No one more so than the vampire who closed his hand over hers and gripped hard. She wove her fingers through his and she stayed determinedly Holly.
She and Venom were in a darkened bedroom. Not Michaela’s, that much was clear now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. The furniture was lovely, the bed made with flowing white sheets, the bed itself edged by four exquisitely carved posts. A chair with curved legs as elegant sat by the antique white vanity, and it looked like the light in the center of the room might be a small chandelier.
It was very pretty, but without personality. The kind of room where no one lived on a permanent basis. A guest room then, a nice one. It looked like it might even have a private balcony beyond the lacy curtains that hung on the other side of the room. The view—
She elbowed Venom . . . only to glance over and see him staring at those same balcony curtains. He lifted a finger to his lips, then began to slide along the walls in that direction, motioning for her to stay and keep an ear on the external hallway. He was halfway to his destination when the angels’ conversation became suddenly more audible. They’d moved to right outside the door.
Holly couldn’t understand a word of what the two were saying. They weren’t speaking English.
Of course they weren’t. She was in freaking Hungary.
She had a smattering of high school French and German, but the language was neither of those. Hungarian made sense. And maybe she was pulling a language out of her ass because she had no idea. What she did have was an app on her phone that Illium had told her to download. As Venom whispered closer to the curtains, she slipped the phone carefully out of her pocket but didn’t press the button to bring up the home screen.
First, she unzipped her jacket slightly—and silently—and tucked the phone up near her chin so the glow from the screen would be contained. It wasn’t the best way to see the screen, but she could just do it if she tucked her chin into her chest.
Bringing up the home screen, she swiped into the translation app. She’d already put the phone on silent, so the app wouldn’t speak. However, words began to crawl across the screen, with gaps where the app couldn’t pick up the sound. According to the screen, the language being spoken was Hungarian . . . right before it became ancient Greek.
Two angels, two preferred languages, but it was obvious they understood one another.
A cheery note popped up over the text, stating that the app’s ancient Greek module had been verified by a vampire professor who was an actual ancient Greek. It also helpfully noted that this was no longer a dominant dialect, but still popular among a “statistically significant percentage of immortals.”
Holly quickly got rid of it, far more interested in the conversation outside.
“. . . restless.”
“What . . . sentries . . . ?”
“Nothing, but I’m . . . alert.”
“. . . a good position . . . make it into the house, but we should be vigilant.”
“Agreed. No one can get past us.”
Holly winced as the sound of wings opening then closing came from almost directly outside. Well, that made that decision clear. Sliding away her phone, she did what Venom had and made her way silently to the balcony doors he’d parted the curtains very slightly to expose. He shot her a speaking look.
Shaking her head, Holly risked taking out the phone to show him the transcript of the discussion.
His jaw firmed before he returned his attention to the locked door. When he gestured at her hair, she frowned, having no idea what he wanted. He made pointy motions. What? Oh. Holly had braided her hair tightly for this operation and had no hairpins to give him. Making a “wait” motion, she reached carefully into her pack to triumphantly reveal a penknife. It was pink, with golden stars on it.
Venom rolled his eyes at the petite thing.
Making a face at him, she pulled out the metal toothpick tucked into the top of one side of the casing. She’d never understood why the otherwise girly penknife, given to her as a gift by Rania—yeah, it still hurt to remember her friend was gone—and filled with things like nail files and a tiny, slender mirror, had a disgusting, meant to be reused, toothpick. Needless to say, Holly had never put it anywhere near her mouth. It had, however, come in handy when she wanted to dig out the last of her lipstick from a tube.
The other side of the casing featured a much more sensible pair of tweezers.
Venom’s eyes widened when she produced the toothpick. Grinning, he surprised her with a quick hard kiss before he began to fiddle with the lock again using the spike of metal. Holly’s lips felt swollen, sensitive, her mouth curved into a smile. They both froze when the shadow of angelic wings flowed into the room via the open wedge of the door, only relaxing when it became clear one of the angelic sentries in the hall had just moved to stand with his back to this room.
Venom’s muscles quivered, his body held in an awkward position.
It took Holly a second to realize he’d picked the lock, but that the last move would make a noise. So they waited . . . and then the angel called out to his partner and Venom twisted. The final click floated under the sound of the conversation outside. But when he would’ve opened the door, she put her hand on his arm and nodded beyond the glass.
Wind rustled through the trees. Not a gale by any means, but enough to slam the main door to this room closed should they open the door to the balcony. Again, they had to wait. And wait. Holly’s muscles threatened to cramp, the unnatural wings in her chest shoving and shoving, but she held it together.
The one good thing about being stuck here was that they could time the sweeps of the angel who was on security in the skies directly above and was most likely to spot them. It looked like they’d have approximately two minutes of clear air if they timed it right. Holly made sure her hood was secure, checked that Venom’s knit cap showed no signs of slipping.
And waited.
Venom squeezed her calf.
The wind had paused. And the angel had just passed.
One hundred twenty seconds before he’d turn and see them.
Opening the door, Venom waited for Holly to slip out before coming out himself and pulling the door shut with utmost quietness. Then he crouched down and relocked it using her toothpick. After which, he handed her the toothpick and she put it neatly away into the penknife, that knife going into her pocket.
All the while, she fought the compulsion that sought to turn her into a zombie.
The view from the balcony was magnificent, looking out over an intricate garden maze, and beyond that, the other mountains that formed this range. Stars glittered in the night sky, the beauty of it turning the agony within into a piercing ache of memory. So many times, she’d flown through those night skies. So many times, she’d landed on the flat roof high above that was hidden within the spires. So many times, she’d twined wings with her beloved underneath those stars.