Authors: Cynthia Eden

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

Angel in Chains (9 page)

BOOK: Angel in Chains

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A truth she knew too well.

“And you can help me,” he said. “We can work together, and we
can
kill the bastard.”

Been there, tried that.
“He’s not exactly easy to kill.”

Az sent her a fast glance. “Anyone can die.”

Maybe. Maybe not.

“Look, we don’t have a lot of time to keep talking now.” Tanner swiped a hand down his face. The shifter was sweating. “About a dozen cops will be closing in on this place soon.”

“What?”
She lunged forward but, surprisingly, it was Az who caught her shoulders and held her back before she could grab Tanner.

“Easy,” Az told her.

Screw that. She wasn’t feeling
easy
then. Not if cops were about to storm the place.

Tanner grimaced. “Witnesses saw you nearly plow down a civilian in New Orleans—”

“Oh, come on,” Jade exploded, “that was just Brandt—a hit from the car barely would have slowed him down.” Just given him some bumps and bruises and made him feel some of the pain that she felt.

“They
saw
you, so now the cops are after you.” Tanner cocked his head to the right as he studied her. “I’ve arranged for a motorcycle to be waiting for you. If you cut through the swamp, it’s about three miles northwest of here. After I traced you I got a buddy to leave the bike there for me.”

Az asked, “And we’re supposed to trust you?”

“Yeah, you are.”

Jade wasn’t the trusting sort. She didn’t think Az was, either.

“And you need to start hauling ass,” Tanner continued. “I only had about a ten minute head start on the rest of the police crew, and now I’d say you’re down to—”

“Five minutes,” Az finished.

Fabulous.

“Yeah.” Tanner nodded. “So get the hell out of here, take that motorcycle, then meet me tonight in New Orleans—”

“You want us to go back into the city?” Jade demanded. Really dumb plan. “With Brandt hunting there?” Maybe she could stop to paint a big bull’s-eye on her back, too. She yanked away from Az.

Or rather, Az let her go. Mostly because he was now studying the shifter with assessing eyes. “He wants to use you as bait.”

She’d figured that out on her own. Bait to dangle right in front of the big, obsessed psycho. Lovely.

“Tonight, I just want to talk.” Tanner’s words were gritted. “Meet me at the St. Louis Cemetery. Midnight.”

Even better. Because she wanted to hang out in the dark, in a cemetery, and wait for a panther that she didn’t trust.

Tanner took a step toward her. “I can make this all end. I can give you back your life, Jade.”

What life?

Then she heard the faintest screech of a siren. It looked like the cops weren’t coming in quietly.

Tanner’s gaze didn’t leave her face. “We’re out of time.
Trust me.
”

No.

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys. Tanner tossed them and Az caught the keys easily in his fist.

“Now you’re gonna have to take me out before they arrive.” Tanner inclined his head toward Az. “It has to look like you overpowered me so no one thinks—”

“That a cop is helping a criminal,” Jade said. Right. She got it. “Fine, I think we can—”

Az swung out with his fist. He slammed the punch right into the shifter’s jaw with a rough crunch of sound. Tanner went down, eyes closing, and the guy’s slack body hit the floor.

“Or
you
can handle it,” she muttered and cleared her throat. Well, Az
had
saved her knuckles some bruising.

Az glanced at her. She was pretty sure he’d enjoyed delivering that punch. The guy was fighting a grin.

Bad angel.

I like ’em that way.

“You up for a run through the swamp?” Jade asked as she pulled him away toward the back of the cabin. Judging by those sirens, the cops were getting way too close.

“We shouldn’t trust him,” Az said, moving slowly and slowing
her
down.

“Of course not. We shouldn’t trust anyone.” But she trusted Az. How could you not trust an angel? “One thing we know . . . the cops
are
coming. Those sirens are screaming louder every second, and we need to get our butts out of here.”

Jails sucked. She’d spent some unfortunate time in one before. Back when . . .

No. Jade slammed the door shut on that memory. She would
not
think about them. Not now.

As a general rule, she never let herself think about
them.
It hurt too much.

She realized that she was holding Az’s hand, her fingers intertwined with his. Jade stared at his hand. Strong. Warm.

Temptation.
The whisper burned through her.

She pulled away from him. Did Az even know how much he’d hurt her with that one word? She was already another man’s curse.

Couldn’t she ever be more?

“Give me the keys, and I’ll get the hell out of here on my own.” She lifted her chin. “You can go the opposite way. The cops probably don’t even know about you. You can leave, we can split, and both just get on with our lives.”

He opened his palm. Jade tried to swipe the keys, but he snatched them away from her.

What?
Jerk.

“We go together.”

Her gaze held his. “Sure that won’t be too much
temptation
for you?” Oh, yeah, she said it.

But then the guy surprised her when he said, “Will it be too much for you?”

Her jaw dropped.
Maybe.

Screw this. Jade rushed for the back door. They could play coy and settle the tension between them later. Now was the time for running.

Her feet thudded down the wooden steps, and Az rushed right behind her. They hit the edge of the swamp at a run, ducking and dodging fallen trees and branches. The heat beat down on them, and Jade didn’t even want to
think
about the snakes that were probably lying in wait.

She hated snakes.

The thick scent of vegetation surrounded them. A line of dark green water, covered by algae, waited to the left. A log—
no, not a log, a gator—
drifted lazily in the sludge.

Her heart shoved into her ribs. Faster, faster, she zipped through the swamp.
Northwest.
Three miles wasn’t so much.

Except it seemed like a whole hell of a lot when you were running through a damn creature-infested
swamp.

Then Az grabbed her wrist and jerked her against him.

“What—” she began, panting.

He covered her mouth with his hand.

“Someone’s following us.”
His whisper.

And she heard the thud of pounding feet—coming quickly toward them.

A shifter would be able to pick up their scent and follow them perfectly in the swamp. But if it were just humans . . . humans wouldn’t be able to track them even half as well.

Her hand pressed against Az’s chest. His gaze held hers. They waited.

Humans . . . or shifters?

Az pulled her deeper into the shadows of some swaying trees. His hand slipped away from her mouth. They stood close, bodies brushing. Neither dared speak.

“Dammit!” A man’s angry shout seemed to echo through the swamp. “I saw them run out here!”

“Now I don’t see a fuckin’ thing,” came another voice. Also male. Also pissed.

The sound of her breath seemed far too loud to Jade. And those voices were too close. She rose up on her tiptoes, and, over Az’s shoulder, she caught sight of the men.

Uniforms. “Cops,” she whispered. Cops who were heading in their direction.

She felt the tension in Az’s body. His head bent toward hers. “I can take care of them.” Barely a breath of sound.

No doubt he could. But, if possible, she’d really like to avoid adding the assault of two police officers to her already extensive résumé. So Jade pulled Az closer and tried not to make a sound.

Go away. Head back in the other direction.

“Shit, they could be anyplace by now,” one of the cops snarled.

Not just anyplace. She’d gone northwest. She’d scouted before she picked this house as a retreat spot. She knew how to mark the directions. And this way—it led to the old dirt road that cut around and looped through the back of the swamp.

The cops kept talking, but the sound of their voices grew softer.
They were moving away.
Going back to the house. Muttering about not getting paid enough to dodge snakes.

She waited until those voices faded away completely. Then she took a deep breath. Jade glanced up and found Az’s eyes on her—well, on her mouth.

Her hand was still on his chest. Right over his pounding heart. She cleared her throat. “I . . . uh, think it’s safe now.” Though the cops could return with reinforcements anytime.

He nodded and stepped back.

Get a grip, girl.

She turned away and headed straight ahead, away from those sheltering trees.

“You sure that you know where we’re going?” He asked.

Glancing back, she tossed him a real smile. “I’m good with escape plans.”

His eyes narrowed on her.

She shook her head. “Come on, angel, let’s get moving.”

They didn’t speak again, not until they’d cleared the swamp. The motorcycle waited under a weeping willow, just where Tanner had promised.

This is too easy. Has to be a setup.

After years of running and struggling to survive on her own, now she suddenly had an angel
and
a cop who wanted to help her?

No way. Fate wouldn’t smile on her like that.

Az climbed onto the motorcycle. Of course, he looked good—better than good—on it. Hot sex on a summer day better.

But she knew just how dangerous a sexy man could be.

The weight of the gun she’d taken from Tanner pressed into her lower back. Had Az seen her grab the gun and slip it out of the cabin? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, she wasn’t exactly defenseless anymore.

Jade cocked a brow. “I get that you’re the big, tough supernatural and all.” She lifted up the keys. “But I’m the one who knows the area, so I’ll be the one doing the driving.”

He blinked at her.

Jade grinned. “Move on back, angel.”

She slipped in front of him. Started the engine and enjoyed the purr of the motorcycle.

Az’s thighs pressed around her. His arm slid around her stomach.

“Hold on,” she told him and shot away from the tree. A cloud of dust followed in her wake. “Things are going to get rough.”

Just the way she liked them.

C
HAPTER
S
IX

T
en minutes until midnight.

Az stared up at the tombs as they rose over the heavy, brick wall that surrounded the cemetery. The scent of flowers teased his nose, but he knew that scent wasn’t coming from some floral tokens left on the graves by mourners.

You can always catch the scent when Death is close.

A tell-tale sign that an angel was nearby. Death Angels were at their strongest when they were about to take a soul. In those few moments, humans could catch the sweet scent of flowers.

A death scent.

Death didn’t really smell like decay and rot. That smell just came to the bodies after the souls were gone.

Tonight, death was close. Following him.

His eyes narrowed as he scanned the darkness. Who’d be dying tonight?

“Okay, this is as far as you go.” Jade crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him. Her eyes seemed to shine under the light of the moon and stars. “Now you take the motorcycle and go someplace safe.”

His lips twitched. How . . . charming. She thought to protect him once more. She kept doing that, despite what she knew of him. “Trying to get rid of me again?”

She shook her head. “Look, I don’t even understand . . . why do you
want
to help me? I’m nothing to you!”

Anger stirred within him as the mild amusement vanished. She was hardly nothing.

“I appreciate the white knight routine, believe me, I do, but
why?
” A faint line appeared between her brows. She stood just a few feet away, on the cracked sidewalk, and asked, “Why do you want to help me? Why are you risking your life for me?”

And the truth came from him. “Because I think you can give
my
life back to me.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

He shoved down the kickstand and climbed from the motorcycle so he could close in on her. His gaze tracked to that line of stark tombs that rose over the steep walls. “I’ve been here before.”

“Yeah, well, you, me, and every tourist who wants an up-close look at the cities of the dead—”

“I fell here.”

She didn’t say anything in response to that. Interesting. He’d found that Jade often had plenty to say. Not this time.

Her mouth actually hung open a bit.

He brushed by her and headed for the heavy gates that led into the cemetery. Dark shadows stretched from the entrance. And he remembered . . .

Crashing. Agony. Pain.

“I didn’t know who I was.” Not at first. The descent had been so intense, the fire so hot, that his memories had been wiped from him.

Az crossed the threshold into the cemetery. His gaze swept around, and then he was snaking through the old graves. Left. Right. Moving more by instinct than anything else.

She followed closely behind him. “Az . . .”

“After the fall, no one ever remembers, not at first.” It had been good, too, not knowing. Living in ignorance of the lives he’d taken. The sins he’d committed.

Another turn. Another.

He heard her gasp behind him. Before them, an old crypt had been smashed, and wide cracks spread out from the broken tomb’s middle like spiderwebs. Beside the remains, a broken stone angel looked mournfully at the wreckage.

It only seemed fitting that she’d lost a wing, too.

He stared at that crypt. “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in hell?”

“Yes.”

Frowning, Az glanced back at her.

Her gaze was on him, not the crypt. “We all have our own hell.” Her hand touched his shoulder. “I-I’m not sure what you’re exactly expecting. I can’t give you back heaven.”

Maybe not.

But maybe . . .

“A witch found me.” He turned to better face her, and Jade’s brows lifted at his admission. “She cleaned me up, gave me food, then, just when I was growing stronger, she turned around and sold me out to a bunch of bastards who got off on torturing
Other
.”

Jade swallowed. “What happened to them?”

She needed to see him for what he was. “I killed them all.” Well, those Sam hadn’t gotten to first, anyway.

She held his stare. “And the witch?”

“Her time will come.” She wouldn’t escape him unscathed. Az planned to make certain of that.

Jade stared up at him in confusion. “You’re standing here telling me that you’re some heartless badass, but you’re
helping me
so I—”

“I’m helping myself.” The words fell heavily. “You’re a human. Favored. Weak.”

Deceptively so. Humans were gifted with the rush of emotions. With pleasures. Pains.

He could seek vengeance on those who’d wronged him. Vengeance was his by right. But to give her protection, to aid one weaker . . . now that just might be enough to earn some
redemption.

“So I’m just the lucky human you saw about to get an ass-kicking? Who I am doesn’t matter? You would risk your life to save any of us?”

He nodded. “Yes.” He would do what was necessary.
Protect the weak.
Fight and claw his way back to heaven.

Her sigh held a sad edge. “Not all humans need protecting.” A pause. “Not all humans
want
protecting.” Then she turned away from him. “We also don’t all enjoy being called a ‘temptation’ by some lost Fallen with some intimacy is-sues.”

He blinked and stared after her.
Intimacy issues?
He’d never been intimate with another. Angels weren’t allowed the luxury of intimacy. “You don’t understand what the world is like, for me.” So much noise. The feelings. The emotions. They were all ripping him apart.

Except . . . except it hadn’t been so bad in the last few days. Not since he’d been with her.

Jade didn’t look back at him. “Was it really that much better up there?”

He didn’t answer.

At his silence, Jade glanced over her shoulder at him. “I mean, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows down here, but we’re alive. That has to count for something, right?”

Something.

“Instead of trying so hard to get back upstairs,” she told him, “maybe you should consider that you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”

With her.

But then she shook her head and looked away from him. “I think that cop stood us up. And being in a cemetery, at midnight, is
not
my idea of a good time.”

But even as she spoke, Az heard the rustle of footsteps. Sliding away—or coming closer?

Either way, he took a step toward Jade.

“Muggers hide out here,” she told him, voice quieter now as she scanned the shadows around them. “But they’re not even the start of what we need to fear.”

He knew all about the vampires who liked to stalk the cities of the dead. They’d hide in the dark, waiting for victims who were curious—and even willing—and then they’d strike.

Those victims would die.

But it wasn’t a vampire who stepped from the shadows. It was the shifter.

Az didn’t relax his guard, and he could tell by the stiffness of Jade’s shoulders that she wasn’t relaxing hers, either.

“You pack one hell of a punch,” Tanner said as he studied Az. The full moon fell onto them and sent their shadows chasing across the crypts.

Az shrugged. He’d actually gone easy on the guy. If he’d wanted, he could have broken the cop’s jaw with that punch.

Tanner whistled softly. “There’s a very high price on your head, man. You gonna be up for the hunters coming your way?”

He couldn’t wait to face them. A battle would drain some of the growing tension from his body. Tension that increased every time Jade touched his skin.

Want her.
He’d stroked her flesh. Tasted her.

And learned why mortals killed for pleasure.

Az shoved those memories aside. “I’m ready.” Fear was the only emotion he’d yet to feel on earth. What was there to fear? What was there left to lose?
Nothing.

“He doesn’t have to be ready.” Jade’s voice. Flat. Calm. “This isn’t his fight. I’m the one going after Brandt.” She turned to Az and put her hand on his chest, right over his heart. Her voice lowered as she said, “I’m not your salvation. Helping me isn’t gonna give you some free pass into heaven.”

Her scent slipped around him. His body hungered for hers. Needed.

“And I’m not going to be your temptation, either.” Now a thread of anger slipped into her voice. Anger. Hurt? “I’ve already been there and done that for another. Dammit,
I’m more.
”

Pain was reflected in her eyes.

She tried to turn away then. He grabbed her hand and held tight.
Won’t let go.
“You need me.” He didn’t bother lowering his voice. He wanted the shifter to hear this. If they were going into a fight, they’d need his strength to win.

Jade would need
him.
He didn’t know why it was so important for her to admit that.

It simply was.

“Look,” Tanner growled, “you two can have your lovers’ spat later, but right now, we need to go figure out our plan of attack.”

Az felt the shifter’s eyes on him then. Seeing too much. His hold on Jade tightened as he looked up and regarded the shifter with deeper suspicion.
Just because you were a cop, it didn’t mean you should be trusted.

He sure didn’t trust the jerk.

Just because you were an angel, it didn’t mean you were good.

He knew that better than others.

“You didn’t come alone,” Az said, certain.

“Because I’m not so trusting, either.” He shrugged. “And because I know you’re no
guardian
.”

No, but he
was
guarding Jade. While angels couldn’t lie outright, they knew how to twist the truth to conceal their secrets.

“So who’s watching us?” Jade wanted to know. With her free hand, she pointed to the shadows.

“My backup plan.” Tanner didn’t look away from them. “Now are we going to stand out here all night, wasting time, or are we ready to get down to business?”

“Business?” Az repeated.

“Brandt’s death. It’s what we both want.”

It was what Jade seemed to need.

“He’s not exactly an easy guy to destroy,” Jade said softly. “In case you haven’t noticed.”

Tanner laughed, but the grating sound held no humor. “I noticed alright. I also know that
everything
can die. You just have to get close enough to make the kill.” Tanner stalked toward them. “Getting close isn’t exactly a problem for you, is it, Jade?”

She didn’t answer. Az narrowed his eyes on the shifter.

“But there’s close . . .” Tanner murmured, “and then there’s
killing close.
”

Jade sucked in a deep breath. “Do you have a plan?” she demanded. “Or are you just out here to spout bullshit?”

Az smiled. He liked the woman’s fire. She seemed to have more fury in her than most humans.

So hot, you could almost feel the burn.

Tanner smiled at her, too, and that grin flashed his sharp canines. “I thought a human would be more afraid.”

“I am scared. Scared every single moment.” That wasn’t sarcasm coming from her, either.

Her confession gave Az pause. He hadn’t realized . . .

“I just want the nightmare over,” she continued, “and I want to be able to live like everyone else. So if you’ve got some great plan, then share it, and let’s cut the crap.”

Az listened carefully, not to Jade and the shifter, but to the whisper of sounds that surrounded them.

Another rustle. A brush of fabric against stone. The softest of breaths.

There.

Az moved in an instant, rushing toward the watcher, and moving so quickly that he knew he’d appear to be a blur.

He caught the watcher in his grasp even as he heard Tanner call out a warning.

Too late.

He stared at the person in his hands—a person very familiar to him.

Wide eyes. Close-cropped blond hair. Small. Deceptively delicate.

Witch.

The same witch who’d sold him out months before. In that instant, Az knew they’d walked into a trap.

“You’re dying,” he told her. She’d traded his life. Now he’d take hers.

“No!”
Tanner’s shout, cutting through the night. “Fuck,
no, don’t hurt her
!”