Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,143

and dropped down on a rooftop.

No one from Lijuan’s side seemed to notice—lone angels all over the city, enemy and friendly, were dropping down or taking off. Aside from those taking a break, Jason’s team stayed high.

Now, Jason! Raphael sent the command as Lijuan’s forces rose en masse from their base by the water; he’d waited until they were high enough that no soft landing was possible.

The nets were fine and black and invisible in the darkness as they fell from the sky. He knew the instant they made contact with Lijuan’s winged fighters because the fighting formations collapsed into chaos, angels tumbling uncontrolled from the sky as their wings became tangled in nets that cut and made them bleed.

Their nets successfully deployed, Jason’s team emerged from the skies behind enemy lines, and the sky crackled with black lightning. Jason’s power was enormous in comparison to most angels’ and he sent his energy directly into the heart of Lijuan’s disoriented forces, while other angels in his team used line-of-sight grenade launchers to blow up enemy supplies and ground teams.

Aodhan supplied violent backup from this side.

Raphael, meanwhile, was facing off against Lijuan. Jason’s team had made no effort to tangle her in nets—given her power, it’d have been a waste. She was his to neutralize. But while his wildfire had regenerated to a certain point, he had nowhere near enough to take on an archangel who’d so recently fed on the lifeforce of at least a hundred people.

Turning his wings to white fire, he moved so quickly in and out of position that her shots went wild, smashing into buildings devoid of residents or workers. Step by step he managed to draw her past her collapsing night assault force and out over water. Now past enemy lines, he took her high, where none of her angels could interfere.

Her next attempt at hitting him smashed into the water. It caused that water to foam and spout, but the ocean was vast enough to absorb the energy without damage. Her fury at his avoidance of her strikes made her face turn skeletal for a haunting instant . . . before she turned without warning and headed straight to Manhattan.

Raphael fired, aiming at her wings.

She went noncorporeal right before the wildfire reached her. Raphael swore under his breath . . . except it appeared Lijuan hadn’t shifted location when she went noncorporeal. Wildfire fractured inside the hauntingly translucent form of an archangel, her mouth falling open in screaming pain.

Her body reappeared.

Rage a cold mask on her features, she shifted position to rain her own power at him in a wide spread he couldn’t fully evade. One bolt hit him hard on the shoulder, spinning him around. But he’d already thrown the ball of wildfire in his hand and it smashed into the tip of her right wing.

He had only droplets left inside him—and Lijuan was healing in front of his eyes.

He flew straight at her, sliding out his swords as he did so. When she responded with a barrage of poisonous blows, he made no attempt to dodge them. He was already hit. He’d deal with the damage in the aftermath.

He had to stop her before she took his city.

Blades of starlight obsidian slammed into him with brutalizing force, the poison spreading below his skin in an oily slide. Lijuan laughed at the sight of his swords, the two of them close enough now that she spoke aloud. “You should’ve killed her when I told you.” In her voice whispered thousands of ghosts, their pleas piteous in the maw of their terrible goddess. “Now you are a little bit mortal and weak with—”

Raphael sliced one razor-sharp blade across her neck, the other across her thighs. Blood splurted and her hands flew up to hold her head to her neck.

One leg fell into the ocean, while the other hung half severed.

Managing to get his hand on her stump, he sent the last of his wildfire directly into her bloodstream.

She shrieked in true pain, the sound agony along his nerve endings.

Eyes red and blood overrunning the hand she had around her throat, she sent out a blast that caught him at point-blank range. His vision wavered, but he saw her turn and fly toward her base of operations. Already, her fighters were coming toward Raphael, ready to intercept him.

His wings grew heavy with the blackness spreading over them. He couldn’t make them turn into white fire. Even his ability to create angelfire had flatlined. The ocean