Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139178 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 696(@200wpm)___ 557(@250wpm)___ 464(@300wpm)
They were doing it, Elena thought today as she helped Nix practice, raising their child to be a confident, loyal, caring, and disciplined young man.
She was still thinking about it later that day, after he’d flown off to meet his great-grandfather. The Legion, of course, kept watch on him in that subtle way of theirs, positioned on various rooftops and in the trees.
Never a presence that smothered, never a guard that crushed.
That Nix still considered them playmates and friends was a testament to how well they’d done their task. The last time the entire cohort of children had been in the city, the Legion had even learned to play sky games with them when the group complained that they didn’t have enough players to make it exciting.
Needless to say, the entire thing had made the newscasts…and it had made Elena remember another sky game, another time when the entire city had watched the skies as angels played. Once, the memory would’ve twisted her up for all she’d lost, but today, she smiled because that day had been a wonderful one, a memory she’d add to her continuing catalog of what Nix had named her Memory Codex.
He often asked to listen to a new part of her Memory Codex, but knew never to attempt it without asking. Because some memories were too private or too dark for him at this point in time. Their boy had grown up knowing of Belle and Ari, Beth and Marguerite and Jeffrey.
He also knew that a rogue vampire had murdered Ari and Belle. But they’d left it at that. He didn’t need to know the details of the nightmare images that had haunted Elena for so many years—she didn’t want him to ever live that horror, especially not through her own words. She’d spoken them into the Codex only because she’d realized she couldn’t limit her memories to just the good, but that was as far as it went.
We’re getting it right, Archangel, she said now, reaching out to Raphael with her mind. Raising a damn good kid.
Indeed, hbeebti. I can see him from my position over the ocean—he flies like a warrior. His flight skills have improved in bounds since the year past.
He’s growing so fast. Her heart caught. Soon, we’ll have to let him go.
A few more decades yet, Elena-mine. We will not worry them away.
No. She exhaled. I’m going to work in the garden, after which I have a meeting with the new Guild director.
To this day, it still struck her as wrong to see someone else in what would always be Sara’s position to her, but that was her private struggle. In public, she honored her best friend by always treating each new director with the respect due their status.
All the directors knew her by the time they ascended to their position—she ensured that by being an active part of the Guild. Despite that, a couple of the previous directors had been hesitant about calling on her, but the fact was, Elena was hunter-born, the hunt in her blood. She needed to use those skills, that energy, or the unfulfilled impulse would tear her apart.
Which was why she made it a point to have these meetings.
“I can’t die at a vampire’s hands,” she’d say with bluntness learned through time. “Don’t send one of your mortal hunters out to catch the frothing-at-the-mouth monsters. Send me.”
I’ll be out for considerable time with the wing, Raphael said. Izzy has come up with a new technique he wishes to show us before he returns home to Illium’s territory tomorrow.
Elena missed having Izzy in her Guard, but she wouldn’t change that for anything—because Elena’s loss was Eve’s gain.
It had been a delight to watch her tough hunter sister fall for her loyal, earnest, and all-in lover. Eve remained a tough cookie—but no one could doubt that General Eve Deveraux loved Sector Commander Izak. She’d been known to haul him down for a very public kiss now and then, just to make certain the world knew of her claim.
Izzy was always delighted by it all.
His departure from New York would’ve left a hole in their capabilities if Tarielle hadn’t applied to join the Tower at the same time. Having trained at Caliane’s court, Sameon’s cousin had then served Zanaya, followed by Elijah and most recently Suyin, before she’d decided to relocate to the Refuge for a century to study with the healers—it turned out she had a minor healing ability.
“But the warrior in her is stronger,” Keir had commented after she joined the Tower. “Still, she’s now an excellent field healer. An unusual trait in a battle commander, but a useful one.”
Elena had known Tarielle since she was a child, and the now-grown angel had fit into their forces like a missing piece.
“I think she’ll stay with us,” Sam had said of his cousin. “She told me she’s never felt as at home in any other court.”