Wonderful. Fabulous. They could—

“I told him to just kill her. To touch her, take her soul, and come back home. To forget about her.”

Jade frowned up at him. That was some cold-blooded shit.

Az’s mouth curled, but that was no grin on his face. “Bastion told you I wasn’t the good guy. And you should know . . . angels can’t lie.”

Oh, hell. She tried to jerk away from him. He just held her tighter.

“I know how Keenan felt,” Az grated. “Because if Bastion came to me and told me to kill you, I’d destroy him.”

She froze.

“How?”

Now Jade was lost. How what?

“What did you do to me?” His hands tightened on her. “I never cared for a human, but I can’t let anyone hurt you.” The blue flashed back again in his eyes, as if he were fighting something. Someone. “Even myself.”

In the next moment, Jade found herself on the back of the motorcycle. Az was in front of her, revving the engine.

“Hold on!”

She locked her arms around his stomach. Held as tight as she could. The motorcycle rocked forward with a blast of power that she didn’t think was entirely natural.

But then, the unnatural was becoming more normal for her every day. Jade glanced back at the old cabin. The woods were so twisted around it now that the vines and vegetation appeared to swallow the place. And, for an instant, she could have sworn she saw thin, ghostly images walking near the woods.

Images that stared after her with fury.

Before vanishing in the light.

Jade turned her head away and pressed her face against Az’s back. Whatever the hell that place had been, she never wanted to go back there again. She had more than enough darkness in her life.

Curses, spirits—they could just stay the hell away from her.

Az braked in front of an all too familiar looking dive in New Orleans. He killed the engine and shoved down the kickstand.

Jade glanced up at the entrance of Sunrise. Didn’t almost dying in the place once mean that they should probably stay away? She thought that might be a good guide for them to follow.

And she realized that she was still clinging tightly to Az. Clearing her throat, she managed to unhand the guy and climb from the motorcycle. “Wanna tell me why we’re walking down bad memory lane? I mean, we’ve got the whole city as a meeting place, did you have to tell Tanner to catch up with us here?” Only, they weren’t meeting Tanner right then. It was a long way until midnight, and she sure didn’t want to just kick the time away in that hole.

Az glanced at her. His blond hair shone in the sunlight. No helmets for them—none had been stashed with the bike. Yeah, they were all about dancing with death.

He studied her a moment. His eyes were back to being that bright blue that she loved—thank goodness. Hopefully, “bad Az” had been left behind at that hell-forsaken cabin in the woods.

“We need brimstone.” He climbed off the motorcycle.

She sighed. “Yeah, well, unless you’re planning to make a little pit stop into hell, getting brimstone might be a problem for us.” Taking a field trip into hell wasn’t her idea of a good time.

Az strolled past her and his fist pounded against the closed front doors of the bar. The place might be called Sunrise, but she knew it didn’t open until well after sunset.

Jade glanced nervously up and down the street. Being out in the open wasn’t such a stellar plan. She inched closer to Az. Her fingers slid down the side of his arm. “Maybe we should come back tonight.” They could find a nice spot to lay low until then.

He shook his head. “It’s better when no one’s around.” He stopped pounding, obviously getting the hint that the door wasn’t going to be answered. Az waved his hand, and the entrance flew open. The doors banged against the interior walls.

Handy, having power like that.

“Come on.” He took her hand, and they hurried inside. The doors slammed closed behind her. “Maybe it’s here.”

Um . . . it?

The club was dark, with sunlight barely trickling inside. Chairs had been stacked on top of the tables, and the curtains were closed on the small stage. The scent of a dozen perfumes lingered in the air. A heavy, golden cage hung from the ceiling above them. Yeah, that cage freaked her a bit.

They’d taken about ten steps inside when she heard the growl. The hair on her neck rose at the guttural sound. “Az . . .”

He stopped and turned to the left. A heavy, metal door waited about twenty feet away. A door that had been padlocked.