Authors: Cynthia Eden

Tags: #Romance, #Fiction, #Paranormal, #General

Angel in Chains (32 page)

BOOK: Angel in Chains

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Sam’s fingers tightened. “He can’t help you.”

“Someone had better.” He wasn’t letting her go. Az rose, holding her close in his arms. She was so still.
“Fucking. Summon. Mateo!”
He roared the words, and the tombs around him cracked. Skeletons fell onto the ground as the earth buckled beneath him. “Witch, get back here!”

He turned and found Tanner standing, weak, pale, but alive. Why was he alive, when Jade wasn’t? He hadn’t seen a Death Angel, would have fought the bastard if he had, but he’d seen
no
signs of dark wings.

She shouldn’t be dead.
There’d been no Death Angel.

But Jade was still and quiet in his arms. Her heart didn’t beat. No air swept into her lungs.

Had the angel just come and claimed her too swiftly? Had he been so blinded by his grief that he’d missed that desperate moment? The scent of flowers was so strong in this wretched place. So many angels had been there.
Were still there?

Tanner was alive. Az’s rage focused on the shifter who’d sent him on the wrong path. Why did Tanner still live?
Why?

Why was anyone alive? If Jade couldn’t live . . .

Deep crevices opened beneath his feet. More tombs shattered.

“You had her for a little while. That will have to be enough,” Sam said as he backed away a few steps. His face was tight, his eyes staring at Az with—fear?

He should be afraid. Everyone should.
Az wasn’t going to let her be taken from him.

The rage and grief tore through him.
Brandt had broken her beautiful neck. In one, fast, brutal instant, Brandt took her from me.
Az swallowed and tasted hate. “Is the time you have with Seline . . .
enough
?”

His brother flinched. “No.”

“Then get me that crossroads spirit.” The fury was breaking through. Fire burst beside him, racing right over the graves and scorching the ground. He tilted back his head and glared up at the starlight sky.
“Bastion!”

“You can’t call back the dead.” This came from Tanner. Az pinned him with a scathing stare. The shifter swallowed and straightened his shoulders. “Even you aren’t that strong. It hurts, I know, but you have to let her go.”

He didn’t want to let her go. “I . . . need her.” She was so slight in his arms.

Why were his cheeks wet?

His gaze fell to her once more. “I-I love her.” Love. A human emotion. But a human had slipped into his heart. Now that human was breaking his heart.

Was this his true punishment? For all the sins he had committed, was this the end he’d been fated to receive?

Don’t take her. Please.

She should live. Be happy. Be free.

You aren’t that strong.
Tanner’s words echoed in his ears. The shifter was right. He wasn’t strong. Without Jade, he was weak.

The angels should have known that. They should have taken better care . . .

Wind whipped against his cheeks. The scent of flowers teased his nose. The angel had heeded his call. Az kept his eyes on Seline and simply said, “Give her back.”

“I tried to tell you what was coming.” No emotion shadowed Bastion’s voice. “I am sorry, Azrael. But this was meant to be.”

The words drifted in and out of his head. Jade’s face had bleached of color and raindrops began to fall on her face. Rain, from a cloudless sky. But thunder was rumbling. Lightning flashing across the heavens.

Power leaked from him. Holding her with one arm, he raised his gun and aimed it at Bastion. He still had two bullets left in the chamber. “Bring her back or see what it’s like to die.” His head pounded and the scream echoing in his mind just wouldn’t end. That scream—it was Jade’s voice. Jade calling his name, over and over. She wanted him to help her.

Jade.

Flashes flew through his mind, images of her.

Jade . . . smiling at him.

Kissing him.

I . . . wasn’t using you, Az. I was loving you.

And he’d been loving her, but he’d just been too blind and foolish to realize it sooner.

“I can’t,” Bastion said, almost sounding regretful. “It’s too late. She’s gone—”

The screams in his mind grew louder.
Jade is calling me.
Az fired. The bullet burned right through Bastion’s chest. “If she’s dead, then so are you.”

A howling filled his ears, blending with the chaos of the screams. The fires around him flared higher, hotter, destroying everything in sight.

“Azrael!”
Sam’s horrified yell tore through the blaze. “What have you done?”

Smoke drifted from the hole in Bastion’s chest. “He took her.” Az knew he had. Bastion had been close the whole time. And when Jade’s neck had broken . . . “He took her from me—took her, when I’d just found her!” A woman who could love the darkest of the angels.

Gone.

Sam stood behind the line of blazing fire. “You’re out of control. You need to—”

Az aimed the gun at him. “I told you to summon the witch.” Angels couldn’t help him. Rule followers. But the witch . . . Mateo followed no one’s rules. He’d cheat death.

For the right price.

Sam frowned at the gun. “So now you’d shoot me?”

No. Yes. He couldn’t think. His heart was gone. Ripped from his chest. Jade’s scent—
strawberries—
surrounded him and the fire’s heat told him that only hell waited for him. He wouldn’t see Jade again when he left this earth. He’d never see her again.

“The world doesn’t go on without her,” he gritted out. Tanner screamed as the fire caught him and burned his flesh.
“It doesn’t.”

Swearing, Sam leapt through the flames. He grabbed for the gun.

Az tried to yank the weapon back. He wasn’t letting go of it. He wasn’t letting go of Jade.

Never let go.

The gun fired. He was staring straight into Sam’s eyes. He saw the shock in his brother’s gaze. The flash of pain.

Then he saw the whisper of life leaving as Sam’s spirit was pulled from his body.

Sam fell to the ground, dead at his feet.

One brother, killing another . . .

The ground split around him. No longer small crevices, but deep, giant fissures that seemed to stretch all the way to hell.

A prophecy had been made once.
When one brother kills another . . . hell comes.

Jade’s scent faded until he could only smell brimstone. And the screams in his mind had finally stopped. Now he could hear laughter. Whispers.

Hell comes.

He dropped the gun. Held her cold body even tighter.
“Mateo!”
The witch would appear. The witch would save her.

Or . . . at least . . .
kill me.

Because the chains that had always held him in check were broken and only fury raged within him.

“Mateo!”

Jade was dead. He’d destroyed his brother, and if Mateo couldn’t kill him . . . Az was afraid he’d destroy the world.
“Mateo!”

“I’m right here,” the witch said as he shook Az. “Look at me, Fallen.
Look
.”

Az realized he was kneeling on the ground. His whole body shook, and sweat soaked his skin. He glanced up, and found Mateo staring down at him.

“Bring her back,” he whispered, his voice broken.

Mateo sighed. “She’s not gone yet.”

In an instant, Az was on his feet. But he stumbled, his knees weak, and he shoved his hand out—

And touched blood.

He turned his head slowly and stared at the wall of the crypt beside him. The blood looked black in the moonlight, but he knew what it was. Blood covered the side of the crypt, twisting and turning in a series of ancient symbols.

A broken mirror lay shattered at his feet, and his heart was still trying to jump out of his chest.

“It’s always been thought that a Fallen Angel would be the one to open the gateway to hell. At least, that’s what my sources downstairs told me.” Mateo’s voice was carefully emotionless.

Az swallowed and tasted ash. “Where is Jade?”

“Right this second? She’s racing through the cemetery on the far left side, running after Tanner and Brandt.”

What? “She’s . . . not dead?”

“Not yet.”

Az turned away.

“Did you learn anything?” Mateo’s sharp voice stopped him. “Or do you not even realize what the hell just happened here?”

I lost everything.

“I gave you a very special gift, Fallen. I used my own blood and my own power to show you what
could
be if you chose wrong tonight.”

What could be . . . Jade dying. Tanner burning. Him killing Sam.

“You need her. I get that.” And the witch was suddenly before him. “But everybody else needs you to fucking hold it together. Don’t let that rage eating through your gut break free.” Mateo’s eyes glittered. “Make the right choice. Change fate. Do you hear me, Fallen?”

Fate can’t be changed.
All angels knew that.

And he realized he’d just whispered the words by rote.

“Then I guess the angels are wrong. Or maybe those precious rules have changed.” Mateo glanced up at the sky. “Maybe someone wants them to change.” His gaze fell back on Az. “What do you want?”

Jade. Alive. Happy.

“I let you into her mind with that vision. You know what she wants.”

She’d begged him to shoot. But he’d been too afraid of hurting her.

“You know what
you
desire.” Mateo sighed. “Now let’s see just what happens . . .”

Az still had the gun. Still had the chance to save her.

To save them all.

“I’m not a monster,” he whispered. No matter what he’d seen or . . .
done
in those dark images. He wasn’t . . .

“Prove it.”

He would. Or he’d die trying.

I am not a monster.
And he wouldn’t let the darkness in him break free. He wouldn’t hurt those he loved.

He’d sacrifice himself first.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY

A
z raced around the graves. He turned to the left. His body shook and his heart seemed to burst through his chest.

He pushed forward with a furious blast of speed and saw them. Brandt—with his hands wrapped around Jade’s struggling body. The bastard’s claws were out. Killing close.

But it hadn’t been the claws that killed her in Az’s vision.

Tanner was on the ground, covered in blood, and not moving. But the shifter wasn’t dead. Not yet.

No one was.

Not. Yet.

Az froze and stared at Jade. So beautiful. His frantic heartbeat began to slow. The shaking left his hands.

The center of his focus narrowed just to her. Brandt had his mouth close to Jade’s ear and Az heard him growl, “He never was as powerful as me.”

My cue.
Az took a deep breath.
She won’t die.
“No,” Az said quietly, and Jade’s desperate gaze flew to his. “But I am.” He looked away from Jade and held Brandt’s blazing stare.

You’re dying tonight.

Az lifted the gun and pointed it at Brandt. “Let her go.”

Brandt’s eyes narrowed, and he made no move to free Jade. “You’re not going to shoot her.” Brandt’s voice mocked him as Jade twisted and shoved against her captor.

Such a fighter. She was the strongest woman he’d met. Human or
Other
. She made him want to be stronger.

To be better.

I will be.
He wouldn’t be the monster from the vision. He’d be the man that she needed him to be.

Brandt held her easily in his grasp. “You did this,” he told her, voice snarling. “You should’ve just been happy with me.”

Never would have happened, bastard.

Jade strained against him. “And you should have left my parents alone, you sick freak.” Her head turned back to Az. Her eyes held his. So many emotions shone in her stare. Determination. Love. Fury. No fear as she said, “Shoot.”

Brandt laughed. “He won’t—”

Because Az didn’t want to hurt her. He wanted to protect her. To keep her safe and keep her happy.

But he’d watched this scene before, and he was damn well getting a different ending. “I love you,” he told her, the words halting.

Her lips parted in surprise. “Wh—”

He would try to hurt her as little as possible. With his angel blood in her, he wasn’t sure what the bullet would do to her.
I’m sorry, Jade.

Aiming carefully, Az fired. The bullet tore through Jade’s shoulder, ripping past flesh and muscle. She didn’t cry out, just watched him with eyes that saw straight into his soul.

The bullet drove through her—and sank into Brandt’s chest. Brandt staggered back, releasing Jade.

She fell to her knees. “Thank you,” she whispered as blood and a sliver of smoke spilled from her wound.

Brandt hadn’t fallen to the ground. He was still on his feet and staring in shock at Az.

Guess I missed his heart.
But he hadn’t wanted to risk aiming at any other location on Jade. If Brandt had moved her, had so much as jerked her a few inches . . .

My shot would have killed her.

Brandt’s bones began to pop and crack as he started his shift. The guy thought he’d heal. That he’d attack and get stronger.

Not happening.

Az leapt forward. He pressed the gun right against Brandt’s heart. “I’m not losing her, and I’m not fucking losing my sanity either.”

Brandt grabbed for the gun. Az had seen this scene before, too. Only he hadn’t been struggling with Brandt. He’d been battling Sam.

Change fate.
He would do it.

Another bullet exploded from the gun. Brandt’s eyes widened, and he stumbled back. This time, he hit the ground.

Brandt’s claws retracted. His fangs turned back into a man’s teeth. And his blood thickened on the earth.

“Jade?” Brandt whispered her name. “I’m . . . I’m sorry . . .” He broke off, gasping, and stared up at the sky.

Smoke rose from his chest. The brimstone bullets were burning him, from the inside out.

“Wanted . . . different . . .” Az could barely hear Brandt’s words now. He felt a touch on his arm and found Jade standing beside him. She stared down at Brandt, her body stiff, but her lips trembling.

“Guess . . .” Brandt’s breath wheezed out. “Can’t change . . .”

Sometimes, you could.

Brandt stilled.

Az didn’t move. What if this were just another vision? What if Mateo was jerking him around?

Be real.
Because he didn’t want to live in a world without her. That truly would be hell.

Jade wrapped her left arm around him. “It’s over.” Her breath blew lightly on his neck. Her scent—sweet strawberries—filled his nose. She was warm against him. Soft, silken,
alive.

He pulled her close. Held her as tight as he could. He’d been given something special tonight. A second chance he would have gladly traded his soul for.

Over her shoulder, he saw Sam walk out from behind a crypt. His brother stared down at Brandt’s unmoving body, then he waved his hand. Flames engulfed Brandt, a white-hot fire that would destroy all traces of the shifter.

Brandt wouldn’t be able to withstand the fire now—he was already gone. Only the empty shell of his body remained. He wouldn’t hurt anyone.

Not ever again.

Az pressed a kiss to Jade’s temple.

“I told him you could handle things,” Sam said with a nod. “I knew Mateo was just being a paranoid asshole.” His brother sauntered past the fire.

His brother.

“Ouch,” Jade said as she pulled back a bit. His fingers had accidentally brushed her wounded shoulder. “You need to ease up a bit there, Fallen.” She offered him a half-smile that made his heart ache. The smile lit her eyes and made her dimple wink. “I’m wounded.”

He brushed back a lock of her dark hair. “I’m sorry.”

She pushed her hand over the wound. “Hey, I’m the one who told you to shoot. We had to take him out. Who knows what would have happened if—”

Az kissed her. Not a hot, wild kiss, though he knew that would come later. It had to. No, this kiss was soft. As gentle as he could be. He kissed her with tenderness and with love.

Because he knew
exactly
what would have happened.

He’d be seeing those images for years to come. Every time he closed his eyes, he’d see her die in his nightmares.

And he’d see his own destruction.

We can change.

Slowly, his lips left hers. She tasted sweet. Fresh. Like life.

Paradise.

Her lashes slowly lifted. “You saved me.”

Az shook his head. That hadn’t happened. Not at all. “Wrong, sweetheart. You were the one who saved me.” She’d stopped him from losing everything.

She was the bravest woman he knew. The one who’d reached right into his dark soul and made him need, made him want.

More than just death.

More than heaven.

Jade was everything.

The fire had died away. Faint ashes drifted up toward the sky.

Carefully, he inspected her shoulder. The brimstone bullet had gone right through her. “I want to get you to a doctor.”

Bones began to crunch behind him. He turned, keeping his hold on Jade—Az didn’t think he’d be able to let her go anytime soon—and saw Tanner fighting to shift on the ground. Fur rippled across his skin. His face elongated. His eyes widened. His legs shortened, reshaped, and the hands that grabbed at the earth became claws.

It was a slow shift, and one of the most savage that Az had ever seen. But shifts were meant to be savage, and powerful. After a time, Tanner’s human body was gone. In its place stood a trembling, black panther. The panther parted its jaws to roar, but fell to the ground. The beast’s form melted away until only the man remained.

Tanner hadn’t held the shift long, but it appeared the brief shift had done the trick for him. His wounds were closing.

They’d all survive. All live to face another day.

“I’ll take care of the cat,” Sam said as he stalked toward Tanner. “You hold tight to your lady.”

He already was. Az lifted Jade into his arms. Her head fell against his shoulder and her light scent drifted around him.

He swallowed.

“We need to get out of here”—Sam continued as he bent over Tanner—“before the humans come to find out why fire has been lighting this place up.”

With Brandt’s body gone, only the ash and scorched earth remained to mark his passing. The nearby tombs had been smashed, and rubble littered the area.

When the humans arrived, Az knew they’d invent some explanation for what had happened this night. They always did. Leave it to the humans to be the ones who actually covered their tracks.

This cemetery already had a reputation. When the mortals discovered the wreckage, they’d blame it on the ghosts that were said to slip from these graves. Or perhaps the scorched earth had come from a voodoo ritual gone wrong. Either way, no one would ever think of angels.

They never did.

Yes, the humans would tell stories to explain this night away. And more tourists would come to see the destruction left in his wake.

Sam slung Tanner over his shoulder. Tanner growled and Sam just laughed. “Yeah, you can thank me later,” he said.

Az strode from the rubble. He passed an old, faded statue of an angel. She was looking down at the graves. Sorrow was etched onto her face.

Angels weren’t supposed to feel sorrow.

But they did. They could even regret the loss of a killer’s life.

Can’t . . . change.

Things could have been different for Brandt.

Things will be different for me.

He heard voices then. Excited, high-pitched voices that he knew belonged to humans. The other shifters had long since run away. If they wanted to keep living, they’d keep running.

His gaze met Sam’s, and he nodded. Together, they lunged straight up and over the high stone wall that surrounded the cemetery. When Az’s feet touched down, his knees didn’t buckle. Sam landed beside him a bare second later.

Then they rushed forward together, moving fast into the night. Human eyes couldn’t track them any longer.

And only ash was left in their wake.

From his perch atop his family’s crypt, Mateo watched Azrael and Sam vanish into the darkness.

The Fallen had done it. Stopped the promised prophecy of destruction. Saved the damsel. Let the world live to face another day.

Mateo glanced down at the gun he held in his hand. He opened the chamber, and two bullets fell into his palm. Brimstone bullets. He’d made them at his apartment, made them when Azrael had been too distracted by Jade to notice his movements.

If necessary, he’d planned to use those bullets. He and Sam were . . . friends, of a sort, but if Sam had gotten between him and Azrael, one of those bullets would have been for him.

The other would have been sent right into Azrael’s heart.

Mateo knew too much of hell. He didn’t want it slipping into this realm. He wanted the humans—and even the so-called monsters who dwelled on this earth—to keep living as they were.

Hell didn’t belong here.

Azrael had possessed enough darkness in his heart that he could have bridged the gap between the worlds. A dangerous foe. A dangerous ally.

But Azrael had fought the darkness. For a human. The vision of what
could
have been—that vision had been enough to strike fear into the Fallen’s heart. Az had changed fate, because he hadn’t been willing to let his human die.

Humans.

Most
Other
thought humans were weak. Prey. Little more than food . . . or toys to play with when boredom struck.

They were wrong. Humans were the strongest beings to walk this earth.

After all, they were the ones who could break angels, and one human woman—
just one
—had brought a Fallen to his knees.

He tucked the bullets into his pockets. He would keep them close, because Azrael and Sam weren’t the only Fallen with darkness in them. So many more . . .

Angels were falling more often these days. Giving in to temptation.

Was a war really coming? He didn’t know, but, just in case, he’d be ready.

BOOK: Angel in Chains

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