Avenging Angel (The Fallen 4)

Seline’s slightly wicked smile told Marna that she understood. “Let’s go inside,” Seline said, “so we can talk in private.”

“Beats standing around with our asses out in the open,” Tanner muttered, but he tossed Marna one more glance. His expression seemed to say, You okay with this?

She nodded and then followed him inside. The door closed behind them with a bang that made her jump. She glanced up and found that Sammael had moved to look at her.

Frowning, he said, “My dear lost angel, we aren’t the ones who jump. We’re the ones who make everyone else want to shit their pants.”

If only.

They walked down a long corridor. Music beat. Pulsed. They didn’t head out into the main section of the bar, but instead followed a twisting staircase upstairs. Marna glanced down. Saw all the bodies. The couples making out. Heat and lust seemed to pour from the people on the dance floor.

No wonder a succubus had been hiding there. It would have been the perfect place for Seline, before she’d changed.

Marna’s gaze tracked up a bit as she climbed the stairs. Wait . . . was that a golden cage, hanging from the ceiling?

“Want to give it a try?” Seline murmured.

Tanner growled. Marna didn’t speak because . . . maybe. There were two women in that suspended cage right then. Dancing. Gyrating their hips.

She bumped into Tanner’s back. He caught her hand and steadied her. His gaze searched hers. So bright. “Marna?”

She realized that he’d barely glanced at the dancing women or the throng below. And . . . his attention always seemed to be on her. On what she was doing and feeling. She wasn’t wildly sexy like the others there, certainly not like Seline who seemed to ooze sex appeal. When it came to sexy, no one beat an ex-succubus. They were made for sin.

But Tanner always looked at Marna like he could eat her alive.

It was nice. Hot.

They climbed the rest of the stairs in silence, then entered a room on the right. Tinted windows let them look down onto the dance floor, but Sammael assured them, “No one out there can see or hear anything that goes on in here.”

Good, and a little scary.

“I was wondering when you’d be coming by.” Sammael lowered his body onto a leather couch. Seline perched on the arm rest near him. “Especially since it looks like I’ll be having to kill your brother.”

Tanner lunged toward him, but Marna grabbed his arm as she fought to pull him back.

Sammael smiled.

“You won’t,” Tanner growled.

“If he keeps selling angel blood, I will.” One dark brow rose. “Do you know how many vamps I’ve killed in the last few weeks, all because those fools thought that they’d get a taste of my blood?” Then his eyes hardened. His hand came up, and his fingers curved around Seline’s leg. “Or hers?” Real rage burned in his eyes, and Marna realized she and Tanner were very lucky Sammael hadn’t already attacked.

Nothing could stop him when he went on a rampage. She’d seen his handiwork before. Had to clean up the bodies and collect the souls that had been left behind.

“He’s not selling any more blood.” Tanner’s hands had fisted. Were his claws coming out? The last thing she wanted was for him to battle Sammael.

“He’d better not.” A deadly promise. “I owe you and Cody because you helped Az.”

Just the mention of Az’s name stirred so many memories for Marna. She’d once been tasked with taking the soul of Az’s human mate. Like Sammael, he hadn’t been willing to give up the woman he loved. And when he’d refused . . .

That was when Marna had been attacked.

“Az and I both owe you,” Sammael said, only he was looking at her now.

Marna’s chin rose. “Cody won’t sell the blood again. And you’re right, you do owe us.” Her shoulders were straight, her muscles tense. She wouldn’t show him any more fear. “So I want you to pay that debt.”

“How?”

Seline watched in silence.

Marna hesitated. Tanner’s body was still locked in battle-ready mode. “I want you to teach me to kill.” She lifted her hands and held them, palms out, toward Sammael. “With a touch.”

A faint line appeared between his brows, but it was Seline who asked, “You mean you can’t?”

Marna shook her head.

“Power comes back in different ways, for different angels.” Sammael didn’t seem particularly concerned. Since it wasn’t his life, why would he be? “Give it time,” he said with a shrug. “You’ve only been walking the earth a few months. You’ll get stronger—”

“Time is what I don’t have.” She pulled in a ragged breath. “If I’m going to keep living, then I need to know how to kill.”

Waves of tension seemed to roll off Tanner.

“Can you stir the fire?” Seline asked.

Marna nodded. “But fire isn’t much good against a demon.”

“And that’s what we’re facing,” Tanner said as he stood with his legs braced apart. “The vamps want her blood, yeah, we know that, but there’s a demon out there, pulling puppet strings and stealing faces.”

Seline blinked her perfect eyes. “Stealing what?”

“He changed himself,” Marna said, and her gaze darted to the window. To the mass of bodies below. Was anyone ever truly who you thought? “He took my body, my face, and he killed two shifters.”

“Interesting.” From Sammael.

“It’s not interesting,” Tanner fired back. “It’s dangerous.”

The right side of Sammael’s mouth kicked up into a half-smile. “Let me guess . . . he took your form, too?”

“And nearly killed a cop. This SOB is gunning for us, and we will take him out.” Tanner’s vow.

But Marna said, “Fire won’t stop him. That means I can’t stop him.” She didn’t have Tanner’s certainty that they were gonna win the day.

“Hmmm.” Sammael’s fingers stroked Seline’s leg in an absent caress. “But your shifter’s claws should do the trick. Unless, of course, he’s too squeamish to kill his own brother.”

“Like you were too squeamish to kill yours?” Tanner fired back.

The air in the room got very, very thick.

Sammael’s fingers stopped their stroking. “You should be careful, shifter.”

“No, you should be.” Tanner lifted up his claws. “I know how to kill you, too.”