Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,36

that hers wasn’t a glittering blue touched with wildfire white. It was a verdant forest green that shimmered.

“Did I grow a third nose?” Elena winced. “I have, haven’t I? Or is it an extra ear?”

Taking her by the shoulders, he turned her to face the mirror. Lips forming into an “Oh” Elena brushed her fingers over the mark. “Aeclari are mirrors,” she whispered, repeating words the Legion had first spoken.

Then it happened again. Golden lightning erupted along the side of Elena’s face. When it disappeared, so did the mark. Elena brushed her fingers over her once-more pristine skin. “I’m glitching as my body tries to find equilibrium. I woke too early, before everything was in place—but, on the flip side, I have an archangelic heart and access to power that’s yours by right.”

“Perhaps.” He ran his hand down her spine again.

No fiery outline of wings on her back this time, her skin a smooth dark gold.

“Looks like that glitch has corrected itself.” Elena’s gaze was on the mirror, her voice soft. “I didn’t feel you caress my feathers.”

“Hbeebti.”

Fingers brushing his jaw. “It’s okay, Raphael. Truly.” A determined smile over a foundation of grit and loss. “I had an experience no mortal could ever hope for—I flew in the skies on my own wings. Now I’m a weird-ass hybrid who glows randomly. It’s going to be a new adventure.”

He wrapped her up in his arms, his mind ice-cold.

Were the Cascade a living being, he’d shred it to pieces.

* * *

• • •

He made contact with Elijah that night, using the large screen in his and Elena’s living area. “Eli,” he said, “I would do this in person, but I cannot leave my territory yet.”

“I would not expect such, my friend,” Elijah replied, his golden brown eyes warm. “It is good to see you.”

“I thank you for the assistance you offered by sending your birds and cats. It is a debt between us.”

Elijah shook his head, the golden strands of his hair bright even in the artificial light of the room where he stood. “Such things are not a matter of debt. I know you would do the same were the situations reversed.”

A few years past, Raphael wouldn’t have known whether he would or not. Now, he was a little bit mortal and he’d built a relationship of trust with another archangel. The cold power born in the Cascade might battle him when he made such choices, but he had too many pieces of Elena in his blood for it to succeed.

He had not forgotten his earlier thoughts of godhood. Had he fallen for the sinuous whispers of the Cascade, would he have become a parasite akin to Lijuan? Would he have gone so far as to feed from Elena’s soulless facsimile? His gorge rose, rage a scalding burn through his blood.

“Yes,” he said past the ugliness of it. “Should you ever need my help, I will be there.” Such generosity and empathy did not come as easily to him as it seemed to come to Elijah, but he was well over three thousand years younger than the South American archangel so perhaps that was a kind of maturity that grew with age—if the seeds were present.

“Have you heard the news about China?” Elijah’s expression turned grim.

“The empty villages? Yes. My spymaster will be giving me a full briefing tonight—he returned from China only hours prior to my own return.”

“Mine flew homeward a week ago, and he reports signs of increasing vampiric unrest. They skitter in fear at the archangels who fly overhead but they know they are not under constant watch—and sanity falls when bloodlust rises.”

“I see Neha is currently on watch.” Prior to calling Elijah, Raphael had glanced at the updated oversight schedule sent through to Dmitri. “I do not think we have to fear rampant blood madness.” The Queen of Poisons, of Snakes had very little patience for such anarchy.

It was one of the regrets of Raphael’s life that his friendship with Neha had broken so badly in the aftermath of her daughter’s execution. Yet she hadn’t tried to take advantage of his absence, so perhaps all was not lost between them.

“No.” Elijah resettled his wings. “But when you speak to your spymaster, ask if he saw signs of unusual activity among villagers in the most remote areas. My spymaster is convinced the villagers are not acting ‘human’ but he was unable to find any evidence that they are reborn.”

Zombies two-point-o, a pajama-clad Elena muttered into Raphael’s mind from