You’re my mate, Elena. You have no choice but to learn.
He was in her mind, slipping in as desire short-circuited her defenses. “Will you ever understand the need for boundaries?” She nipped at his lip, frustrated enough to act on instinct.
His eyes turned to midnight as he lifted his head, his thumb brushing over the peak he"d aroused to throbbing readiness. “No.”
“Sorry”—she wrapped her arms around his neck—“you don"t get away with autocratic answers with me.” And she wasn"t going to let her anger drive a wedge between them. This thing that tied them together—this raw, painful emotion—was worth fighting for. “And I"m never going to accept being made a puppet. Not by Lijuan, and certainly not by the man I consider mine.”
He didn"t answer, just watched her with that aloof focus. He"d watched her like that the first time they"d met. Then, she"d been afraid he"d kill her. Now, she knew he wouldn"t. But . . . he might hurt her in ways only an immortal could. She should"ve backed down—but she"d never been one to do that.
“What,” she said, touching her nose to his in unspoken affection, in a trust that was a fragile thread he could snap with a single careless act, “has you in such a bad mood?”
The scent of the sea swelled, until she could almost touch the foam. The pause, it was full of things unspoken, a gleaming blade hanging over their heads. Sweat broke out along her spine but she continued to hold him, continued to fight for a relationship that had come out of nowhere and become the most important thing in her universe.
Elena. A caress across her mind as he dropped his head to the curve of her neck.
Heart thudding at the knowledge that the danger had passed, she stroked her hands through his hair, nuzzled her face against him. “You have your own nightmares,” she said, understanding coming to her in the clarity after the storm. “They were bad today.”
Both arms around her, he tugged her even closer. She went, needing the warmth of him as much as he needed her. And wasn"t that a kicker? The Archangel of New York needed her? Her, Elena Deveraux, Guild Hunter and unwanted daughter. Squeezing him with a fierce tenderness, she pressed her lips to his temple, his cheek, any part of him she could reach.
140
REB
“Must be something in the air,” she found herself saying in a voice so quiet, it was almost not sound. “I can"t seem to stop thinking of my mother, my sisters.” It was the first time she"d ever spoken of her nightmares aloud. Even her best friend didn"t know the truth of her childhood, of the evil that haunted her until some days she could hardly breathe.
“Tell me their names.” Warm breath against her neck, his arms so strong around her.
“You know.”
“It"s only fact.”
“My mother,” she said, holding on, holding tight, “her name was Marguerite.”
Elena. A mental kiss, his scent enfolding her as protectively as his arms.
Her lip quivered until she caught it between her teeth. “She"d been in the States since she married my father, but she still spoke with a Parisian accent. She was this fascinating, lovely butterfly with her laughter and her quick hands. I used to just love sitting in the kitchen, or in her work room, watching my mother talk as she worked.”
Marguerite had made quilts, beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces that had sold for enough money that she"d built up a small nest egg. Nothing in comparison to her husband"s fortune, but hers had been passed on to her daughters with love, while Jeffrey . . . “She"d never have let my father do what he did.”
“He lives only because I know you love him.”
“I shouldn"t, but I can"t stop myself.” That love was rooted too deep, so deep that even years of neglect hadn"t snuffed it out completely. “I used to wish he"d died instead of my mother, but I know my mom would"ve hated me for thinking that.”
“Your mother would"ve forgiven you.”
Elena wanted to believe that so much it hurt. “She was the heart of our family. After her death, everything died.”
“Tell me of your lost sisters.”
“If Mama was the heart, then Ari and Belle were the peace and the storm.” They"d left a gaping hole in the Deveraux family when their blood slicked across the floor.
Slater’s handsome face, his lips painted a glistening red.
She clung to Raphael, shoving away the hated image with desperate hands. “I was the middle 141
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child and I liked it. Beth was the baby, but Ari and Belle let me do things with them sometimes.”
No more words would come, her chest tight with lack of air.
“I didn"t have siblings.”
The words were unexpected enough that they broke through her anguish. Staying in place, wrapped around Raphael like ivy, she listened.
“Angelic births are rare, and my parents were both thousands of years old when I was born.”