Archangel's Kiss (Guild Hunter 2)

"I guess I'll have to make up for it today." Lowering his body into a semicrouch, he began to circle her, his movements almost painfully slow.

She moved in the opposite direction, wanting to get a handle on his style. Most people telegraphed their next move with some type of a tell. She was very aware of her own tell - her feet. It had taken years of training to ensure they never pointed in the same direction she intended to move. Venom didn't telegraph with his feet.

She shifted her attention to the next most common tell - the eyes. All the air rushed out of her lungs at the contact. Her brain continued to have trouble accepting what she saw when she looked into Venom's eyes. Just then, the slitted irises contracted and she took a startled step back.

A soft laugh.

Bastard was playing with her. Gritting her teeth, she kept her gaze locked to his as they continued to circle each other. It was on the second complete rotation that she felt herself blink, stagger a little.

Fuck!

She threw one of the blades without warning. He moved aside with snake swiftness but still ended up on his back on the ground with a nasty gash in his arm.

Galen was beside them in a single instant. "What was that?" he snapped, his jaw a hard line. "Throwing away your weapon before the fight starts isn't exactly going to keep you alive."

Elena didn't take her eyes from Venom. The vampire held a hand over his bleeding arm, but his smile . . . Slow. Taunting. Daring her to call him on it. Dropping her head, she lunged . . . and slammed the second blade right between his legs.

"Fuck!" He scrambled backward, flowing to his feet in a way that was simply not human. Normal bodies didn't move with that kind of liquid fluidity.

Galen was looking at Venom now. "Did you try to entrance her?"

"She should be prepared for the unexpected." Venom's eyes glittered bright green as he returned his gaze to Elena. "I would've had her in another half a turn."

"I could've also cut off your balls if I'd aimed a little higher," Elena said, retrieving her weapons. "You want to play more games or can we get to work? We're on a deadline."

"This'll take a few minutes to heal." He removed his hand to show that the wound was still gushing blood. "Now I can compare notes with Dmitri."

Ignoring his sly words, she set about practicing the moves Galen had drilled into her when she wasn't throwing knives at Illium. The terse angel watched her go through the entire set and gave a short nod at the end. Feeling unaccountably pleased, she pointed the tip of one blade at Venom. "Ready?"

He twirled both weapons in his hands. "I never did get a taste of you."

"Come here, little hunter. Taste."

Everything went cold, quiet. She was no longer aware of the taunting heat in Venom's eyes, the light layer of snow on the ground, Galen's watchful presence. All she knew was the hunt.

Venom struck without warning, moving with the swiftness of the snake that was patently a far bigger part of him than just his eyes. But Elena was already gone, her blades crossed in front of her as she moved, one hand slicing out to run a thin line of blood across the vampire's chest.

He said something as the blow landed. She didn't hear it, her mind set to kill.

This time, the monster wouldn't get in, wouldn't murder Ari and Belle, wouldn't break her mother's heart so badly that she never left that kitchen saturated with the screams of her children.

Her eye picked up the minute tensing of Venom's thigh muscles and she struck before he could. This time, he avoided her blades, but not the foot she swept out to trip him. But she'd made a mistake. A line of fire rippled up her side.

Stupid. She'd forgotten she had wings to worry about now.

Flicking a quick glance at the wing to ensure the damage wasn't serious, she twirled one blade, making it sing in the cold mountain air, and turned her attention to those eerie eyes again. Take those out and he'd go down. It was an utterly emotionless thought.

Venom's eyes contracted at that instant, his blades coming up in a defensive posture as he blocked her attempts to do him mortal harm. But Elena was past the point of thinking, moving with the speed and strength that made her hunter-born. Venom yelled something at her but all she heard was a cold hiss.

She went for his eyes.

A slam of black exploding in her head. Then nothing.

Raphael landed next to Elena's fallen form, his rage finely honed. "Did you incite this?"

he asked as he picked her up in his arms, careful, so careful.

Venom wiped blood off his face. "Nothing worse than I've said to her before." The vampire's gaze lingered on Elena. "I think I made some quip about tasting her."

"You know I'd kill you for the attempt."

"Our task is to protect you from threats - especially those you might not recognize."

Venom met his eyes. "Michaela, Astaad, Charisemnon, each will attempt to kill her at some stage, knowing it'll shake you. Better to get rid of the problem now."

Raphael spread his wings in preparation for flight. "She's more important to me than all of you. Don't ever forget."

"And you're an archangel. If you fall, millions will die."

Unsaid were the words - better for a once mortal, new angel to die in his stead. But that wasn't a bargain Raphael would ever make. "Choose your loyalty, Venom."

"I made my choice two centuries ago." Those slitted eyes flicked to Elena. "But if she courts death, it'll find her."

Well aware of what the vampire was speaking about, Raphael rose to the sky, holding Elena close to his heart. It was inevitable he'd remember the last time he'd held her so limp in his arms. Immortality hadn't made her safer, only more likely to survive the hurts sure to come her way. But he could do nothing to protect her from the memories that haunted her.

Galen's mental call had almost come too late. If Elena had managed to touch Venom's eyes, the cold-blooded creature that lived within the vampire would have struck out, sinking its fangs into her unprotected flesh.

It would've left her paralyzed, in agony.

And while in the grip of the cobra's hunger, it was quite possible Venom would have cut off Elena's head before Galen could intervene, causing true death.

Laying her on their bed, he reached into her mind.Elena.

Her head shifted from side to side as she moaned, as if fighting a savage internal battle.

His promise to her - to keep his mental distance - warred with the protectiveness that clenched around his soul. The urge was even stronger today than it had been yesterday. It would be so very easy to reach in and erase what hurt her.

"I would rather die as Elena, than live as a shadow."