Page 43 of Beautiful Madness

“You understand,” he murmured,taking a step closer to me, “that I cannot indulge one female when the needs ofmy people are so great. The blade holds enormous power, Kait Silver. You didwhat I would have believed impossible and injuredmewith it.”

His wings scraped the ground ashe took yet another step closer, and the sound was discordantly musical,somehow, and I wanted to put my hands over my ears to shut it out. When helifted those wings slightly, as though preparing to take flight, I saw that theground beneath them was torn and abraded, and for a second I had an image ofthe earth as a huge person upon whose back he stood.

I realized that beneath hiscalm lurked a black fury that could bring devastation to not only me and mypeople but my world, and just like that,therewas my terror. There alsowas my own fury, rising to protect…everything.

“Yes,” someone breathed, andsuddenly Nicole was beside me. “He is reluctant to hurt women,” she whispered.“It is why I yet exist. Use that to protect yourself.”

Even now, she would rather Ifind a way to protect myself than hurt him. Then it occurred to me that sheprobably believed I couldn’t hurt him—as far as she knew, I didn’t even have myblade.

And I didn’t believe her aboutLucas being reluctant to hurt women, because he’d hurt me plenty, the bastard.I asked anyway. “How?”

But her answer was lost in theangel’s roar as he came at both of us, his wings spreading to block out themoon, his presence sucking the very air from my lungs. I opened my mouth toscream but there was no breath to make a scream possible.

His voice was killing me.

That was the moment I rememberedmyscream, my killing scream, and just that quickly, I could breatheagain. I pulled in a deep lungful of sweet, cold air, and then I released ascream that was as shocking to me as it surely was to everyone who heard it.

Surely, half the city.

That wasmyfuckingroar.

For a few seconds, there wereonly the two of us, caught in a vortex of dark wind as our voices clashed,sending shockwaves that I could literally see. His eyes widened, disbelief intheir icy depths, and even as I was sent flying backward beneath the power ofhis voice, he was flung backward by mine.

I lay on the ground, stunned,staring up at the night sky as the angel spread his wings and halted hisfrenetic ascent, and then I gave another scream—but this one was more of ashriek and not my killing scream—as something fell from the sky and hit theground hard beside my head, splattering me with…blood.

“God, no,” I cried, as anotherone fell, and then another, and another. Crows, some of them missing feathers,others releasing little tendrils of gray smoke from burnt bodies, all of themdead.

They pelted the ground likehuge, black raindrops full of blood and nightmares. Horrified, I nearly shifted,as though in my wolf form I wouldn’t feel the pain of killing dozens of birds.

Nicole limped toward me,unbelievably tattered and torn as though she were a physical being and notsimply an angel spirit. She was hurt—whether because of my scream or Lucas’s, Ididn’t know. But even as I watched she began to recover. Just as Lucas would.

“It’sreal.”Her mouthdidn’t open but her voice echoed through my mind. Her face was a mask of shock.“When it killed the daywalkers, I thought I imagined it. I believed I waslosing my grip on reality. How did you get his power? It should not bepossible.”

I frowned at her. “His power?”

“The scream,” she hissed,clutching at my arm. “The voice. Theroar. It belongs to Lucas. Whatareyou, Kait?”

That was the damn question,wasn’t it?

And abruptly, I remembered.When we’d first fought, I’d bitten him. I’d swallowed his blood. I hadn’t wantedto, but I had. Funny how the thought didn’t make me want to throw up the waydrinking a vampire’s blood did.

I’d somehow broken off a pieceof his power. I’d absorbed his gift. I’d stolen his roar.

Nicole’s face changed as rapidlyas the thoughts running through my mind. She went from shock to amazement toterror to joy. “He can’t kill you,” she said, and even when he landed behindher, his eyes blazing with wrath and outrage, she smiled.

She turned to him, and for afew seconds, they simply stared at each other, silent. They didn’t need tospeak to communicate. “You cannot destroy her,” she told him, finally, hervoice soft. “And she is mine.”

“Not if you’re dead,” hesnarled.

I backed up slowly, beginningto hope that maybe they’d go off to their world and fight and leave me alone. Ineeded to check…everything. Remy and Sam, for starters. I needed to get toJared. And though I was terrified to find out, I needed to see if we’d murderedanything other than the crows.

But Lucas flung her out of hisway—she hung in the air for a second and then disappeared—and he came, onceagain, for me. His mind was no longer on my blade. At least notonlyonmy blade.

“You force me to hurt you,” hesaid. “You have stolen my power.”

“Like you would steal myblade?” I asked, bracing myself.

“It is not the same, woman. Youhave a piece of me inside you. I will rip it out of you, even if I must killyou to do it.” He hesitated. “I must.”