Page 145 of Angel Of Darkness

“Instead of dying while baiting a damn trap!” Sam growled as he looked ready to do some killing of his own. Probably because he was.

“They’d be alive.” A truth Nicole knew with certainty.

Az laughed. He threw back his head and laughed long and hard.

The laughter mixed with the sirens. Such loud sirens.

“I’m a ranking angel. One of the first created. I’m favored?—”

A burst of wind whipped through the alley. The wind grabbed Nicole’s hair and tossed it into her face.

And Az staggered back a step beneath the force of the gust.

“You real sure about that favored status?” Keenan asked.

Nicole saw the sudden pallor of Az’s skin. He tried to retreat, but Sam caught him and held tight.

“You’re not going anywhere, brother. Nowhere but hell,” Sam told him.

Az turned and his wings knocked into Sam and sent the Fallen hurtling back.

Then Az faced Nicole and Keenan once more. “You’ll both die,” he promised. “I saw it!” Then there were flames in his hand. Conjured flames that he threw right at them.

Keenan jumped in front of her and shielded Nicole with his body.

But the flames didn’t touch him. The flames didn’t touch anything or anyone.

That wind whipped again and the fire vanished.

This time, the laughter that rang out was Sam’s.

Nicole pushed Keenan to the side and saw that Sam was rising.

Az stared down at his hands. “How could?—”

“I think that’s a definite response,” Sam broke over his words, smirking. “Your ass isn’t favored anymore.”

Az’s body jerked, contorted, and flew five feet up in the air, as if he’d been yanked on a puppet string.

“Did you ever think...” Sam’s voice was pitched high to carry to the rising angel. “That Keenan didn’t fall because he was being punished?”

Keenan’s arm was around her, holding her close. She could feel the warmth of his body and the strength of his muscles. Safe.

Az was screaming, struggling, but rising higher and higher.

“Maybe…” Sam yelled to be heard over the howling wind and the sirens. “Just maybe Keenan fell because he was favored.”

Keenan stared up at Az. When he spoke, his voice was grim. “Beware, my friend, this will hurt.”

It looked like Az already was hurting. Was it wrong that his pain made her happy?

“I’ve heard,” Keenan called, still staring up at Az’s rapidly disappearing body, “it’s the fire that makes you scream the loudest.”

Az screamed again. A long, desperate cry that echoed through the streets. He shot upward and his wings flapped uselessly. Then he vanished.

“The fire won’t be all he has to worry about.” Sam turned to them with a shark’s smile. “Once his ass hits earth again, he’s mine.”

“No,” Keenan said, “for all that he’s done, I’ll?—”

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