Archangel's Light (Guild Hunter #14)(44)

“It’s not my place.”

“Imalia.”

A long, dramatic sigh, eyes of clear green rolling upward in an elfin face. “No, I don’t agree. Your home with Suyin would be quiet and peaceful and it would bore you out of your gourd.”

A tilt of the head as she pressed her lips together and shot him what he’d decided was a patented older sister look. “There’s a reason you’ve been best friends for hundreds of years with an angel made of quicksilver and mischief and wit.”

So unexpected that she saw so clearly, his sister who’d been all but a stranger to him these many years.

“Yes,” he said to Suyin under the pale gold of the morning sky. “We would amplify each other’s sadnesses.” As it was the first time she’d broached the rumors, it was the first time he’d put their past scars out into the open. “I feel it every moment we’re together.”

Suyin inclined her head, the silk of her hair sliding against her skin. “You speak a painful truth, Aodhan. But we shall be friends, yes?”

“Yes.” He genuinely liked Suyin, and when together, the two of them could talk forever about art and architecture. But there were also places he could never go with her. “We must talk about your second.”

Dark eyes searching his. “Ah, I see the answer before you speak it. You won’t reconsider?”

“This isn’t the right place or time for me to be second.” He knew that in his gut, tried not to look too deep, see the image of the archangel for whom he was waiting.

Suyin’s sigh was heartfelt. “I shall miss you by my side, but a large part of me was expecting your final response. I’ll use the journey to our new home to consider my options.”

Aodhan knew exactly who he’d place in the position of her second, but he couldn’t influence Suyin, not in this. Being second wasn’t only about power and skill but about the ability to bond to your archangel. “I will remain as long as you need.”

“I know.” A smile that spoke of her faith in his honor, this extraordinary new archangel who’d helped him find his wings by accepting him at her side. “Take care as you investigate the oddities here. I would not have harm come to you or Illium.”

“I’ll keep you updated.” He’d attempted to teach her how to use a phone and—to her credit—though she’d failed to retain the knowledge, she’d tried her best despite her age and distance from the current world. That was the difference between her and a pompous ass like Aegaeon, who refused to “lower himself” to modern technology.

How Illium could’ve come from such “a stinking blot of donkey excrement” Aodhan would never know. He’d also be forever grateful to Titus for that description of Aegaeon, which Aodhan hadn’t been meant to overhear—but he had, and it gave him great pleasure to use it even if only inside his mind.



* * *




*

An hour after his meeting with Suyin, Aodhan stood with Illium on the same stone pillar from which they’d watched dawn caress the landscape, a lover too long gone.

Now, they watched Suyin lead her people home. She flew at the front, on alert for any danger, a combat squadron behind her.

Far below the sea of wings moved a line of vehicles. Mortals in the core, ringed by civilian vampires, with trained vampire warriors on the outside. Because even a vampire untrained in combat could survive a lot more than a mortal, up to and including being disemboweled.

“Still can’t believe there are no combat-capable mortals,” Illium said as he waved to a mortal boy who’d leaned out a window to look back and up at the two of them. With the sky a cloudless chrome blue, Aodhan glittered with light—there was no way for even those far below to miss the two of them.

Illium’s new friend waved back with enthusiasm.

“Do you think the mortal-immortal cooperation in New York was an artefact of war?” Aodhan asked. “Will the Tower’s link to the hunters and other mortals hold in the aftermath?”

“Yes.” No hesitation in Illium’s response. “It’s Ellie. She’ll never lose her humanity—I guarantee you that. And it’s that humanity which brings mortal trust to the door. Without her, they would’ve still assisted us, but it wouldn’t be like it is now.”

Aodhan believed his friend’s assessment. Of all the Seven, even the vampires who’d once been mortal themselves, it was Illium who best spoke the language of that firefly race whose lives blinked out between one beat and the next.

“Remember how Raphael was becoming before her?” Illium added as wing after wing passed overhead. “Remember how Dmitri used to be? You were in the Refuge during that period, only saw them the odd time, but trust me, Aodhan. I witnessed the change day by day, saw they were getting harder and more cruel. Even their friendship, it changed.”

This wasn’t the first time Aodhan had realized he’d missed far more than he knew when he’d sequestered himself. Oh, other than the immediate period around his healing, he’d done his duty, upheld his vows to his archangel. But it had all been at a distance, physical and emotional.

“They’ve been friends for a millennium,” he said, struggling to understand. “What could’ve possibly happened to alter that?”

“Immortality.” A short but full answer.