Avenging Angel (The Fallen #4)(55)

His eyes were too bright. His words too strong. He seemed satisfied. Almost eager. Did Bastion want to take Tanner’s soul?

Yes.

“Come on, Tanner, fight. Shift again for me.” Cody’s desperate voice.

Because a shift would give Tanner strength. That was the way it worked for the shifters. That was how they got their power. Their strength came from the beast.

She’d already seen just how strong and dangerous Tanner’s beast could be.

Bastion sighed softly. His wings moved with a faint rustle of sound. “He’s too weak to shift. He’ll die soon, and I’ll take him.”

And she’d be alone again. Marna glanced back down at Tanner. She held him cradled in her arms. So big. So powerful. So . . . still.

“What can I do?” Her own voice came out sounding broken.

“Nothing,” was Bastion’s answer.

But Cody, his hands bloody and still pushing against Tanner’s chest to apply pressure to the terrible wound, looked up at her. “What would you do?”

To save him? “Anything.”

Bastion lunged at her. He caught her chin in his hand and made her look up at him. “He’s a killer.”

He was also the only man who’d ever made her feel like she was more than an instrument of death.

Cody grabbed the knife blade that had been in Tanner’s chest. He wiped off the weapon on his pants, smearing red. “Bleed for him.”

Marna jerked her chin from Bastion’s hold and looked at Cody. “What?”

He reached for her wrist. Did he realize how close he was to touching Bastion? No, you never knew the danger of a death angel. Not until it was too late.

“There’s nothing more powerful than angel blood. It has magic in it. So much magic.” He licked his lips and gripped the knife blade with a tight fist. “I’ve seen it even bring a woman back from the dead.”

Her heart slammed into her chest. Could it be possible?

“No.” Bastion’s order. “I won’t allow you to—”

He’d been her friend once. Her confidant. But now . . . “Sorry, Bastion, but I don’t take orders from you anymore.”

“We had to do a transfusion on her, she was human.” Cody was talking fast. Rushing out his words in a jumble. “But Tanner . . . he can just drink the blood. The panther drinks blood and it gives him power.”

Okay, the drinking blood part definitely had her stomach clenching, but she’d done that bit with the vampire. She could do it for Tanner.

No, she would do it for Tanner. “Cut me,” she told Cody.

But a blast of powerful wind slammed into the demon and tossed him a good ten feet. The knife fell from his fingers.

“This isn’t the way—” Bastion began.

“Screw the way,” Marna snapped back at him and dove for the knife. She grabbed it, sliced open her lower arm, and forced the blood to Tanner’s lips.

“Wh-what?” Bastion’s stunned voice. “You can’t do this!”

Watch me.

Tanner tried to turn away from her. “N-no, won’t . . . take—”

“You’ll take everything I want to give.” Her voice hardened. “And you will live.” She didn’t want to stare down at his chest. She’d glimpsed the twisted mess before, and she wouldn’t look again.

Too much pain.

“Make him take it!” Cody yelled.

She was. Tanner’s mouth slowly opened beneath the pressure of her hand. She felt the lick of his tongue on her flesh.

Don’t think about what he’s doing. She’d forced herself not to feel, not to move, when Riley had fed from her. She could do the same now.

Only . . .

Not Riley.

Tanner’s mouth felt different. His eyes opened as he took her blood and his gaze seemed to burn right through her. She could actually see him getting stronger with every second that passed.

It was working. Cody had been right. Tanner would survive. This was all he needed. He’d—

Bastion grabbed her and yanked her back. His hold was fierce, punishing.

Painful. But Bastion had never hurt her before. He’d—

“You dare to give your blood to him? To try and save him?” Disgust tightened his tone. He lifted her up as his hands clenched around her upper arms with bruising strength. “First you f*ck him, and now you feed him?”

Horror filling her, Marna tried to break free, but there was no give in his arms. He shook her, and her head snapped back.

“You let him touch you—”

“She did a lot more than that.” Tanner’s voice. Only it wasn’t weak or trembling. Strong. Determined. Furious.

He was back.

Bastion’s eyes widened, and he glanced to the left just in time to get a hard punch to the face. Bones crunched, and Bastion fell back, freeing her.

Tanner reached for her instantly. His chest was still bloody. The flesh and muscles were torn, but he was on his feet—naked, muscled—and lines of fury marked his face. Fury that was directed at Bastion.

Tanner’s fingers slid over Marna’s arms and rubbed lightly over the marks that Bastion had left on her.

And Bastion—he was raising his hand to his nose and touching the blood that dripped down his face. “Wh-what—”