QUICK LINKS: Angels’ Blood Recap by Chapter 1–16 | 34–E
Angels’ Blood Chapters 17–33 Summary
This chapter-by-chapter summary of Angels’ Blood by Nalini Singh contains spoilers.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 17
Sara calls Elena in a panic. Raphael had forced Sara to reveal Elena’s location, and he’s already on his way. Vivek hands Elena a gun loaded with ammunition designed to tear through angel wings. Instead of running, Elena leaves a provocative note for Raphael and heads to her apartment to wait.
Raphael tracks down Ransom, grabs him by the throat, and puts his girlfriend to sleep so they can talk. He wants Elena’s location, but Ransom doesn’t know it. Raphael leaves.
Ransom calls Elena and tells her that Raphael spoke about her as if she were his property. While they’re still on the phone, Raphael appears outside Elena’s window and pushes his voice into her mind. Elena can tell something is wrong with him. She reaches for her gun.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 18
Raphael shatters Elena’s window, vanishes, then reappears behind her. She fires into his wing and breaks free.
The wound is devastating. Raphael bleeds heavily and shows no sign of healing. Elena calls Vivek, who confirms it should’ve already closed. Then she calls Dmitri, who threatens her and hangs up.
Dmitri arrives with vampires, restrains Elena, and sends two angels to carry Raphael back to the Tower. Before leaving, Dmitri grabs Elena by the chin and tells her he looks forward to watching the archangel destroy her.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 19
Bound to a chair in the Tower, Elena can’t use her hands, so Dmitri brings her a meal and feeds her. Others want her dead, and he’s the only thing standing in their way.
Elena tries to break free after Dmitri leaves, but she can’t. She calls him back about the hole in her apartment wall. He tells her they have no interest in fixing a human home, threatens her, and leaves.
Alone, Elena whispers an apology to Raphael. His voice appears in her mind. He asks why she brought a weapon if she never intended to use it against him.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 20
Raphael reaches into Elena’s mind while she sits bound. He acknowledges she’s tied up but offers no help. Then he slips into anshara, a deep restorative trance that only occurs when an angel sustains life-threatening injuries.
Old memories surface as Raphael’s body heals. He sees his mother Caliane standing over him while he lies broken and bleeding. She hurt him. She reminds him he’s immortal, mocks the idea that he could die, and reveals she always knew he planned to kill her. Then she walks away. Raphael wakes to find a vampire watching over him.
Blood Born
A vampire drinks blood and feels a surge of power. Others have been keeping this strength from him. He lets out a defiant cry. The moment has finally come.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 21
Raphael wakes up fully healed, with only a gold-patterned scar on his wing to show for the gunshot. He tells Dmitri he’ll handle Elena himself, that no one else is to get involved, and that the shooting will go unpunished. He admits he provoked it.
Dmitri brings Elena to the roof to meet Raphael. She notices the mark on his wing right away. Raphael tells her the ordeal left him drained and that he needs to replenish his strength, much like vampires need blood. He lets angel dust settle on her fingertips and asks her to taste it. The feeling overwhelms her. He explains the dust is tied to sexual attraction, and they end up standing close enough to almost kiss.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 22
Raphael and Elena kiss on the roof before she pulls back. He tells her the search for Uram is starting, then leaves.
Dmitri tells Elena she’ll probably be dead soon and admits he wants to taste her blood. The conversation turns personal. Elena reveals that a vampire once had mental control over her as a child, and that he’s already dead.
Raphael returns looking shaken. Seven victims were found in Brooklyn, their hearts sent directly to Michaela.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 23
Raphael brings Elena to a derelict warehouse in Brooklyn. Inside, victims hang from the rafters, and three young women lie drained of blood on the floor. Elena recognizes Uram’s scent.
Outside, a side door is marked with bloody handprints. Elena realizes Uram let his victims run just to chase them down. She and Raphael follow a blood trail to a small shed. Elena goes in alone to avoid frightening any survivors and finds a traumatized woman, undressed and covered in blood.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 24
Elena finds where Uram fled. A feather helps her refine his scent, but she loses the trail when he takes flight. Raphael tells her she has to stay with him and that Uram will strike again, giving them new leads. She agrees.
Back at her damaged apartment, Elena showers, packs, and grabs fresh weapons, then calls Sara to confirm she’s seeing the mission through. Raphael is already gone, leaving a message on the balcony wall that a vehicle is waiting downstairs.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 25
A vampire drives Elena to Raphael’s mansion in an exclusive angelic neighborhood, where she finds him with Michaela, once Uram’s partner. Michaela tries to intimidate her, but Raphael shuts it down.
Michaela refuses to help until Raphael points out that Uram’s obsession will eventually lead him to her. Elena asks for details about Uram’s movements to narrow her search. Raphael asks Michaela how she found Uram’s “gift.” She spotted a bundle on her lawn and sent a guard to check it. Inside was a coarse bag holding seven freshly taken human hearts.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 26
Elena warns Raphael and Michaela that Uram is behaving like a vampire in the early stages of a blood craving and will start showing strategic thinking within days.
Raphael notes that Uram is locked in permanent bloodlust. Michaela leaves.
Elena tells Raphael she won’t sleep with him until he’s honest about Uram. He refuses, saying humans can’t be trusted with archangel secrets.
Raphael brings up the warehouse survivor. She swallowed Uram’s blood and may have absorbed his madness. Elena agrees that the woman will have to be killed if she’s truly turned. Elena and Raphael decide to search Michaela’s neighboring home for any trace of Uram’s scent.
Bloodlust
A vampire finishes a meal but finds the stored blood flat and unappealing. He smashes the container, needing it fresh. He decides to feed directly from a living person and keep that victim alive as long as possible.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 27
Elena goes to Michaela’s estate to investigate where Uram left bloody hearts on the lawn. She tracks his scent and confirms he had a clear view of Michaela’s bedroom window. His obsession with Michaela works in their favor since he won’t stray far.
Raphael is on the balcony while Michaela tries to seduce him. He brushes her off, then flies down and rips out a vampire’s heart when he sees Elena being threatened. The act shakes Elena and strains her relationship with Raphael.
Then Elena gets a phone call that visibly bothers her. She tells Raphael she needs to step away briefly. He figures out the caller was her father.
Elena is outside her father’s private office for the first time, about to face a long-overdue reunion.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 28
Elena meets Jeffrey and receives paperwork for a trust fund her mother set up. Their conversation sours when he suggests she use her influence with Raphael for his business. She’s revolted and walks out.
At the bank, Elena learns about a safe-deposit box her father opened fifteen years ago, the same summer he erased every trace of her mother and sisters. She can’t bring herself to look through the mementos and walks away.
Illium is waiting outside with a red Ferrari and a map of Michaela’s movements. Elena takes the map but trades the car for a plain sedan nearby. Raphael sends word to check in every ten minutes. She ignores the instruction and drives off.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 29
Elena learns from Sara that fifteen girls have gone missing, far more than authorities reported. While out, she picks up Uram’s scent, but Dmitri’s presence makes it hard to focus. She calls Raphael and asks him to pull Dmitri from the area.
The trail leads to an upscale townhouse east of Central Park. Raphael suddenly appears, and inside, Elena and Raphael find victims tortured with a blade rather than drained. Elena concludes the murders happened a day or two before the warehouse discovery, meaning Uram used these women to refine his methods before moving on to his more recent targets.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 30
Elena spots a bloodstain that doesn’t match the age of the others. Uram came back to gloat. Raphael sets guards on the area, but a rainstorm wipes out the scent trail. Elena has no choice but to wait for Uram to strike again.
On the drive back, a dark memory of her mother and sisters nearly pulls Elena under. She forces herself to focus on the road. At the estate, Ransom calls to warn her that an archangel has put a contract on her life. Elena knows it’s Michaela. Raphael responds with cold possessiveness and vows to protect her. They agree that Uram is becoming more unstable.
Elena then steps into Raphael’s bedroom and hears the lock click shut.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 31
Elena and Raphael undress and step into the massive bath together. Before things go further, they lay down some ground rules. They promise to be faithful to each other for as long as the pull between them lasts.
In the warm water, Raphael turns his full attention to Elena’s pleasure, and she finally lets go of her usual restraint and reaches her peak. They rinse off under the shower afterward. Raphael then lifts her into his arms and carries her to the bedroom for the rest of the night.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 32
After spending the night with Raphael, Elena wakes to find her skin dusted in a shimmering celestial glow. Raphael says it appeared because he let his guard down and admits that being with her makes him feel more human than he has in centuries.
The next morning, Raphael tells Elena more about Uram. He identifies the killer as an Angel of Blood and explains that any angel can fall into that state. He also warns her that angels typically wipe the memories of humans who learn their darker secrets. Elena says she’d rather die than have her mind touched, and Raphael takes it as a vow between them.
Elena then gets an urgent call from her father. Jeffrey tells her that Uram has killed one of her friends in a particularly brutal way.
Angels’ Blood Chapter 33
Raphael flies Elena to her father’s home, where they find Jeffrey’s mistress dead. Elena is shaken because the woman looks almost identical to her late mother, and she realizes Uram is deliberately targeting people close to her.
Elena tracks the scent to a children’s museum and finds Geraldine barely alive with a severe throat wound. Raphael calls Illium to take Geraldine to a healer. Uram had slipped out just before they arrived. Elena notices Geraldine’s ring is missing and figures he’s bringing it to Michaela as a trophy.
On the way to Michaela’s estate, Raphael mentions he’s already arranged security for Elena’s friends and family. The two land near the woods, and he asks her a pointed question about her dead sisters.