first.
Blood smeared the stone, but Elena"s attention was on Venom. The vampire had struck while Michaela"s attention was on Galen, burying his fangs in the archangel"s neck the moment after Galen hit the wall. Elena released her blade at the same instant. It hit home on the other side of Michaela"s neck.
Screaming in rage, Michaela tore Venom off, throwing him so hard, he ended up motionless and twisted at the other end of the corridor. Then she reached up to pull the knife out as if it was nothing more than a toothpick, her arteries sealing up before Elena"s eyes. The knife hit the floor with a metallic sound as she lifted a finger at Elena. “Which limb would you like to lose first?”
Jesus. Jesus. Elena knew there was no way she could stop Michaela when two much older immortals had failed—the archangel would crush her heart before she managed to get to the gun, much less pull the trigger. Where are you, Raphael?
The sea crashed into her mind, a violent storm . I’m on my way. Keep her calm. If she releases her power, it’ll destroy the Refuge itself.
Making a split-second decision, Elena wiped the back of her hand across her mouth, the cuts on her lips still seeping blood. “I"ll take you to Sam.”
The female archangel waited.
The hairs on the back of her neck rising in primitive warning, Elena took the lead, hearing the whisper of Michaela"s dress as she followed . Galen and Venom are both down. Galen’s eyes had blinked open in the last few seconds, but Venom looked bad, really bad.I think she broke his spine, maybe his neck. And a vampire could die from a broken neck if enough other damage had been done.
He’s not dead yet.
The last word was curt. A chill curled around her heart. She"d never thought she"d mourn his loss, but Venom had shown himself willing to lay down his life to protect a child. It made him better, far better, than an archangel who"d level the Refuge while enraged with power. It reminded her too much of another archangel—one bloated with toxin. Just how much of Uram did Michaela carry?
Heart thudding, Elena stopped in front of the glass enclosure where Sam lay in peaceful sleep.
She saw Keir arrive out of the corner of her eye and tried to warn him off with a frantic movement of her hand, but Keir shook his head. “Sam"s resting,” he said in an easy tone, as if an archangel wasn"t about to go nuclear beside them. “The healing is progressing extremely well.”
“He won"t be scarred?”
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Elena found Michaela"s question peculiar until she realized Michaela wasn"t talking about the boy"s superficial injuries.
“No, there"ll be no permanent damage.” Keir put an arm on Michaela"s, braving the heat that blazed from her skin. “He"ll grow up as he should.”
Elena watched Michaela place her hand on the glass. “He"s so fragile.” The blaze faded in a slow wave. “So breakable.”
“Children always are,” Keir said, his tone gentle, his eyes ancient in that youthful face. “It"s a risk we take.”
“Too much,” Michaela whispered. “The risk is too much.”
The tableau froze in Elena"s mind—an archangel of impossible beauty dressed in blood, her hand lying on the glass, her fingers trembling with emotions that brought tears to Elena"s throat.
What would Michaela have been, she wondered, if she hadn"t lost her child? Would the selfishness that touched her every move have matured into something better? Or would she have become another Neha, creating her child as a poisonous mirror?
“Better to break their necks when they"re born.”
Elena slid out the gun. If Michaela made a single move, she"d empty the entire clip into the archangel"s wings before Michaela could turn, use her powers to disarm Elena. Because given the choice of a possible ricochet versus certain death for Sam, she"d chance the ricochet.
“Don"t you think so?” the archangel said to Keir in a voice that was jarring in its thoughtfulness.
“We do not kill our young.”
Silence. When the archangel drew back from the glass, her face was as Elena had always seen it—perfection without mercy. Turning away with a nod to Keir, she left in a sweep of bronze wings and white silk stained dark red, her beauty imprinting an afterimage that was hard to ignore.
Elena let out a shuddering breath. She’s gone.
Take Keir to Venom.
Elena was already moving in that direction, Keir at her side. They arrived to find Galen—his face a mess of blood and torn skin—kneeling beside the fallen vampire. “He"s severely injured.
Snapped spine, fractured skull, collapsed lung. His heart may have been pierced by a broken rib.”
“He bit Michaela,” Elena said, not sure if that made any difference.
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“Then he likely discharged the poison in his fangs.” Keir began to run featherlight fingers over Venom"s body. “That"ll make him easier to handle.”
“Can his poison harm an angel?”