Archangel's Shadows(170)
“Never lose that part of yourself, Elena.” Raphael’s eyes held a lick of wildfire in their depths that spoke of the changes going on inside him. “Before you, I had become jaded, unable to see the light or the dark. It is not an existence to which anyone should aspire.”
Rubbing her cheek against his hand, she said to hell with shocking their guest should he step outside and drew her archangel down for a kiss. “To life.”
“To life, hbeebti.”
• • •
Ashwini sat with her legs hanging off the edge of the Tower roof, watching the revelers on the rooftops around them and in the streets far below. Music came from every side, merging and mixing and becoming a wild, vibrant melody. Wings passed overhead, the area a sea of angels landing on roofs and on the tarmac as they joined in the celebration in different areas.
Illium flew down to the under-renovation Legion building right then, the silver in his wings shimmering in the lights beaming out of the Tower. The Legion fighters were, for the most part, sitting in crouched positions on different parts of the Tower. Ashwini hadn’t yet figured out if they were bemused by the entire thing or fascinated.
A male head was suddenly in her lap, hair of liquid silver on the black of her jeans.
“You’ll fall,” she said to Naasir, petting his hair as she knew he wanted.
“No, I won’t,” he said easily, staying stretched out on the edge. “I came to see you. I never had any brothers or sisters, but I would be angry and sad if something happened to my people . . . like it did to Aodhan once.” Silver eyes held her own. “I’ll fight with you if you want.”
The offer, she knew, was genuine. He’d allow her to cut him up if it would make her feel better. Because she was one of Naasir’s people now. As he was part of her family. Affection had her pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Thank you, but I think I’m okay,” she said through her lingering sorrow at Tanu and Arvi’s loss.
Knowing that they had wanted to go didn’t change the hole in her heart, didn’t make it any less painful to accept the fact that she’d never again witness Tanu’s acerbic wit or hear Arvi’s voice. What did help were the people around her. Like the wild creature in her lap and the hunters who were the family she’d created. They’d stood shoulder to shoulder with her as she laid her siblings to rest, done a thousand small things to make it more bearable.
And Janvier . . . he’d been her rock throughout, solid, protective, and unwavering. She didn’t know how she would continue to function, to exist, if anything ever happened to him, and in that agony of thought, she’d finally understood his own stubborn refusal to stay after she was gone. That didn’t mean she planned to accept it. He had a wild, beautiful, adventurous eternity ahead of him and she’d fight to make sure he claimed it.
“This is a fun party,” Naasir said into the lazy quiet between them, the repetitive motion of stroking the cool silver of his hair having relaxed her as much as it had him. “I think Ellie should be in charge of all immortal parties.”
Ashwini laughed at the idea of Ellie let loose on stuffy angelic balls. “Go have some of that fun,” she urged him, conscious he was returning to Amanat in twenty-four hours. She’d miss him, might have to bag herself a hunt in Japan so she could swing by for a visit. “I saw the pretty little angel with the auburn hair giving you the eye earlier. She’s over there trying to scorch me to a crisp with her mind, if you want to go soothe her feelings.”
“No,” Naasir said definitively. “I want a mate and I’ve decided to go hunting for her. The little angel didn’t smell like her.”
Ashwini felt a twinge of sympathy for all the smitten women he’d be smelling and rejecting until he found his mate. “You realize it can take time? You can’t force it.”