Angel of Darkness (21 page)

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Authors: Cynthia Eden

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

BOOK: Angel of Darkness
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They’d taken five steps when she heard the rustle of sound. Clothing. A scrape of wood.
She spun back around. Mike was on his feet, a stake in his left hand, and he was barreling for her again.
Crossing her path
.
Keenan tried to shove her back. No way. She shoved
him.
Keenan went down. Her arm came up, and she blocked the blow. The stake hovered in the air. Mike strained, trying to shove down and impale her heart.
“I’m not a killer,” she told him as the bloodlust burned and called her a liar. “But if you keep coming at me, I
will
fight back.”
“Good,” he spat. “Cause I’m not stoppin’. That was my brother, my flesh,
mine!
I’m not stoppin’ ’til yer rottin’ in the ground!”
Unfortunate. She really didn’t want to kill him because she’d promised herself she wouldn’t take another life.
But she wasn’t in the mood to die, either. No matter what death angel might be circling her.
“Come at me again,” her last warning to him, “and I’ll drain you dry.”
“
Just like you did Jeff?
”
Through gritted teeth, she managed, “Yes.” She yanked the stake from him and drove it into his shoulder. He howled as his blood flew into the air.
Keenan drove his fist into Mike’s face. That stopped the yelling and Mike joined his unconscious men on the ground.
Keenan met her stare, his eyes dark. “If you leave him alive, he’ll just come after you again.”
“Maybe.”
Probably.
“But I have to give him the chance.”
To walk away. Just walk away.
Yet with blood involved, would the guy walk? This wasn’t about pride, it was about family.
Vengeance.
He’ll come after me again.
And she’d have to kill him. But not now. Not tonight. The scent of flowers that thickened the air—the angel that was close—he’d have to wait on her prey.
“Maybe he’ll wake up smart.”
I could have killed you. I gave you a chance.
Give me one.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” she said. Before the guys on the ground woke up and before those sirens she heard got any closer.
Coming home again—bad mistake. There too many dangers to her in New Orleans.
But then, these days, it seemed like someone was always after her.
Because I’m marked for death?
Time was running out for her.
“Come on,” he said, and snagged her hand with his. She heard the crack of anger in his voice and hesitated.
He knows.
He knew about the darkness in her now. He’d realized she wasn’t the woman he’d watched before. While he’d been away, her bad side had most definitely come out to play.
“Hurry, Nicole,
come on!
” Then they were running, streaking down the streets and darting through the alleys. Bourbon Street came and went, the crowd a blur around her. Voices, laughter. Bodies brushing. Faster, faster they went as they pushed into bars, darted outside, and cut through the city.
Then ...
Silence.
They’d stopped outside a voodoo shop. The place was closed for the night. The windows and doors were covered with thick bars. The street was empty—everyone was busy partying a few blocks away. Nicole sagged, her breath heaving. Safe. For now.
“You killed.” The anger was back in Keenan’s voice. More reckoning time.
She brushed her hands against her thighs, sucked in more air, and managed a jerky nod.
“After what that vamp did to you in the alley ...” He shook his head and stared at her with confusion clear in his gaze. “
You killed someone else?
”
More than one “someone else.” She cleared her throat. “You know about the Borns.” She’d fought, for as long and as hard as she could. But he’d broken her. “They take away your will.” She’d been linked to Grim from the moment she took her first breath. She’d heard his whisper in her mind, taunting her, and as the days passed and she became weaker, that whisper had turned into a scream.
She paced away from Keenan. The heat of the night wrapped around her. The scent of the river teased her nose. “I didn’t want to kill.” She flung out the words. “Do you really think I could ever want that?”
She’d killed the vamp who attacked her, but that had been self-defense. No choice. And the others—
How long are you going to keep justifying?
She swallowed. “He put the compulsion to attack in my head. The men he sent me after—they’d been killing vamps.” Right, like that was such a bad thing. Most of the vamps she’d met had lived to torture and slaughter.
Grim had made sure that his Taken were just like him.
“You’d never killed ... not until that night.” Now Keenan sounded sad and his voice made her heart ache. “I knew—the first time I saw you in Mexico, I knew you looked different.”
Fangs. Claws. Seduction. Blood. Yes, she’d gotten some new features. Not exactly upgrades. “I had to change in order to survive.” She wouldn’t apologize for all that she’d done. The killings—yes, she regretted them and had vowed not to take another life, but the other things ... Seduction, blood drinking—
I had to survive.
His gaze raked her.
What did he see?
A monster? Or a woman?
“Wishing you’d touched me and let me die that night?” The question slipped from her lips, and, oh, damn, she hadn’t meant to say that. She’d been thinking it—for days now—but she hadn’t meant
to say it.
His eyes narrowed into chips of blue ice.
She spun around and began marching, um, running, down the street. She didn’t want to hear his answer. Didn’t want to know that the man who’d had her back these last few days actually wished that she was dead.
Enough people were already wishing that.
Hard hands caught her and hauled her back against a muscled chest. “
Never say that.
”
He whirled her around. His eyes didn’t look like ice anymore. Black now, not blue, and burning.
“Keenan, I—”
His mouth took hers. Not soft. Not gentle. No hesitant lover. Hard. Rough. The kiss was wild with need.
The fear in her heart pushed her to be wild, too. She grabbed his arms and pulled him closer. They stumbled back and her shoulders rapped into the wood of the nearby building.
She opened her mouth wider, sucking on his tongue, and taking everything she could get from him. His taste filled her mouth, had her arching against him.
He still wanted her. He knew what she’d become, and he wasn’t turning away. He was touching her, his hands greedy and possessive, stroking and caressing, and her angel wasn’t running.
Neither was she. Not now.
Even through their clothes, the hard length of his cock pushed against her sex. Aroused. Thick and strong.
She wanted him in her. Nicole didn’t care where they were. Didn’t care about anything right then—but him.
Need him. Want him.
His body. His blood. Oh, a taste of his blood would be heaven right then.
His hand shoved under her shirt. His fingers pushed under her bra. His thumb scraped across her nipple.
Yes.
“The building’s deserted.”
He was right; she didn’t hear any sounds from inside and—
Keenan stepped back, but kept a hold on her arm. “
I need you.
”
She was on fire for him.
He kicked open the door. One kick, and the wood flew inward. Then he pulled her inside. An empty space. No furniture, but walls, privacy and ...
He pushed her against the nearest wall. Keenan drove his tongue in her mouth and took.
His hands went to her ass and he jerked her up, pressing her hard to the thick bulge of his arousal.
She held him tight. Nicole pushed the worries and fears from her mind and just held him.
His fingers were at the waist of her jeans, yanking at the snap, and then shoving down the zipper.
Her inexperienced Fallen had her jeans down around her ankles in about two seconds, then her panties were gone and his fingers were pushing between her legs. Pushing up, rubbing, stroking her.
Nicole rose onto her toes as her body tightened.
Yes.
She loved the way he touched her. He already knew her body. Knew just what she liked. How she needed to be touched.
He dropped to his knees before her.
“Keenan ...”
He spread her thighs and she kicked the jeans away. His breath blew over her sex and she shivered.
Then his hands were pushing between her legs, and his long, broad fingers slid into her sex.
She jolted at the first touch, her body so sensitive that she almost climaxed.
“Not yet.” His growled order.
His fingers stroked her, plunging harder and deeper now. His thumb brushed over her clit and sent a pulse of electricity right through her body.
“
Beautiful.
”
Her hands clamped down on his shoulders. “Keenan ...” They shouldn’t be there—where was
there?
She’d never had sex in public, before vamp life or after, and this still counted as public to her and—
His mouth was on her sex. His tongue drove inside and her knees would have buckled if he hadn’t held her up with his tight grip.
She came quickly, a hard wave of release that whipped through her.
The aftershocks still trembled through her sex when he rose up and lifted her. His pants were open now. Oh, he moved fast. He caught her hips, lifted her against the wall, and drove his cock into her.
The pleasure pulsed.
His eyes were on hers as he thrust. Deep, driving thrusts. She licked her lips, fought back the hunger and clamped her inner muscles around him—the better to feel that slow, slick glide.
Her heart thudded in her chest, her breath heaved, and the tension rose again, higher, higher, as her body tightened.
Her hands were still on his shoulders, curling tightly around him, and she leaned forward, swiping her tongue over his throat. Her teeth scraped his neck, not breaking the skin, just—
He plunged deeper.
Her teeth pierced his flesh and the sweet drops of his blood spilled onto her tongue. Her control shattered.
Nicole climaxed again, drinking, taking his blood as she gulped that sweetness down greedily. He choked out her name as he drove faster, harder, even
wilder
.
This time, the climax wasn’t a snap. Or a pop. It was a full-on eruption that had her whole body trembling as the pleasure lashed her.
He stiffened against her. Nicole’s head lifted. His taste filled her mouth. His eyes—blacker than night—met hers. She felt the jet of his release inside her, the hot splash, and as she watched, she saw the shadow of black wings stretch behind him.
The air seemed to rustle around her as the wings moved. Her gasps filled the air, his fingers still cut into her hips, but as the pleasure faded, she could only stare at those wings.
Then she had to touch.
Slowly, her right hand eased down his shoulder. Her hand drifted down his back, and her fingertips stretched out.
She felt the lightest, softest silk. Just a whisper. Just—
Keenan shuddered against her. His head was bent now, and his mouth pressed to
her
throat. “What are you doing?” He rumbled, then his lips opened wider over her throat. His tongue stroked her flesh, and his cock began to thicken. “
Feels good.
”
It did. Because her fingers were tingling. “I’m ... touching your wings.”
He tore away from her, pulling that thickening flesh from her—
No.
—as he stared at her with stunned eyes. “What?”
She could still see them—big, dark wings. They seemed to come right from his back. She tried to step forward but her knees were doing a jiggle. “Your wings, I—”
“
I don’t have wings.
”
She hadn’t thought so either, but she nodded.
He spun, showing her his back. “They were burned off when I fell.”
She could see the angry red scars on his otherwise perfect back, but she could also see those dark shadows, rising up, covering him like a cloud. “I can
see
them.”

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