Angel in Chains (The Fallen 3)

“Yeah, I knew.”

And with a wave of his hand, Az tossed the bastard through the nearest window. Glass shattered as Tanner sailed toward the dock.

“Az!” Jade spared him a shocked glare before she rushed outside after the now-groaning shifter. “Jeez, a punch would have sufficed,” she yelled back at him. “The slam through the window was a little much.”

Not really. He figured he owed Tanner more.

He conjured a ball of flame and followed her out of the house and onto the rickety dock. Tanner had just risen. He took a look at the flames hovering above Az’s hands and his claws immediately sprang out.

But then Jade jumped between them.

Az held back his fire.

“Is there a reason you didn’t tell us about Brandt’s little, um, side powers?” Jade demanded, voice hot enough to burn like the fire in Az’s hands.

“I thought you knew,” came Tanner’s instant answer. “Hell, I thought there wasn’t anything you didn’t know about Brandt. And if you believed this guy—” He pointed a claw at Az. “Could take him out, then I believed it, too.”

Until the moment Brandt had sunk his claws into Az’s chest. Then they’d all stopped believing. “Here’s some angel trivia for you.” Az let the fire die. He could always conjure it again easily enough. “It takes more than the Death Touch to kill our own kind. Angels, even half-breed ones, can’t be killed with mortal weapons.” Give ’em a few more runs through the blood chain, a few more generations to dilute that powerful blood, then you could have a being that would die with a touch. But full-blood and half-blood angels were too strong.

Their magic fought Death.

“So if you can’t kill him, then what are we supposed to do about Brandt?” Tanner wanted to know as he began to pace the length of the dock. “What? Are we just gonna wait around here, let him come and kill us all?”

“That’s not a good plan,” Jade snapped.

No, it wasn’t. “He has the witch.”

Tanner stopped and nodded.

“We need her.” He didn’t like Heather. Didn’t trust her—especially after what she’d done to Jade—but if they were going to take out Brandt, they’d have to save her. “She knew about that brimstone bullet. She might have even—”

“She’s the one who made him the bullets,” Tanner admitted, stopping Az’s words. “She found a wounded hellhound a long while back. She ground up its claws to make the bullets.”

A hellhound, huh?

“Wait!” Jade held up her hand. “He told me that he got those bullets from a witch in Vegas.”

“Yeah, that’s because he originally hooked up with Heather in Sin City.”

“Hooked . . . up?” Jade asked. Then she shook her head. “You don’t mean they—”

“Right. They were hot and heavy, until Brandt met a certain human who got under his skin. Heather told me that once he met you, he left her—for f**king dead, by the way.”

Her hands clenched into fists. “Sounds like Brandt.”

“You knew all of this about her ” Az strode along the old dock as he closed in on Tanner, “And you still trusted her? You sent us in with her and—”

“He cut her up and tossed her into the swamp!” Tanner stood toe-to-toe with him. “It’s not like she was mooning after him. The woman wanted vengeance! I thought she’d help us.”

“She wanted vengeance alright.” Jade’s angry voice had Az’s gaze sliding to her. She rubbed her chest. “She was willing to kill me in order to get it.”

“I never thought she’d attack you,” Tanner said. “I swear, okay? I figured she’d want to kill Brandt, not you.”

But Az understood. “She was attacking Brandt when she went after Jade.”

Jade nodded. “She told me that she was taking his heart.”

By killing her.

“Bitch,” Jade mumbled as she rubbed her arms, as if chilled.

“I’m sorry.” The gritted words were Tanner’s. “If I’d thought for a moment that she would try to kill you, Jade, I never would have taken her with us.”

It was a mistake Az would make sure they didn’t repeat.

But Jade’s assessing stare was studying Az now. “Well, whatever else we say about her, the witch knows her weapons. Those bullets she made worked on you.”

“So they’ll work on him, too.” Wound Brandt. Kill him. “We just need Heather to give us a new batch.” Then they’d be on equal battling ground. Claws versus brimstone.

Maybe not equal.

And maybe Brandt would be dead.

Az smiled. “Let him hunt us. While he comes after us, we’ll be heading right back into his camp.” And taking the witch.

A sharp bark of laughter escaped Tanner. “You’re crazy, aren’t you?”

Perhaps. A Fall could send some angels into raving insanity. Create killers, monsters.

Nightmares that walked the earth.

“But that’s a pretty f**king smart plan,” Tanner continued. “One Brandt won’t see coming. We’ll need to move fast though.” His head jerked to the left as his nostrils flared. “What in the hell?”

Az followed his gaze into the twisting darkness of the trees.

“Has he already found us?” Jade’s hushed voice asked.

Tanner strode past her. “Someone’s hurt out there. I can smell the blood.”

Shifter senses.

“Not human,” he added, almost as an afterthought.

Jade frowned at him. “Who is these days?”

Az let his gaze search the trees. This could be a trap. Brandt was a wily hunter. He could’ve put out weak bait to lure them in.

Az had seen killers use this move dozens of time over the centuries. “You got a lock on the scent, Tanner?”

The shifter nodded. “A mile to the left. Whoever it is, they’re moving real slow.” He glanced back at Az. “Could be close to dying.”

The dock squeaked. Az glanced back and saw Cody advancing on them. Now their little group was all together.

Worry showed on the demon’s face. “We can’t leave someone to die out there.”

Jade stiffened when she saw the doctor, and she took a quick step toward Az.

“We don’t have a lot of time to waste,” Tanner growled. “Brandt’s hauling ass over here. We can’t defeat him and his whole pack right now. We need to be gone.”