"There"s another possibility."
t.i.tus frowned at Elena"s words, but made it clear she had his attention. Raphael knew that wasn"t the African archangel"s usual approach to women who were mated, married, or otherwise tied to a powerful male. It wasn"t misogyny-t.i.tus had a strong contingent of women in his army, including Galen"s mother, Tanae.
It was that, in t.i.tus"s mind, there were two kinds of women-the warriors, and all the rest. The latter were to be cosseted and protected and indulged, but not taken seriously. It had, Raphael knew, taken t.i.tus time to accept that Elena didn"t fit into the second category.
Despite that, she remained young in angelic terms and wouldn"t have had the power to hold the attention of an archangel of t.i.tus"s age had t.i.tus not heard of her courage and loyalty during the final battle against Lijuan, when his hunter had chosen to die with him if it would save their people.
"She is a true consort," the other archangel had said to Raphael when the two of them spoke not long after Raphael"s troops forced Lijuan"s into retreat. "You are a blessed man."
An absolute truth.
"Lijuan," Elena said now, "was"-a pause-"is known to share power with those close to her. We saw that with her generals during the battle. They could go for longer, heal faster than our men and women, but the boost only lasted as long as she was in play."
"But to share power with one of the Cadre?" t.i.tus"s scowl was thunder, his arms folded across his chest. "It is not possible."
Raphael wasn"t so certain. "Charisemnon shouldn"t have been able to cause the Falling," he reminded t.i.tus. "He most a.s.suredly should not have been able to negatively affect the older and more powerful of my people."
"Yes." Scowl even heavier, t.i.tus gave a hard nod. "I will think on this. But as matters stand, Charisemnon has pulled his troops back tight to his own borders, and my army is stronger than his, since he cannibalized so many of his foot soldiers by using them as carriers of disease." A dangerous smile. "It may be time I caused an earth tremor or two to remind the cur I do not need Lijuan to flex my ability."
"I would be happy to see Charisemnon disappear into a bottomless cavern."
t.i.tus"s laugh boomed through the speakers, the sound huge and open. "I am not yet so strong, but soon." Still grinning, he said, "Have you heard of Michaela"s most recent grab for territory?"
"I received her message an hour past," Raphael said, and felt Elena"s immediate negative response, though her face gave nothing away. There is no cause for alarm, Guild Hunter. Michaela is simply slavering for Lijuan"s lands. Out loud, he said, "I plan to ignore her demand for a Cadre meeting to parcel out the land." It was far too soon to declare Lijuan dead, especially when all indications pointed to the opposite conclusion.
"As will I." Arms unfolding, t.i.tus looked directly at Elena. "I am curious to experience a "block party." I have not heard of such."
Guild Hunter, the floor is yours.
"It"ll be quite unlike an angelic ball," she warned with a bluntness Raphael knew t.i.tus would appreciate. "I"m sure that wherever Lijuan is, it"ll make her gasp in horror."
t.i.tus"s teeth flashed white against his skin. "That is no deterrent! I will be there unless the misbegotten son of an a.s.s on my border manages to crawl out of his sickbed. Raphael. Consort." The African archangel signed off.
Raphael"s hunter leaned forward to opaque the screen on their end before turning to glare at him. "You told me the invite was pro forma."
"You will enjoy t.i.tus, hbeebti. He is apt to ask you to spar with him as a sign of respect for your honor." Seeing her begin to look interested, he added, "I would have to refuse on your behalf, of course, since t.i.tus has no subtlety to him and will treat you like a blooded angelic warrior, tearing off your head and limbs in the process."
Elena"s mouth snapped shut after having fallen open at the first part of his sentence. "You may possibly have a point." Running her hands through the fall of hair she"d released from its tie, the shade akin to the white fire she"d seen on his wings, she sighed. "It"s not that I don"t like t.i.tus. He seems okay from what I"ve seen of him, but I just want to celebrate our survival and victory with our city and our friends, not stress about doing the hostess deal."
"Then I can put your mind at rest." He closed his hand over the arch of her wing, stroked down.
Shivering, she pressed her hand to his chest, lashes falling.
Raphael repeated the intimate caress. The nerve endings in that part of an angel"s wings were highly sensitive, and Elena"s sensitivity had grown over the preceding months, until he could have her loose limbed and heavy lidded in bed with no touch but this. He"d summarily kill any other man who dared touch her there.
"t.i.tus has no time for formality," he told her as she sagged against him. "He will be the easiest archangelic guest you will ever host-especially as the city will be holding a celebration at the time."
All but purring under his touch, it took her a half minute to respond. "t.i.tus likes to party?"
Raphael laughed. "Yes. He will take pleasure in the energy of our city and seduce five or ten very willing women in the process."
Elena"s lashes lifted, pupils hugely dilated against the gray of her irises, the rim of silver that announced her growing immortality dramatic in the dim light. "He doesn"t have a harem of concubines?"
"No." Though women did live at t.i.tus"s home, they were not his lovers, but rather those he had given safe harbor. "t.i.tus does not have long liaisons. He spoils the woman he is with at the time, and then he moves on-yet his lovers appear to feel only affection for him." Raphael had seen that firsthand when he"d been a half-grown stripling in t.i.tus"s army, having signed on because he knew he could learn more from the archangel when it came to the skills of a warrior than he could from any other living angel.
Of honor, too, he had learned much while in t.i.tus"s army. "In all the years that I have known him, never have I heard a woman he has taken to his bed disparage t.i.tus." And because he knew it would amuse his hunter, he added, "Mostly they just sigh at the sound of his name and lose their train of thought."
Elena"s laughter was husky, her wing warm and strong under his touch. No one in angelkind had wings like Elena"s, the evocative midnight of her feathers flowing into deepest indigo that shaded into blue and the shimmering hue of dawn, her primaries white-gold. "The man"s clearly got game." Moaning in the back of her throat when he increased the pressure of his caresses, she nuzzled into the curve of his neck. "That feels so good. Can you do it all night?"
"If you make it worth my while." Reluctantly halting the touch that gave him as much pleasure as it did her, his body hard with arousal, he drew her out of the room. "Montgomery will soon be seeking us out for dinner. We should not shock him."
"I think Montgomery is unshockable at this point."
Raphael caught the butler"s eye as they left the study-the vampire had appeared in the hallway when Raphael opened the study door. It is a quiet evening, Montgomery. A gift after war and chaos. Perhaps you should invite Sivya to a walk along the cliffs.
Montgomery"s eyes reflected alarmed distress. Sire, I a.s.sure you, we have not- I am an archangel, Montgomery. I know those who are mine. He began to climb the stairs with Elena. To have two of my trusted people become one, it is not something to disdain. Understanding the depth of Montgomery"s loyalty, he made his approbation even clearer. You have my sanction to court her, should you need it.
Halting at the landing, he glimpsed the nervous hope in Montgomery"s expression. It was odd to see the distinguished butler thus, but love had a way of making mortals of them all. Bowing deeply, Montgomery said, Sire.
"What was that about?" Elena asked the instant they were behind the closed doors to their bedroom. "I knew you two were talking."
Watching her remove her weapons, he said, "Why are you so heavily armed in our own home?" She"d changed into a scoop-necked T-shirt in sky blue and soft black pants that hugged her form, her feet bare. Yet she"d somehow managed to secrete away at least three knives.
"Huh." She stared at the knife she"d pulled from an ankle sheath. "Habit, I guess." Placing the weapons neatly in a bedside drawer, she said, "So?"
"Montgomery is courting Sivya."
"No! Really?"
"You must pretend not to notice," he cautioned her. "They would be appalled to think they"d been so remiss in their duties as to make you aware of their personal lives."
Elena pursed her lips, eyebrows drawn together, and began to tug off her T-shirt. "But you noticed." The sound came out slightly m.u.f.fled.
"I am their liege. I am meant to notice and make certain they do not sacrifice their joy in the mistaken belief that I would find their coupling discourteous." He cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s after she threw the T-shirt over the back of a chair, his need to claim her a pounding in his blood.
He had come to within a split-second of igniting them both on the battlefield in a final attempt to defeat Lijuan"s evil, come to within a split-second of never again holding Elena in his arms. The memory was yet raw. "As my consort," he said, dipping his head to press his lips to the curve of her shoulder, "your job is to notice when they are a pair, so as to a.s.sure their duties don"t separate them any more than necessary."
Her hands were in his hair, her lips warm and wet against the line of his jaw. "It"s weird to think of Montgomery and coupling in the same breath." A small gasp when he tugged at one tightly furled nipple. "I"m convinced he sleeps in his suit."
"Enough talk of others, hbeebti. It is time for our own coupling." Each hour, every hour of peace was a treasure. War boiled black and violent on the horizon, and when it came, it would engulf the world.
7.
The sky was a smudgy gray with only the faintest tinge of orange by the time Ashwini and Janvier arrived at their next destination, located in neighboring Soho-though the area bore that name only until sunset. Then it became the Vampire Quarter. That was when the sw.a.n.ky shops and chichi cafes shut their doors, to be replaced by blood cafes and vampire clubs filled with the cruel and the beautiful.
Hmm . . .
Removing her helmet after Janvier parked down the street from a freestanding dual-level town house on the edge of the Quarter, she said, "The dog, it might be a vamp who"s lost it."
He took off his own helmet and the silky mahogany of his hair tumbled out. She couldn"t help it; she reached out and sc.r.a.ped her nails lightly from the front to the back of his scalp, the strands cool and the texture exquisite. Leaning his back against her chest, he made a sound deep in his throat.
Her breath caught, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s swelling against her bra.
She wanted to wrap her arms around his shoulders, nuzzle her face into the warm line of his throat, and lick him up. Clenching her fist so tight her nails dug into her palms, she got off the bike and hooked the helmet over a handlebar. Doing the same with his own, Janvier swung off the powerful machine with a lazy grace that always caught her attention-and that of any other female in the vicinity.
"Could be," he said, as if their conversation had never been interrupted by a caress she shouldn"t have permitted herself to make. "You know some vamps don"t do well after three hundred years or so."
The remembered feel of him burning against her palm, Ashwini unzipped her jacket to give her hands something to do. "What would drinking animal blood do to a vamp?"
Janvier leaned back against the bike after unzipping his own jacket to reveal the thin white T-shirt beneath. He wasn"t, however, wearing the twin blades that were his weapons of choice. Pressed up against him on the bike, she"d felt nothing but Janvier, no sign of the crisscrossing holster he"d normally wear on his back, over the tee.
While he hadn"t utilized the blades during their mission in Atlanta, she"d become used to seeing them on him since he came to New York. "Where are your kukris?" she asked before he could answer her question about animal blood.
He rubbed the back of his neck, a flush on his cheekbones. "The holster snapped this morning."
Ashwini bit the inside of her cheek in an effort to fight her smile. She"d told him to get the worn leather replaced after seeing the state of it while he"d been staying at her place. While the scabbards were metal, to prevent the razor-sharp blades from cutting through, the holster built around them had to be soft and flexible enough not to limit his range of movement. "That"s too bad."
Shooting her a look of open suspicion at the bland response, he shrugged. "It"ll take a specialist artisan a week to make a replacement once I send him the old holster. I have no hope of getting myself on Deacon"s schedule for at least a year."
At that instant, he looked both sulky and irritated with himself. Knowing how naked she felt without her favorite weapons, she couldn"t keep the secret any longer. "Or," she said, "you could use the holster Deacon dropped off at my apartment yesterday."
Janvier straightened. "For me?"
Folding her arms against the impact of the fierce delight in his voice, she nodded. "He used your old holster to make a blueprint for the new one while you were out getting me cake that day." She"d sent him to a specific and distant bakery for just that reason. "The scabbards should slide right in." Deacon did not make mistakes.
"But how? Deacon is booked years in advance."
"He always has time for hunters." Sara"s husband had once been a hunter himself.
Janvier"s smile was slow, deep, and so painfully real, it caught her heart and refused to let go. "I"m not a hunter."
But you"re mine. Biting back the words she could never say, not if she cared for him in any way, she scowled. "Don"t make a big deal about it or I"ll dump it into the Hudson."
Cheeks creased and the sunlight in the bayou green of his eyes blinding, he shook his head. "I cannot help it, cher."
Ashwini broke the eye contact; she couldn"t resist him when he smiled that way. "You were telling me about what happens to vamps who drink animal blood."
"The blood of animals is too weak to provide nourishment," he said, his voice liquid warmth that seeped into every cell of her body. "I remember hearing of a vampire who fed on animals for two months after becoming lost in the mountains. Moitie fou Billy, they called him. But since he was so weak, he wasn"t dangerous."
Ashwini had picked up enough Cajun French from being around Janvier to know he"d just indicated the vamp had gone half-crazy. "So our hypothetical animal-blood drinker might already be out for the count."
A nod. "But there is the desiccation-it"s unnatural, unless the pup died in an environment that would produce that result."
Ashwini"s phone beeped at that instant. Glancing at the screen, she saw a note from the vet. "Dr. Shamar decided to have another look at the dog before she left for the night, discovered he had a chip embedded under his skin. Kind of thing pet owners put in so cats and dogs can be ID"d if animal control picks them up." The doctor had missed it during her initial examination because the chip had slipped between two ridges of bone.
"She was able to scan it, look up the dog in the system. Apparently it went missing a couple of days after the end of the fighting." Dr. Shamar had added a note that she"d made no notification to the owners and wouldn"t do so until advised otherwise. After thanking the other woman, Ashwini looked at Janvier. "Is that enough time for natural mummification, even in an optimum environment?"
Janvier spread his hands. "We shall have to ask a scientist."
"Honor might know someone." Her best friend was an expert in ancient languages and history and had a wide range of contacts. "I"ll give her a call tomorrow." Sliding away her phone, she braced herself against a sudden, chilling wind that tasted of snow. "It"s possible Lijuan shared her ability to suck the life out of people with someone else."
Janvier closed the distance between them, his body heat a caress. "It was her ace in the hole. I can"t see her giving that away, can you, cher?"
"No." It was Naasir who"d told them the Archangel of China could share strength with her generals, but it wasn"t a permanent transfer. As soon as Lijuan was out of the equation, those generals had crumpled.
Hands on her hips, she chewed on another possibility. "Lijuan"s creations tend to be infectious." The archangel"s horrific reborn had been a plague. "Only"-Ashwini frowned-"she wasn"t creating when she fed. The sacrifices ended up sh.e.l.ls, so I guess we"re back to square one on that."
Janvier shifted to take the brunt of a fresh gust of wind. "I"ll report our theories to Raphael nonetheless. He must be alerted to the possibility that Lijuan may have left a lingering taint in the city."
Ashwini raised both eyebrows. "Back in Atlanta, you said you"d never met him, and now you"re on a first-name basis?"
"I hadn"t met him then," he said, that sneakily seductive sunlight still in his eyes. "Vampires my age do not usually ever have personal contact with the archangel to whom we give our allegiance."
"Most vampires your age aren"t as strong as you." Or as smart, as tough. Having long ago fulfilled the terms of his Contract, Janvier didn"t have to serve anyone. He chose to do so. "You"re an a.s.set."
"And the sire"-Janvier cupped her cheek-"treats his a.s.sets well."
Not wanting to understand the implicit message, she broke the contact to focus on a car in the distance, its brake lights glowing rubies in the gray light of dusk. "I"ll do some research in the Guild Archives, see if I can find any similar cases."
Janvier began to walk toward the town house that was his objective, his expression telling her he saw too much. "I"ll let you know if Dmitri has any insights." Metal creaked as he pushed open the decorative wrought-iron gate that fronted the short pathway to the town house. "Let us see to the health of these cattle first."
Ashwini took in the town house as they walked, grasping at the distraction from the need that was a wrenching tug low in her belly. The building appeared new; the walls gleamed a stylish black, but the door was painted the same glossy orange-red as the gate, as was the trim. "Nice place." If you had a million or ten lying around.
"Want one?" said the vampire by her side. "I can buy it, allow you to live rent free on the premises."
"Yeah?" she said, playing along because she only had so much self-control when it came to Janvier, and she wasn"t about to use it to handle his flirting . . . didn"t want to shut that down. "On what condition?"
"I would have a key, of course. To make sure you are keeping my property in good repair." His innocent look had probably spelled the downfall of at least a hundred virgins in his lifetime.
"Such a conscientious landlord. Would you fix the plumbing, too?"
"If you let me put my pipe in your sprocket." Pure wickedness in his smile at her groan, he ignored the door knocker shaped like a snarling lion to rap his knuckles directly against the gleaming paint.
She wanted so badly to kiss him that the craving was a ferocious beast inside her. Smile fading as his pupils dilated, Janvier went to angle his body toward her when the door opened to bring her face-to-face with the last person she"d expected to see here. "Arvi?" She stared incredulously at the tall man with aquiline features, silver-dusted black hair, and skin the exact shade as her own.
Her brother stared at her. "What are you doing here?"
"She"s with me." No charm in Janvier"s expression now, only a cool, deadly intensity that had never been directed at Ashwini. "You aren"t one of the cattle."
Arvi flinched. "Certainly not. I was called here to provide medical a.s.sistance."