Angel Betrayed (The Fallen #2)(70)

Her head started to throb. An engine growled outside. “What are you telling me?”

“I’m saying that I think Rogziel fed you a load of bull. Your father didn’t kill your mother.”

She rose from the bed and dressed with hands that were too steady. They should be shaking. She should be shaking. “Then who did?” All her life, she’d thought her father had destroyed her mother.

“When we get Rogziel, we’ll find out.”

No, no, this isn’t possible. “You’re wrong. My father killed her. He lost control, and he drained—”

“Mates share power. They don’t take.”

Seline blinked. She’d shared power with Sam. Fear tightened her belly. Did that mean he was hers?

Footsteps pounded below. Sam was on his feet now and in front of her. He stared into her eyes. “Whatever happens, remember . . . I don’t care what shit Rogziel told you, you aren’t an abomination. You aren’t evil.” His gaze narrowed. “But, sweetheart, you are damn well mine.”

She was very much afraid that he might be hers.

When did this happen? When did I start to fall so hard for him? Had she been trying to bind them from the beginning?

There was so much she didn’t know. No, much she hadn’t been told because of Rogziel.

“Sam . . .”

But he stiffened and his head jerked toward the door. She saw the slight flare of his nostrils. “That’s not Keenan and his vampire.” Anger roughed his voice.

“Sam?”

He lunged forward. Seline rushed right behind him.

And from the top of the stairs, Seline saw who waited for them just inside the inn’s doorway. Waited with a grim smile curving his lips.

Az.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN



“Hello, brother,” Az called, raising his brows. “Figured I’d find you here.”

Sam shoved back the rage and slowly climbed down the stairs. He was too aware of Seline behind him.

“My memory grows stronger every day,” Az said, and Sam saw the hardness in his stare. “I remembered how much you liked to hide here. Hide, and hunt.”

Sam reached the foot of the stairs. Attack. His control was razor thin. “Enjoying your new life? I certainly hope you have been . . . because it will be over soon.”

Seline didn’t speak, but Sam heard the soft whisper of her steps as she crept down the staircase.

Az’s gaze drifted to her. “I came for you.”

The guy wanted to die. Slowly. Painfully.

Then Az lifted his hand and said to Seline, “I can offer you safety.”

Sam attacked. In an instant, he was across the room. His fist plowed into Az’s perfect face. “And I can offer you an ass-kicking.”

Az stumbled back, but he didn’t fall. His chin lifted. “You can’t kill me. I remember that part. The touch doesn’t work on angels, even Fallen.”

“That’s right . . .” Sam growled, fists ready to attack. “That’s why you had to work so hard to try and kill me a few months back.”

Az’s brows lowered.

“Oh, what? Don’t remember that part?” Another drive of his fist. Damn but it felt good when Az backed up. Weakness. “You teamed up with a coyote shifter so that he could kill me and Keenan. Guess being Fallen was too much of a sin for us.”

Az shook his head. Blood dripped from his lip. “Rogziel . . . he said . . . Fallen should burn.”

Of course. Fucking Rogziel. “And you were ready and willing to serve your own brother up to him?”

Sam didn’t see the blow coming, not until it was too late. And Az didn’t pull his punch. Sam tasted blood in his mouth, and he was pretty sure that his brother had broken his nose.

Good thing he was a fast healer.

“You’ve killed!” Az yelled, his face darkening with fury. Ah, yes, fury. Now that he’d fallen, Az would be feeling. If he wasn’t careful, those feelings could break him apart.

Sam would make sure his brother wasn’t careful. Break.

“You had your orders . . . you were only supposed to take the souls slated for Death.” Once again, Az’s gaze darted to Seline. “Do you even know how many he slaughtered?” The question was fired at her.

Sam didn’t look at Seline. “They deserved to die.”

“Who were you to judge? It was war, they were fighting. We don’t get the luxury of picking sides. We follow—”

He grabbed Az and lifted him high into the air. “You weren’t there. You didn’t see them raping the women and killing the children. You didn’t see them just wipe the blood away, as if that took the stain off their hands. Over and f*cking over again . . . I had to watch.”

Az didn’t fight. “You think you’re the only one who ever saw innocents suffer? We do not punish—”

“No, twisted pricks like Rogziel are supposed to do that, right?” Screw that. “Those men deserved to die.”

“You didn’t make the deaths easy.” More censure. What else was new?

“Why should I? They made their victims suffer, so I made them suffer.” Fair enough.

Seline’s footsteps tapped across the floor.

“And after you fell, you didn’t learn to control yourself, did you?” Az was pushing, obviously determined that Seline would learn all of Sam’s sins.