Page 119 of Angel Betrayed

She stared down at the men. She could hear the laughter, but couldn’t understand their words. Their clothes were different. Old. Foreign.

Another time, another place.

But Death was there.

Seline saw Sammael leap from the sky. His wings—strong, black, so powerful—thrust behind him. The men were staring with wide eyes as they looked all around.

But they couldn’t see him. Not yet.

Then he touched the first man.

The man with the red hair screamed, and the sound chilled Seline’s blood. She’d never heard a cry filled with such terror. The redhead fell to the ground, his body frozen and his face twisted in agony. He was the first, but not the last. Far, far from the last.

Soon all the men could see Sam. They were staring at him. Pointing. Screaming.

He…laughed?

More men fell. He cut right through them. Killed, touched, until none were left living.

When the dead littered the ground at his feet, Sammael tilted back his head, stared up at the heavens, and smiled.

More.

“Seline!” Sam’s roar yanked her back to the present just as he pulled her away from Azrael. She realized that only a moment had passed. Barely a second.

It had felt like an eternity.

Sammael put his body between her and Az. “What the fuck did you do, Az?”

“Relax,” Az returned, voice tight. “She’s completely unharmed. You know the touch doesn’t work on those with angel blood. Most of the demons who run on this earth have blood so diluted, it doesn’t matter, but she’s fresh.”

Her hands were shaking. Seline stared at Sam’s back and saw the shadow of his wings.

And when he fired a fast glance over his shoulder, she saw his rage. Seline rose to her toes and craned to see over his strong back so she could glare at Az.

“I just wanted her to see exactly who you are.” Az crossed his arms over his chest. “She thinks that she wants you? Well, she needs to know just what it is that she wants.”

Az’s voice grated in her ears.

Sam must have thought the jerk’s voice grated, too, because he slammed his fist into Az’s face to shut him up. “Don’t fucking touch her!”

“Why?” Az hadn’t moved. Blood streamed from his nose. “Because you didn’t want her to know just what you were? Didn’t want her to see how much you enjoy a kill?” In a flash, Az was beside her. “Those men weren’t marked for death. He decided to kill them, and he did.”

Sam growled. No other word for it. He growled. “They had murdered a village. Slaughtered the children. Raped the women, then killed them when they were done. And you wanted—what? For me to turn the other cheek? Hell, no. Death for death. Eye for—” He broke off, seeming to finally realize just what Az had said before. “See?” he repeated quietly, and his gaze found Seline’s. “He…showed you?”

Not just rage in his voice now. Fear.

She lifted her hand toward him. The slight edge of cruelty was still on his face. It would probably always be there, in the curl of his lip and the hardness of his eyes. But he was more than cruelty and rage. So much more. Why hadn’t she seen that in the beginning?

“Can you really trust him?” Az murmured, like the devil whispering in her ear. “Don’t you want to leave him? Now’s your chance, succubus. Run. I’ll hold him back. Get your freedom.”

Sam flinched.

Very, very slowly, Seline turned her head to meet Az’s stare. “I trust him with my life. And you can just go and fuck off.”

The ceiling trembled above them. Cracks raced across the sagging tiles.

“You should have run when you had the chance,” Az told her with what looked to be a sad shake of his head. “Now we’ll all?—”

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