Angel in Chains (The Fallen 3)

And the truth came from him. “Because I think you can give my life back to me.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

He shoved down the kickstand and climbed from the motorcycle so he could close in on her. His gaze tracked to that line of stark tombs that rose over the steep walls. “I’ve been here before.”

“Yeah, well, you, me, and every tourist who wants an up-close look at the cities of the dead—”

“I fell here.”

She didn’t say anything in response to that. Interesting. He’d found that Jade often had plenty to say. Not this time.

Her mouth actually hung open a bit.

He brushed by her and headed for the heavy gates that led into the cemetery. Dark shadows stretched from the entrance. And he remembered . . .

Crashing. Agony. Pain.

“I didn’t know who I was.” Not at first. The descent had been so intense, the fire so hot, that his memories had been wiped from him.

Az crossed the threshold into the cemetery. His gaze swept around, and then he was snaking through the old graves. Left. Right. Moving more by instinct than anything else.

She followed closely behind him. “Az . . .”

“After the fall, no one ever remembers, not at first.” It had been good, too, not knowing. Living in ignorance of the lives he’d taken. The sins he’d committed.

Another turn. Another.

He heard her gasp behind him. Before them, an old crypt had been smashed, and wide cracks spread out from the broken tomb’s middle like spiderwebs. Beside the remains, a broken stone angel looked mournfully at the wreckage.

It only seemed fitting that she’d lost a wing, too.

He stared at that crypt. “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in hell?”

“Yes.”

Frowning, Az glanced back at her.

Her gaze was on him, not the crypt. “We all have our own hell.” Her hand touched his shoulder. “I-I’m not sure what you’re exactly expecting. I can’t give you back heaven.”

Maybe not.

But maybe . . .

“A witch found me.” He turned to better face her, and Jade’s brows lifted at his admission. “She cleaned me up, gave me food, then, just when I was growing stronger, she turned around and sold me out to a bunch of bastards who got off on torturing Other.”

Jade swallowed. “What happened to them?”

She needed to see him for what he was. “I killed them all.” Well, those Sam hadn’t gotten to first, anyway.

She held his stare. “And the witch?”

“Her time will come.” She wouldn’t escape him unscathed. Az planned to make certain of that.

Jade stared up at him in confusion. “You’re standing here telling me that you’re some heartless badass, but you’re helping me so I—”

“I’m helping myself.” The words fell heavily. “You’re a human. Favored. Weak.”

Deceptively so. Humans were gifted with the rush of emotions. With pleasures. Pains.

He could seek vengeance on those who’d wronged him. Vengeance was his by right. But to give her protection, to aid one weaker . . . now that just might be enough to earn some redemption.

“So I’m just the lucky human you saw about to get an ass-kicking? Who I am doesn’t matter? You would risk your life to save any of us?”

He nodded. “Yes.” He would do what was necessary. Protect the weak. Fight and claw his way back to heaven.

Her sigh held a sad edge. “Not all humans need protecting.” A pause. “Not all humans want protecting.” Then she turned away from him. “We also don’t all enjoy being called a ‘temptation’ by some lost Fallen with some intimacy is-sues.”

He blinked and stared after her. Intimacy issues? He’d never been intimate with another. Angels weren’t allowed the luxury of intimacy. “You don’t understand what the world is like, for me.” So much noise. The feelings. The emotions. They were all ripping him apart.

Except . . . except it hadn’t been so bad in the last few days. Not since he’d been with her.

Jade didn’t look back at him. “Was it really that much better up there?”

He didn’t answer.

At his silence, Jade glanced over her shoulder at him. “I mean, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows down here, but we’re alive. That has to count for something, right?”

Something.

“Instead of trying so hard to get back upstairs,” she told him, “maybe you should consider that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”

With her.

But then she shook her head and looked away from him. “I think that cop stood us up. And being in a cemetery, at midnight, is not my idea of a good time.”

But even as she spoke, Az heard the rustle of footsteps. Sliding away—or coming closer?

Either way, he took a step toward Jade.

“Muggers hide out here,” she told him, voice quieter now as she scanned the shadows around them. “But they’re not even the start of what we need to fear.”

He knew all about the vampires who liked to stalk the cities of the dead. They’d hide in the dark, waiting for victims who were curious—and even willing—and then they’d strike.

Those victims would die.

But it wasn’t a vampire who stepped from the shadows. It was the shifter.

Az didn’t relax his guard, and he could tell by the stiffness of Jade’s shoulders that she wasn’t relaxing hers, either.

“You pack one hell of a punch,” Tanner said as he studied Az. The full moon fell onto them and sent their shadows chasing across the crypts.

Az shrugged. He’d actually gone easy on the guy. If he’d wanted, he could have broken the cop’s jaw with that punch.

Tanner whistled softly. “There’s a very high price on your head, man. You gonna be up for the hunters coming your way?”

He couldn’t wait to face them. A battle would drain some of the growing tension from his body. Tension that increased every time Jade touched his skin.

Want her. He’d stroked her flesh. Tasted her.

And learned why mortals killed for pleasure.

Az shoved those memories aside. “I’m ready.” Fear was the only emotion he’d yet to feel on earth. What was there to fear? What was there left to lose? Nothing.

“He doesn’t have to be ready.” Jade’s voice. Flat. Calm. “This isn’t his fight. I’m the one going after Brandt.” She turned to Az and put her hand on his chest, right over his heart. Her voice lowered as she said, “I’m not your salvation. Helping me isn’t gonna give you some free pass into heaven.”