Angel's Blood (Guild Hunter 1)

Elena nodded, feeling weak. "Yeah, lucky."

Chapter 16

Raphael stood outside the nondescript little house in a suburb of New Jersey, silently applauding the Guild Director's cleverness. The woman had left her beautifully restored brownstone for this little wooden house surrounded by a hundred other such houses. Her home looked utterly ordinary except that he knew it was a fortress. He also knew that the director and her husband, both extremely experienced hunters, were taking turns at keeping an eye out for vampires, weapons close at hand.

Of course, to shoot, they had to see. And he was simply not there to their senses-he'd wrapped the glamour around himself the second he dived off the balcony of his penthouse suite and into the fading light of Manhattan, his power almost completely restored. True darkness had fallen during his flight and now he looked through windows that shimmered gold.

Light. Warmth. Illusion.

The seemingly ordinary surburban yard in front of him was set with sensors, likely connected to booby traps that could be set off from inside the house. Raphael guessed there was a basement leading to a hidden exit-no hunter would ever allow her family to be trapped.

If he hadn't been in the Quiet, he might've been impressed. The security was brilliant, would hold perfectly well against a high-level vampire, though probably not Dmitri. He was far too experienced. But even Dmitri would have had to dodge the weapons. Raphael, on the other hand, didn't even have to step foot inside the house.

But you should, a primeval, reptilian part of his mind whispered, you should teach them a lesson, teach them that no one stands against an archangel and comes out the winner.

He considered the instruction with the chill reason of his current emotional state and disregarded it. The Guild Director was intelligent and good at her job. It made no sense for Raphael to kill her-such an action would throw the Guild into chaos, during which a considerable number of dissatisfied vampires would try to escape from their masters. Some might even succeed because the hunters would be too broken up by the death of their director to be effective. Humans were so weak.

None of yours will escape, that voice whispered again, a voice he only ever heard during the Quiet. They wouldn't dare. Nobody disobeys you, not after we made an example out of Germaine.

Germaine was now somewhere in Texas, but the vampire had never forgotten his hours in Times Square and he never would. They were branded into his memories, pain such as no one should survive. Raphael remembered taking care of Germaine during another time of Quiet. After the Quiet, he recalled that he'd been dissatisfied with what he'd done. Accessing his memories, he found that he'd felt . . . remorse. He'd gone too far.

What a ridiculous idea. What a ridiculous emotion. He was an archangel. Germaine had dared attempt a betrayal. His punishment had been just. As would the Guild Director's be if she stood in Raphael's way.

Kill her child, the voice murmured. Kill her child in front of her. In front of Elena.

Chapter 17

An alarm blared next to Elena's bed, jerking her out of a fitful sleep. Already fully dressed, she got up and started running. Vivek was waiting for her, his door open. "Hurry! On the phone! Sara!"

Vaulting over his wheelchair when it got in her way, she picked up the receiver. "Sara?" Fear was a vile taste on her tongue, sharp and pungent.

"Run, Ellie," Sara whispered and there were tears in her voice. "Run!"

Ice turned her limbs useless. She stood there. "Zoe?"

"She's fine," Sara sobbed. "She wasn't here. Oh, God, Ellie. He knows where you are."

Not for a moment did Elena think Sara was talking about Dmitri. No vampire, however powerful, would reduce her friend to this. "How? What did he do to you?" Her fingers clenched on a knife handle and only then did she realize she'd drawn it.

"How?" Hysterical laughter cut off midstream. "I told him."

The shock immobilized her. "Sara?" If Sara had betrayed her, then she had nothing left.

"Oh, Ellie, he flew to the window and looked at me, told me to open it. I didn't even hesitate!" It was almost a scream. "Then he just asked me where you were and I answered. I answered! Why, Ellie? Why would I answer?"

Elena's breath rushed out of her. Trembling with relief, she put out a hand to brace herself against Vivek's computer panel. "It's okay, Sara."

"It's not f**king okay! I ratted out my best friend! Don't you dare tell me it's okay!"

"Mind control," Elena said before Sara could really get into her tirade. "He plays with us like toys." He'd certainly played with her-her body, her emotions. "There was nothing you could've done."

"But I'm immune," Sara said. "I'm Guild Director partly because I have a natural immunity to vampire tricks, like Hilda."

"He's not a vampire," Elena reminded her distraught friend. "He's an archangel."

A deep, shaky indrawn breath. "Ellie, there was something seriously wrong with him tonight."

Elena frowned. "What do you mean? Did he do anything . . . evil?" She had to force out the word. Some stupid, deluded part of her didn't want to believe that Raphael could be evil.

"No-he didn't even mention Zoe or threaten her in any way. But then he didn't need to, did he? He could twist my mind like a pretzel."

"If it's any consolation," she said, remembering Erik's animal stare, Bernal's terrified compliance, "he can apparently do that to vampires as well."

A sniff. "Well, at least the bloodsuckers don't have anything on me. You have to get the hell out. He's on his way to you now and in his current mood, he might just destroy the Guild to get to you. He knows all the codes-I gave them to him." Another short scream. "Okay, I'm calm now. I told Vivek to change the codes but I don't think that'll stop Raphael. He wants you."

"I'm outa here. And I'll leave a message making sure he knows I'm in the wind so he doesn't come after Vivek."

"Go to the Blue safe house."

Blue was an unmarked delivery truck that would blend seamlessly into traffic, effectively disappearing the driver. "I will," Elena lied. "Thanks."

"What the hell for?" Sara spit out. "But I can give you this-he wasn't acting normal. I've spoken to him on the phone and you know how good I am with voices. It was different-flat, toneless . . . cold. Not angry, not anything, just cold."

Why did everyone keep using that word? Raphael was many things, but he'd never struck her as cold. However, she didn't have time to ask for details. "I'm heading out now. I'll check in when I can. And don't worry-no matter what, he won't kill me. He needs me to finish the job." She hung up before Sara could realize there were worse things than death. Some of them involved screaming and screaming and screaming until your voice broke.