Angel in Chains (34 page)

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Authors: Cynthia Eden

Tags: #Romance, #Fiction, #Paranormal, #General

BOOK: Angel in Chains
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Slowly, Sam inclined his head.
“Now why don’t we get started cleaning up this place?” Jade asked, and Az saw her nose wrinkle. “Because, no offense, but it really smells like piss in here.”
Piss. Ash. Hell. Whatever.
Seline laughed a bit as she agreed with Jade. She came closer, and Jade lifted her eyes to the ceiling as she said, “While we’re doing the cleaning, tell me we get to ditch that cage . . .”
The cage, though blackened with soot, still swung from the ceiling.
Seline looped her arm with Jade’s. “Oh, no,” she told her as they walked away. “I’m rather fond of it.” She glanced back and winked at Sam.
Sam’s face softened as he gazed after her. But when he turned back to Az, tension spread lines near his mouth and eyes. “Fate . . .” He sighed. “You should know better than to think that it can be totally changed.” His voice was pitched low so that the women wouldn’t overhear his words.
Yet fate
had
changed.
“Jade was meant to die last night.” Sam jerked a hand through his hair. “How long do you think you’re going to be able to keep her by your side?”
Forever. Az’s stare darted to the left. Found Jade. “I told you, fate changed.” He paused and turned his focus back to Sam. “
I
changed.”
Sam studied him in silence. What was he seeing? The shell Az had been before? Or the man he was becoming?
Then his brother nodded and offered his hand.
Az stared at Sam’s extended palm. He’d been the one who sat in judgment when Sam had been banished from heaven. He’d watched as his brother fell, and he’d fought not to show any emotion.
“You were always stronger than me,” Az confessed.
Sam frowned. His hand began to lower.
Az didn’t take the hand. He grabbed his brother and held tight. The brother he’d lost centuries ago. The brother he’d found again. “I’m sorry.”
He should have fought for Sam that long-ago day. He’d make damn sure he always fought for him now.
The wall he’d kept around his heart was gone. Battered away by Jade. Now he felt—so much.
But Sam had frozen against him. Az stepped back. Stared right into eyes so like his own. Sam had been his only family. The one closest to him, until that bitter day that had burned a divide between them. Burned as surely as Sammael’s wings had burned away.
“You were the better angel,” Sam said slowly, softly. “I could never follow the rules.”
No, he hadn’t followed those rules. And nearly a whole army had been killed by his fury.
But . . .
“Some of those rules are shit,” Az admitted.
Sam laughed, a sputter of surprise, and so did Az. He laughed and felt . . . free.
Strange. An angel without wings had finally found his happiness, and it was with a family standing in a burned-out club on one of the wildest streets in New Orleans.
Jade glanced over at him. He couldn’t miss the love in her eyes.
He realized then just how lucky he was. Once, Sam had told him that angels weren’t always pushed out of heaven because they’d done something wrong. Sometimes, they lost heaven as a reward.
Because they were offered something . . . more.
He saw that
more
in Jade’s eyes.
Thank you.
He sent the silent thought out and knew that it would be heard by the one that mattered.
All he’d needed to do was experience a little fall in order to find his paradise.
 
As the last streaks of darkness slid from the sky, Az walked out onto Jade’s balcony. The sun would be up soon. He could already see the faint streaks of red—like blood—sliding across the horizon.
He stared at the darkness and quietly called, “Bastion.”
Az knew the angel would come. He’d caught Bastion’s scent several times that night.
A rustle of wings, then Bastion appeared beside him. The angel was frowning. Ah . . . Bastion had better be careful. He was showing more and more emotions lately.
Soon he might find himself walking with humans.
“I have an offer for you,” Bastion said with a dramatic air.
At that, Az lifted a brow. Maybe it was too late already. The guy almost
sounded
human.
Az glanced toward the open balcony door. The white curtains billowed in the breeze. “What kind of offer?”
“You can come back.”
His hands tightened around the railing. “Says who?”
“The angels in charge.”
But they weren’t really in charge.
“I’ve earned redemption?” Az knew he sounded doubtful. “How?”
“You . . . ah . . . haven’t earned redemption.”
He frowned.
Right, thought so.
“But some think you might be perfect for a new position that is becoming available.” Bastion paused and cleared his throat. “The punishment angels need a leader. After the way you dispatched Brandt—a being tainted by evil who possessed our own powers—you seem the first choice for the job.”
Az didn’t speak.
“You’ll get your wings back. Your full powers. You’ll even have an army of angels at your beck and call again.”
His gaze returned to that open balcony door. “What happens to Jade?” Az asked quietly.
“Ah . . . well . . .” Bastion exhaled. “Nothing.”
Az looked at him and waited for more.
“She’s off the books. Your Jade isn’t slated to meet her end for a
very
long time.” Bastion shrugged. “Seems someone gave her a direct dose of angel blood,” his lips curved lightly, “so she has a very
un
-human-like life expectancy now.”
The tightness in Az’s chest eased.
“You can come home tonight. Ditch this world and be free again.”
He had his freedom.
“I only wish Marna could come, too.” Bastion’s gaze turned toward the empty street below them. “But she is lost.”
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.
Bastion’s wings stretched behind him. “Let’s leave so that we can—”
“No.”
Bastion’s wings froze. “Uh, I’m offering you a chance to return through the gates. For power, for—”
“I’m not leaving.” He wasn’t even tempted.
He could see Bastion struggling to understand. “For . . . her?”
Az nodded and stared silently back at the angel.
“You’d trade all that heaven can give, for a human?” Bastion seemed both shocked and horrified.
Az still didn’t speak. What was there to say? Heaven had given him his human. He needed nothing more.
A muscle flexed along Bastion’s jaw. “Fine. But know that the offer won’t be made again. You’ll be chained here, forever.”
Promises, promises.
Bastion turned away.
“You should be careful,” Az had to tell him. He felt it was only right to offer the warning. After all, he’d almost killed the guy. Amends had to be made some way.
Bastion hesitated and spared him a fuming glance.
Ah, there it was again.
“When you let the emotions get to you too much, the lure of the earth will become too strong.”
“I
won’t
fall.”
How many angels had said that?
He’d
said that. “We all have temptations.”
“I know my duty. I won’t—”
“You’re already weakened, and you don’t even realize it.” How could the angel be so blind?
He’s blind, just like I was.
“The rage got to me first,” Az admitted. “The fury about things I couldn’t control.”
Like Sam falling.
Innocents dying.
The guilty sliding away from the punishment angels.
Fury had been his weakness. It was also Bastion’s. “You’re enraged over Marna. That rage is burning in your gut right now.”
“You know
nothing
!” Bastion snapped at him.
“I know the sound of emotions when I hear them.” He’d warned the angel. The rest would be up to Bastion. “Be careful.”
“I don’t need care. I don’t need—”
“I once told Sam that it was the fire that would make him scream the loudest when he fell.” The fire that burned away an angel’s wings and stole so much of his magic.
Fear flickered in Bastion’s eyes. He rose into the air. “I won’t fall.” His wings carried him higher. “I
won’t.
”
He was already on the path to a fall. The angel just didn’t realize it yet.
“Watch out for the burn,” Az whispered. Because he could see it coming. “It’ll make you scream.”
The angel vanished.
Az didn’t leave his post on the balcony. He waited for Jade to come and join him. He’d known she was there all along. No way to miss that sweet scent.
The curtains rustled once more.
“You . . . you can call him back.” Jade’s voice was hushed.
“Why would I do that?”
“So
you
can get home.” She came toward him with the softest whisper of sound as her bare feet slid across the balcony. “So you can get your wings back. So you can—”
He turned and caught her hands. “Spend the rest of my life missing you?”
Her gaze searched his.
“No. I’m where I want to be.” Jazz music drifted up the street. “Where I’m
meant
to be.” With her.
The world wasn’t a safe place. It was brutal and hard and filled with evil . . . and good.
Angels weren’t just needed in heaven. They needed to be here. Protecting the ones that they loved. Fighting to hold a balance between good and evil on earth.
“I’m glad to hear that,” Jade said and her full lips tilted into a smile, a smile that was echoed in her eyes. “Because following your butt into heaven wouldn’t have been easy.”
His own eyes widened. Would she have truly—
Yes.
He could see the answer in her gaze. Jade would have gone with him anywhere.
Fair enough. He would gladly follow her even through the gates of hell.
“Now I can stop worrying about trying to grow my own wings,” she teased as her arms wrapped around him. “That was not going to be an easy job, let me tell you . . .”
The sun was rising. The darkness gone at last.
“You don’t need wings.” Az pulled her closer.
“Damn right I don’t.” She licked her lips and rose onto her toes. “And neither do you. I want you, I love you, just the way you are.”
As he bent his head toward her, Az realized that if he had to do it all over again . . .
He’d fall, in an instant.
Just to be with her.
Some things in this world were worth dying for, but there were far more—
far more—
things that were actually worth living for.
He’d always live for Jade.
He kissed her and knew that he was home.
Did you miss the first two books in Cynthia’s FALLEN series?
Angel of Darkness
He Fell for Her
Nicole St. James was a nice woman. An innocent, pretty, twentysomething schoolteacher with her life ahead of her. But as the angel of death, it’s Keenan’s job to take that life away. So when a vampire attacks Nicole, Keenan is not supposed to snap and take out the vampire instead. It cost him his wings—but she’s worth it.
 
Except when Keenan catches up to his pretty schoolteacher, she’s not so innocent anymore. Hot red lipstick, tight black shorts, and long white fangs—she’s ready to kick the asses of anyone who helped turn her into a damn bloodsucker. Unless that ass is unusually shapely and attached to a certain fallen angel. Even with all of heaven and half of hell after them, someone will have to teach Keenan about the fun kinds of sin. . . .
Angel Betrayed
A Little Bit of Angel Lust
Sammael—call him Sam—was an angel once. An angel of Death. But the dispassionate, watch-from-above thing just wasn’t working for him when it meant watching evil torture innocent souls day in and day out. It might have cost him his wings, but these days he gets to apply the direct method on the bad guys. Problem is, what’s making his life difficult is a bad girl.
 
Seline O’Shaw needs protection, and with the hounds of hell on her tail, she’s not going to quibble too hard about where she gets it. Sam’s virtue is questionable, but he’s smoking hot, massively powerful, and owes her a favor. So what if she’s getting a little case of angel lust? There are some damn deadly sins after her hide. . . .

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