archangel.
As Venom had told Holly, Dmitri had been a warrior through time—add his potent raw power to that, and the structural foundations of his body might as well be formed of iron at this point.
“Venom.” A senior healer’s voice. “Let me through.”
Venom stepped aside for the diminutive angel with wings of dark gray spotted with white. “Check her heart.”
The healer—Nisia—already had her small, narrow hands on Daisy’s chest. “The heart’s gone, exploded inside her chest cavity from what I can tell.” She frowned, as if peering deep within the sickly thin vampire’s body. “Her other organs are also liquid.” She indicated the slight swelling of Daisy’s belly as fluid built inside the body cavity. “The poor tormented child is dead.”
“She won’t heal?”
“No. She was too weak to ride out the damage—especially with the loss of her heart.”
Venom glanced back to make sure Holly wasn’t alone. Seeing that the other healer was still kneeling beside her, his hands gentle on her as he continued to check her for injuries, Venom focused his attention on Daisy. “Something came out of her and went into Holly.”
“I cannot sense an answer,” Nisia said. “But Illium suggested we monitor this room in new ways.” She waved vaguely toward the corners of the room.
Venom looked up.
Cameras.
“Do an autopsy,” he ordered, making an effort to keep his tone respectful. Nisia was a trusted member of the Tower team and one who’d earned Venom’s respect in the brutal aftermath of the Falling. “Don’t remove her from isolation. We’ll destroy her body here if need be.”
The healer’s soft brown gaze went to Holly. “That child should be in isolation, too.”
Venom thought of how Holly had known where Daisy was being kept, of how she’d felt the compulsion to go inside the isolation chamber, and shook his head. “It’s done now. Holly’s not going to infect anyone.” She’d been the target.
And he’d allowed her to walk in, believing he could protect her from all possible threats. Cold fury in his blood, directed at his own arrogance.
“No,” Nisia murmured, her eyes still on Holly. “Whatever this is, it is not, I think, about anything as simple as disease.”
Stepping out into the observation chamber to find that the healer had buttoned Holly’s shirt back up, Venom bent down to scoop her up into his arms. She was so small. Sometimes, he forgot that. He’d forgotten it when he threw her down the hall—when she was awake and aware, all he saw was the wild, inhuman energy of her. An energy that was the closest to his own that he’d ever glimpsed.
There is no one like me. But Andi sees inside me, and knows me, and we have secrets together. And one day, we’ll have cubs who’ll be half like me.
Naasir’s joy at his mating had made absolute sense to Venom, though he wasn’t sure his friend and fellow member of the Seven had understood how deeply the words resonated. To the world, Venom was a vampire. And there were millions of vampires. But he was the only one with the eyes of a viper and the deeper, less visible changes that shoved him far outside that well-defined box.
Like Naasir, he was and had always been alone among millions. Until Holly.
“Come on, kitty.” He cradled her higher against his chest. “You’ve said ‘fuck you’ to fate before. Do it again.”
But for once, Holly didn’t give him lip. She was silent and unmoving in his arms as he took her upstairs to his apartment. Ignoring the comfortable bed in his bedroom, he went straight to the heated stone floor in front of the windows. Placing her on there, he went to find a blanket . . . and by the time he returned, she’d curled into a tight ball, one hand spread palm down against the stone.
His entire chest expanded as he finally took a real breath.
Shaking out the soft cashmere blanket over her, he made a note to thank Naasir. It was the most primal member of the Seven who’d suggested the stone floor.
I make my lair outside the Refuge, because I like it out there. But my aerie is hot because I don’t like snow. A shiver, the metallic silver of his eyes wild in a way that was nothing human. You like the city, but you need your sunstone. Make one.
Venom had never thought of it that bluntly, but in his defense, he’d been very young and not used to the freedom to create his own home when Naasir had discovered