He stared down at her, lost, angry. She
hurt,
and her pain made him furious.
“You know”—her voice was husky, and her eyes so dark—“what I need to heal.”
He knew how to heal a succubus, yes, but . . .
“Kiss me?” she whispered.
Bracing his arms on either side of her head, he brushed his lips across hers. Light. Soft.
“No.”
Her growl. “I need . . . more.”
His lips pressed against hers again. Her mouth parted for him, and his tongue swept inside to meet hers. Wet. Warm. She moaned and he stilled, afraid it was a cry of pain. He began to pull back.
Then her hips lifted and pushed against his. She caught his bottom lip between her teeth and gave him a light bite.
His cock hardened.
Want her. Need . . .
“I’m not human,” she whispered, and already her voice sounded stronger.
Just from a kiss?
“
This
is what I need.” A pause. “You’re what I need.” Stark.
Sam didn’t have to be told twice. He kissed her again. Her breasts pushed against his chest, and he could feel the tight press of her nipples. He hadn’t removed her sexy black bra, but he wanted the lace gone. He wanted her nipple in his mouth, and he wanted to know that her moans were from pleasure.
But he put a stranglehold on his lust, and instead of stripping her, he took his time with her mouth. Sam stroked with his tongue and his lips, savoring her taste. Her hips arched more, her hands rose to clutch him, and she kissed him back with a raw hunger that had the lust blazing hotter. Her body was soft temptation beneath him, and the need within him deepened with every moment that passed.
Then her fingers pushed between them, easing along his chest.
Both
of her hands. But her right arm had been burned . . .
He pulled back instantly.
Her skin had taken on the faintest of glows. Her eyes were pitch-black, her lips plump and wet.
“Seline, your arm . . .” He glanced down. The blisters were already gone. The skin still appeared a dark red, but the flesh looked unblemished now.
“I’m a fast healer,” she told him quietly, “with the right power.” Her gaze met his. “And you,” she told him, licking her lips as if she were still tasting him, “you’ve got more power than any
Other
I’ve ever met.”
Because he was far more dangerous than any
Other
she’d met.
But he kept his hands light and easy on her as he stroked her body. “Do you want me to stop?” She’d be all right now. Even without more power from him, she wasn’t in danger any longer. He’d given her enough power to heal.
Sam knew his control wouldn’t last much longer, not with her body pressed so intimately to his and her taste on his tongue.
She shook her head, and the heavy mass of her hair brushed back over her shoulders. “No . . .” Her fingers seemed to burn through his shirt. “I want more.”
Those words were all he needed to hear. In an instant, his clothes were gone and her fingers were pressing against his bare skin. Lust pumped through him as he kissed her and touched her. He’d learn every inch of her body and have one fucking fine time as he did.
He tossed her bra away and glimpsed her dark pink nipples. She’d stripped on the stage of Temptation, but she’d been so careful, hiding her body just as she revealed a sliver of flesh. He hadn’t seen her breasts then, just the sweet curve of her stomach and the long length of her legs.
Want her. Take her.
He’d been furious that others had been around that night in Temptation. Normally, he could care less who saw the dancers, but Seline was different.
Then she’d danced again . . . He actually had knocked out two demons and a shifter that second night. They’d gotten too close to the stage—no, too close to her. And if anyone had been going to touch her . . .
It would have been me.
Not some dumbasses who were still probably nursing the bruises he’d given them.
“Sam?”
Take.
He liked the way she said his name. A whisper of sex in the darkness.
Now there was no one else to watch. Rage and hunger twisted within him, and Sam took the woman he wanted enough to walk through flames.
His mouth became harder on hers. Her breath came faster, and the frantic thunder of her heart raced against him.
Want more.
Sam kissed a trail down her throat. Over her collarbone. His lips closed over her nipple.
Sweet.
So very sweet. He licked and he sucked and he enjoyed the quick rise of her hips against his.
As he tasted her, his fingers slipped between her legs. Her thighs were parted, but a thin scrap of silk covered her sex. He stroked her through her panties, and the soft fabric quickly dampened with her arousal.
Her skin had taken on a light glow, and Sam knew she was absorbing the sensual energy he generated. Yet he didn’t feel any kind of drain.
Instead, he just felt . . . hungrier, for her.
Her nails scored down his chest, and he growled low in his throat.
“You don’t have to be careful with me,” she whispered. “Not now.”
Good because his control was fading, fast.
So he slid down her body. Shoved her thighs farther apart and ripped her panties away. Then Sam put his mouth on her.
She gasped out his name and pushed her hips harder against him even as her fingers sank into his hair. He worked his tongue against her clit, loving the richer taste of her and the way her body shuddered against his.
When the first orgasm hit her, he felt the ripple against his mouth.
And he kept tasting her.
When the second orgasm built, rising quickly and tensing her body, he rose above her. He guided his cock to her wet entrance, pushed inside—
Her legs wrapped around him. Long, smooth. Her gaze met his—so black but burning with need.
His cock rested just inside her body, her heat and cream coating the head of his aroused flesh. The glow had deepened on her skin, and she looked so beautiful that it almost hurt to stare at her.
Her tongue swiped over her lips, and he plunged balls-deep inside her.
The bed creaked beneath him as he thrust. Deeper, harder. She met him with eager lifts of her body. Fighting with him as they raced for the climax.
Their mouths met. She took his breath. Gave him hers, even as her sex clamped around him.
She came with a fast release that rippled along his cock. He drove into her again, lifting her legs so that he could go even deeper into her tight sex.
Her nails dug into the sheets. He heard fabric tear.
The air seemed to crackle with energy. Still he thrust. Wanting more of her. Wanting to take and take . . .
Bodies met. Flesh to flesh. The scent of sex drifted in the air. Her power, his, filled the room.
Sam thrust hard once more, felt the silken caress of her flesh, and exploded. The climax wiped through him, seeming to burn his body from the inside out, but this time, the fire felt
good.
Better than good.
Pleasure blasted through him, and he held on to Seline tighter than he’d ever held on to anyone or anything in his life.
And he knew . . .
More.
For him and Seline, this would be just the beginning of the pleasure to come.
Sam began to thrust again.
The flames were out. The warehouse smoldered but the fire no longer lit the sky. Rogziel stared at those drifting plumes of smoke.
Seline hadn’t perished in the fire.
Pity. It would have made things easier on him.
But she’d escaped and so had that bastard Fallen, Azrael.
“I know she took the keys from me,” Alex snapped behind him. The human, always so impatient and so certain of what he
knew.
In reality, humans knew very little in this world.
And Alex knew only what Rogziel told him. Rogziel glanced at his guard dog, because that’s all Alex was. A dog that he used to hunt his prey.
Humans did have some uses. Pity they weren’t more durable.
“She hit me,” Alex said, rubbing the back of his neck. Was he still complaining about that bump? The guy acted like he’d never known pain.
When pain could be such a wonderful companion.
“She hit me,” Alex said again, his face hardening, “and then she took my keys. She helped that freak escape!”
Angels weren’t freaks. The faintest hum of what
could
have been anger moved beneath Rogziel’s flesh, but then the feeling faded. Feelings always faded for him.
Angels weren’t supposed to experience emotions. They only had duties, no desires.
His duty was to punish the wicked.
Azrael was wicked. Sammael had sinned too many times to count, and little Seline . . .
Now you’ve betrayed me.
And after all he’d done for her. Years spent—wasted—trying to save her immortal soul, only to have her give in the first time she was tempted by a Fallen.
He’d expected her to hold out a bit longer. Her mother hadn’t caved in so easily.
No matter. The choices had been made. Now he’d have to punish her, too.
“Seline’s gone.” Alex’s voice roughed with the fury Rogziel knew humans carried so often. “And the watchers you put on Sunrise can’t find a trace of Sammael.”
Now Rogziel’s eyebrows lifted. “You think Seline was working with him?”
“I think Sammael saw a chance to bust out one of his brethren, and he took it.”
But Alex didn’t understand. Sammael wouldn’t have wanted to free Azrael. Based on what Rogziel knew, Sammael would want to kill his brother. Perhaps torture him,
then
kill him, but not help Azrael. Never that. Sammael wasn’t the forgiving sort.
Another sin to lay at his feet.
But Rogziel began to understand as his gaze drifted back to the warehouse ruins.
Sam, did you underestimate your brother again?
Azrael wasn’t easy pickings, even if he was still a fresh Fallen.
Azrael—Az—they’d once been friends, as close as angels could be to friends, but Rogziel still planned to punish the Fallen. He always did his duty.
Az’s time would come,
after
Rogziel took care of Sam. Sam had been on his list for centuries, but he was so strong that getting to him hadn’t been easy. Luckily, the situation had now changed.
Good thing I have the right bait.
Sam wouldn’t even realize what was happening, not until it was too late.
No one could escape hell. Not Az, not Seline, and not Sam—and not any
Other
who thought they could escape him.
Rogziel would make certain of it.
Time for them to pay. Judgment was at hand.
C
HAPTER
F
IVE
S
eline’s breath choked in her lungs. Her skin was so sensitive that just the touch of the sheet against her had her tensing.
Sam lay beside her, but she could still feel him all along the length of her body. Inside and out.
Oh, boy.
She was in trouble. Serious trouble. Her wounds had healed, her power scale was about to rocket through the roof, but she was so scared in that moment that her stomach knotted.
Didn’t expect that.
It hadn’t been just sex. She’d had sex before. Sex didn’t make you so hungry and wild that you just wanted to take and take and take until you could barely breathe, much less move.
That was—
addiction.
Everyone knew demons had a problem with addiction. Even a half-breed like her understood just how deadly an addiction could be.
Never suspected a Fallen would be my drug of choice.
Fate sure liked to play games.
“Why . . .” Her voice came out sounding rather like a frog’s croak.
Way to be a sexy succubus.
She cleared her throat and tried again. “Why did you save me?”
He’d had the chance. If he wanted to attack Az, he could have gone after the Fallen and left her to the flames.
And where the hell had that fire come from?
The sprinklers on the ceiling hadn’t kicked on, and the flames had actually seemed to be zeroing in on her.
“Because I know what the fire feels like.” He turned away from her. Her hands clenched into fists, and her nails bit into her palms as she fought the urge to reach out to him.
She could play this cool, maybe. Not like it was her first after-sex scene. Just her first after-really-awesome-nearly-knock-me-out-sex scene.
He rose from the bed. Naked, strong, those muscles flexing with his movements. What a fine ass. Totally biteable. The scars on his back were dark, still appearing a light red even after all this time, and she had the strangest urge to . . . lick them.
Next time.
“I thought . . .” She sucked in a breath and tasted him. “I thought you said you were here to watch the world burn.”
Sam glanced back at her, and his blue eyes glinted. “You’re not the world.”
No, she was just one half-breed succubus who was in way over her head. She pulled the sheet up to her chest. “Az got away.”
“Azrael won’t get far.” A promise reflected in that deadly tone. “The bastard can run, but I will find him.”
She didn’t doubt him.
Azrael.
Right, so that was the guy’s full name.
His eyes hardened as he stared at her. “But you won’t come between us again.”
Not like I planned to get in the middle of a fire—or a war between Fallen.
“Stay here as long as you want.” Sam waved his hand, dressed in a flash with that magic of his, and headed for the door.
It took three seconds too long for her to realize that the guy was actually leaving her, naked, in his bed. “Wait!”
Yeah, this had never happened to her before. Men didn’t usually leave a succubus. Beg for more, check. Offer anything for a chance to have her again. Right, been there, done that a time or two.
But walk away without a backward glance? That was just insulting.
And he truly wasn’t even looking back at her. His shoulders were tense, and his hand was on the doorknob.
“Where are you going?” She jumped out of the bed and realized that her knees felt a little wobbly, even as power had her skin flushing.
Sex with Sam had been very, very good for her. But since the guy was hightailing it out of there, maybe it hadn’t been so great for him.
Then why had he been so eager for follow-up rounds?
Seline kept her chin up even as she secured a sheet around her body, toga-style.
“Hunting.” Flat. He wrenched open the door. “And I’m doing it alone.”
Not like she’d volunteered to go after the big, bad fire-starting angel with him. But . . . “That’s it?” Why did her voice sound so lost? Oh, this was not good. Not the way for a confident succubus to act.
I’ve never been that confident.
“You’re just leaving?” She sucked at after-sex dialogue because she couldn’t pull off the whole I’m-a-succubus-and-I-don’t-care bit.
Maybe I’m too much like my mother.
Her mother had cared too much. If Erina had cared less, she’d still be alive, and Seline never would have been born.
Her spine straightened. Sam still wasn’t looking at her. Screw that. She lunged forward and grabbed his arm. She spun him back around and
made
him look at her. “We have amazing sex and then you—”
“Did you think it would be any other way?”
What?
His lips curved the faintest bit, and his eyes seemed to lighten to an even brighter blue as his hand rose. The back of his fingers brushed over her face. “Just so you know, that was just the start. I
will
have you again.”
Her sex clenched. Her body was way too eager for him.
Down, succubus, down.
“But first, I have to hunt. If I don’t take him out, Az will come for me.” Sam’s white teeth flashed in a full and very lethal grin. “And I’ve owed him an ass-kicking for centuries.”
His hand dropped.
She sucked in a deep breath. “That’s it?”
Do not get distracted by sex again.
“Hot sex, then you’re gone? While I—what ? Hide here?” Seline gave a hard shake of her head. “Hiding wasn’t the deal. Look, I took you to Az.” She hadn’t exactly delivered him, but that wasn’t the point.
Hello, fire, my hot friend.
She’d done her best. “I did my bit, and now you have to hold up your end of the bargain.”
A muscle flexed along his jaw. “I saved you.”
Yes, right, and that did count for big bonus points, but she had another, much more pressing issue right then. “The guy who took Az, he’s gonna know . . .” Ah, damn. “The guards saw me go in. I brained one jerk-off with a chair, and while he was out, I stole the keys to Az’s chains. I burned my bridges.” Unfortunately, those bridges had tried to burn back. She realized that her fingers had a death-grip on the sheet. “When the smoke clears, they’ll be coming for me.”
He
would. Rogziel would take her betrayal very, very personally. For a guy who wasn’t supposed to feel, he sure had a vengeful streak.
Hell hath no fury like an angel betrayed.
“Stay here,” he told her again, “no one will find you.” So confident. So careless.
Then he tried to pull away. No, not happening. With that power boost, her grip was pretty unbreakable. “I’m not hiding here forever! Besides”—her breath expelled on a rush—“you don’t know Rogziel.”
He seemed to turn to stone beneath her touch.
Uh, oh.
“Sam?” Her stomach twisted. Maybe he
did
know Rogziel. Maybe he knew the guy too well.
In a blink, Sam locked his hands around her arms and dragged her up on her tiptoes. The sheet slipped away and pooled on the floor.
“You worked for
Rogziel?”
he gritted from between clenched teeth.
So much for the post-sex glow and tender moment time. “H-he was the one who found Az. He knew because—”
“Because he’s a fucking punishment angel.”
“Ah . . . I guess you do know him.” The angel world was composed of
thousands,
but it figured that her bad luck would hold and Sam would know Rogziel.
His hands tightened. “I know he’s a sick asshole who should have burned long ago.”
Yep, definitely sounded like he knew Rogziel. Maybe the angel world was smaller than she realized.
Falling from heaven had hurt like a bitch.
Omayo stared below at the bustle of the streets. He didn’t remember how long ago he had actually fallen, because time had lost meaning for him. He didn’t know, didn’t care.
Humans flocked on the street below. He watched them, had always watched them.
The morning sunlight slipped across the river’s surface. Couples walked hand-in-hand. Young lovers stopped to kiss. Tourists snapped photographs. Laughter and voices filled the air.
Emotion.
He could sense it all around him, and, finally, he could
feel.
Pleasure. Joy. Happiness. No more watching, now he felt everything. Just like humans. No,
more
than the humans. He appreciated each moment more because he knew what it was like to live in a void and feel nothing.
He turned away from the balcony and paced back inside his apartment. His shoulders rolled, and for an instant, he felt the flutter of wings that weren’t there.
Small price to pay.
So he’d burned. So there would be no more flying for him. The clouds lost their appeal after centuries anyway.
He’d fallen. He’d fucked. He’d loved. He’d laughed.
Humans were the lucky ones. They had paradise right at their fingertips, and they didn’t understand their joy.
He understood.
He’d burned for this joy.
A knock rapped at his door. He frowned but walked forward. He glanced through the peephole—humans had such fun little inventions—and surprise had his jaw slackening.
He jumped back—too late. The door flew inward, and the heavy wood landed on his body.
“Hello,
friend.”
The mocking voice grated as Omayo shoved the wood away from his body. He surged to his feet, more than ready to—
A growl reached his ears. Low, menacing.
He stilled even as terror rose within him, spiking his blood and making his heart shudder.
“I know all about you,” that voice he knew too well said.
Omayo saw what waited in the doorway. The building was empty—just his apartment and a vacant garage downstairs. No one could help him.
As if humans could fight
this.
They’d be slaughtered in an instant if they tried. He’d never risked a human life. He wouldn’t start now.
“You watched them too long . . .”
Omayo stumbled back and sent a burst of power right at his old
friend.
“Get out!”
But the one he’d known for centuries didn’t move.
The blast seemed to have no effect. “You wanted to feel, Omayo . . .”
Was that so wrong? His hands fisted. “Centuries of nothing.
Nothing.
They have it all. I just wanted—”
The attack came at him in an instant. Teeth bit into his neck. Claws raked his body. He tried to scream, but the blood choked him.
Pain ravaged his body. Fury and fear twisted his stomach. . . even as the claws ripped into his gut.
No!
“Hope you enjoy every moment . . .” That damn voice. “Hope you like how it
feels.”
Cold swept over his skin, and Omayo fought. No, no, he hadn’t fallen for this. Not the pain, not hell—
The twisted teeth sank into his throat and stole his scream.
“Go to hell, Fallen. See how that feels.”
Sam stared down into Seline’s face as a roaring filled his ears. “Rog . . . ziel.” He bit the name out from between clenched teeth. His least favorite punishment angel. Rogziel liked the job too much.
Time for a house cleaning upstairs. Rogziel needs to fall, and I need to rip him apart.
“How long have you been with him?” he demanded.
Her lips parted, and he glimpsed her small, pink tongue. Even though he should have been sated—
how many times did I have her?—
his cock didn’t get the message. It jerked and rose eagerly toward her and she was naked and—
He dropped his hold and stepped back. His elbow rammed into the door.
“I’ve been with him for nearly thirty years.”
What?
“Impossible, you can’t—”
“When my mother died, he took me in.” Her shoulders straightened. “He raised me, provided me with shelter and food, and in return . . .” A brief hesitation as she drew in a deep breath, then Seline said, “In return, when I was old enough, he wanted me to help him hunt.”