"As you command, hunter."

Her thoughts splintered as he pinched her nipples, sending a sudden, sharp ache straight through to the heat between her thighs. She moved, restless, wanting something only he could give her. "Raphael." His lips met hers as she angled her head to reach him, his hands soothing the ache he'd aroused with slow, easy movements. He was intensity contained, passion leashed. Breaking the kiss, she met the blazing cobalt of his eyes. "I think I've got my second wind."

The slightest of smiles, one hand leaving her breast to slide down her body and over the sensitive plane of her stomach to circle her belly button. She wiggled. "Tickles." Her bottom rubbed over the jutting hardness of his arousal, turning the heat between her legs liquid.

When he moved his hand farther down, she didn't resist, letting him part her with stark intimacy. He toyed with her, flicking his thumb over the ultrasensitive bundle of nerve endings at the top, but not giving her the hard pressure that she needed. Shuddering, she moved her body against him, tempting, arousing . . . teasing.

He grazed his teeth along her neck. "Doing that will get you punished."

"Oooh, I'm scared."

He pinched her clit. Pleasure short-circuited her system, her body tightening into a bow, ready, so ready . . . but the pressure eased a moment too soon. "Raphael." A sensual complaint, her skin shimmering with a fine layer of sweat.

"I warned you." It was an intimate reminder as he thrust two fingers inside her, pumping hard and deep. She rode him, rode those wicked fingers, her breath coming in harsh little pants, her body moving with a will of its own. On her breast, his other hand was a possessive brand, molding and shaping. His mouth touched her neck, her shoulder, his lips marking her without hesitation, without any attempt to hide that that was exactly what he was doing.

So tight and slick and mine.

Blatantly possessive, hotly male.

Her bottom rubbed against him with every undulation of her body, driving her to a fever pitch. "I need more."

You can't have my cock, Elena.

She trembled, tried to find her mind. "Why not? I'm rather fond of it."

That got her another teasing brush across her clit. Sparks flared behind her eyelids, and she barely heard him through the buzz in her head.

You're not strong enough to take what I want to do to you.

Half insane with need, she rode him harder, faster. "Give me more."

Are you sure?An explicit sexual question.

"Yes."

She cried out as he spread his fingers inside her, making room for a third. The extreme fullness threw her to the edge. Then he pressed down on her clit with his thumb and she fell. The orgasm rocked through her, a hard, almost violent release that left her limp in his arms.

Raphael drew in the scent of Elena's satisfaction, holding back the dark passion within him by the narrowest of margins, passion that wrenched at the restraints, hungering to take her with a fury he wasn't certain she'd survive even at full strength.

A year he'd waited for her. A year he'd heard only silence when he spoke to her. He didn't have much patience left in him. "Soon," he murmured, speaking to the voracious need within him.

When he began to withdraw his fingers from the tight slickness of her body, that need kicked him hard, making his cock throb. He wanted to throw her onto the bed, splay her legs wide, and thrust.I'll bite your breasts , he told her, taking his time removing his fingers, enjoying the way she clenched on him as he spoke.But mostly, I plan to fuck you until you can't walk.

Her body spasmed, and he realized his hunter was ready once more. Taking advantage, he slid a single finger back into her body, the second no longer able to inch in now that she was so lushly swollen with pleasure.After I sate myself, I'll spread your legs, make you hold them open for me.

A slow, lingering thrust.

"Raphael."Her voice was husky.

Then I'll take my time tasting the sweet, plump flesh between your thighs.

Another thrust, another stab of pleasure-pain as her buttocks rubbed over his cock.

Mine, Elena, you are mine.

Moving up a hand, he pulled her back with his fingers on her jaw and took her mouth as he gave her a final, exquisitely intimate caress that pushed her over into orgasm once more. Her sexuality was earthy, wild, honest. It sang a siren song to him that hazed his brain, threatened to make him lose all control.

Holding her up when she finally tumbled down from the peak, he removed his finger and maneuvered her around until he could pick her up in his arms, her wings as limp as her limbs. But this time the limpness had come from passion well sated. Even if he hadn't felt the damp evidence of it on his fingers, her sloe-eyed gaze as she looked at him from beneath her lashes was all the proof he needed.

You don't play fair, Archangel.

She so rarely initiated mental contact that he savored it.Neither do you. My cock is about to burst.

"I promise to make it better."

Blowing out a breath between clenched teeth, he put her on her feet in the shower, then reached over and turned on the cold water. She shrieked as the water hit her, slapping her hands on his still-clothed chest. "Get me out of here!"

"You're an angel," he said, soaked to the skin. "You aren't that sensitive to the cold."

But he turned up the heat.

She glared at him. "What was that for?"

He waited in silence.

"Good," she said after a few seconds, "I'm glad you're suffering."

He was a being who'd lived over a thousand years, thought he'd long ago lost the ability to truly laugh. Tonight he felt humor tug at his lips, despite the fact that his body remained painfully hard with need, his blood a fever. "That wasn't very nice of you, Elena."

A suspicious look as she pushed her hair off her face.

"After all, I brought you to your pleasure twice."

"We're keeping track now?" Her eyes glittered.

"Of course."

Her nose crinkled up, and then she couldn't hold it in any longer, her laughter bubbling out of her in a wave of pure delight. It hit him right in the heart he hadn't been certain he still had before he met Elena. Holding her under the water, he buried his face in the dampness of her hair and smiled.When you're back up to full strength, you're going to be very busy catching up.

Her arms came around his neck, her body pressed to his in an open kind of affection that he knew was rare for his hunter. Trust, he thought, she was beginning to trust him. Fear was an emotion he hadn't felt for centuries - not until the night Elena lay broken in his arms, in a Manhattan that had become a war zone - but now, it whispered through his veins.

Elena's trust was not easily given.

But it could so easily be lost.

"Are you planning on taking off your clothes?" Her fingers were already on the buttons of his shirt.

Shifting back, he let her strip him, let her tease him, let her make him a fraction more human.

Half an hour later, Raphael watched Elena give in to sleep, her lashes pale against gold-touched skin that spoke of a land of orange sunsets and thriving markets, snake charmers and veiled women with kohl-rimmed eyes, her wings spread out in a sweep of midnight and dawn as she lay on her front. Those wings, the wings of a warrior-born, were a fitting accent to her strength. But it was the woman, he thought, kneeling down beside the bed for an instant, who was the true treasure.

Brushing her hair off her face, he ran the back of his hand down her cheek.Mine. The possessiveness had grown ever stronger since she'd agreed to be his lover. He knew it would only increase. Because in all his centuries of existence, he'd never before taken a lover he considered his on every level. He'd kill for her, destroy for her, savage anyone who dared attempt to take her from him.

And he would never let her go . . . even if she begged for her freedom.

Rising to his feet, he walked out of the room through the balcony doors, closing them gently behind himself. The snow had stopped falling, leaving the Refuge clothed in the shade of innocence.Watch over her , he said to the angel circling above.

Galen's response was swift.I'll let nothing reach her.

Raphael knew Galen wasn't convinced about Elena, but the angel had given his word -

and none of the Seven would ever betray Raphael. Taking off in a steep dive, he touched his mind to Elena's resting one - the act had become habit after the year she'd spent locked in a sleep he hadn't been able to penetrate.

The silence had been endless. Relentless.

Today he felt her exhaustion, her mind at peace, free of the dreams that so often stalked her. Withdrawing, leaving her to her slumber, he cut through the icy air toward the Medica. It was as he was about to dive from his position high above Keir's domain that he felt another mind touch his.

Michaela.

Chapter 17

The other archangel came into sight seconds later, her wings copper in a sky slowly turning from gray to light. He waited as she brought herself to a standing hover in front of him. "The boy?" she asked, her expression haunted by an agony he knew would've made Elena's heart fill with pity, with sympathy.

He was older, harder. He'd seen Michaela end lives on a whim, play with men and angels as one would with chess pieces. But in this . . . she'd earned the right to know. "He will heal."

A shudder rippled through her body, a body so beautiful that it had made fools of kings and led to the death of at least one archangel. Neha might be the Queen of Snakes, but Raphael was certain it was Michaela who'd helped push Uram to the point of no return, goading him with the most poisonous of whispers.

"Your hunter," Michaela said, making no effort to hide her dislike, "was she able to pick up the trail?"

"Not beneath the snow. Indications are that the vampire was helped by an angel." And if that knowledge leaked to the general populace, it would devastate what remained of the Refuge's equilibrium. "You need to check your people."

Her face turned to a stone mask, her bones blades against her skin. "Oh, I will." A pause, her eyes piercing even in the dark. "You don't think my people are loyal to me."

"It matters little what I think." What he believed was that fear alone, shaped by capricious whim, would never foster loyalty. "I must go. Elena will try to trace the scent again when she wakes."

"She remains as weak as a mortal."

"Good-bye, Michaela." If she believed Elena weak, that was her mistake.

He landed beside the Medica with a silence born of a million such landings, the snow hardly lifting around him. The building was serene, empty, but he knew angels and vampires both would return with the rising of the sun, to reassure themselves that Sam lived, that his heart still beat.

Until then, Raphael would watch over him.

Elena woke to the knowledge that she was in an archangel's arms, the sun streaking its way into the room on gilded fingers. "What time is it?"

"You've only slept a few hours," Raphael told her, his breath an intimate caress against her neck. "Do you feel strong enough to continue the track?"

"Oh, the track's happening," she said, stealing a single moment to savor the wild heat of him. "It's just a matter of how fast I'll be able to go." A deep breath and she dragged herself out of bed, her wings held close to her back until she was standing beside it. She turned to find Raphael watching her with those eyes of unearthly blue, his chest naked enticement bathed in sunlight.