Illium helpfully pointed out the correct directions.
Holly turned, concentrated, but shook her head. "Nothing," she said. "But the second I go back along this line"--she angled herself toward the heart of Michaela's territory again . . . and the glow pulsed--"there."
She turned away to rub at her chest. "It's as if I'm tied to something with an invisible thread and it's pulling me closer. It's getting increasingly difficult to fight the urge to head that way."
Venom ran her tail of rainbow-colored hair through his fist. "Do we need to reloca--"
"No." A scowl up at him, her voice firm. "No more running. I need to know what this is, and I need to face it." She looked across to Dmitri. "I want permission to leave the territory and follow the pull, wherever it leads."
Dmitri held her gaze for a long time before shifting his attention to Venom and Illium. "Security assessment?"
"New York will be fine without me," Venom said, because they all knew Dmitri wouldn't authorize Holly to head into another archangel's territory on her own. "The squadrons are strong, and you have access to both Janvier and Trace." Neither vampire was as powerful as Venom, but together, they came close.
"And," Illium said, "if we are going to send our small kitten into Michaela's territory, what better time than when Her Beauteousness is absent?"
"It's possible that Michaela parted ways with the Cadre," Dmitri pointed out.
Illium shook his head. "No, I can't see it. Michaela would never permit such a large gathering of power to occur without her."
Looking back over her shoulder, Honor met Dmitri's eyes. No words passed between them, but the leader of the Seven put his hand on his wife's shoulder. "If you leave now"--his gaze catching both Holly and Venom--"you can probably beat Michaela back to her territory."
Adrenaline punched through Venom's blood, but the leader of the Seven wasn't finished. "You've both got reckless streaks," he said bluntly. "But this is an archangel we're talking about--you could be the two most powerful vampires in the universe and you couldn't take her down. Don't be stupid." An order. "And don't try to deal with something that you simply can't."
"Reckless doesn't mean suicidal," Venom said to the other man. "As you'd know."
Dmitri's smile was that of the man who'd raced them through the streets of Manhattan. "Stay under the radar. We don't want to incite a political incident." A pause before he added, "If she comes to harm, Venom, I'll take it out on you."
Beside Venom, Holly scowled, but Venom nodded.
*
Holly couldn't believe it. She hadn't imagined the entire conversation with Dmitri. She was actually on a high-speed jet that was about to land in Michaela's territory. The pilots had gone in the direction she pointed, and not eased up on their speed until Holly told them they were nearly at the point to which she felt drawn.
Not Budapest after all, but the mountain range prior to it. Where Michaela had a hidden and far more private stronghold than her stately showpiece of a palace on the Danube.
The knowledge was an eager, dark whisper in her head.
Glancing at Venom while trying not to listen to the words spoken by that mad voice, she said, "How did you find a landing strip so close to Michaela's stronghold?"
"We didn't." Venom rose from his seat. "The plane is going to keep going on a path that leads to an international airport. Officially, they're here to pick up an artist from Raphael's territory, a woman who was permitted to come to Michaela's territory to study under a master."
"Then how are we--" Holly stared at the backpacklike thing he held up with a wicked grin. "Is that a parachute?"
"I hope so, kitty. Or we'll have a long fall."
"Not funny." She went and stared some more at the thing. "No, seriously?"
"Naasir gave me the idea." Another grin, his eyes brilliant and unshielded. He was dressed in camouflage green cargo pants and a black T-shirt, along with combat boots; it was the most casual she'd ever seen him outside the training ring.
It was ridiculous how good he looked. Wild.
Then he put on the parachute backpack and did up the straps across his chest.
"Where's mine?" Holly put her hands on her hips and began to tap her boot-clad foot. "If you're planning to leave me here, I'll deck you."
"Do you know how to jump out of a plane?"
"Well . . . no." She scowled at him when he pulled out another harness.
"Come on, then, Hollyberry." That grin just kept digging its way further and further under her skin. "Let's get you ready."
Ten minutes after that dangerous invitation, Holly found herself jumping out into the ink-black skies above the lightless dark of the uninhabited land below, while harnessed to an insane vampire who laughed when they tumbled out into the cold air. "Oh my God!" She'd always wondered what it would be like to fly.
They raced through the air, Venom having told her how to hold her body during each phase of the jump. He gave the countdown in her ear. "Brace for the tug," he said just before he opened the chute and they swung up a little before gliding back down through the silken darkness. When Holly looked up, she couldn't see the parachute canopy except as a patch of darker blackness against black.
It made sense now that Venom had asked her to dress in black, and to wear long sleeves. His skin tone blended better than hers.
They hit the ground with a smoothness she hadn't expected. She was unclasped seconds later, Venom pulling in the chute with a speed that told her this was far from his first jump. She watched the deathly quiet of the landscape around them while he finished. It looked like they'd landed on top of a small and flat mountaintop.
The landing area wasn't that large, so she had no idea how Venom had pinpointed it in the dark.
Those beautiful eyes.
The plateau proved to drop off into a steep gorge about thirty feet to the south. When Holly looked down in the hope of spotting their supply packs, which had been dropped behind them, she had the sense of dense foliage, the same as grew in every other direction surrounding their landing spot.
No visible sign of the packs.
When she turned to look back at Venom, she belatedly realized that this "plateau" was just a ledge that jutted out from a much larger mountain. And she had the feeling they were going up. "I can't see the packs down there." Taking out the little tracking device Venom had given her on the plane, she switched it on.
Two quiet, blinking dots appeared on the grid.
Holly blew out a relieved breath. "Both are higher up on the mountain."
"Good. We can get them on the way." Venom hid the chute under a bramble of some kind, ignoring the resulting bloody scrapes on his arms. "Do you feel anything?"
Holly shook her head, her braid sliding across her back. She'd taken off her black knit cap for now, stuffing it into a back pocket--even with the crescent moon, there wasn't enough light for the colors in her hair to shine and betray their presence. "I haven't felt a directional pull since I told you we were at the right spot to jump. Do you think we drifted too far?"
"No. I think it's"--the faint brush of his fingers over her breastbone--"satisfied now that you're headed where it wants you to go." He began to climb up the mountainside. "Only way to find out for sure is to infiltrate Michaela's stronghold." A dangerous smile over his shoulder. "Haven't you always wanted to risk death and torture at the hands of an archangel?"
Holly grinned. "Let's do it."
The moment of levity faded quickly, the two of them becoming more wary the higher they got in the darkness. It wasn't the darkness itself--Holly and Venom were both creatures who had no fear of the night. It was what that darkness might conceal. This was the heart territory of an archangel, after all. Michaela had many residences, but, according to Dmitri, this one was considered her most private retreat.
"Stop." Holly checked the device again. "We're almost on top of a backpack."
Venom looked around. "Got it." He grabbed the pack from on top of a bush. "It's yours."
&
nbsp; They located his larger pack two minutes later.
Sliding away the device, she continued to walk with him through the massive old trees. Their large canopies meant there wasn't too much undergrowth. When Venom held up a hand, she froze. He looked up. Following his gaze, she saw nothing . . . but heard the distinctive sound of wings in the air.
They pasted themselves against the closest tree trunk.
The angel passed overhead seconds later. He was skimming the tops of the trees, clearly doing a patrol. A single pale feather drifted down to lie against the toe of Holly's boot right before he flew out of view.
Her heart thundered. "That was close."
"We have to be more careful. We must've hit the secure border." Venom began to walk nearer the trunks of the ancient trees, using their shadows to conceal himself.
Holly had no hesitation in copying him. He'd had a lot more training than her. They flowed through the forest like ghosts, dropping to the ground to make their profiles smaller the instant the sound of wings whispered on the air.
A half hour, and they had bare minutes between each drop. "They know we're here." She'd pulled on her knit cap twenty minutes earlier and stuffed her hair underneath, just in case.
"Something's certainly stirred up security." Lifting his finger to his lips a few minutes later, Venom slipped behind a tree after nodding at her to do the same.
Holly went motionless in a way most human beings couldn't do. Dmitri had been very clear that they weren't to get caught or to leave behind any evidence of their presence. Raphael did not need a war with Michaela. So neither one of them could take out the vampire prowling the woods unless they did it in a way that could never be linked back to Raphael.
As a result, Holly stayed immobile, even when the vampire guard passed within a foot of her tree. She closed her eyes, in case they were glowing, and she surrendered to the thing inside her, the otherness that knew instinctively how to evade detection. She'd fought that surrender for a long time, believing she might not come back from it, but tonight, her resistance could get them discovered.
So she gave in.
And could feel herself literally fucking disappearing, her awareness overlaid with a layer of acidic green that made her stomach roil because it was a silent indication that she wasn't in any way human. She knew that. Of course she knew that. But . . . she liked to pretend sometimes.
A movement she felt as a change in the air around her.
She opened her eyes a sliver and saw that Venom had stepped out from his tree. And, that quickly, she was visible again. Relief kissed her blood. He paused a second before waving her forward. She moved, flowing in the darkness behind him in a fashion that wasn't like him, but worked. He was sinuous, a cobra snaking its way through unfamiliar territory with silent ease. She was a creature of the night, a bat with silent wings.
Great, thought the part of her that was still Holly. Now she was imagining herself as a bat. When was the sonar going to kick in?
An alert pinged off her consciousness. Oh, no fucking way.
Reaching forward, she touched her fingers to Venom's shoulder. His muscles flexed as he came to a total halt. She shifted so that she was pressed against his front and he had his ear right next to her mouth. "There's a group up ahead. Maybe five."
27
Venom didn't ask her how she knew. That was good, because she wasn't ready to tell him she might be a human bat. Real sexy, that. He just pointed right. She looked that way and felt no sensation of danger, of a presence. "Safe."
They went right, moving away from their destination for at least ten minutes before angling back, hopefully to come up behind the guards prowling the woods. It left them crouching higher up on the mountain, hidden in the night shade of a thick-trunked tree whose branches rustled in the wind. Holly looked up, loving the feel of the wind on her skin, loving how the canopy moved in the night.
"There."
Glancing back behind them, she followed Venom's pointing finger. It took her several seconds to spot what he already had--the men and women creeping about lower down the slope, stealth in the way they held their bodies. Probably vampires.
Holly smiled. "Let's go before they realize we slipped the net."
A dangerous grin.
And they were moving again, two creatures designed for this environment. Not like a tiger was designed for a forest. No, they were the shadows that whispered behind the tiger, unseen, unnoticed. The climb was hard, and Holly felt it in her calves, in the backs of her thighs--especially when the acid green that had lingered in her vision since the eerie but awesome invisible trick faded from view.
Damn. Turned out she was human enough that she couldn't just slither her way up a mountain with boneless ease. "Do you have bones made of jelly?" she muttered to Venom when they paused to make sure there were no threats up ahead.
"No. Spaghetti."
Holly nearly snorted out a laugh.
Hitting him lightly on the shoulder with a fisted hand, she took the bottle of water he handed her. They drank from the same one rather than risk the faint sounds of opening a second bottle. Then, skin flushed with heat and her blood pumping, the two of them carried on across unfamiliar territory.
When her senses pinged once more, she just glanced at Venom and pointed in another direction, and they went that way. More climbing, more changes in direction, sweat beading on her brow despite the cold night air.
The stronghold appeared out of the darkness in a shock of light.
Holly had been so focused on avoiding vampires and hiding from angels that she hadn't put much mind to how close they were to their target . . . or that Michaela had been the muse of artists across the centuries, many of whom had worshipped her.
Her stronghold was as beautiful as its mistress.
It rose up out of the primeval forest like a castle built for a queen. Delicate spires and spiraling walkways, a white stone that glowed even in the scant light of the stars and the small crescent moon. The light within was a soft gold, the angels she could see landing on the high balconies graceful silhouettes that made her heart ache.
A flag flew from the highest point of the highest tower. Probably Michaela's emblem. Just barely visible from their position were the exquisitely maintained gardens that wove in and out through the stronghold. There were dark patches, too. Probably water, ponds or pools of some kind.
"I'd heard it was a wonder, Michaela's home of the heart," Venom murmured. "But this is unexpected."
Holly's own heart was too full of the beauty of what she was seeing to speak. An artist had spent years creating this, piece by piece, and their work had been cherished through time. The stronghold showed no signs of neglect or ill use. It made Holly furiously curious about what lay within, what wonders and beauties. She'd had such good times inside, and Michaela's laughter, it had ensnared him until he'd been--
Holly didn't hesitate. She shoved up her sleeve and deliberately bit down on her forearm, hard enough to draw blood.
Venom's head jerked toward her, his eyes narrowing. "Problem?"
She bit down even harder, until the pain had chased the last of the fog from her mind. When she looked at the stronghold again, it hadn't turned into a squat ugliness, was still graceful beyond compare--but she could admire it without being overwhelmed.
Releasing her abused forearm, she took several deep breaths. "Was Uram intimate with Michaela?" She hadn't lived in the immortal world then, but she could vaguely remember an article in a magazine dedicated to immortal gossip. A reporter had written a gushing piece about how Uram and Michaela made the ultimate "power couple."
"That's a very specific question, kitty," Venom murmured. "The answer is, yes. He was her lover before he became bloodborn."
Holly dug her fingers into the earth where they crouched. "He loved her," she whispered. "He saw her scheming mind and pitiless ambition, but he loved her anyway." A wet heat burned her eyes. "When she laughed, he thought eternity might not be so full of ennui after all."
Venom closed one of his hands over hers, lifting it from the earth. "You have his memories?"
"Flashes only. Mostly of her laughing or smiling." She stared out at the stronghold. "I've never felt anything like this before from the otherness." It didn't surprise her when her chest began to hurt.
She didn't have to look down to know the wings had reappeared.
Turning so that the glow was blocked by Venom's body, she quickly shrugged off her pack and retrieved the outdoor jacket she'd packed for exactly this possibility. Once on and zipped up, it followed the lines of her body without bulking her up--most importantly, it was thick enough to block the glow.
"Okay?" she asked Venom to be sure.
He nodded, his hair sliding forward a little. "You can still feel it?"
"Oh, yeah." Slipping her pack back on after stuffing her knit cap in it, as the jacket had a hood, she squeezed her eyes shut for two long seconds. "I may become a liability if these memories take me over. He was consumed with her."
"Maybe Uram should remember that Michaela was probably the one who stoked up his ego to the point that he--" Venom cut himself off. "It's fucking irritating that you don't have the Tower clearance to know certain things."
"Tell me about it," Holly muttered. "Who do I have to sleep with to make that happen?"
Her question had been facetious, but Venom smiled slowly. "Let me get back to you on that."
She gave him the finger.
His smile deepened, and suddenly, she was back to being herself, Uram's memories held at bay. "Ready?"
A nod.
They flowed down the slight slope, then back up toward the stronghold. When Venom veered left, she didn't disagree. He was attempting to get them behind the stronghold, which made a lot of sense. The area directly in front of the stunning structure was clear lawn interrupted only by a fountain that created a delicate fall of sound.
Hopefully, the back would be better in terms of hiding places.
Holly hugged the ground when two angels passed by within seconds of each other. The only reason the angels hadn't spotted her and Venom was that they were in the narrow band of shade thrown by a foliage fence. Her heart drumming inside her chest, Holly padded along behind Venom, and when the green overlay appeared on her vision, she didn't fight it.