Naasir’s fangs flashed in the sunlight as he grinned. “I can read.” Laughter in his voice. “I am a bloodhound and, like you, a guard dog.”
“You’re so much more,” Andromeda said, unable to keep the words within. “You’re extraordinary.”
“Yes,” Tarek agreed, his tone difficult to decipher. “There is no one else like you—the silver-eyed vampire who has hair and eyes the same unique shade as Alexander’s wings.”
Andromeda frowned at the explicit connection, her thoughts once more on that metallic feather in the Archives.
“Alexander didn’t Make me,” Naasir said, answering the unasked question. “It was his brother, Osiris.”
Andromeda sucked in a breath as Tarek’s expression turned deadly. “Osiris was purged from the family line, all traces of him erased.”
“Except me,” Naasir said unworriedly, accepting a second small glass of blood brought out by an older woman whose smile held simple courtesy.
“Except you.” An unblinking gaze. “How did you survive the destruction of all that was Osiris?”
“I helped that destruction along,” Naasir said before he drank from the glass. “I ate his liver and his heart.” A sideways look at Andromeda. “Osiris kept me hungry to test my strength.”
Andromeda closed her hand over his. “Then he was a stupid angel who deserved to get eaten.”
Smile deep and wide, Naasir wove his fingers into hers and turned back to a grim-eyed Tarek. “I never called Osiris sire and I never would have even if Alexander hadn’t executed him.” Naasir’s loyalty was Raphael’s.
The sentinel stared at him. “Two hundred years ago, I ventured briefly to another part of the world and met a learned man. He told me there were rumors of a living legend, of a chimera with silver eyes who is not one but two, asked me if I knew the origins of it, for only Alexander and Osiris had eyes of true silver and both were gone from the world.”
“Such things are myth.” Naasir’s eyes laughed when Andromeda glared at him.
Lifting her hand to his mouth, he kissed her knuckles, then tipped her gaping mouth shut.
She pursed her lips. “I am not talking to you.” Turning to face the openly amused sentinel, she said, “If you don’t believe we’re here to oppose Lijuan, you should find out what’s happening at Rohan’s palace right now.”
The amusement disappeared. “Is that a threat?”
She held her ground. “I had to tell Lijuan something when she kidnapped me and asked for Alexander’s location. I tried to lead her away from this territory, but given the presence of that squadron, the distraction clearly didn’t take.”
“We got a warning to Rohan,” Naasir added. “He won’t have been caught unprepared.”
“Rohan can look after himself.” A confident statement from Tarek. “But even if you are here to oppose Lijuan, we can’t break our vow and that vow is to hold the line.”
“In that case,” Naasir said, “I’ll have to incapacitate you all.” He sounded like he was joking but Andromeda knew he was dead serious.
“Even the silver-eyed beast can’t take on the heart of the Wing Brotherhood.”
Of course. That’s where she’d seen the tattoo before. Usually on clean-shaven scalps.
Tarek must’ve seen her eyes flick to his hair because he said, “We all take the mark on our eighteenth birthday. Those who leave here shear their hair as a rite of passage, a reminder of the discipline and honor in which they have been forged.”
“Your people have gone far from your homeland.” The reclusive and deadly Wing Brotherhood worked on tasks for various individuals and groups, but always on a contract basis. Until now, no one had ever known from where they came—the guess had been that they belonged to an angel who preferred to stay in the shadows.
“Some of my younger brethren like to fly,” Tarek said. “We do not stop them. All return eventually, for this is home. Often, they bring mates who understand our ways, and who rejuvenate our bloodlines.”
“No one has spoken the secret in four hundred years?” Andromeda whispered. “How can that be?”
“Honor and loyalty and a crucible that does not forgive the weak of soul.” He rose. “You can either fight us or you can leave. We will escort you out.”
Naasir rose, hand linked to hers. “You need to think for today, not stand in the past.”
The leader of the Wing Brotherhood didn’t say anything, just put his hand on the butt of his crossbow. Polite, elegant skin suddenly on, Naasir glanced at Andromeda. “It appears we have worn out our welcome—and Alexander’s guard hasn’t fallen for my bluff.”
She shrugged. “We had to make the attempt.” Meeting Tarek’s gaze, she said, “If you won’t allow us to go to Alexander, then you must warn him yourself.”
An impassive face. “The Ancient Sleeps. No living being can enter his chamber and survive.”
“Not even Lijuan?”
No flicker in his expression. “She may style herself an Ancient, but she is no power in comparison to Alexander.”
“You haven’t seen her since the Cascade began,” Andromeda said, but knew she was wasting her breath—Alexander’s sentinel was too locked into the idea of what should be to see what was happening to the world today.
They walked out with a strong Brotherhood contingent as escort. It was an hour out from the village that Naasir let go of her hand. Dropping her pack, Andromeda had her sword out within the next two heartbeats but was still deathly slow in comparison to him.
Using his claws, he took down three of the wing brothers before they knew what was happening. There was blood but no death, only incapacitation. Andromeda was hampered by the fact she, too, didn’t want to do real damage with the sword, but she wasn’t fast enough or nimble enough to fight the highly trained wing brothers hand-to-hand.
Who, despite the name, were both male and female.
Wanting to ensure she didn’t end up a hostage, she stayed behind Naasir and acted as cleanup for the men and women Naasir pushed off balance or otherwise slowed down; in the end she managed to take down several by whacking their heads with the hilt of her sword. Even in the midst of battle, she took care to use less force with the mortals.
Alexander wouldn’t forgive those who’d fatally harmed his people.
“Andi, fly!”
Everything in her rebelled against the order, against leaving him surrounded by fighters with death in their eyes, but she’d made a promise to obey him in such situations. Gritting her teeth, she put her trust and faith in his skills and took off.