Silently Hunted

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Zeke had no idea how it had happened. As they had prepared to take off again, Raphael had swooped in and taken Anya before anyone else could. And as he would not allow any of his angels to be in more danger than they already were, he had ended up carrying the vampire. Neither wanted to be in this position. They had already tried to kill each other. This vampire had had a knife at his throat and now, he was holding the same vampire at a height that would crush his bones on impact, if he let go.

It was tempting. Very, very tempting. Only he had to think back to Anya and her words spoken by the ‘truth’. They needed him alive. Right now, he didn’t think the vamp would mind overly much if one of them was dead. Though he did think it would not be the one he wanted dead. Which would not particularly work.

Stony silence was all the hours of the trip they had left. He could see Anya and Raphael chatting away. Oh, she had to come back to consciousness in the vampire’s arms. Of course. Just his luck. Though he had managed to use his energy to save the majority of his injured angels. He was happy about that, overjoyed at not losing his friends. He just had to keep telling himself that. Not that while he was saving lives, the half angel who meant so much to the gather storm of war, had come awake and was comforted by this vampire.

He seethed inside as he flew. The weight negligible for someone of his power and age. The problem was the irritation he could feel coming off of the vampire. Both of their emotions echoing each other. But as the vampire was empathic it had to be worse on him. He could not stop the smile that spread across his face at that thought. Maybe he could get his own back.

Nathaniel wanted to seriously maim this archangel that flew him. But knowing how far up they were he knew that would not be the best idea he had ever had. His empathic abilities had told him the archangel had shared his frustration and irritation at the situation they had both found themselves in. Even if he had wanted this plan over any other. It did not make him feel any better about that decision. But as the glow city lights could be seen through a heavy cloud coverage. Waving in a deluge of rain he could see over that city. He started to feel something else coming from the emotional centre of the archangel.

Before he catalogued and noted every emotion for retribution later, he needed to make sure that they were about the one his darkness had claimed. Over his shoulder he saw the direction the archangel was looking and flowed that gaze. To find Anya. Anya awake and happily chatting away with Raphael as if they were long lost friends. The thought made him scowl. While he knew the Raphael did not think of her that way, his darkness did not like her attention taken by any male, let alone such animated conversation with a single male.

Reigning in the darkness on a tight leash, he concentrated on the emotions from the archangel behind him.

Lust…

Longing…

Jealousy…

And a faint trace of tenderness.

That tenderness was hidden, or at least he had tried to hide it. The feeling having seeped from behind strong shields without the owner’s knowledge. He knew the archangel was trying to incite a reaction from him. Yet, that tenderness that he had tried to hide was the one that caused his darkness to wrench at the leash. Wanted to tear out his throat and bath in his blood. Knowing he had to at least land before that point, he told the darkness to wait. It would get its time. When Anya had channelled the ‘truth’ she had not said anything about this waste of good oxygen. Therefore, he could technically get rid of the fool before he got himself and Anya out of the stronghold.

He could see the stronghold coming up. At the centre of the city. Seeing it from above was spectacular. He had never come at it from this angle before, yet it look like a jewel lit from within. Contemporary bomb proof glass interspersed with the original medieval stone work of the first stronghold. He also had to admit the humans in this area were better treated than in vamp territory. They had larger housing, nicer housing, and more luxuries. The only thing he did not know was what the angels got out of that in exchange.

But he would find it out. Eventually. Looking back at Anya, he saw her laughing again before dropping out of Raphael’s arms. His heart sank, as he jerked. Felt the same reaction in the archangel that carried him. But all of a sudden he did not care if he fell. All his attention, and the angel who held him, was on the plummeting half angel before them.

Anya felt the rush of air. The exhilaration wonderful. She had not gotten to fly in what seemed an eon. It had taken hours of pleading and persuasion with Raphael before he finally allowed her to fly the last few miles into the angel stronghold. She had felt such joy at his words when he thought her strong enough for the short flight, and then he just let go. The adrenaline pumping through her she allowed herself to drop.

Just shy of crashing to the earth, she snapped open her wings. The pull tightening muscles she had not used in a while. There was pain and stiffness. But a freedom she had not felt before. Her new power within giving a whole new look to the world. Her vision had always been good, but now she had the sharpness she had heard the vampires held in the darkness. It was still light out, though the cloud coverage was starting to reach them. Rain drops pattering against filaments so tender and sensitive she smiled in the moment. Not thinking of before or after, of who wanted her dead, or who wanted to torture her. But now she wanted to live with the here and now. She did not know how long it would be before she would get to feel these feelings again.

Having the vampiric empathic talent, she could feel the shock and the distrust overwhelming from the angels above her. Knowing she would not be given any time to enjoy this any more than she already had, she made her way in strong strokes back up to the silent wing above her. The muscles loosening with use, the pain being left behind her as she winged upwards. Finding Ezekiel and Nathaniel both looking at her in a mix of shock and wonder. She couldn’t help the smug grin that appeared. Serves them right for thinking her an invalid.

Seeing Raphael sharing her expression she made her way over to the Archangel, which had been so close through most of her life, without her really understanding exactly what that had meant. As she approached she could see the outlaying guards stand down, looking outwards once again, rather than towards her.

“Impressive.” She almost curtsied in mid-air, before realising just how strange that would look. “Though, I suppose I should not be surprised should I?” She smiled at Raphael. He seemed to be the only one to know the real her, but she knew he had an ulterior motive beneath it all, which stopped the true trust in him.

“Well, everyone seems to underestimate me. More fool them, don’t you think?” She had not seen this side of her personality in a while. And as she thought about why she had not been like this in years, she thought back to Stefan’s throat ripped out before her eyes. How she could not stop that or the deaths of other humans in her lifetime.

Sobering at the thought, Raphael caught her eye and held out a hand towards the jewel of the angel’s main capitol. The stronghold shining like a beacon through the rain, the dome surrounding the city being placed further out than the boundaries. Letting the angels fly in relative safety.

In minutes they were all flying once more. The skies opening fully upon them, soaking them to the skin in moments. And in her borrowed clothing she was not feeling particularly wonderful anyway. Now she was coming into the angel’s stronghold, without fear of being shot on sight, and she looked like a bedraggled rat. One thing she was not liking about the domes, they might protect from missiles and other things she didn’t really understand, like the radiation for the humans. But rain it did not stop.

Finding the Silent Wing had angled downward in the deluge, she was shocked to see that in such a short stretch of time they had arrived at the stronghold. The place that may not hold death anymore, but it may hold untold amounts of pain.

Landing on the slippery stone cobbles of an open courtyard in the middle of the stronghold. No way out without being surrounded by angels. She wondered just what was in store. Because she had learned a long time ago. If she guessed it was usually a hundred times worse.

And then the ancient double doors before them opened.