Page 139 of Angel Of Darkness

And while she ran, the bloody woman kept clinging so tightly to him. She was shaking, and—and laughing?

“Kill her,” she breathed, and she lifted her head to reveal the smile on her bloodstained lips. “He’ll k-kill the bitch.”

Fury had him shoving her away. Her head whipped back with the sharp push. “What are you talking about?” Keenan barked.

But she just kept laughing, and he realized he’d forgotten a lesson he’d learned so long ago. Humans lied. They often lied very, very well.

She smiled at him—smiled right through the blood. A willing sacrifice. “She’ll be dead,” she told him, the blood dripping down her body, “long before you can even get to her?—”

He didn’t hear the rest. He was already racing to the alley and roaring Nicole’s name.

When he saw her, the present and the past blurred. She was on the ground, fighting, struggling. But not with a vampire. With a fully shifted coyote. The coyote’s teeth were in her shoulder, and she was pushing her arms between their bodies as she tried to pry him off her.

No, not pry him off her. She was wedging something between them. Something small and black and?—

The explosion shook the alley. The blast of gunfire echoed in the night.

The coyote fell off her. The fur began to melt from his body.

She lifted her gun, aimed, and fired once more.

The animal’s body jerked. Not really an animal anymore. A man now. Naked. Hurting. The man twisted and cried out in pain as he bled out on the stone beneath him.

Nicole rose. Her eyes darted to Keenan. “This time,” she told him quietly, “I was ready.”

“Sil...ver!” Carlos’s furious yell. “F-fucking bitch...silver!”

“Good thing we stopped by that feeding room in Texas.”

The feeding room. He hadn’t even realized she’d kept the gun.

“I’ve got one bullet left.” Nicole stood over Carlos. The gun pointed right down at his chest, and her hand was perfectly steady. “That one’s for your heart.”

His body writhed. Keenan knew Carlos couldn’t shift back with the silver in him. Carlos clawed at his flesh as he tried to pull the bullets out.

“Why did you want him so much?” Nicole asked. “Why didn’t you just stay away? Leave us alone?”

Carlos threw one bullet into the gutter. “Fuck you!”

The second bullet was deep in his chest, but Carlos was digging for it. He ripped and tore into flesh and muscle.

“Nicole!” Keenan rushed forward. “End it!” She should know better than to play with the hunter.

“Why here?” she demanded. “Damn you, why pick here? Why this alley?”

The coyote shifter’s breath rasped out. The minute Carlos got that second bullet out, Keenan knew he’d shift.

“Because he wanted...” Carlos licked the blood from his lips. “To fuck...with your mind.”

Then he smiled, a smile as wild as the beast he carried, and Keenan knew the shifter had found the second bullet.

Behind the shifter, Keenan saw the shadows thicken. He heard the soft rush of wings.

Time for death.

Nicole fired and the bullet drove into Carlos’s heart. The shifter fell back, eyes wide. Not dead, not yet. Still struggling to breathe, the shifter fought hard to hold on. But death was coming. Walking right there with his arms outstretched.

Az stalked from those shadows. His face was tight and remorseless. The shifter was gasping, choking as he labored to live. Shifters didn’t always die as easily as they should. The beasts inside fought hard for survival.

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