Free Archangel's Blade by Nalini Singh Page B

a heartbeat, though it would mean he would die in a few short decades. “I felt more as a mortal than I have in the centuries since.”
    â€œWill you love me when I’m fat and unwieldy with our babe?”
    He put his hand on the curve of her belly, touched his lips to her eyelids, the tip of her nose, her lips. “I will love you even when I am dust on the wind.”
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    Honor watched Dmitri walk to stand beside the black winged angel and hissed out a breath at how close he was to the unprotected edge. Unlike the angel, he had no wings should he fall, and yet he stood there with a confidence that said he wasn’t the least worried about the eventuality.
    A change in the air at her back.
    Swiveling, she discovered the vampire with the wraparound shades in the doorway. “Dmitri’s outside.”
    He headed through to the balcony without a word, just as the black-winged angel stepped off the edge. Those incredible wings disappeared for a moment before he rose up at dizzying speed. On any other day, she would’ve followed the trajectory of his flight, but today her attention was locked on Dmitri—whose face turned to granite after hearing whatever it was the other vampire had to say.
    Stalking in, he said, “Leave that. We’re heading out.”
    An arrogant command, but she read the tension in the air, made the connection. “Did you find the rest of the body?” Even as she spoke, she was removing the data card from the laptop in case she couldn’t immediately return to retrieve it.
    â€œYes.” Dmitri’s phone rang as they entered the elevator, but clearly the signal didn’t drop because he had a quick, curt conversation.
    Meanwhile, the other vampire turned to look at her. He said nothing, and those mirrored sunglasses made it impossible for her to get a reading on him. Wanting to distract herself from the fact that she was trapped in a steel cage with two deadly predators, she said, “Sunglasses in the dark as a fashion statement went out with perms.”
    He flashed his teeth—but not his fangs—at her. “You don’t want to see what’s behind the shades, sweetheart.” The last word was a mockery of an endearment that made every hair on her body rise in defensive warning.
    â€œVenom.”
    The vampire turned to face the front again, but the corners of his lips continued to tug up at the corners. “You want me to drive?”
    â€œNo, we’ll take the Ferrari. Take another car so I can leave you there.”
    â€œI might make it faster on foot and it’ll give me a chance to observe the crowd without them being aware of it.”
    â€œGo.”
    Stepping out into the artificial light of an underground garage had never felt so good—she was fairly certain that without Dmitri to hold his leash, Venom would’ve shown her his fangs in more ways than one. “Now I know you’re important,” she said when the currently open-topped Ferrari proved to be parked in the spot nearest the elevator.
    â€œIf it took you this long, Honor, you’re dimmer than you look.”
    As a taunt, it was only mildly irritating, especially when it was clear Dmitri wasn’t paying full attention. Sliding onto the butter-soft leather of the passenger seat, she looked over to where Venom had exited the garage. “What’s with the sunglasses?”
    â€œYou haven’t heard? He’s been in the city long enough to have come into contact with a number of hunters.”
    â€œI didn’t work in the country much . . . before.” She took her first real breath in what felt like an hour as Dmitri drove them out of the secure Tower zone and into the music of Manhattan—complete with beeping horns, yelled-out insults, and a thousand cell phone conversations taking place at once. “Had no reason to interact with Tower personnel when I was in the city.”
    â€œIn that