Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter #1)(100)

"Cut the crap." Ransom lifted a crossbow loaded with some very illegal control chip-embedded bolts, Sara's current weapon of choice.

"I wouldn't," Dmitri said evenly. "You'd be overwhelmed by my men within seconds, and I'd be in a much worse mood."

Putting her hand on Ransom's arm, Sara met Dmitri's eyes. "We've got no fight with you-we just want to know about Ellie."

The vampire straightened. "Follow me. Leave the cross-bows on the floor. You're safe here."

Maybe it was stupid but they decided to trust him, both of them. The vampire got into an elevator. As they went to enter, Sara realized Ellie would probably haunt her if she put herself in harm's way and deprived Zoe of a mother, Deacon of a wife. But Ellie was family, too. Jaw set, she got into the elevator.

The wire-actually a high-tech transmitter nestled inside her ear, with backups in her wristwatch and collar-vibrated just a fraction. Enough to tell her that Deacon had her, that he was with her. The tightness in her stomach loosened. You can be mad with us later, Ellie. After we know you're okay. We love you too much not to do this.

Dmitri said nothing as they shot skyward, exiting the elevator on a floor that gleamed black in every direction. Still silent, their guide led them into a small room and closed the door, enclosing them in darkness but for the glittering spread of the city outside. Even at half strength, Manhattan shone diamond bright. "What I tell you tonight can't leave this room. Do you understand?"

Ransom bristled but let Sara answer. "All we care about is what you've done with Ellie." Sara couldn't say "body." Until she saw Ellie dead with her own eyes, she couldn't-wouldn't-believe.

"You're her family." Dmitri's eyes met hers. "Chosen, not born."

"Yes." Sara saw a depth of understanding in the vampire's gaze that she hadn't expected. The old ones-and Dmitri was very old-seemed to forget they'd once been human, with human dreams and fears. "We need to see her." Even then, part of her, a stubborn, irrational part, hoped for a miracle.

"You can't," Dmitri said, then raised a hand when Ransom snapped out a curse. "But this I can tell you-she lives. Perhaps not as she would've wished, but she lives."

Sara was so relieved, she almost didn't hear the last sentence. Ransom was the first to understand. "Aw, Jesus. Ellie's going to be so pissed if you've turned her into a vamp."

Dmitri raised an eyebrow. "You won't castigate us for taking the choice from her?"

Sara answered for both of them. "We're selfish. We want her to live." Her throat was so thick with emotion, she had to concentrate to form the next word. "When . . . ?"

"The recovery will be slow. Her back was broken, most of her bones shattered," the vampire said with a blunt honesty that was far easier to hear than vague platitudes. "There are those who would use that vulnerability to harm her. Until she can defend herself, we protect her."

"Even from us?" Ransom asked, pain held so fiercely to his heart that Sara hurt for him. "That what Ellie wants?"

"She's in a coma," Dmitri told them. "I'm making the decision and I'd rather be too cautious than chance her life."

Sara sucked in a breath but nodded. "I'd do the same. If I pack a bag of her things, will you have it taken to her? For when she wakes." Because Ellie would wake. She was too damn stubborn not to.

Dmitri inclined his head in acquiescence. "Elena is lucky to have such a family."

After making sure the hunters-all of them-had left Tower territory, Dmitri returned to the room where they'd held the meeting and walked out onto the high balcony. There was a rustle of feathers and then Jason emerged from the shadows that had cloaked him till then. "You lied."

"A simple misdirection," Dmitri responded, staring out at the lights of a city still shaken by the death of an archangel. "They're not ready for the truth."

"What will you tell them when she doesn't appear within the next few months?"

"Nothing." His hands clenched on the railing. "Raphael will have healed by then."

A gust of wind swept across the balcony, bringing with it the familiar scents of a city that had been nothing much more than a few ramshackle buildings when Raphael first claimed it as his territory.

"I've never seen an archangel that badly injured," Jason said. "The angelfire ate through his bones far faster than it should have."

Dmitri thought back to the gunshot wound Raphael had sustained from Elena's gun. "He's changed." But whether that change would prove fatal, they'd have to wait and see.

"Some of the Cadre are starting to turn covetous eyes toward Raphael's domain."

Dmitri set his jaw. "We will hold it for him. Until it is certain."

Three months later, when Raphael walked in to take his place at a meeting of the Cadre, the gasps of surprise were genuine. Even immortals, it seemed, had written him off. He slid into his chair and placed his hands loosely on the arms. "I hear you're debating how to divide my territory."

Neha was the first to recover. "No, of course not. We were speaking of Uram's successor."

He smiled, let the lie pass. "Of course."

"You did well in halting him," Elijah said.