her, the part that wasn’t other, but simply part of who she’d become, stretched out toward him. “A lot of information passes through the lower-end clubs,” she said. “I have friends who patronize those clubs.”
One hand lying easily on the steering wheel, Venom turned his head toward her. “Wouldn’t your friends call you if they’d heard something useful?”
“They’re not that kind of friends,” Holly said shortly. “If you can’t be bothered—”
The tires squealed as he made a hard turn in the direction of the beauty and death of the Vampire Quarter. She knew the clubs with which he’d be familiar—Venom walked the dark side, but he was a very powerful vampire, one of the most powerful in the city. And power called to power. He’d be known at places that were elegant and drenched in money and strength.
Today, she intended to take him to the far seedier side of town. “You have to let me lead,” she said, ready to fight him on this. “The people on the streets will talk to you out of sheer fear, but they won’t tell you anything.”
“How do you plan to explain my presence?” was his silken response.
“I’ll tell them we’re dating,” Holly said flippantly.
Venom tapped a finger on the steering wheel. “Do they know about your abilities?”
“The jagged speed, yes,” Holly said, suspicious of his suddenly serious tone. “I wasn’t able to hide it well at the start.”
“Then the two of us make sense.” A slow, taunting smile. “They will assume you are my current pleasure toy.”
Scowling because he was right, Holly didn’t speak again until he was pulling into a dark parking lot protected only by an aged chain-link fence. “I didn’t know you hated your car.” This area wasn’t exactly the safest.
He got out and shut the door, not coming around to her side this time. “No one will be touching this car.”
She realized why when she saw the number plate: VENOM.
“Vain much?”
“I’ll get you a matching one that says KITTY.”
She knew he was baiting her but had to fight not to react nonetheless. Thankfully, keeping her heels from catching on the gravel of the parking lot provided a good distraction. They were on the cracked sidewalk within half a minute. She strode confidently down the street, Venom prowling beside her. “How can you see out of those glasses?”
“Good night vision.”
As she watched, he took off his sunglasses and folded them away into the top pocket of his suit jacket. And his eyes, they reflected the paltry light on this street in a way that was probably eerie, but that riveted Holly.
It irritated her to admit it, but Venom was as handsome as sin; the eyes were just the icing on the cake. “Do Neha’s eyes nictitate?” On the surface, the Archangel of India had normal brown eyes, but since she’d Made Venom, there had to be more beneath the surface.
“Yes,” Venom said, surprising her with the straight answer. “It’s difficult to catch and it happens very rarely, but yes.”
“Why aren’t her eyes like yours?”
A slow smile. “They are—but only for milliseconds at a time. Most people have never caught the transition.”
Holly tried to imagine Venom’s eyes in Neha’s regal face, couldn’t. “What about other vampires in her court? Are many like you?”
“None. Though she has been trying to Make another me for centuries.” Especially after he’d left her court at the end of his Contract: to serve the angels for a hundred years in return for the gift of near-immortality.
Neha had been more generous with her post-Contract settlement than mandated by their unusual agreement, and he’d had the money to travel, decide who he wanted to be. For the first time in a hundred years, he’d been free to live where he chose, serve who he chose, though he hadn’t been certain he wanted to be part of any court.
Then had come Raphael.
Venom had slotted into the sire’s tightly knit team as if he were a missing puzzle piece. Jason had even said as much at the time. “Finally, we are complete. We are the Seven.”
Neha and Raphael had been friendly back then, so Neha hadn’t fought his defection. She’d seen it as him being drawn to Raphael’s youth. “Wild to wild,” she’d said with an indulgent smile when Venom returned to her court to tell her of his plans. “Well, Venom, if I had to lose you to anyone, it would be Raphael.”
Venom hadn’t needed her permission. He’d served his hundred years with utmost fidelity, had earned his freedom.