Angels' Blood (Guild Hunter #1)(77)

And that quickly, she was back in the huge entranceway to the Big House, the house Jeffrey had bought after . . . After. Such a Big House for a family of four. Above her was a mezzanine floor with a lovely white railing, so strong, metal not wood. Elegant, old, the perfect home for a man who planned to be mayor.

"Mom, I'm home!"

Quiet. So quiet.

Panic in her throat, pain in her eyes, blood in her mouth.

She'd bitten her tongue. In fear. In terror. But no, there was no trace of vampire.

"Mom?" A tremulous question.

Looking at the huge hallway, she'd wondered why her mother had left one high-heeled shoe in the middle of the tile. Maybe she'd forgotten. Marguerite was different. Beautiful, wild, artistic. Sometimes she forgot the days of the week, or wore two different shoes, but that was okay. Elena didn't care.

The shoe fooled her. Made her step inside.

A crash of noise and memory shattered under the heart-thudding reality of the present. She slammed the car to a shuddering halt, sickeningly aware that something had just ricocheted off her windshield. "Jesus." Unclipping her belt, she opened the door and got out. Had she hit someone?

The wind tore at her hair as the rain pelted down with bruising force. The storm had come out of nowhere, a freak blip on the radar of nature. Fighting against the wind, she walked around to the front of the car, eerily conscious that there was absolutely no one else on this stretch of road. Maybe people had decided to wait out the rain. Blinking water from her eyes, she figured it'd be a long wait.

There was a leaf on her windscreen, stuck to one of the still-running wipers. A solid branch lay a few feet in front of the car. Relief whispered through her, but she checked under and behind the vehicle to be sure. Nothing. Just a branch thrown by the wind. Getting out of the rain, she slammed the door shut and turned on the heater, chilled to the bone. Freezing from the inside out.

Wiping her face with an open palm, she drove the rest of the way to Raphael's with a steely focus on the here and now. The ghosts kept whispering in her ear but she refused to listen. If she didn't listen, they wouldn't be able to touch her, wouldn't be able to drag her back into the nightmare.

She was pulling up in front of the house when her cell phone rang. It had been in her pocket and was drenched, but seemed to function fine when she turned off the engine and flipped it open. She recognized the incoming number. "Ransom?"

"Who else?" Jazz in the background, the singer's voice smoky and low. "I've been hearing things, Ellie."

"I can't tell-" she began.

"No," he interrupted. "I'm hearing things I think you need to know."

"Go on." Ransom had contacts the rest of them didn't, having grown up on the streets. Most people who got out lost their street cred. He hadn't-being a hunter was considered an even better position in the hierarchy of the streets than being a gangbanger.

"There's been a lot of vamp and angel activity over the past few days. They're everywhere."

"Okay." That wasn't news. Raphael had his people looking for signs of Uram or his victims.

"Whispers of girls disappearing."

"Uh-huh."

"Should I be warning the pros?" His voice was tight.

She knew some of those streetwalkers and high-end call girls were his friends. "Let me think." She considered everything she'd picked up about the victims. "I think, for once, they're safe."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. The targets all looked . . . innocent."

"Virgins?"

Elena realized she hadn't thought to check. A mistake she'd rectify as soon as possible. "Yeah, probably. But still, it wouldn't hurt to tell your friends to look out for each other."

"Thanks." He blew out a breath. "That's not why I called, though. Word is, there's a hit out on you."

She froze. "What?"

"Yeah, it gets better." Anger vibrated through the wires. "Apparently an archangel wants you dead. What the hell did you do to him?"

Her forehead furrowed. "Not him. Her."

"Ah. I wouldn't worry about it, then." Pure snark. "According to the gossip, your head's wanted on a silver platter-literally, by the way-"

"Gee, thanks for clearing that up."

"-but the hunt's not authorized to begin yet."

Michaela, the bitch, was playing mind games. "Appreciate the warning."

"So what are you going to do? Get the hell out of Dodge or kill an archangel?"

"I do love your confidence in me."

A snort. "Hell, no. I just know I'm in your last will and testament."

"I'm too valuable alive right now."

"And when the job is done?"

The car door was pulled open from the outside, wings filling her vision. "Then I'll reconsider my options. Talk to you later." She closed the phone before he could say anything else, and looked up into eyes so blue they shouldn't have been possible. "Michaela really wants me dead."

Raphael's expression remained unchanged. "I don't let anyone break my toys."

It should've pissed her off, but she smiled. "Wow, I feel all mushy inside."

"Who were you speaking with?"