Because as the three black panthers—fully shifted panthers—leapt into the room, jumping over the broken door, Az grabbed Jade and threw her toward the couch.
Then he ran right for the snarling beasts.
He should have known better than to let down his guard. Shifters and their damn acute senses. They’d caught his scent, her scent, and followed them right through the Quarter.
“I warned you,” Az snapped and leapt at the nearest panther. He caught the beast’s front paws and shoved the giant cat back. “You should have listened.” There would be no more warnings now. Only death.
With a twist of his hands, Az broke both paws and tossed the cat back through the door.
Ruined my door. That panther had—
Claws dug into his back, driving deep into muscle and scraping bone. Hissing against the pain, Az snapped his teeth together and whirled around in a blur. He reached out as fury slammed through him and Jade’s horrified yell rang in his ears.
Attack. Destroy. Kill.
He touched the panther, and the animal stiffened beneath his fingers. The beast’s blazing gold eyes locked on him. Az’s breath heaved as he demanded, “Ready for hell?”
The scent of flowers swept into the room, blowing in on the breeze from outside. It came right into his home and seemed to surround the shifter.
Az knew well what that scent meant. An Angel of Death was close. Despite what humans may have thought, Death didn’t smell like rot. Death was sweet. The better to tempt and lead away the souls.
Az lifted his hand. The panther fell to the ground. The fur melted away, and he stared down at the tattooed body of the man who’d chosen to seek death. “I warned you.”
A whimper had Az’s head rising. The other panther crouched, and its head swung back and forth between Az and the body on the floor. Az lifted his hand, palm up, toward the beast. “Want to join him?”
The panther spun away and leapt through the window. Glass shattered, and Az bit back a snarl of his own. Something else to fix, dammit.
He rushed to the door. Both the surviving panthers were racing away. His brother Sammael would say they were hauling ass.
Finally. They’d realized they should fear him. And it had only taken the little matter of death to drive that point home.
“Oh my God!” The wild cry came from his elderly neighbor. He glanced over just in time to see Ms. Hattie McRae duck back inside her apartment. Great. A frantic call to the cops was probably being made.
Looked like he wouldn’t be repairing the place after all. Time to clear out. Again.
Whenever humans found a dead body, they tended to ask endless and useless questions. When they asked those long and boring questions, he’d discovered the cops didn’t like it when he told them to f**k off.
“You . . . killed him.” Whispered from behind him.
Az straightened slowly. His back burned and his shirt stuck to the blood coating his flesh.
“How?” Jade asked. The floor creaked as she came closer to him.
His wounds would heal, but for the moment, the pain had his teeth grinding together. Now wasn’t really the time for explanations. Not that he felt like offering any to her.
With a wave of the hand that had killed, he motioned toward the busted doorway. “Flee while you can.” Another warning. Hopefully, she’d be smart enough to actually listen to him and get the hell out of there.
He’d do the same. Leave this place. Find another dwelling.
“Flee?” She repeated, voice rising a notch.
Sucking in a deep breath as he turned, Az nodded. “Yes, before the police arrive and find—” He gestured to the body. “Him.” Because it didn’t look like he’d killed a panther. No, now it looked like he’d just murdered a man. At the moment of death, shifters always returned to their human forms.
She knelt near the body. “There aren’t any wounds on him.”
No. He didn’t have to wound in order to kill.
Jade fell back onto her butt and stared up at him. “How’d you do it?”
With a touch. That was what the Angel of Death did. He touched, and he killed, and the rest of the world feared.
That was his life. Or, it had been.
Take anything you want.
She licked her lips and the eyes that made him think too much of pleasure and human sins met his.
Temptation.
It was staring right at him. Sometimes, the most dangerous temptations were the ones that were right in front of you.
Then he saw the fear that slipped over her face. “What are you?” Of course, she’d ask that annoying question again.
It was the question he hated because the answer was—an abomination.
So Az didn’t respond. He’d saved her. Warned her to flee. That meant he’d more than done his part. What happened next would be up to her.
He turned from her and slipped into the rising light of dawn. He blurred his body, moving quickly, and he knew that, to her, it would look as if he vanished.
If only he could.
But just disappearing from the world would be far too easy, and Az knew he wasn’t meant for the easy path.
He was meant to suffer.
Her hero left her with a dead body. Jade stared down at the panther. “Austin, you jackass, I hope you’re somewhere really, really hot.” After the hell he’d put her through over the last few years, he deserved to burn.
The screech of sirens reached her ears. It figured the cops would be fast this one time, when she needed them to be slow. Jade jumped to her feet. “Az!”
She shoved through the broken door. The wood scraped her arm. Perfect. Of course she’d leave DNA evidence behind at a murder scene. But, hopefully, once they examined the body, the wise folks at the NOPD would realize they weren’t dealing with a normal stiff, and they’d make this murder victim just . . . vanish.
Other deaths had a way of disappearing in the Big Easy. Mostly because there were so many Other hiding in the city. When supernaturals looked to blend in with the human population, they flocked to the big cities. It was easier for them to hide in plain sight there. Of course, in New Orleans, the city made for voodoo and magic . . . hiding in plain sight took on a whole new meaning for the paranormals.
She glanced to the left, then to the right. Where the hell was her savior? Big, blond, and way too gorgeous had vanished on her.
Freaking literally vanished. Come on, she did not need this right now. Her savior should have stayed put, and well, done more saving.
You’re not getting away from me that easily.
Her gaze scanned the old cement sidewalk. Looking, looking . . .