“El ie.”
Blinking at Vivek’s sharp tone, she straightened and glanced back toward the office. “Wil you watch over her, Vivek?” Paralyzed or not, he had eyes everywhere. “While she’s here at the Academy, wil you watch over her—over them both?”
“You know you don’t have to ask.” His gaze was liquid-dark with pain when she met it again. “Does it ever go away? The hurt?”
Her immediate answer was to say no, but she hesitated, thought about it. “No,” she final y replied, gripping his shoulder with her hand. “But it can be . . .
muted by the strength of other emotions.” Like the blinding fury that tied a hunter to an archangel.
“Are you ever afraid? That it’l al be taken way?” Again.
“Yes,” she admitted, because he’d had the courage to ask the question. “But I’m not a helpless child anymore. If for some reason Raphael wants to leave me, I’l fight for him to my last breath.” Because he was hers now.
Vivek’s smile was smal , solemn. “I hope you make it, El ie. For al of us.”
Her phone rang in the silence that fol owed the quiet, heart-felt wish. Checking the display, she said, “Sara,” to Vivek before answering. “Hey, boss.”
“I just got a request for assistance from the police.” Sara’s tone was crisp, what Ransom liked to cal “directorial.” Only once had he used the word
“dictatorial”—and been assigned a hunt in the wilds of some boondock town where the locals took one look at his hair and leather jacket and termed him a “fancy boy.”
Lips twitching at the memory of how he’d had to make a run for it after the hunt ended—to avoid the local beauties and their shotgun-toting daddies—
she said, “Yeah?”
“I know you had a tough day yesterday, but you’re the only one not on assignment today, so haul ass.”
Elena was more than happy to get back into the rhythm of work, but—“Am I real y the only one you’ve got?” Sara had access to a large network of hunters across the five boroughs.
“I want to rest Ransom up after the spil he took,” Sara replied, as Vivek whispered that he was off. “Several others suffered similar injuries in the chaos yesterday. Ashwini’s around, but she dragged herself down to the Cel ars at five this morning, so she’s out like a light.”
Hunters slept in the Cel ars for any number of reasons, but one of the biggest was that they needed a place to hide. “Do I need to ask?” She waved at Vivek as he headed down the ramp to his transport.
“It involves Janvier, a handwritten sign, and large quantities of honey. That’s al I’m permitted to say.”
Snickering at the images that sprang into her mind at the mention of the Cajun vamp Ashwini seemed to spend half her life hunting, Elena said, “So, where do you need me?”
“Delancey Street, right under the Wil iamsburg Bridge. DB, might’ve been vampire-bit multiple times, but cops say there’s so much damage they can’t real y tel . Should be a simple assignment.”
Her spine turned into a steel rod. “I don’t need to be coddled, Sara.”
“Don’t give me lip.” Snapped-out words. “You’re not back to ful hunting strength, and if I’d had anyone else, I wouldn’t have sent you into Boston yesterday. Use the downtime you have to get back into shape, or I’l be putting you on penny-ante assignments involving idiots who think they can break their Contracts after a measly year or two.”
Elena winced. “Mean.”
“That’s why I earn the big bucks.”
Glancing into the office area, Elena saw that Gwendolyn and the girls seemed to be finishing up. “I’l probably be about twenty-five minutes.”
“Cops’l hold the scene.”
The cops had not only held the scene, they’d quarantined it behind so much yel ow crime-scene tape it might as wel have been a fence.
“Fuck me.” The uniform closest to Elena shoved back his cap and stared as she landed on the lush green of the parklike area beneath the bridge.
“They real?”
She couldn’t help it. “Nah, costume-shop rejects.”
He narrowed his eyes, stared some more before a big-shouldered plainclothes detective came between him and Elena. “Welcome back, Ms.
Deveraux.”
“Nice to be back, Detective Santiago.” Shooting the veteran cop a genuine smile, she nodded at the crime-scene tape. “Slight overkil don’t you think?”