Elena looked at Illium with new eyes. He was, she realized, not just powerful. He was becoming a power.
“Why are you looking at me like that, Ellie?” Sliding away his sword, darkness in the gold. “You’re afraid.”
“Not of you. I just realized you might one day leave the Seven.” No one as powerful as she suspected Illium would eventually become would want to be in service to another—if that was even a choice. “I can’t imagine you not being a part of this city, of my life.”
“It’s not going to happen anytime soon.” A dazzling smile that erased the shadows, his wings spreading to brush her own before he folded them back in. “Forget the coming war, the Tower would fall down without me.”
“So modest.” Her smile faded as her eyes landed on the vampire, who slept so peacefully and who she knew would probably never wake, though she hoped Keir could save him. “What does it say about the archangel behind this, that he has the ability to create disease?”
“You know the answer to that.”
Yes, unfortunately, she did. Power corrupted, and often the corruption was absolute and ugly.
Glancing at the angel, beautiful and gifted, who crouched down to more closely examine the victim, his wings a carpet of exquisite blue and silver on the concrete, she hoped that when the time came, when his power matured to its full strength, he’d have someone who’d act as his anchor, as she and Raphael did for one another. She couldn’t bear to think of Illium corrupted. Not Illium.
• • •
The vampire died twelve hours later, having never wakened from his sleep. “It was a blessing,” Keir said, before he left the city—the healer had arrived in time to examine the victim while he lived. “The disease had eaten its way into his internal organs, would’ve caused him excruciating pain had he been conscious.”
Keir’s tests had also shown the male had had a genetic abnormality that made him less susceptible to the virus, though, as they’d seen, not immune. As to how he’d been infected, that was unknown. However, interestingly, he’d just returned to the country after a business trip to China.
“If we’re wrong and it is Lijuan,” Raphael said to Illium as they flew back after escorting Keir to the jet, “then she’s gaining strength at a pace far beyond that of anyone else in the Cadre.” It could well make her invincible.
Illium held position, wing to wing. “It’s possible she could simply have facilitated the infection by offering safe passage through her lands to her coconspirator.”
“Not a great scenario, death and disease acting in concert, but better than Lijuan being the sole holder of such vicious ‘gifts.’”
Snow started to fall again around them, the world below dusted in innocence and peace, but the illusion didn’t last. Early the next day, a plane bound for New York, its point of origin Shanghai, made an emergency medical landing in San Francisco, the human pilot sending a request for Tower assistance through air traffic control.
To the mortal pilot’s credit, he refused to permit anyone else aboard the plane until the arrival of the Tower team, his actions containing the disease within the steel belly of the aircraft. All seventeen vampires on board proved to be sick, their bodies grotesquely contorted, sores on their faces.
The humans were placed in isolation for forty-eight hours, then released after a thorough check showed no signs of infection, while the vampires went into strict medical quarantine.
Five days later, they began to recover—and according to Keir, all now had an immunity to the disease. It was the first good news they’d had. “Our enemy became impatient and overreached,” Raphael said to Elena that morning, the two of them going through different martial arts routines on the lawn of the Enclave house. “Keir now believes we may have the ability to create a vaccine, though it’ll take considerable time.”
“That’s some good news, at least.” Elena completed her kata and picked up a small towel to wipe the sweat off her face, the sun shining this morning, though the snow hadn’t melted. “What about vampiric travel?”
“Highly restricted.” Raphael’s expression was that of the archangel he was—cold and resolute. “News has begun to spread of the disease and most vampires are voluntarily restricting themselves. Anyone who attempts to defy the order will be dealt with.”
“Good.” She knew it had to frustrate those vampires who needed to travel for business or other professional commitments, but it wasn’t only their lives at stake. “If that vamp pilot hadn’t been hit by a car and replaced an hour before takeoff, this could’ve been a far bigger disaster.” Going to stand in front of her archangel as he finished his own exercises, she placed her hands on the warmth of his skin, his upper body bare.
“At any other time,” Raphael said, eyes furious, “I would launch a preemptive strike to halt any further sneak assaults, but with my forces decimated, the only option is to intensify our defensive position. We simply do not have enough people to protect the city and launch an attack at the same time.”
Wrapping her arms around him, Elena leaned into his body, the heat of his fury far more welcome to her than the strange cold after the river ran with blood. “I’m going to see the injured angels after breakfast.” She held on tighter. “Being around you and the Seven, I’d begun to get a distorted idea of how quickly angels healed—and I didn’t understand just how bad the side effects of that drug could be.” The men and women in the infirmary were growing back their torn-off limbs and ravaged organs a literal inch at a time, their pain so excruciating, it drove many to tears.
Her own eyes burned as she said, “Izak was sobbing when I arrived yesterday, and he was so ashamed I’d seen him like that.” A knot in her throat she had to swallow repeatedly to speak around. “I told him there’s no shame in acknowledging pain, that I’ve cried when I’ve been hurt and been no less strong for it, but I don’t know if he believed me.”
Raphael ran his hand over her hair. “He’s a young boy at heart still and he adores you.” A kiss against her temple. “Speak to him about what he’ll have to do to prepare to be in your Guard. It’ll give him the reassurance he needs.”
“Should I tell him he’s about to be thrown into training with Dmitri and Illium? It might scare him.” Izak was a baby in comparison to the lethal men in the Seven.