He whirled her around. “Shouldn’t you have wings?”

Not if they’d been cut away.

“Doesn’t matter.” He locked a cuff around her wrist. Snapped another around his own.

The human was asking for so much pain.

“There’s someone who wants to see you. You have to come with me.”

No, she didn’t. Marna yanked on her cuff and broke the chain linking it to his. One tug, that was all it took.

She was getting stronger, too.

Time to show the human just how dangerous she could be.

The darkness inside of her, a darkness that she’d always sensed and fought to suppress, seemed to stretch. Filled her.

She smiled at the human and knew he’d never see what was coming for him—not until it was too late.

A fire built inside of her, burning brighter, hotter.

No more.

Time for her to stop being afraid. Time for others to fear her.

CHAPTER NINE

Tanner saw the flames before he saw her. Red, gold, twisting and crackling, the flames rose up around his apartment building.

Humans were out, running, screaming for help.

But Marna just stood in the middle of the flames. What the hell?

“Marna!” He yelled her name but wondered if she could even hear his call over the crackle of the fire. In the distance, he heard the wail of a fire truck’s siren, but this wasn’t a fire that humans could handle.

They couldn’t fight magic.

Marna’s arms were up in the air, and her face—even through the flames he could see the light of power that bathed her features.

“Marna, pull it back!”

The flames flared higher.

Tanner knew he had to go into the fire, for her. Jaw locked, he raced forward and bellowed her name once more.

Just before the flames would have licked over his skin—like it would be the first time he felt that agony—Marna’s head turned and her eyes—dazed, wild—found his.

The fire died away, vanishing in mere seconds and leaving behind only wisps of smoke that drifted into the air.

“T-Tanner?”

The humans had hauled ass, so, luckily, no one was left to see his angel just extinguish those flames with a stray thought. No one was—

His nostrils flared as he pulled in the scents. The fire had been so strong that he hadn’t even noticed . . .

Jonathan.

His partner lay on the ground near Marna’s feet. Not moving.

Tanner rushed forward. “What did you do?”

She shook her head. Glanced down. Her hands lowered and a loose handcuff banged against her wrist. “He was trying to make me leave with him.”

The sirens were coming closer.

“I wasn’t going to let him hurt me.” A different note had entered her voice now. Harder. Colder. “No one’s going to hurt me again.”

Tanner crouched next to Jonathan. He rolled his partner over and sucked in a breath at the guy’s ashen features.

“He’s still alive,” Marna said. Did she sound disappointed?

His angel?

What was going on?

“Yeah, he’s still alive.” Tanner grabbed Jonathan and tossed the guy over his shoulder. He wasn’t leaving him. Not when he had so many questions for the man. “And we all need to go, now.”

“You’re helping him?” Marna backed up a step. “He—he wanted to hurt me. He tried to take me away.”

“And we’ll find out what the hell he was thinking once we get away from here.” Once they’d gotten out of sight and didn’t have trucks full of firefighters racing toward them.

She drew in a ragged breath. “He wants me dead.”

Not gonna happen.

Tanner stared down at her, willing Marna to trust him. They all needed to leave, but he had to make sure she wasn’t about to unleash hell on them all again.

As he stared at her, Marna’s eyes seemed to darken. The blue deepened. Seemed to almost flash . . . black?

What?

The sirens screamed.

“He said—he said someone was waiting for me.”

Tanner had Jonathan flung over his shoulder. With his other hand, he caught Marna’s hand. Locked his with hers. “Then we’re gonna find that someone.” The same SOB who’d set him up? Who’d set her up?

Time to end this nightmare.

Marna nodded, and her gaze flickered back to blue. He felt the punch in his gut. Angels weren’t supposed to have eyes that looked like a demon’s, were they?

But he didn’t have time to worry about her eyes then. They rushed away from the smoke-filled area. Rounded the corner. Marna climbed into his SUV. Tanner dumped Jonathan into the back.