The phone rang. Once, twice—

“Hello?” Nicole’s hesitant voice.

He turned away from the body. “Company’s coming,” he warned. “Be ready—”

He heard the shatter of glass over the phone line.

“I think company’s already here,” she told him softly and the line went dead.

In an instant, Keenan jumped from the bed. He grabbed his jeans, yanked them up, and whirled to face her even as Sam’s warning echoed in her head.

Company’s coming.

Sam’s warning was too late.

“Stay here,” Keenan told her, “You need to—”

“No way.” She jumped from the bed and yanked on her own clothes. “We’re doing this together. You’re not fighting alone!”

“If you’re with me, you’ll distract me.”

Hard words that froze her.

He lifted his hands. “They touch me, they die. I can take them out. I just need to make sure that you’re safe.”

But she wanted to be at his side. “I’m not weak.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

No, he’d never said that.

“I’m saying you’re too important to risk.” He headed for the door. “Stay here.”

While he fought the battle?

He was already gone.

“Dammit.” He was gone but … she wasn’t alone. The scent of flowers told her that, and when she looked toward the balcony, the doors flew inward and there she could see … oh, crap. Not just shadows anymore, but the solid form of a man. Huge wings rose from his back and fury hardened his face.

Az. She didn’t even need him to speak to know she was staring at Death.

“You’ll let him die for you?” Az snarled and stalked toward her.

She backed up. Yes, she wanted to be all brave and badass and step right toward him, but she knew what he could do with a touch.

So she backed the hell up. “Keenan’s not dying.” She heard the yells then. Screams from downstairs. Not Keenan’s screams, though. Her chin lifted. “He’s not—”

“He could have come back.” Az was still advancing on her. Not good. “All he had to do was finish his mission.”

Her elbows banged into the wall. Nowhere else to retreat. “You mean all he had to do was be a good soldier boy and kill me.”

“You shouldn’t matter.” He stopped, less than two feet away. His perfect brow crinkled, and he stared at her as if he were trying really hard to understand what the hell Keenan was doing with her. “You’re just a vamp. A parasite to be exterminated.”

Now he was trying to piss her off. She grabbed the nearby lamp and threw it right at his head. The porcelain shattered but he didn’t blink.

No weapon made by man. Right. And the lamp was probably made in China, and not forged by magic. Dammit!

Looked like she’d have to get creative them. “Maybe I’m not the parasite.” She shoved back her hair. “I’m not the one who takes souls, that’s you.”

His eyes widened. “I’m an angel, created to be superior, created to—”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this spiel.”

He blinked.

She smiled. “You ever think maybe you’ve got it wrong? Maybe you aren’t the superior one. You can’t feel, can you, Az? Keenan can. He can feel and need and want and—” Love. But she bit that part back. She hoped Keenan could love.

Because she was sure falling for him, but she wouldn’t give Az that weapon over her.

“Maybe humans are the superior ones,” she told him instead. “You’re supposed to guard us, right? Protect us.”

His great wings stretched back behind him and their black tips brushed the ceiling. “You’re not human anymore.”

He’d just taunted her. The bastard.

Her gaze dropped to the floor and measured that distance between them again. Yep. Two perfect feet. “You can kill me.”

He smiled.

Bastard. He could kill her, so why wasn’t he? Why was he waiting for her to die?

Because angels had to follow orders. They didn’t pick the moment of death. They had to wait and follow the rules and touch only when—

“No.” She breathed out the word and took a step closer to Az as the understanding crystallized. “You have the power to kill with a touch, but you can’t kill me. Not yet. Because you have to follow your orders, right, Az?” Another good soldier boy.

His eyes narrowed at the corners.