Seline licked her lips and hoped this wasn’t a lie. But, wait, angels couldn’t lie . . . just twist the truth to suit their purposes.
“Helping me?” Sam drawled. “Delia, I thought you’d rather see me burn than ever lift a wing to help me.”
“I’m not helping you.” Delia shook her head. “This isn’t for you. I just don’t believe innocents should be punished.” Her gaze finally slid from Seline to take in the two Fallen. “Better hurry. Someone will be coming back very, very angry.”
“Coming back?” Seline repeated, voice going hoarse.
“Um, it seems . . .” and Delia’s gaze cut once more to Tomas. “Rogziel finally realized the obvious. Sometimes, you just can’t go home again.”
Her wings spread behind her. She raced up into the air and disappeared into the clouds.
Sam laughed and glanced toward the house.
Tomas grabbed his arm. “You can’t trust her. She could be setting us up for punishment.”
The guards hadn’t noticed the angel. She’d moved too fast. And they probably hadn’t realized they should be watching the sky. Their mistake.
“I don’t trust her,” Sam said, “but I’m fucking ready to attack.” Then he vanished, too. No, he didn’t vanish, Seline knew that he just moved so fast he blurred—angel speed. The first guard went down, slumping back, and Seline knew Sam had subdued him.
The second guard didn’t even have a chance to gasp before he hit the dirt. The third—Sam snatched his gun right out of his hand and then knocked the guy out with one punch.
Sam grabbed the front door and ripped it right off the hinges.
Seline had to admit, that was rather hot.
Then Tomas pushed her forward, and they raced inside the house. She realized immediately that those guards outside had just been the beginning. More men and women swarmed, but Sam sent them scurrying back when he let out a blast of fire.
“You don’t want to fuck with me,” he told them.
Two men ran away. Seline guessed they weren’t in the fucking mood. Four more guards opened fire. Bullets slammed into Sam’s chest. Seline screamed.
“Warned you,” Sam said, and more fire burst free from his hands, flaring higher and greedily chasing Rogziel’s team.
Tomas swore. “You’re killin’ her!” He ran away from them and hurried down the snaking hallway. “Sierra!”
Seline jumped forward and delivered a hard right hook to the nearest guard. She snatched away his weapon and swiveled in time to slam it against the head of the idiot who’d been grabbing for her.
But then, Sam laughed. That laughter was rather eerie. Too cold and dark. The hairs on her arms stood up. She risked a glance at him. His gaze was pitch-black. “Playtime’s over,” Sam muttered. He waved his hand. All the guards lifted into the air. The guards rose higher, higher. They were screaming, begging—
Sam dropped them.
They stopped screaming.
Seline’s breath heaved in her chest. Her fingers touched the throat of the man closest to her. Even as she stared at Sam with wide eyes, her trembling fingers searched for a pulse. Searched . . .
“He’s still alive, sweetheart.” Sam seemed to mock her. “For now.”
A light pulse beat beneath her fingertips.
Screams came from deep within the house. Sam caught her hand and pulled her to his side. “Stay with me.”
His eyes were still black. The air crackled with his power. The dark edge she’d always sensed in him had never been closer to the surface. Dangerous. Evil?
Not Sam. She believed in him. “Try to keep me away,” she muttered. “Try.”
His lips crushed down on hers. Wild. Hungry.
Then the rooms swept by in a blur as he took her deeper into the maze of corridors. They followed the screams. Found the bodies. More guards. Some bleeding, some limp.
There was Tomas, just up ahead. He was driving his fist through a metal door and—
And Seline smelled brimstone.
“No, dammit!” Sam’s roar. She knew he’d caught the acidic scent, too. “Tomas, stop!”
Too late.
The door caved in, and the growls spilled into the hallway, growls that were immediately followed by the hulking body of the hellhound as the beast leapt onto Tomas.
Azrael heard the screams from inside the old house. He saw the bodies of the guards outside, littering the ground. Smoke drifted into the air, a lazy beacon that had drawn him in.
The smoke . . . and the blood. Lately, the blood always seemed to draw him.
He’d known Rogziel for many centuries. Known him, watched him, wondered when the bastard would fall.
So he’d known all about this little hideaway.
His brother was inside. Already battling Rogziel? Why? To save the succubus?
Az’s head throbbed as he stared at the flames. He didn’t understand what was happening anymore. Sammael had never cared about saving anyone. Had he?
I ask for nothing. From now on, I take. Sam’s words, when Az had asked him to seek forgiveness. But Sam had refused. He’d fallen instead of repenting.
“An angel dies today.”
Az didn’t turn at Mateo’s words. Yes, he knew Mateo. He’d lived for too long and seen too much not to know about the crossroad spirit.
When folks wanted to cheat death, they went to the crossroads.
Foolish. No one had ever been able to cheat him. He’d been delayed before, but not stopped.
“Did you see that in your mirror?” Az demanded.
“Aren’t you going to help him?” Mateo asked instead. “After all, he is your brother.”
The smoke curled thicker in the air. Now, he could hear the rough sound of . . . growls coming from the house. The growls were too deep for wolves or coyotes, and they were growls that he would have preferred to never hear again. “Someone has let the hounds loose.”
“Sam will trade his life for hers,” Mateo said.
Now that made Az look at him, but Mateo’s stare was on the fire. “Sammael won’t trade his life for anyone’s.” That was a sacrifice his brother would never make.
“He’d die for her.”
Impossible. Sammael couldn’t—
“Even the mighty fall, sooner or later.”
Az remembered screams. Women. Children. He remembered his brother, cutting a path through the dead with eyes gone pitch-black as he killed and killed and killed.
Punishing?
No, Sammael had lost his control. The beast inside his brother was too strong. “He won’t sacrifice for anyone.”
“You’ll see. He’ll burn.” Mateo advanced slowly toward the rising smoke. “An angel dies . . .”
Az stared after him, watching, torn.
His heart raced too fast. His palms were sweating. His muscles locked too tight.
Sammael.
Sacrifice?
He hadn’t understood the emotions he’d seen in his brother’s eyes that long-ago day. But those same emotions—they’d glittered in Sammael’s stare when the succubus vanished earlier.
Sammael had always felt too much, and those emotions had been the problem.
Az’s hands fisted. Now it’s my problem, too.
Because he wasn’t just going to stand back while Rogziel killed his brother.
Az stared at the blaze. Heard the hungry growls, and he whispered, “Come get some, dog . . .”
This hellhound was even bigger than the one before. Bigger, darker, with a mouth at least twice the size of the last beast that had come at them. Just staring at the hound made Seline’s knees shake.
This hound had sunk its teeth into Tomas’s shoulder. Blood spilled beneath him. Tomas tried to grab the hound’s head, and almost lost his fingers.
But Sam was there. She watched as he shoved his foot into the hound’s head, giving a kick that made the beast howl.
Tomas leapt to his feet. “Get the fuck back to hell!” He roared and lifted his hands. Fire blasted out at the hound.
“No!” Seline yelled, but the fire had already reached the hound. It absorbed the flames and its eyes flashed an even brighter red. Then the hound got bigger.
Dammit.
“Help me!” A woman’s scream came from inside the room. Oh, no, that woman—Sierra—had actually been trapped in there with the hound? And the monster hadn’t eaten her?
Tomas’s head jerked at Sierra’s cry, and he rushed forward, right into the path of the hound.
But Sam knocked the beast out of the way. Seline expected the hound to lunge for Sam, but instead, the hound’s head turned, slowly. It licked its lips and focused that fiery stare on Tomas once more.
“Rogziel gave it your scent,” Sam snapped. “You’re its prey.” The hound slammed its body into Sam’s side and knocked him back.
You’re its prey.
Sam had told her that a hound didn’t stop until it took its prey.
Sam’s shove had sent Tomas stumbling to the ground. The hound closed in on him now.
This time, Seline ran in front of Tomas. Her heart raced so fast that her chest shook. But she’d stopped a hound before. She could do it again.
Right?
“Get back,” she gritted to the beast. Flames were snaking down the hallway. Great. Fabulous. Just what the hound needed—more power. “Get away from him. Go back to hell!”
The hound looked up at her with its fangs bared.
She straightened her shoulders. “Go back to hell!” Her words were close to a roar.
“Seline!” Sam screamed.
The hound leapt at her. Powerful paws slammed into her chest, and she hit the floor. The hound’s paws shoved against her and the beast hurtled forward over her—right at Tomas.
But Tomas wasn’t alone. Mateo stood beside him. “Let’s see just how well you can hunt,” Mateo said to the beast as he tossed a bottle into the air, a small bottle that Sam snagged with his left hand. In the next instant, Mateo and Tomas vanished.
Get-the-fuck-away spell. Seline knew the witch had used it. Talk about some nice timing . . .
The hound howled and raced down the hallway, and Seline knew the monster was chasing after Tomas’s scent. Her breath choked out in a relieved gasp. That had been too close.
Sam grabbed her hand and hauled Seline to her feet. “The hound will find them.”
She knew he was right. The hound wouldn’t stop. Not until it had them. “I-I couldn’t stop it.” She’d tried, but—
“Please, God! Someone, help me!”
“You can’t control them all.” Sam kept hold of her hand and pulled Seline inside the room. “You can only control the one bound to you.”
Knowing that little piece of trivia would have been helpful earlier. Before she’d jumped in front of the hellhound.
“You have to summon it, Seline. You have to control it. You have to get it to kick ass for you.”
A woman with dark red hair waited in the middle of the room. Seline tried to hurry toward her.
Sam hauled her back. “No.”
“Please!” The woman’s fists thudded into some kind of invisible wall. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “There was some kind of wolf in here with me. I thought it was going to eat me!”
Sam pointed to the ground. “A spell has her locked in.” A thin line of white powder circled the woman. “I don’t think this one is too strong, but we can’t take any chances on it being a trap.”
“The wolf could come back!” The redhead screamed. “You have to get me out of here!”
“The beast has gone after Tomas.” Sam frowned at the line of powder. “It won’t be back till he’s dead.”
The redhead blinked. If possible, her face paled even more. “Dead?”
But Sam didn’t answer. He pushed Seline back a bit. “I can burn through it.”
Like there weren’t already enough flames around them.
“Burn?” the woman whispered. “Wait, don’t—”
There was no waiting. The flames were already around her, burning in a bright circle, following that trail of white powder and enclosing the woman.
Sam stalked toward the flames. “This is gonna hurt.” He reached through the fire. “To get out, you have to walk through the flames.”
Seline’s jaw dropped. “She’s human, Sam! She can’t!”
He glanced back at her with one brow raised. “That’s why it’s gonna hurt.” His arm was on fire.
The woman was sobbing.
“Take my hand,” Sam ordered. “Take it now or you’re dead.”
Seline could barely see through the flames. But she thought the woman reached for Sam. In the next instant, the woman was flying right through the flames. No, Sam was yanking her through. When the redhead hit the ground, Seline immediately started slapping out the flames that licked around the woman. She ignored the blisters that burst onto her own skin.
I can heal. She can’t.
“Now get her out of here,” Sam said as the flames burning his flesh died away.
Seline looked up at him. “And leave you here alone? No way.”
“Delia was right. Rogziel’s long gone.” His eyes still shined black. “But when he comes back, I’ll be waiting for him.”
Not such a fantastic idea. “You can’t! You don’t—”
He lifted the bottle Mateo had tossed to him. Then, slowly, he pulled the claw from his right pocket. “I’m going to cut his fucking head off.” His eyes darted to the woman. She stared at him as if he were a monster. Couldn’t the woman recognize a hero when she saw one?
Seline yanked the redhead up to her feet. Time to teach this chick some hard and fast facts. “An angel risked his life for you.”
Sierra swiped away the tears on her cheeks. “An . . . angel?”
“A hellhound is chasing Tomas because he came back for you. That wasn’t a wolf, okay? It was a hellhound.” She shoved Sierra toward the broken door. “Now be smart, and run. Run really, really fast.”
Sierra looked back at her with dazed eyes. “Th-thank you.” Then she ran, really, really fast.
Seline turned to Sam.
“You need to run, too,” he told her.
Probably. “Maybe I’m just not into playing it smart.” She closed the distance between them. “I’m not leaving you.”
He shook his head. “You want freedom. This is your chance. Take it.”
Didn’t he see? Didn’t he get it yet? “I think I want you more.” The stark truth, and one that scared her to death.
Sam’s eyes widened, and a burst of blue appeared around the darkness of his eyes. “Seline?”
Her lips started to lift in a trembling smile.
“You want him?” Azrael demanded from right behind her.
Aw, hell. Angels and their too-fast—
“Then just see exactly what you’re getting . . .” Before she could even look over her shoulder, Azrael touched her.
And Sam roared.
Hello, Death.
She stared down at the men. She could hear the laughter, but couldn’t understand their words. Their clothes were . . . different. Old. Foreign.
Another time, another place.
But Death was there.
Seline saw Sammael leap from the sky. His wings, strong, black, so powerful, thrust behind him. The men were staring with wide eyes, looking all around.
But they couldn’t see him. Not yet.
Then he touched the first man.
The man with the red hair screamed, and the sound chilled Seline’s blood. She’d never heard a cry filled with such terror. The redhead fell to the ground, his body frozen, his face twisted in agony. He was the first, but not the last. Far, far from the last.
Soon the men could see Sam. Seline didn’t understand how or why, but they were staring at him. Pointing. Screaming.
He . . . laughed?
More men fell. He cut right through them. Killed, touched, until none were left living.
When the dead littered the ground at his feet, Sammael tilted back his hea
d, stared up at the heavens, and smiled.
More.
“Seline!” Sam’s roar jerked her back to the present just as he pulled her away from Azrael. She realized that only a moment had passed, barely a second.
It had felt like an eternity.
Sammael put his body between her and Az. “What the fuck did you do?”
“Relax,” Az said, voice tight. “She’s completely unharmed. You know the touch doesn’t work on those with angel blood. Most of the demons who run on this earth have blood so diluted, it doesn’t matter, but she’s . . . fresh.”
Her hands were shaking. Seline stared at Sam’s back and saw the shadow of his wings.
And when he fired a fast glance over his shoulder, she saw his rage. Seline rose to her toes, craning to see over his strong back.
“I just wanted her to see exactly who you are,” Az said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “She thinks that she wants you? Well, she needs to know just what it is that she wants.”
Azrael’s voice grated in her ears.
Sam must have thought the guy’s voice grated, too, because he slammed his fist into Azrael’s face to shut him up. “Don’t fucking touch her!”
“Why?” Az hadn’t moved. Blood streamed from his nose. “Because you didn’t want her to know just what you were? Didn’t want her to see how much you enjoy a kill?”
In a flash, Az was beside her. “Those men weren’t marked for death. He decided to kill them, and he did.”
Sam growled. No other word for it. He growled. “They had murdered a village. Slaughtered the children. Raped the women, then killed them when they were done. And you wanted—what? For me to turn the other cheek? Hell, no. Death for death. Eye for—” He broke off, seeming to finally realize just what Az had said before. “See?” he repeated quietly, and his gaze found Seline’s. “He . . . showed you?”
Not just rage in his voice now. Fear.
She lifted her hand toward him. The slight edge of cruelty was still on his face. It would probably always be there, in the curl of his lip and the hardness of his eyes. But he was more than cruelty and rage. So much more. Why hadn’t she seen that in the beginning?