Page 95 of Angel Of Darkness

Az measured her with his gaze. “With all that you’ve done, are you worried about what the afterlife will hold for you, vampire?” He offered her a smile in return, and it wasn’t pretty. “I know why you were on the church steps that night,” Az murmured. “You would have gotten a free pass that night. Straight upstairs then, but now fate will be different for you.”

“Get out of here, Az!” Keenan snarled, his control fragmenting.

Az didn’t move.

“You wanted another chance, didn’t you?” Az asked. “But that’s not what you got, you got?—”

Keenan raced forward and plowed his fist into the angel’s jaw. The smash of bones and flesh felt good. Az flew back. The angel crashed through the door frame and stumbled outside.

“Guess what that is, buddy?” Keenan followed him out, and Nicole ran at their heels. “It’s called pain.” Time for the angel to start learning how humans lived.

Az picked himself up slowly. He lifted a hand to his jaw. His eyes blazed. “No—you can’t?—”

“I can see you.” Keenan stalked closer. “I can touch you. And if you try to come at me again—or send any of the others after us—I will kick your ass.”

Az’s jaw clenched. “You can’t.”

“Yes, well, until about five seconds ago, I’m guessing you didn’t even think I could deck you—clearly, you need to think again.” His hands clenched into fists. “The rules in this game are changing.”

“Because you say so? Who are you to judge?” Fire there, cracking through the ice of Az’s words. “You’re an angel whose wings burned. You were cast down to live in this hell!”

“Watch it,” Nicole warned. “I rather like this place.”

Az’s lips tightened.

“How does it feel?” Keenan pressed.

That blue stare cut to him.

Keenan smiled. “The anger is better than never feeling anything, isn’t it?”

Az’s wings folded down behind his back. Ah, his control was returning as that slight break in emotion vanished. “You don’t want me as an enemy.”

“No, Az, you don’t want me as one.” Keenan shrugged and opened his arms. “I’ve already fallen. What do I have to lose now?”

Wrong words.

Az’s stare immediately shifted to Nicole. “What indeed.”

Keenan lunged for Az.

But he moved too late. Wind whipped against his face as Az’s words floated in the air, “I’ll be seeing you, Keenan.”

The angel vanished.

But Keenan knew Az would be back. After all, angels never lied. They could twist the truth, confuse and beguile, but they couldn’t lie.

Neither could the Fallen.

If you try to come at me again—or send any of the others after us—I will kick your ass.

His words to Az had been a promise.

The sun beat down on Carlos Guerro as he sauntered across the New Orleans street. Sweat soaked his brow, but he didn’t care. He’d long grown used to the heat.

He was alone on this hunt. That was the way he wanted to be. The day he couldn’t kill a gang of humans on his own, well, that day wouldn’t happen. Ever.

He turned the corner and found the old bar just off Bourbon Street. The place was open now, of course, even though it was barely one o’clock in the afternoon.

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