Avenging Angel (The Fallen 4)

Tanner hesitated. He didn’t like where this might be going.

“Humans who know the truth can be very, very dangerous,” she said.

Like he had to be told that. “Where is Jonathan?” A chill had settled in his gut.

“He left the crime scene. Raced away right after we rewound the footage some more, and he caught sight of the woman you had with you.”

Oh, hell, no.

The captain shook her head. “I’m not sure where the guy is now, he could be—”

Tanner yanked open the door before she could finish. He rushed out into the bullpen. Slammed right into Lawson.

Lawson grabbed his arms. “Where the hell do you think—”

Tanner tossed him aside. “Not now, ass**le. Not now.” He’d been tricked. Jonathan had lured him out, lured him away—

So the guy could go after Marna.

Sonofabitch.

Jonathan was one of the few people in this town who knew about Tanner’s apartment in the city. Since he was Tanner’s partner, he’d needed a list of all Tanner’s residences, in case of an emergency. Does this count as an emergency?

“Stand down, Lawson!” he heard the captain shout behind him.

Then there were gasps. The faintest snick of a safety being released.

Humans wouldn’t have heard that sound.

A shifter wouldn’t have missed it.

“Stand down!” the captain screamed.

Tanner spun and saw that Lawson had taken aim at him. The guy’s gun was shaking, but he said, “A killer’s not just walking away.”

The other cops had frozen. What? Were they just gonna stand there and watch?

Then let’s give them a show.

Tanner leapt forward and yanked the gun right out of Lawson’s hand. He moved so fast, Lawson couldn’t even squeeze the trigger.

Then he turned the weapon right back on the human. “The captain cleared me.” He made sure his voice carried. He wanted everyone in the bullpen to hear this.

“No damn way!” Lawson’s whole body was shaking now. Staring down the barrel of a gun could do that to a guy. “I was there, I saw—”

“What the killer wanted you to see.” The captain’s footsteps rushed toward them. “I had my techs take another look at the video. The video had been altered. One minute—one damn minute—and they knew it wasn’t Detective Chance.”

Tanner slapped the gun down on the nearest desk.

“He’s clear,” the captain’s voice thundered out, “and our job is to find out who the hell is trying to set up one of our own.”

Lawson’s breath heaved out. Tanner saw the fury—the hate—gleaming in his dark eyes. Another day, another time, and he would give the guy the fight he wanted.

Today . . .

I have to get to her.

“Go,” the captain told him with a jerk of her head toward the door. “You have your orders.”

No, he didn’t. But then, he didn’t need orders. He knew how to kill on his own.

He’d learned to kill when he was nine years old. Too young?

Hell, yes.

And the blood was still on his hands.

He rushed for the precinct’s exit. Everyone made sure to get out of his way.

“You can’t run from me!”

The bullet had missed her and slammed into the metal of the fire escape.

She couldn’t run? What did it look like she was doing? Hanging around, waiting to have tea with the trigger-happy idiot?

Marna’s legs raced down the metal stairs.

And he followed right behind her. Fast, so fast for a human.

“I know what you are!”

She jumped to the ground. Staggered. Righted herself and—

He grabbed her.

Very fast for a human.

And to touch her? No, he had no idea of what she was. “You shouldn’t do that,” she whispered.

His breath heaved out. His face had reddened as he gave chase. “I’ve got . . . to know.”

She stared at him with wide eyes while her heart raced. “I don’t want to hurt you.” But she would. Pain was a part of life that she’d grown accustomed to since her fall.

His face—maybe some would have found it handsome, but she thought it looked too soft, too weak, not like Tanner’s fierce features—tightened. “And I don’t want to hurt you. If I had . . .” He lifted the gun in his hand. “I would have aimed better.”

But he’d already shot her once. Was she supposed to forget that? What was a little matter of blood and bullets between not-friends?

His gaze swept over her. “I knew you weren’t dead.”

She didn’t like the way his eyes dipped down her body.

“I thought you’d have wings.”

Her breath seemed to burn in her lungs. Maybe he did know what she was.

He whirled her around. “Shouldn’t you have wings?”

Not if they’d been cut away.

“Doesn’t matter.” He locked a cuff around her wrist. Snapped another around his own.

The human was asking for so much pain.

“There’s someone who wants to see you. You have to come with me.”

No, she didn’t. Marna yanked on her cuff and broke the chain linking it to his. One tug, that was all it took.

She was getting stronger, too.

Time to show the human just how dangerous she could be.

The darkness inside of her, a darkness that she’d always sensed and fought to suppress, seemed to stretch. Filled her.

She smiled at the human and knew he’d never see what was coming for him—not until it was too late.

A fire built inside of her, burning brighter, hotter.

No more.

Time for her to stop being afraid. Time for others to fear her.

CHAPTER NINE

Tanner saw the flames before he saw her. Red, gold, twisting and crackling, the flames rose up around his apartment building.

Humans were out, running, screaming for help.

But Marna just stood in the middle of the flames. What the hell?

“Marna!” He yelled her name but wondered if she could even hear his call over the crackle of the fire. In the distance, he heard the wail of a fire truck’s siren, but this wasn’t a fire that humans could handle.

They couldn’t fight magic.

Marna’s arms were up in the air, and her face—even through the flames he could see the light of power that bathed her features.

“Marna, pull it back!”

The flames flared higher.

Tanner knew he had to go into the fire, for her. Jaw locked, he raced forward and bellowed her name once more.