Angels' Flight
Nalini Singh
PRAISE FOR THE GUILD HUNTER NOVELS OF NALINI SINGH
Archangel’s Consort
“Steamy and beautiful… A great novel that makes me want to read everything that Nalini Singh has ever written.”
—Fresh Fiction
“[I’m] hooked on Nalini Singh’s fantasy world… Highly recommended reading for romance and fantasy fans alike. Brilliant!”
—Love Vampires
“For those who have yet to experience this world of archangels and mortals, drop what you’re doing and find the nearest bookstore; Raphael is waiting for you.”
—Supernatural Snark
“[I] could not put the book down until I’d finished it. This is one series utterly worth keeping up with.”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Awesome as always.”
—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick)
Archangel’s Kiss
“The world is heartbreakingly original… Sizzling hot.”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“[A] remarkable urban fantasy series… Better clear off more space on your keeper shelf!”
—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick)
“In the mood for a dark, intense, and smoldering sexy read that may have you gasping for breath? Nalini Singh delivers this in ways you can’t imagine.”
—Babbling About Books, and More
“I’m so intrigued by this world, so captivated… that I simply cannot wait until the next Angel book.”
—Dear Author
“Nalini Singh has really outdone herself with Archangel’s Kiss… [She] is a master at her craft. I can’t wait for the next book.”
—Night Owl Reviews
“Ms. Singh’s books never fail to draw me in and keep me enthralled until the very end… Utterly fascinating. The Guild Hunter series is one that will not disappoint and will keep readers invested until the very end.”
—Romance Junkies
“Paranormal romance doesn’t get better than this.”
—Love Vampires
Angels’ Blood
“Terrifyingly, passionately awesome… You’ll love it.”
—Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“I loved every word, could picture every scene, and cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is amazing in every way!”
—Gena Showalter, New York Times bestselling author
“This is probably one of the best stories I have ever read and will be one that I will rave about for quite a while.”
—Fallen Angel Reviews
“Amazing. Fantastic. Simmering with both violence and sexual tension, and with vivid worldbuilding that blew my socks off.”
—Meljean Brook, national bestselling author
“A refreshing twist on vampire and angel lore combined with sizzling sexual tension make this paranormal romance a winner.”
—Monsters and Critics
“With the launch of a second paranormal series, Singh provides incontrovertible evidence that she’s an unrivaled storyteller… Tremendous!”
—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick)
“Nalini Singh should take a bow! Angels’ Blood is going to leave you hungering for more instantly.”
—Romance Junkies
Berkley Titles by Nalini Singh
Psy-Changeling Series
SLAVE TO SENSATION
VISIONS OF HEAT
CARESSED BY ICE
MINE TO POSSESS
HOSTAGE TO PLEASURE
BRANDED BY FIRE
BLAZE OF MEMORY
BONDS OF JUSTICE
PLAY OF PASSION
KISS OF SNOW
Guild Hunter Series
ANGELS’ BLOOD
ANGELS’ PAWN
(A Berkley Sensation eSpecial)
ARCHANGEL’S KISS
ARCHANGEL’S CONSORT
ARCHANGEL’S BLADE
Anthologies
BURNING UP
(with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, and Meljean Brook)
MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS
(with Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook)
THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT
(with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
AN ENCHANTED SEASON
(with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
ANGELS OF DARKNESS
(with Ilona Andrews, Meljean Brook, and Sharon Shinn)
Angels’
Flight
Nalini Singh
BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
ANGELS’ FLIGHT
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / March 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Nalini Singh.
“Angels’ Pawn” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2009 by Nalini Singh.
“Angels’ Judgment” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2009 by Nalini Singh.
“Angel’s Wolf” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2011 by Nalini Singh.
“Angels’ Dance” by Nalini Singh copyright © 2012 by Nalini Singh.
Excerpt from Tangle of Need by Nalini Singh copyright © 2012 by Nalini Singh.
Cover art by Tony Mauro. Cover hand lettering by Ron Zinn. Cover design by George Long.
Interior text design by Kristin del Rosario.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
EISBN: 9781101560396
BERKLEY SENSATION®
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
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1
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
Contents
Angels’ Pawn
Angels’ Judgment
Angel’s Wolf
Angels’ Dance
Angels’
Pawn
1
“This is a surprise, cher,” Janvier said in that lazy drawl of his, one hand braced on the doorjamb of his Louisiana apartment. “Far as I know, I don’t have a hit out on me.”
“I’m not an assassin.” Folding her arms, Ashwini leaned into the wall opposite the door—sleep-rumpled and half-dressed, Janvier was deliciously sexy. He was also a two-hundred-and-forty-five-year-old vampire capable of ripping out her throat with minimal effort. “Though it might come in handy with you.”
A slow smile crept over his face that was a little too long, a little too saturnine, for true beauty. And yet… Janvier was the man every woman in a bar would turn to look at, his appeal as rawly earthy as the unhidden interest in eyes the shade of bayou moss, all sunlight and shadows over green. “You wound me. I thought we were friends, non?”
“Non.” She raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to let me in?”
He shrugged, the muscles of his chest rippling with a strength most people would never guess at from the way he moved, pure liquid grace and charm. But Ashwini knew exactly how fast and tough he was—she’d hunted him three times in the past two years, and he’d led her on a merry dance all three times.
“Depends,” he said, taking a leisurely survey of her body. “You here to beat up on me again?”
“Eyes up.”
Laughter in that wicked gaze as it met hers. “You’re no fun, sugar.”
Only with Janvier did she end up the practical side of the unit. Everyone else thought she was way over on the east side of crazy. “This was a bad idea.” Turning on her heel, she flicked a hand his way. “See you the next time you piss off an angel.” In the normal run of things, the Guild existed to retrieve those vampires who broke their Contracts—to serve the angels for a hundred years in exchange for immortality—and then there was Janvier… “Try not to do it this week. I’m busy.”
His hand closed over the back of her neck, a warm, oddly gentle touch. “Don’t be like that, now. Come in. I’ll make you coffee the way it’s meant to be made.”
She should have pulled away, should have gone as far as humanly possible. But Janvier had a way of getting under her skin. She hesitated a fraction too long, and the heat of him seeped into her, a vivid bright thing that defied the ice of his immortality. “No touching.” It was as much an order to herself as to him.
A squeeze of his fingers. “You’re the one who’s always trying to get her hands on me.”
“And one of these days, you won’t dance fast enough to escape.” Janvier had the habit of annoying angels enough to end up on the Guild’s hunt list. But that wasn’t the worst part—right when Ashwini almost had him, when she could all but smell the collar, he’d somehow make up with whoever it was he’d offended. Last time, she’d nearly shot him on principle.
A brush of laughter, his thumb sweeping along her skin in a languid caress. “You should thank me,” he said. “Because of me, you’re guaranteed a healthy pay packet at least twice a year.”
“I’m guaranteed that pay packet because I’m good,” she said, twisting out of his hold so she could face him. “You ready to talk?”
He swept out an arm. “Step into my lair, Guild Hunter.”
Ashwini wasn’t much for allowing vampires at her back, but she and Janvier had an understanding after three hunts. If it ever came down to it, it would be face-to-face. Some of her hunter brethren might call her a fool for trusting a man she had hunted, but she’d always made up her own mind about people. She had no illusions, knew Janvier could be as lethal as an unsheathed blade, but she also knew he’d been born in a time when a man’s word was all he had. Immortality hadn’t yet stolen that sense of honor from him.
Now she squeezed past him, aware he’d deliberately turned his body to ensure a tight fit. She didn’t mind as much as she should have. That was the problem—because vampires were off-limits. The Guild had no rule forbidding such relationships and a number of her hunter friends had vampire lovers, but Ashwini agreed with fellow hunter Elena on this. The other woman had once said that vampires were almost-immortals, after all—to them, humans were nothing but toys, fleeting pleasures, easily tasted, easily forgotten.
Ashwini wasn’t going to be a snack for any man—vampire, human, or angel. Not that the angels would ever lower themselves enough to consort with a mortal. She’d be very surprised if the effective rulers of the world considered most humans as anything but an afterthought.
“Not what I expected,” she said, walking into the stylish converted loft. Light dominated and had been infused into the décor—the colors of sunset echoed in the bright throws that lay over the earth-toned sofa, the Navajo rugs on the floor, the lonely desert vistas painted on the walls.
“I love the bayou,” Janvier murmured, closing the door behind him and padding over to the kitchen area, “but to appreciate glory, one must sometimes go to the opposite extreme.”
As he moved about the kitchen with an assurance that said he knew exactly what he was doing, Ashwini allowed herself to admire the male beauty of him. Janvier might be a perennial pain in her ass, but he was built like the sexiest dream she’d ever had—lean and long, his muscles that of a runner or a swimmer, all sleek lines and contained power. At six feet three, he topped her by a good five inches, carrying the height with the confidence of a man completely at ease with himself.
Then again, she thought, he’d had more than two hundred years to build that effortless arrogance. “I’m guessing you’re not bothered by sunlight,” she said, checking out the sloping skylight to the right. The bed was right below it—and as the clock ticked over eight in the morning, the sun’s rays stroked possessively over the tumbled sheets.
Her mind immediately supplied her with an exquisitely detailed image of Janvier’s long-limbed body tangled up in those sheets. The rush of blood in her ears almost drowned out his next words.
“Looking for weaknesses, hunter?” Walking over, he handed her a small cup filled with a creamy brew that smelled like no coffee she’d ever before had.
“What is this?” She took a suspicious sniff, felt her mouth water. “And of course. Then I could just push you into sunlight and watch you fry.”
His lips quirked, the upper one a little thin, the lower eminently bitable. “You’d miss me if I was gone.”
“Old age is giving you delusions.”
“That is café au lait made with a blend of coffee and chicory.” Watching as she chanced a sip, he nodded to the bed. “I love sunlight. Vampirism wouldn’t have been the least attractive if I’d had to spend my life in the dark.”
“You’d think with all the vampires walking around in daylight, that old rumor would die, but no, it keeps on chugging,” she said, soaking in the distinctive flavor of the coffee. “I like this stuff.”
“It suits you.”
“Bitter and strange?”
“Exotic and luscious.” He ran a finger down the bared skin of her arm. “Such beautiful skin you have, cher. Like the desert at sunset.”
She stepped out of reach. “Go put on a shirt and get your mind out of bed.”
“Impossible with you around.”
“Pretend I’m holding a rifle. In fact, pretend I have you in the crosshairs.”
Janvier sighed, rubbing at a jaw shadowed by morning stubble. “I love it when you talk dirty.”
“Then this should rock your world,” she said, ordering herself to stop thinking about what that stubble would feel like against her skin. “Blood, kidnapping, feud, hostage.”
Interest s
parked in the moss green. “Tell me more.” He waved her toward the bed. “I apologize for the mess—I wasn’t expecting such exquisite company.”
Walking over to put her coffee on the counter, she hitched herself up on one of the bar stools instead. Janvier grinned and chose to sit on the bed, hands braced behind him, jean-clad legs crossed loosely at the ankles. Sunlight danced over his dark brown hair, picking up glints of pure copper that played beautifully against the burnished gold of his skin.
Vampires as old as Janvier were almost uniformly pretty, but she’d yet to meet one with the Cajun’s charisma—or his way of having friends in pretty much every city and town he’d ever traveled to. And that was why she needed him. “There’s a situation in Atlanta.”
“Atlanta?” The barest of pauses. “That’s Beaumont territory.”
Bingo. “How well do you know them?”
He gave her that loose-limbed shrug of his. “Well enough. They’re an old vampire family—not many of those around.”
Seduced by the scent, Ashwini took another sip of Janvier’s potent brand of coffee. “Makes sense. I heard the angels don’t discriminate along familial lines when it comes to choosing Candidates.” Of the many hundreds of thousands who applied to be Made almost-immortal every year, only a tiny fraction ever reached the Candidate stage.
