Archangel's Blade (Guild Hunter #4)(57)

The first message said: Did you get an invitation?

The response was as simple: I’ll call you.

Two days later: I haven’t felt this alive in over a century.

The response: I’d forgotten what it was to hunt down my prey.

Except the cowards had done no hunting. They’d simply taken advantage of a trapped woman laid out for their ugly pleasure. Pulse pounding in her temples, she checked the e-mail address of Tommy’s friend. It didn’t surprise her in the least when it proved to identify the writer. “They never even considered anyone would come looking.” After all, Honor hadn’t been meant to leave that pit. Ever.

“Leon and his friends aren’t as sophisticated as my guests.” A lingering kiss that made her empty stomach revolt. “It’ll be interesting to see what remains after they’ve gorged themselves. But first . . .”

Icy jets of water hitting her, creating bruises upon bruises. The pungent scent of bleach in the room, the spray shifting to the concrete for long minutes. Her mouth being wrenched open.

“Now, let’s clean you up. I wouldn’t want your body to betray me when they find it in the trash.”




It only took Vivek a couple of minutes to match a physical address and bio with the e-mail she’d found. “Jewel Wan,” he said, bringing up a picture of a woman of Chinese ethnicity, the centuries of vampirism having worn away all traces of humanity to leave her a stunning sculpture carved in ice, her eyes gleaming black diamonds that matched the ones she wore around her neck.

“She’s a society fixture,” Vivek continued. “Spends a significant amount of time with humans.”

Glossy, straight hair stroking over her skin as small feminine hands caressed her ribs. “So much muscle even now.” A sweet kind of a voice, intrinsically feminine. “The boys are so rough, aren’t they?” Touching her with a delicacy that sought to lull. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt.”

But it had.

Honor hadn’t known it was possible to fight the pleasure in a vampire’s bite before her abduction, but she’d learned to do it in that torture chamber after the first three times the architect of her capture sent her into an orgasm that had her throwing up afterward, the rape no less painful for having being done through her blood.

Jewel Wan hadn’t been pleased at her defiance.

Laughter, soft and vicious. “I will enjoy breaking you. When I’m done, you’ll call me mistress and beg for my touch.”

A cold, cold thing sliding through her veins, engulfing her chest. “Give me her address.”

Vivek twisted his chair around. “She’s four hundred and fifty years old, Honor.” Unhidden alarm in his voice. “Not powerful for that age, but more than powerful enough to snap your bones regardless of her size.”

Cutting pressure against her side, nails pushing in until they pierced the flesh. Fingers curling around her rib. “Now”—a malicious whisper—“who is your mistress?”

Her rib twinged where Jewel Wan had fractured it. The hole in her side had healed, the scar so tiny she didn’t even notice it usually, but today it pulsed a rigid lump. “I’ll look it up myself.” It wouldn’t be difficult, considering the vampire’s social status.

“No, wait. Here.” Vivek brought up the address. “Please don’t be stupid.”

Her mind was screaming at her to stop, to think, but overwhelming that was the sensory memory of those sharp-nailed hands, that hair of liquid silk. Touching her. Hurting her. Bile rose in her throat but she forced it down, memorized the address, and left. Vivek called out after her, but she wasn’t listening, the roar inside her a violent thunder.

Jewel Wan lived on an estate in the Hudson Valley, which meant Honor would need a car. However, when she went upstairs to requisition one, she was told a freeze had just been placed on her ability to access Guild resources.

Vivek.

Not bothering to argue, she strode out into the heavy but flowing traffic before rush hour. It took only seconds to hail a cab, direct it to the nearest car rental place. She swiped her credit card, filled in the paperwork with impatient hands, and fifteen minutes later she was on her way out of the city in a small, maneuverable SUV.

Be rational, Honor. You go there and she’ll kill you.

The thought was barely complete when another part of her mind said, Not before I put a few holes in her.

What about the others? the tiny, still-coherent part of her asked. The ones you won’t find because you’re dead?

“I’ll f*cking well find her!” The voices went silent, overwhelmed by the red haze of a rage so vicious, Honor hadn’t known until that moment that she could hate with that depth of fury.

Two hours and a hundred ignored phone calls later, she looked down the evening-grayed straight of the empty road and saw a helicopter sitting in her path. “No. No!”

Braking to a halt, she shoved open the door and strode out to intercept the man walking toward her. Dressed in black, he appeared a darker piece of the falling night, but his chest felt very much real when she slammed her hands against it. “Get that thing out of my way!”

Dmitri’s eyes were full of a quiet, simmering anger when they met her own. “I thought you had a brain, Honor.”

“Yeah, well, seems I don’t.” Seeing his unyielding expression, she stalked back to the car. There were other ways to get to Jewel Wan’s showcase of a home.