Page 135 of Angel Of Darkness

Her gaze dropped to the floor and measured that distance between them again. Yep. Two perfect feet. “You can kill me.”

He smiled.

Bastard. He could kill her, so why wasn’t he? Why was he waiting for her to die?

Because angels had to follow orders. They didn’t pick the moment of death. They had to wait and follow the rules and touch only when it was time.

“No,” Nicole breathed out the word and took a step closer to Az as the understanding crystallized. “You have the power to kill with a touch, but you can’t kill me. Not yet, anyway. Because you have to follow your orders, right, Az?” Another good soldier boy.

A muscle flexed along his clenched jaw.

“You can’t touch me, not until it’s time. You can’t kill me, not until it’s time.” Her claws were coming out, and her teeth were sharp and ready. “You might want to hurt me?—”

He took a step back. “I-I don’t!”

Bullshit. “Right. You expect me to believe you don’t want some payback after I took one of your precious angels away?”

She caught the flicker of his eyelashes. Ah…a telling sign. Nicole nodded. “I’m the one who took him. Me. Keenan fell.” She let her own smile curve and knew that it would reveal her fangs. “He fell for me. A vampire. A parasite. And he doesn’t want to go back with you.”

“You will destroy him.” Stark.

This was the being who wasn’t supposed to feel? Maybe all the angels were boiling with emotions and getting ready to explode. “Are you worried?” Nicole asked him. “Because it seems like maybe you aren’t the perfect angel anymore, either.”

“I never was.”

That stopped her.

His wings were still spread wide. His hands were fisted at his sides. “Do you care for him, vampire?”

“Yes.” Absolute truth.

His head tilted. “How much?”

She stared back at him, her brows pulling low. What is he doing now?

“Do you care enough to trade your life?” A brief pause. “Because that’s what he did for you. He gave up everything he had. He burned as he fell. Keenan crawled through hell, just so he could come to you.”

Hell?

“So I ask again, what would you do for him?”

She realized the shouting from downstairs had stopped. Too quiet. Her heart seemed to freeze in her chest. She ran across the room and saw a big black bag near the nightstand. She yanked it open and found her clothes. All of her clothes had been brought over from Keenan’s place—Sam had known she’d be back. She yanked out the clothes, and she found her gun nestled inside. Thank you, Sam.

“Would you fight for him?” Az pressed. “Kill?”

“Yes,” Nicole answered without hesitation as her fingers curled around the base of a gun. The same gun she’d taken from that vamp feeding room in San Antonio. Got the silver this time, asshole.

“Would you die for him?”

Anger boiled in her blood as she whirled back to Az. “I don’t know what kind of sick game you think you’re playing with me, but it’s over.”

His gaze didn’t so much as drop to the gun. Right, because why would he fear a gun? He wouldn’t, but Carlos should fear the silver bullets that were still inside.

Az watched her with his bright gaze. “We both know Carlos isn’t hunting you. It’s Keenan’s blood he wants because he believes an angel’s blood will give him power. So I ask yet again...” His voice seemed to whisper through her, “Would you die for him?”

That silence was too thick. Her hand tightened on the gun. There were only a few bullets left.

“Angels can die,” Az told her, still in that whisper that sent chills over her. “Everyone can die, and believe me, vamp, you won’t both survive the night.”

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