Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(67)

The cage swung back and forth.

Her hands knotted around the bars.

“He’d better not have hurt my hound.” Seline’s mutter reached Jade’s ears. “I owe your brother, so I let him in the ring with Beelzebub, but if Az hurt—”

Az shuffled into the room. A trail of blood followed him.

“Az!” Jade cried out.

His hands were on his stomach. Deep gashes covered his chest and arms. When he lifted his hands, Jade gasped at the sight of the deep wound that cut into his gut.

His gaze rose at the sound of her shocked breath. Blood trickled from his busted lip. “Don’t worry.” Despite his injuries, his voice was cool, even calm. “I got what we needed.”

Then he put his hand in the mess that was his stomach. He pulled out one thick claw. Another. Another.

Her knees wanted to buckle so Jade just held tighter to the bars in order to stay upright.

“Your pet broke a few nails,” Az told Seline as he dropped five heavy claws onto the floor.

Seline crept forward. “Did you—”

But she didn’t get to finish. Because a great, hulking black beast burst from those metal doors and headed right for Az’s back.

Jade yelled out a warning, but she knew it would come too late. The hellhound was a nightmare. Teeth barred, eyes burning like the fires of hell.

And there was nothing she could do. She was trapped. Az would die.

“No!” The scream seemed to break from her soul as her fury erupted. It burned hard and bright and washed right through her. As she fell to the floor of the cage, a ball of fire ripped out of her body and hurtled toward the beast. The fire slammed into the hound and stopped the monster just before it could reach Az.

Her breath heaved out. Oh, shit, had she just done that?

Demon.

Jade pushed up onto her knees. A wild smile lifted her lips. The hound was down. Az was safe. She’d used magic and—

And the beast was getting bigger. Right before her eyes, he doubled in size.

Sam’s brows lifted as he stared up at her. “Hellhounds like the fire, demon. You just made him stronger.”

The hound rose to its feet and rushed toward Az.





CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Jade was screaming his name. Fear tightened her beautiful face. She grabbed the cage’s bars as tears slid down her cheeks.

Az didn’t look away from her. Couldn’t. He put his hand up behind him.

Beelzebub whined, then licked him. The beast’s hot breath blew over Az’s skin.

“What the hell?” Sam muttered even as Seline said—

“You tamed the beast.” Her voice was dazed, but admiring.

“Not exactly a taming.” He pushed his hand into that thick fur. “I guess he decided he didn’t like the way I tasted, so he let me go.” Now he seemed to have a four-legged friend that he couldn’t shake.

And why was Jade up in a golden cage? Was she actually crying for him?

As he stared up at her, her hands slowly released the bars. She swiped at the tears on her face, and he saw the tremble in her fingertips.

“Beelzebub must have liked what he saw in your soul,” Seline said as she walked around him. Az glanced back in time to watch her fingers sink into the hound’s fur. “So no matter what you think about yourself, you really aren’t a heartless bastard.”

The hound pressed against her side. She bent and inspected the jagged remains of his claws. “Come with me, Beelzie,” she told him, voice crooning, “I’ll file those back into shape for you in no time.”

The hellhound followed her like a doting pup.

Az winced as the torn muscles and ligaments in his body began to mend. The blood had finally stopped gushing out of him. A good sign.

“I told you that your woman was a demon.” Sam sauntered toward him with his hands crossed over his chest. “And she’s got more than a bit of power in her.”

The cage swayed drunkenly above him. Az narrowed his eyes. “I don’t remember telling you to lock her up.”

“It was my way of keeping her safe.” A pause. “You’re welcome,” Sam said grandly.

Az grunted. He shouldered by Sam, but his brother reached out in a deceptively slow move and clasped his shoulder. “Is there a hybrid angel on the hunt you need to warn me about?”

Az glanced back toward Jade. There were no more tears from her. No emotion at all showed on her face. But the fear and desperation had been there before, and they’d seared him.

“I’ll take care of that guy.” Az’s words were a promise. “You don’t have to worry about him.”

“I worry any time there’s a being out there that can kill me.” Sam’s hold tightened on his shoulder. “You sure you’ve got him?”

Az turned his head and met Sam’s stare. “Get me a witch who can craft bullets out of those claws, and the shifter is as good as dead.”

One brow lifted. “Oh. Is that all you need?”

He nodded.

“Then consider it done, but, you should know, Mateo doesn’t work for free. There’ll be a cost.”

Ah, yes, Mateo. The magic man who had fought with Sam months before in Mexico. “There always is,” Az said.

With a nod of his head, Sam sauntered away. The guy was even whistling as he dodged the bloody trail Az had left behind.