Page 82 of Angel Of Darkness

“Since before you took your first soul. Right.” Now Sam looked bored. “Az owes me. Payback can be a bitch.” A mocking smile tilted his lips. “Or in this case, a vampire.”

The guy was weird.

A faint odor began to fill the room. Metallic, harsh—gasoline.

A soft whoosh hit her ears, and she spun back toward the door. Fire.

“Huh. I didn’t expect that,” Sam muttered. “Pity. I was so looking forward to tomorrow night’s dance.”

What?

The smoke seeped through the doorway.

“You got enemies, other than Az?” Sam asked as he headed for the nearest wall. He punched it with his fist and the bricks crumbled. “Because it sure looks like someone is gunning for you—or your vamp.” Then he was pushing through the loose bricks and heading into the dark.

“Dammit, Sam!” Keenan yelled. “Wait!”

But waiting in a burning building wasn’t a good idea. Especially when you knew you were living on borrowed time anyway. Nicole locked her fingers with Keenan’s. “Come on!”

They’d just reached that broken wall when she heard?—

“Help me!”

The smoke was already filling her lungs and trying to choke her. The smoke wouldn’t kill her, it couldn’t. But the fire sure could.

Keenan hesitated. His gaze met hers.

“Keenan...” Nicole said.

Another desperate scream rose above that crackling fire. A woman’s scream.

Nicole turned back to the doorway. She wouldn’t leave someone trapped in that fiery hell.

Keenan grabbed her and threw her out of the building. As she flew through that rough opening, the bricks scraped over her arms and legs. Nicole hit the cement outside hard enough to make her whole body shudder. When she looked up, Keenan wasn’t there.

Because he’d gone back into the flames.

“Some angels just never learn.” Sam’s voice floated to her, rising easily above the fire and the shouts from those fleeing the building.

She pushed to her feet.

“You can’t save everyone.” Sam wasn’t moving. He was just standing there and staring at the fire. “Sometimes, you can’t even save yourself.”

Screw him. Sometimes, you could save someone.

Her hands slapped against the brick wall.

“You’ll burn if you go in there.” His quiet warning.

“I’m not leaving Keenan on his own.” He hadn’t left her. And that woman in there—screaming—been there, done that. She knew too well what it was like to be screaming for help that didn’t come.

Help is coming.

“Nice sentiment.” And somehow, Sam was right beside her now. No, behind her. His hand stroked down her arm and sent goose bumps over her skin as that weird little electric shock vibrated through her. “But I can’t let you save him.”

The electric shock became a painful burn. One that fired right to her heart.

She opened her mouth to scream.

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