by Cynthia Eden
“You are the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen,” he told her as he stalked toward her.
Her gaze had tracked behind him, and he knew she was staring at the wings she shouldn’t see. Only the dying or those with angel blood could see—
Keenan stopped and laughed, because he should have realized the truth sooner. Thanks to him, Nicole had angel blood in her. He’d given up his blood plenty of times for her.
“What’s so funny?”
The bed dipped beneath his weight, and he shook his head. He caught her hand, kissed the top of her knuckles. A shiver slid over her.
“Keenan ...”
He brought his body closer to hers. His fingers feathered over her breast. Such a soft, pretty nipple. He bent his head and licked her.
She arched up to him with a sigh.
Soft. Gentle. He could give her that. No pain, no fire, no fury. Just a man and a woman.
He needed to give her that.
He laved her nipple with his tongue, loving her taste and wanting more. Keenan slid his legs between hers—the better to open her to his touch. As he licked her, his knuckles edged down her stomach. His hand slid lower until his fingers were right over her sex.
When he touched her, he found her wet. Ready.
He licked a path to her other breast. Pulled her nipple into his mouth and sucked. Her hips arched, a fast rise against his hand, and he let two fingers dip inside her.
Her sex clamped around him, and his cock jerked. Inside.
But ... not yet.
One more swipe of his tongue over her breast, and then he pulled back to watch her. Pleasure rippled across her face with each flex and plunge of his fingers. He liked the way her breath caught when the pleasure hit. Liked the way her eyes gleamed and she bit her lower lip.
Most guys probably wouldn’t have found biting fangs sexy. Those guys were idiots.
He pulled his fingers out of her tempting flesh. His hands curved around her thighs, and he spread her even wider.
For a moment, he just stared at her sex. Pretty and pink, plump with desire. Then Keenan bent and tasted her. At the first lick, he wanted—
All of her. All.
He pulled her tight to his mouth and took.
She came against his tongue. Once. Twice.
But he didn’t stop tasting or taking. Right then, he was desperate for her, and whatever waited for them, well, he wanted her to remember this moment.
Pleasure. No pain. No fear.
For one night, he’d only give her pleasure.
“Keenan,” Her nails dug into his flesh. “I want you inside.”
He rose up, licking his lips, and still tasting her. He knew his eyes would be as dark as hers.
Her breath choked out as she stared up at him. Then her hands slid down and whispered over his back. The silken touch shot right through him. Stroking wings that aren’t there.
He thrust into her and drove as deep as he could go. Her legs locked around him, her heels pushing against his ass as she arched toward him. Taking, needing, just as wildly as he did.
Her moans filled his ears. His hands wrapped tightly around her.
Thrust.
Thrust.
He took her mouth and drove his tongue inside, so hungry for more of her taste. Her tongue brushed against his as her sex squeezed him, clamping down with her delicate inner muscles.
His spine prickled. His climax was close, but he didn’t want the release to hit yet. Not yet.
Her fingers slid over the ridges of his scars, and her light caress ripped right through his control.
He plunged into her harder. Deeper. The gentleness was gone now, when he’d wanted to hold on to it so badly. But then, he needed—
Her.
He exploded inside her and heard the gasp that came from Nicole as she climaxed. The pleasure was rough, pounding, racing through his blood.
He held her as tightly as he could.
Won’t let go.
No matter who came calling.
Some things in this world were more important than duty, and some things were even stronger than death.
Sam caught the scent of blood as soon as he climbed the porch steps at Ron’s house. The front door stood open, swaying brokenly on its hinges.
His jaw clenched, and he knew what he’d find even before he crossed that threshold.
Poor Ron had never been a particularly strong demon. Barely a level three on the power scale, he wouldn’t have been much of a challenge in a fight against another paranormal.
Ron lay on the floor. His throat had been ripped open, and blood pooled around his body.
“Fuck.”
Long clawmarks riddled Ron’s arms and chest. Those marks weren’t deep enough to kill.
No, the shifter who’d come after Ron had tortured him first, trying to break Ron to get the guy to talk.
“You broke, didn’t you?” He whispered, then shook his head as he bent to close Ron’s eyes. When it came to pain, Ron hadn’t been strong. A fault many demons carried. Pain was their weakness.
Who’d come to collect Ron at death? Az? One of the guy’s dozen minions?
Sam yanked out his phone. Sometimes, technology was even faster than magic. He called his house. It only figured that Keenan would take his vampire back there. Sam knew when fucking time was at hand—and Keenan had been burning for his vamp.
The phone rang. Once, twice—
“Hello?” Nicole’s hesitant voice.
He turned away from the body. “Company’s coming,” he warned. “Be ready—”
He heard the shatter of glass over the phone line.
“I think company’s already here,” she told him softly and the line went dead.
In an instant, Keenan jumped from the bed. He grabbed his jeans, yanked them up, and whirled to face her even as Sam’s warning echoed in her head.
Company’s coming.
Sam’s warning was too late.
“Stay here,” Keenan told her, “You need to—”
“No way.” She jumped from the bed and yanked on her own clothes. “We’re doing this together. You’re not fighting alone!”
“If you’re with me, you’ll distract me.”
Hard words that froze her.
He lifted his hands. “They touch me, they die. I can take them out. I just need to make sure that you’re safe.”
But she wanted to be at his side. “I’m not weak.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
No, he’d never said that.
“I’m saying you’re too important to risk.” He headed for the door. “Stay here.”
While he fought the battle?
He was already gone.
“Dammit.” He was gone but ... she wasn’t alone. The scent of flowers told her that, and when she looked toward the balcony, the doors flew inward and there she could see ... oh, crap. Not just shadows anymore, but the solid form of a man. Huge wings rose from his back and fury hardened his face.
Az. She didn’t even need him to speak to know she was staring at Death.
“You’ll let him die for you?” Az snarled and stalked toward her.
She backed up. Yes, she wanted to be all brave and badass and step right toward him, but she knew what he could do with a touch.
So she backed the hell up. “Keenan’s not dying.” She heard the yells then. Screams from downstairs. Not Keenan’s screams, though. Her chin lifted. “He’s not—”
“He could have come back.” Az was still advancing on her. Not good. “All he had to do was finish his mission.”
Her elbows banged into the wall. Nowhere else to retreat. “You mean all he had to do was be a good soldier boy and kill me.”
“You shouldn’t matter.” He stopped, less than two feet away. His perfect brow crinkled, and he stared at her as if he were trying really hard to understand what the hell Keenan was doing with her. “You’re just a vamp. A parasite to be exterminated.”
Now he was trying to piss her off. She
grabbed the nearby lamp and threw it right at his head. The porcelain shattered but he didn’t blink.
No weapon made by man. Right. And the lamp was probably made in China, and not forged by magic. Dammit!
Looked like she’d have to get creative them. “Maybe I’m not the parasite.” She shoved back her hair. “I’m not the one who takes souls, that’s you.”
His eyes widened. “I’m an angel, created to be superior, created to—”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this spiel.”
He blinked.
She smiled. “You ever think maybe you’ve got it wrong? Maybe you aren’t the superior one. You can’t feel, can you, Az? Keenan can. He can feel and need and want and—” Love. But she bit that part back. She hoped Keenan could love.
Because she was sure falling for him, but she wouldn’t give Az that weapon over her.
“Maybe humans are the superior ones,” she told him instead. “You’re supposed to guard us, right? Protect us.”
His great wings stretched back behind him and their black tips brushed the ceiling. “You’re not human anymore.”
He’d just taunted her. The bastard.
Her gaze dropped to the floor and measured that distance between them again. Yep. Two perfect feet. “You can kill me.”
He smiled.
Bastard. He could kill her, so why wasn’t he? Why was he waiting for her to die?
Because angels had to follow orders. They didn’t pick the moment of death. They had to wait and follow the rules and touch only when—
“No.” She breathed out the word and took a step closer to Az as the understanding crystallized. “You have the power to kill with a touch, but you can’t kill me. Not yet. Because you have to follow your orders, right, Az?” Another good soldier boy.
His eyes narrowed at the corners.
“You can’t touch me, not until it’s time. You can’t kill me, not until it’s time.” Her claws were coming out, and her teeth were sharp and ready. “You might want to hurt me—”
He took a step back. “I-I don’t ...”
Bullshit. “Right. You expect me to believe you don’t want some payback after I took one of your precious angels away?”
She caught the flicker of his eyelashes. Ah ... “I’m the one who took him. Me. Keenan fell.” She let her own smile curve and knew that it would reveal her fangs. “He fell for me, a vampire, a parasite, and he doesn’t want to go back with you.”
“You will destroy him.” Stark.
This was the guy who wasn’t supposed to feel? Maybe all the angels were boiling with emotions—and getting ready to explode. “Are you worried?” She asked him. “Because it seems like maybe you aren’t the perfect angel anymore, either—”
“I never was.”
That stopped her.
His wings were still spread wide. His hands were fisted at his sides. “Do you care for him, vampire?”
“Yes.” Absolute truth.
His head tilted. “How much?”
She stared back at him, her brows pulling low. What was he doing now?
“Do you care enough to trade your life?” A brief pause. “Because that’s what he did for you. He gave up everything he had. He burned as he fell. Keenan crawled through hell, just so he could come to you.”
Hell? Wait—
“So I ask ... what would you do for him?”
She realized the shouting from downstairs had stopped. Too quiet. Her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. She ran across the room and saw a big black bag near the nightstand. She yanked it open and found her clothes. All of her clothes had been brought over from Keenan’s place—Sam had known she’d be back. She yanked out the clothes—and she found her gun nestled inside. Thank you, Sam.
“Would you fight for him?” Az pressed. “Kill?”
“Yes.” Said without hesitation as her fingers curled around the base of a gun—the same gun she’d taken from that vamp feeding room in San Antonio. Got the silver this time, asshole.
“Would you die for him?”
Anger boiled in her blood as she whirled back to him. “I don’t know what kind of sick game you think you’re playing—”
His gaze didn’t so much as drop to the gun. Right, ’cause why would he fear a gun? He wouldn’t ... but Carlos should fear the silver bullets that were still inside.
Az watched her with his bright gaze. “We both know Carlos isn’t hunting you. It’s Keenan’s blood he wants because he needs an angel’s blood to get power. So I ask again ...” His voice seemed to whisper through her, “Would you die for him?”
That silence was too thick. Her hand tightened on the gun. There were only a few bullets left.
“Angels can die,” Az told her, still in that whisper that sent chills over her. “Everyone can die, and believe me, vamp, you won’t both survive the night.”
Keenan?
She sprang for the door.
“Get ready to choose!” Az called after her. “I see death coming. I see it.”
The image of that last moment. Dammit, sometimes angels sucked.
“I see you and Keenan. I see the stake, and I see blood.” He shook his head. “The blood is on Keenan.”
No. He wasn’t supposed to die. She nearly tripped over the stairs as she raced down them. “Keenan!”
“Death will come.” Az’s voice followed her. “Before the sun comes, death will take a soul.”
“Stay away from him!” Nicole shouted, but she didn’t know if she was shouting the words to Az or to Carlos.
Then she hit the ground floor and she saw the broken glass that littered the floor. Two naked men—had to be shifters, they were always supposed to be naked when they transformed back to human form—lay on the floor.
But Keenan was gone, and there was no sign of Carlos.
“Better hurry ...” She glanced up the stairs and saw Az staring down at her. “Time’s running out.”
Damn him. She ran out into the night, shouting Keenan’s name.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Keenan caught her when she raced outside. He yanked her close even as he put his hand over her mouth to stop her screams.
He pulled her back into the shadows and covered her with his body. “Easy, sweet,” he breathed the words against her ear and she sagged against him. “We’re being hunted.” And that knowledge had the fury ripping through his skin.
Two coyote shifters were already down—they’d been the welcome party that had launched at him with claws and teeth. They’d managed to make him bleed, spilling his blood all over the foyer, but he’d made sure they paid for those bites.
The fingers of Nicole’s left hand curled around his arms. “It’s you,” she whispered, and he tilted his head so that he could see the fear in her eyes. “They’re not stopping until they get your blood.”
They’d already gotten all he felt like giving.
“Az told me—you could die tonight.”
He nodded once. “Stay here while I hunt.” He turned away.
She jerked him back. Hard. “What the hell? Did you just hear me?” She shoved something—a gun—behind her.
Carlos probably heard her. The woman wasn’t trying to keep her voice down.
“We thought I was Az’s target, but we were wrong, Keenan! It’s you!”
He’d always been aware of that possibility. He knew Az liked to put down the Fallen who walked the earth. Sometimes, Keenan really wondered if Az was killing as ordained—or killing whoever he wanted.
But then he’d fall, too. And Az hadn’t fallen. He’d been sitting up at that heavenly right hand for years.
Her claws bit into his hands. “You’re not dying for me.”
So fierce, his vampire. He brushed back her hair and let his palm linger on her face. “You worry for nothing. Az is trying to frighten you.” He could feel the eyes on him, watching in the darkness. Another strike would come soon. He needed to get Nicole back inside. As long as she was inside, any attackers had to go through him in ord
er to get her.
“Yes, well, he succeeded. I’m scared. I don’t want to lose you!”
Footsteps shuffled to the right. Had to be a human on the street. A shifter wouldn’t make an obvious sound like that. Shifters could retreat and attack in perfect silence.
The game of hide and seek was getting old.
“The coyote is out there,” he told her, “and I’m not letting him get away.” Because if he did, there would just be another attack. Carlos wasn’t going to ever back off. Not until he got what he wanted.
My blood.
Too bad for Carlos ... Keenan only planned to bleed for his vamp.
Her gaze trekked over his shoulder and scanned the darkened street. “You mean we’re not letting him get away.”
“Nicole ...”
“We’re not.” Said fiercely and the woman was so beautiful. Pale skin. Dark hair. Lips that he wanted beneath his mouth. Her gaze blazed into his. “I’m not letting you risk yourself out here. You’re the target. I’m going to be watching your back.”
Because of Az. Az had sent her racing into the darkness. You’ll pay, Az. Soon enough.
“Then let’s get hunting.” Before the dawn came and weakened her.
He kissed her, one fast kiss, because he wanted to taste those lips. Then he turned into the night.
They hadn’t gone far, though, before Nicole stopped him. He heard the swift inhale she gave before she whispered, “Blood.”
He stared down at the dark cement and saw the tiny drops. “Maybe the bastard is hurt.”
“No, that’s human blood.” She hurried forward. “There’s more. It’s—”
A trail.
So the coyote was playing dirty. Carlos was willing to sacrifice a human in order to bring in his prey. Not really surprising.
They followed that trail—light drops at first, then deeper spatters on the ground. Fresh blood. The humans they brushed by had no clue about the blood they stepped in as they stumbled down the street.
Dawn would come soon. Even in New Orleans, the party was slowing down now. Keenan needed to find his prey before Carlos came at him again.
