The broken tomb that Az had fallen on so long before lay in pieces just feet from them all.
“This is where he dies,” Brandt said. “Heather told me about this place . . . how he fell.” His lips curled as he glanced up at the starlit sky. “It seems only fitting that I send him to hell at this spot.”
She rubbed her arms. A chill was in the air, beating down on her. “He’s stronger than you are.”
Brandt’s smirk said that he doubted that. “I kicked his ass once before.”
“Only because he didn’t know what you were then.” Az hadn’t been prepared for Brandt’s strength.
Brandt’s gaze cut to her. “And just what am I?”
Evil. If only she’d seen it from the beginning. “Half angel, half beast.”
The others were transforming around them. Changing with the pop and snap of bones as the moon shone down on them.
Brandt held up his hand and stared at the claws that burst from his fingertips. “I always thought it was a curse, having her blood in me.”
She edged away from him.
“My father said it made me weak. Made me too softhearted on our prey.”
“Yeah, well, your father was a dick.” She needed to find a weapon. Her gaze darted around the area. Those panthers would be done with their shift soon. She needed to attack before then. They were always at their weakest during those moments of transformation.
There.
One of the tombs had been separated from the others by an old-fashioned, wrought-iron fence.
“My father was the most vicious shifter I’ve ever seen.” Brandt rolled his shoulders. “But you put him in the ground for me.”
She stumbled toward the fence, deliberately tripping so that her hands had to fly out and catch onto the iron for support. Slowly, she turned toward him. Her hands locked around one of the posts. “I didn’t do that for you. He was trying to rape me. I killed him for me.”
“Fair enough.” A pause. Brandt’s head tilted to the right as he studied her. “I killed your parents for me.”
Bile rose in her throat and her hand tightened around the fence post. Jade kept her eyes on Brandt even as she pulled on that post. She thought she heard the iron groan, and it seemed to bend in her hand.
Oh, please, angel blood, don’t fail me now. Because that blood seemed to be giving her the strength she needed to get this makeshift weapon.
“I knew you’d go back to them eventually. Once you realized what I was . . .” He lifted his hands, and the moonlight glinted off his claws. “You’d run away like a scared little human.”
Because she had been a scared little human. What was so wrong with that? A seventeen-year-old, scared girl.
“I had to make sure you had no one to run to. So I killed them.” He shrugged. “I made it quick, though, if that makes you feel better.”
Sick freak. “You’re as crazy as your father was!”
He lunged at her and wrapped his hands around her throat. “No,” his voice was lethally soft. “I’m not.”
She didn’t speak. Mostly because she couldn’t. Brandt was crushing her windpipe.
He leaned his forehead against hers. He’d done that move often in the old days, back when they’d first started dating. Pressed his forehead against hers. A gentle, almost affectionate gesture. Only back then, he hadn’t been choking her when he leaned in so close.
“I don’t want to be like this,” Brandt whispered so softly she almost didn’t hear him. “But I just can’t stop myself.” He sounded . . . lost.
And, for one instant, he was the boy she’d met. The boy with the sad eyes and wistful smile. The boy who watched her like he was watching a rainbow.
The boy she’d loved.
Not the monster she feared.
Except the boy was strangling her. Jade’s left hand pulled away from the fence, and she clawed at his hold on her throat.
Brandt blinked and the past faded from his eyes even as his hands fell away from her. “We’re going to start fresh. Get the hell away from the South and do things right.”
She sucked in a couple of deep gulps of air. “It’s . . . too late for that.” Surely he knew that. “I don’t love you, Brandt.”
He stiffened.
Part of the fence gave way but she didn’t lift it up. Not yet.
“You think you love him?” Disgust tightened his face.
“Yes.” She just wished that she’d told Az sooner. She’d been afraid to trust anyone else after Brandt. After being so blind, Jade had been terrified she’d make another mistake with a man.