Vivek released a shuddering breath. “Jesus, Ellie.” Swallowing, he did something using the complex mouth controls on his chair to shift the form to the main screen, the Scrabble game minimized in a corner. “It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I would never walk, never run, never fuck”—a wry smile—“never hunt.”
Elena said nothing, knowing he needed her to listen now.
“Once I did, I vowed not to look back, only forward.” This time, his grin was self-mocking. “I don’t manage it all the time. You’ve seen me manfully brooding—not sulking—enough times to know that. But,” he added, “I try to be conscious of any downward spiral, and I’ve found ways to enjoy my life outside of the job. Case in point: the hot brunette. Just because I can’t fuck doesn’t mean I don’t understand pleasure.”
“V, that never crossed my mind,” she said honestly. “Especially after I walked into your Academy room to ask if I could borrow a pen and found Neve Pelletier screaming in orgasm.”
A dazzling grin. “One of my proudest moments.” Moving his chair away without warning, he rolled to another bank of computers and made a call before returning. “Sorry, saw something come in Sara might be interested in.”
“You have eyes in the back of your head?”
“Exactly.” Gaze flicking once more to the Candidate confirmation, he said, “If I become a vampire, I can’t be Guild.”
“Of course you can.” Elena had already thought this through. “You won’t be able to do what you do now—divided loyalties and all that—but you’re hunter-born. We’re rare and every one of us is needed.”
“I’ve had no training—”
“You’ll have all the time in the world for training,” she reminded him. “Vamps are near-immortal.”
“Who’s going to take care of all this?” His glance took in the room. “You said it yourself. No one else can do what I do.”
“No,” Elena admitted. “But you think anyone in the Guild is going to begrudge you for making the choice to take your life in another direction?”
“That’s not the point. That info I just passed on to Sara—it means she knows the situation might be hostile and that it should be assigned to a team. If I’m not here, that intel isn’t picked up and people die.”
Wincing, Elena admitted the truth. “I got confirmation you could be a Candidate a few weeks ago. The reason I’m only telling you now is because Sara had to work out how to cover your absence if you decided to go for it.”
“Oh?” A dangerous glint in his eye.
“She realized she’d need six trained people to do what you do on your own.”
The glint turned into a smug smile. “I told you I was indispensable.”
“Yeah, yeah. Anyway, we were hoping that if you do decide to accept the Candidacy, you’d train your replacements before you go.”
Vivek was silent for a long time, his eyes on the form. “A hundred years of slavery to have the use of my body.” It was a whisper. “A hundred years at the mercy of some random immortal who might decide to treat me like a pet dog.”
“The angels aren’t stupid. You’re highly gifted—no one is going to want to put you in any kind of a menial position.”
“I won’t be able to hunt straightaway, though, will I?” A frown. “Will I even be a hunter after I’m Made?”
“I have no idea.” Elena wasn’t going to lie to him about anything. “So far as anyone knows, none of the hunter-born have ever been Made—except me, and, well, I’m kind of a special case.”
“So I might gain the use of my limbs, but lose my hunting abilities and the Guild.”
“Yes, the risk is a big one.” Only Vivek could decide whether or not it was worth it. “I can tell you one thing, though: you won’t be under the command of some random angel—you’ll be attached to the Tower, directly under the command of whichever of the Seven is in charge at the time.”
“Pulling strings for me?”
“What did you think? I’d leave my friends to hang?” She glared at him until he had the grace to look sheepish. “Raphael understands loyalty as well as any one of us. So do the Seven. The fact that I’m taking care of my own isn’t exactly a news flash.” Stretching her wings, she resettled them. “But I’m not being unselfish here, so don’t give me a halo.”
“Friends,” Vivek said slowly, “are important. Especially to an immortal in a place of power.”
“I knew the hot brunette had left you with a few brain cells.”
“If I do go through with this and come out with my hunting skills intact, then what?”
“Angels love hunters,” Elena said. “Your skills will be used, though not necessarily always as they would be by the Guild.” A blunt fact. “You’ll have to keep secrets from the Guild, and your time will be the Tower’s first, but I have a promise from Raphael that you can remain on the Guild rolls.”
Vivek flicked off the screen. “You’ve thought about everything.”
“No, V, I haven’t. I can’t. Only you can do that.” He was the one who’d be stepping into the unknown, into what could turn out to be a hundred years of hell regardless of her promises. “I just wanted you to have every bit of information I could give you.”
“Let’s finish this game,” he said at last.
Elena pointed to the board. “You made ‘cat’ while I made ‘zygote.’ The game is so over it’s prehistoric.”
Vivek laughed, his cheeks creased with lean male dimples that were an unusual sight, his eyes brilliant. And she knew, whatever his choice, their friendship would survive.
Raphael saw Elena glance at his temple as they took to the clouds minutes after landing in Japan, their intent to ride the winds for the final segment of the journey to the ancient city. “There’s been no change,” he said to her, flying close enough that they could speak.
“Good.” She drew in long breaths of the cold winter air, the mountainous forests of this part of Kagoshima spread out below them. “I always forget how untamed it is here,” she said, her wings a dramatic splash of color against the dark green when she dropped beneath the cloud layer.
Flying nearer to the forest giants, she skimmed the treetops with a grace that would’ve been unexpected in one so young in angelic terms had she not been a hunter, her body and mind used to tough physicality. Her flight startled a herd of wild horses, who went galloping off into the mists that hung over the forests from a recent rainstorm. Did you see?
Sweeping down to join her, he said, When I was a babe growing up in Amanat, my friends and I would race the horses kept in the city at that time.
Laughter in the air, her hair afire in the mountain sunlight. Did you always win?
No, that’s why it was so much fun. It was the first time in an eon that he’d recalled that memory, buried as it had been under centuries of power and politics.