There is no one like me. But Andi sees inside me, and knows me, and we have secrets together. And one day, we’ll have cubs who’ll be half like me.
Naasir’s joy at his mating had made absolute sense to Venom, though he wasn’t sure his friend and fellow member of the Seven had understood how deeply the words resonated. To the world, Venom was a vampire. And there were millions of vampires. But he was the only one with the eyes of a viper and the deeper, less visible changes that shoved him far outside that well-defined box.
Like Naasir, he was and had always been alone among millions. Until Holly.
“Come on, kitty.” He cradled her higher against his chest. “You’ve said ‘fuck you’ to fate before. Do it again.”
But for once, Holly didn’t give him lip. She was silent and unmoving in his arms as he took her upstairs to his apartment. Ignoring the comfortable bed in his bedroom, he went straight to the heated stone floor in front of the windows. Placing her on there, he went to find a blanket . . . and by the time he returned, she’d curled into a tight ball, one hand spread palm down against the stone.
His entire chest expanded as he finally took a real breath.
Shaking out the soft cashmere blanket over her, he made a note to thank Naasir. It was the most primal member of the Seven who’d suggested the stone floor.
I make my lair outside the Refuge, because I like it out there. But my aerie is hot because I don’t like snow. A shiver, the metallic silver of his eyes wild in a way that was nothing human. You like the city, but you need your sunstone. Make one.
Venom had never thought of it that bluntly, but in his defense, he’d been very young and not used to the freedom to create his own home when Naasir had discovered him searching fruitlessly for the heated stone surface his body craved. His first sunstone had been just that—a large flat stone that he’d dragged over from a distant spot and kept in the wild gardens that had once surrounded the Tower.
As the Tower morphed into its current form and the gardens disappeared to be filled with the manic, beautiful life of New York, he’d worked with the architects to create this sunstone deep inside his home. Deciding Holly needed a little extra heat, he switched on the large lamp that covered the entire ceiling above the sunstone.
The square of ceiling blazed to glowing life.
She sighed in her sleep.
Crouching down, he undid her ponytail so she’d be comfortable, then removed her boots and put them aside. That done, he watched to make sure her chest was rising and falling, her pulse steady. Because Holly wasn’t a vampire. Not quite. She was human enough that such things were an absolute necessity for her survival.
When his phone buzzed in his pocket, he realized he’d become mesmerized by the rhythm of her, as if it spoke to the cobras that had been part of his Making alongside the vipers. That hadn’t happened to him for a long time. Venom was very aware of his weaknesses as well as his strengths. But this was his home and it was filled with people who’d protect him to their last breath.
They didn’t—couldn’t—truly understand the sinuous core of him, but they were his friends.
His family.
And so he’d lowered his guard enough to slip into a state that was deeply restorative.
Rising to his feet after running his knuckles over Holly’s cheek, he stepped away from her and the sunstone before answering the call. “Dmitri,” he said. “Nisia called you, didn’t she?”
“Inexplicable as it is, our competent and strong Nisia is intimidated by you, when she has been known to pat me on the cheek and ruffle my hair,” was the bone-dry response.
Venom took off his sunglasses and set them aside. His eyes reflected back at him from the sleek square mirror on the wall that had been a gift from Elena. The two of them weren’t exactly best friends, but the mate of his sire had owed him a forfeit after he beat her in a sparring session where they’d both had to fight using unfamiliar weapons.
She’d paid the forfeit with this mirror. At first, he’d thought it a somewhat unimaginative, though acceptable, payment. Then he’d noticed the delicate motif carved into the left white edge of the frame—a viper hanging off a tree. It was beautifully done. Aodhan’s work, he’d realized at once. Done specifically for him.
Sometimes Elena made it very difficult to be annoyed with her for the weakness she’d created in the archangel Venom chose to serve. She was the only chink in Raphael’s armor, and his Seven had come to terms with it—but that didn’t mean they were all okay with it.
“Holly isn’t infectious,” Venom said. “Whatever it was that came out of Daisy, it only wanted to go to Holly.” He felt the truth of that in his gut. “I don’t know of any disease that punches out of a person and into another.”
“I’m going to look at the footage. You want to meet me in the tech room?”
Venom glanced over at where Holly slept so peacefully. She’d been here before, wouldn’t be disoriented if she woke alone. “Yes.”
It was time to uncover the shape of the thing that had burrowed into Holly.
The same thing that had lived inside a vampire who’d gone utterly insane in the hours before her death.
18
Dmitri was already in the elevator when Venom stepped into it; from the other man’s tumbled hair and the faint scent of cold night air that clung to him, Venom figured he’d been up on the roof.
The leader of the Seven shot him an assessing look. “Holly’s getting under your skin.”
“She always has,” Venom admitted to a friend who’d never betray him. “But she needs a little seasoning.” Needed to get tougher . . . else, she’d never survive the immortal world. “You’ve all been protecting her under the guise of keeping an eye on her.”
Dmitri’s expression was amused. “I’m not exactly known to be a soft touch.”
“Let her go, Dmitri,” Venom said quietly. “We need to find out what she’s capable of—but she needs to learn the truth about herself most of all.” He held the other vampire’s dark eyes, only then realizing he’d forgotten his sunglasses upstairs. “Release the chains.”
Dmitri didn’t answer until they were outside the elevator and in the lighted corridor that led to the circular room of the Tower’s tech core. Windows lined the entire hallway, would’ve poured the colors of New York inside had it been morning. “That could be deadly,” the other man said at last. “Not just for others, but for Holly.”
“If you don’t release her soon, she’ll die anyway,” Venom said flatly. “She’s a wild thing. Not built for a cage.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Neha . . . she understood me even if she was no gentle mistress. She gave me the freedom to figure out what the fuck I’d become.” For the first five years after his Making, he hadn’t been “human” even in the vampiric sense.
“There’s a critical difference between you and Holly,” Dmitri reminded him.
“Uram.”
“Uram.” Dmitri began walking again, the two of them going to the tech center in silence.
Vivek was waiting for them. His breath caught when they entered, and Venom quickly realized it was the first time the other man had faced his eyes unshielded. “Do you have infrared vision?” Interest glittered on his face.
Venom smiled, the curious reaction a far preferable one to quivering fear or horror. “You’ll have to court me with roses and diamonds before asking such intimate questions.”