Archangel’s Shadows (Guild Hunter #7)(32)
Author: Nalini Singh

Janvier stared as Naasir ducked his head, his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Was he blushing? Impossible. Naasir didn’t blush. But the vampire stayed in place as Honor closed the distance between them to stroke her hands over his shoulders. “It suits you,” she said with open affection.

Naasir took his hands out of his pockets in response and put his arms around Honor. Then he held her, rubbing his cheek against her hair, his eyes closed. It was rare to see the vampire so quietly content. Janvier knew Naasir was staying in Honor and Dmitri’s Tower suite—he didn’t like living alone, eschewed his own quarters. He’d also stayed with the couple the two days he’d remained in the city after the final battle.

It was clear he’d bonded with Honor during their time together.

The hunter hugged him back with the same warmth, unafraid though she had to know she was being held by a predator. No, Janvier realized, that wasn’t right. Despite the fact that Naasir’s arms were around her upper body, hers around his waist, it was Honor who was doing the holding. Naasir had subtly ceded control of the embrace.

Janvier glanced at Dmitri, saw an intensity of emotion on his face that made his own heart squeeze. He’d never truly thought about the fact that Dmitri was over a thousand years old, the other man was so at home in this time period. Today, however, he felt the ache of memory within Dmitri, the weight of a history that had left scars on his soul, and he thought again of Ash, of the gift that could drown her in a stranger’s past.

Beside him, Honor drew back and, rising on tiptoe, stroked the jagged cut of Naasir’s hair off his face. “I have to go. I’m teaching a class at Guild Academy.” Tugging him down, she kissed him on the cheek. “I didn’t know you’d already bought clothes, so I picked up a few things for you earlier this morning. I put the packages in your room.”

The rumble that came from Naasir’s chest was so close to a purr that Janvier wasn’t sure he hadn’t imagined it. Sending Janvier a warm smile and Dmitri a far more tender look, Honor slipped out.

The strange, beautiful, unexpected moment ended with her departure.

Dmitri motioned for the two of them to walk out with him to the balcony, the light fall of snow having passed to leave the city glittering under a crystalline winter sun. “Tell me about the autopsy.”

“It uncovered a tattoo that may help us track the victim’s identity should the fingerprint search fail,” Janvier said, then shared the details of the weakness in the bones, the skin. “However, the pathologist also confirmed the presence of fang bites as well as the long-term abuse we suspected.”

“So while the bones echo what Lijuan did to her sacrifices, the long-term nature of this would seem to nudge us away from her.”

“Yes, she ate up her people all at once,” Naasir said, having crouched at the very edge of the railingless platform, his bare feet on the thin layer of snow that had collected on the flat surface. He stared out at the city below in unbridled fascination.

No one who didn’t know him would ever expect such behavior. Janvier had seen the vampire act perfectly “normal,” even appear sophisticated, cultured, and arrogant, as might be expected from a male of his age and strength, but that was all it was—an act.

“It’s like putting on another skin,” Naasir had said to him shortly after their first meeting a hundred and twenty-five or so years back. “The skin is not mine and it itches until I take it off.”

Naasir only wore those skins around people he either didn’t like or was yet making up his mind about. The latter could take him an instant or a year. Janvier had never had to deal with the vampire in any skin but his own—he’d met Naasir in a no-name vampire bar in Bolivia. To cut a long story short, they’d raised hell, broken furniture and a few jaws, and come out of it friends who understood the wildness in each other.

“I like you, Cajun.” A flash of gleaming fangs. “Where do you go from here?”

“I have to deliver a ‘will you be my one and only concubine’ proposal from an angel to a vampire.”

“You’re to ask this vampire to be a concubine on behalf of another? Why?”

“Because I’m a stupid couillon who lost a bet, but this Cajun doesn’t go back on his word. So I’ll play matchmaker. I just have to find the son of a bitch in the damn rain forest first; he’s off licking his wounds after a lovers’ quarrel.”

Naasir’s eyes had lit up and Janvier had ended up with a companion on his hunt. They’d located the vampire and Janvier had delivered his message—to Naasir’s silent laughter—then escorted the happy male back out to his contrite angel. It wasn’t the first time the two of them had ended up playing or working together; it was through Naasir that Janvier had first come to see Raphael not simply as an archangel but as a man to whom he’d be proud to give his allegiance.

Now, he stepped up to where the vampire crouched, but instead of looking down at the ribbon of traffic far below, he turned his head in the direction of Guild Academy. “I’ll continue to work with Ash, dig up everything we can on the victim, tug on all possible threads that could lead us to her murderer.”

Dmitri shifted to stand on Naasir’s other side. “I also need you to keep an eye on the vampire community on the ground. With Illium busy running drills, he doesn’t have as much time to move in that arena.”

“Do I need to look out for any specific problems?”

“If you hear anything about a drug called Umber, pass on the information to me immediately.” The vampire gave him a briefing on the drug before adding, “In more general terms, the Made are aware the Tower’s busy with a number of other matters at present.”

Dmitri’s eyes followed a Legion fighter coming in to land on the roof of the high-rise that was being modified for their use. “Repairs, the Legion, the archangelic political situation—they’re sucking manpower and attention. And you know our kind.”

Yes. Vampires were predators, the clawing hunger for blood existing just beneath the surface of their skin. Janvier had learned to control it long ago, as had Dmitri, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Being a vampire wasn’t a cosmetic choice; it affected the cells of the body itself, permanently altering its internal chemistry.

Bloodlust, if allowed free rein, could turn a vampire into a gluttonous killing machine.

15

“I’ve made it a point to be a presence in the vampire community since my return,” Janvier said, understanding Dmitri’s concern. New York—in particular, Manhattan—had a heavy vampire population. An outbreak of bloodlust could paint the city crimson-black, fragile mortal bodies lying in the streets like broken toys. “It was simple enough to slide back into the community, since I knew a number of people from previous visits to the city.”