Page 99 of Angel Of Darkness

His hand skimmed down her arm. Slowly, his warm fingers rose to her chest and pressed over her heart. “If she’s dead, then why do I feel her heart beating?”

“I’m not the same person anymore. The things I did—” Not just the killing. But with Connor…Don’t go there. Her eyes squeezed shut. “I’m not the same.”

The warmth of his hand seeped into her. “You couldn’t be the same and keep surviving.”

She cracked open her eyes.

“The bloodlust is always strongest at first.” He rose, pushing up to sit beside her. “I’ve seen it drive some crazy. They’d lose control and turn on anyone who came near.”

Nicole remembered that first, desperate hunger. The bite that she’d given the cop who’d come to her aid. “Yes.” She’d felt crazy then.

“You didn’t kill the cop you attacked.”

She shook her head. “It was a near thing. I couldn’t stop.” She never wanted to feel like that again. So hungry—the hunger an ache that burned her whole body.

“You did stop.”

Her lashes lifted fully. “Barely.” She wouldn’t let him think she was something that she wasn’t. “I didn’t have control. If I did, I wouldn’t have ever bitten him. I wouldn’t have listened to that voice in my head—I wouldn’t have killed.”

She had to get away from Keenan. His touch made her weak, and she was already weak enough. Nicole jumped from the bed. She yanked the sheet with her. “Angels are real.” She tossed that out at him and glanced back just in time to see him blink.

“Uh, yeah, we are.”

This was the part that scared her. “I knew that—I always knew that.” She’d been a good Catholic girl after all, before.

His head cocked as he watched her.

“Angels are real,” she said again. “And demons are real. That means after this life…” I already knew this. Always knew. Her knees locked. “After this life, there isn’t going to be any sunshine and paradise waiting for me.” Maybe if Keenan had taken her soul that long-ago night, but now—no.

He stared back at her. Didn’t deny her words.

She choked down the very real fear in her throat. “I want a chance to make it up.” She sounded crazy, but what else was new? “I don’t want Az to take me, not until I’ve had a chance to make it up.”

He climbed from the bed and didn’t bother covering with a sheet. “You can’t bring back the dead.”

He’d know.

A muscle flexed along his jaw. “And Az isn’t taking you anyplace.”

Nicole could only shake her head. “Why?”

Keenan frowned. Then blinked. “Because you’re not ready to go. You don’t want to go.”

“No.” Her head shook again, fast, as her hair whipped around her face. “Why does it matter to you? Why do you care what happens to me?”

He gave another slow blink, then replied, “I don’t know.”

Well, great. She turned away from him and grabbed for her clothes. Not like she’d expected some big declaration or anything. Keenan didn’t truly know her, he hadn’t?—

He fell for you.

Obviously, that was bull. She yanked on her panties and shoved into her bra.

“What I said, it angered you?”

Her lips pressed together as she snagged her jeans. Jeans he’d bought for her. “It confuses me.” Okay, that was a lie. Half-lie. He confused her and he made her damn angry.

She spun back to him, her shirt clutched in her hands. “You lost everything, you gave it all up, and you don’t even know why.”

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