Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(36)

Then Brandt clapped his hands together. A guy with a big, black bag came running toward them. “Payment,” Brandt said with a wide smile, “for a job well done.” He pointed at Jade. “You led me on a nice chase, but the hunt’s over now.”

He shouldn’t be so calm. Jade clenched her hands and refused to show fear. Brandt should have caught the mixed scents by now. He should be enraged. Not mocking and controlled.

Brandt tossed the duffel bag through the air. It landed in front of Jade’s feet. The barrel of the gun was immediately removed from her back. Heather scrambled around and grabbed the bag. She jerked it open.

Nothing was inside.

Heather’s head whipped back. “What the hell are you trying to do?” Her gun lifted and pointed at him. The barrel shook.

“Since when does a witch need to use a human weapon?” Brandt asked, voice flat. “Why not just use a spell to knock out your captives?”

Because they hadn’t been willing to play that way. Heather had sure wanted to use her magic mojo, but Jade hadn’t been willing to run the risk. The witch could just kill them while they were out. No, thank you.

“Because he can’t be knocked out,” it was Tanner’s snarl that answered Brandt.

Jade slipped back a step. Her right hand began to rise slowly. Not time to pull her own weapon, not yet.

“You know he’s not human.” Tanner’s claws had drawn blood. The red drops slid down Az’s throat. “He can resist Heather’s magic.”

Brandt’s nostrils flared as he studied Az. “Who are you? Why the hell are you in this fight?”

Because she’d pulled him into it. Because—

“I’m the man who made Jade scream last night.”

Oh, ahem, yeah, but she’d made him shout, too.

Brandt’s claws lengthened. She saw a muscle jerk along his jaw. Finally, his control was showing signs of cracking. “I will make you wish for death.” A promise he’d carried out before, to others.

Even when she’d begged him to stop.

Begged and fought, but Jade hadn’t been strong enough to help.

This time, things would be different.

“You’re not doing this to me again!” Heather threw the bag back at him. “I did my part. I brought them here, now I want my money!” Power, magic, seemed to vibrate in the air around her.

“Walk away, Heather,” Brandt told her softly. “While you have the chance, just turn and walk out of here.”

Yeah, it was time for the witch to head for safety.

“What about my pay?” Tanner demanded. “I was promised money, too. Are you just going to double-cross me, too?”

Brothers. Jade had known that, though, from the first moment she’d seen Tanner’s scars.

The only other pack member with scars like that was Brandt—and Brandt’s bastard of a father had been the one to slice his flesh. His flesh—and his brother’s.

“You brought me the thing I want the most in this world.” Brandt’s body was held painfully still. He’d never been one for restraint, so where the hell was his self-control coming from now? If their attack was going to work, he had to move within striking distance of Az. “For that,” Brandt said, “you can come back. You can be pack again.”

Silence.

Then Heather drew a deep, shuddering breath. “You almost killed me once.” She still had her gun. The useless gun?

Now Brandt did take a step, but it was toward Heather and not to Az.

“You slashed me, drove your claws into me,” Heather’s voice grew louder as wind began to whip through the area. A furious wind fueled by the witch’s magic. “Then you left me to die.”

Brandt shrugged. “You betrayed me. What else did you think I’d do?”

“I never—”

Another gliding step toward her. “You took my blood, witch, I know you did. You used it to scry. To see what future we’d have. You looked when I f*cking told you never to see!”

“I saw nothing! Only darkness with you because—”

Then he had her. One lunge, and he’d ripped the gun out of her hand. He tossed it into the bushes and his fingers closed around her neck. He lifted her up and her feet dangled in the air.

No, no, this was not the way the deal was supposed to go down.

“This time,” Brandt told Heather, “I’ll make sure you die.”

“No!”Jade screamed and she brought up her gun. But she didn’t have a clear shot at Brandt. Heather’s body blocked him. “Let her go!”

Brandt laughed. “Now how did I know that you weren’t the defenseless little prisoner brought in by the big, bad witch?”

Then he tossed Heather’s body, slinging her through the air. Her head slammed into a tree, and she crumpled on the ground like a broken doll.

Brandt brushed his hands as if he were wiping away dirt. He glanced at Jade’s gun, then back up at her. “Come on, baby, we both know that you won’t—”

She fired at him. Fired again and again until the gun just clicked because all of the bullets were gone.

But . . . Brandt didn’t fall down. Blood poured from his chest, and his eyes narrowed on her. “That hurt, Jade.”

“It was f*cking supposed to, Brandt!” But, dammit, how had she missed his heart? How was he standing? Silver bullets in the heart should kill a shifter but—