page2 (1/2)
Holly stuck out her tongue at her phone before she hung up A little boy wearing a tiny blue and yellow backpack saw her, stuck out his own tongue with a giggle Holly winked Looking over his shoulder, he waved at her
She waved back
That sweet kid, he didn’t know that she was the creation of a es inside her that caused her to break out in a cold sweat He saw only a small-boned Chinese American woman in skinny black jeans decorated with appliquéd black roses on the left calf and thigh, her top a floaty orange silk, and her ankle boots a shining black with sold buckles
That ordinary woman’s rainbow-streaked black hair was pulled back in a sleek ponytail, her face fras, and her nails painted in a wild mix of colors
The only thing that made her stand out in a city overrun with the stylistically adventurous was the acid green that had taken over the light brown of her irises The shade had been darker before, nearer to the vivid green of the archangel who’d used her as a huhtness had come in firmly over the past year and settled
When strangers spotted Holly’s eyes, they auto contacts It fit their impression of a woman who looked as if she’d been dropped in a vat of color
Maybe a touch quirky or peculiar, but human Normal
Holly ached to be that norle day But in the four years since she’d been stripped naked and forced to watch her friends be dismembered alive, her throat torn and raw frorief: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression
Acceptancewell, that was going to take a hell of a lot ht as she slid into the Tower vehicle she’d been assigned When Janvier had first told her she’d get a vehicle as part of her job as his and Ash’s apprentice, she’d glumly expected a sedate sedan, but she should’ve reel Raphael
None were the sedan type
Holly’s car was a sleek black thing that looked like an arrow in flight It wasn’t new by any stretch of the iination and had more than a few dents and scratches—all the better to fit the environs she prowled in the shadowy corners of the city The tires were good, but not so good anyone would bother to steal theot about five stations
Holly loved her ride with the passion of a thousand suns
Inside this car, she could be free, could fly
No leash No blood that craved theher hair as he told her to “Drink, girl,” in a gentle voice that belied the carnage in which she knelt broken and beaten
Today, she raced in and out of traffic with bare inches to spare as she made her way to the airfield that handled the Tower’s private fleet It wasn’t the safest way to drive, but Holly was very careful not to put anyone else in danger Only herself
Yes, she needed therapy
But Holly wasn’t suicidal Not any longer Her head was plentythat irrevocable choice Her er brothers, had suffered h in the ihter, and in her ry, scared silence
It was Janvier who’daway
“I will miss my sisters my entire varass after a sparring session that had left Holly’s body a screaroith another, ah, ’tite Holly, that is a different bond” A sheen in eyes the shade of bayou moss that her deadly boss made no effort to hide “Amelie and Jöellethey live here” His fist on his heart “Always they will stay safe within”
His gaze had gone to his wife, as practicing a erous cher, rieves for her brother and sister” As he’d risen to go tease Ash into a kiss, the Guild Hunter’s fingers sinking into the chestnut brown of his hair, the copper strands within it glinting in the sunlight, Holly had felt understanding kick her Hard
Mia would be gone forever one day
Alvin and Wesley would be gone
Her parents would be gone
She would never get back that time