Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(41)

Not good enough. “You’ll do everything.” He strode through the entrance and was surprised to see that the place was actually much bigger inside than he’d realized. It snaked back, dipping low and twisting around.

Cody hurried around him. “This way. I have a small clinic set up for—”

“For emergencies like these,” Tanner finished quietly.

The demon doctor shoved open another door. The room inside was small, but packed with medical equipment.

“Put her on the table.” He grabbed a pair of gloves. “We need to cut off that shirt so I can see what kind of damage we’re dealing with.”

Az lowered her onto the thin table. Her head rolled to the right. Carefully, he pulled away her shirt, ripping it when it stuck to the drying blood because he didn’t want to jar her. The slashes were deep into her chest. Thick, gaping. He ached when he saw them.

And he wanted to tear Brandt apart. Death will make you scream.

“Sadistic bastard.” Rage thickened Cody’s voice. “I thought she was supposed to be the one that he loved.”

Tanner shook his head. “You know he can’t really love anything. He can only destroy. He can—”

“He meant to kill me.” Az brushed back her hair. “She . . . got in his way.”

“You mean she took the attack for you.” Tanner was by his side. “Brandt has killed too many people that Jade loved. I wasn’t there back then, but I know the stories. She wasn’t just going to let you die, too.”

Az frowned down at her. “Jade doesn’t love me.” She needed him. She . . . wanted him.

But love?

The cop didn’t respond.

The one called Cody stared down at Jade’s savaged body. “I can close the wounds . . .” He licked his lips. “But I’ll tell you now, she’s lost too much blood to survive.”

Tanner’s head snapped up. Az saw the shifter’s nostril’s flare. “Flowers,” Tanner mumbled. “That scent, I smelled it before . . .”

Found us. Az spun away from the table. “Close her wounds and get her ready for a transfusion—”

“I don’t have any blood here.” Cody cut through his words instantly. “I can’t—”

“Get her ready!” He yelled back at him. Az followed that floral scent out of the house. If he hadn’t been so intent on Jade, if the smell of her blood hadn’t filled his nostrils, then he would have already known.

Death stalked them.

Time for him to send Death running.

He shoved through the broken door and stood on the slanting porch with his legs braced apart and his arms loose at his sides. “Marna, I told you what would happen if I saw you again!”

An angel appeared in front of him. The angel’s long, black wings stretched toward the sky. But this wasn’t the delicate Marna. This . . . This was Bastion, an ancient Death Angel. An angel who’d been second only to Az.

“Where is she?” Bastion demanded as his wings lowered. His eyes, golden as the streets of heaven, penned Az.

Az didn’t move. “You’re not getting to her.”

Bastion’s eyes narrowed. Interesting. The angel had never shown any emotion before. Or . . . perhaps Az just hadn’t noticed the signs when he’d been in heaven. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to see them.

Because that would have meant that we were all weak.

“Your human should have left this world already,” Bastion said flatly. “Her name is in the book.”

The damn book. It had once belonged only to Azrael. Immense, magical, it contained the names of all the dying. Once a name appeared in the precious book, the soul would be collected within forty days.

There’d only been one soul to ever escape the collection. Only one. A vampiress.

But if one could escape, then the rules could be broken. “Jade is not going with you.”

Bastion shook his head. “You don’t want to fight with me.”

“Yes, I do.” And he tossed a ball of fire right at Bastion’s chest. Unprepared, the angel took the blast and flew back through the air.

Fire couldn’t kill an angel. The angels could control that element too well, but it could take them by surprise.

Bastion rose to his feet in an instant. “You would war with me?”

That wasn’t the option he’d prefer, but, yes. “It’s one soul.” There were thousands more to take. Millions. “You can stand to lose her, just this once.”

“You know that’s not how it works.” The flames lingering on Bastion’s skin vanished with a wave of his hand. “And you can’t stop me. You’re not an angel any longer. You’re not the one in charge upstairs. You can’t—”

“I’m Fallen.” Az jumped off the porch and reached in his back pocket for the bullet that he’d dug out of his own skin. He’d taken Jade’s gun earlier and tucked it into the back of his jeans. As he strode toward Bastion, Az loaded that single bullet into the weapon. “Being Fallen means I don’t have to play by the good rules any longer.”

Bastion smirked at the weapon. Smirked? The angel was playing with all kinds of emotions. Did he realize how dangerous that was? Did he even care?

“Bullets won’t hurt me. Have you lived with the humans too long? No weapon of man can kill an angel.” Bastion shook his head. “And your death touch won’t work on your own kind.”