Darkness Unmasked (Dark Angels 5)

“Done. Can we pick it up later, after we’ve checked out the storage unit?”

“You can, but I won’t have everything in place by then. And I’m not sure if Fitz will have the necessary relay stuff on hand.”

“Do what you can.”

“I will.”

“Thanks.” I hung up and shoved my plate toward Tao. “You want to finish any of that?”

He snagged the rest of the steak and gave me a thumbs-up. I took the rest out to the kitchen and dumped it in the trash, then grabbed my bag and coat and turned to Azriel. “Let’s go.”

We reappeared in the side parking lot again. The evening air was cold enough for my breath to fog, so I pulled my coat on as I walked toward the entrance.

But I’d barely taken half a dozen steps when the building exploded in a gigantic ball of flame.

Chapter 8

The force of the blast knocked me off my feet and sent me tumbling. I landed in an ungainly heap near the shrubs that lined the parking lot, with bricks, metal, and wood thudding all around me. I didn’t move, just squeezed my eyes shut, threw my hands over my head, and prayed like hell that I wasn’t hit. Then Azriel landed on top of me, knocking out whatever breath I’d had left.

But the minute his body covered mine, the debris stopped falling—not just on us, but around us. And it became quiet. Whisper quiet. I frowned and opened my eyes. We were surrounded by a halo of blue fire.

“What the hell?”

“Valdis shields us.” His warm breath tickled my ear. “She formed it the minute the building exploded.”

“Is that why you’re lying on top of me?”

“Yes. It was easier than transporting us both out of here—especially given you would only want to come back.” He hesitated, then added, with a hint of a smile in his voice, “Of course, this way I also get to touch you more fully, and that is not entirely unpleasant.”

I snorted. “You’re beginning to sound like a regular male, and that’s scary.”

“Right now, I feel like a regular male.”

Laughter bubbled through me. “Well, I was going to be polite and not mention that bar you have—”

“I meant,” he cut in, the amusement in his voice deeper this time, “that I was feeling protective. You, Risa Jones, have what I believe is called a dirty mind.”

“Hey, I’m not the one manning up.”

“That is a function of this body I have no real control over.” Valdis’s shield flickered and died, but he didn’t immediately move. “Are you all right?”

I opened my mouth to say yes, but the word never came out. With the shield gone, the noise hit, and it was horrendous. But the creak and groan of a dying building wasn’t the worst of it. It was the screams of those trapped and injured that were the hardest to take.

“Oh god, Azriel, we have to help—”

“We cannot,” he said, voice firm. “It is too dangerous to go in there just yet.”

I bucked my body, trying to get him off me, but I might as well have tried to shift a brick wall. “Damn it. I can’t just lie here—”

“You can, and you will,” he said. “It is not within your ability to save those people.”

“But it is within your ability.”

“No.”

“Azriel—”

“No.” This time there was an edge of anger in his voice. “I am not here to alter the hand fate has dealt to any of those people inside.”