Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(35)

Yeah, they had.

Tanner exhaled. “Alright. Let’s do this.” Jade wondered if he knew that his voice trembled. The cop was scared. You didn’t need a shifter’s senses to smell his fear.

Tanner and Heather climbed from the car. Hesitating, Jade glanced at Az. After the fury of sex and pleasure, she wasn’t sure what to say. Except . . . “Please be careful.” A hollow ache filled her gut. She’d never planned on Az. Wasn’t even sure what she felt for him, but she knew that she didn’t want to lose him. “Brandt is very smart and very dangerous.”

Az cocked his head and studied her. Then he lifted his cuffed hands. Touched her cheek. “You were my first.”

She blinked at that. “First?” First what? First human who’d dragged him into a hell of a mess with her psychotic ex?

“I watched death and suffering for centuries,” he said as his eyes searched hers. “I never stepped in. Never stopped it, until you.”

Oh, wait, that was . . . um, not sweet, exactly. Something more.

“It seems only fitting that my first taste of real pleasure came from you.”

She hadn’t meant for last night to happen. She’d stared at him, needed, and her self-control had vanished. So much for holding back and keeping him—

Whoa. Wait. His words sank in. Was he saying . . . first? She was pretty sure she lost her breath right then. “You should have told me.” Things could have been different, she could have—

He kissed her. Her lips were open, and his mouth just seemed to fit hers so perfectly in that moment. No danger. No fear.

Just him.

She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed against his chest. Her tongue met his, and she realized how very much she loved his taste. Jade didn’t break the kiss, just enjoyed it. As she enjoyed him.

When he slowly pulled away, she had to whisper, “Where were you ten years ago?”

He didn’t speak. Jade opened her eyes and forced herself to smile. “I guess you were upstairs, looking down on us mortals.”

His eyes narrowed.

I wish I’d met you first. Wish I’d known you before Brandt.

Life could have been different. Her family would have been alive. She wouldn’t have been a murderer.

Tanner cleared his throat and knocked on the window. “Let’s do this.”

Because it was time to face her own personal devil. She pulled away from Az and opened her car door. He exited on his side, and they met in front of the vehicle car.

Heather was moving nervously from her left foot to her right, then back, over and over. Tanner stood with his arms crossed and stared into the darkness.

Jade’s heart was racing, and the fear swirling in her gut had her whole body tensing up. Because of last night, she knew Az’s scent was all over her. Just as her scent marked him. That scent would infuriate Brandt. Before they went into this battle, she needed Az to understand. “I’m not going to watch him kill you.”

If something went wrong, if the plan didn’t go the way they’d figured . . .

He lifted a brow. Gave her a faint smile. “You won’t have to,” he said. “You can just watch me kill him.”

So confident.

Why was she so afraid?

They stared at the trees and the fog that drifted from the swamp. Insects chirped and called out. The heavy odor of vegetation filled the air.

Heather approached Jade. The witch pulled out a gun and pushed it into Jade’s back. It had better still be unloaded. She’d checked the gun right before they parked. No bullets. At least, there hadn’t been any in the chamber then.

“Move,” Heather told her, but the word broke with nervousness.

Jade exhaled heavily and started walking. Az was beside her, being “pushed” forward by Tanner. They went straight ahead, going deep, deeper into the swamp. As they walked, the calls of the insects began to die away even as the fog thickened around them.

Maybe the insects sensed the predators in their midst.

Shadows began to move in the fog. Big, menacing. Growls reached her ears. Those were the same growls that she heard in her nightmares.

A pond waited up ahead. The water lapped lightly against the shore.

Laughter drifted in the air. Cold, cruel. The sound made her spine snap even straighter.

Then Brandt stalked toward them, seeming to just appear in the heavy layer of fog. He was smiling and his eyes were on her. “I missed you, baby,” he said. The words were those of a lover. The claws that ripped from his fingertips were the weapons of a beast.

The barrel of Heather’s gun shoved harder into her back. “I want my money!” The witch’s frantic call. Heather should really try playing this thing cooler.

Slowly, Brandt’s gaze trekked from Jade’s face to the witch. He took another step toward them. One more. His eyes narrowed on Heather. “I suppose it’s a good thing you lived. You have proven useful over the years.”

Okay, now that gun was jabbing Jade so hard that it hurt. “I guess we were both more than just pieces of trash to be thrown away.” Now this came from Tanner. Az wasn’t speaking. He was just glaring at Brandt as if he were marking the panther for death, which he probably was.

Brandt smiled at Tanner. “Welcome back, brother.”

Jade’s gaze flew to the cop. His claws were out and at Az’s throat.