“I saw one once in Vienna, but only at a distance. I went to the library to deliver a report, and I saw her in the gallery. She was covered though.” He passed a hand over his face. “She didn’t want anyone to see her face.”
The Irina’s eyes turned inward. “Just one?”
Max nodded.
“And the Elder singers’ desks?”
“The Elder singers’ desks have been vacant for two hundred years,” he said. “I’ve only heard stories about their songs.”
Her jaw tensed. “So we are only rumors now.”
“Legends. Stories. Myths.”
“I’m not a myth.” She started eating again. “Do I look like a myth?”
“You look like a dream,” Max said.
She rolled her eyes. “How old are you?”
“Nearly two hundred years.”
She went silent.
“Tell me your name,” Max said. “My name is Maxim of Riga. I was born—”
“I don’t need to know anything about you,” the woman said. “And you don’t need to know my name.”
“Why?” He’d beg if she asked. She was the most beautiful—the most hopeful—thing Max had ever seen. “Are the Irina returning?”
“We never left.”
“You did,” he whispered. “I had no mother. No aunts. No sisters. I’ve never even felt an Irina’s touch. How can you say you never left?”
She looked up. “You’ve never felt an Irina’s touch?”
Max’s cheeks flushed. “Of course I haven’t.”
She looked him up and down, her eyes wide. “So you’ve never—”
“That’s none of your business.” He grew irritated with her stubbornness. “Contact with human women is not sanctioned by the Watchers’ Council. It’s too dangerous.”
Not that he’d been wholly obedient. Max gave lip service to the Watchers’ Council, but he was far from a model scribe. Much could be accomplished with a willing woman and a pair of gloves.
“The Watchers’ Council,” she muttered. “Mandating even the sex lives of their scribes since 1810.”
“Someone must have control,” Max said. “Or we will turn into the monsters we hunt. We no longer have our Irina.”
“We were never yours.” Her eyes flashed. “Your council forgot that, didn’t they?”
“At least they didn’t run.”
She pounded a fist on the table. “Don’t lecture me about running.”
He leaned forward, unafraid of her anger. “What is your name?”
“Why do you need to know?”
“Because…” He didn’t have a reason. “I just need to know. I won’t tell anyone about seeing you. I will vow it on my mother’s name, if you wish. I won’t tell anyone you killed those boys.”
“Those boys had two human girls in that room with them,” she said. “I don’t know why you thought they were innocents, because I saw them. They were looking at those girls as if they were dinner and the girls were more than happy to go along with it. I saved their lives.”
“I believe you.”
“Who was that Grigori with you? Why were you talking to him?”
“He claimed to be living a peaceful life,” Max said. “He said it’s possible to live without violence if the angel who fathered you is dead.”
“You don’t seem like a fool. You don’t believe him, do you?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Max said. “The older Grigori was different. As for the younger men, I suspect that fresh temptation was too much to resist, no matter what their training. Their brother said they hadn’t been around human women before, and when that level of temptation exists…”
Max stared at the hand that rested on the table. Her fingers were long and delicate, but there were calluses there. She fought with the staff and the dagger. A lethal female of his own race. Could there be anything more tempting? Max’s confusion over the events of the evening was quickly being overtaken by fascination for the woman before him.
She saw him staring. Slowly she turned her palm up.
Max’s heart beat faster. He reached out a hand but drew it back and planted it palm down on the table.
“Go ahead,” she said softly.
“Are you sure?”
She reached over and grabbed his hand, knitting their fingers together a second before the sheer energy of her magic punched through Max.
He gasped and held on tightly. “Heaven above.”
“I haven’t touched one of the brothers at our compound in some time,” she said softly. “This helps me too.”
Because Irina channeled the soul voices of the world, they needed contact with Irin to leach off energy. Irin males absorbed it, making themselves stronger and steadier. Touching this Irina was like being hit with a punch of magic that warmed Max from the inside out.
He lifted her hand and pressed her palm to his cheek, closing his eyes as he leaned into her touch.
“Tell me your name,” he whispered. “Please.”
“Renata. My name is Renata.” Her pulse pounded against his cheek. “What are you doing?”
Heaven above, he was kissing her wrist. The need had been instinctive. Max pulled back but kept his hand over hers, still pressing it to his cheek, afraid she’d take away the life and heat he’d given her. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Her eyes were wary, but her lips were flushed. Renata’s thumb reached over and brushed over Max’s lips, making him shudder. “This is the first touch you’ve felt,” she said softly.
Skin to skin? Irin to Irina? Max nodded.
“What do you see when you look at me, Maxim of Riga?”
“You’re beautiful,” Max said. “The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. You’re powerful. Dangerous.”
“Does that threaten you?”
“No. It turns me the fuck on,” he muttered.
Her pulse beat faster and her eyes locked on his lips. She was vital and alive and wanted him as much as he wanted her. He saw it in her eyes.
He asked, “When was the last time—”
“None of your business.”
Too long. That was what her heartbeat was saying. She hadn’t once tried to pull away from his touch.
Max slid out of the booth, keeping hold of Renata’s hand. He reached in his pocket and left far too much money on the table before he pulled Renata out the door and up the dark stairs. When they reached the top, he turned into a quiet alleyway and pushed her against the wall of the inn, grasping her hips and squeezing as he brought his mouth down to hers.
His lips hovered over hers. “I’ve never kissed before.” Kissing without skin contact was pointless.
Renata smiled. “I’ll be gentle.” She brushed her lips over his. Once. Twice.
“That’s enough of that,” Max muttered. He angled his head and sank his teeth into her full lower lip.
Renata gasped, then took his mouth in a ravenous kiss that matched the hunger he felt.
There you are.
Max lifted her against the wall, and Renata wrapped her long legs around his hips, pulling him closer. Her arms went around his shoulders, and the hair on the nape of his neck rose at her touch. The hilts of her silver blades dug into his chest, and Max’s talesm came alive, glowing silver in the darkness.
There you are.
3
Bergen, Norway
2005
Renata paused in the hallway outside her flat; the distinctive scent and magic she sensed was unmistakable.
Fucking Maxim.
She turned the knob and walked into the apartment, dropping her bag by the front door.