“Tell me,” she said once the servant had departed, “of what you have been doing in Raphael’s Tower.”
It was a loaded question, one that asked Venom to divide his loyalties, but the vampire fielded it without lying—and without betraying any secrets. “Learning to be stronger, better. Now I go to work under Galen.”
“Yes, that one is a man who understands patience, as you have never done.”
“It’s in my nature.” Venom shrugged, and Jason knew he referred to the impulses that had been seeded in him by the Queen of Snakes, of Poisons.
A faint smile curved Neha’s lips, the calculated gleam of her earlier question replaced by amused affection. “When does that barbarian weapons master expect you?”
“I am early. If I may beg your indulgence, I would stay and talk with friends I have not seen for many a year.”
Neha’s eyes
“You insult Jason, my lady.” Disarming charm. “I would be a great thumping elephant to his sleek cobra.”
An exasperated shake of Neha’s head, the archangel appearing more indulgent than Jason had seen her with anyone but Eris and Anoushka. “Stay, play your games, but, Venom? Do not forget who I am.”
Venom bowed over her hand, pressing his lips to her knuckles. “My lady, never will I forget who you are—you did not Make a fool.”
Later, when Venom and Jason walked up onto the wall above one of the magnificent fort gates, Jason saw the vampire sigh as he looked out over the city below, the homes hugging the earth for the most part, but even the smallest with a door painted in a bright shade, or shutters of red, a roof of blue. “You miss this place.”
“At times,” Venom said, his hair lifting in the breeze that tugged at Jason’s queue. “This land is where I was born, this fort where I was Made. It’ll always have a claim on my heart, though it is Raphael who has a claim on my loyalty.”
Jason thought of the palm-edged sands of the Pacific, of the remote island that was his own, where he went when he wanted to disappear from the world. Though it wasn’t the place where he’d been born, it was close enough that it made his heart ache. “I understand.”
“Raphael thought you might appreciate a familiar face, someone you can trust to watch your back.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” he said, thinking of a woman who lived in a fort surrounded by hundreds of others, but who was and had always been alone, without anyone of her own.
Even he had memories of love to keep him going. Mahiya had nothing. And still she had hope in her heart, the capacity for tenderness of the soul. Strong, she was so strong, stronger than him, for where he’d had to shut down to survive, she’d managed to do so intact.
“So,” Venom said, “tell me what has happened—I won’t betray your vow, and Raphael won’t expect it of me.”
Jason had never believed otherwise. “There is something wrong here.” He told Venom of the triple murders, of the details that didn’t quite fit. “You still know many people in this court intimately.” Friends the vampire had stayed in touch with, some out of true affection, others because they were useful—Venom could be coldly practical beneath his charm. “Find the connection if you can.”
The murders bore too familiar an emotional fingerprint to be the work of disparate entities, and yet Neha had no need or apparent motive to murder her lady-in-waiting in such a violent fashion. Regardless of all else, he simply could not see her breaking her vigil beside Eris’s body in order to commit the act, not when those were the final hours she’d ever spend with him.
Venom gave a thoughtful nod, sliding his mirrored shades back over his eyes. “I’ll do everything I can, but I’ll have to leave in three days at the most. Neha will not give me her indulgence beyond that.”
“You’re a better judge of her mood than I—go when you need to.” Getting Venom’s nod, he asked the vampire a question that had nothing to do with his task at the fort. “How is Sorrow?” The girl had survived an attack from a mad archangel, come out of it infected by a toxin that had changed her from mortal to something other, her abilities erratic.
Venom’s jaw went taut, tendons pushing against the skin of his neck. “Janvier has taken over her vampiric training for the time being,” he said, referring to the vampire who had worked directly under Dmitri on any number of operations and whose loyalty to the Tower was unquestioned—though until now, it had been more useful to have him out in the world as an apparent free agent.
“You know how good Janvier is,” Venom added, “but I’ll have to return periodically to do the speed dances with her.”
Venom could move with snake quickness, a skill Sorrow shared, though hers came from a different source. “Can she call it up on command?”
“No. And if she doesn’t learn to do that, she’ll die.” Unforgiving words. “But Honor’s right—she needs to get the basics down first before I start pushing her again, or she’ll make stupid mistakes speed alone can’t cure.”
“Who’s undertaking her physical training with Honor out of the city?”
“Ashwini.” Venom’s face thawed, his lips twitching a fraction. “You know what she did to Janvier the last time they met?”
“Honey was involved.” Jason had watched the hunter and the vampire spar since their first meeting, never quite understanding their relationship—they were adversaries one minute, determined to run each other to the ground, and allies the next. It was Janvier Ashwini had taken with her when she’d needed to work in Nazarach’s dangerous territory, and it was Janvier whose sapphire pendant the hunter wore around her neck. Yet, as far as he knew, they had never been bedmates.
“Why don’t they just sleep with one another?” he asked Venom, wondering if he’d missed a subtle nuance in their relationship.
Venom’s chuckle was quiet, his eyes eerie in the sunshine as he pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head. “That is an enduring mystery.” He cocked his head. “Who is that very pretty woman coming this way?”
Jason didn’t need to follow Venom’s gaze—he could feel Mahiya’s presence as a gentle heat against his wings. “The Princess Mahiya, and she is mine.” He had no right to make such a claim, but Venom had a way of charming women when he was in the mood, and Jason discovered he did not wish Mahiya to be charmed.
“Ah.” The vampire turned and jumped off the gate with an insouciant carelessness that had Mahiya’s hand slapping over her heart.
But Venom came to a crouching landing on his toes, lithe as a cat. Landing beside him, Jason watched Mahiya rather than Venom as the vampire rose and bent over her hand. “Impossible as it seems, I do not believe we have ever met.”
Mahiya’s fascinated gaze lingered on Venom’s eyes as he lifted his head and released her hand. “No . . . but I have heard of the vampire with the viper’s eyes. You were based at the Delhi court in the main.”
“I was,” Venom agreed, “but I visited here more than once. You must’ve been studying at the Refuge.”
“Yes. I believe you had sworn allegiance to Raphael by the time I returned to the fort.”
Jason caught the fine tremor that rippled over Mahiya’s skin as she spoke of a homecoming that must have been a terrifying experience for a young girl, and spread his wing just enough that it brushed over her own. It was an intimacy, and one she had not offered, one he’d never have initiated had he stopped to think about it, yet instead of flinching, she relaxed.
“It’s good to finally make your acquaintance,” she said to Venom, genuine warmth in her tone. “Neha has always said you were one of her proudest Makings.”
Venom’s grin was sharp, his next words directed at Jason. “Shall we meet over dinner?”
“Come to Mahiya’s palace.”
“Until then.” He kissed Mahiya’s hand again before departing.
Jason traced Mahiya’s profile with his gaze as she watched the vampire leave. “You had no hesitation in allowing him to touch you.”
“I think it was the shock first of all—those eyes . . .” She shook her head. “And then I saw he was your friend.”
