by Nalini Singh
Raphael had no disagreement with her idea, but, gripping her chin gently, he held the silver-gray of her gaze. “Do not permit yourself to be separated from me this night.” The situation was too volatile, the risks deadly. “I would declare war should anyone do you harm, and the entire immortal world knows that fact.”
* * *
Two hours into it and the ball was extremely . . . civilized. Elena, her senses hyperalert, was almost disappointed that everyone proved to be on their best behavior—even Michaela. The archangel had chosen a dress in dazzling crimson, the cut caressing her every curve, her curls glossy and lush down her back, her eyes made up with sweeps of bronze and gold; it was impossible to deny her sheer, painful beauty.
Of course, that beauty didn’t make her any less of a bitch.
“Raphael,” she said with a sensual smile. “We parted badly and I was at fault. You must not be angry with me”—a pout—“we have always been meant to be intimate friends.”
Pointedly ignored by the female archangel and happy about that fact, Elena focused on drawing in Michaela’s scent. All she picked up was the complex notes of a lush perfume . . . then there it was, that bright splash of acid hidden deep.
I can definitely sense Uram in her.
Can you judge the depth of the infection?
No. Her angel-sense was nascent at best; the fact that she could pick up anything at all from Michaela was likely due to the fact that Uram had been a bloodborn angel. Bloated with the toxin that turned humans into vampires and was meant to be purged at regular intervals through the Making process, he’d gone truly insane, becoming a monster more vicious than any vampire, his thirst for blood and death unquenchable.
After Michaela, they ran into Elijah and Hannah, followed by Titus, then Favashi. Neither Elena nor Raphael had any suspicions about Elijah, but she took a scent reading nonetheless. Nothing. The other two archangels didn’t register on Elena’s senses, either, but that might not mean anything. When Astaad, with his dark eyes and neatly trimmed goatee, lifted her hand to his mouth, her mind flashed to what his own hands must’ve done mere months ago, when he’d beaten one of his concubines to a pulp.
That brutal act would’ve made Elena want to cut off the hands in question, but according to Raphael’s own experience in Astaad’s territory, while the other male was a harsh and often cruel ruler, he adored his women, spoiling them to outrageous levels. No one had ever before seen him raise so much as his voice to any one of them, and the general belief was the aberration had been connected either to the Cascade or to the disruption caused by Caliane’s Awakening. So while it wasn’t easy, Elena tried to keep an open mind when it came to the male archangel.
As soon as the formalities were complete, she turned her attention to the vampire by his side. The woman’s eyes were a haunting darkness, her rich brown skin and striking features placing her ancestry in the Pacific Islands that were Astaad’s domain, her beauty so refined as to be unearthly. An old vampire, her exquisiteness the result of centuries of subtle change.
Smiling, she said, “I’m Elena.”
The other woman’s eyes widened. “I am Mele,” she responded after a quick glance at Astaad that put Elena’s instincts on alert—except that Mele didn’t look again in the archangel’s direction.
They ended up speaking for over a half hour, discovering common ground between Mele’s long-term study of vampiric soldiers and Elena’s experience as a hunter. At one point, Elena confessed, “I feel like an idiot.”
“If I have said a—”
“No.” Elena shook her head. “I had this mental image of a ‘concubine’”—she’d asked Raphael if it was polite to use that term, been told yes—“and you just smashed it to smithereens.” The other woman was a scholar who spoke languages Elena hadn’t even known existed until Mele mentioned them.
“Ah.” An open smile that made her more stunning than Michaela would ever be. “You’ll no doubt meet others who are the ornamental pieces you expected, but my archangel has always valued intelligence and spirit. All his women are thus.”
Comfortable with the other woman, Elena whispered, “Do you ever get jealous of one another?”
A laugh. “They are my sisters of the heart. I cannot be jealous of myself.”
Raphael, in case you’re getting ideas—I won’t be this civilized if you decide you need a concubine. In fact, it’s a good bet I’ll turn homicidal.
He didn’t look up from his conversation with Astaad as he said, A pity, in that cool “Archangel” tone of his. I will now have to ask the pilot to empty the hold of my chosen females.
We’re going to have to talk about this new sense of humor of yours. Smiling in spite of her private warning, she continued chatting to Mele, while Raphael and Astaad subtly tried to extract each other’s secrets while giving away none of their own.
After they parted ways, Raphael placed his hand possessively on her lower back, her wing below his arm. “I think you have made a friend of Astaad.”
“Astaad? I spent the whole time talking to Mele.”
“You are consort to an archangel, and yet you treated his most favored concubine with true respect. Even many mere angels consider concubines beneath their notice.”
So many layers to angelic society, she thought, so much that made no sense to her. “Astaad and Mele are obviously attached to one another.” Love existed there, perhaps not love as she and Raphael understood it, but love nonetheless. “I’m guessing they have a healthier relationship than Neha had with her consort.”
“No doubt.” His eyes focusing on someone up ahead, his lips curving in a way that went well beyond simple politeness. “Tasha.”
23
“Raphael.” The angel in front of them had slanted eyes of vivid green and wings of silken copper against hair of darkest scarlet, her nearly translucent skin showcasing her otherwise vivid coloring to dramatic effect. Reaching up as Raphael bent down, the act appearing familiar to them both, the stranger pressed her lips to Raphael’s cheek in a soft caress.
“And this,” she said, turning to Elena with a deep smile, “must be your consort. I am honored to meet you.”
“Tasha is a friend from long ago,” Raphael explained, a warmth to him she hadn’t seen with any other female angel. “We played in Amanat as children.”
“Do you remember when we decided to raid every fig tree in the city?” Musical laughter, sparkling eyes. “Your mother was so cross, she made us plant ten fig trees each. I can still see you with the shovel, your face streaked with dirt and leaves stuck in your hair.”
The gorgeous image of Raphael as a mischievous boy made Elena smile, even as her instincts cautioned her to be wary. Unlike Michaela, who made no effort to hide her desire for Raphael and contempt for Elena, Tasha was all warmth and laughter . . . while subtly reminding Raphael they had a history together that Elena couldn’t match.
The depth of her sudden dislike made Elena pause, wonder if she was being fair . . . but then Tasha put her fingers on Raphael’s forearm as she brought up another shared memory. Elena didn’t play games like this, and in any other situation, she would’ve called the woman on it, but there were far more important things in play tonight. Still, she wasn’t sorry to see the back of Tasha when the other angel was called away by a friend.
Raphael’s head jerked up without warning a second later. “Lijuan is here.”
Looking up, Elena saw nothing but starlight. “You can sense her?”
It appears my ability has another aspect.
An instant later, the sky kind of . . . rolled overhead, akin to a heat wave in a desert. Then an angel with wings of flawless dove gray and hair of pure white, her dress an ethereal black, was landing in the center of the courtyard in a graceful descent. The crowd gasped, tension crawling across the large space like the blood Lijuan so often brought with her.
Stay with me, Elena. Raphael cut through the frozen mass of guests, his target not Lijuan but Caliane.
The blade from
her thigh sheath already discreetly in hand, Elena made sure to keep Lijuan in her line of sight as they moved through the gathering. Will your mother take this as a hostile act? Elena wouldn’t blame her if she did.
It’s a possibility. She may, however, decide upon chill politeness.
Here’s hoping for a win for angelic etiquette. Two seconds later and they were there.
Caliane’s face a mask of icy fury, she acknowledged Raphael with a glance before stepping out into the now empty—but for the single uninvited guest—center of the courtyard.
“You do not observe the rules of Guesthood.” Caliane’s words were coated in frost and when Elena’s breath misted in front of her, she realized the drop in temperature wasn’t only metaphorical.
Lijuan smiled, her hair flying back from her face in a wind that affected nothing else. “On the contrary.” She raised a hand. “I bring you a gift.”
Ten winged warriors landed behind her with military precision, all dressed in dark gray with Lijuan’s red symbol on their chests.
Raphael stepped toward his mother. Elena.
Understanding the message, she came to a stop slightly behind and to the left of Caliane, while Raphael flanked the Ancient on her right. As if they’d been waiting for exactly that, a squadron of fighters in the midnight blue of Caliane’s forces landed behind them.
“The gift,” Caliane said, actual frost beginning to coat the hem of Elena’s dress and the tips of her wings, “is unsuitable and must be declined.” It sounded like a rote response, except that Caliane’s razored voice had come a hairsbreadth from slicing flesh.
“A pity. They are a well-trained unit.” Smile deepening against skin so thin Elena could see her skull beneath, Lijuan didn’t break eye contact with Caliane.
Elena wondered if Raphael’s mother heard the screams she always did when looking into those pearlescent eyes, as if Lijuan held within her a thousand trapped souls.
“I,” Lijuan continued, “also bring reparation for the damage I did your city on my previous visit.”
Two of her men carried forward a chest, opening it to reveal a pirate’s ransom in gold and gemstones. “A sign of my goodwill.”
“The damage done cannot be so easily repaired,” was Caliane’s frigid response. “The breach is final.”
Audible gasps, the guests closest to the confrontation flinching as if in anticipation of violence.
Elena tightened her grip on her blade, her fingers chilled but functional. Raphael?
My mother has just told Lijuan that no matter how long they live, there can never be anything but enmity between them.
Not a surprise, and nothing that explained the panic she could see on the faces of those who stood nearby. It’s not done to say it so bluntly?
Not unless one side is anticipating another betrayal.
Oh. Caliane, she realized, had just called Lijuan a liar in front of a crowd of the most powerful angels and vampires in the world.
Lijuan’s smile didn’t fade, but Elena saw a slick of black begin to crawl across the eerie paleness of her irises. “It disappoints me to hear that.”
“It disappoints me to have to say it, but your welcome was also a steep disappointment.”
Another round of flinches, but this time Elena had caught the insult buried in what seemed, at first, an incomprehensible statement. She’s talking about the fact Lijuan attacked her right after she rose from her thousand-year Sleep.
The crashing sea of Raphael touching her mind, clean and strong and wild. It’s a shadowy line, so not all may agree, but it was a questionable act at best.
You might want to warn your mother that Lijuan is batshit, won’t play by the rules.
I did so this morning. Do you have other weapons aside from the blade on your arm?
Another knife, but I can easily take a sword from the vampires strutting around with them as fashion statements. Long swords weren’t her weapon of choice, but Galen had drilled her until she could fight with them in a pinch. For future reference, I am never, ever going to a ball again without a crossbow and a flamethrower.
I do not think there will be any further such events until the Cascade is over.
Spreading her feet a fraction farther apart under the skirts of her dress, Elena positioned herself to spin out and grab the sword of the poppycock to her left at the first sign of trouble. But then Lijuan unfolded her wings in a whispering sweep. “I welcome you to my territory. I am certain the breach can be mended.” Her liftoff was silent, as was that of her squadron, the silence so thick, Elena knew it for another blatant display of power.
Raphael lifted off at the same instant, Caliane’s squadron at his back as they tracked Lijuan out of the territory. Naasir is close to you, Elena. Do not stray too far from him.
Recalling his words from before the ball and recognizing the worry behind the autocratic order, she said, I won’t. Be careful.
The air warmed around her, the frost melting away to nothing as Caliane turned, her eyes liquid blue flame. And although Elena knew she was beyond outclassed in the power stakes, she continued to flank Caliane when Raphael’s mother moved through the crowd with elegant grace. Tasha fell in on Caliane’s other side, and in her hand was a gleaming sword—held in a grip that said she knew how to use it and use it well.
“My lovers have always been warrior women.”
The realization slammed into her with the force of a hammer blow, just as Caliane met Elena’s gaze for a fleeting second . . . and inclined her head in the slightest nod of acknowledgment.
* * *
Raphael returned deep into the ball, having escorted Lijuan to the sea border.
The rest of the gathering was drama free, the revelry going on till the early hours of the morning. To Elena, the celebrating had the feel of desperation, as if the ordinary angels and the vampires knew war hovered on the horizon and were aware that in a fight between behemoths, it was the weaker who’d become cannon fodder.
Caliane bid them good night sometime after three a.m. and retired to her bed, accepting the escort of a man with the same green eyes as Tasha. Elena and Raphael stayed an hour longer as she’d asked them to act as hosts in her stead, the pain of Kahla’s loss clearly weighing heavily on her once more.
“Keir?” Elena asked, once they’d left the courtyard and the final revelers to their play.
“He has just reached the body. I have Naasir and Isabel standing watch while he examines Kahla.”
Around them, Amanat didn’t slumber, but instead settled into a romantic quietness as couples and small groups strolled through its softly lit beauty, leaving one another alone for the most part. Running her fingers along the carvings that decorated the wall to her left, Elena thought of the body that lay so close to the city, the death that had almost engulfed Caliane’s people, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“I’ve also advised my mother to reinitiate the energy shield for the time being.”
Lijuan, Elena remembered, could get through that shield, but it was impermeable to an ordinary angel, which would leave Lijuan fighting alone against Caliane and her forces. Not something the Archangel of China would risk. “How does your mother do that? The shield, I mean.”
“Alexander could also create such a thing, so perhaps it’s a gift that comes with age. He, too, is an Ancient and now Sleeps.” He spread his wing across hers in a silent signal that he wanted her closer.
The familiar intimacy unlocked the questions twisting her up. “Tell me about Tasha.”
“Her parents were warriors who served my mother. They have once more returned to Amanat—you saw her father offer Caliane his arm as she left tonight.”
Surprised, Elena met his eyes, the heartbreaking blue intense even in the soft shadows of night-not-yet-become-morning. “She didn’t take them into Sleep?”
“No. It was their task to watch over me should my mother ever disappear or die.” His wings glittered in the lamplight that fell from an open window. “Even in her escalating madne
ss, she thought to leave guardians I could trust. Avi and Jelena were—are—to her what my Seven are to me, and though it was the Hummingbird to whom I chose to give my trust, that does not say anything of my deep respect for Avi and Jelena.”
The tie between Raphael and Tasha, Elena realized, went far deeper than a simple physical love affair. “You grew up with Tasha.” Was connected to the other woman by thousands of fragments of time.
“We played through Amanat like wild creatures.” Turning left, he led her to the field of bluebells beside the pond where they’d first seen Caliane. “She remained my friend as we grew, but childhood’s end took us on different paths.”
The area in front of Elena had become a wonderland of shimmering night plants hidden by the bluebells during the day, a silver oasis undiscovered by the others who walked in the city, but she couldn’t concentrate on the wonder of it. “You met again as adults, though, didn’t you? You were lovers.”
“Hundreds of years ago.”
Walking to the edge of the pond, she fought her habit of pretending things didn’t matter when they did, and admitted the truth. “I knew I’d run into one of your lovers sooner or later. I just never expected the first one to be so impressive.”
Raphael thought of the centuries he’d lived growing increasingly remote from the world, the power at his command eating away at the boy he’d once been, and knew Elena didn’t understand the piercing depths of who and what she was to him. Tasha, scholar and warrior, was a friend, but she’d seen the surface of him and been content with that.
In all his existence, Elena alone had torn at that surface, heedless of the risk, until she revealed the man beneath the archangel. And Elena alone had challenged his decisions and his views, forcing him to look at the world in a way he’d never before considered. “There is no comparison,” he said to the only woman he’d ever claimed for his own. “You know me in ways no one else ever has or ever will again.”