Page 35 of Dance of the Phoenix (Cloak of the Vampire #3)
Ragnor
That night, Ragnor lay in bed, eyes open, staring at the ceiling, while Aileen slept soundly next to him, her soft breaths filling the room.
He couldn’t sleep. Not after Aileen had dropped such a bomb on him a few hours ago. Because she shouldn’t have known about the Malachi. She shouldn’t even utter that name.
That she was his Alara Morreh was a fact he intended to hide. For eternity, if possible.
And yet she knew about the Malachi, or at least that they existed.
She said Jada had told her about them. Meaning Jada told her about Chanjomaron’s true identity. Otherwise, Aileen shouldn’t know about them.
Meaning Jada had also told her she was Chanjomaron’s Alara Morreh.
A ripple in the air above him made Ragnor grow still.
As if he had been summoned by Ragnor’s thoughts, or Aileen’s earlier words, a tall man appeared, hovering over the bed with his silver wings spread out.
His tousled black hair was slicked back, and his jungle-color eyes peered at Ragnor, almost glowing in the darkness like a vampire’s.
Grimacing, Ragnor got off the bed and motioned silently to the Malachi to follow him out. He obliged, and Ragnor led him outside the suite, toward his office. He did not want to risk anyone, especially Aileen, catching sight of him.
Once they were in his office, Ragnor locked the door and turned to face the Malachi. “What brings you here, Luceras?”
Luceras’s eyes, which were usually cold and unfeeling, seemed a bit less so. In fact, Ragnor noted that while he appeared relaxed and emotionless, there was tension in him that wasn’t usually there.
“I came to collect a favor you owe me,” Luceras said.
Ragnor had dreaded this moment ever since he used Luceras to find out the location of the Jinn’s headquarters a couple of months ago. And yet he didn’t expect for the Malachi to come and collect the favor so soon. “Tell me.”
Luceras’s eyes sharpened. “When you reach Houston tomorrow, go to a motel called Alby’s, room 204,” he said with a sense of urgency Ragnor scarcely ever heard from him. “You’ll find there a certain someone you know.”
Ragnor didn’t have to guess, and his hands curled into fists. “Eliza?”
Luceras nodded. “You are to take her to the Hecatomb and protect her until this ordeal is over with,” he said in a commanding tone that ruffled Ragnor’s imaginary feathers in the wrong way. “Then you are to bring her to your League for protection until further notice.”
Ragnor took two things from Luceras’s words: One, Eliza, for whatever reason, was in hot water and in need of rescue and protection, meaning she couldn’t use any of her various connections to protect her. And two, that Luceras was going against the Malachi’s wishes.
Ragnor had hosted Eliza in his town house a few weeks ago, after she’d done something to enrage a Seraph, one of the Malachi top dogs, though what it was that she had done, Ragnor didn’t know.
But after they fought over Aileen’s fate, and Eliza’s threat to end Aileen’s life if she dared to overstep the boundaries reserved for the Children of Kahil—the followers of the Morrow Gods—Eliza left, and Ragnor had not heard from her since.
Ragnor knew that Eliza could protect herself from the Malachi—even from a powerful Seraph like the one she’d messed with. But the fact that Luceras was telling him now that she needed help told him it wasn’t simply the Malachi who were after her.
Meaning that, for whatever reason, Eliza could not use any of her connections, not even the one entity she directly served, to save her.
And while their relationship wasn’t what it used to be after they did not see eye to eye when it came to Aileen, Ragnor couldn’t ignore the fact that one of his very few friends was in danger, even without it being a favor for Luceras.
“I’ll do it,” Ragnor said and couldn’t help but add, “though not because you asked me to.”
Luceras visibly relaxed. “Good,” he said, “then I’ll leave her in your care. Consider it one of two favors done.”
Ragnor did not like the reminder that he had yet another favor he owed Luceras, but for now, he put it at the back of his mind and said, “I accept.”