Az couldn’t hear the screams of the approaching sirens or the crackle of the flames. Jade’s lips were moving but he could discern no sound.
He leapt forward, stopping mere inches from Bastion. “Let her go or die.” If he had to use his fists to pound those brimstone bullets into Bastion’s head and heart, he would.
No one was hurting Jade.
Fear flashed in Bastion’s eyes. Az knew fear when he saw it and smelled it.
“M-Marna . . .” He caught the angel’s whisper. “Tell me, did you take her wings?”
“I already told you,” Jade muttered, “he didn’t.”
Az fought the fury inside of him. His gaze held Bastion’s. “I did not.”
Bastion’s wings curled inward.
“Brandt was the one who attacked her,” Az told him. “He’s more than human. He could see her. And you know what a shifter’s claws can do to us.”
“Not a weapon of man.” Bastion swallowed. The knife lifted. His hands were shaking. “I-I thought you . . .” He pushed Jade toward Az.
He grabbed her, held her close, and smelled her blood.
Az stiffened. Keeping his hand on her, his gaze swept her body. There was no missing the long gash that had torn open her arm.
“Az,” Jade began, with her eyes wide. “Hold on. It was a misunderstand—”
Bastion attacking her wasn’t a misunderstanding. Az pushed her behind him. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
The angel’s head hung down. “When I found them, Marna’s wings were covered in blood. There was no sign of her in the swamp. I-I thought that you’d—”
“You didn’t attack me. You attacked her.”
The angel wasn’t meeting his stare.
“What were you going to do?” Az demanded. The urge to attack, to destroy, was so strong that his body trembled.
Bastion’s chin slowly lifted. “I was going to let Brandt have her.”
“Bad, bad mistake.” He lifted his hand and prepared to beat the hell out of a certain angel.
“Az!” Jade grabbed his hand. “Dammit, we don’t have time for this now!”
Sammael would have said there was always time for an ass kicking.
Perhaps he truly was becoming more like his brother. Or maybe he’d always been like him and just hadn’t realized it.
“The cops are almost on top of us. We need to get out of here.” Fear flickered in her eyes. “There is no way that we want to get caught by human authorities now.”
The too-close shrieks of the sirens filled his ears. Jade was right. They had to leave. Vengeance would come second. Protecting her was his first priority.
He took her hand and turned away from Bastion. His gaze swept the scene. Mateo had vanished. No real surprise. But he’d be finding that witch soon.
Or he will find us.
Az could see the cop cars and fire trucks circling in now. He hoisted Jade into his arms. Her hands slipped around his neck and her body . . . felt so right. She always seemed to fit against him perfectly. “Hold tight,” he told her, pressing a kiss to her forehead.
He lunged forward, but Bastion moved in an instant and blocked him.
“Where is she?” Bastion whispered.
He did not have time for this.
“You know she’ll be weak. If a foe comes at her again . . . Marna won’t survive another attack so soon after the loss of her wings.”
He wanted to tear Bastion apart, but Jade’s fingers were lightly stroking the back of his neck and some of the tight fury eased from him. Relenting, but still planning for some vicious payback, Az growled, “At midnight, meet us at Sammael’s club.”
A fire truck raced onto the street.
“She’ll be there,” he promised.
Bastion nodded and his wings arched as he rose into the air. The humans wouldn’t see the angel.
But the cops and firefighters would sure try to bust him and Jade.
Police cars were swarming the scene now. Az ran forward. He leapt onto the hood of one patrol car, denting the metal, then he propelled forward and up, racing fast, so fast . . .
The humans would never be able to identify him. They’d only see a blur.
Jade held him tighter and the rest of the world faded away.
Sammael didn’t need to hear the intruder to know that someone had slipped into his home.
After all, there was very little that went on without his notice.
But the fact that some ass**le had come sneaking into his house, while Seline was there, well, that pissed him off.
No one messed with Seline.
“Sam?” Her voice was sleepy, sexy, and it instantly made him hard.
Oh, soon enough for that, but first . . . Sam pressed a kiss to the soft silk of her shoulder. “Sleep, love. I need to tend to some business.”
Her brows drew together. She knew all about his business.
He kissed her again and let his fingers skate down her arm. He could hear the faintest tread of footsteps on his stairs. His intruder had gotten past the magical safeguards that he kept in place on his house.
Not a human. But then, humans seemed to instinctively stay the hell away from him.
He climbed from the bed. Waved his hand and instantly had a pair of jeans on his body.
“Want me to call Beelzie?” Seline asked, and he glanced back to see that she was sitting up in bed, her eyes wide and worried.
“No. I’ve got this one.” Because he knew the identity of his visitor. If he didn’t have a faint friendship with the guy—even though he’d been on this earth for centuries, he could count his friends on one hand—Sam would have already attacked.
He stalked forward. Yanked open the bedroom door. And found Mateo standing in his hallway.
A rather blistered, ash-covered Mateo.
Sam lifted a brow. “Been visiting hell again, have you?” Shaking his head, he asked, “Why don’t you just give up that place and—”
“We have a problem.” Mateo’s voice was flat and cold. His gaze drifted over Sam’s shoulder, probably to find Seline.
The guy had always watched her a bit too much.
Sam shifted his body to block the view. “You’re damn right we do. Some bastard caller just busted into my house.” Mateo had been the one to put the charms and protections in place. It figured that he’d be the only one who could slip right past them.
Mateo’s jaw hardened. “You’ll have to stop him. No one else will be strong enough.”
He knew Seline could hear every word they said. “Stop who?”