“When you decide I’ve turned on you again—what then?” Seline asked because she wasn’t just going to forget. Some things could never be forgotten. “I saw your eyes in that truck. You were ready to kill me.”
“If I’d been ready to kill you, you would’ve been dead.” Flat. Brutal. Truth.
Another club beckoned. She slipped inside, leaving him to the shadows. She just needed some space. Seline went to the bar. Motioned with her hand for a drink. She didn’t care what the bartender gave her. She just needed something to take the edge off right then.
The guy on her right immediately sidled closer. The man on the left crowded in against her. Seline looked in the mirror and barely recognized the woman who stared back at her. Blood-red lips. Heavy-lidded eyes. Skin a shade no human’s should be.
Her top had torn in the struggle, and her br**sts pushed against the fabric. No wonder the men were closing in.
Built for sin.
The guy on the right, an American frat boy who’d wandered into the wrong bar, ran his fingers down her arm. “Hola, sexy señorita, where have you been all my—”
Sam’s image appeared behind her in the mirror. He grabbed the kid’s fingers and squeezed. “Want me to break them?” he asked, his voice bland, but she caught the fury flaring in his eyes.
“Shit! Shit, man, no! Ow!”
“Then don’t touch her again.” Sam shoved the college boy away. He glanced at the other man. “Get the hell out of here.”
Both men scrambled for the exit. Seline took her drink and downed it in one gulp. It burned her throat, and she wanted more.
“You can’t be out now, Seline.” Sam positioned his body too close to hers.
She motioned for another drink. Daughter of a demon. Daughter of an angel. Made for sin. She stared at her image. “And why not?”
“Because your powers are cranked too high.” He swore, then turned his head to the right. “Back off, ass**les, she’s with me.”
Two more men turned away.
His hand fisted on the bar top. “You’re pulling them in, and you don’t even realize it.”
No, she realized it. There was just nothing she could do to stop the pull.
“I’ve slept with three men in my life.” Her confession seemed too loud even in the noisy bar. “This isn’t what I wanted to be.” But maybe there had never been a choice. Seduce. Kill.
Had Rogziel been right about her? If he could see her now...
He’d laugh, then he’d kill her.
The long, twisting house in the woods had served many purposes over the years. Weapons storage. Hideaway. Lover’s retreat.
Tonight, it was a prison.
Rogziel stared down at the Fallen who knelt in the middle of the holding spell. He’d learned over the years that even witches could have their uses, and he’d certainly made sure to use the witch Mateo as much as he could.
Some spells could bind any being, even a Fallen. Not forever, of course. But he didn’t need forever. He just needed a few hours. “Ready to talk, Tomas?”
Tomas’s dark head lifted. He smiled. “Go f**k yourself, ’Ziel. I don’t answer to you.”
A growl rumbled from the shadows behind Rogziel. This time, he’d made sure to summon the hound that belonged to him. Using Erina’s hound had seemed like such a fitting vengeance before. But obviously, that plan had been a mistake.
He would make no more. “I’m not here to kill you.”
His words had Tomas blinking. Dry blood coated the right side of the Fallen’s face. “No? You just hunt me down, sic that hound on me, and let it nearly rip my face off . . . but you’re not planning to kill me. Of course not. How stupid of me to think that was the end goal.”
Slowly, Rogziel stalked around the containment circle. “I know why you fell.”
Tomas pushed to his feet, and pain flashed on his face. Those broken bones hadn’t healed yet. “Kiss my ass. You aren’t going to judge me. Save it for the humans—”
“How about I save it for your human?”
Rogziel’s heart raced a bit faster when he saw the fear flash on Tomas’s face. Hit. Rogziel cocked his head as he studied the Fallen. “She was the cause of your fall. She tempted, you succumbed. If anyone needs punishment, then she should be the one to pay.”
“Leave Sierra alone! You stay the hell away from her.” Tomas lunged forward and slammed into the side of the invisible wall that held him. His nose broke and blood splattered.
So much blood. Not dark. Bright red. Rogziel smiled. “You wanted her, you fell to f**k her. But . . . she’s not with you now.”
Tomas’s hands clenched into fists. “What do you want?”
Rogziel frowned and moved closer. “Why is that?” He really wanted to know. “You burn for her, but you let her go? Or maybe—maybe she didn’t want you.” Now that would be a nice twist. “Once she found out what you were, did she run away?” Humans were always so afraid of the things they didn’t understand, and they didn’t understand most things.
“What do you want?”
“So emotional.” Rogziel shook his head. “But that’s what happens when you fall. You feel too much.”
“And you think you don’t feel?” Tomas fired right back, but he was careful not to get too close to the white powder that formed a circle around his feet. “I can see it on your face—you like hurting people. You’ve gone bad. You’re f**ked in the head.”
His heart was pounding too hard. “I serve. I do my job. I punish.” His lips twisted in disgust. “I have my wings. They didn’t burn away because I disobeyed.”
“It’s not always about disobeying,” Tomas muttered, and then he smiled. Rogziel didn’t like that bloody smile. So close to death, Tomas shouldn’t be smiling.
He should be begging.
“How long has it been . . .” Tomas asked, raising one brow, “since you were upstairs?”
Rogziel’s eyes narrowed. “I travel between heaven and earth. Earth and hell. I have the power to—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Tomas cut in, rolling his eyes. “I’ve heard the spiel before.”
Tomas would die. Soon. Once he was no longer useful.
“Bet you can’t remember the last time you were upstairs, can you?” Tomas pressed. “You know why? ’Cause you’re f**ked in the head. You think humans are the only ones who go bad? Angels do, too. I heard about the Fallen who’ve died. I know it was you. And I know you liked killing them.”