Avenging Angel (The Fallen #4)(88)

Tanner inhaled, and in a flash, he had Marna behind him. “You’re not my brother.”

Laughter from Cody. Had laughter ever been so cold?

“You’re not soaked in his blood this time,” Tanner snapped, “so I can smell you.”

“I’m not your brother.” An evil grin. “And you’re not the white knight who gets to live happily-f*cking-ever-after with the lost angel.”

A gunshot blasted. Marna screamed. Tanner flinched.

“You don’t get to live at all,” Cody told him. Then he fired again. But Tanner was already leaping forward. The bullet tore into him, and he knocked the gun from Cody’s hands.

Tanner’s claws went for the guy’s throat. “You don’t . . . steal my brother’s . . . f-face.”

Tanner’s body slumped. Marna rushed toward the men and grabbed Tanner just before he hit the floor. Tanner looked up at her, and his pupils were pinpricks in his eyes. She’d never seen his skin look so ashen. “Tanner?”

Blood poured from his chest, and smoke drifted up from the wounds. But . . . silver wouldn’t take her shifter out like this. He was too strong.

“I stole his life, so why not his face?” More laughter. Cold and grating.

Tanner was trying to claw at his wounds in order to get the bullets out.

“I learned from my mistakes,” Cody said. No, not Cody. Who the hell was it? “Those bullets had enough tranq in them to take out an elephant. Much less a mangy shifter like him. Tranq and a dark witch’s magic.”

Marna surged to her feet. Her hands clenched at her sides. She stared at the man who thought he’d take Tanner away from her—and she let her fire rip right out at him.

He lifted his hand and waved the flames away. “You have to do better than that, angel—”

She grabbed for the gun that had dropped on the floor—and then she pointed the weapon right back at the jerk. In a flash, she had the barrel pressing against his chest. “I’m just getting started.”

She pulled the trigger as he screamed. The bullet blasted through him even as blood splattered around her. He fell back. His body twitched on the floor, trembling, and Marna aimed down at him, then fired again.

He stopped twitching. And he stopped being Cody.

As she watched, his features slowly changed. In death, shifters always resumed their human forms. She didn’t know what the hell this guy was—shifter, demon, angel—but he was changing back.

His shoulders narrowed. His body thinned. Bones snapped in his face. His cheeks became leaner.

Not a face of evil. Not a monster. A man she knew.

His eyes were closed, his body not moving—and he was Tanner’s partner. Jonathan was the monster who’d been after them. Jonathan.

He was also the man she’d just killed.

The scent of flowers teased her nose. Grim satisfaction filled her. A death angel would be coming to collect his soul soon.

One less monster in the world.

She turned back around to find her shifter. Tanner was still on the floor. His eyes were closed, and his breathing was labored. She knelt next to him. His claws were buried in his chest. He’d been trying to take out the last bullet. Swallowing, she guided his hand and used his claws to dig deeper into his flesh. Then she reached inside the wound, biting her lip to stop the trembling, and she found the bullet with her own shaking fingertips.

She pulled the bullet out. Dropped it. Marna took his face in her hands and smeared blood on his cheeks where she touched him. “It’s going to be okay,” she promised him. “He’s gone now. We’re both going to be—”

Laughter.

The cruelest sound she’d ever heard. Marna kept her hold on Tanner, but she turned her head so that she could see Jonathan’s body.

Only he wasn’t dead. Not even close. He sat up. Blood streamed down his chest, but Jonathan didn’t seem affected by the injuries. “You play dirty,” he told her.

She reached out and grabbed for the gun. Fired again. More blood. How many more bullets? And shouldn’t the tranqs knock him out, too? Why weren’t they working?

He rose to his feet.

The gun clicked. No more bullets.

“Seems being a hybrid has more than its share of advantages. Drugs don’t have an effect on me. They can’t knock me out—can’t even give me a damn buzz. And other wounds . . .” He touched his chest. Just that fast—not bleeding anymore. Not good. “They heal almost as fast as I get ’em.”

She had to find a weapon. The guy was a hybrid. Okay . . . so half human, half angel? Or half angel and half something else that would be really, really hard to kill?

When it came to angels, mortal weapons just wouldn’t do the trick. So she needed something strong enough to kill the guy, something not made by mortal means. Marna glanced down at Tanner’s hands. His claws hadn’t retracted. Not yet.

Those will do the trick. She just had to get the guy killing close.

“I can see your wings, you know,” Jonathan told her, his eyes at a point just over her shoulder. “The first time I saw you—and them—I knew just how perfect we’d be together.”

So he’d taken her face, Tanner’s face, Cody’s face . . . and killed. “We’re not going to be anything together.” She kept her hold on Tanner. Had his breathing changed or was that her imagination? Heal faster. Heal faster.