Archangel's Kiss (Guild Hunter #2)(13)

And she knew they wouldn’t stop until they tracked down the assailant. The hunter in her approved. “What about this angel’s attempt to become Cadre?” The world didn’t need another archangel with a penchant for the most malicious kind of pleasure.

“Secondary.” A flat statement. “It’ll be taken care of when we execute him for the insult to Noel, to Raphael.”

Elena understood about cutting off evil at the root, but she wasn’t used to the swift justice of immortals. “I’m guessing angels don’t have a judge and jury system.”

A snort. “You saw Uram—would you have wanted him to have a day in court?”

No. Mind turbulent with the memories of Uram’s atrocities, she said, “Tell me about Erotique.”

Illium raised an eyebrow at her mention of the exclusive Manhattan club patronized by vampires. “Thinking about a career change?”

“Geraldine worked as a dancer there.” Elena would never forget the plea in the other woman’s eyes as she lay dying after Uram slit her throat. “She wanted so badly to be Made.”

“I don’t know that she would’ve enjoyed immortality.” Swinging his legs off the railing and down onto the balcony, Illium walked over to lean his shoulder against the doorway. “Geraldine struck me as a natural victim.”

Elena remembered that pale, pale skin overlaced with the scent of vampire. The world would have called her a vamp-whore, and once, Elena would have agreed with them—that was before she’d stood in a room full of vampires and their lovers, before she’d understood that while seduction could be a drug, it could also be the most adult of exchanges, a game in which the victor would spend the night seeing to the loser’s pleasure.

But Geraldine hadn’t been like the men and women Elena had seen in the Tower, full of an easy sensual confidence. Illium was right. She’d been a victim. “And she’d have been that for eternity.”

“Yes.” Wings a delicate arc over his back, Illium met her gaze. “Trust me on this, Ellie. It’s not a good thing to be.”

“Why do you sound as if you know?” she asked, aware she’d never forget the mute desperation of Geraldine’s dying plea. “You’re no victim.”

“I Made a human once,” he murmured, his lashes shading the expression in his eyes. “He was biologically compatible, and he passed all the personality tests. But he had no . . . core, no sense of self. I only discovered that later, when it was too late. He’d tied himself to another angel by then, one who enjoyed having a victim.”

“He’s dead?”

“Of course. Victims never last long.”

It was a stark glimpse into one of the darker sides of immortality. “The longer you live, the more mistakes you make.”

“And the more sorrows you carry.”

Perhaps she should have been startled by the solemn comment, but Illium, she was beginning to learn, was an angel who rarely showed his true face to the world. Much like the man he called sire. “Do you remember everything?”

“Yes.”

A gift. A curse.

Bruisingly aware that memories could make you bleed as effectively as any razor, she took a step back from the past. It would return to haunt them both soon enough. “Are your eyelashes like your hair?”

He followed her lead without skipping a beat. “Yes. They’re very beautiful—want to see?”

Her lips twitched. “Vanity is a sin, Bluebell.”

“When you have it, flaunt it, I say.” Grinning, he wandered over to perch on the side of the bed. “Look.”

Curious, she did. He’d told the absolute truth—his eyelashes were inky and black tipped with the same bright blue as his hair, a startling contrast against the gold of his eyes. “They’re okay,” she said offhandedly.

He scowled. “And here I was about to offer to brush your hair.”

“I’ll brush my own hair, thank you.” Pushing at his shoulder, she nudged him off the bed. “Grab me the brush.”

He threw it to her before returning to the balcony. “Why haven’t you asked why I’m here?”

“I’m not at full strength, Raphael is overprotective, it’s not difficult to do the math.” Her frustration at her current physical state did nothing to negate the cold, hard truth—her head would make a mighty fine trophy for more than one immortal. Especially the most beautiful and most vicious one of them all.

“Apparently, this aspirant,” Illium said over his shoulder, “plans to make his mark by stabbing a Guild dagger through your heart. Or maybe by using it to hack off your head one piece at a time.”

The echo of her own thoughts startled her—but it shouldn’t have. Because like it or not, she was hot news in the angelic world, the first angel Made in living memory. “I think I need some food before I start thinking about all the horribly painful ways I could conceivably die.”

“There’s some in the living area.”

“Where’s Raphael?”

“At a meeting.”

Elena had been saved by her instincts more than once. Now, her hand clenched on the carved wooden handle of the brush. “With who?”

“It’ll only make you mad.”

“I thought you were my friend.”