A smile coated with the purest malice. "There was no intent until your pet hunter and her friends got in my way."
"You injured several healers on your way in. And you waited until after you knew Elena was inside."
"Does it not disgust you?" she whispered, her voice sliding from poison to purring sensuality in the blink of an eye. "That she's so weak?"
"Power without conscience rots the soul," he told her, watching her eyes harden even as her lips remained uptilted in a smile that promised the darkest of sins, the most excruciating of pleasures. He thought of Uram, falling into the trap of that smile, the selfish beauty of that mind - but then, the dead archangel had chosen his path long before Michaela was even born. "Why did you kill Aloysius?"
"Clever, Raphael." A small bow of her head, genuine delight in her eyes. "He was one of mine, became mine when I took over part of Uram's territory."
"What did he do to merit such an execution?" As the archangel who ruled his territory, Michaela had had the right to put Aloysius to death, but to have that death come at the hands of one of the Made - a vampire who'd likely been allowed to feed from the dying angel - was a ritual humiliation.
Michaela's green eyes turned into narrow slits of light. "He helped abduct Sam."
Any sympathy Raphael might've felt for Aloysius died a quick and permanent death.
"Did you take his memories?"
"Useless." She slashed out a hand. "He was a bit player, a gullible sheep in this faceless would-be archangel's army."
"Were you able to discover anything that may lead to the identity of the one we seek?"
"No. Aloysius was but a pawn."
Raphael saw the truth in the small smile that flirted with her lips. It was cold, merciless, satisfied. "You lost your temper, killed him before taking all his memories."
"He laughed while he put Sam in that box." A thin line of red circled her irises. "I saw it when I looked into his mind."
"Is that when you dropped him?"
"Yes." A shrug. "I'd already broken his wings. Riker took care of the rest."
Raphael reined in his frustration. "How did you discover his involvement?"
"He was afraid his master had come to see him as expendable, couldn't keep from spilling his fears to his lover." A slow smile, that of a snake in the grass. "And loyalty is such a rare commodity when riches are involved."
Elena felt almost surreally calm as she stepped onto the plane the next day. They were flying to Beijing two days ahead of the ball itself, would arrive one day before the other archangels. "Venom?" she asked.
"He's safe." Raphael told her as they took flight. "I've moved all three - Sam, Noel, and Venom - to another location. Galen has gone with them."
"Good." She gripped the armrests. "I feel for Michaela, I do." Losing a child . . . she couldn't imagine the pain.
Her father had lost two daughters.
Because of Elena.
Swallowing the pain-lashed guilt that sat like a stone on her chest, she turned to look at the archangel she called her own. "But she was out of it at the hospital. All it would've taken was one conversation with you and there would've been no violence."
"You're expecting her to act human, Elena." An answer laced with cold. "Archangels aren't used to asking permission for anything."
She was no longer the same woman who'd woken from the coma, their relationship a complete mystery. She knew pieces of him now. Enough to ask, "What's wrong?"
Raphael glanced at her with eyes that had gone that metallic shade that never augured anything good. "What Michaela did to Aloysius? I wouldn't have been that merciful."
Her palms grew damp. "You call that mercy?"
"He died quickly." Frost in that gaze, a chill immortal winter. "I would've kept him alive for days while I tore his mind apart."
She blew out an unsteady breath. "Why are you telling me?"
You need to know who I am.
Elena thought of that, gave him her answer. "If Slater Patalis was standing in front of me, I'd do the same."
Raphael ran the back of his hand over her cheek. "No, Elena. I think your anger is a far hotter flame."
Reaching up, she tangled their fingers together. "I'll try to stop you if it ever comes to that."
"Why? Do you pity those who'd harm the innocent?"
"No." She brought their clasped hands to her lips. "I care about you."
Raphael felt the cold in him shift, begin to heat from within. "So you'll try to save me."
"I think it'll be mutual." A voice husky with shadowed memories. She'd woken on a scream again today, her mind locked inside a horror almost two decades in the past.
Mirroring her kiss, he raised her hand to his mouth. "We'll save each other."
There were no more words until his hunter shook her head. "What if this angel, the one who wants to become an archangel, tries something while we're gone?"
"Nazarach, Dahariel, and Anoushka have all been invited to the ball, as have others of comparable power."
Elena grew still. "That's when they'll make their move, isn't it? It'll be the perfect stage, especially with the Cadre meeting ahead of the ball."
"Yes." He looked at her, the pulse in her neck a fluttering, fragile thing. "Do not let them near. You remain the target who'll get this aspirant the most attention."
"Don't worry. They're not exactly people I want to spend time with." A shiver that he knew had nothing to do with the threat on her life even before she spoke. "Lijuan . . .