by Nalini Singh
"Raphael doesn't keep a court," Dmitri said, sliding out a small, gleaming blade from a wall bracket, and throwing it toward the high ceiling of the salle without warning.
Illium flew up as if he'd been thrown from a slingshot, snapping the blade out of the air one-handed and spinning it back at Dmitri in the same motion. The vampire gripped it by the hilt just before it would've slammed into his face. Baring his teeth in a feral grin at a smiling Illium, he said, "Doesn't see the point of pretty people floating around doing nothing."
Galen watched Illium land with a precision he'd witnessed in no other, the beauty of the youth's wings doing nothing to hide the muscle strength required to pull off the maneuver, and realized the other angel gave the impression of being an ornament, handsome and amusing, on purpose. No one would ever suspect him of dangerous intent.
Illium's response to his candid appraisal was a bow so graceful and ornate, it would have done one of Lijuan's stuffy courtiers proud, his wings spread in stunning display. "Would you like a dagger in your throat for breakfast today, my lord?" The tone was pure aristocrat, with a side dish of golden-eyed flirtation.
"Do you let him out alone?" he asked Dmitri, already calculating the potential advantages of Illium's skills.
"Rarely."
2
It wasn't until the hushed time after dawn the next morning that he saw the tall, thin angel again. She walked alone along the marbled path that led to the doors of the great library in the Refuge, disappearing and appearing out of the mist as she passed on the other side of the columns that guarded the structure.
She carried what appeared to be a heavy book in her arms, her shining chestnut brown hair braided into a long tail down her back, her gown--of some fine sky blue material that echoed the mist--swirling and whispering around her ankles like a familiar lover. Not quite understanding why he did so, he changed direction to intercept her, the wind crisp and cool against his skin as he cut through the air.
A wordless cry, a startled gasp, as he landed in front of her.
Folding back his wings, he said, "I'll carry that," and took the gilt-edged tome from her hands before she could catch her breath and demur.
She blinked, thick, curling lashes coming down over eyes of lush brown, the color holding a warmth that reminded him of the finely mixed pigment used by an artist who'd once visited Titus's court. "Thank you." Her voice was even, though her pulse thudded in her throat, a delicate beat against creamy skin stroked with a hint of the sun. "Aren't you cold?"
He wore only a simple pair of pants made of a durable material, in which he could fight with ease, paired with sturdy boots. His sword was strapped along his spine, the leather straps crisscrossing his chest. "No," he said, conscious he looked the barbarian Dmitri had called him--all the more so next to her ethereal beauty. "You wake early, my lady."
"Jessamy." The single word brought her lips to his attention. Soft and just full enough to tempt, they would've dominated her face if not for those compelling eyes dark with unspoken mystery. "When did I teach you, Galen? I can't seem to remember."
Curling his fingers into his hand, he fought the urge to reach out, rub away the lines that had formed between her eyebrows. She was too fine a creature for him, his touch far too rough. And yet he didn't walk away. "Why should you have taught me anything?"
Another blink, more lines. "I teach all our babes, have done so for millennia. You must have been one of my students--you are so very young."
In his two hundred and seventy-five years on this earth, he had walked in battle and bathed in blood, felt the hot kiss of a whip on his back, the cold thrust of a knife into his gut, but never had he been called an infant until this moment. "I spent my childhood in Titus's court." It was an unusual thing for a child to grow up outside the Refuge, but no one would have dared harm the son of two warriors, a boy Titus himself had placed under his protection. "I had a tutor," he added, because he did not like the idea of her thinking him an unlearned savage.
"I remember now." Jessamy's liquid silk voice pouring over him in an unintentional caress. "Your tutor was a former student I recommended for the post--he told me you were taught alone."
"Yes." Titus had not wanted the feminine softness of his daughters to affect Galen's development.
"A lonely life."
He shrugged, because he'd survived and he'd grown up strong--he'd been a capable fighter at an age when most angels were yet considered children. Perhaps he had not had the usual playmates, but it was all he knew, and a life that had formed him into the man he was today. That man wanted to bend, sniff the scent at the curve of Jessamy's elegant neck. "I'll escort you the rest of the way," he said, rather than giving in to the primitive urge.
*
Jessamy fell into step beside the big--and rather physically overwhelming--angel, his wings raised up off the floor with such effortless ease, she knew it was no conscious choice, but the honed training of a warrior. No one would ever trip him up by using his wings, this male who had looked at the book he held as if at some foreign object. "Do you read?" she asked without thought.
The incredible, exquisite red of his hair shimmered with droplets of mist that had collected on the strands as he shook his head, and she wondered if the color would stain her skin a glorious sunset should she weave her fingers through the thickness of it.
"I can," he added almost curtly, "but there's not much use for it in my world." An unexpected brush of heat across his cheekbones. "My reading skills are . . . rusty at best."
Jessamy didn't understand how anyone could live without words, without story . . . but then, she had been entombed in the Refuge for millennia. If she, too, had wings as magnificent as Galen's, perhaps--though it seemed an altogether impossible thing--she would not have cared so much for words either. "I can't fly," she found herself saying, because she'd embarrassed him, and she hadn't meant to. "It gives me much time to read."
Galen didn't turn, didn't stare at the twisted wing that meant she'd never take flight. Keir, their greatest healer, had tried to heal her a thousand times over the years as his strength grew with age, but her left wing always formed into the same twisted shape, regardless of how many times it was broken and reset, or excised and allowed to grow back. Until she had said enough. No more. No more.
"Your inability to fly," Galen said even as she fought the painful echo of a decision that had broken her heart, "is obvious."
Her mouth fell open. No one had ever been so unkind about her disability. Most people preferred to pretend it didn't exist, and she didn't push them to acknowledge it. What was the point in causing those around her discomfort? As for her charges--and those like Illium who had once been her charges--they had only ever known her as Jessamy, who had a twisted wing and whom they had to behave with, because she couldn't chase them into the sky. All she had to do was step outside the schoolroom and raise her arm, and even the naughtiest child came back down to earth at once.
This one, however, she thought, glancing askance at the large male she couldn't imagine as a lonely boy making his way in a court filled with the clang of blades and the cries of combat, would have done exactly as he pleased.
"Were you born this way?" he asked, blunt as the edge of a dull axe.
Jessamy decided he wasn't being rude, at least not in a purposeful way. "Subtle," as Illium had said, didn't seem to be in Galen's vocabulary. "Yes."
"They say Keir is a talented healer."
"He is . . . He did his best." And he had blamed himself when he failed. She didn't blame Keir. Neither did she blame her mother--who found it difficult to look at the child she'd borne, though not because of a lack of love.
"Her guilt is too huge." Keir's young-old eyes, his voice layered with potent emotion. "She will not listen when I tell her there is no need for it. Nothing she did or did not do caused your wing to form as it did."
Jessamy's mother wouldn't listen to her daughter either, not for the longest time. Even now, there was a haunted kind of pain o
n Rhoswen's fine-boned face on the rare occasions Jessamy caught her looking at her child's malformed wing. Rare . . . and getting ever rarer, as the wrenching silence between them, created of all the things they did not say, grew into an impenetrable black wall.
The heavy wooden doors to the library appeared out of the mist at that instant, as impenetrable in their bulk, the gold that inlaid the exquisite carvings waiting for the sun's kiss to shine. Reaching out, Galen pulled open one of the doors, the ropes of muscle on his arm flexing and bunching in a way that had her mouth going dry, her heart slamming hard against her ribs.
Shaken by the depth and swiftness of her response--unmistakably physical and carnal--she averted her gaze and held out her hand for the book.
"Do you not eat?" he asked, sliding it into her hold, a jaundiced look in his eyes as he ran his gaze over her body.
The dark pulse of attraction morphed into sharp irritation. As a young woman, she'd attempted to do everything in her power to put more flesh on her bones, to no avail. This was simply how she was meant to be. "No," she said, ice in her tone, "I prefer to starve," and stalked into the library, certain the infuriating male had been raised by wolves.
*
It was not long afterward, the sun's blaze having burned away the mist to reveal the bright flecks of precious metals embedded in the marble buildings of the Refuge, that Galen saw Illium's distinctive wings sweep out and over the gorge. The younger angel headed into the clouds and across mountains where no one and nothing lived.
"A woman," Dmitri said from beside him, the wind lifting his black hair off his face to reveal "a dangerous male beauty"--or so Galen had heard it said by more than one woman, angel and vampire both. What Galen saw was a ruthless kind of strength, strength that demanded respect.
"Mortal," the vampire added.
Galen might not know how to talk to women outside of other warriors, but no one had ever accused him of being stupid. "You worry for him."
Dmitri's gaze lingered on the clouds where the angel had disappeared. "Mortals die, Galen."
Galen shrugged. "So do we." The mortals called them immortal, but angels and vampires could die--it just took a great deal of effort. "Does she make him happy?"
"Yes. Too much."
Galen didn't ask him to elaborate. He'd known immortals who had fallen for mortals, seen how they mourned when those bright firefly lives were extinguished. He'd never felt such depth of love, but he could comprehend grief. "Jessamy," he said, his mind on a woman who wasn't mortal, but whose slender form seemed far too vulnerable for his peace of mind, "does she have a lover?"
Dmitri's sophisticated elegance broke to reveal utter astonishment. "What?"
"Jessamy," he repeated patiently. "Does she have a lover?"
"She's the Teacher."
"She's also a woman." And if the men around her had been too stupid to notice, Galen wasn't going to lose sleep over it.
A startled pause, a shake of Dmitri's head that had blue-black highlights glinting in the sun. "No," the vampire finally responded, "she doesn't have a lover as far as I know."
"Good."
Dmitri continued to stare at him. "You do realize she's over two thousand five hundred years old, speaks at least a hundred languages, and has such a depth of knowledge the Cadre comes to her for advice and information?"
Galen had no doubt all of that was true. "I don't intend to get into an intelligence contest with her." No, he wanted her in a far more primal way.
Dmitri blew out a breath. "This should be interesting."
They watched several angels wing their way out of the aeries that lined the gorge, the light making their wings shimmer and glitter. "Trust," Dmitri said when the last of them rose up into the cerulean blue sky, "is earned."
"Understood."
"For now, you'll remain in the Refuge, charged with training the young ones who have joined Raphael."
"They say Lijuan likes him," he said, mentioning one of the oldest members of the Cadre.
"She might not wear cobras like Neha," Dmitri muttered in a voice stripped of all traces of civilization, until it was a naked blade, "but Lijuan is no less poisonous."
Galen thought over what he knew of Lijuan, realized it wasn't much. "Such information was not shared with me in Titus's court. If I am to be a true weapons-master, I must know of the politics that might inform tactics."
Dmitri's smile was slow. "In that case, you should talk to Jessamy."
Folding his arms, Galen met the vampire's innocent gaze. "Should I?"
"What many don't know is that aside from being the Teacher, Jessamy keeps our histories. I'd say there's no one better if you want to learn the subtleties of the politics that underpin and maintain the balance in the Cadre."
Galen knew Dmitri was amusing himself by pointing him in Jessamy's direction, but he now had a reason to be in her company. Nonetheless, he said, "Have you forgotten that I am quite capable of killing you?"
"That was a lucky strike, Barbarian." The vampire thrust a hand through his hair, said, "Your skills as weapons-master may be necessary sooner than you realize," in a far more serious tone. "Alexander has begun amassing his army--he has never believed Raphael should have become Cadre at so young an age, and now it seems he is willing to use force to impose his will."
Alexander was the Archangel of Persia, had ruled for thousands upon thousands of years. "He's stronger than Raphael." Age had edged his power to a piercing gleam.
Dmitri's expression was inscrutable. "We shall see."
Galen wondered if Dmitri had told him of the looming war only because it was already being whispered of among the populace. It was no secret. But then, as the vampire had made clear--trust was earned. Galen had expected nothing less. "He will have spies in Raphael's territory, in the Refuge and out."
"Of course. So keep your eyes open."
Galen's eyes were wide-open that afternoon as he flew over the gleaming white buildings that hugged the craggy landscape of the mountain stronghold, having tracked Jessamy to a small clifftop house on the far edge of Raphael's Refuge territory. For a woman who was so beloved of children and adults both from what he'd learned today, she chose to live in relative isolation. Her home was separated from others by a jagged wall of rock, and accessible only from the air, or along a single narrow trail.
Sweeping down to land in her front yard--paved with tiles of sparkling blue and delicate gray, the earthenware pots along the sides overflowing with hardy mountain flowers in white, yellow, red, and indigo--he had the sensation of being a great lumbering beast as he folded his wings neatly to his back. But feeling out of place wasn't enough to stop him in his pursuit of this angel with her fine beauty, and eyes dense with secrets.
As for the physical aspect--he couldn't lie. He was a man with raw appetites, and Jessamy spoke to every single one. It had been a selfish need that had led him to ask the question that had annoyed her so. He'd wanted to be certain she wouldn't fracture under the strength of his touch. Some might say he was being presumptuous in assuming she would even permit him to court her, much less caress that creamy skin with hands rough and hardened from constant weapons-work, but Galen didn't believe in going into battle without intending to win.
Striding toward the open door, he was about to call out her name when he heard something crash, followed by a terrified feminine cry. Ice chilling the embers in his blood, he ran inside, drawing his sword as he did so. The noise had originated from the back of the house and when he felt the slap of the wind on his body, he knew the door on the other side was open to the steep drop below, a drop lined with brutal spikes of rock.
It would've meant nothing had it been another angel . . . but Jessamy couldn't fly.
3
He entered to see her fighting with grim-jawed determination against a vampire who had her backed up almost to the gaping emptiness of the open door, trickles of dark red running down the side of her face.
A sudden, cold rage.
Roaring a battle c
ry, he lunged and ripped her assailant off her to throw him to the wall so hard something broke with an audible snap. He grabbed Jessamy with his other arm in the same movement and kicked the door shut. "Stay," he ordered, perching her on a table and swinging out with his sword as he felt the air move at his back.
Fangs bared, one of his shoulder bones having punched through his shirt to gleam rust white in the air, the vampire screamed in bloody defiance and cut a line of fire down Galen's chest with a heavy hunting knife. Galen ignored the scratch and the other male's head was rolling off his neck to land on the floor with a wet thud the next instant, blood gushing out to spray the wall as the man's body spasmed before collapsing.
Damn.
Jessamy would probably make him clean that up, he thought, watching the corpse continue to twitch. Vampires were almost-immortals, but--regardless of the sporadic motions of the body--they couldn't survive decapitation. Still, he made the kill certain by walking over and thrusting his sword through the dead vampire's heart, cutting it up into tiny pieces inside his chest.
Only then did he turn to the woman who sat on the table, face white and eyes huge. Having wiped his sword on the vampire's clothing, he slid it into the sheath on his back and crossed the distance between them to place his hands on either side of Jessamy's slight body. "Look at me."
Jittery brown eyes met his. "You have blood on you."
Cursing inwardly at the evidence of vicious violence, violence that was an integral part of his life, but no doubt a stranger to her, he would've drawn away to take care of it--but she pulled off some kind of silky scarf thing from around her waist and began to wipe his face clean. It carried her scent.
Locking his muscles, he stayed in place. His eyes fell to the graceful curve of her neck and to the straps that held up the bodice of her gown, the knot tied at her nape, streamers of fabric falling gracefully down her back. A single drop of blood marred the fine blue, but her gown had otherwise escaped damage.
"Done?" he asked when she dropped her hand, raising his own at the same time to angle her face to the light so he could examine the cut on her temple. Already healing. Good. But he borrowed her scarf to wipe away the streaks of red that enraged him, the scent of her blood a vivid thread in spite of the carnage.
