Nalini Singh - Archangels Consort (Guild Hunter)

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
Guild Hunter Series

ANGELS BLOOD
ANGELS PAWN
(A Berkley Sensation eSpecial)
ARCHANGELS KISS
ARCHANGELS CONSORT
Anthologies

AN ENCHANTED SEASON
(with Maggie Shayne, Erin McCarthy, and Jean Johnson)
THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT
(with Lora Leigh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones)
MUST LOVE HELLHOUNDS
(with Charlaine Harris, Ilona Andrews, and Meljean Brook)
BURNING UP
(with Angela Knight, Virginia Kantra, and Meljean Brook)

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors 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.
ARCHANGELS CONSORT
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / February 2011
Copyright 2011 by Nalini Singh.
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 authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
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eISBN : 978-1-101-47692-5
BERKLEY SENSATION
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Dedication

To everyone who has ever dreamed of flying
and to all of you who have flown with me.

1

Swathed in the silken shadows of deepest night, New York was the same... and altered beyond compare. Once Elena had watched angels take flight from the light-filled column of the Tower as she sat in front of the distant window of her cherished apartment. Now, she was one of those angels, perched high atop a balcony that had no railing, nothing to prevent a deadly fall.
Except of course, she would no longer fall.
Her wings were stronger now. She was stronger.
Flaring out those wings, she took a deep breath of the air of home. A fusion of scentsspice and smoke, human and vampire, earthy and sophisticatedhit her with the wild fever of a welcoming rainstorm. Her chest, tight for so long, relaxed, and she stretched her wings out to their greatest width. It was time to explore this familiar place that had become foreign, this home that was suddenly new again.
Diving down from the balcony, she swept across Manhattan on air currents kissed by the cool bite of spring. The bright green season had thawed the snows that had kept the city in thrall this winter, and now held court, summer not even a peach-colored blush on the horizon. This was the time of rebirth, of blooming things and baby birds, bright and young and fragile even in the frenetic rush of a city that never slept.
Home. Im home.

Letting the air currents sweep her where they would above the diamond-studded lights of the city, she tested her wings, tested her strength.
Stronger.
But still weak. An immortal barely-Made.
One whose heart remained painfully mortal.
So it was no surprise when she found herself trying to hover outside the plate-glass window of her apartment. She didnt yet have the skill to execute the maneuver, and she kept dropping, then having to pull herself back up with fast wingbeats. Still, she saw enough in those fleeting glimpses to know that while the once-shattered glass had been flawlessly repaired, the rooms were empty.
There wasnt even a bloodstain on the carpet to mark the spot where shed spilled Raphaels blood, where shed tried to staunch the crimson river until her fingers were the same murderous shade.