"It's necessary."
"Fly me to Michaela's."
"You sound very sure he'll head that way."
"Geraldine was wearing a diamond ring when I met her yesterday. It was missing today, and from the white band of skin on her finger, I don't think she ever took it off."
"It'll be easier if I carry you." Seeing the sense in that, she nodded and Raphael picked her up, one arm around her back, the other under her knees. Glamour spread like water across her skin.
"Did you do it?" she asked as he rose, holding on tight and keeping her eyes closed against the mind-bending sight of her bones disappearing into thin air. "Start the process of turning Geraldine into a vampire?"
"No."
"Why not? She probably won't survive otherwise. And she'd be happy to be one. A win-win situation." Wind laced with the whispered promise of more rain whipped through her hair, stroked her cheeks.
"You're asking for forbidden knowledge again."
"You put me in the path of a monster-not just me, but people even peripherally related to me-" Panic hit her. "Sara, my sister!"
"We've alerted everyone close to you that they might be targeted by a vampire."
She gripped him harder. "Won't do much good against an archangel, will it?"
"No. The only thing that'll stop him is death."
"How will you kill him?"
"Rip out his heart and shove my power through the hole in his torso, tearing him apart from the inside out."
She swallowed at the graphic description. "Can he do the same to you?"
"He is an archangel."
In other words, yes. Fear clawed at her heart, fear for a being who'd lived more lifetimes than she could imagine. "Why can an archangel only be killed by another archangel?"
"As we age, we gain power-including the power to end the life of an immortal." And perhaps, Raphael thought, recalling Lijuan's coy hints, the power to give life, too. But not a life that was anything close to what life should be. "It's one of the prerequisites of being in the Cadre of Ten. We must be able to destroy each other if the need arises."
"And that's not too much information?"
"You would've guessed." Her intelligence was strong, stubborn, relentless. In all his centuries of living, he'd never met a warrior who challenged him as she did. "The female we found, who is she?"
"Geraldine, my father's secretary."
"Your father employs a lover of vampires?"
"What, you didn't know?" She snorted. "I thought you knew every minute detail of my history."
"Assistants weren't of much interest."
"Yeah, well, Jeffrey doesn't know about her extracurricular activities."
"Illium said he's seen her at Erotique. She dances." Erotique was a by-invitation-only club that catered to upscale vampires who wanted to relax in the company of humans who'd been tutored as to what was acceptable and what was not.
"I've heard the dancers of Erotique described as the geishas of the West."
Raphael caught the edge in that question, wondered at it. "An apt comparison."
Her nails dug into his neck. "More like they know how to pander to men who can't be bothered to make an effort."
"Both male and female vampires frequent Erotique." He paused. "It holds less allure for angels."
Those nails withdrew slightly. "Those dancers-they make good money?"
Raphael made contact with Illium and found the answer. "Yes."
"So what was Geraldine doing moonlighting as Jeffrey's assistant? I guess we'll take out the thumbscrews if she lives."
"Unnecessary. In all probability she was a spy for a competitor with fangs."
"Why was Bluebell at Erotique anyway?"
"He has a fascination with mortals." Illium's Flaw had caused Illium's Fall. It was a lesson taught to all young angels.
"What if he falls in love again? What then?"
"As long as he keeps our secrets, he may love his mortal."
"Except that she'll die in a few decades, while he'll live for centuries."
"Yes." He knew she was no longer talking about Illium. "Immortality has its price."
Her arms tightened around him. "It's too high, far as I'm concerned. Bowing and scraping to a master? Hell, no." Her tone was acerbic. "Maybe that's why you guys Make so many morons into vamps. They're the only ones stupid enough to apply."
He squeezed her. "So now you insult the Cadre of Ten."
"You know Mr. Ebose. You know who I retrieved for him. Come on, seriously-what was his qualification for immortality aside from abject idiocy?"
"That, you cannot know."
"I already know too many secrets-what's one more?"
He dipped with the air currents, making her hold on tighter. "We've arrived."
She sighed, but then he felt the brush of lips against his jaw. "Being with you is an exercise in frustration."
He landed in the woods that separated his home from Michaela's, shed the glamour, met the vivid silver of her eyes. "I've set guards on Sara, Ransom, your father, your siblings, and their families."
Shadows moved across her face, darkening those eyes to storm readiness. "Thanks."
"Do you consider Harrison an idiot, too?" he asked, referring to her brother-in-law. "He is a vampire after all."
Her eyes narrowed. "I have one question-I need to know."
"Beth," he said, watching that expressive face. For a hunter, her shields were surprisingly weak, as if she somehow still saw innocence in the world.
Then she will kill you. She will make you mortal.
Was it not worth the loss of a little immortality to have that strange mix of innocence and strength close to him? "Harrison knew when he was Made that there was no guarantee we'd accept his wife."
"Is it possible?" she asked. "However you choose the Candidates, is it possible Beth could be one?"
"Why does it matter to you?" he asked. "They treat you like so much trash."
Her hand fisted. "Yeah, well, just call me a glutton for punishment." She shrugged. "It doesn't matter that she drives me insane half the time. She's my sister."
"As Ariel and Mirabelle were your sisters?"
Chapter 34
Her entire body stilled. "I don't talk about that."
He knew the facts, but hearing the odd brittleness in her voice, realized they told him nothing. "Beth isn't suitable," he said, instead of fencing with her.