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When she did finally tear away, it was to see Michaela’s throat wound close up in front of her eyes

The archangel didn’t look weakened or as if she’d been hurt

And Holly’s body swirled with power that threatened to burst her cells, burn out of her skin Dear God How did anyone survive feeding froel?

“Was that enough?” Michaela’s question was gentle, her own hand rising to lie against Holly’s cheek “I have waited for you”

Holly’s skin cracked across her back, her chest, her soul in danger of drowning as pain ripped at her insides Are you h the haze of it Are you more Uram?

I need er blood

You are glutted on the blood of an archangel, and yet you seek an to crack inside her, too, her body full of too elic power You will always seekclawed at her even as her body began to fail You are starting to want blood with violence, aren’t you? You want to tear at Michaela’s throat like a wolf gnawing on his kill

“No!” Holly’s body staggered back to press against the cold stone wall

Sweat dripped down her temples

Are you any stronger? Holly kept on pushing through the unbearable pain of a body bursting froelic blood, archangelic power, should’ve had a violent effectand it had Or are you unable to transy into a form you can use? Because you are only an echo

Blood A red haze I need blood A sudden, cunning thought This body is weak I need hers The porenched out of her before Holly could do anything, bending her spine so far backward that she kneas about to snap

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“No!” The shout left Venoht pouring out of her in a brutal surge

Uncaring of the two—perhaps three—archangels in the room, he ran across to catch her body as it collapsed to the floor He was too fast to allow that to happen He caught her bloody, broken body in his ar onto the hard polished wood

She weighed too little, his Holly

And the poas still screareen

When it did finally cut off, her head lolled to the side, blood trickling out of the corner of her mouthand her face riddled with hundreds of tiny cracks Blood filled those cracks, iron-rich wet against every part of her that he was touching As if her entire body had fractured

Veno too hard for him to sense her pulse

He kept on trying

Nothing

No, kitty, no

• • •

Raphael watched the energy erupt out of Holly, saw Venom catch her as she fell And he saw unvarnished terror on Venom’s face for the first time in all the years he’d known the vampire

But Raphael could do nothing for Veno

She wasn’t listening, her eyes ith hope “My love,” she whisperedjust as the ball of power sreen fire

Raphael could’ve stopped it He didn’t The instant he stepped in, he ignited a catastrophic war The choice had to be Michaela’s