Archangels Kiss

Page 41

 

  "Thank you," she said politely as the reborn finished pouring.

  A small nod from the vampire who was so fresh, so new, he couldnt have been reborn long. His eyes - yes, there was something there, knowledge of who hed been, what he was now. But there was no panic in them. Perhaps the man didnt yet understand what hed become. Raphael waited as the reborn moved around to pour for him, even as the blue-eyed one poured for Lijuan.

  "A toast," Lijuan said, lifting the cup as the men began to transfer the food onto the table from a serving cart made of wood and gilded with gold. "To new beginnings. " Her eyes were on Elena.

  Raphael fought the primal urge to step in between, to protect Elena from a threat she had no hope of surviving . . . but then, he thought, his hunter had survived him. "To change,"

  he said.

  Lijuans gaze moved to him, but she didnt challenge the subtle difference in his toast.

  "That will do. " She waved a hand at the three men, and they left as silently as theyd arrived.

  "No audience?" Raphael passed Elena a small platter that held a sweet red bean cake he knew shed like.

  "Not today. " She watched Elena eat the cake hed given her. "Does food continue to hold pleasure for you, Raphael?"

  "Yes. " It was a simple answer. He was still rooted to this earth, to the world. "You no longer eat. " It was a guess, but he wasnt expecting her nod.

  "Its become unnecessary. " She sipped from the cup in her hand. "With friends, I make an effort, but . . . "

  He understood what she was saying. No archangel would ever starve to death, even if he or she stopped eating altogether. However, lack of sustenance would eventually begin to leach power. It might take years, perhaps decades, but the loss might well be permanent.

  An archangel couldnt afford to take that chance.

  Lijuan was telling him shed gone beyond that. Which brought up the question of how she was now gaining her power.

  "Blood and flesh?" he asked, conscious of Elena remaining uncharacteristically quiet beside him. Some wouldve said shed been cowed into silence. He knew very well that she was listening, honing her knowledge, making note of any possible weakness.

  "That would be a devolution," Lijuan said, her hair feathering as if caressed by ghostly fingers, "and I am evolving. "

  Elena waited until they were behind the closed doors of their bedroom before giving in to the shivers. "Shes . . . what is she?"

  "Power in its purest form. " Walking to the painted wooden doors that led to their private courtyard and balcony, he spread them open. "Come. The air will cleanse. "

  She took the hand he held out, let him lead her into the crisp winter air. The Forbidden City spread out like a sea of multicolored stars before her, dancers still swirling gracefully in the main courtyard as music played, haunting, evocative, beautiful enough to bring tears to the eye.

  Standing in the circle of Raphaels arms, her head against his shoulder, her arms around him, she took her first real breath in hours. Her lungs sucked in the air as if parched, her throat seeming to unlock with a quiver of relief. "That music - what is it?"

  "Theehru . "

  For long, quiet moments, they just stood there, letting the music soak into their bones.

  Elena was the one who spoke first. "You dont think she steals power from others?"

  "No. " Raphael stroked his hands over her wings, and the rush of sensation was welcome, a reminder that she was real, nothing like the creature whod sat across from them in that room full of silence. "If she could do that, her courtiers wouldnt be so healthy. Lijuan has always first played in her own territory. "

  "Like with the reborn. " She shivered again, slipped her hand under his shirt to touch the uncompromising masculine heat of his skin. "That vampire - he smelled of sunshine and paint. He was new . . . fresh. "

  "He thinks hes been given a second chance," Raphael said, remembering the loyalty in that dark gaze as it had swung to Lijuan.

  "When do they start to rot?" she forced herself to ask.

  "Jason is almost here. " He could sense his spymaster getting ever closer. "Hell have the most recent information - but from what we know, it depends not only on the amount of power she expends, but on what she feeds them. "

  "Flesh," she whispered. "Human?"

  "Or vampire. It seems to have little significance. " Thered been no reports of angels being sacrificed for Lijuans pets, but Raphael wouldnt put that depravity past the oldest of the archangels.

  Elenas head lifted up at that instant. "Storms," she whispered. "Jason smells of the wildest of rainstorms, lightning and fire. "

  "Has the new aspect of your ability stabilized?"

  "No. " Her eyes followed Jasons descent from the sky, though the black-winged angel was but a shadow. "It switches on and off. Mostly off. " She pressed her lips to Raphaels jaw. "But you, youve always been the rain, the wind, inside my mind. I taste you when I sleep, when I wake, when I breathe. "

  If Jason hadnt landed then, Raphael would have drawn Elena inside, taken his fill of her own unique scent. As it was, he ran his hand to close over her nape, brushing his mouth over the sweet curve of her ear. I will taste you tonight, Elena . Be ready for me - I wont stop until you scream your pleasure.

  He heard her heart hitch, her breath catch. But his hunter had never yet backed down from a challenge. Anytime, angel boy.

  Chapter 34

  "Sire. " Jason folded his wings behind him and waited for permission to speak.

  Raising his head, Raphael nodded in greeting. "Come, well talk inside. " Lijuans strange sense of honor would ensure their living space was free of spies - real and technological. Shed consider it beyond the pale to intrude upon her guests privacy.

  Inside, Elena leaned up against the dresser as Raphael and Jason stood in front of it. The angels tattoo was almost totally re-inked, a piece of living art that covered the left-hand side of a face and spoke of ancestry from lands far distant from one another. The story of Jasons parents was considered one of the great angelic romances. And for a while, it had been.

  "Were your men able to discover anything else?" he asked his spymaster.

  "Whatever it is that she kept in that room in her stronghold," the black-winged angel told him, his voice crystal clear, perfectly pitched, "it has been shifted here. "

  "One of the reborn?"

  "Yes, but a special one - extreme care has been taken to protect it on the way here. " That perfect pitch altered just enough to telegraph Jasons revulsion. "There are reports of young women missing along the caravan route. "

  "Shes feeding her reborn with the living?" Killing humans was no taboo, but for this, in this way . . . it might disgust even Charisemnon.

  "We havent been able to find any remains to confirm," Jason said. "But the disappearances match the caravan route - and had they wanted the dead, bodies had recently been interred in all the villages. "

  "Lijuan is considered a goddess," Raphael said, remembering another time, another angel turned god. "The villagers wouldve raised no complaint. "

  "No. " Jasons jet- black hair, unbound, caught the light as he bent his head, took a deep breath. "That isnt the worst of it. "

  "Theres more?" Elenas voice was openly shocked.

  Jason raised his head. "There are rumors, strong rumors, that those mortals in her inner court who werent chosen to be Made . . . "

  "Dear God," Elena whispered. "Theyre asking to be reborn?"

  "It seems they are being seduced by the newer reborn," Jason confirmed. "The ones whore being kept long- term in a physical state akin to life by being fed flesh. "

  "The young or the old?" Raphael asked.

  "Older - but I dont think thatll last. " Jason shook his head.

  "Why?" Elena looked at Raphael, her eyes uncomprehending. "They must know or guess that theyll likely have much shorter lifespans than if theyd allowed nature to take its course. "

  Jason answered before Raphael could.
"Its the promise of immortality, the hope that Lijuan will find a way to keep them alive for eternity. Some would give up everything for that. "

  Elena heard something in that statement, an undercurrent that held a wealth of meaning.

  She looked at the angel who was always a shadow, his exotically handsome face inscrutable, his wings a sooty charcoal that let him blend seamlessly into the night. "For the promise?" She shook her head. "I just cant understand when the reality is that theyd become less than slaves. "

  "Youve never chased immortality," Raphael answered. "You dont comprehend the hunger of those that do. "

  That made her pause. "Maybe I do," she said, and wished she didnt. "My brother-in-law loves my sister . . . but he didnt wait for her to be accepted as a Candidate. He wanted to live forever more than he wanted my sister beside him. " And now Beth would grow old while Harry remained forever young.

  Harry had vowed to stay beside Beth, and for some reason, Elena believed him. But she wondered ifBeth would accept his devotion. Would her sisters love survive the knowledge that shed been second best to immortality, that one day shed die, leaving Harry to meet someone else, love someone else?

  Her gaze locked with Raphaels, her heart a painful fist in her chest. Because she, too, would have to watch her sister die.

  I wont apologize, Elena. It would be a lie - I couldnt let you leave me.

  The raw honesty of the answer, of the emotion behind it, rocked her. I forget, and then I remember and it hurts all the more.

  Beth will turn to dust when her time comes, but shell die knowing her children will be watched over by an angel.

  She gave a jerky nod, met Jasons gaze, realizing for the first time that his eyes were black, so black it was almost impossible to distinguish pupil from iris. "Will the courtiers turn against Lijuan if we prove to them that theres no immortality in being reborn?"

  Jasons wings rustled as he resettled them, but even here, in this room full of light, hed managed to find a shadow, until she had to concentrate to see their outline. "We may turn a few, but most are too used to seeing her as their goddess. Theyll follow blindly where she leads. "

  Giving Lijuan an endless supply of bodies for her army of the dead.

  Chapter 35

  Elena lay in Raphaels arms, her body exhausted in the most sexual of ways. The archangel had kept his promise. Hed made her scream. Her heart was still thumping with the echo of searing pleasure when she fell into the warm darkness of a peaceful sleep. So peaceful that it took her a while to understand what it was she was hearing.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  "Come here, little hunter, taste. " A finger pressing to her mouth.

  She clamped her lips tight, but the taste, it seeped inside anyway, an insidious, unspeakable thing. No! Her mind refused to realize what it was, refused to understand.

  But the monster wouldnt let her escape. "Isnt Belle delicious?" His eyes were darkest brown, ringed with a thin circle of bloodred. "I saved some for you. Here. " Hands brushing away her sisters golden blonde hair from her neck, revealing the raw meat that was her throat. "I think it might still be warm. " His face nuzzling into Belles neck, his hand on breasts that had just begun to bud.