Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(72)

When she climbed off the bike, Az took her hand. “Remember what I said,” he told her, voice soft. “Stay close. Mateo is very dangerous, very strong, and he doesn’t exactly play by the rules.”

There were rules? Why hadn’t anyone told her about them?

Stopping in front of the double doors, Az raised his fist and pounded. The fierce knock seemed to echo inside. Jade glanced over her shoulder, half-expecting to see Bastion lurking behind her. But she didn’t see anyone.

She looked back at Az. His body was tense, on alert, and she wondered just what—

The door opened with a groan. A tall, muscled guy in a black T-shirt and faded jeans cocked a brow at them. Tribal tattoos circled his shaved head. “I was wondering when you’d be on my doorstep, Fallen,” he said, with just the faintest hint of a Spanish accent. “You and your . . . querida.” His dark stare locked on her.

Az’s fingers tightened on her arm. Mateo’s gaze dropped, noting the movement. A faint smile curved his lips. “It’s like a sickness, isn’t it?”

“What?” Az frowned at him.

“Emotions. Once you start to feel them, they get inside and tear you apart.” The guy smiled. “They can slice deeper than anything, even a panther shifter’s claws.”

Chill bumps rose on Jade’s arms. “You know about Brandt.”

“There’s very little in this world I don’t know about.” He stepped back and motioned them inside. Once they entered, she expected him to immediately close the doors behind them. Instead, he stepped to the threshold and gazed out with that faint smile still on his lips. After a few moments, he looked back at her. “You’re a wanted woman.”

This guy was creeping her out. “So I hear.”

He bolted the doors and headed for a rickety staircase on the right. “Come.”

Jade glanced at Az. He shrugged and started following Mateo.

“There will be a fee, of course,” Mateo said without glancing back. The staircase squeaked as they headed upstairs. Nothing was on the bottom floor. Well, an old desk. Two chairs. Nothing else.

Mateo opened another door at the top of the stairs. This doorway led to an apartment, or at least what looked like an apartment. The whole place had been redone. Kitchen. Den. The room sported a giant flat-screen TV. Not what she’d expected. It just looked like any other guy’s bachelor pad. Had witches gone mainstream?

But Mateo walked past all that. He headed down a hallway. Opened yet another door.

Ah . . . and this was where the magic happened. She saw the carvings on the wall. The black and red chalk that had been drawn carefully on the floor. A black table sat in the middle of the room, and she could see the gleaming surface of a mirror resting on the top of that table. A mirror, and a knife.

“Been scrying lately?” Az asked, voice flat.

So Heather wasn’t the only one who liked to gaze into the future.

“Sometimes you need to know what’s coming.” Mateo stopped next to the table. His fingers were just inches from the knife. “You got to be prepared for the enemies who’ll be at your door.”

“We’re not your enemies!” Jade said, the words bursting from her. She reached for the small black bag she’d knotted at her hip. “We just . . . we need your help.”

“Sí, everyone needs something.”

Az took the bag from her and tossed it to Mateo. The witch caught it with one hand. “Had to bleed for these, didn’t you?” Mateo asked.

“It was a small price to pay.”

Mateo laughed. “So different now, aren’t you? Not like the angel I met before.”

Jade glanced between them.

“She thinks she knows you,” Mateo said to Az. “Thinks that she can trust you to be there for her in the end.”

Yeah, she was in the room. “She does,” Jade snapped.

Mateo’s dark eyes found hers. “But does she know that what you want the most in this world . . . is to leave this place? That you want to get away from the needs and lusts and emotions that swamp humans?”

Jade wouldn’t look away from Mateo. “I know I can count on Az.” She could. No doubt. From the first moment, when he’d come charging in to save her . . . no doubt.

No one had ever tried to save her before Az.

“He ruled in heaven, now he kills for you on earth.”

Wait, ruled?

“But death has always been his business,” Mateo continued, voice rolling lightly. “It is what he does best.”

Anger stirred inside of her. “He’s more than death.”

Mateo nodded. “And you . . . you are more than human.”

And there they went again. Was more demon talk coming?

Mateo opened the bag and pulled out the claws. His fingers traced over the razor-sharp edges. “So you think you’ll be able to take out the earthbound angel with these?”

Az stalked forward with a ripple of muscle and menace. “I think I’ll be able to take out the psycho killer on our trail.”

“Sammael’s woman was earthbound, too. When one form ended, she was just born again.”

Jade stepped to the edge of that table. The mirror’s surface wasn’t gleaming now. It was pitch black. “Brandt isn’t an angel.” More like a devil.