Angel’s Blood (Guild Hunter #1)(65)
Author: Nalini Singh

"Did he love her?"

"Perhaps." His face said that that didn’t matter. "He watched over her for the rest of her days, knowing she no longer knew him. Is that love?"

"Don’t you know?"

"I’ve seen love defined a thousand ways over the centuries. There is no constant." He stared at her, his own face expressionless. "If Illium loved his mortal, then he was a fool. She’s been dust for centuries."

"Heartless," she whispered, sensing the warmth of the rising sun at her back. How long had they stood here that the fading edge of night had turned to dawn? "Couldn’t you have allowed him a lifetime with the woman he loved?"

"No." Sharp, clean lines, a face without mercy. "For if one mortal knows, soon another will. You have little concept of secrecy."

Elena saw in his absolute statement, her future. "Not my memories," she reminded him. "Hunt me to ground if it comes to that, but don’t you dare take my memories."

"You’d rather die?"

"Yes."

"So be it."

Her blood fired at the finality of those three short words, knowing he’d spoken them as a vow. "You do realize that to kill me, you’ll have to catch me."

His smile held the cool arrogance of a man who knew exactly how dangerous he was. "It’ll break the ennui of age."

She snorted and glanced outside. "Rain’s stopped. I’ll go out, see if I can pick up a trail in case Uram didn’t spend the night in Stupor."

"Eat first." He moved back. "We never stopped running search patterns-if he’d killed again, I would’ve heard by now."

Feeling jittery but knowing she’d do better with some nourishment, she agreed. "I’ll grab something quick."

"Will you begin your search at Michaela’s?"

"Might as well. If he is up and around, he’ll probably come by to visit her. There’s-" Something rang in a familiar pattern. "Damn, where did I put it?"

"Here." Raphael picked her cell phone out of the clothing she’d thrown over the small bag that held her stuff. "Catch."

"Thanks." One glance at the caller display was enough to make her stomach churn. "Hello, Jeffrey." She wondered what her father would say if she told him she was standing in a room with a half-naked archangel. Probably ask her to strike a deal while said archangel was befuddled with sex.

Looking at the profile of Raphael’s highly intelligent face as he switched on a laptop she hadn’t noticed until then, she felt her lips curve in a tight grin. "What is it?" The urge to hang up was a pounding need in her blood, but she’d gnaw off her own arm before she allowed Jeffrey to beat her into sniveling cowardice.

"You need to come to my office."

Something in his tone cut through the complex, turbulent layers of her anger. "Is someone there?"

"Now, Elieanora." He hung up.

"I need to get to my father’s brownstone."

Turning from the laptop, Raphael raised an eyebrow. "I thought you’d said what you needed to say to your father yesterday?"

She didn’t bother to ask how he knew-it wasn’t as if she and Jeffrey had made any attempt to keep the volume down. "Something’s wrong. Is the car still out front?"

He paused and she realized he was probably talking to the vampires mind-to-mind. "Dmitri will drive you."

"Fine." She began to stride out. "If this is one of Jeffrey’s power games-Damn it, no, I’m not going to drop everything just because he tells me to." She pulled out the phone and called him back."I’m on a hunt," she said as soon as he picked up. "I don’t have time to come play happy families."

"Then perhaps you’ll find the time to come clean up the mess your friend left behind."

Her heart chilled. "What are you talking about?"

"I’m fairly sure she was still alive when he split her open and skinned off the flesh to display her broken rib cage."

Chapter 33

Raphael flew her to her father’s, landing on the street with a smooth grace that would’ve stunned onlookers, had anybody been watching. But it was too early for anyone but the birds, especially in this exclusive area.

The scent hit her the second they landed. The by-now familiar bite of acid tinged with the thick richness of fresh blood. "Uram," she said to Raphael as they started up the steps. "He knows I’m tracking him."

Raphael scanned the street. "Either he stripped the mind of someone who knew about your involvement, or he saw you on the hunt."

"Glamour." Lips pursed tight, she pushed through the door her father had told her he’d leave open. "Jeffrey’s in the study. He said the body’s in the upstairs apartment." An apartment she’d always assumed was used as an extension of her father’s office.

They went straight up. It was as she was about to push open the door that she remembered Geraldine. Pale skin, perfect suit, vampire scent laced into her perfume. "Hell." She walked through.

There was no one in the living room. Crossing the carpet only after making certain she wouldn’t be trampling evidence that could lead to Uram, she followed the scent to the doorway of what proved to be a bedroom. The woman lay exactly as Jeffrey had described. It was as if someone had started to perform an autopsy and been interrupted midway. Her chest was cracked open to display her insides, flaps of skin hanging off her rib cage.

But that wasn’t what held Elena frozen on the doorstep.

It wasn’t Geraldine. This woman had skin dusted with the gold of a tropical clime and hair a pale, pale blonde. Fine bones, a length that would equal height on the short side of average, lips that had smiled easily in life. Her fists clenched. "It was definitely Uram." A truth forced out through gritted teeth. "I’ll follow the scent."

She was about to push past Raphael when he caught her arm. "Don’t take foolish chances because you’re angry at your father."

"I’m not angry." Her emotions were a chaotic stew she couldn’t understand. "She looks like my mother," she blurted out. A faded copy, a pale imitation. But nothing like the wintery elegance of Jeffrey’s new wife, Gwendolyn.

"She was his mistress."

"You knew?" Of course he’d known-the Cadre of Ten wouldn’t trust anyone it hadn’t investigated inside out. "Never mind. My father isn’t the issue-Uram’s starting to hunt me and mine. He’s baiting us."

Releasing her, Raphael walked into the room. "Your father said she was warm to the touch when he arrived?"

She nodded in a jerky motion, feeling as if everything in her body was out of sync. "He checked for a pulse." God alone knew why. "Means Uram hasn’t been up and around long. Probably a couple of hours at most."