have you heard anything?"
"She has brought her reborn to the Forbidden City. We will see the dead walk."
Chapter 32
The Forbidden City took Elena's breath away. An intricate maze of delicate buildings and hidden pathways, the place really was a city within a city. And it was a city full of wonder - white marble bridges with dragons sleeping on the end-posts; paved courtyards replete with trees, each strung with twinkling silk lanterns in lieu of fruit; courtiers clothed in a myriad of jewel tones. It was like something out of a dream.
"Butterflies," she whispered, standing on the private balcony of the upper-level residence that was their own. "They remind me of butterflies."
Raphael's presence was a solid warmth behind her, his hands braced on the railing on either side of her. She savored the heat of him, feeling his chest vibrate against her wings as he spoke. "Neha and some of the others keep a court to a certain extent, but Lijuan's is the most extensive."
"She's truly a queen." Fans unfurled as she watched, coquettish smiles exchanged over their illusionary borders. All the women wore ankle-length dresses, most in styles that whispered of elegance rather than sex. "Do you think they know of the reborn?"
"Yes." His hands closed over her own, his voice an intimate darkness in her ear. "Jason's men tell him Lijuan has begun to bring some of her reborn to the inner court as entertainment."
Elena's hands, covered by the strength of Raphael's, clenched on the age-smoothed stone of the railing. "She'd debase them that way? I thought she considered them her creations?"
"Some, it seems, are more favored than others." He slid his hands up her arms, holding her to him. "Tomorrow morning, I meet with the Cadre. Take care when you walk the grounds - Lijuan may find it a game to pit one of them against you."
"Who's my bodyguard?"
"Aodhan." A pause. "You're not happy."
"I don't like the fact that I still have a babysitter."
"It's necessary."
"For now."
A dangerous quietness, and she knew this was one battle she'd have to fight again. She could handle that - and so, she thought, could Raphael. "You chose a warrior, remember?"
A kiss on the sensitive skin just below her ear. "As you chose an archangel."
She'd always known he'd be no easy lover. But then, neither was she. "I've never sparred with you." A playful invitation. "Do you like knives?"
The barest hint of a smile on the mouth he brushed against the same spot he'd tantalized before. "We'll dance with blades after the ball."
It was difficult to think with him so close, the Forbidden City humming with beauty below. "You didn't bring that many men with you." Jason had flown in with them, and with Aodhan, that made only two of the Seven in attendance.
"If it comes down to a fight, it'll be too late."
Elena finished putting her hair into the sleek French twist that Sara had taught her - the slithery strands anchored with what felt like five hundred pins - and examined herself in the mirror. The cap-sleeved ice blue dress was backless, didn't even come to midthigh -
with slits up both sides - and, in spite of the shards of crystal embedded on the surface, slicked over her body like a second skin. She'd stared at the tailor when he'd first presented it to her, but the vamp was no idiot. Paired with thigh-high boots and tights, both in black, it turned her from arm candy to sleek assassin while leaving her plenty of freedom should she need to move.
Warm male hands on her hips. "Perfect." The raw hunger in that single word silvered over her body like a long, lazy stroke, her ni**les beading against the soft fabric.
"Makeup," she gasped.
He relaxed his hold enough that she could brush some bronzer over her cheekbones, slap some mascara on her eyes. Opening the box included with the clothes, she found a tube of lipstick. It turned out to be an intense scarlet. "This isn't my style."
"Think of it as camouflage," Raphael said, pulling her back against his half-dressed body as she held the lipstick, his c**k a brand against her back, her wings burning with the most erotic of sensations. "Allowing you to blend into enemy territory."
"I don't look much like the vampires and angels I saw out there." Her dress/tunic was in no way demure. Then there were the knives. Not to mention the gun. They were all concealed tonight, a courtesy that had gone against the grain after Lijuan's games. But she was learning to pick her battles. "I wouldn't know how to flutter a fan if you hit me over the head with one."
"No, you're too much the hunter." A glance so heated, she half expected the mirror to melt. As it was, she had to clench her thighs to fight the urge to take him to the floor, to ride him to screaming ecstasy.
"But she won't see that," he murmured. "She'll see only a young, weak angel -
intriguing because of the way she came to be, but otherwise not worthy of notice."
"Good." It'd give her the freedom to watch Lijuan unawares. Elena had no illusions she could physically do anything to stop the oldest of the archangels, but maybe she could get an insight into her psyche, some small thing that might help Raphael.
Releasing her, Raphael walked to the side table. "Illium asked permission to give you a present."
Curious, she turned . . . to meet chrome blue. "What did he do to jerk your chain this time?"
A slow curve to his mouth, an archangel's dangerous humor. "Knives and sheaths," he murmured.
She touched the top of her right boot. "I've got mine - "