Archangel's Viper by Nalini Singh
Three hours later, the North Atlantic Ocean glittered below and Holly's fractured skin was no longer bleeding. Venom tried to see that as a sign that her body was mending itself, rather than a sign that her overstretched heart was growing sluggish. Her ravaged skin was cool to his touch, her pulse still so faint that he had to press his ear to her chest to be sure she remained alive. Her breath was nearly impossible to detect. But it was present.
Venom had long ago tucked her into his chest, holding her warm against his body as they lay in the private cabin of the plane.
The pilots hadn't interrupted after their initial greeting.
Cocooned in the silence, Venom began to talk in the language in which he'd spoken his first words. He told Holly of his childhood in that bustling inn on the Silk Road, of how he'd learned to cook at his father's knee, and of how he'd been considered an adult at eight years or so of age. He wasn't sure. Records hadn't been kept so well at that time.
"I didn't consider that strange," he told her. "I had five brothers and sisters by then. It was normal for the eldest son to take on the mantle of protecting and providing for the family, together with his father."
Venom's mind drifted back to those long-ago times. "My father had a good heart. He just lost his way a little because he couldn't say no to my mother." His lips curved. "That is a fault that runs in my line. My brothers were the same with their wives."
He didn't know about their descendants. "It was hardest to put Mohan to rest. I remembered him as a baby, all swaddled up in my arms." Eyes red hot, he swallowed. "I can't bury someone I love again. Not ever." He pressed his lips to hers. "Please don't make me, Holly."
A whisper of breath against him, fingers uncurling on his chest.
His heart thumping hard, he looked down, but Holly's lashes still shadowed her cheeks, dark fans against the cream of her skin. She'd lost weight during the silent battle in the turret. Her cheekbones were prominent, her fingers impossibly thin. But . . . he could hear her heartbeat without having to press his ear to her chest.
And, as he watched, a fine crack across her cheekbone began to seal itself.
Venom shuddered.
He wanted to give her his blood, but Raphael had warned him that Holly was showing signs of blood toxicity. "Uram caused her to ingest too much archangelic blood. Feed her only when she is hungry. Her body needs to get rid of it. If she bleeds, let her."
She'd sweated blood for the first two hours, her body desperately rejecting the power it had no way to handle. He'd wiped her clean, kept her warm.
Fighting his need to do more, he kept on talking.
He told her about his first days in Neha's court, and of the time he'd spent in the tunnels below, and of how he'd come to a slow consciousness. He'd been clothed in rags and filthy with dirt the day he woke and realized he was a man, and not a viper like the ones with whom he'd bedded.
"They were draped over me, twined around my neck, my arms." He should've been horrified, but he'd changed in the months after his Making, his threshold of horror a high one. "Even when I moved, they didn't bite, just slid off."
It had taken him another week to make his way out of the labyrinth under Archangel Fort. "Neha hadn't given up on me," he told Holly. "But she had lost me. It turned out I was faster than any of her trackers--and though I was a viper, I didn't react to her connection to snakes. I never have."
For that, he could only be grateful. "It would've been a leash she could tug on anytime I was in the vicinity. I like to think I made that happen with my defiance." He released a breath. "I've never hated Neha, though. She was just being an archangel. It was my family who made the choice to turn their face from me." To see only a monster and not the brother and son who'd done everything he could--given up his entire human existence--so that they'd have lives free of deprivation and shame.
"Venom."
It was less than a whisper, but he heard.
Heart thundering, he rose to look down into Holly's face. Her lips were slightly parted, her eyes closed. "Kitty." His voice shook.
"Umm." It was a lazy, sleepy sound . . . right before she curled into him in a way that said she had no plans to wake.
He pressed a kiss to the rainbow shine of her hair, his entire body trembling. "Sleep. We'll talk later." All of what he'd said while she was asleep, he'd tell her when she was awake. She had every right to his secrets and stories. Naasir was right about having someone to share secrets with--it was a gift beyond price.
38
Holly stretched awake with the sense that she'd had the most luxuriant sleep of her li-- "Fuck," she whimpered, "that hurts." Every muscle in her body felt as if it had been pounded with a hammer until it was pulp, then flung into a freezer to become locked into its misshapen form. "Oh, God."
"No need to go that far, kitty. Venom or Tushar will do."
Slitting open her eyes, Holly found herself looking into eyes of viper green that were dancing with light.
Happiness.
She'd never seen Venom this innocently happy in . . . ever. Her own lips curved. "Stop being snarky and do something."
His smile deepened. "I've drawn you a hot bath with mineral salts. Will that do?"
"For starters." She frowned as the sprawl of the room penetrated. "Where are we?"
"The Tower. View's behind you."
Groaning, Holly managed to turn just enough to look at the glittering lights of Manhattan. "Last thing I remember, I was in Michaela's stronghold, trying to convince Uram's ghost it wasn't a good idea for him--it--to exist."
"He's gone for good." Venom scooped her up in his arms and held her against the bare skin of his chest.
"Mmm." She snuggled in, running her palm up that toned muscle all warm and tensile. "You're so pretty."
He chuckled. "You're still half asleep."
Yawning, Holly continued to stroke him until he set her in the bath . . . and only then realized she'd been naked on the stone floor in his living area. "What happened to my clothes?"
"I took them off--they were drenched in blood."
Memory flashed of her skin cracking, her insides fracturing. But her hands found only smooth, unbroken skin anywhere she touched--and while she ached, it didn't feel like she was dying. "How long since the turret?"
Venom moved to another side of the large bathroom, his buttocks flexing under the loose black pajama pants that were all he wore. "You've been asleep for forty-seven hours."
"Are you wearing satin pants?"
"No. I have better taste than that." The fabric moved like air and liquid both as he strode back to her, a bottle in hand. Opening it, he poured a shimmering and creamy something into the bath.
The scent of frangipani filled the air.
Holly's toes curled. "You're so pretty and so nice, too." Her muscles began to loosen up. Slowly.
Lips curving, Venom went behind her. "I'm going to wash your hair."
Holly had absolutely no desire to protest. She just lay back and stayed half asleep while he washed her hair with a care and a gentleness that surprised her. "How do you know how to wash long hair? Did you have a ponytail phase?"
"I used to wash my sisters' hair sometimes." His words were a surprise. "When they were very young and it wouldn't be considered scandalous. Just to help out my mother." A smile in his voice, he said, "My father never did it for my sisters, always acted so stern, but I saw him washing my mother's hair once. He loved her from the roots of his own hair to the tips of his toes."
He began to massage her scalp.
"Venom?"
"Hmm?"
"Are my eyes still acid green?" She was awake now, wide awake, and she was starting to remember that she should be stone dead.
"I think you need to see for yourself." Getting up, he wiped his wet hands on a towel, then rooted about in a drawer until he found a small handheld mirror. It was ornate, the back mother-of-pearl painted with vipers. "Gift," he said at her questioning look. "From a friend in Neha's court who enjoys poking fun at wha
Laughing at his scowl, Holly accepted the mirror, but then couldn't make herself turn it to the reflecting side. "Just tell me."
He'd gone behind her again, was once more massaging her scalp with clever fingers. "You won't be sorry, Hollyberry," he murmured. "Look."
She released a long breath before slowly beginning to turn the mirror. If her eyes remained acid green, then part of Uram might yet be hidden inside her. That color was his energy. If her eyes were brown again . . .
She sat up before she'd finished moving the mirror enough to see, water sploshing as she felt for her fangs.
Venom came to face her. "They're still just as small," he said with an amused look to him.
Shoving at his chest without effort, Holly did nothing to hide her relief. "I thought I might not be a vampire any longer."
His gaze turned solemn. "You never wanted to be a vampire."
"Yes, but that was before you." Holly could imagine a different eternity now, one filled with happiness and love and a shared recklessness that led to wild adventure. "I don't mind sucking your blood for millennia."
Smile returning, he tapped the mirror. "Are you going to look?"
"I'm too scared."
"This from a woman who derailed the plans of a psychotic archangelic ghost?" Slipping one arm around her back and placing his other hand around hers on the handle of the mirror, he said, "Ready?"
Exhaling shakily, Holly nodded at last. And they turned the mirror.
At first, she felt a punch of visceral joy . . . only to wrench the mirror closer and stare. "What is that?" Her eyeballs stared back at her from the mirror. "What the hell. What am I supposed to put on my driver's license now?"
Venom's laughter filled the bathroom. "I think they call the color hazel," he said solemnly when he stopped laughing.
"Be quiet, Viper Face." Because her eyes weren't hazel. They were a strange mix of darkest brown and acidic green.
"Anything you say, kitty." Tipping up her chin, Venom kissed her hot and deep and a little desperate.
Holly let the mirror fall to the water. "Hey, hey," she said when he broke the kiss, both of them breathless. "I'm here. I'm okay."
Shuddering, he wrapped both arms around her and dropped his head to the crook of her neck. Holly stroked his hair, kissed his temple, held him. Held this man born in torturous pain and horror who let no one see his vulnerability. "I love you," she said simply, honestly, forever. "You make the idea of forever a journey into adventure rather than a thing to be endured."
He didn't raise his head for a long time. When he did, his eyes held joy and pain and echoes of terror. "As long as you live, so will I."
Holly's heart smashed against her ribs. "Venom, no," she whispered. "My life span is unknown."
"And I've lived long enough alone." No give in his expression. "How can you ask me to go back to it after I've known you? Loved you?" A shake of his head. "We take this leap into eternity together."
Tears rolled down her face. "I'll badger you every day to change your mind."
"Nag, nag, that's what kitties do."
She scooped up a palmful of water and threw it at his face. He laughed. And he was so incredibly beautiful that she wanted to kiss him and kiss him and kiss him. "Come here."
He came, sploshing water all over the place, his pants still on. None of that mattered. Because he was kissing her and kissing her and kissing her, and she was home. Always in his arms, she'd be home.
As he would be in hers.
Sitting astride him when she came up for air, Holly said, "What do my eyes mean?" That strange amalgam of who she'd once been and who she'd become with Uram's energy inside her. "Is he still alive in some way?"
"Keir was at the Tower when we arrived," Venom told her. "The healer says yes, Uram is alive, but only in the way any father is alive in his child. You are a being all your own now."
Holly made a face. "I have a father. And it's not that psycho."
"Perhaps 'blood sire' is the better term to use," Venom said. "Uram is alive inside you the same way Neha is alive inside me."
Holly ran her hands over his shoulders. "That doesn't make me feel better," she admitted. "I wanted him erased from my body." She pressed her finger to his lips when he would've spoken. "But if he was . . . then I wouldn't be a vampire, and I wouldn't be like you just enough that we fit." And so he no longer felt alone. "I figure the trade is worth it."
Venom leaned forward to kiss her.
Frowning at a sudden thought, Holly pulled back. "Wait. What powers do I have left?" Scrunching her eyes shut, she tried to go invisible. "Can you see me?"
"Your breasts are lovely."
She flicked her eyes open to see that he did indeed have his admiring gaze on her tiny chest. But he seemed to like that chest. Who was she to argue? "I've lost the ability to create glamour."
"Unsurprising." He rubbed a thumb over the wet point of her nipple. "That is an archangelic trait that has never manifested in any other immortal."
"Can I still move the way I did?" Hating that she might've lost that which tied them together, she went to get out, check, but Venom held her in place.
"I love you," he said, his eyes locked with hers. "From the roots of my hair to the tips of my toes. From yesterday to tomorrow and every tomorrow we will ever see. From this moment to the mystery beyond death. Every part of you, slow or fast, small or big, strong or weak. I love you, Holly."
Her lower lip quivered.
Throwing her arms around his neck, she held on tight. When he rose, it was with both of them together, water dripping off their bodies. He somehow managed to get his pants off, and then their wet bodies fell onto the bed. There was no foreplay. She didn't want it. She drew him inside her, held him, and they rocked, their eyes locked to each other's.
Slow and gentle and forever.
*
It was some time later, while she sat on the kitchen counter wearing one of Venom's shirts and watching him quickly put together a pizza for her, that Holly snapped something out of the air. She stared at the plum in her hand. "Why are you throwing me plums? Though, it does look nice." She took a bite, hungry for food if not yet for blood.
"I threw it at my speed," said the vampire who'd be aggravating her forever.
And she'd caught it.
Holly began to smile. She still had the speed, could still dance with him in their unique and inhuman way. Even if she'd lost everything else, that was enough.
"Want to hear my theory?" he asked as he grated cheese over the base he'd hand-made.
"Uh-huh." She nodded around her succulent bites of plum.
"I think you'll have retained all the abilities that integrated fully with you. The speed, the ability to become boneless in a fall, the mesmerism. The things that felt yours."
"The glamour was never easy," Holly admitted. "It was like I was wearing someone else's coat." She kicked her feet. "I'll test the other stuff tomorrow." She was far calmer now that she knew she had the speed. "Tushar?"
"Kitty?"
"Why am I alive?" Holly had felt Uram pull everything out of her body. "The ghost or echo or whatever it was, it tried to suck me dry."
Her lover looked up from chopping green peppers. "You're not going to like this."
Holly frowned . . . then groaned. "I swear to God, if you tell me I have some of Michaela in me now . . ."
Not having mercy on her, Venom nodded. "Uram fed deeply on her. Too much for your body to digest or process. Keir believes a significant amount of her blood was still pooled in your stomach when the echo left you."
"Ugh, ew!" Hopping off the counter, Holly threw away her plum pit and found a big glass; filling it with water, she drank it down in desperate gulps. "I know my reaction isn't rational," she said afterward. "But ew!"
Venom's lips were curved as he watched her little freak-out. "Michaela's blood nearly caused your own to go toxic, but its power also saved your life. The echo inadvertently helped by draining so
Holly made throwing-up motions before putting down the glass and moving sulkily to his side. "How come I have to be the weird one who has archangelic blood messing with me?" Other people probably prayed for archangelic attention, but Holly had had enough of it. "Raphael didn't feed me, too, did he?"
"No, the sire gave you his energy, but only in an attempt to heal."
"Good, but seriously--the idea of Michaela's blood sitting around in my stomach?" Shuddering at the thought, she dropped her head against his side. "Oh well, at least it wasn't Charisemnon's blood." Any bastard who could orchestrate an act as heinous as the Falling was not someone she wanted in her bloodstream.
"Speaking of whom," Venom said, "our friend Walter came through."
It took Holly a few seconds to remember who Walter was and why she should care. Walter Battersby, her brain supplied, fixer to the immortals. "Oh, right, the bounty on me." The entire situation felt like a lifetime ago now. "I suppose we should follow that up."
"I'm happy you're taking this seriously."
"Possession by a mad archangel, and gross blood pool in my stomach," she pointed out, stealing a piece of cheese to wipe out the latter image.
Hopping up onto the counter to retake her seat as she nibbled on the cheese, she said, "So what did Walter say?"
"First, Vivek managed to link the bank account Walter was paid from to a company that functions under Charisemnon's banner." Picking up the pizza stone on which he'd created his delicious-looking masterpiece, Venom put it in the oven.
The wave of heat felt good against Holly's body.
"Walter, in turn, was able to trace his client as being a flunky in Charisemnon's court. It apparently used up every favor he had." Venom's smile was cold. "He should've thought of that before he decided you were an acceptable target."
Holly shrugged. "He's a hustler. He'll hustle up some more favors." Stomach rumbling, she looked around.
"Give me a second and I'll make you a sandwich."