Her head slowly lifted.
And Jade realized that the darkness hadn’t faded from his gaze.
“I would have hunted him down.” Az’s words were gravel rough.
She held his gaze.
“I’d already gotten a tracking spell from Mateo. I was coming after you.” His hands were around her hips, loose, but an unbreakable hold. “Brandt never would have gotten to you. I would have found you, and I would have made sure you were safe.”
He was still trying to protect her.
“You can’t . . .” He was already firming again in her, and she wanted to lift up her hips and feel the delicious slide of his flesh within her. Wanted to, but . . . “You can’t always save the world.”
“I’m not interested in the world.” He thrust up into her and her sensitive flesh responded with a ripple of pleasure. “Only you.”
Only you.
The words seemed to bind them, but then, she’d been bound to him from the very first moment she’d seen him.
She just hadn’t realized how deeply she’d fallen.
Past heaven. Past hell. Into the arms of an angel who’d burned.
Brandt stared down at the blood drops that stained the earth. Jade’s blood.
The panther began clawing up from the inside, maddened with fury.
He’d thought the angel had been protecting Jade. Her lover, her protector.
But the distinctive scent of an angel still drifted in the air around him even as Jade’s blood littered the ground.
Hurt.
Jade must have been trying to come back to him. She’d sought him out. She must have remembered that he’d used this area for a base once before.
Jade never forgot anything. For a human, her intellect was fascinating.
One of the many reasons she was his.
She’d sought him out, been coming to him, but the angel had found her first.
He’d stopped her. Hurt her. Taken her away.
Claws burst from Brandt’s fingertips.
He would forgive Jade. She’d be punished, but forgiven because she’d tried to do the right thing. She’d tried to come back to her mate’s side.
But the angel . . . there’d be no forgiveness for him. Brandt would slice the skin from his body, one slow strip at a time.
The angel thought he knew of hell? Not yet, he didn’t.
But soon . . . soon.
And Brandt began to follow the drops of Jade’s blood. It was a perfect trail that would lead him back to his mate.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Midnight. That, of course, meant that Sunrise was packed. The line to get inside the club stretched for several blocks.
Az wasn’t exactly the standing-in-line type.
Jade’s gaze was on the pack of human and Other waiting for eager entrance. “Uh, do the humans even realize what’s going on in there?”
Because most of the folks waiting to get in were human. Scantily clad women. Swaggering men.
If they weren’t careful, they’d wind up being prey for the Other tonight. But perhaps that was what some wanted.
“They think they’re getting excitement. They don’t realize the guy who’ll be waiting at the bar actually is a vampire looking for a bite.” Humans could find an excuse to explain away just about everything. And for those who saw beneath the masks and into the true hearts of the monsters . . . there were ways to make them forget what they’d seen.
All it took was a little magic.
There was plenty of magic and Other things for sale in Sunrise.
“Come on.” He caught her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. The bouncer at the door was a demon, one of the demons that Sam usually kept very close. Az knew this particular demon was even considered to be a friend of his brother’s.
When Cole saw him coming, he arched a dark brow and snapped his fingers. Instantly, a big, no-neck, bulging muscled mass of a demon took Cole’s place at the door.
“I was told you’d be coming by.” Cole unhooked the silken rope that blocked the line from rushing up those infamous steps that led to Sunrise. “Right this way.”
Az let Jade go in before him. He saw the assessing gaze that Cole slid over her. The demon’s eyes lingered a bit too long on her ass.
“Don’t.” Terse. The only warning he’d give the demon.
Cole smiled. “A guy can look, right? What’s the harm in that?” Then he hurried forward and opened the door. The pounding beat of music spilled outside even as they swept into the club. Alcohol. Sex. Perfume. The smells swirled in the air as the bodies danced and gyrated on the small floor.
There were women up in the golden cage that swung lightly from the ceiling. A band screaming on the small stage.
“That way . . .” Cole pointed to the left. “Your . . . um . . . friends have already been shown to a private room.”
Good. “The woman was with them?”
Cole laughed with real appreciation then. “Yeah, she was.” He leaned toward Az. “Kind of hard to miss a handcuffed, pissed-off angel.”
Az saw Jade’s shoulders relax. “She’s alive.”
Cole glanced toward her and nodded. “But I doubt those guys with her will be once she breaks loose.” He shrugged. “So they’d better hope those cuffs keep holding her in check.”
Cole turned to stride back outside, but Az lifted his hand and stopped him. “There will be one more guest for our little private party.” He paused. “Be very careful around him. Bastion isn’t the kind you want to antagonize. Actually, you don’t want to touch him at all.”
“Great.” Cole sighed and shook his head. “Another Death Angel? Can’t any of you ass**les just stay in heaven these days?”
“He’s not Fallen.” Not yet. But if Bastion stayed on the path he seemed to be taking . . . “He’s blond, my height, and—”
“And I think I’ll be able to figure out which guy’s the angel. Not my first ball game.” Cole spun away. “Fucking angels,” he muttered.
Az waved his hand, and the crowd parted before him. The dancers didn’t even realize they were moving back. It was as if a light wind blew right by them, ushering them subtly to the side, but he and Jade could now slide through the crush of bodies without any problem.
They avoided the once-again-bolted metal doors, though Az was sure that the hellhound had been . . . relocated. Instead, they took the winding hallway that led away from the crowd. When he arrived before the reserved room—the room that Sam kept especially for occasions when Other needed a private place to meet—Az didn’t bother to knock. He waved his hand and the door flew open.