had been ready to rip out her throat. She’d never forget the smell of its breath. Brimstone and death. But it had stopped. She blinked and fought to remember. “It . . . smelled me.” Then the beast had licked her.

And it had stopped growling.

Sam frowned at her.

“Why am I not dead?” she asked him. He was touching her. He thought she was some kind of deceitful bitch. And she had been, but not with him. Not since they’d become lovers. “If you think I’ve been setting you up all along, if you think I’ve sicced a hellhound on you, why am I still alive?” Screw the two watching. “Because you like to f**k me? Is that why I’m still standing here instead of rotting in the ground?”

A muscle flexed along his jaw.

“You’re addicted, right?” The word grated in her throat. It was just lust for him, but it had been so much more for her. She’d gotten all weak with him and hoped for an actual chance of happiness.

Ridiculous. When the chips were down, men couldn’t be trusted. Humans and Other were all the same.

Sam wasn’t speaking, and that just made her angrier. Her head throbbed. Her shoulder ached, and her heart hurt. “There’s no hound breaking down the door right now.” She stated the obvious. “If I was this all-powerful hound master, don’t you think I would have called the beast in by now?”

The seconds ticked by.

“It’s Rogziel.” Couldn’t Sam see that? “He wanted you to doubt me. He knew we were working together, and he wanted us to turn on each other. He sent the hound after you.”

“Rogziel’s a punishment angel.” Keenan had moved to stand beside the vamp. Seline glanced his way in time to see him nod. “Only punishment angels can summon the hounds, you know that, Sam.”

Seline’s heart squeezed tighter at his words. No. Oh, this was not good.

“Punishment angels can walk between heaven, earth, and hell,” Keenan continued, and his words seemed too loud, echoing in her ears. “And when they enter hell, they can bring anything back to this world with them.”

“Seline . . .” Sam’s voice pulled her focus right back to him. “Tell me about your parents.”

She didn’t want to tell him anything right then. She wanted to run away. Why couldn’t a girl run once or twice in her life? Run as if hounds from hell were on my trail.

But a Fallen and a vampire were blocking the door. And another Fallen had his hands on her.

Addiction.

She wrenched away from him. Fine. “My father was an incubus. I already told you that.”

“What was his name?” Keenan wanted to know.