Chapter 24
Angelic pregnancies are fragile, especially in the first ten weeks. Week sixteen is considered the edge of the safe zone. However, we’re dealing with a super-parasite. You may already be in the zone of safety.
—Nisia to Elena and Raphael (At Journey’s Beginning)
“I have all I need,” Nisia pronounced eighteen weeks into the pregnancy, having just finished taking Elena’s vitals.
“Is the babe well?” Raphael asked, and Elena felt the tension thrumming through his entire body as he stood next to her seated form, his hand on her shoulder.
“It appears to be firmly settled in. No complications so far, and I can’t see any reason for that to change.” A gentle pat of Elena’s cheek, not even Nisia having the temerity to do that to Raphael. “Be happy, both of you. You’re well past the perilous stage of an angelic pregnancy.”
Walking to the screens to one side of her office, with Elena and Raphael following, the healer brought up the recording of the latest scan—then played the sound of their baby’s heartbeat as they watched that tiny heart pulse on the screen.
“Look here.” She indicated a specific section of the scan. “You can just see the beginnings of the wing understructure in the back.”
Elena sucked in a breath. “They’ll fly.” Her voice trembled—she’d never taken her own wings for granted, wanted the sky for their child.
“Yes,” Nisia confirmed. “As for the mortal cells in the super-parasite’s body, as far as we can track, they’ve stopped multiplying. Still there, but harder to detect. The immortal cells are now dominant.”
She looked at Elena. “Add that to the fact you’re still inhaling more food than required by even the most muscle-bound angelic warriors, and I believe immortality is a given—but I’m afraid neither Keir nor I can explain why the mortal cells have survived in the midst of the immortal, or what effect they’ll have on the child long-term. ”
“Tiamat told me not to worry,” Elena murmured, her eyes on her baby’s heartbeat and her entire being pulsing with love fierce and primal. “As long as our baby is growing and thriving, that’s all I need to know.”
Raphael circled his palm lightly over her lower back. “As my consort states, Nisia.”
The healer looked back at the recording of the scan—with a scowl this time. “You know, I do believe this child is going to confound me as much as you’ve always done.” A sharp look at Elena that did little to hide the affection beneath the snark. “A gift of generational irritation.”
Laughing, Raphael picked up the healer and spun her around with a playfulness no one would’ve ever expected from him once.
Watching Nisia swat at his shoulder while amusement lit up his whole face, and their wings threatened to sweep papers off Nisia’s desk, Elena rubbed her abdomen and spoke to the child within.
What a life you’re going to have, little spark of ours. I can’t wait to meet you. And with their developing baby now in the safe zone, she was ready to share the news beyond the very few people who knew to date.
* * *
Venom and Holly were missing from the gathering of the New York–based Seven and Elena’s Guard at dinner the next night.
Raphael had sent the couple to India to help Avi and Jelena and the rest of Caliane’s senior team.
As agreed by the Cadre, the archangels around Caliane’s lands had done flyovers and made their presence felt while leaving her people to the day-to-day running of things.
Raphael had worried the most about Alexander when it came to territorial conquest—but he’d forgotten how long Alexander had called Caliane a friend.
Alex and Callie had known each other since long before ascension, and while Alexander had once been ready to go to war with her son, that had been an eternity ago—and Alexander a wholly different man.
He’d stepped into the breach for Caliane as Elijah would for Raphael and vice versa.
“His winged squadrons are helping maintain stability at the border,” Venom had reported. “Also—the single time a vampire kiss decided to act up, he came down personally on them like a hammer.
“Lady Sharine, too, has been in the territory several times, and Titus has flown in with her to assist with the archangelic oversight. Suyin has, of course, been heavily involved.
“Jelena and Avi also made the decision to tell the populace that Lady Caliane will only be gone for a decade, which has proven a good decision—no one wishes to have a black mark against their name when she rises.”
Raphael only hoped that his mother would rise, would see how well she was loved and respected.
Tonight, however, was about a topic far more joyful.
All of their senior people based in or close to New York sprawled in comfortable armchairs set among Elena’s plants, leaned up against the wall, or—in the case of Janvier—sat on the thick Persian carpet with one long leg out and his back to the armchair occupied by the love of his life.
Voice languid as always, the Cajun vampire said, “We’re all here, except for Holly and Venom, the Refuge-based crew, and Bluebell and Sparkle.”
Because though the latter two were no longer part of Raphael’s Tower, they would ever be part of the Seven. Part of their family. Everyone in the world knew that—and while some of the old ones muttered that it was “highly irregular,” those same old ones were also well used to Illium’s shenanigans.
At this point, those same stuffy elders were apt to suffer an attack of the vapors should the Archangel of Stars—as Illium had been named by his people—suddenly begin to follow the unwritten laws of power.
“It’s either very bad news or very good news.” Izzy, his eyes narrowed and his golden curls glinting in the light.
There’d been a time when he’d shaved off those curls in an effort to look older and more mature, for his baby-faced appearance had taken literal centuries to fade.
But at over a thousand one hundred years of age now, with the vast majority of that time spent learning from and fighting alongside a number of the deadliest warriors in the world—until he, too, was counted among that elite league—he had the confidence to pull it off.
Montgomery and Sivya, who’d both been invited to this dinner party, the Tower kitchen in charge of catering it, suddenly appeared highly interested in the plant closest to where Sivya sat.
Montgomery, standing behind her, took a handkerchief out of his pocket to polish dust off the large green monstera leaf.
Raphael tried not to laugh.
The butler and cook had done an excellent job of pretending not to know anything, but it was difficult to hide the truth from the two when Elena had begun to crave the weirdest combinations of foods on the planet, and had been known to run unceremoniously out of rooms as her stomach lurched.
Thankfully, there hadn’t been much of the latter.
There had, however, been plenty of chocolate-covered pickles and vinegar rice with a side of avocado sprinkled with peanut butter chocolate.
“Super-parasite is a cute little weirdo,” Elena had told Raphael two nights ago, while eating pickles dipped in melted cheese. “If I consciously considered what I’m eating, I’d probably be sick, but I’m in a food coma, and in that food coma, it tastes like heaven.”
Only last night, she’d told him she craved durian ice cream, which she’d apparently tried while on a hunt in Malaysia.
Raphael had smelled the fruit once and that had been enough for him, but since Elena wanted durian ice cream, he’d been intent on finding it for her, even if it was the middle of the night.
It had proved far easier than expected.
She’d cleared a full bowl, had a glass of lime-flavored milk to chase it down, then brushed her teeth and gone to sleep again, while Raphael watched, half-amused, half-horrified.
“You’re missing out on the deliciousness,” she’d muttered before she snuggled into his chest and fell into dreams that made her smile.
“I love you,” he’d whispered, his heart so defenseless when it came to her that she could cut it out of him while he was conscious and he’d lie there and let her. “You are the best part of eternity, Elena-mine.”
Today, she held a flute of “wine” that was, in truth, nothing but grape juice. “Decoy,” she’d told him with a wink. “We need to build the suspense. Oh, and Greta said she’d rather chop off her own head and sauté it in a nice cream sauce when I tried to invite her to dinner.”
Raphael wasn’t in the least surprised—Greta did not do social except for that narrow period in time when she’d fallen in love with a gregarious guild hunter.
Fallen so deep and true that she’d been willing to step far out of her comfort zone to be with him—and Malik Mizra’s response to her actions had endeared him to all those who respected Greta.
For he’d altered his own habits, too, in deference to her need for solitude.
Love true and generous, strong enough to meld two very different people.
As for suspense, Raphael wasn’t sure how long it would last. Not with this group.
Sameon, for one, was looking around the room with the strategic gaze of a commander who knew something was up, his dark eyes connecting with Jason’s as Raphael’s spymaster fought not to display a disgruntled expression.
Jason liked to know everything. Only, of course, while he kept an eye on Tower staff to ensure no external spies snuck in, he didn’t spy on his own archangel and Raphael’s consort. Which meant that Elena’s pregnancy had slid under his radar.
Beside his black-clad form, Mahiya—dressed today in a delicate green sari with silver embroidery, the colors picking up the peacock hues in her feathers—took his hand where they leaned against the wall and said something that made his scowl sink deeper into his skin.
When Mahiya’s smile grew to sparkle in her eyes, Raphael guessed that she was teasing Jason about being so put out. Because Princess Mahiya Geet understood Jason, quiet and extraordinary, in a way no one else ever had.
“Put Jason out of his misery before he has a stroke,” Dmitri drawled from the sofa, where he sat with one arm braced along the back, Honor beside him.
The spymaster’s expression didn’t alter as he said, “You know.” That only seemed to ratchet up his annoyance. From the way Dmitri glanced over at him with the hint of a grin tugging at the corners of his lips, the two were now engaged in a furious mental discussion.
Izzy—perched on the arm of a sofa—and Sam, who’d taken a chair, shared a thoughtful glance, no doubt also bouncing ideas off one another. Quite aside from being comrades in arms, the two had become fast friends the instant Sameon grew old enough to interact with Izzy on an adult level.
Ashwini, meanwhile, glanced at Montgomery and Sivya, noted their preoccupation with the monstera…and became supremely interested in a hanging plant herself.
I think Ash knows, Elena said into his mind after a sip of her grape juice.
Where do you think that foul-smelling abomination of an ice cream came from, hbeebti? He fought a shudder. I only looked in the freezer in the kitchen out of desperation while the house system ran a search for stock in the city. And there it was, right in the front.
Montgomery never mentioned that!
Montgomery is discreet, as, it appears, is Ash, since Janvier clearly doesn’t know. Still, I think we will have a riot if we do not speak soon.
Elena tapped her fingernail on her wineglass. “Right,” she said in a solemn tone, “let’s get to it. We’re here tonight to talk about a big change in personnel at the Tower.”
“Has Trace accepted an official transfer into the Seven?” This from Izzy.
“No, he’d never accept.” Jason’s voice held absolute conviction, the ebony of his wings motionless as he focused all his attention on the discussion. “Same with Misha.”
Naasir’s firstborn was an integral part of the Tower—and a man everyone in this room had known as a child. As they’d known Nasien and Izar. The triplets had given each of them at least five gray hairs—and left an indelible mark on their memories. Such a bright, wild energy the boys had had.
“Oui.” Janvier nodded. “The Seven will always be the original seven members. This we all know.”
Dmitri stretched out his legs as he settled deeper into the sofa, with Honor leaning into him. She’d already told Elena she was going to keep her lips “zipped” until they announced the news, for fear that she’d let it slip.
Raphael picked up the conversation. “The person—who is slated to join our innermost circle—is not anyone you know.” Before Jason’s head could explode at the apparent catastrophic breach of the meticulous security protocols he’d laid down, Raphael grinned.
“Our new team member also won’t be able to carry out any duties for…
well, at least the next seventy or so years. ”
Mahiya reacted first.
Hands flying to her mouth, she let out an eep sound.