Archangel's Storm

that his mother had lived two hundred and fifty thousand years. “Yes, but you see, it was during the last Cascade that I believe I first became touched with madness, though I did not know it then, for it was an insidious intruder hiding within. There is no way to protect against such a change.”
     

27
    V enom, his legs hanging over the side and his mirrored sunglasses in place, was sitting on the part of the balcony outside Jason’s room when Jason returned to the palace. A steaming cup of coffee sat next to his left hand.
    “I had to beg,” the vampire said when he saw the direction of Jason’s gaze. “Your princess considers coffee an insult to the taste buds.” He raised his face to the sky, drinking in the sun with sinuous pleasure. “Did I ever tell you I hate the cold?”
    “Every winter.” Jason passed Venom the forensic reports. “What do you see?”
    “Archangel strength or near to it . . . or maybe an ability of some kind,” Venom said, because he’d been trained by Jason to see such things. “Puts a whole new spin on recent events. Lijuan?”
    “She could’ve done it and been gone before we ever knew she was here.” The Archangel of China had the ability to dematerialize her body, though as Raphael had shown in the battle above Amanat, she wasn’t as omnipotent as she went to great lengths to make everyone believe.
    “Yes,” Venom said, “but she’s always had a cordial enough relationship with Neha. And to kill Eris in that way? I’ve seen the sick things Lijuan has done, but this was personal.”
    “Yes.” Catching a whisper of some unknown flower intermingled with spices bright and opulent, he turned to see Mahiya step out of her suite. Part of him went motionless, waiting to see if she’d come to regret the passion they’d shared in the hours before dawn.
    Her smile lit up her eyes. “I heard your voice.”
    It took intense concentration not to reach out, part her soft lips with his own, taste a smile that was a kiss against his senses. “What did you discover today?”
    Venom rolled up to his feet before Mahiya could reply. “Let’s talk inside.”
    It seemed natural to follow Mahiya into the cool comfort of her living quarters, the low table on the floor set with food. “I thought you might be hungry since it’s after lunch,” she said, but Jason’s attention was riveted by the pink teddy bear sitting beside the lamp.
    “Ah.” Venom closed the doors and said, “I have a story about that.”
    Jason stayed silent as Venom relayed the strange tale. “A scarlet-haired vampire?” he asked Mahiya once she’d added her findings. As for her taking the risk that she had with the box, they’d discuss that in private.
    “Yes.” A fiery glint in her eye. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t ask anyone else in the area if they’d seen the man—it would’ve caused too many ripples.”
    Jason looked at Venom.
    Sipping at his coffee, the vampire gave him a lazy grin. “Yes, I went down to the city, made some enquiries.” Leaning back against the wall, he said, “Our buyer doesn’t sound like he’d blend into the general populace, yet no one has any knowledge of him. Then again, my contacts are—relatively speaking—on the younger side. Might be he’s an old one who’s just come out of seclusion.”
    Angels Slept when immortality became too heavy a burden. While vampires lacked that ability to put their bodies in a state akin to suspended animation, they could and did sometimes retreat into isolation accompanied only by their “cattle.” It was what the old ones called the humans who were addicted to a vampire’s kiss and remained with them as a ready source of food.
    For the older vampires, the term was one of affection, the donors treated with the same respect one might show a beloved pet. Those cattle quite often recruited replacements as the decades passed—Jason had known one vampire to remain in seclusion for three hundred years and counting.
    “He might be from outside the region,” Mahiya said.
    “He sent you what could be a courting gift. That argues otherwise.” According to everything she’d told him, her trip to Lijuan’s stronghold had been her only foray beyond the borders of Neha’s territory since her return from the Refuge. “Did you see anyone who might fit the description while you were in China?”
    A tiny shiver rippled across her shoulders. “No. Red wings, yes, red hair, no. No one with that skin tone,