Archangel's War (Guild Hunter #12) - Nalini Singh Page 0,61
emerge, the glittering white-gold of his feathers brilliant in the dawn sunlight. The fire had begun to calm down, his wings mostly solid until he wanted them to be otherwise.
The frigid air rushed past her face as she dropped, the sensation of freefall exhilarating until she was brought up short by the lightning storm of her wings. Folding them back, she dropped even farther, Raphael by her side.
Dougal needed to maneuver the jet for his return flight to Japan without worrying about catching them in his drag, and they had to be able to see the details in the landscape.
At first glance, all appeared as it should be: lush green fields, small homes with smoke puffing out the chimneys, angels in the sky. Every single one of those angels acknowledged Raphael when they spotted him. The squadrons that currently patrolled China had been created out of soldiers taken from the armies of all of the Cadre. Including from the two previous Archangels of China.
The vast majority of Favashi’s people had chosen to stay when given the option to stay or go. They were determined to husband the territory for their liege. Lijuan’s people had joined the squadrons for much the same reason. Had to be some tension there, but this was as much their home as it was for Favashi’s people. It helped that they were all ordinary angels. Lijuan had taken her deadly generals and commanders with her.
Population density increased the farther they flew inward. Small villages turned into towns turned into cities. Raphael, I think I should land. Her body was starting to protest the long stretch in the air without a break, but one thing had become clear today: her endurance had increased from pre-chrysalis levels, as had her speed.
On the hill in the distance. It is far from any of the houses. Remember—any sign of illness, and you rise.
Elena made the landing without problem, then refueled with energy drinks and snacks she carried in the pack strapped to her back. It was designed to fit like a normal angel’s pack, flush against her spine. Otherwise her wings would’ve burned right through it, destroying her supplies in the process.
Raphael stayed close by, circling the town at the foot of the hill; Elena could see people scurrying about like ants. That type of scuttling fear? It came from the knowledge an archangel had his eyes on them—which was the whole point of the archangelic patrols: to remind mortals and vampires that the Cadre of Ten had the country in its sights.
The sky crackled with golden lightning that had all movement in the village coming to a quivering standstill.
Putting her hands on her hips, she looked up. Showing off?
A single demonstration can forestall catastrophic bloodshed.
Rested, she pulled her backpack on, then took off with startling ease. As if the more she used these wings, the stronger they got. Weird when there were no muscles involved, but she wasn’t about to look that particular gift horse in the mouth.
I have a theory about the Cascade, she said an hour later, as they crossed a largely uninhabited expanse of rock and shale that was eerily beautiful in its starkness.
I am listening.
Sometimes, you sound so much like an archangel. She had to force the lightness, because just then he hadn’t been playing. The cold and remote edge had been real, his new power pushing constantly to erase the humanity inside him.
It may surprise you to learn that I am, in fact, an archangel.
Elena’s laugh held as much relief as amusement, because that had been her archangel.
At times, he said before she could respond, I feel the cells of your heart inside me. Small pieces of mortality that are so weak, so vulnerable, that they should be eaten up by my immortal blood and yet they endure.
I feel you in me, too. Energy shattered her skin less and less now, but it was there in the background, a constant hum of power. That power tasted of Raphael and it had the Cascade cold to it, but though she could access enough of it to heal, fly, it couldn’t seem to find a clawhold in her, designed as it was for the body of an archangel.
She rode an air current over a field left fallow for the season, the moonscape of rocks now behind them. Raphael swept down beside her and they skimmed the rooftops of a small hamlet where nothing moved. I’m getting creeped out, Archangel.