The Angel Trap

by Michelle Madow

  “I’ll require a private audience with Raven immediately after she’s healed,” he said.

  “Is that to get her to make the blood oath?” Noah asked. “Because she’ll be a lot more comfortable making it if she has people she trusts by her side.” His fingers were now intertwined with Raven’s, his hand gripping her limp one. The blisters on her skin were popping and cracking, revealing more burned skin underneath.

  I couldn’t imagine how much pain she was in. No wonder her body had shut down and forced her into this comatose state.

  “It’s not about the blood oath—you’re free to be in the room with her during that,” Thomas said. “I want a private audience with her, and no, I’m not going to tell you why. You either agree to the condition or you don’t. If you don’t, you know where the exit is.” He glanced toward the elevator in the foyer.

  “You won’t hurt her?” Noah asked. “Or lay a finger on her?”

  Thomas glanced back and forth between Noah and Raven, as if understanding Noah’s concern. “I’ll be having a discussion with her,” he said. “That’s all.”

  “All right,” Noah agreed. “But if I hear you tried anything with her…” He glared at Thomas, the threat lingering in the air.

  “I urge you not to forget that I’m helping you here,” Thomas reminded him. “I’m the only one who can help you right now. Threaten me again and we’re done.”

  The two of them were so different—like fire and ice. But right now, Thomas had the power, so Noah backed down.

  “Understood,” Noah said.

  “I’m a man of my word,” Thomas replied. “I have no interest in harming your girlfriend. I only want to have a chat with her—privately.”

  It took everything I had to resist rolling my eyes when he called himself a man of his word. Because as far as I was aware, men of their word didn’t make marriage proposals and then take them back with an obviously fake explanation why.

  But as easy as it would have been to say something snarky in reply, I held my tongue. I wasn’t about to risk him retracting his offer to save Raven’s life because I was still bitter about the way he’d broken my heart.

  “I see no problems with that,” I said instead, looking to Noah to keep myself cool. “What about you?”

  Noah watched me closely, and while I could see he was still worried, he relaxed significantly knowing that I was okay with Thomas’s proposition. “I agree to the term.” His voice was stiff, and he turned back to face Thomas. “But you said you had three more conditions. What’s the third?”

  “My final condition is the most important one.” Thomas’s dark eyes stared straight at me, as if he was seeing into my soul. “Because while it will be interesting to save Raven to try to understand how she—a human—imprinted on a shifter, it’s not why I’m entering into this deal.”

  “Then why are you doing it?” I asked.

  “Because I see this is important to you, and I care about you,” he said. “You know I care about you—you wouldn’t have come to me for help otherwise.”

  “I know you don’t want me dead.” Every muscle in my body immediately went on guard—especially my heart. “There’s a difference.”

  “Not really.” He leaned back in his chair, looking smugly confident in his assumption. “The knowledge you have about vampire blood has been kept within our species for as long as we’ve existed. The only people I wouldn’t kill for knowing about it are the ones I care about. Those people are few and far between. As for everyone else… this secret is more important than their lives.”

  I nodded, since this was why we’d come to Thomas instead of any other vampire.

  He cared about me—like someone cared for a pet they’d grown fond of. But he’d never truly wanted to marry me.

  He loved the challenge of getting me to say yes to marrying him more than actually wanting to be with me.

  I’d hoped that someday I’d be able to move on and get over it. But seeing him now re-opened the wound I didn’t think would ever truly heal.

  “Where are you going with this?” I wished he would get to the point so we could agree to his deal, heal Raven, and get out of here.

  “I hurt you deeply all those years ago when I realized it wasn’t in your best interest to spend your life with me, and I’m sorry about the pain I caused you.” He focused on me like I was the only person in the room, and I could barely breathe as I waited for where he was going with this. “So my final condition is that you grant me your forgiveness.”

  Sage

  I blinked a few times, unsure I heard that right.

  Had Thomas just required that I forgive him for breaking our engagement and leaving my heart in pieces?

  From the way he sat perfectly straight, awaiting my response, it was clear that yes—he was being completely serious.

  And from the way Noah watched me with fire in his eyes, clutching onto Raven like a reminder about what was at stake, it was clear he wanted me to agree.

  This was messed up on so many levels.

  If I didn’t know Thomas, I would have felt pressured to say yes—for Raven’s sake. But I did know Thomas. And I knew that when he made deals, his terms were always up for negotiation.

  So you could bet I was going to negotiate the hell out of this one.

  “You can’t just demand my forgiveness,” I balked, sounding as repulsed by the proposition as I felt. “Emotions can’t be that easily controlled, and they certainly can’t be bargained for.”

  Thomas’s eyes flashed with something—either disappointment or pain—but he hid it too quickly to give me any time to read into it. “Anything can be bargained for,” he said simply.

  “Not that.” I didn’t miss a beat. “I agree to your first two terms, but not the last.”

  “Sage,” Noah warned, looking like he was about to spring up and force me to agree.

  Thomas held a hand up to stop Noah, his eyes locked on mine. “I respect your stance,” he said, calm as always. “So I won’t ask for your forgiveness. At least not yet. Instead, I ask that immediately following my private audience with Raven, you allow me to take you on a date.”

  “What?” This shocked me more than his demand for my forgiveness. “You were the one who dumped me. Why do you want to take me on a date?”

  “Because you’re correct that it’s presumptuous of me to bargain for your forgiveness,” he said. “But your forgiveness is still something I desire. By taking you out on a date, I’ll have a chance to earn it.”

  I pressed my lips together, not wanting to say yes. It was hard enough for me to come here at all—to see Thomas and be reminded of everything I’d lost.

  A date with him was something else entirely. He wasn’t one to do anything halfway, and that included dates. I knew better than to expect this date to be something as simple as dinner and a movie. Whatever he had in mind was going to be over the top extraordinary—a romantic whirlwind designed to impress, amaze, and most importantly, to seduce.

  If I agreed to a date, I’d be giving him the power to break my heart all over again.

  I’d come so far since our break up. It had been hard to sweep up the shattered pieces of my heart, but I’d managed. I’d gone from a never-ending pit of feeling bleak, lonely, and depressed to becoming confident, strong, and secure.

  I refused to go back to where I’d been after he’d dumped me. I wouldn’t give him that kind of power over me ever again.

  But then I glanced at Raven—well, at what was left of her. She’d been so strong and brave to come with Noah and me on our hunt, despite only just learning about the supernatural world. Then she’d suffered through immeasurable pain by holding onto the heavenly knife to help us against the warrior demon and his red-eyed shifter pet.

  If she could bear the pain of holding onto a heavenly weapon that burned her to the core, surely I could bear one date with the man who’d broken my heart.

  I needed to pull it together. Not just for Raven, but also for Noah. I could do this�
�for them.

  “All right.” I tried to sound as cool and unattached as Thomas as I accepted his offer. “You have yourself a deal.”

  Raven

  I awoke with a jolt, sucking in a deep breath that burned as it made its way through my lungs.

  I’d once heard that the most painful breath you’d ever take was as a newborn, when you filled your lungs with air for the first time. That was apparently why all babies cried after being born.

  I couldn’t imagine that being worse than this.

  Luckily the pain subsided a moment later, and I stared up into the eyes of Noah, Sage, and a man a few years older than me who I didn’t recognize. And while I felt like me… I also didn’t.

  My vision was crisper than ever. I could see ridges and patterns in Noah’s brown eyes that I hadn’t seen before. With my intake of breath came an influx of smells, too. Warm, woodsy smells from both Noah and Sage, and a sharp, metallic smell from the man I didn’t know. There was also a trio of dull beating sounds somewhere in the background.

  Was I hearing their hearts?

  I blinked for a few moments, trying to center myself. I’d gone under anesthesia once—when I was eighteen and had my wisdom teeth removed—and the fuzziness I’d felt upon waking up then was similar to what I was feeling now.

  So I thought back to the last thing I remembered—the fight with the demon and the red-eyed shifter in the alley in Nashville. Noah and Sage had been struggling with the fight. I’d used the heavenly knife to slay the demon myself.

  Judging by the fact that I was here and not dead, I guessed I’d succeeded in slaying the demon. But why were my senses so heightened? Was it because I’d held onto the heavenly knife for so long?

  “What happened?” I pressed my fingers to my forehead, sounding just as groggy as I felt. I vaguely remembered having intense, detailed dreams while I’d been asleep, but they’d nearly faded away completely. Now I was lying on a couch in a sleek, modern room that was definitely not the hotel room we’d had in Nashville. “Where are we?”

  “It worked.” Noah grinned, and the next thing I knew, he leaned down and kissed me.

  His touch sent warm tingles flowing through my body, and as I kissed him back, I heard his heart and mine start beating in time with each other. I also felt something else—relief.

  But that feeling wasn’t mine. It was Noah’s.

  The connection between us was stronger than ever—just like when he’d kissed me the first time in that bar in New Orleans.

  He eventually broke away, caressing my face as if I was a precious jewel and he never wanted to let go. “Don’t scare me like that ever again,” he said.

  “Scare you?” I sat up, thinking back again to what had happened in the alley. “From what I remember, I saved you.”

  “By using a weapon that’s deadly for humans to hold and nearly getting yourself killed,” he said. “You would have died, if we hadn’t used vampire blood to save you.”

  “What?” I touched my head again, trying to make sense of it all. I couldn’t even think about Noah’s kissing me and what it meant between the two of us. I’d definitely think about it later, but not now. Because the insanely crisp vision, the intensely strong smells, being able to hear heartbeats… those senses were beyond anything I’d ever experienced.

  They were supernatural. And if I was feeling like this because of vampire blood…

  “What did you do to save me?” Suspicion gnawed at me, and I swallowed, bracing myself for what was to come. “Did you turn me into a vampire?”

  “No,” said the man I didn’t know, and all of us immediately looked to him. He wore a perfectly pressed suit, and with his classic haircut and clean-shaven face, he radiated the aura of a high-powered businessman. “If I’d turned you into a vampire, you’d be out of your mind with the need to drain a human of their blood right now.”

  “You’re a vampire?” I asked him, since I knew only vampires could turn humans into one of their kind. I’d learned that during the “supernatural lessons” Noah and Sage had given me during our long drives across the country.

  “I am.” He held a hand out for me to shake. “Thomas Bettencourt, leader of the Bettencourt coven of Chicago—and also the one responsible for saving your life tonight.”

  I widened my eyes, questions racing through my mind. How did we get to Chicago? At least that’s where I assumed we were, although I couldn’t tell since all of the curtains in this pristine condo were drawn. And how did Sage and Noah know this vampire? How had he saved my life—and why?

  But he seemed like a pretty formal guy, and it looked like he was waiting for me to introduce myself as well. So I’d have to save the questions for later.

  “Raven Danvers,” I replied, giving his hand a solid shake. He watched me like he wanted more information, so I added, “From LA.”

  “Nice to officially meet you, Raven Danvers from LA.” He released my hand and lowered his arm to his side, the pleasantries apparently over. He’d also sounded a bit suspicious when he’d repeated my name. But I supposed I couldn’t blame him.

  As I’d learned on this demon hunt, it was highly unusual for a human to travel with—and be protected by—two shifters. It had confused pretty much every supernatural we’d come across so far.

  “Thank you for saving my life,” I added, and he gave a single nod of acknowledgment. “But what exactly did you do to me? Because I feel… different. I can see things and hear things and smell things that I couldn’t before.”

  “I injected you with my blood.” He glanced at a used needle sitting on the coffee table. “As you already knew before coming here, vampire blood has the power to heal humans, even if their injuries are mortal. As a side effect, you’ll have vampire abilities for the next twenty-four hours. You’ll be staying here until those abilities wear off.”

  “Oh.” It was a lot to take in at once, but there was one bit of what he said that stood out to me the most. “Why do you think I knew vampire blood healed humans before all of this?” I asked. “Because I didn’t. Sage and Noah never taught me that during our lessons.”

  Thomas tilted his head, looking at me with more interest than before. “Fascinating,” he said, apparently leaving it at that. “And certainly something to be addressed later. In the meantime, you should know I didn’t save your life out of the goodness of my heart. Your friends and I came to an agreement.”

  Dread swirled in my stomach. “What kind of agreement?” I reached for Noah’s hand and grabbed it for support, looking at each of the three of them as I waited for an answer.

  Thomas quickly told me about all three parts of the deal they’d made. The blood oath, the private talk with me, and the date with Sage.

  I understood why he wanted us to make the blood oath of silence about vampire blood. I wasn’t happy about it—Noah and Sage had explained blood oaths to me, and how I should only enter into one if I had no other option. But I literally had no option right now, since if I didn’t make the blood oath, Thomas wasn’t going to let me out of this building alive. So it looked like today was the day when I’d be making my first ever blood oath.

  I wasn’t sure why Thomas wanted to speak privately with me, but there was nothing else I could do but find out.

  As for the final condition, I didn’t understand why he’d included a date with Sage into the terms while bargaining for my life. He didn’t strike me as the type of man who needed to bargain for a date. But looking at the two of them now, there was definitely something between them. He glanced at her every so often with longing in his eyes, and she did the same. Both of them kept looking away from the other before they could get caught.

  I’d never pictured Sage being interested in someone so… aloof. But she hadn’t said a word since I’d woken up, and I had a feeling that had to do with Thomas.

  I’d definitely be asking her for the scoop about what was going on between the two of them once we were alone.

  “I take it you agree to the terms?” Thomas
watched me in challenge. There was an edge to his voice—a warning. That if I didn’t agree to the terms, I wasn’t going to like the consequences.

  “I do.” I nodded.

  “Good.” He stood up. “Then please, come with me. It’s time we talk—alone.”

  I turned to Noah, and he nodded to let me know it was going to be okay. At the same time, a soothing warmth made its way through my body, settling my nerves. While I couldn’t say for sure, I could have sworn that the boost of encouragement had radiated from Noah and into me.

  I gave his hand a small squeeze—letting him know I got his message—and stood up to go with Thomas. But Thomas didn’t continue forward. Instead, he turned around and looked once more at Sage.

  “There’s a selection of clothes and makeup in the second bedroom.” He glanced down the hall to my left—I assumed that was where the second bedroom was. “We’ll be leaving for our date after I speak with Raven, so you should take this time to get ready.”

  Her face paled, and she glanced down the hall, as if deliberately not wanting to make eye contact with Thomas.

  I didn’t believe this. Sage wasn’t afraid of anything. Why did this date have her so on edge?

  He didn’t wait for her to reply before spinning on his heel and leading the way down the hall.

  I looked once more at Sage and Noah. I wanted to stay with them. Especially with Noah. I had no idea where things stood between us. Before, he’d told me he wasn’t interested in me. But after that kiss when I’d woken up, I knew he’d been lying. He cared for me as much as I cared for him.

  We were going to have to talk about it soon.

  But not now.

  Because according to the terms of the agreement that had saved my life, I had no choice but to follow Thomas down the hall and give him the private audience he’d requested.