On the Prowl (Bad Things #2)(45)

Coughing a bit, Rayce said. “Yes, there was an…altercation.”

Leo’s face hardened. “I don’t have time for this crap. Get the vamp in here, let’s break the compulsion, then we are going after the angel.”

“Jeez, man, I get that you want your girlfriend back, but chill out.” Rayce shook his head. “Despite what Julian here may have led you to believe, you can’t go around thinking with your dick.”

“She isn’t my girlfriend,” Leo snapped. “Lila is an angel. Don’t you get what that even means? She’s never known pain. Never known hate. Never known rage.”

Rayce’s face went dark. “Good f*cking deal for her. Maybe she’s long overdue then—”

“No!” Leo roared. “She’s never known them because she’d feel them too intensely. A thousand times worse than what it would be like for a human—a hundred times worse than what it would be like for someone like you.” His shoulders sagged. “It will break her. Splinter her mind. Drain who she is until all that she has is the darkness of that pain. She will be lost, and when an angel is lost…” He licked his lips. “The whole world suffers for it.”

Silence.

Julian’s gaze slid to the doorway. He’d heard Rose coming down the hallway. He’d been tuned to her even as Leo spoke.

“Well…from the sound of things…” Rose squared her shoulders. “It seems we have an angel to save.”

“An angel, a muse, and who the hell knows what else.” Julian didn’t move toward Rose.

“Sounds like the start of a really bad joke,” Rayce cut in. “An angel, a muse, and a werewolf walk into a bar—”

“This isn’t a joke!” Leo bellowed. “She’s dying. Lila will lose her wings and then there will be no going back. I get that you two don’t care about her pain.” He cast a dismissive glance toward Julian and Rayce. “But what about you?” Leo stared at Rose. “Don’t you care that an innocent is suffering? You’ve been imprisoned before. You’ve been tortured. How can you just let another woman suffer that way?”

Julian saw the sympathy fill Rose’s eyes. “I can’t,” she said. “I will help them. I swear—”

“Rose—” Julian thundered.

Too late.

Leo grabbed her hand. “Deal. A promise is a promise.” A faint light appeared above their joined hands. Julian knew exactly what that light meant. A sealed deal.

Rose pulled back her hand and stared down at her palm. “What just happened?”

“You made a deal,” Leo told her. “You promised to help.”

Rayce surged to her side. “And you promised nothing to her! What in the hell kind of deal is that supposed to be?”

But Leo’s gaze cut to Julian. “Not true. I’ve already promised plenty.” He nodded, once, hard, as if satisfied, then he turned his stare back to Rose. “Now, go give the human your blood. Break her compulsion tie and get her to tell us what’s happening next.”

“Please,” Rose muttered.

Leo frowned at her.

“You can at least say please instead of bossing everyone around. It makes you look a lot less like an *.” She headed toward the woman on the couch. Rose brought her hand to her mouth and bit into her wrist. For a moment, her gaze darted toward Julian, and he knew she was remembering all that they’d just done.

He clenched his jaw when her gaze darted away. She put her hand to the lady’s mouth, forcing her to drink.

“So how long will this take?” Leo demanded, impatience written on his face. “Because we need to know—”

“What does Simon have planned?” Rose asked as she stared into the other woman’s eyes. “Tell me.”

“Uh, her name is Keri,” Rayce offered helpfully. “We learned that already. You know, before that deep compulsion reared its ugly head and she tried to slice open Leo. Not that I blame her, not even a little bit.”

Leo glared at him. “We are going to have issues.”

“We already do.”

Rose seemed to ignore them as she focused on the woman before her. “Tell me, Keri,” she encouraged. “Tell me what Simon Lorne is going to do.”

Keri’s expression had gone slack. “Your guards will be unconscious.” Her voice was slow, husky. “Either they killed me when they saw me…or they let me pass, thinking I was just a lost human.”

Rayce started pacing. “This is why humans can’t be trusted.” He pointed to Leo. “You think they’re these innocent lambs. They aren’t.”

“I was to shoot them,” Keri continued quietly. “Give them the tranq. Then shoot you. When you were all out, I was going to wait for Simon to come for us.”

Julian saw a trickle of blood slide down from Rose’s wrist.

Rose lifted a brow. “Can’t help but note…Simon isn’t here. Were you supposed to call him?”

Keri nodded. “I called him from the boat. Radioed him when I saw you on the beach.”

“Then why isn’t he already storming the island?” Rose shook her head. Her brow crinkled. “He must have seen something…something that made him hesitate. He had to rethink his little master plan and—” She whirled and pointed her index finger at Leo. “He saw you.”