by Nalini Singh
The Blade’s jaw worked, but he gave a curt nod and began to bark orders into the phone. “No one approaches the suite. Cordon off that level until we hear from Raphael or Elena.”
The Primary swept off the balcony and back to his perch on the building which was the Legion’s. We must make many seedlings, he said to his brethren.
The voices that returned to him were his and theirs both.
For her. For Elena.
Her growing things are gone.
We will make more.
Aeclari. We hear their song.
18
Raphael’s mind emerged from the wild storm of pleasure wrapped in incandescent love to find his hunter limp against him, her arms lazy around his neck. Always, she would hold him. Even when he harbored a power colder than winter’s icy kiss. “Elena?”
“Mmm.” A yawn against his neck. “I didn’t think you could get any better at this, studmuffin, but you’ve proved me wrong. Pretty sure my bones have melted. Also sure I don’t care.”
Cheeks creasing, Raphael ran his hand down her spine. And frowned. “Hbeebti, sit up.”
Elena kissed his throat before obeying. Her hair was tumbled around her face, her hands on his shoulders, her lips swollen from his demands as well as her own. “What’s the matter?” She lifted her arm, stared at it. “Am I imagining it or do I look more normal?”
Raphael realized he’d missed the most obvious change: she remained far thinner than her usual muscled sleekness, but was no longer of a weight that would draw concerned attention. “Your entire body has gained a layer of flesh, and the alien glow is gone from your skin.”
“Eyes?”
“No change excepting the lack of a glow.” A liquid silver with a hint of blue and a touch of gray. A blending of mortal and immortal. All good . . . but for one critical thing. “I can’t feel your tattoo.” He ran his hand over the area. “No ridges, nothing but your spine and skin.”
Going motionless, she said, “That’s extremely weird because I still feel as if you’re stroking my feathers. Sensation’s actually grown more intense than before we had crazypants sex flavored with white fire.”
“Turn so I can see your back.”
She began to untangle herself from him. “Don’t look until we can look together.”
Raphael nodded, then got out of bed and held out a hand.
Elena took care joining him, her hand locked to his. But she grinned the instant her feet hit the carpet. “I don’t think I need the crutches anymore.” Two seconds later, she proved that supposition correct: the two of them walked into the bathroom together.
“No breathlessness, no jelly legs,” she said once they were inside. “Crazypants glowing sex is now my favorite kind.”
Shifting on her heel so her back faced the full-length mirror, she took a deep breath and looked over her shoulder at the same time that Raphael moved so he could see her back. The tattoo was gone.
Elena’s eyes narrowed. “Touch that area.”
A shiver ran through her when he did . . . and the outline of the tattoo reappeared . . . edged in white fire.
The coolly fiery silhouette held for a long moment after he removed his hand, before fading slowly into her skin.
Elena faced him. “Any ideas?”
Her entire body began to glow lightning gold before he could respond, the brilliance so vicious that it was a burn on his eyes.
She blazed like a star before the light disappeared without a trace.
Blinking past the shards of shadow and brightness in front of his eyes, Raphael saw his hunter had acquired a new tattoo. It was on her left temple and it was an exact mirror of the Legion mark on his right temple, except that hers wasn’t a glittering blue touched with wildfire white. It was a verdant forest green that shimmered.
“Did I grow a third nose?” Elena winced. “I have, haven’t I? Or is it an extra ear?”
Taking her by the shoulders, he turned her to face the mirror. Lips forming into an “Oh” Elena brushed her fingers over the mark. “Aeclari are mirrors,” she whispered, repeating words the Legion had first spoken.
Then it happened again. Golden lightning erupted along the side of Elena’s face. When it disappeared, so did the mark. Elena brushed her fingers over her once-more pristine skin. “I’m glitching as my body tries to find equilibrium. I woke too early, before everything was in place—but, on the flip side, I have an archangelic heart and access to power that’s yours by right.”
“Perhaps.” He ran his hand down her spine again.
No fiery outline of wings on her back this time, her skin a smooth dark gold.
“Looks like that glitch has corrected itself.” Elena’s gaze was on the mirror, her voice soft. “I didn’t feel you caress my feathers.”
“Hbeebti.”
Fingers brushing his jaw. “It’s okay, Raphael. Truly.” A determined smile over a foundation of grit and loss. “I had an experience no mortal could ever hope for—I flew in the skies on my own wings. Now I’m a weird-ass hybrid who glows randomly. It’s going to be a new adventure.”
He wrapped her up in his arms, his mind ice-cold.
Were the Cascade a living being, he’d shred it to pieces.
* * *
• • •
He made contact with Elijah that night, using the large screen in his and Elena’s living area. “Eli,” he said, “I would do this in person, but I cannot leave my territory yet.”
“I would not expect such, my friend,” Elijah replied, his golden brown eyes warm. “It is good to see you.”
“I thank you for the assistance you offered by sending your birds and cats. It is a debt between us.”
Elijah shook his head, the golden strands of his hair bright even in the artificial light of the room where he stood. “Such things are not a matter of debt. I know you would do the same were the situations reversed.”
A few years past, Raphael wouldn’t have known whether he would or not. Now, he was a little bit mortal and he’d built a relationship of trust with another archangel. The cold power born in the Cascade might battle him when he made such choices, but he had too many pieces of Elena in his blood for it to succeed.
He had not forgotten his earlier thoughts of godhood. Had he fallen for the sinuous whispers of the Cascade, would he have become a parasite akin to Lijuan? Would he have gone so far as to feed from Elena’s soulless facsimile? His gorge rose, rage a scalding burn through his blood.
“Yes,” he said past the ugliness of it. “Should you ever need my help, I will be there.” Such generosity and empathy did not come as easily to him as it seemed to come to Elijah, but he was well over three thousand years younger than the South American archangel so perhaps that was a kind of maturity that grew with age—if the seeds were present.
“Have you heard the news about China?” Elijah’s expression turned grim.
“The empty villages? Yes. My spymaster will be giving me a full briefing tonight—he returned from China only hours prior to my own return.”
“Mine flew homeward a week ago, and he reports signs of increasing vampiric unrest. They skitter in fear at the archangels who fly overhead but they know they are not under constant watch—and sanity falls when bloodlust rises.”
“I see Neha is currently on watch.” Prior to calling Elijah, Raphael had glanced at the updated oversight schedule sent through to Dmitri. “I do not think we have to fear rampant blood madness.” The Queen of Poisons, of Snakes had very little patience for such anarchy.
It was one of the regrets of Raphael’s life that his friendship with Neha had broken so badly in the aftermath of her daughter’s execution. Yet she hadn’t tried to take advantage of his absence, so perhaps all was not lost between them.
“No.” Elijah resettled his wings. “But when you speak to your spymaster, ask if he saw signs of unusual acti
vity among villagers in the most remote areas. My spymaster is convinced the villagers are not acting ‘human’ but he was unable to find any evidence that they are reborn.”
Zombies two-point-o, a pajama-clad Elena muttered into Raphael’s mind from where she sat on the sofa wrapped up in a soft blanket, out of sight of the screen; the Guild director had sent over a few more weapons for her from the Guild’s stores, and she was examining them to see if they’d suit, while buffing off any marks with a soft cloth and adding oil where it was needed. Of course our favorite batshit crazy archangel is creating creepy things even in her Sleep. Because the creepy, it never rests.
Raphael had to fight not to let his lips twitch. “I will pass on any information we have. Please give my consort’s regards to yours. She plans to write Hannah a letter soon.”
“Hannah will be most pleased to hear from her. Be well, Raphael.” Elijah signed off.
Raphael turned to his consort just as a black-winged shape landed on the balcony outside. They’d left the doors open to the glittering spectacle of Manhattan, for Elena drew strength from the sight of her city and the cool night air was a thing easily remedied. “Jason,” he said to his spymaster.
“Sire,” replied the member of his Seven who was the most difficult to read. “It is good to have you home.” Then, to Raphael’s surprise, he came close enough for them to clasp forearms and embrace in the way Raphael had done with Dmitri.
Jason was not an angel who embraced easily.
After they parted, Jason turned to Elena and the light caught on the lines and dots of the tribal tattoo that marked the left side of his face. “I am glad you are safe, Elena.” Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a small object. “I saw this in a market in China and bought it for when you woke.”
A startled blink before Elena took the oval-shaped article made of metal that had gone slightly green from age. It was a carved box, Raphael saw, the design raised and intricate. But this was a gift from a spymaster. “It contains a secret,” Raphael murmured, certain of his conclusion.
“Hmm.” Setting her jaw, Elena bent over the puzzle box. First, she pushed various parts of the box in one direction, then the other, one by one. When it remained locked, apparently nothing more than a pretty ornament, she began to push in two directions at once.
Nothing.
A narrow-eyed glance up at the angel who’d given her the gift, an angel with wings of a soft black as inky as the night, an angel who lived in the world of secrets and shadows. “Is there really a secret or are you and your archangel messing with me?”
“There is a secret.” Solemn words from a man who smiled rarely and most often with the princess who held his heart. “The trick is—”
“No, don’t tell me.” Lines on her forehead, her attention already back on the puzzle box. “You and Raphael talk while I figure it out.”
“Will you have a drink, Jason?” Angels of Jason’s level of power could no more become intoxicated than Raphael, but the taste was pleasing.
Jason inclined his head. “It has been a long day.”
But he would go home, flying longer still, of this Raphael had no doubt. “Mahiya did not come with you on this journey?” Jason had been training his princess in the techniques of a spy so she could accompany him on some missions at least—gentle Mahiya had put her foot down and stated that she intended to be his partner in every way . . . and that she missed him when he was gone.
Jason was not proof against such unhidden love, not after a lifetime of loneliness. “China is too dangerous,” he said to Raphael. “Mahiya agreed with me—she knows I would worry about her in such a place and has no wish to divide my attention.” He took the tumbler of amber liquid Raphael held out. “She grows in skill day after day. In the future, you will have a pair of spymasters, not only one.”
“Such an advantage will be welcome.” Raphael poured himself a drink, too. “I’ve just been speaking to Elijah.” He summarized Eli’s words about the villagers. “Did you notice any strange behavior?”
19
Nodding, Jason took a sip of his drink. “For the most part, they act as is normal, expected, but every so often, their bodies jerk—as if being pulled by invisible strings.”
“Told you—better, more improved zombies,” Elena muttered, her head bent over the puzzle box.
“An apt description,” Jason said. “These are not the dead turned reborn, but their eyes are not . . . what they should be. The irises appeared an intense black to me rather than even a very dark shade of brown. It is not a natural mortal hue.”
“Are they a threat?”
“At present, they appear to be going about their ordinary lives—farming for the most part. There is a chance it’s the same infection that took Favashi, but that it impacts mortals in a different way.” Jason’s wings rustled as he flared them out before folding them back in. “It could also be connected more immediately to Lijuan.”
Raphael sipped at his cognac as he considered Jason’s words. “If so, she has not gone into Sleep,” he said at last. “A Sleeping archangel cannot impact the world around her.”
“I have sent operatives to all of her strongholds. There is no sign of her or her most trusted people.”
“China is a vast land.”
“Yes, and she has held it for millennia—it’s possible she built a hiding place long before we were born. To be used only once, so it could never be known.”
“Ah-ha!” Elena’s triumphant cry caught both their attention.
Part of the puzzle box had come away from the center. As they watched, she pushed two specific spots using the edges of her nails and multiple other pieces snapped out from the box to reveal a set of tiny metal darts. The box itself had turned into a blower from which the darts could be shot.
Elena’s face was a study in wonder. “This is amazing, Jason! Raphael, check it out.”
Raphael examined the object with interest. “A great artisan put months of work into this.” It was a piece of art as well as a weapon.
Accepting it back, Elena picked up a dart using two fingernails. “I wonder if it still works. Can you throw me a disinfectant wipe from the stuff Nisia left behind?”
After Raphael did so, she sanitized the blower, then very delicately inserted a dart into the device.
Aiming it at the opposing wall, she blew.
The dart flew straight and true to come to a sudden stop in the wall. Small as it was, it was barely visible. Jason retrieved it. “I believe you need to poison the tips for full effectiveness as a weapon,” he said upon presenting it back to Elena.
“I’m totally going to do that. Never know when a secret poison dart might come in handy.” A brilliant smile. “Thank you, Jason. Though . . . it is a little terrifying that you picked up exactly the thing I would’ve coveted had I seen it.”
“I’m a spymaster,” Jason said. “It is my calling to notice such things.”
“Venom’s poison is potent.”
“Hah!” Elena laughed at Raphael’s suggestion. “I’m going to ask him.” Tipping out the darts onto a side table with extreme care, she began to clean and oil the moving parts of the device.
Jason, meanwhile, turned to give Raphael the rest of his report. His people had discovered more ghost villages devoid of life. “We haven’t yet found any bodies.” The spymaster also confirmed that the vampires were getting restless. “The smart ones have started to notice that the archangels never land in China—it’s made them bold.”
Jason’s words bathed Elijah’s earlier concern in a new light. Blood would flow like water should the massive number of the Made in China realize its soil was poisonous to the Cadre. “We have kept you long enough, Jason.” His spymaster’s task was to unearth the problems; Raphael and the Cadre were charged with discovering the answers. “It is time you turned your wings homeward to your princess.”
Incli
ning his head at Raphael, then Elena, Jason left as silently as he’d arrived. It wasn’t until after he was gone that Elena put down the puzzle box and said, “I didn’t know Jason liked me that much.”
“He is a hard angel to read, even for me, and I have known him nearly all his life.” All but the formative first years that had woven aloneness into Jason’s bones. “But never take Jason’s quietness for disinterest, Guild Hunter.” He ran his hand through the silk of her hair, the tiny feathers at the ends delicate yet strong.
Leaning her head against his thigh, she said, “You’ll have to do a rotation in China, won’t you?”
“Yes.” His gaze might’ve been on the glitter and lights of Manhattan, but it was a land of death and vanishings that he saw in his mind. “Mother stepped in during my absence and will continue to cover for me for the time being, but it cannot be for too long, or it will raise questions about my ability to do all that is required of an archangel.” Once that happened, war was inevitable.
Ice wove through his veins, the cold Cascade power eager for violence.
* * *
• • •
The next day, Elena learned that, despite her lack of wings, her DNA was “mostly” angelic, though that was only an interim result; her DNA was fluctuating and transforming from hour to hour.
“Frankly, Elena, you’re weird.” Lucius, calm and gentle, threw up his hands.
She laughed; it was either laugh or cry and she’d cried all the tears she was going to—now it was time to kick the future’s ass. “Is that your official diagnosis?”
“My official diagnosis is that you’re definitely immortal. The rest is subject to change.” The soft yellow of his wings rippled in unfamiliar agitation. “Also, you have strange glowing cells inside you. Come look through the microscope.”
Striding over to the device, she put her eye to the viewer. A happily glowing cell floated by, followed by one that looked normal to her non-scientist eyes. Drawing back, she checked the skin of her hands. “I’m not glowing. I stopped sometime last night.”