Angel in Chains (The Fallen #3)(44)
Author: Cynthia Eden

“Go!” He told the other two, because tension already held his body tight. Minutes were trickling by. Brandt would be coming closer.

Tanner and Cody vanished into the trees. They’d protect Marna. Az just hoped she didn’t wind up killing them for their trouble.

“We need to make sure that Brandt has a scent to follow,” he said. “You’re the one he wants, so he’ll ignore everyone else and focus just on your trail.”

Jade nodded, then turned and started running deeper into the woods. He stayed right on her trail. Running with her, keeping close, but not trying to mask her scent in any way.

Then they broke through the bush. She stood gasping at the edge of the thick, green bayou water. “Now . . . what?”

They’d run far enough to lead Brandt on a nice chase. Az caught her hand. Pulled her close. He’d never tried this with another person. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” No hesitation.

“Then hold on.” He tightened his arms around her.

And they vanished.

When Jade opened her eyes, the whole world was spinning. She stumbled away from Az and nearly fell to the ground. The guy’s reflexes were superfast though, and he caught her right before she could slam into the earth.

“Easy,” he whispered against her ear. “It’ll take your body a few minutes to adjust.”

Adjust to what? Nausea welled in her stomach, and she had to crouch, putting her head between her knees. “What just . . . happened?”

“We moved very, very fast.”

Blinking, she glanced back up. The bayou was gone. They stood just a few feet from an arching cypress tree. Not just any cypress. She remembered staring up at this tree as she struggled to live.

Azrael paced away from her. He bent and studied the ground. She saw his shoulders tense.

The ground seemed to shake beneath her feet.

Jade sucked in a deep breath. Then another. She followed him on shaky legs, and saw the bloody black feathers on the earth. The feathers were far too big to belong to a bird.

Come with me, Jade. It’s time for you to rest. She remembered the words, whispering through her mind, though she hadn’t told Az about them. She remembered the words and the angel who’d appeared.

Marna.

But Marna had never touched her. If the angel had, Jade knew she wouldn’t be there.

“Where’s his camp?” Az asked as he kept gazing at those feathers. “Where’s the hole that the bastard retreated to after he sliced her apart?”

Az glanced up then and she went very still. His eyes weren’t blue now. They were demon black.

And the rage in them stole her breath.

“Where would he go?” Az stalked toward her. “You know him. Know how he thinks. Where would the bastard set up his base?”

Close by. Jade stiffened her shaky knees as she pointed. “Probably across the water.” She knew this area. Now that the fog was gone, she recognized the place because she’d visited it in her youth. “They could have gone over on motorboats. From what I remember, there used to be a campsite over there. Lots of abandoned buildings.”

Az straightened and strode to the twisting pier. Gators slowly glided in the water.

She could just make out the old campsite. “He won’t have left the place undefended,” she told him. “He’s too smart for that. He’s hunting, but he’ll have left a trap behind. Left men behind.”

“I was counting on that.”

The deadly promise in his voice made chills rise on her arms. This Az . . . he was different. From the moment he’d found Marna in those woods, a coldness had crept over him.

“Let’s see how fast they die,” he whispered even as he snagged her wrist. There was no warning this time. Just the wild rush of wind. The feel of a thousand skeletal hands on her body, and in the next instant, they were across the water. On the shore.

And she knew Az was about to hunt.

They’d appeared right in the middle of the area, less than two feet from a lounging shifter. When he saw them, the guy let out a startled grunt and jumped toward them with his claws up. Az wrapped his hand around the guy’s throat and lifted him into the air. “I want the witch,” Az ordered.

The shifter swiped out with his claws. Blood poured from Az’s shoulder.

Az just smiled.

That smile chilled her. This wasn’t the Az she’d come to know. This guy—he was something altogether different.

With his left hand, he broke the shifter’s wrist. Shattered bones.

“You’re dying,” Az told him. “It’s just a question of. . . how painful do you want that death to be?”

A faint glow appeared beneath Az’s hand as it gripped the shifter’s throat. Smoke began to rise from the panther’s skin as he convulsed.

“You can burn,” Az told him, “from the inside out.”

And he was.

“Az . . .” Jade lifted her own hand, then hesitated when the shifter started to speak.

“T-to the left. Th-third building. Witch’s—th-there . . .” The words ended in a choked gurgle as the shifter fell to the ground. His body was still smoking, but his eyes were open, and staring at nothing.

Jade turned away and glanced to the left. She saw the shadowy bodies of two more shifters coming toward her. Only they weren’t attacking as men. They were rushing forward on the silent paws of panthers. She opened her mouth to cry out a warning.

There was no chance to warn Az. No chance, and no need. A ball of fire flew from his fingertips and headed for the pouncing panthers. One cried out, a high, keening sound, and flew to the right. The flames slammed into the second beast. He fell to the ground and immediately began rolling as he fought to put out the flames. His fur vanished as he lost the body of the beast, and the man’s flesh burned as he transformed.

The other panther rose. Faced Az.

Az began to stalk toward him.

Okay, fine, so he had this. She’d take care of the witch. Maybe she’d even get some payback herself because it wasn’t like she’d ever forget that woman shoving the knife into her chest.

Jade raced behind Az. Counted the buildings. One. Two. Thr—

She kicked in the door. “Okay, witch, I’m—”

Heather was tied to the bed. Blood pooled all around her. The witch’s face had been sliced. Her body clawed. There was blood. So much blood. Yet she still lived.

How?

Jade swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat. Heather’s head had turned when the door flew open, and her dazed eyes locked on Jade.