Avenging Angel (The Fallen #4)(71)
Author: Cynthia Eden

And became the demon that he’d left bleeding in the backseat of that patrol car.

Vengeance is mine.

It would be so sweet.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Marna ran to Tanner and threw her arms around him. He felt so good—solid, warm, strong. “I was coming to find you.”

He lifted his head and gazed down into her face. “Like I was gonna let you go.” Then he kissed her. Deep and hot and she met him with a hungry need. Only Tanner. He was the only one who could make her feel this way. Free. Wild.

You’re on the list.

Marna pulled away from him. “We have to go.” Go where? She didn’t know. They just had to get out of the street. Get someplace safe. Away from the death that stalked her.

But Tanner wasn’t moving. And . . . had she heard gunshots? Or had that just been a car backfiring in the distance?

“Where is he?” Tanner demanded. “Where’s Bastion?”

He hadn’t come after her. She hoped he stayed away. “Gone.” She didn’t want to tell Tanner about the list. What was the point? So he’d get desperate and risk his life for her? If she was on the list . . .

No escape.

Marna grabbed Tanner’s hand and pulled him toward the building on the right. The big FOR SALE sign told her the place was empty, and with one kick, she sent the front door flying in. The house was dark inside, and all the furniture was gone. Hollow.

The way I feel without him.

“Marna—”

She pushed Tanner back against the wall. Kissed him. How much time did she have left? Couldn’t be long. No one ever lasted long once their name came up on the list.

She wanted her last moments to be with him. Happiness, before whatever hell was waiting for her came calling.

His hands were on her waist. Rough fingertips, but with a touch so gentle. His claws were out, but they didn’t so much as scratch her skin. They never did. He always treated her so carefully.

“Tanner!” She heard Cody’s voice as if from a distance. Footsteps pounded outside. She didn’t want to pull free from Tanner. Couldn’t they just stay together a little longer? And let the rest of the world disappear?

But Tanner was gently pushing her back. “He’s worried about you.”

Marna swallowed. She needed to tell him this. Too many humans had passed—at her hand—with unsaid words in their hearts. She didn’t want to go the same way. “I’ve been happy with you.”

A faint furrow appeared between his brows.

“I don’t want to leave you,” she whispered. But sometimes it wasn’t about what you wanted. It was about what fate had planned.

“Then don’t.” His eyes seemed to glow as his beast pushed ever closer. “Stay with me, forever.”

She wanted to. Wished that she could. But Marna couldn’t make a promise that she wouldn’t be able to keep. Her hand traced the hard edge of his jaw. “I love you.” She’d never said the words to another.

“Tanner!” Cody was shouting again. So close out in the street. He’d find them at any moment.

Why did that thought make her shiver?

“You what?” Tanner asked. Then a wide smile broke his face. “Baby, you know I’m f**king insane for you.”

She started to smile.

The door flew open and banged against the wall with a thud. Marna’s head turned, and she saw Cody standing in the doorway. His eyes found hers. Narrowed when he saw Tanner holding her so close.

And why was Cody holding a gun?

“I was worried, brother,” Cody said, taking a step closer to them. “You didn’t answer when I called.”

Tanner inhaled, and in a flash, he had Marna behind him. “You’re not my brother.”

Laughter from Cody. Had laughter ever been so cold?

“You’re not soaked in his blood this time,” Tanner snapped, “so I can smell you.”

“I’m not your brother.” An evil grin. “And you’re not the white knight who gets to live happily-fucking-ever-after with the lost angel.”

A gunshot blasted. Marna screamed. Tanner flinched.

“You don’t get to live at all,” Cody told him. Then he fired again. But Tanner was already leaping forward. The bullet tore into him, and he knocked the gun from Cody’s hands.

Tanner’s claws went for the guy’s throat. “You don’t . . . steal my brother’s . . . f-face.”

Tanner’s body slumped. Marna rushed toward the men and grabbed Tanner just before he hit the floor. Tanner looked up at her, and his pupils were pinpricks in his eyes. She’d never seen his skin look so ashen. “Tanner?”

Blood poured from his chest, and smoke drifted up from the wounds. But . . . silver wouldn’t take her shifter out like this. He was too strong.

“I stole his life, so why not his face?” More laughter. Cold and grating.

Tanner was trying to claw at his wounds in order to get the bullets out.

“I learned from my mistakes,” Cody said. No, not Cody. Who the hell was it? “Those bullets had enough tranq in them to take out an elephant. Much less a mangy shifter like him. Tranq and a dark witch’s magic.”

Marna surged to her feet. Her hands clenched at her sides. She stared at the man who thought he’d take Tanner away from her—and she let her fire rip right out at him.

He lifted his hand and waved the flames away. “You have to do better than that, angel—”

She grabbed for the gun that had dropped on the floor—and then she pointed the weapon right back at the jerk. In a flash, she had the barrel pressing against his chest. “I’m just getting started.”

She pulled the trigger as he screamed. The bullet blasted through him even as blood splattered around her. He fell back. His body twitched on the floor, trembling, and Marna aimed down at him, then fired again.

He stopped twitching. And he stopped being Cody.

As she watched, his features slowly changed. In death, shifters always resumed their human forms. She didn’t know what the hell this guy was—shifter, demon, angel—but he was changing back.

His shoulders narrowed. His body thinned. Bones snapped in his face. His cheeks became leaner.

Not a face of evil. Not a monster. A man she knew.

His eyes were closed, his body not moving—and he was Tanner’s partner. Jonathan was the monster who’d been after them. Jonathan.

He was also the man she’d just killed.

The scent of flowers teased her nose. Grim satisfaction filled her. A death angel would be coming to collect his soul soon.