What? He thought schoolteachers weren’t tough? Had the guy ever been in a school?
“Maybe after you have your bite, you’ll be able to think better. Then you’ll realize what’s really going on here.”
Jerk. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s happening? If you know why Keenan’s suddenly pushing me away, then just say—”
“He thinks he’s keeping you safe.”
“Bullshit.” She’d call it just as she saw it. “I think it’s more likely he decided to feed me to the wolves.” Or to the coyotes.
Sam shook his head. “Think about the dead girl. How did she die?”
“I don’t know! She came at Keenan. They hit. His hand shoved between her jaws, and she fell over.” Dead.
“One touch,” Sam murmured.
Her heart beat faster. “You’re not saying …”
“He told you how it was for death angels, right? To take the soul, you just have to touch.”
“He’s touched me.” Plenty of times and in plenty of ways. Sam was lying to her, had to be.
“There’s something else you should know.” He paused. “Angels, even fallen angels, can’t lie. So when I tell you something, trust me.”
She wouldn’t trust the guy as far as she could throw his shadow-winged self. “Keenan lost his powers when he fell.”
“No, he just forgot them.”
Uh, what?
“Falling isn’t easy.” His thumbs stroked her wrists. She tried to yank away but he wouldn’t let her go. “Once you get here, you’re lucky if you can even remember your own name.”
Keenan hadn’t remembered, not at first. He’d told her that.
“Then the memories start to filter back. When they first come, you think you have to be batshit crazy. But then … then you start to know.”
Right. He’d fallen. Been there, done that. So, of course, Sam could speak from experience.
“You start to know,” he said again, “and then, slowly, the powers come back.”
Her breath seemed to be freezing in her chest. “You’re telling me that Keenan can kill with a touch.” Her gaze fell to their hands. “That you can.” Then why are you touching me?
“If killing that way was what I wanted …” His eyes glinted. “Yes.”
Good thing he didn’t seem to want it then.
“Sometimes the powers are locked deep inside, and you have to chip away at the locked box to get them out.”
Her stomach started to knot.
“Sometimes, you just need the right key to open that box.” His smile stretched. “You were a wonderful key.”
If he weren’t holding her hands in that unbreakable grip, she would have punched him then. Not the sweet move of a schoolteacher, but the hard right hook of a vamp who’d learned to fight dirty. “You’ve been using me.” Her eyes narrowed. “Just how did Mike find out where we were hiding?”
His smile dimmed a bit. “You think I led him to you?”
The hard suspicion in her gut said yes. “Didn’t you?”
His hold became harder. “I’m the one who helped Keenan find you in that cemetery.”
She realized he hadn’t answered her. Like Keenan, the guy couldn’t say just yes or no. “Angels can’t lie, but that doesn’t mean they have to tell the complete truth, right?” Cause there was a difference. “They can avoid answering the question or they can—they can just twist their words, twist the truth.”
He nodded. “I knew the first time I saw you that you’d be the key to making Keenan break.”
He’s getting lost in you. “I don’t want him to break.”
“Really? Don’t you want a little vengeance? Come on …” His voice lowered. “It’s just us. Keenan’s upstairs, hating the world. He won’t know what you say.”
“Let go of my hands.”
He didn’t let go. “I mean, if he’d just moved faster, just touched that vamp who attacked you that night faster, you’d still have your nice, picket-fence life. Hell, maybe you’d even have met your prince charming and be getting ready to settle down.”
Her claws were coming out.
“But he didn’t move fast enough, did he? Because of him, you suffered and you changed and you lost everything you held dear.”
She would have lost it anyway. No matter what Keenan had done, there wouldn’t have been a prince charming or a picket fence for her. “I don’t want vengeance.”