“Was there any doubt?” Jade asked as her brows rose.
Az almost smiled at her. Instead, he glanced at the shifter and said, “Guaranteed to stop an angel,” even an earthbound one, “in his tracks.” He closed the chamber with a snap of his wrist.
“And what if he . . . changes?” Sam asked, and Az glanced at him, struck by the odd note in his brother’s voice. But Sam’s face was perfectly blank as he said, “Seline’s a hybrid, too, and when her human body died, the angels just took her to work upstairs.”
Az knew that had been the moment Sam’s real hell began.
He spared a glance for Jade and saw worry flicker in her emerald gaze. Can’t have that. I don’t want her to worry.
“If that happens, I guess I’ll just chase his winged ass down and make sure he stays dead.” The gun was a light weight he barely felt in his hand. “But something tells me after all the crap he’s pulled, heaven isn’t going to be real eager to welcome him past those grand gates.”
“They’d better not be,” Cody muttered.
“So what’s the plan?” Tanner wanted to know. The shifter’s body seemed to vibrate with barely leashed energy. “You want me to go out and track the bastard?”
Screams trickled through the shut door. Shouts. Pounding footsteps.
“I don’t think that tracking will be necessary,” Sam said as he strode toward that door. His fingers curled around the doorknob as he yanked the door open. The screams spilled into the room then. “Something tells me our boy has found us.”
Jade’s eyes widened as she stepped toward the door. Az blocked her. “No way.” If Brandt thought he was getting his hands on her, the guy could think again. The hybrid shifter would have to go through him first. His gaze flew to Tanner and Cody. “You two stay here with her. Make sure no one but me comes back in that door.”
One entrance. One exit. Two powerful Other. They’d keep her safe.
Or he’d make them wish for death.
He glanced over his shoulder. Sam was already gone. The guy had disappeared into the screams and the chaos.
Jade grabbed his arm. “So that’s it? I just stay here while you run out and risk your life?”
That was the general plan, yes.
“Let me help you.”
Az shook his head. “I won’t risk you again. Brandt almost killed you before. He won’t have you tonight.”
He could hear animalistic snarls now. Brandt and his men had shifted to attack. With humans there? They really were crazy.
Bending, he kissed her. A fast, hard press of his lips. “It’ll be over soon.”
She didn’t speak, but just watched him with worried eyes.
Then it was Az’s turn to follow the screams. He raced outside of the private room and saw the stampeding mass. He’d been wrong—Brandt’s men hadn’t shifted, not all the way, but they were using their claws to slice apart anyone who got in their way. Slicing, laughing, and snarling like panthers as the blood flowed.
Sam was already running toward them. One touch, and the laughing ass**le to the right of Sam went down.
His brother was fast.
Az was faster.
Another shifter cut a redhead, slicing her right across the stomach. Az jumped forward and ripped her away from the guy. He pushed her behind him even as he shoved his hand against the shifter’s chest. Before that panther hit the ground, his body was stone hard and his eyes—wide, horrified—stared at nothing.
Two down. The rest of the pack to go.
Az smiled in anticipation.
No way. Jade watched Az’s powerful form rush from the room. She wasn’t just going to stand back, to hide, while Az went out there and faced her nightmare.
The guy had forgotten, she wasn’t just a human anymore. As the adrenaline pumped through her, Jade’s body began to heat up with a charge she’d felt before. Burn, baby, burn.
If she had to, she could burn her way right through that pack.
I won’t let you take all the risk, Az.
The guy needed to think again.
She strode forward. Tanner’s fast grip on her arm jerked her right back. “Just where do you think you’re goin’ now, ma’am?”
Jade narrowed her eyes. “I think I’m going into the fight.”
Snick.
She glanced down at her wrist. The gleaming, gold cuff that he’d taken off Marna now locked around her wrist.
Snick.
The other cuff circled his thick wrist.
Son of a bitch. She really hadn’t seen that one coming. Sneaky shifter.