Archangel's Kiss (Guild Hunter 2)

Michaela ignored the last part of Elena's statement. "Are you waiting for Raphael to rescue you?" A tinkling laugh. "He's with Elijah, flying over the opposite end of the Refuge. Apparently, there was word of an angelic body found there."

"Was there?" Consigning pride to Hades, she sent out a mental call for help, hoping her archangel wasn't out of range.Raphael!

A lithe shrug. "I will see the child now."

Elena found herself smashed against the wall, her teeth slamming down on her lower lip as her head snapped back, hitting the wall hard enough to make her vision blur. She struggled against the invisible bonds holding her to the stone, even as she tried to blink the dizziness from her eyes. The gun fell to the floor with a dull thud.

"Oh, you're bleeding." Michaela pressed her lips softly against Elena's, a macabre kiss flavored with malice . . . and something else.

Musk and orchids . . . touched by a jagged bite of acid.

Horror spread its wings inside her. Because that last note, the acid flavored by sunlight wasn't Michaela's scent. It belonged to an archangel who'd been executed above a pitch-black Manhattan. But Uram had had Michaela alone long enough to remove her heart.

The question was - what had he put in her?

"I could kill you now," the female archangel murmured against Elena's mouth, "but I think it'll be rather amusing to watch you after Raphael tires of you." Another line carved into Elena's opposite cheek, the scent of iron filling the air as Michaela's words drew heart's-blood. "You'll just be meat then, easy prey for anyone who wants to taste an angel-Made. We'll have lots of time to play."

She was gone down the corridor in a swirl of rust-colored fabric an instant later, her words reverberating in Elena's skull. But it was Sam who was important at this moment - the female archangel might actually physically harm him in her current state of mind, one which seemed to hold nothing of sanity and everything of a sadistic kind of pleasure.

Beyond scared for the boy, she was fighting uselessly against her bonds when Galen and Venom swept past at preternatural speed. "Ugh!" It was an ungraceful cry as the power holding her to the wall evaporated at almost the same instant. Getting to her feet, she grabbed the gun, raced after the other two . . . and came to a screeching halt a few feet behind Michaela.

Galen stood in front of the archangel, bleeding from several cuts on his body and face.

Venom was getting up from a corner where the stone itself had been shattered by the impact of his body. Blood dripped down his face, but his eyes were a hypnotic slitted gold-green, the cobra rising to the surface.

Michaela stared at Galen. "You think I would harm the child."

"You've already done violence in a place of healing."

Elena sucked in a breath at the faint glow around Michaela's wings.Jesus. "If you release that power here," she said through lips that were starting to swell, "you'll probably collapse the building, killing not only Sam but any other children inside."

Michaela turned to pin Elena with a gaze that was pure light, no pupils, no irises, no longer in any sense human. Of course, Michaela had never been that. But today the difference between angel and archangel was a heat that left Elena fighting to hold her gaze, her own eyes streaming with tears.

It was tempting, so tempting, to fire the gun, but if the bullet went through Michaela's body, there was a chance it could ricochet off the walls and shatter the glass of the patient rooms a breath away. She put it away, dropped a knife into her hand, her eyes on Michaela's throat.

"I will not hurt the child." It was Michaela's voice, but so choked with power, it thundered with rage, a thousand voices contained.

Elena fought the urge to step back, knowing she was way out of her league, but also knowing she had to help delay Michaela long enough for more powerful help to arrive.

"If you don't tamp it down, you will."

The female archangel continued to look at Elena, her head cocked in a way that was creepily inhuman. Elena had the feeling of fingers crawling across her mind, trying to pry their way in. Bile rose in her throat, but she held her position, realizing that if Michaela had to try to find a way in, it meant Raphael was protecting her. She wasn't stupid enough to rebuff that protection.

"So weak." A statement almost without malice - as if Elena was simply below her notice. That scared Elena even more. Because no matter what, Michaela had always been very human in her emotions. Right now, she could have been in the Quiet.

Turning back to Galen, Michaela raised a hand. Galen swayed as if hit by a blow, but stood his ground. Michaela laughed, made a hard slicing motion. This time, the big, heavily muscled angel slammed into the wall, saving his wings only by dint of twisting his body so he hit that wall face-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?