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“Drop the gun,” Maddox said to him, his voice so casual and controlled that it made her nape prickle.
Euan huffed. “Oh, I think not.”
A muscle in Maddox’s cheek ticked. “Drop. The. Gun.”
“And give you the opportunity to kill me? No. I’ll make you a deal instead. If you lower the forcefield, I will teleport away without killing her.”
“But then the archangel would get us,” Raini pointed out, “so he ain’t gonna do that either.”
“Shut up,” Euan hissed without looking her way. He lifted his brow at Maddox. “Do we have a deal?”
Her mate’s eyes bled to black. Uh-oh. Even Euan stilled.
“This is your last chance,” it told him. “Drop the fucking gun.”
“Or what?” challenged Euan, a tremor in his voice. “You have no moves to make here.”
Raini snickered. “Not sure if you’ve noticed, big guy, but neither have you.”
Maddox’s eyes returned to normal as his demon retreated. “She’s right. You have no way out of this.”
“The same applies to your mate,” Euan pointed out. “So it would seem we’re at an empasse.”
“It’s impasse, you moron,” Raini snarked.
Euan growled and, keeping his eyes on Maddox, twisted his head toward hers—that was all she needed.
She swiftly pressed her lips to Euan’s and blew power into his mouth. Power that she knew would rush to his head like the sweetest, most intoxicating perfume. He blinked hard, swayed slightly, and stuttered out a breath. As his eyes then glazed over and he looked at her with utter adoration, Raini smiled.
She’d enslaved the fucker, Maddox quickly realized. His mate had the ability to enslave with a mere kiss. At any other time, it might have irritated him that she hadn’t told him about it. Right then, Maddox couldn’t give a fuck. Because she was alive, and that ability had saved her.
“Put down the gun,” she whispered to Euan, who obeyed without hesitation. “Good boy. Now sleep, and do not wake until I call for you to do so.”
The asshole slumped to the ground, his eyes closed—essentially out of commission.
“Baby.” His pulse not yet steady, Maddox crouched down and plastered his palm to hers, his teeth grinding at the sight of her wounds. His demon was no less enraged, despite that she was now safe from Euan.
She hissed at the cold burn as his power healed her, but then the lines of pain smoothed away from her face. He grabbed her head and kissed her hard, aware that the battle had picked up again; aware that Castiel was yelling for Maddox to face him. Maddox would. But not until she was out of harm’s way.
“Help Carmen,” she said.
Once he’d healed his sentinel, Carmen came to with a groan. “Mother of Christ, my head hurts.” She lifted said head, glanced around, and frowned. “What the hell—Euan. Is he dead?”
“Not yet,” said Maddox, though he was highly tempted to snap the fucker’s neck. But that would be too painless. No, he and his demon wanted Euan to feel death coming, and it eventually would. But then Maddox would heal him, and they’d do the dance over and over again.
“You missed a lot,” Raini told Carmen as Maddox pulled her to her feet. “I’ll fill you in later.”
“It’s not over yet,” said Maddox. “Carmen will get you out of here. Stay with her.”
Raini fisted his shirt. “No, not yet. I can end this.”
He stilled, him and his demon both balking at the idea. “No, you need—”
“Listen to me. The bastards are all away from Celia now.” Which told her that people had likely been wavering from one spot to another to evade strikes. “I can send out a blast of psychic hellfire without hitting her, but not without hitting you or—”
“I’m not leaving your side,” he gritted out.
“I’m not asking you to, Maddox. As long as I’m standing in front of you, you’ll be safe from the blast. But I can’t let it out while I’m in here—the walls will keep it trapped. Shrink this forcefield slightly so that it only surrounds you, Carmen, and Euan—no, hear me out. I need to be exposed long enough to release the psychic hellfire. I don’t know how much damage it will do to the archangel, but it will take the halo-bearers down in an instant. Then you can finish off Castiel. Unless you want to go through this battle all over again another day. Because none of this will be over until he’s dead.”
“The second you’re not shielded, those orbs that bastard’s throwing will hit you.”
“But then you’ll heal me. Look, I get that it goes against the grain for you to expose me while shielding yourself. It’s not like that, though. I need you to do exactly that, or you can’t encompass me in this big bubble again and then heal me once I’ve done my thing. Come on, Maddox, they won’t expect this. It’ll work.”
