“I'm the hunter," Elena reminded him. "I should go first."
"Of course you may go first. When I am dead.”
“Raphael, in case you're getting ideas - I won't be this civilized if you decide you need a concubine. In fact, it's a good bet I'll turn homicidal.
He didn't look up from his conversation with Astaad as he said, A pity, in that cool "Archangel" tone of his. I will now have to ask the pilot to empty the hold of my chosen females.
We're going to have to talk about this new sense of humor of yours.”
“You are wearing no panties with another male in the room? Raphael ran his hand down Elena's spine and over her lower curves, searching for lines and finding nothing but firm feminine flesh. You truly aren't.
Elena's shoulders shook, deep creases in her cheeks. Oh, my God, you're scandalized! Eyes tearing up in the effort to fight her laughter, she pressed her hands to his chest and stared down at the floor. Should I tell you I did find a way to wear a knife? In a thigh sheath.
Of course you did. What do panties matter so long as you have your steel.”
“Eternity would mean nothing without you. For no power on this earth would I trade my Elena.”
“Wave to the nice tourists, Sparkle. I promise it won't cause pestilence and firestorms."
Elena bit the inside of her cheek at Aodhan's glare-she'd never seen anyone crack his reserved shell. "Sparkle and Bluebell, nice."
"Never," Aodhan said, hands stubbornly on the girder, "ever repeat that. Illium seems to have forgotten I promised to separate his tongue from his mouth should he utter it again in this immortal lifetime.”
“You ever taunt me with Tasha again," she said in a harsh whisper when they broke the kiss to gasp for air, "and I will geld you."
Raphael winced. "That would take at least a day to repair. Are you sure you want to lose my....attributes for that long?”
“My mother," he said, "has invited us to a ball."
Elena pulled a blade from one of the butter-soft forearm sheaths that had been a gift from Raphael. "Excuse me while I stab myself in the eyes-and disembowel myself while I'm at it.”
“Do you scent the same things I do?”
Ransom made a face when she described what she’d picked up from the passing vamp. “Yeah, except I don’t say shit like ‘cinnamon spice with a hint of burnt oak.’ I say ‘dude smells like an electrified tree with a side of doughnut topping.”
“The two angels were both tall, but Aodhan was perhaps an inch taller, and now his eyes locked with Illium's for a long, quiet moment before he lowered his head slightly. Illium raised his hand, the movement slow, hesitant....and then his fingers brushed Aodhan's cheek just below the cut that had almost sealed. The first ray of dawn kissed the tear that rolled down Illium's face, caressed the painful wonder on Aodhan's as he lifted his hand to clasp the wrist of his friend's hand.
That instant of contact, the power of it, stole her breath.
Then Illium smiled, said something that made Aodhan's lips curve-Elena thought it might've been "Welcome back, Sparkle"-and they were separating to sweep off the Tower in a symphony of wild silver blue and heartbreaking light.
"Raphael," she whispered, having felt him come up behind her. "Did you see?"
"Yes." His hand on her nape, his thumb brushing over her pulse. "Of course it would be Illium who reached him," he murmured.”
“I could've totally cut out your heart before you knew what was happening."
"What stopped you?"
"I thought Montgomery might've been pissed off at all the blood on the sheets."
"Montgomery would never be something as uncouth as pissed off. Annoyed in an icily genteel manner, perhaps.”
“Your love is a fierce thing, Elena, a thing with claws and teeth when it comes to protecting those you claim.”
“I could kiss you forever," she murmured against his lips, sucking at the lower one, playing with the upper, his body weight a luscious pressure. "I love feeling you against me."
"You say such things, Elena. You will make me your slave.”
“Arms wrapped around his neck, she kissed his temple. "I'm sorry I scared you." It wasn't the done thing for an archangel to admit fear, but he was hers, and she'd hurt him without meaning to; it was up to her to fix her mistake.
His wings shifted, but he didn't extricate their bodies. "I didn't know fear until you, Elena. Use the power wisely.”
“ Of course you may go first. When I am dead.”
“To be haunted by my heart is no threat.”
“The power, it seduced, whispering to me to weave it into my own cells." A glance over his shoulder. "Before you, I would've no doubt accepted it and it would've destroyed me from the inside out."
"Before you," she whispered, "I was shut up inside my heart, protecting it from harm, and never knowing the glory I missed." She linked her hand in his. "You and I, we're a unit. I dare any evil on this earth to tear us apart.”
“Your weapons-master appears to have an actual, beating heart," she said to Raphael. "Who knew?"
"Jessamy."
"I concede that point."
Elena referring to Galen”
“That was very bad of you, Elena, Raphael said once they were in the air. You know the coming sun shower will pass in but a moment.
I also know Tasha McHotpants is regretting she didn’t scoop you up when you were young and single. Altering her mental tone, she said, Oh, Raphael, what luck I caught you. And me dressed up like a warrior with a sword and everything. She snorted. Luck my ass.”
“Raphael's pleasure, his kiss, sent her over a second time....and it wasn't until they both stirred again that Raphael reached down and undid the strap of her knife sheath, putting it and the knife on the bedside table. "Beautiful as this sheath is," he said, touching the leather, "I much prefer the one which holds my blade.”
“If that happens to us," she whispered, unable to wrap her mind around the idea of a life so long and so full of tragedy, "if we feel ourselves, who we are together, becoming lost in time, I don't want to Sleep. I want to say good-bye when I'm still me and you're still you.”
“Pressing his thumb down on her jaw to part her lips, he kissed her again, angel dust glittering in the air.
"Mmm." She rubbed against him. "Did you make a change to your special blend?" Angel dust, he'd told her, was normally rich and exquisite, but not sexual. Elena had only ever tasted Raphael's blend, and it was always oh-so-sexual-today, it also held a dangerous bite.
Kisses down her throat. "I wouldn't wish my consort to suffer ennui.”
“The Cascade happens and Neha calls fire and ice, Elena said into his mind at the same instant. Titus moves the earth, Astaad the sea, while creepy Lijuan brings the dead back to life. Meanwhile, my gorgeous archangel, not satisfied with, I don't know, shooting lightning bolts or something, actually taps into the energy of the planet and calls an army of bogeymen from the bottom of the ocean.
Of course you do.
The dry commentary made him wonder how he'd ever walked through life without the wit and laughter of his hunter by his side. He could no longer imagine such a cold, remote existence, the idea of it spawning an immediate repudiation in his bloodstream.”
“If you dare go before me, I will haunt you in the afterlife.To be haunted by my heart is no threat.”
“Dmitri clearly gives good . . . blood.”
“A long-dead angel who thought to own me,” was his enigmatic answer, the silver in his eyes almost liquid. “I tore out his throat. After that, I ate his liver and his heart. The remaining internal organs weren’t as tasty so I gave them to his other creatures.”
Elena’s hand tightened on the handle of the knife, conscious Naasir carried gleaming blades of his own in the sheaths strapped to his arms. “I wouldn’t think a vampire who killed an angel would be permitted to live.”
A slow, feral smile. “I didn’t say I killed him.”
“I'll enter first."
"I'm the hunter", Elena reminded him. "I should go first"
"Of course you may go first. When I'm dead”
“his consort didn’t recognize the fear that drove her to ask such questions, a fear that could be encapsulated in seven simple words that formed a vicious sentence:
Will this flaw make you reject me?
...
She knew she held Raphael’s heart, she
knew, and yet a wary, wounded part of her worried he’d change his mind one day, find her no longer worthy of loving.”
“Sleep, he said, and because he couldn’t bear to think of her in pain: As you dream, know that you are loved. ’Course I am. I’m yours.”
“For future reference, I am never, ever going to a ball again without a crossbow and a flamethrower.”
“Amanda - "Oh God, I just kissed a vampire!" Kyrian - "Oh Gods, I just kissed a human!”
“A crowd is an elemental thing. A word, a glance, and a crowd becomes a mob.”
“You stole my bouquet? From the kistune?"
"I was very careful-"
"Do you realize what you've done?" Stefan shook Damon.
"Ow. That hurts! Do you want to break my neck.”
“This," cried the Mayor, "is your town's darkest hour!
The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
To come to the aid of their country!" he said.
"We've GOT to make noises in greater amounts!
So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!”
“I can't just storm in and proclaim my intentions. I can't 'steal' you away. I just have to wait and hope that, someday, you'll ask," Tamani said.
"And if I don't?" Laurel said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Then I guess I'll be waiting forever.”
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