Angel of Darkness (30 page)

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Authors: Cynthia Eden

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

BOOK: Angel of Darkness
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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.
C
HAPTER
S
IXTEEN
 
K
eenan 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 order 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.
Hunt or be hunted.
Only two choices here on earth.
The rounded a corner. Jackson Square waited before them, heavy with dark shadows. Just beyond the Square, the triple steeples of the St. Louis Cathedral pointed high into the moonlit sky.
When Nicole tried to advance, Keenan stopped her. “Sweet ... you don’t have to face what’s waiting.”
Not just Carlos, but her past.
She glanced his way and he was surprised by the hard edge that glinted in her gaze. “Yes, I do.”
Then she was gone, snaking ahead of him and maneuvering easily through the darkness. She knew this place, knew every turn, and he followed behind her. Staying close, Keenan never let her stray more than a foot away from him.
“The trail goes inside,” she whispered as she stared up at the stark turrets. His gaze followed hers, and he couldn’t help but remember another night, one stained with more blood.
Slowly, Nicole crept forward, her eyes now on the crosses that adorned the top of the cathedral. “Why did he bring his bait here?” She whispered. “He can’t know ...”
No, the bastard
shouldn’t
know what this place meant to them, not unless someone had tipped him off.
Her fingers trembled as she reached for the cathedral’s left-side door. She pulled lightly and the air rasped from her lips. “It’s not locked tonight.”
He caught her hand. “Don’t go in.” He didn’t know what waited but with all that blood ...
death.
But she shook her head. “I should have gone in long ago.”
Then she went into the cathedral, and he followed instantly, not about to lose her to anything or anyone.
Their feet shuffled over the marble tile. The candlelights and the chandeliers gleamed, though Keenan knew the cathedral should have been shut down at this hour. Images of angels and saints stared back at him. Seeming to weigh him.
Judging.
“There.” Her whisper. The blood led into the wooden confessional booth.
For Carlos to have left a body here, dumped in a church—
you’ll regret this move, I promise.
Some sins truly were never forgiven.
Nicole’s head tilted to the left. “I hear ...” She gasped and raced forward. She yanked open the confessional door and a scream echoed through the cathedral.
Not Nicole’s scream.
The bait was alive. The woman was screaming and shaking. Thin, bloody slices covered her arms and legs. Keenan knew those slices had been made with a coyote’s claws.
“It’s okay,” Nicole told the woman, holding up hands that no longer sported claws. “We’re here to help you.”
The woman, with tangled blond hair and a short black dress, blinked. Mascara and tears stained her cheeks. She looked familiar to Keenan. He knew he’d seen her before ...
Running from the fire at Temptation.
He stepped back and his gaze swept over the wooden pews.
“Where’s the man who did this to you?” Nicole asked. “Where is—”
“N-not ... man.” The woman fell to her knees and made the sign of the cross. “D-devil ...”
No, just a coyote shifter. The devil had died long ago. Now someone else ruled for him.
“H-hurt me ... wanted to know ...”
“Let’s get her out of here,” Nicole said and Keenan noticed that she kept her head angled away from the woman. Right,
the blood.
That smell would be tempting Nicole.
He lifted the woman, holding her easily.
“H-help me ...” She whispered. The woman’s name—had it been Tina?
“We will,” Nicole promised. “We’ll get you to a doctor. You’ll be okay.”
They hurried for the exit. Nicole shoved open the door and the hot night air spilled inside. Dawn hadn’t come, not yet, but it was edging closer. Nicole hurried down the stone steps. “Come on,” she called out. “We can get—”
A growl broke the night.
Nicole whirled around and faced the dark alley. Pirate’s Alley. The alley she’d nearly died in six months ago.
No, she
had
died in that alley. No getting around that truth.
And now Keenan knew that Carlos waited in that darkness for her.
Carefully, he sat the woman on her feet. “Can you walk?” He whispered.
She just cried. Her bloody hands wrapped around his neck as she held on tight.
He tried to pry her hands loose but she started screaming, “Don’t leave me!
Don’t leave me!
”
Nicole flinched as she glanced back at him. He saw her swallow and she said, “Keep her safe.”
No, no, she wasn’t—
“I’m not afraid of the monster in the alley anymore,” she told him before she gave a hard nod. Her canines were lengthening, her claws sharpening. “This time, he’ll be afraid of
me
.”
Then she was gone. Nicole raced into the alley and ran right toward that darkness—and Carlos.
And while she ran, the bloody woman kept clinging so tightly to him. She was shaking, and—and laughing?
“Kill her ...” She whispered and she lifted her head to reveal the smile on her bloodstained lips. “He’ll k-kill the bitch.”
Fury had him shoving her away. Her head whipped back with the sharp push. “What are you talking about?” He barked.
But she just kept laughing, and he realized he’d forgotten a lesson he’d learned so long ago.
Humans lied. They often lied very,
very
well.
She smiled at him—smiled right through the blood. A willing sacrifice. “She’ll be dead,” she told him, the blood dripping down her body, “long before you can even—”
He didn’t hear the rest. He was already racing to the alley and roaring Nicole’s name.
When he saw her, the present and the past blurred. She was on the ground, fighting, struggling. But not with a vampire—with a full-on shifted coyote.
The coyote’s teeth were in her shoulder, and she was pushing her arms between their bodies, trying to pry him off her.
No, not pry him off her ... she was wedging something between them. Something small and black and—
The explosion shook the alley. The retort of gunfire echoed in the night.
The coyote fell off her. The fur began to melt from his body.
She lifted her gun, aimed, and fired once more.
The animal’s body jerked. Not really an animal anymore. A man now. Naked. Hurting. The man twisted and cried out in pain as he bled out on the stone beneath him.
Nicole rose. Her eyes darted to Keenan. “This time,” she told him quietly, “I was ready.”
“
Sil ... ver!
” Carlos’s furious yell. “F-fucking bitch ...
silver!
”
“Good thing we stopped by that feeding room in Texas.”
The feeding room
. He hadn’t even realized she’d kept the gun.
“I’ve got one bullet left.” Nicole stood over Carlos. The gun pointed right down at his chest, and her hand was perfectly steady. “That one’s for your heart.”
His body writhed. Keenan knew Carlos couldn’t shift back with the silver in him. Carlos clawed at his flesh as he tried to pull the bullets out.
“Why did you want him so much?” Nicole asked. “Why didn’t you just stay away? Leave us alone?”
Carlos threw one bullet into the gutter. “
Fuck you!
”
The second bullet was deep in his chest, but Carlos was digging for it, ripping and tearing into flesh and muscle.
“Nicole ...” Keenan rushed forward. “
End it!
” The woman should know better than to play with the hunter.
“Why here?” She whispered. “Damn you, why pick
here?
Why this alley?”
The coyote shifter’s breath rasped out. The minute Carlos got that second bullet out, Keenan knew he’d shift.
“Because he wanted ...” Carlos licked the blood from his lips. “To fuck ... with your mind.”
Then he smiled, a smile as wild as the beast he carried, and Keenan knew the shifter had found the second bullet.
Behind the shifter, Keenan saw the shadows thicken. He heard the soft rush of wings.

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