Reign A Romance Anthology - Nina Levine Page 0,232

Sera scrambled out, then turned and ripped the front door off.

Tay lay like crumpled linen inside. There was no time to be gentle about this. She grabbed her unconscious friend beneath the arms and hauled her out, before returning for Rodrigo.

He slapped at his burning jeans, kicking the pavement as if trying to help her get him as far away from the car as possible.

“The package?” he gasped.

Sera patted her chest, where the shard was stashed in one of Azazel’s pockets. “Safe.” She pressed her hands to Tayla’s chest, trying to sense for pain or damage. There. A hard knot on her friend’s head. Maybe some minor bleeding and burns. But nothing that would kill her.

Thank the father.

And then she froze as a figure slowly stalked toward her.

He was enormous, his bat-like wings spread in a menacing pose. Sera saw the blond hair and tailored suit, and her heart shriveled into a prune until she realized that Lucifer was locked away.

Not Lucifer.

Not the First of Hell.

But just as fucking deadly.

Samael.

“What have we here?” he purred. “An angel.”

Sera realized she’d dropped all her wards. The ragged remains of her Grace was enough to give her a power boost, and he could see it.

It was nothing compared to the power oozing from him.

When they’d chosen to Fall, they’d taken all that force with them. They were just as powerful as they’d been in Heaven, though Michael had cursed their wings to bleed black so that all should know them for what they were.

Sera scrambled to her feet and wielded her blade. It was so pathetic. Broken, jagged, flickering with faint light that died the second Samael smirked at her. “Go!” she yelled at Rodrigo. “Get Tayla out of here!”

She knew what she was signing up for.

She wasn’t walking out of this, but if she could sacrifice herself in order to give her friends a chance….

Samael laughed. “Such a pretty little angel. All alone…. I’m going to have so much fun with you. I’m going to start by plucking all your feathers until you scream such pretty songs for me….”

He flexed his hands and sulfuric flames whipped around her. Sera screamed, but then they were dying down. Leaving her whole and undamaged. She panted in relief.

“But she’s not alone,” called Uriel.

He walked out of the shadows, clad in his army green hooded jacket, his dark skin gleaming in the flames.

“Sera, you have it?” he asked, never taking his eyes off Samael as Rodrigo carried Tayla toward him.

Others appeared in the shadows of the alleyway behind him. The Brotherhood.

Maybe there was a chance.

And then Azazel killed it.

“Interesting,” his voice murmured. “Two thieves in my back alley. Two thieves trying to take what is mine.”

Demons poured out of the alleyway that serviced the back of The Ninth Circle.

Demons hissed and slunk out of the shadows behind Samael.

And right in the middle, the car burned like holy fire.

She’d seen a thousand paintings plucked right from the pages of Dante’s Inferno, but this was the cinematic version of it.

Sera was stuck in the middle of all three of them, but she couldn’t take her attention off him.

And the way he looked at her—suddenly she was back in the past, staring at him as Heaven burned.

She could see the knowledge in his eyes.

You’re with Uriel.

You’ll always go running to him….

“I’m sorry.” The words broke from her lips.

The look he gave Uriel was cold, flat, merciless… and almost thoughtful.

And then he turned his attention to Samael. “You’re breaking the city’s treaties. You shouldn’t be here.”

“Once this is done, I don’t think any of the other ruling city heads will care. They’ll be trying to keep me from their throats.” Samael clicked his fingers and vampires and demons began pouring out of the streets. Some of them climbed the walls of the buildings—just your friendly neighborhood vampire!—and others scuttled along on all fours. Fangs flashed as some of them grinned at her.

Sera found herself backing away.

The numbers weren’t in their favor.

Azazel walked toward him, his hands still in his pockets and the faintest of smiles on his lips. There was no mercy in that smile, and she could tell, from the way that Samael’s demons tensed, that fear radiated from him like a menacing shadow.

What was he thinking?

He was dozens of feet away from his demons. Samael could drown him in vampires with a snap of his fingers.

“Sera,” Uriel called, gesturing sharply. “Come here.”

The two demons faced each other.

And while Sera knew she ought to get out of the way,