“How do you know my name?”
“We have a mutual acquaintance.” Lexi pulled out Christan’s phone and thumbed open the photo of Kace. “Do you recognize this man?” she asked, even though she’d watched the surveillance footage and knew Katerina did.
The girl looked at the image on the phone, glanced around and then sat down. She did not relax. “He introduced himself at the museum the other day, suggested we share coffee.”
“He’s been hunting you.”
“I’ve suspected it.”
“Then I hope you’ll trust me, Katerina.”
“Why?”
Lexi slid the phone back in her pocket and folded her hands. “I talked to Renata.”
“I’m surprised Dante let you through,” the girl said. “You must have connections.”
“The good kind.”
“There are no good connections.”
“It was Renata’s choice, and some of the connections are good.” Lexi’s voice gentled. “Dante’s good, the way he cares for her—that much was obvious.”
Katerina didn’t answer.
Lexi said, “I want to help you.”
“Thank you, but I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry you feel the need to hide.”
Katerina did not seem receptive. She reached out and deliberately pressed her finger into the memory lines on Lexi’s wrist. “You’re having dreams?”
“Yes. They haven’t all been pleasant.”
“Then why are you here?”
“To make you an offer of safety.”
“I’d rather trust myself.”
“I understand,” Lexi said. “but if you intend to hide, pay attention to the places that attract you and stay away from them. Kace isn’t stupid. He’ll figure it out and track you.” She paused. “Like we did.”
“Track me how?”
“We’re all drawn to elements from our past lives and you seem to be drawn to Etruscan history. There will be geographical areas that will feel familiar and safe. Others will feel tense and unfriendly. Go for those. The negative energies probably won’t be from past life influences at all. They’ll be emotional imprints that aren’t even connected to you.”
Kat’s mouth twisted. “You’re an expert?”
“Yes.” The simple truth.
“You saw what they did to Renata.” The girl fell silent as a group of laughing tourists walked by. “You’re the one who should be watching where she goes, because they’re after you. Last I heard, the mate to Three’s enforcer has a special bounty on her head over the rest of us.”
“How would you know?”
“I’m not as isolated as you think. I realized who you were the minute I saw you, and everyone knows they’re here.” Katerina nodded toward the shadowed alley. “An enforcer and his second-in-command, together in the same city? It’s all over the street, but it doesn’t matter because the immortals will destroy whoever they can. And they’ll use the girls as bait.”
“Arsen is here to help.”
“Then tell Arsen take you home.” Katerina’s voice was brittle. “And stay away from me. They follow you, they find me, too.”
Someone laughed in the distance. There was the sharp interruption of crockery and silver, crashing to the cobbled stone. Voices followed, offering embarrassed apologies. The night closed in around them.
Lexi said, “I can help you stay safe.”
“No. You can’t.” Kat was adamant as she rose to her feet and gathered up the papers spread out around her.
Lexi saw Christan moving. She grabbed the pen that Kat left behind and scribbled on a paper napkin, pushed both at Kat when the younger girl turned.
“This is my personal email, and the number of my cell phone. Is there any way I can contact you?”
But Kat disappeared into the shadows like a fading ghost. Christan’s hand closed around Lexi’s arm and he bent his lips to her ear. “Run,” he whispered, and pulled her in the opposite direction.
CHAPTER 26
Lexi looked up into Christan’s savagely dark face and reached out with her senses, trying to find the emotional imprints, but there were too many complex layers of love and betrayal, fear and murder overlying everything else. She thought she sensed a threat moving toward them from the side, but Christan detected it too and altered their direction. Her feet stumbled over the uneven pavement. Christan’s aggressive pace increased. Lexi kept even with him, gripping his hand.
“What happened?” she asked despite her rapid breathing.
“The predicted response.”
“To what?”
“The little disagreement we cleared up this afternoon.”
“And Arsen?”
“He’s following Katerina to keep her safe.”
“She won’t want him there. She told me they know you and Arsen are here, that there’s some interest in finding me.”
“Yes.” A slight pause. “This is an effort to get to you.”
“But you’re not going to let them.”
“No,” Christan answered. “I’m not going to let them.”
The night sounds faded. Tall stone buildings and arched passaggios closed in until the entire world seemed made of gray stone. They kept to the deepest shadows. Lexi caught the menace of a pursuer once, reacted to another threat in the distance. Her breathing grew labored and she kicked her endurance up another notch. They reached a road edged with buildings that were silent and dark, an office complex, shut down for the weekend.
“I need you to listen,” Christan said. “This is a fight that won’t stop after tonight, no matter what the outcome.”
“Who are they?”
“Three’s enemies.”
“Why fight here?”
“One’s security is weaker and the targets softer.”
“You knew that when you came to Italy.”
“The same way you knew you wouldn’t follow the rules.”
Christan pulled her around a sharp corner and she cooperated, feeling a twinge of guilt. They were heading toward an enclosed square. Without emotion, Christan told her about a garage door set into the stone wall. It would be hard to see, he said, but the building was to the left of where they would enter and she should go in that direction. He was calm. Lexi noticed how the cadence in his voice changed as he shifted into an implacable place.
“The door is not locked,” he added, “even though it looks that way. Lift the latch and remove the bar. Inside is a Range Rover with the key in the ignition. I would have you drive as far away as you can as quickly as you can and not look back.”
“What about you?”
“I will be... busy.”
Lexi stiffened at the implication.
“It is far more important to me that you get away,” he continued. “You have my phone. There is a second phone beneath the front seat, untraceable. Luca’s number has been programed into contacts. Call him when you are far enough away to be safe. Be sure that no one has followed you, and don’t stay in one place while you wait for Luca’s men.”
He was giving her instructions as if he expected her to follow them. “I’m not leaving without you.”
Christan ignored her. “Luca will know what to do. He will get you back to Three. She won’t let you stay at Arsen's compound. Do what she says.”
“I’m not letting some immortal tell me where to live.”
“She’s already made arrangements.” A flash of lightning overhead, violent and white-hot, illuminating the sharp planes and deadly concentration on Christan’s face. A few seconds later thunder crashed, reverberating off the confining walls of the buildings. Christan had turned from her side. He was beauty and perfection, surveying the way they’d come before he urged her forward.
The dark menace was gaining in strength and Lexi ran, shutting down all outside distraction, jumping over discarded bricks and dodging around the pile of lumber. Christan’s breathing never changed as he paced himself behind her. Lexi could feel the coiled threat, the muscles bunching as if ready for the kill. She didn’t want to see the look in his eyes.