Holly could've made the sandwich herself, but watching Venom moving in the kitchen was so sexy that she just waited. "So we have to go find this flunky?"
Venom's hands moved quickly as he sliced a tomato for her sandwich. "Dmitri already did. He thought we had enough on our plate."
Holly froze with a slice of tomato at her mouth. "Uh-oh."
"He sent the flunky home in pieces." Venom's eyes glinted. "Small, very precise pieces. All packed in a black gift box lined with red velvet."
Mouth falling open, Holly put down the piece of tomato. "Really? Isn't that an act of war?"
"The sire had a conversation with Charisemnon--our favorite disease-causing archangel denies all knowledge of his flunky's actions, and we have nothing that says otherwise." He fed her the piece of tomato she'd abandoned.
The tangy juice burst to life on her tongue. "Small pieces?" she said afterward.
A raised eyebrow. "You do realize Dmitri can be bloodthirsty when it comes to protecting the people he loves? And you are his little weirdling."
Holly glared at him, but her lips insisted on tugging up. "How do you know he calls me that?"
"He came by while you were napping. I may have eavesdropped on what he said to you."
"That is bad behavior," Holly said with mock-sternness.
Venom's response was an unrepentant kiss.
Happy, she said, "Did the flunky confess why he was after me?" She knew Dmitri wouldn't have executed him without first squeezing the man dry.
"All the archangels spy on one another--apparently, one of the reports that came in from New York included pictures of you and a note that you'd been attacked by Uram and altered." Venom's expression turned lethal. "Jason will soon find that leak and it will never again spill Tower secrets."
Holly gripped the edge of the counter. "The flunky wanted me for my blood," she guessed.
"For whatever Uram had left in you--it was your eyes that convinced him Uram had left something behind."
Sandwich made, Venom put it on a saucer. "The idiot stupid enough to put a price on your head told Dmitri he wanted to gift you to Charisemnon, but it's possible he wanted to use you to feed his own power, much as Kenasha did with Daisy." A liquid shrug. "Dmitri's cut off his head now, so it doesn't matter."
"That is so weird."
"What?"
"How you talk so casually about cutting off people's heads."
"My weapons of choice are razor-sharp blades, Hollyberry," he reminded her with a dangerous smile. "Eat your sandwich."
Holly bit into it with a groan of pleasure. She didn't speak again until it was all gone. "Why am I so hungry?" Even more so than before the craziness. "I swear I can feel that sandwich digesting at lightning speed."
"According to Keir, your cells have entered a state of flux similar to a newborn vampire's," Venom told her. "Those vampires are fed blood steadily until their need flattens out, but your body was permanently altered by Uram's energy. You carry angelic markers as well as vampiric."
Holly looked over her shoulders. "Nope, no wings. Damn it."
Laughing, Venom shifted to stand between her thighs, his hands on her hips. "You're not a vampire, not an angel. You're like Naasir, like me. One of a kind."
"I like that." At some point in that cold room with a crib that held a twisted flesh host, she'd come to terms with the strong, strange fusion that was her body. "My species should have a name." She put her arms around the neck of the man who was to be her partner in crime for eternity.
Laughing, he said, "A Hollyberry."
She kissed his laughing mouth, drank in his happiness. And it was all right. The past was done. Gone. Dead. The future awaited. And for her, that future glinted viper green and searingly bright.
*
Two days later, she went to the garage to get into her car and discovered a number plate that had her glaring at a certain vampire.
He winked. "I told you I'd get you one that said KITTY."
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Nalini Singh, Archangel's Viper
(Series: Guild Hunter # 10)
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