Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121854 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 609(@200wpm)___ 487(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Big age gaps were common in the world of immortals—Galen and Jessamy were the perfect example. The same could be said for Dmitri and Honor, or Elena and Raphael. The critical difference was that they’d all been fully adult at the time, both biologically and in terms of their mental and psychological development.
Had Elena been born an angel, however, it would’ve been an entirely different story.
There was a line you did not cross with born angels, an age before which they simply weren’t mature enough to be considered equal partners to anyone but their peers. Their kind matured slower, and the decade after they first left the Refuge?
Vulnerable didn’t begin to describe it.
In the Tower, young Izak, though several years senior to the girl Jessamy had mentioned, was still treated as a fledgling. Not in a way that was condescending, rather with the awareness that he was at a critical stage of his development, and that it was their responsibility to nurture him to his full adult strength.
“A predator.” Illium’s statement was clipped.
“Just so,” Jessamy said. “I was worried about the girl both because of her youth, and due to the disturbing depth of Vixen’s rage. However, the girl’s parents were senior courtiers in Uram’s court at the time, and they ensured she was soon separated from the predator—and he knew never to try the same again.
“Vixen, too, was smart enough not to make an enemy of an archangel. Instead she found her own young lovers and began to parade them around.” Jessamy sighed. “Her concerning rage aside, I felt sorry for her for a time. She did have good reason for her anger after all—and if she’d turned it on her former lover, I’d have felt no ambivalence about my response, but as it was…”
A long pause before she continued. “Her lovers continued to drop in age until it became a distasteful morass where those of us who were aware of her proclivities began to warn young angels of her predatory nature. She never tried for anyone under a hundred, but that’s the best I can say about her.”
“She turned into the person who hurt her,” Aodhan murmured.
“Sad, isn’t it?” Lips turning down, Jessamy shook her head. “I have seen it again and again through time, and I’m certain those close to Vixen attempted to warn her of her descent—she was never a loner, that one—but she either would not or could not listen, her brain chemistry forever altered.”
The angelic librarian tapped a fingernail against the mug. “She’s well aware of the ill feeling toward her in the Refuge, near our most vulnerable. I haven’t seen her walking these pathways for at least a half century, perhaps more.
“My present description of her is from a letter I received from a scholar in Elijah’s region some eight months before the war—yes, I’m sure I have the time right. He mentioned her peripherally as part of a group he met for lunch, but he’s a sketcher, and he sketched her in color. I’ll send you a copy.”
Aodhan thanked her. “Even if she’s changed her hair or eye color since, it’ll be much easier to trace her now that we have a name and starting point. Now rest before you drive Galen to distraction—because as far as I can tell, either you adopted a wolf and forgot to tell us, or that’s our Barbarian growling off-screen.”
Jessamy’s laughter merged with Galen’s grumbling before she waved goodbye.
“Our quarry was in Elijah’s region eight months prior to the war,” Aodhan said to Illium. “Not difficult for her to make it to New York, be resident here during the period covering Marco’s stalking and murder. As far as we know, the stalking began approximately six months before his death.”
Illium’s phone rang. Glancing at it, he said, “It’s Jason,” and threw the audio-only call onto the big screen so they could both hear it better.
It turned out the spymaster had unexpectedly flown into a zone with reception.
When they asked him about Vixen née Bijou, he said, “I’ve run across her here and there over the centuries. Hold on, the signal’s improved.” A flicker on the screen before his face appeared. “She attaches herself to the fringes of an archangel’s court, but the closest she ever made it to the inner circle was her acquaintance with Lailah.”
He turned, seemed to be listening—and that was when Aodhan realized Mahiya must be with him. A fact Jason confirmed with his next words. “Mahiya says she spent a few years hovering around Neha’s court in the period after she left Africa, but there’s a gap in my knowledge of her after that time. We only have her on a specific watch list, and if she doesn’t run foul of that, she gets to live her life.”
“Targeting all but underage angels?” Aodhan guessed.