Raphael said what the other archangel wouldn't. "That she took the dead to her bed."
A sharp glance. "You've heard the rumor?"
"You forget, Elijah, both my parents were archangels."
"Caliane and Nadiel knew Lijuan in her youth?"
"No. But they knew those who had." And what they'd told his parents had been whispered behind the thickest veil of secrecy. Because by then, Lijuan had already become a being to be feared.
"Now she's the only ancient," Elijah said, his voice contemplative. "They call us immortals, but we, too, eventually end up dust on the sands of time."
"After millennia," Raphael pointed out. "As Elena would say - are you not curious about what awaits us on the other side?"
"According to many humans, we are the messengers of their gods."
Raphael glanced at Elijah. "After Lijuan, you're the oldest among us. She's a demigoddess in her territory. Did you ever consider setting yourself up as one?"
"I've seen what happens to those who take that path." Elijah didn't look at Raphael, but his meaning was clear. "Even had I not, I have Hannah. What I feel for her is far too real, far too much of this world."
Raphael thought of the way his parents had loved each other, that powerful, almost exalting love, compared it to what he felt for Elena. There was nothing exalted about the hard ache of his c**k when he touched her, the pulsing lust of his need. "Titus and Charisemnon will slaughter hundreds," he said at last, "but it's Lijuan who remains the true threat.
"My men tell me her army of the reborn has doubled in number over the past six months." And there were disturbing rumors that some of her soldiers were the very newly dead - as if they'd been sacrificed to feed the cold embrace of Lijuan's power. "If she unleashes them on the world, it will augur the start of another Dark Age."
The last Dark Age had devastated civilizations that had grown up over thousands of years, destroying buildings and works of art so magnificent, the world would never again know their like. Millions upon millions of humans had fallen - collateral damage in a war between angels.
But then, they hadn't been fighting armies of the dead, nightmares given flesh.
Elena watched child after child accompany Jessamy into Sam's room. Keir had brought the boy up into a half-awake state where he was aware of what was happening but felt no pain. A chaotic mix of happiness and rage tore through her as she watched him beam at the gifts his classmates had brought him.
How could anyone be immoral enough to hurt such innocence?
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
"She likes it, you see."
Pain shot through her jaw as she wrenched herself back to the present, but it wasn't enough; her daylight hours were no longer safe from the long hand of nightmare. She could see Ari's eyes staring into hers, that bright turquoise gaze going slowly dull as Slater fulfilled his monstrous thirst. Ari had whispered at Elena to run, but her older sister hadn't been able to run herself, her legs not just broken like Belle's, but torn off altogether, a barbaric amputation.
Kindling.
That's what the broken bones sticking out of her thighs had looked like, the blood drying as it came into contact with the air.
"She won't run." A giggle. "She likes it, you see."
"Would you like to see him?"
Swiveling on her heel, Elena stared unseeing at Jessamy's startled face, her mind locked in that kitchen awash with a suffering that would stalk her for eternity.
Jessamy touched her with a hesitant hand. "Elena?"
"Yes," she said, forcing the words out past the brutal hammer of memory. "Yeah, I'd like to see Sam."
"Go on in." Jessamy's eyes held a quiet concern, but she didn't pry. "I'm herding the other children back to the classroom."
Digging up a smile from somewhere, Elena shut up everything else and walked inside Sam's room. "So," she said, "this is how you get out of writing Jessamy's essays."
A sparkle in that gaze she'd worried would go forever dull. According to Keir, Sam remembered nothing of his abduction - likely as a result of the head wound. There was a good chance he'd remember later on, but the healers and his parents planned to prepare him for that eventuality. By then, he'd be stronger, hopefully more able to process the events of that terrible night.
"No," Sam said, his voice husky. "She said I have to catch up."
"Sounds like her," Elena whispered, then gestured at the gifts. "You got a good haul."
"Did you bring me a present?"
Elena grinned. "Did I ever? I even asked your parents if I could give it to you."
Excitement had him straining forward. "What is it?"
"Hey, careful." Settling him back on the bed, she reached into her pocket to bring out a small dagger tucked into an intricately designed metal sheath.
Sam's eyes went huge as Elena put it into his hands. "I was given this after I completed a hunt for an angel in Shikoku, Japan. He told me it was a thousand years old." She touched the ruby at the bottom of the hilt. "The legend is that this ruby was once part of the eye of a dragon."
Small fingers ran reverently over the jewel. "What happened to the dragon?"
"He was such an ancient being that one day, he simply decided to sleep. After a while, he turned to stone, becoming the biggest mountain the world had ever seen." As she spoke, she couldn't help but remember the times her mother had told her and her sisters stories as they lay tumbled in their parents' bed.
Even Belle, far too cool for everything, had sprawled on the floor, painting her toenails or reading magazines. But she'd never turned a page while Mama told her stories.
Blinking away the bittersweet images, Elena continued to tell the tale she'd originally heard from an old Buddhist monk as they sat drinking green tea beside an immaculate sand garden. "His eyes turned to rubies, his scales to diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds.
Only one warrior was brave enough to venture near the sleeping dragon."
"Did the dragon wake?"
"Yes." She leaned close, her voice a conspiratorial whisper. "And because the warrior had been so brave, the dragon gave him a piece of his eye."
"The rest?"
"They say the dragon still sleeps, and that if anyone is ever smart enough and brave enough to find it again, the dragon will give him the world's riches."
"I'm going to find the dragon." Sam's eyes turned as bright as those mythical jewels.