Page 42 of Angel's Vengeance

But his battle cry ate up her words in a trail of fire as his wings spread wide and he bolted for the charmer still firing pepper bullets.Neela risked a glance at the other demon and immediately went queasy when nothing remained of him except a pile of steaming ash.

Then a low ominous hum drowned out the jovial music pumping out through the arcade, creating the singular soundtrack of her nightmares.

A portal.

Neela threw herself behind a bench and watched in horror as three more charmers poured out of the blazing circle of magic.Their gaits were slow, smooth, prowling, as if they were late to a party that had been on their calendars for weeks.Two had gold bands hugging their necks, while the third one, the largest, had three.

Two elite charmers.One apex.

“Shit,” she whispered through gritted teeth.Rhode had sensed the same party guests joining them, apparently.When he turned from the other charmer, who was still screaming with his lips stretched wide and eyelids peeled back as blue angel fire licked up half his body, no more fire adorned the angel’s frame.

But there were wings—wings and metal.Rhodium armor coated every inch of his body.

The apex was the first to charge forward, followed by the two elite.

No!

Decision made, Neela waited for the distracting sounds of their boots hitting the pavement before she scurried through the back door into the arcade.Thankfully, most of the smoke had cleared out, and after a few stumbling strides, she located the air hockey table where their coats hung limply over the edge.She tossed her white puffer aside and rooted around Rhode’s wool trench for any bladed and bulleted thing, all of which were infused with his angel fire.When she came away with a haul of things she’d never heard of but never wanted to know intimately, she filled her arms and ran back to the door.

The sight that awaited her was one she’d never forget.

Rhode’s chest, still gleaming the silvery-white of his metal, was a horrific cross-hatching of brutal slashes.His fine silk shirt had been shredded from his body.Blood oozed from intersecting angles as his muscles strained with each press and release of strength.As before in the mechanic’s parking lot, his wings whipped violently in circling arcs, slashing at the two elite charmers who continued to get their blades into Rhode’s sides, despite taking hits of their own.

The apex, for all his eager arrogance, stood by and watched, arms folded across his barrel chest, golden eyes tracking all three players.

It was almost as if he was ...No, that couldn’t be right.Was he ...bored?Like the dude was waiting for the table before him to finish their meal so he could enjoy the seats they’d kept warm?

Or so he could pick off the parts that only the butcher knew were the best cuts of meat.

“Fuck.That.”Neela dropped the weapons at her feet, picked the closest one, a small pistol of some kind, and started firing off shots.

Not at the charmers Rhode was actively battling—she wasn’t that skilled or stupid—but at the apex.For all the bastard’s magic, he was just as susceptible to angel fire as the rest of them.Fatally so.

The flaming bullet sank into his thigh.The apex grunted with the impact, then started to growl and drew the attention of the other two.

Her distraction worked.Good thing, too, because that was about all the excitement she had in her.

Neela crouched beneath the failing strength of her adrenaline, and her palms hit the blacktop.“Rhode!Now!”

Flaming opal eyes whipped to hers, and a shadow of recognition passed between the two of them.His metal was brittle, but his waning fire wasn’t.

Rhode’s chest heaved with a great roar.Blood trickled down the sides of his armored face where new slashes had penetrated his metal.Then a surging blast of blue flames skated over the tips of his wings, and he whirled.With a swift spin, his wings sliced through the necks of each elite, leaving his angel fire to incinerate the rest of the trembling bodies as they fell to the ground in spasming heaps.

Hot tears pricked her eyes as they connected with Rhode’s.Through the smoke stiffening her cheeks and the ash permeating the cooler air, she smiled stupidly wide.So wide it hurt.

Rhode didn’t reciprocate, but neither did he look away.His flames had sputtered out, and his rhodium armor faded to flesh, but God, he was a mess, streaked with blood and sweat and charred stuff she didn’t want to think about too closely.Great heavy breaths filled his full chest and inflated his lower abdominals, forcing the muscles into sharper angles to contrast the deep grooves at his hips and weeping gashes at his sides.

But he was still breathing and staring at her as if, at any moment, she would peter out like the very flames that had just saved them.Like, if he didn’t get to her, there would be no hope of resuscitation.

A final slice of sunlight caught Neela in the eye before taking the rest of the rays with it as the star sank below the horizon.She slowly sat back on her heels, shifting a bit when her knee hit something sharp, and held her arms out to Rhode in invitation.“We did it.”

Just as the corner of his lips started to lift in a relieved smile, they fell back into their familiar grim line.Then a frown.Then opened with a roar.Opal flames seemed to light his eyes, but that couldn’t be.He’d just spent all his angel fire.Why would?—

A creeping pain crawled up her knee, scraping a trail of gnawing agony along the only part of her leg uncovered by her dress or boots.

“Neela!”Rhode ate up the ground separating them.When he reached her, he gripped her shoulders and settled her onto his lap while he grabbed the pistol she’d dropped and aimed it in the direction of the apex.One shot went off, then another.A grunt, followed by the familiar crackle of combusting flames.

But that couldn’t be.She’d already shot the guy with an angel fire bullet.He should be dead, if not close to it.

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