“Go! Go! Go!” she yelled to the ground fighters around her as the dust cleared to show some of the reborn had managed to jump free of the ship before it blew and were now swimming to shore.
Raphael dropped down to join her, unsheathing dual swords rather than expending more power on creatures that could be killed by being beheaded. And so began the grim task of cleaning up the mess Charisemnon had dumped on their doorstep. The absolute worst moment of the entire operation came when Elena found herself face-to-face with a twelve-year-old girl in a drenched sundress, her exposed skin bearing vicious scratches . . . and her teeth stained with blood.
Claws out, the girl screamed and ran at Elena, feral hunger in her face.
37
Hot blood splashing against Elena’s combat gear, that small, blonde head rolling off into the water, Raphael’s hand cupping the side of her jaw. “Elena.” It was a snapped command.
“I’m okay, I’m okay.” She’d just frozen there for a second, unable to raise her hand against a child. “I forgot there must’ve been kids on board.”
Ten minutes later and the mobile reborn were all dead. “How many in the water?” she asked Illium, who’d been talking to the teams of vampires in watercraft on the river, their spotlights sweeping the water.
“Two or three dozen at most. The Sire’s strike incinerated the majority, but we need to make certain none of the drowned are given the chance to rise.” Wiping the back of his hand over his mouth, he walked over to the drowned bodies laid out on the pier and began to behead them one after the other.
He hesitated at the tiny body of another child, this one a boy of barely four or five.
“Illium?” she asked when he went down on one knee beside the body, not knowing what answer would be worse—evidence that the child had been alive when Raphael blew up the ship or that he’d joined the monsters.
The blue-winged angel’s eyes were bleak as he rose and brought down his sword across that fragile neck. “There was flesh caught between his teeth, under his fingernails.”
Rage and sadness burning in her gut, she got a lift from Raphael into the sky and began to sweep the river to make certain none of the bodies had washed downstream. All it would take to spark a deadly infestation was for one reborn to come back to the mockery of “life” that was Lijuan’s gift to her people.
• • •
After the unrelenting horror of the past few hours, Elena was in no mood to see stunning wings of silken copper in Raphael’s office. Needing to deal with an urgent situation in another part of the territory, he’d returned to the Tower thirty minutes earlier, while she’d remained behind with the team doing the final checks to make absolutely certain the reborn threat had been neutralized.
Tired and dirty, she wanted a shower, the arms of her consort, food, then sleep, in that order. Instead, she saw Tasha of the warrior’s blade and faux friendliness put her hand on Raphael’s arm as she leaned in close to Elena’s man, who was still in his bloodied combat leathers. Face uptilted and that glorious scarlet hair tumbling down her back, the other woman hung on Raphael’s every word.
Elena didn’t realize she had a throwing knife in her hand until the scent of the sea and the rain crashed into her mind. Getting blood out of white carpet is extremely difficult, hbeebti.
Fuck the carpet. Why are you allowing another woman to touch you?
I was attempting to be polite to an old friend, but clearly, that approach has failed. Lifting Tasha’s hand off his arm, he placed it by her side. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to accommodate you at the Enclave. There are, however, guest quarters in a skyscraper nearby.”
“Oh? I am disappointed, Raphael.” Tasha’s voice was musical even in her regret. “I truly believe I can offer assistance with what is happening in your territory.” A smile Elena could hear in her tone. “A sounding board as well as my sword.”
It was the last sentence that threw the switch on Elena’s temper from hot to cold. Bitch knows I’m here and she’s trying to provoke me. Why? So she can show herself to be the more cultured, civilized one? Does she think you’ll love me less if I lose my temper and act like an idiot? The absurdity of such an idea astounded her. Or that I’d turn tail and run, even if she humiliated me? Pride mattered nothing when it came to her love for Raphael—she’d crawl na**d and bloodied over hot coals to get to him.
She has no comprehension of what we are to one another. A single, searing instant of eye contact that made her heart ache. Tasha thinks as many immortals do—in terms of political alliances.
“Tasha.” She waited for the other woman to turn, ersatz surprise in those slanted eyes of emerald green. “The old days might have been ‘saturated with joy,’” she said, quoting something Tasha had just been saying, “but time has moved on.”
“You are young, Elena.” If Tasha’s smile had had any more sugar in it, it’d need to come with a warning label from the dentist. “You cannot understand the bonds that tie together those of us who’ve known one another for a millennium and more.”
Oh, I’m soooo terribly, terribly wounded by that velvet arrow.
Laughter in her mind, the kiss of the sea. Velvet arrow? Your use of language is getting more creative by the day.
I can’t take credit for that one. It’s all Bluebell. Now be quiet so I can concentrate on not stabbing Ms. McHotpants through the heart to put her out of her misery.
“I may not understand the bonds of such a long shared past”—Elena relaxed against the doorjamb—“but I understand the present. And in the present, you’re attempting to seduce my consort. It cheapens you, Tasha.”
No smile now, tension in that flawless jawline. “You have no right to make judgments of me.”
“You gave me that right when you flew into my city and attempted to fly into the arms of my consort.” She folded her own arms, having secreted away her knife before first speaking to Tasha. “You should know the latter is an impossibility.”
“You’re very certain of yourself for a mortal.”
Elena didn’t correct her on the whole mortal issue. As far as she was concerned, it wasn’t an insult. “If I’m certain of one thing, it’s that I love Raphael and he loves me,” she said simply, that truth the very foundation of her life.
“Yes, there is that, isn’t there.” A dazzling smile. “I’m sorry if I’ve caused any discomfort. I’ll remain in the city to assist in any way I can in the coming battle.”