other angel—and fellow member of the Seven—was Illium’s best friend. Two wholly different men in personality, Illium and Aodhan had known each other since childhood. Sometimes, when they sparred in the air, it was like watching two halves of a whole, their reactions were so in sync.
Illium didn’t answer, his jaw grinding. “Why do your friend’s wings look like those of a half-plucked chicken?” he asked just as Dmitri exited onto the balcony. “I do like the rhythmic twitching, though.”
“That’s Holly’s work.” It was obvious her venom was yet causing Kenasha considerable pain.
“This makes me sad,” Dmitri said without an ounce of sympathy. “Sad for all the children who might’ve seen this creature and thought him an example of angelkind.”
“Don’t worry,” Venom replied in as cold a tone. “He doesn’t fly. Daisy’s blood did something to him.”
Dmitri knelt beside the angel whose eyes were bulging out of his head—whether in pain or fear, Venom couldn’t tell. “Hold him still.”
Lip curling at the idea of touching the other man, Venom nonetheless knelt down and did as asked so that Dmitri could use the syringes he held in his hand to take blood samples. He held out both capped syringes toward Illium. “Fly these down to the infirmary so they can start on the tests. Gentle hold. You don’t want to accidentally crush one and get contaminated by the blood.”
Gingerly taking the samples, Illium said, “I have no desire to look like a plucked chicken. Been there, have no wish to repeat the experience.” A pause. “Though . . . to be clear, I looked more like a fluffy duck—cute, not as if I had a molting disease.” Illium was gone in a wash of wind seconds later.
Venom had seen Illium’s feathers regenerating after an accident, but he was also aware the angel had once been stripped of his feathers as punishment for the crime of speaking angelic secrets to a mortal woman he mourned to this day. The latter had been before Venom’s time. “Were Illium’s feathers different before he lost them the first time?” he asked Dmitri, realizing he’d just assumed they’d regenerated identical to the original.
Dmitri gripped Kenasha’s mouth, forced it open with the vise of his grip.
Ready, Venom used his pocketknife to slice his own wrist open, then dripped the blood into the contemptible angel’s mouth.
“No,” Dmitri said as Kenasha’s throat began to move spasmodically. “Our Bluebell didn’t have the silver then.” A faint smile. “He was vain before. Imagine how much worse he got when glittering threads of silver began to appear in among the filaments.”
“When you’re this beautiful,” Illium said, coming up to hover on the other side of the balcony, “you have no choice but to be vain.” He buffed his nails on his arm, then blew on them, and at that instant, he was once more the angel Venom knew: intelligent and generous and with a warm playfulness to him.
Most immortals had lost that playfulness long ago. Even Venom.
Kenasha choked and spluttered but Dmitri was relentless. Venom could easily donate this much blood within a short period of time, but he’d have to feed soon to make up for it. He wouldn’t be weak if he didn’t, but he’d be weaker, and Venom preferred to be at full strength. When his wrist began to heal, he slit it open again.
It took a lot longer than he’d estimated for Kenasha’s body to stop quivering.
“Holly’s strong,” he murmured, pleased deep within.
“Want a bite?” Illium held out his own wrist. “This is first-class blood, available only to a select few.”
Venom felt his lips kick up. “Thanks.” He had no problem taking blood from his fellow members of the Seven—as he had no problem donating blood in turn. And when it came to Illium, he only had to drink a small amount.
Bluebell packed a punch.
Not as strong as Raphael, but more than strong enough that one day, Venom knew he’d look up into the sky and see an archangel with wings of bluebell blue glittering with silver threads.
His heart ached when he thought of that distant moment in time.
How much worse must it be for Dmitri, who’d watched both Illium and Aodhan grow up? Because as the moon followed the sun, when Illium ascended to become an archangel, Aodhan would go with him as his second. The angel with wings of shattered light had been the hardest of the Seven for Venom to get to know . . . and yet he’d given Venom an extraordinary gift.