Page 67 of Angel Betrayed

“You’re sixteen, you’re making out, and then your boyfriend almost stops breathing.” Like that wouldn’t scar a girl. It had sure messed her up. “Rogziel told me how close I came to killing Patrick. I didn’t mean to hurt him. I didn’t even know then that I could kill someone that way.”

Killing with a kiss. At sixteen, she’d learned just what kind of a monster she was.

Sam was silent. Just…waiting. So Seline kept talking to fill that void. She’d never liked silence. It made the ghosts that surrounded her seem too loud. “At first, Rogziel was furious. I went to him for help.” A sad laugh slipped from her lips. “I didn’t have anyone else to turn to.”

His hand tangled in her hair. “You do now.”

Sam’s fierce vow brought her eyes to him. She wanted to believe him, wanted to so badly, especially with his body warming hers, but what would happen when the danger was gone? She wouldn’t have him at her side anymore.

No, then she’d have her freedom.

“Tell me the rest,” he growled.

She’d never told anyone before, but it just seemed right to tell him. “A few years later, Rogziel realized just how very useful I could be. When he wanted to get close to one of his marks, he let me do the dirty work for him.” She hadn’t fucked the men. Did that matter? She’d seduced, she’d charmed, but she’d never actually had sex with the marks that were her assignments. She’d never crossed that line.

Until Sam.

“Was the story about Moorecroft real?” No emotion hinted in his voice, and his hand still tangled in her hair.

She nodded and felt the tug against his wrist. “All of it. I killed his friend.” No choice. The bastard had almost broken her jaw. If she’d been a human, he would’ve shattered it. “When he has a chance, Moorecroft truly will be coming after me.”

“I don’t think so,” Sam murmured, and slowly released her hair.

She blinked and felt an ache in her chest. He doesn’t believe me. The first time she’d ever tried to bare her soul, and Sam thought she was playing him. “It’s true, I swear! Philip Drew was an asshole who used his fists on women every chance he got. When I wouldn’t have sex with him, he started hitting me.” And for a mortal, he’d been incredibly strong. Once again, her backup—Alex—hadn’t come to her aid. “Philip had me on the ground. He kept hitting my face and kicking me with his steel-toed boots. The bastard broke two of my ribs.” She’d been coughing up blood.

“Then it’s a good fucking thing he’s dead.” A lethal softness had entered Sam’s voice. “He’s dead, and now his buddy Moorecroft has joined him in the grave.”

It took a moment for his words to register. “What? Moorecroft is dead? How?—”

“Someone stabbed him with a shiv in his cell block.” His gaze glinted. “I guess he pissed off the wrong demon.”

Or the wrong fallen angel—one who had connections to the demons in Moorecroft’s prison block. She was quickly realizing that the so-called heavenly beings could be more dangerous than any Other on earth.

“So don’t worry about Moorecroft coming after you. He won’t be hurting you, or any other woman, ever again.”

Seline couldn’t look away from him. There was so much darkness around him. Tonight, she felt that darkness more than ever before. “Do you ever want to go back?” Probably not what she should have asked, but the question just slipped out. “Do you want to trade what you’ve become and go back to what you were?”

“I’ve delivered death my entire life. Moorecroft was just another in a chain for me.”

But that just sounded sad and wrong. “Don’t you want more than death?” Didn’t everyone? She sure did.

His fingers slid down the curve of her shoulder. “We can’t always have what we want.”

“Sometimes, we can.”

His hand tightened on her. “I tried for the mortal bit. Tried love, once upon a time.”

Now why was she feeling a hard spike of jealousy? Because I want him. “What happened?”

“When she found out what I truly was, she tried to kill me.”

“I’m sorry.” The words seemed trite. And she sure seemed to be saying them a lot. Her lips pressed together.

“When she couldn’t kill me, Helena brought in the rest of the town. They spent hours stabbing, slicing, and burning me. ”

Yes, she could see where he might be turned off the whole love thing.

“She’d loved me one day, and the next, she wanted to send me to hell.” No expression flickered on his face.

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