by Cynthia Eden
“My boss could be in there—him and a dozen other guards that we don’t want to piss off right now.” Sometimes, you had to pick your moments. Going up against Rogziel when he had his little army at his beck and call wasn’t a good idea. “Let me go in and scout the scene. Your brother was here, but they could have moved him to a new site already.” Or they could have killed him, and just where would that leave me?
Sam glared down at her.
“We have a deal,” she snapped at him, running a not-quite-steady hand through her hair as she tried to smooth it back. “I don’t want to go in with guns blazing, okay?” Because she did have a few friends who should be in that warehouse. Well, semi-friends. Humans didn’t usually like to get too close to her. “Let’s try to keep the body count to a minimum.”
“Why do you care?” He seemed genuinely confused.
Well, crap. What? Did he think a succubus couldn’t feel? She felt too much. “Because I don’t want any more blood on my hands. I’ve already got enough.” She took a deep breath. “Look, I can get inside instantly, I can search the warehouse, and if your brother is still there”—okay, this was the dicey part—“I’ll serve him up to you on a silver platter.” As long as you remember that you owe me.
He stared at her. Time slipped away in silence.
She shifted her weight to her right foot. “Jeez, look, we don’t have all—”
“Go in.” His shoulders rolled. “But if you try to cross me, it’ll be the worst mistake you make. I promise you that.”
Sam crossed his arms and watched Seline slip away. He didn’t trust her, not for a moment, but . . .
I want her.
Even though he knew better than to want a succubus. Talk about a lethal package.
She approached the guards. They must have recognized her because they opened the double doors and led her right inside the building.
Is Az in there? His back teeth were clenched. To be so close to his vengeance now. So close.
Don’t betray me, Seline. If she did, if this was just a setup . . . She’d learn just how painful his touch could be.
“Seline? What the hell?”
She turned at the call and found Alex Graham striding toward her. He wore all black, and a holster circled his shoulders.
A human, one who made it his mission to hunt monsters.
And one who should have been her backup for the night.
She let her face harden with anger because she had a role to play. “Did you forget that you were supposed to be watching my ass?” she demanded.
His eyes swept over her, lingering just a bit on the cuts that still sliced across her wrist and forearm. He shrugged, the move far too careless for her taste. “I thought you were dead. I saw that guy grab you and pull you back inside the house.”
Oh, so he had been watching. Then when things got hot, he’d turned tail and run. Way to leave a woman behind. “You didn’t think about coming to my aid?” That’s what a team was supposed to be for.
“That wasn’t my job.”
She took the hit and kept her chin up.
“I was supposed to watch. You were supposed to . . . well . . .” His lips twisted, and she caught the flash of disgust on his face. “Do your thing.”
Her thing. Like she hadn’t risked her life for this group over and over again.
“Is he dead?” Alex wanted to know as he came close. Not too close. He never got too close. Like being a demon was some kind of virus he didn’t want to catch.
She’d never liked the man. Seline worked with him because she had to—Rogziel wouldn’t let her do anything else.
This is all you have, Seline. Rogziel’s voice whispered through her mind. You want redemption, then you fight for it.You kill for it. You earn it.
The price for redemption was too high. She just wanted freedom.
“Sammael’s not dead.” Now she could mix truth and lie for this part. “I took some of his . . . power and managed to slip away.” She exhaled and shook her head. “He’s stronger than we thought. Much stronger. I need to talk to Rogziel—”
“He’s not here.” A brief pause, then Alex said, “He’s out hunting.”
Well, perfect. Then she could get the Az guy and slip right away. Because other than a few guards, the place was deserted.
“He wants us to relocate to a more secure site,” Alex continued.
Ah, that explained the lack of personnel.
“We’ll be transferring out the last prisoner soon.”
“The last one?” Oh, come on, be Az, be . . .
Alex turned away. “He’s a real piece of work. A Fallen.” He shook his head and kept walking. “Can you believe an angel would be dumb enough to fall from heaven?”
“I’ve seen dumber things.” Like you, just walking away from me now after you admitted you left me to die. Seline grabbed the nearest object she could find—a metal chair that she lifted easily—and she slammed it into the back of Alex’s head.
He went down, and she leaned over him. “Maybe that will teach you to stop looking at me like I’m a piece of dog shit stuck on your shoe.” She’d seen the look in his eyes, in most of the eyes of the humans who were under Rogziel’s thumb, and she was tired of being trash. Seline yanked the keys off his belt. Alex always had the keys to the cages. As Rogziel’s first in command, he was the one given top access all the time.
She jumped up and hurried down the hall on the left. There wouldn’t be much time before someone found his body.
So she’d better haul ass.
She turned a quick left, a hard right, and still she didn’t see any other guards or personnel. She knew that the most dangerous Other were always kept in containment until Rogziel issued his judgment on them. This area of the warehouse had been reinforced for their containment. Other-proofed, so to speak. Silver cages for the shifters, magic blocks for the witches, and—
There. She pressed in a fast key code and the door for containment room 107 slid open. She slipped inside and saw—him.
The man’s muscled chest was bare. His head sagged forward, his blond hair concealing his face. Thick chains bound his arms, holding him securely, even as blood dripped from the cuts that slashed open his arms.
The guy barely seemed to be breathing. Maybe she was already too late, dammit. Now how was she supposed to bargain with Sam? He wouldn’t pay for a dead body.
She stepped forward, and her shoes slid over the hard floor.
His head whipped up. “Help . . . me.” A desperate plea that was echoed by the haunted look in his blue gaze.
She pushed the door closed behind her and gripped the keys in her hand. “That’s why I’m here.” Liar, liar . . . You’re my ticket to freedom.
So this was Az. Now that his hair had slid back, she could get a much better view of him. Perfect face. High cheekbones, straight blade of a nose, hard jaw. Golden skin. Bright blue eyes. Mouth that looked like it should be smiling. Instead, lines of pain bracketed his lips.
Yeah, she could buy him being an angel. Whereas Sam just looked more like the devil.
“Who . . .” his voice rasped out, “are . . . you?”
“My name’s Seline.” Giving him her name didn’t matter and maybe it would earn her the trust she needed to make the escape work. She just had to get him out of those cuffs and then slip him out of the warehouse.
Sam could take over the game then.
His brow furrowed. “Don’t . . . know you . . .” He shook his head. “Don’t know . . .”
She hesitated just a few feet from him.
He sucked in a deep breath. “Who am I?” Confusion roughened the words.
She blinked. “Uh . . . run that by me again?” She sure hadn’t been expecting that kind of response from him.
His gaze darted around the room. “Why . . . am I here?” That bright stare came back to her. “Did I do . . . something wrong? Did I . . . hurt someone?” He yanked at the chains.
Seline kept her distance. If he was truly Sam’s broth
er, then the guy before her might be able to kill with a touch, too. Which makes getting him out of here even harder.
His jaw clenched. “Please,” he grated, “help me.”
There was torment in his voice. And fear. The keys dug into her hand. “Your name is Az.”
He didn’t blink.
Okay, no recognition there. Is this the right guy? She walked a bit to the left and tried to peer over his shoulder. She couldn’t see the flesh on his back, not with the way he was chained, so in order to find out if he carried the same scars as Sam did, she’d have to touch him.Seline sucked in a deep breath. “I will help you,” she told him, “but you have to trust me.” She lifted her left hand to show that she wasn’t armed. “I need to touch you.”
His stare bored into her and a faint line appeared between his brows.
“I have to make certain you’re the man I think you are.” Because these days, she didn’t trust a thing Rogziel told her. Not after what she’d seen him do on the last case.
Sam wasn’t the first angel she’d met. No, the first angel she could remember was Rogziel. But he wasn’t an Angel of Death like Sam. Instead, Rogziel was on earth to punish. Punishment angels were fueled by wrath.
Only she knew that Rogziel had a twisted idea of what constituted guilt. Sometimes, just having demon blood was enough of a justification for punishment in his mind.
He doesn’t kill quickly. He enjoys the pain too much.
The only time Rogziel ever seemed to feel anything was when he was doling out his justice. Then he smiled.
His smile chilled her to the bone.
Swallowing, Seline lifted her arm and let her fingers trail over Az’s back.
He pulled in a sharp breath at her touch, but he didn’t move. Her fingers skimmed up his flesh and found the thick, rough scars near his shoulder blades.
Her head tilted back, and she looked deeper into his eyes. His pupils flared as she gazed at him. “You fell.” It wasn’t hard to mistake those marks. Once you knew what they were, the scars were an instant indicator. She’d only touched Sam’s scars in the dream-walk, but she’d never forget them. He’d had wings, once upon a time. So had Az.
Once upon a time . . . until the fire came, and he fell to earth. Seline cleared her throat and said, “You fell, and your wings burned away.”
Not a flicker of recognition filled his gaze. He just looked . . . lost.
“Fell from where?” he asked blankly as he blinked and shook his head.
She pulled away, hurrying back a step. Getting out of touching range. “I’ll get you out of here, but you have to—”
“I woke up in a . . . graveyard. I was on a broken tomb, naked, I was—”
Voices shouted in the hallway. Oh, hell. No more time.
She grabbed the chain on his right wrist and shoved the key into the lock. “Doesn’t matter.”
“It does.” He caught her hand the instant the cuff popped open. Now it was Seline’s turn to freeze. One touch.
But his fingers just smoothed over her skin. “You’re . . .” He broke off and the blue of his eyes seemed to fade a bit. “Danger.”
Oh, yeah, she was dangerous to him, but she wasn’t about to confess to that bit now.
His hold tightened. “Be careful. Evil . . . it’s at the door.”
What? Chill bumps rose on her arms.
Then the scent of smoke reached her, burning her nose, and Seline’s head whipped around. She could see thick, dark smoke sliding beneath the bottom of the containment room’s door.
Smoke and then—the door exploded inward as a ball of flames swept into the room. Seline screamed, and Az laughed.
Laughed.
Her gaze flew back to him, and she saw that he was smiling. Oh, hell. That smile reminded her far too much of Rogziel—it was the same smile he wore right before Rogziel got ready to punish some bastard.
Playing with the big boys . . . Had she really thought Az wouldn’t be as dangerous as Sam?
The fire licked her arm, and she screamed again.
When the scent of smoke drifted to him on the wind, Sam stiffened. Then the armed men ran out of the warehouse, one of the guys carrying an unconscious man over his shoulder. They were running away.
Seline, where the hell are you?
The smoke thickened, and the flames began to crackle. Sam raced for the warehouse. A retreating guard saw him and fumbled for his weapon. “Wait, stop! You can’t—”
Sam flew forward and knocked the guy aside. Sam blasted the warehouse door open with a stray thought and rushed inside. The flames swelled, growing higher and higher. His power pushed out, and he should have been able to instantly quench the fire, but the flames didn’t so much as flicker.
Az. Only another angel could have enough power to stir the fire like this.
Time to find his brother and give him some payback—payback that had been centuries in coming.
Another scream ripped the air. This one echoed with pain.
“Seline!” He rushed after that fading scream, never feeling the touch of fire on his skin as he leapt right through the flames.
And then he saw her. On the ground. Rolling as she tried to put out the fire that burned her flesh. He roared her name and lunged for her.
“Sam . . .” Her hoarse whisper and there were tears—fucking tears—sliding down her cheeks. He held her close against his chest, and, through the flames, his gaze locked on his brother.
Azrael. The second Angel of Death created. One without feelings. One who existed only to kill.
One who’d finally fallen.
The fire rose higher, hotter, and those flames seemed to come right after Seline.
Holding her, cradling her carefully, Sam stepped back.
Az was smiling.
“Bastard!” Sam yelled even as he retreated a few more steps from that fire. The fire wouldn’t hurt him, but Seline was a different story. She was shaking in his arms, and he could feel the waves of her fear.
A manacle dropped from Az’s wrist. Still smiling, Az stepped forward.
“I’m going to kill you,” Sam promised him.
Az’s brows rose. “No . . . you won’t.” Az lifted his hands. The restraints were at his feet, and Sam knew his brother’s power was ready to burst free again. “Not now.” And Az vanished. In less than a second’s time, he simply disappeared.
Holding tight to Seline, Sam sent out a wave of his power and blew out the wall on the right. He ran forward, holding her as tightly as he dared.
The shrill scream of sirens reached his ears. He caught the flash of red lights. A fire truck was racing to the scene, leading a line of police cruisers and an ambulance. Sam hesitated.
“No.” Seline’s rough whisper. “Humans . . . don’t let them see me. They . . . can’t help.”
He risked a glance down at her. The tear tracks were still on her cheeks, and angry red blisters covered her arm.
Az, run . . . run fucking fast. His brother had just earned more pain before his death.
“Please,” she said, holding his stare, “get me out . . . of here.” More tears slid from her eyes.
“You’re hurt. You need—”
“I’m a succubus.” Her eyes closed even as a flash of pain had her face tightening. “Medicine won’t heal me.”
No, not medicine.
He turned away from the cops. He kept his hold on her, and he knew just how to help Seline.
Medicine couldn’t take away a succubus’s pain, but pleasure could.
Rogziel watched as the warehouse burned. His guards had escaped, and Alex waited behind him, swearing and muttering because he had a bruise on the back of his head.
Humans could be so dramatic.
“You’re sure Seline was the one who hit you?” Rogziel asked again, because he had to be certain.
“Yes! She hit me, and she took the freaking keys. She went after that Fallen . . .” Alex stalked forward and pointed to the blazing building. “And they did that.”
&n
bsp; Burned their way to freedom?
Maybe.
Or maybe Azrael had just burned Seline and sent her to hell.
His gaze slid over the fire. He’d expected the betrayal from Seline. He’d hoped that she’d stay true to him, but, deep inside, he’d known. It had been just a matter of time.
Blood always tells. Poor Seline had the blood of the wicked coursing through her veins. He’d tried to warn her, but there had been no changing fate. There never was.
“We’ll wait until the authorities secure the scene.” He’d learned how to keep a low profile over the centuries. So he’d let the cops do their work. Let the firefighters fight the blaze that was already cooling, and once the smoke cleared, he’d see if any bodies were recovered.
If Seline had somehow slipped away, then he’d find her. Seline was his, and he wouldn’t let her get away. He’d see her dead long before he turned her loose on the world.
Because he knew just how dangerous she truly was. The pretty face was a lie. Inside, Seline was a monster, one that he’d been fighting to control since the day he’d found her.
Tossed away in an alley.
Trash.
Evil.
And the evil ones in this world had to be punished.
Sam took Seline to one of his safe houses. Acquiring a car wasn’t hard; he just took the first one he saw and drove as fast as he could. Within minutes, he had Seline at his place, locked inside, and on his bed.
Carefully, using a gentleness he hadn’t even realized he possessed, Sam removed her charred and ash-stained clothing, and he wiped away her tears.
“You couldn’t . . .” His fingers hovered over her injured arm. The burns pissed him off and made him want to rip Az apart. “You couldn’t control the fire at all.” Odd. A demon usually had some ability to manipulate the flames.
Her lashes slowly lifted. “I’m not . . . I’m a hybrid.”
Hybrid. Half-demon. Half . . . what?
“I can make some fire like I did in the swamp, but I can’t control someone else’s. Not . . . strong enough.” The last sounded like an embarrassed confession.
