Archangel's Heart(127)

Yes, they’re very serious about that. So serious that all the good Luminata are shut up in their rooms, contemplating their personal luminescence, leaving the hallways clear for the ones who are interested less in luminescence and more in their own power over others.

Because this wasn’t about sex or about the sadism that drove so many jaded immortals. These Luminata were drunk on power, on being able to live outside the boundaries set by their society—and at present, being able to flout those rules right under the noses of the Cadre of Ten. That had to be a rush. Far too addictive of a rush to abstain from regardless of the danger.

There is no door where Laric indicated it should be. Raphael crouched down in front of a wall, his hair gleaming blue-black.

As she watched, he tugged a downy inner feather from his wing and held it near the bottom edge of the wall. The delicate filaments didn’t move. Rising, he did the same test two feet over. The movement was minuscule, but there should’ve been no movement in this corridor devoid of motion but for the two of them.

Sucking in a breath, Elena took the feather from him, slid it into a pocket. They wouldn’t leave anything for those who might be coming or going to find—and she’d give the feather to Maggie, who loved to stroke them with her small, soft fingers. Zoe already had several of Raphael’s in her growing collection. Do we go in?

From the sounds we heard, someone entered only moments ago. Raphael stared at the wall. No one exited or we’d have caught sight of them as they turned the corner.

Elena’s pulse raced. She didn’t want to wait, didn’t want to give any more time to whatever evil was going on behind those doors. Because it was nothing good if it had to be so darkly hidden. We have to wait, she forced herself to say. We don’t know how to get in and we can’t risk harming someone by using your power.

Raphael nodded, but his gaze held unrelenting determination. Storm or bloodlust, we will not leave until we have the answers, hbeebti.

Swallowing her furious impatience, she satisfied herself—for now—by dropping a blade into her palm. We’d better hide so we can try to see how to get in.

Raphael smiled and opened his wings.

Her eyes widened. I am an idiot. Walking into his arms after he shifted to put his back against the opposite wall, she let him close his wings around her as she faced forward, her own wings against his chest. She couldn’t feel the glamour, but she knew from the outside, they no longer existed. Good thing the Luminata didn’t think to have security cameras. She’d checked.

Being hidebound is an immortal’s greatest weakness. Raphael closed his arms around her shoulders, held her close to the muscled warmth of him, his scent so deeply familiar to her that it settled her on the innermost level.

He was hers. She was his.

And together, they were something far better than either one of them was alone.

Stroking the underside of his wings, Elena stared at the wall on the other side, willing it to open. She jerked when it did only five minutes later. The Luminata who walked out was the tall and thin one who’d been their guide the first night.

Gervais. Gian’s best buddy.

His hood was off and he had a smile on his saturnine face that was more a smirk.

Pulling up his hood with spidery fingers, he glanced back over his shoulder and spoke in that rough voice she’d noted the first night. “You’d better hurry. You know he doesn’t like anyone else inside when he goes into the special chamber to see his pet.”

“. . . got here.”

“You should’ve come earlier. Of course, you can delay if you want to stay in there permanently.”

A second angel huffed out, this one short and stouter than any angel Elena had ever seen. Angels just generally didn’t carry any extra fat on their bodies—partly because of the immortal metabolism and partly because winged flight took serious energy. This one wasn’t so much overweight as just really solid and round. Hard fat, she realized. A man who’d been fit but who’d let it go.

For that to happen to an angel, it meant he wasn’t bothering to fly much.

Right now, his face was hot red and he was in the midst of pulling on his robe over what looked like a pair of pants and a tunic. “That’s the quickest coupling I’ve ever had in all my centuries of existence.”

Gervais clapped him on the shoulder. “Never mind. You’ll have plenty more time once the Cadre has left us in peace. The sluts and toys will spread their legs on command or pay the price.”

Elena didn’t realize she’d pulled out the knife she’d slid away until Raphael closed his hand over her wrist. Later, Elena. We will take care of them later.