Page 9
She swallowed her gorge at that violent image. "That happen often?"
"No. Usually, the head is cut off and burned. Very few survive that. "
"How couldanyone survive?"
"Angels are resilient," he murmured, twisting to glide them back down.
"This place is huge," she said, glimpsing lights far in the distance. "How can no one know it exists?"
Raphael didnt answer until hed landed on the balcony outside their bedroom.
"Immortals may disagree on many things, but on this we are united - our Refuge must never be known to mortals. "
"Sara?" She clenched her fingers on his upper arms. "Did you do something to her mind?"
"No. " Eyes of endless, merciless blue stared down at her, eclipsing everything else. "But if she speaks of it, I must silence her and all those she tells. "
A cold knot formed in her stomach. "Even if that would break my heart?"
"Make sure she doesnt speak. " He cupped her cheek, his fingers cool from the night air.
"And that will not come to pass. "
She pushed away from him. This time, he let her go, let her walk to the end of the balcony and stare down into that ragged tear in the flesh of the earth. There were fewer lights now, as if the angels were bedding down for the night. "Im not part of your world, Raphael. Im still human inside - I wont sit back and let my friends be slaughtered. "
"I would expect no less. " He opened the doors. "Come, sleep. "
"How can you expect me to sleep after saying something like that?" Swiveling on her heel, she stared at him.
He glanced back, a being of such power that she still couldnt accept he loved her. But was an archangels love like a humans? Or did it cut deeper? Draw hearts-blood?
"I forget," he said, "that you are so very young. " Moving to her, he stroked his fingers down her temple, over her jaw. "Mortals fade, Elena. It is a simple truth. "
"So I should forget my friends, my family?"
"Remember them," Raphael said, "but also remember that one day, they wont be there. "
Grief was a wild-eyed beast inside of her. She couldnt imagine a world without Sara, without Beth. The ties she had with her younger sister mightve been eroded by the choices theyd both made, but that didnt mean Elena loved her any less. "I dont know if I have the courage to survive that kind of loss. "
"Youll find it when the time comes. "
The pain in his voice slid a dagger hilt deep into her own heart. "Who?"
She didnt really expect an answer. Raphael might be her lover, but he was also an archangel. And archangels had made an art form out of keeping secrets. So when he ran his knuckles down her face and said, "Dmitri," it took her several seconds to respond.
"He was Made against his will," she guessed, remembering the conversation shed once had with Dmitri about children. Had the vampire watched his children grow old? Had he lost a wife he loved?
Raphael didnt respond this time, nudging her into the bedroom. "You must rest or you wont be fit for flight by the time of the ball. "
She followed, shaken by the truth hed forced her to face.
Raphael placed his hands on her shoulders. "Undo the straps. " The heat of his body was a lush stroke against her, invisible, inescapable.
And that quickly, her wings were afire with sensation, with a need that obliterated all else. It took effort to breathe, to speak. "Raphael, are you inside my mind?" She was pulling out and undoing the straps that held the piece of fabric crisscrossed over her breasts even as she spoke.
"No. " Long, strong fingers playing over her collarbones, the dip of her breastbone.
"Such soft skin, Guild Hunter. "
Every inch of her seemed to burn with a thirst that couldnt be quenched. "Then whats happening to me?"
"You are still becoming. "
He slipped off her top, and she felt the rasp of every fine thread, shuddered against the fleeting brush of his fingertips.
"Do you know what I taste at the curve of your neck?" He pressed his lips over that very spot. "Fire and earth, spring windstorms cut by a hint of steel. "
She shivered, reaching back to tangle her hand in the heavy silk of his hair. "Is that how you see me?"
"Its who you are. " He moved his hand up the slope of her hip, a slow seduction that made her suck in her stomach in anticipation.
But nothing couldve prepared her for the shock of lightning that was his hand on her breast, his intent explicit. She couldnt help but watch, her entire being attuned to the merest shift of his.
Then he kissed her neck again and her senses splintered. Clenching the hand shed thrust into his hair, she spun around, cupping his face between her hands, taking that beautiful, cruel mouth with her own. The kiss was wild, full of the fury of her need, the savage possession of his. One male hand fell to her hip as the other gripped her neck, refusing to let her draw back.
Her breasts were crushed against the linen of his shirt, the texture deliciously - almost painfully - abrasive against her sensitized nipples. She bit his lip in revenge for what hed done to her. He bit her back, but he held the bite, releasing her flesh with a slow concentration that had her thighs pressing together in a burst of damp heat.
She went to slip her hand underneath his shirt. He caught her wrist. "No, Elena. "
"Im not that fragile," she said, frustrated. "Dont worry. "
His hand tightened on her wrist for a second before he dropped it and took a step back, breaking their connection. Ready to fight him for what she needed, she looked up . . . and froze. "Raphael. " Azure flames surged in those eyes, deadly as the angelfire hed thrown at Uram in that final, cataclysmic fight.
"Go to bed," he said in a tone of voice so calm it was a sheet of ice.
But the fire continued to burn. Feeling her heart spasm at the lethal edge of it, she wrapped her arms around her body, covering her breasts. She didnt know if she was protecting herself or him. "Will you come back?"
"Are you sure you want me to?" Hed turned and was through the balcony doors before she could answer.
She watched him take off into the infinite darkness of a mountain night, before closing the doors with fingers that had dug dark red crescents into her own skin and crawling into bed. But though she pulled every single one of the blankets over her, it took her a long time to stop shivering.
Shed thought shed known, had thought shed understood. But she hadnt. Ever since shed woken, shed been treating Raphael as if he was "safe. " Tonight, shed had a rude awakening. Raphael would never be safe. All it would take was one slip and he could kill her.
Was she strong enough to take that risk, that chance?
"Youve made me a little mortal. "
Hed said that to her the night shed shot him, the night hed bled so much that shed cried, her hands trembling as she attempted to stop the crimson flow of blood. Had he been afraid then? Did Raphael even understand fear? She didnt know, wasnt sure hed answer her if she asked.
Elena knew fear far too intimately. But, she thought, her muscles relaxing, she hadnt been afraid at the end. When her body lay shattered in Raphaels arms, she hadnt been afraid. And that was her answer.
Yes, she said speaking to Raphael, not knowing the strength of their mental connection, not sure how far itd reach. Yes, I want you to come back.
He didnt answer, and she didnt know if hed even heard her. But deep in the night, she felt the caress of lips against the curve of her neck, sensed the dark heat of a big male body curving around hers, her wings trapped in between . . . an indescribable intimacy between two angels.
Chapter 8
Elena woke alone, but there was a cup of coffee waiting for her on the nightstand - right next to Destinys Rose. Raphael had given her the priceless treasure - a sculpture carved impossibly from a single diamond - not long after they first met. She kept trying to return it, only to find it back on her bedside table the next morning.
Eyes on the gift, one that was
undeniably romantic, she struggled up into a sitting position and drew in the intoxicating scent of fresh coffee. However, shed hardly taken a sip when she felt it - the cool stroke of satin blended with the promise of a pain that would hurt oh-so-good.
"Dmitri. " Throat husky, she put down the cup and tugged the sheet above her breasts.
Just in time.
The vampire walked in with the most perfunctory of knocks. "Youre late for training. "
Her eye went to the envelope in his hand. "Whats that?"
"Its from your father. " He handed it over. "Be down in half an hour. "
She barely heard him, her eyes fixated on that envelope. What did Jeffrey Deveraux want now? "Ill be there. " Words forced out past the rocks in her throat.
Dmitri left her with a kiss of diamonds and cream, a sensual taunt that trapped the air in her throat, made her thighs press together in involuntary reaction. But the distraction was momentary. All too soon, she was alone, staring at the envelope as if it might grow fangs and strike. "Dont be a coward, Ellie," she told herself and reached out to slit it open. It was, she saw, addressed to her care of the Guild.
Her lips twisted. How he mustve hated that, having to go through his daughters filthy, inhuman occupation to get to her. Abomination . Thats what hed called her the final night shed spent under his roof. Shed never forgotten, would never forget.
Her fingers clenched on the enclosed letter as she almost ripped it from the envelope. For an instant, she didnt understand what she was seeing, then she did and her emotions crashed in a violent wave.
It wasnt from her father. The letter had come from the Deveraux family solicitors - a note advising her that theyd paid the fees for her storage unit out of courtesy for her fathers business, though the items in that unit now belonged solely to her.
The paper crumpled in her fist. Shed almost forgotten . . . no, that was a lie. Shed deliberately put the memory out of her mind. Her inheritance from her mother, she understood. Marguerite Deveraux had left Elena half her small personal estate, the other half going to Beth.
But the things in that storage unit . . . they were from Elenas childhood.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
"Come here, little hunter. Taste. "
Shoving aside the blankets with hands that wouldnt work right, she got out of bed, the letter lying abandoned on the sheets as she stumbled into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Her fingers slipped off the knob. Biting her lip hard enough to draw blood, she tried again. Finally, thankfully, the water came down in a soft, warm rain. It washed away the sleep, but nothing could erase the memories now that theyd awakened.
Ariel had been the best big sister any girl could want. Shed never once told Elena to go away, though Elena knew she must have been a pest with her constant need to know what was going on in her teenage sisters life. Mirabelle, the oldest of them all, had been more apt to snarl, but Belle had also taught Elena to play baseball, spending long, patient hours teaching her how to throw, how to catch.
Yin and Yang, her mother had called her two oldest. Ari was the sweetness, Belle the spice.
"Belle, where do you think youre going dressed like that?"