Angel of Darkness (The Fallen #1)(77)

Her breath seemed to be freezing in her chest. “You’re telling me that Keenan can kill with a touch.” Her gaze fell to their hands. “That you can.” Then why are you touching me?

“If killing that way was what I wanted ...” His eyes glinted. “Yes.”

Good thing he didn’t seem to want it then.

“Sometimes the powers are locked deep inside, and you have to chip away at the locked box to get them out.”

Her stomach started to knot.

“Sometimes, you just need the right key to open that box.” His smile stretched. “You were a wonderful key.”

If he weren’t holding her hands in that unbreakable grip, she would have punched him then. Not the sweet move of a schoolteacher, but the hard right hook of a vamp who’d learned to fight dirty. “You’ve been using me.” Her eyes narrowed. “Just how did Mike find out where we were hiding?”

His smile dimmed a bit. “You think I led him to you?”

The hard suspicion in her gut said yes. “Didn’t you?”

His hold became harder. “I’m the one who helped Keenan find you in that cemetery.”

She realized he hadn’t answered her. Like Keenan, the guy couldn’t say just yes or no. “Angels can’t lie, but that doesn’t mean they have to tell the complete truth, right?” Cause there was a difference. “They can avoid answering the question or they can—they can just twist their words, twist the truth.”

He nodded. “I knew the first time I saw you that you’d be the key to making Keenan break.”

He’s getting lost in you. “I don’t want him to break.”

“Really? Don’t you want a little vengeance? Come on ...” His voice lowered. “It’s just us. Keenan’s upstairs, hating the world. He won’t know what you say.”

“Let go of my hands.”

He didn’t let go. “I mean, if he’d just moved faster, just touched that vamp who attacked you that night faster, you’d still have your nice, picket-fence life. Hell, maybe you’d even have met your prince charming and be getting ready to settle down.”

Her claws were coming out.

“But he didn’t move fast enough, did he? Because of him, you suffered and you changed and you lost everything you held dear.”

She would have lost it anyway. No matter what Keenan had done, there wouldn’t have been a prince charming or a picket fence for her. “I don’t want vengeance.”

He laughed. “Good thing vamps can lie, huh?” Finally, he dropped her hands, but he still stood between her and the door. “In order to stir his powers,” he said, “Keenan needed to let his emotions go. Angels don’t feel emotions, did you know that?”

She didn’t answer.

“So when they fall, they get slapped with them. The emotions are what strengthens us here, and what weakens us.” His head cocked. “To get Keenan to conjure and control his fire, he needed rage. He got that rage when your life was threatened.”

And in order for him to kill ...

“That’s right.” Sam’s eyes gleamed. “He just had to feel the killing fury. He needed to want to kill. When Big Mike attacked you ...” A soft laugh. “The only thing Keenan wanted was to kill.”

“Good for you.” She glared at the jerk. “You let the tiger out of his cage.”

“No, I let the Fallen loose. Or, rather, you did.”

“Because you set us up!” Everything—was it just a game to him? And why did it matter? “No wonder Keenan didn’t want me close. If he touches me, he’ll kill me.”

That shouldn’t have made her feel relieved. It should have terrified her. Made her shove Sam aside and haul ass for the door. But, no, she was there thinking ... He wants me to leave so he can’t hurt me.

Figured. That was her angel. No, her Fallen.

“He won’t kill you.”

She blinked. Sam sounded real sure of that.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Sam exhaled on a hard sigh. “I said he kills because when he touches, he wants to give death. When he touches you ...” One brow rose. “I bet death is the last thing he’s thinking about.”

Her teeth were burning. “I ... have to go.”

“To get blood?” He smiled at her. “Why go out? You can dine right here.”

“Keenan wasn’t exactly offering—”

“I am.”

That shocked her. “You’d trust me? At your throat?” Oh, no, wait, this game she understood. “When I touch you, will you kill me?” Because he was Fallen, just like Keenan. Only maybe he could kill at will. He’d been on the human plane longer, so perhaps he’d gotten total control over all his powers.

He smiled at her. “I promise not to kill if you promise not to bite too hard.”

Her eyes measured him. “Are you hitting on me?” Impossible. No way.

He moved in a blur—didn’t he always?—and grabbed her hand once more. “You’re still living.”

Her heart slammed into her chest.

“Trouble’s coming after us. Those coyotes will be howling at the door soon. If you’re going to listen to Keenan and run out of here ... which, by the way, I don’t recommend because they’ll just follow you and hunt you down eventually, so that idea pretty much f*cking sucks ...”