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)
“He actually sounded excited.” Elena held up crossed fingers. “It might just be a blip, but…Beth loved him so much, Raphael. I keep hoping that something we’re doing will get through to him.”
Raphael hadn’t gainsaid any of the hours she’d spent sitting with her brother-in-law, talking over their memories of the woman they’d both loved. “Perhaps a new life will give him that impetus,” he said, loath to shatter her hope—for the truth was, he’d previously known vampires like Harrison Ling.
The ones who wanted to end themselves.
Those who knew warriors willing to fulfil their final request were luckier than others, who had to find a way to complete that most gruesome of tasks themselves. A vampire couldn’t simply hang himself. He’d just strangle over and over without dying. Strangling had been used as a method of torture against vampires for that very reason.
No, a vampire had to find a way to cut off his own head, sever his spine. For the young ones, removal of the heart might work, but not for the old ones. If Nisia did pronounce that Harrison Ling was of sound mind and set in his choice, then Raphael had told Nisia he’d take care of giving the man mercy.
For Elena. And for the sister she’d so loved.
Nisia hadn’t fought to hide her relief; she’d been willing and able to do the act if it came to that, had even fought for Harrison’s right to decide, but to facilitate his choice would’ve hurt her in a way that came from who she was—a healer, a preserver of life.
Raphael, in contrast, was a warrior, understood that some deaths were necessary.
“Do you see them?” Straightening her back, Elena scanned the horizon once again.
“Not yet.”
Her gaze went to his temple. “It’s electric. As vivid as the last time.”
“I feel it.” Not the mark as such, but what it meant—the presence of his Legion, so long missing from the world. “I wonder if they’ll like their home’s evolution.”
“They will.” Elena’s reply was confident. “I mean, the Legion tree is clearly not a normal tree. I don’t know if they fed it with their blood or what, but that’s very definitely their tree.”
“Yes.” It even had a hollow within.
First discovered fifty years earlier, the hollow had made everyone worry that the tree was dying, but no, it had continued on unabated. Today, the hollow was so large that the space echoed. “It’s as if they grew themselves a living building.”
“I was hoping that meant they knew they’d one day return.” His consort’s admission was quiet. “Even if they were just being hopeful, too, it made me happy.”
They looked out again at the water…and this time glimpsed the thin edge of an immense shadow on the far horizon.
“Sam says they can see the city,” Elena said just then, her voice breathless.
Neither one of them moved from that point on, watching the Legion get closer to home. As the vast force crossed over from the water to the city, their mass shadowing New York, people looked up from parks and rooftops, while the transports that purred along defined pathways halted, their drivers sticking their heads out through retractable roofs or windows to look upward.
“It’s a good thing Sam’s wing is in escort up front,” Raphael said. “Else we might have a panic—all the mortals and a great many of the vampires currently in the city have no knowledge of the Legion.”
The shadow split in perfect formation to go around a floating habitat, then merged again with a flawlessness that was nothing but Legion. The inhabitants of the floating areas watched open-mouthed.
38
Aeclari…we love you.
—Legion to their Aeclari (War of the Death Cascade)
Seeing their perfection of form, Elena had the feeling that the Legion that had returned would be the ones they’d first met—not the ones who had gained color and begun to gain personalities.
It didn’t matter. Her heart soared at seeing them.
Unable to keep her joy hidden, she waved at them.
The entire Legion dipped to the left, then right, in reply.
Laughing, she was more than ready to turn and face them when they started to come in to land line by line until the roof was full and the others hovered around the Tower on their batlike wings.
At the front of the massive force knelt the Primary.
His body was gray, his clothing gray, his hair gray…but his eyes—when he lifted them to meet her own—were a pale gray ringed by an unmistakable, intense blue. “Aeclari.”
Throwing decorum to the wind, she ran to the Primary and, tugging him up, enclosed him in a hug. The Primary’s arms were hesitant as they came around her, but in the back of her mind whispered seven hundred and seventy-seven excited voices.
They’re ours, Archangel. They came back like they were!
“I’m so happy to see you,” she said aloud, her words hitching. “We’ve missed you so much.”