Of course, Ashwini’s motives weren’t always linear. “Has she ever told you anything?” he asked Holly as he put her damp—but clean of blood—top into a plastic bag that he then stuffed into a front pocket of the pack.
A long pause before Holly nodded. “You sure you want to know? It might make you question the nature of fate and destiny and free will.”
Venom was immediately intrigued. “Tell me.”
31
“One day,” Holly began, “after we’d sparred on the lawn at her and Janvier’s place, and I was sitting on the grass, looking down at the Hudson and feeling sad for the life I’d never have, Ashwini sat down next to me and said, ‘Holly.’”
Wild green eyes met his. “I was still Sorrow then, but that day, she called me Holly very specifically. I didn’t correct her because she had this tone in her voice that told me to be quiet and listen. And she said . . .”
“I’ve already strangled you twice,” Venom murmured with lethal silkiness, though he still wasn’t all right with what he’d done to save her from the entity inside her. “They say the third time is the charm.”
Her laughter was reckless and fearless and he wanted to drink her in until that laughter was his own. “I was focused so hard on her,” she said with a smile lingering on her lips. “My body was almost quivering to hear what she had to tell me—my future? My death? What? At last, Ash opened her mouth and said, ‘Don’t forget to learn Hindi.’”
Venom blinked. “What?”
“Uh-huh.” Her shoulders shook. “I’d have thought her completely mad, except that I’d been around Ash long enough to realize that when she says one of her weird things, you should listen. So I joined an online class.” The last sentence was spoken in the language of Venom’s homeland.
Something huge spread out inside him, a wild joyful thing without a name. “Your accent could use a little work,” he said in the same language.
“And you can’t speak Mandarin, so shut up.”
He replied in that language, saw her eyes widen. “I grew up on the Silk Road,” he reminded her. “I also spent over a hundred years in Neha’s court, and she has many courtiers who come from across the border.” Not all spoke the same dialect as Holly; he’d had to learn multiple variations—as he’d had to learn the languages favored in other parts of India. “Naasir always says he doesn’t like not knowing what secrets people are talking about. Neither do I.”
Holly’s smile was a wide-open thing of utmost delight. “My grandma made me attend Mandarin school all through my childhood. I used to get so mad because I had to spend my Saturday mornings there instead of watching cartoons.” She spoke the words in a mélange of the three languages they shared. “But as I grew older, I was glad. I can speak to her in the language she used with her own mother. And it’s something special, you know?”
Venom understood. “Janvier speaks Hindi, as does Ashwini,” he told her. “Most of the Seven have an excellent grasp of it, too. Part of it is they’re just old enough to have had the time to learn multiple languages . . .”
“But the rest is because they’re your family,” Holly said, raising her hand to brush her fingers over his cheek. “So, jaanuu, is it time to go? Also, did you know there’s a wolf behind you?”
“He’s just curious about the other predators in his territory. Don’t challenge him with eye contact, but also don’t appear weak.” Venom looked back to let the wolf know they were aware of it. “He wants to make sure we’re only passing through.”
Venom pulled on the pack and got up.
Accepting the hand he held out, Holly used it to haul herself up. “Is our safe house within a distance we can travel on foot?”
“Yes. But we might not make it before dawn.” Holly was weaker than she should be, even with his blood twining with her own. “We’ll have to camp in the forest if there’s any chance we might get caught out in the open.”
“Yes, that would suck after we successfully pulled off the stealth infiltration of an archangelic home.” Tugging the hood of her jacket on over her hair, Holly zipped up the jacket so that her face was neatly framed, her body a sleek black outline. “Let’s do it.”
They began to run, the wolf running alongside them for over an hour before it peeled off to return to its territory. Venom had kept the pace at one Holly could also maintain. She was doing better than he’d expected. Even at full strength, she wouldn’t be as fast as him—but she’d be fast enough to make it fun.
Flying over a log in their path, she turned to grin at him over her shoulder.
He grinned back, and they ran.
Wings flew overhead now and then, and when they did, the two of them crouched low, became motionless. The farther they got from the stronghold, the less Holly’s chest glowed—Venom knew because she’d unzip and check every so often, until, by the time they ran into a small mountain village, there was no wash of acid green pulsing off her body.
Dawn hovered a red line on the horizon, but it was just far enough off that the farmers who ran goats up in these mountains weren’t yet awake. Venom and Holly moved like shadows through the village, not stopping when dogs barked.
They were long gone and back in the forests before anyone so much as twitched a curtain in response to the canine alarm. If anyone had seen them, all they would’ve spotted were two dark silhouettes. Venom had pulled the knit cap back over his hair and made sure to keep his eyes open only a sliver so no one could identify him.
Sunglasses pre-dawn would’ve been a dead giveaway.
Safe in the trees some distance from the village, they stopped so Venom could drink the second bottle of blood, after which Holly would feed from him to continue her recovery. Before that, he gave her the prepackaged food she’d brought along: he never forgot that Holly wasn’t a vampire in the known sense, needed actual food, too. As she munched on a packet of cheese and crackers, he opened the bottle of blood and—forewarned by the last bottle—took a cautious sip.
Pretzels and coffee and roasting nuts.
He laughed. “Ashwini gave me New York this time.” Another home of his heart. He drank it down without hesitation, then kissed Holly again so she could taste it. And so he could taste her.
She licked her tongue playfully against his. “Shall we indulge in wildly-inappropriate-on-the-run sex?”
He sank his fangs into her lower lip, just enough for it to be a sting.
“Ouch.” She did the same back to him and when they drew apart, they were both panting.
“A bed,” Venom said silkily. “I want a bed and time.” The luxury to stroke her softly, slowly, drink her in.