Chapter 32

Hours later, Anya"s head was pounding with magic and symbols and runestones. She stumbled out of Aleksandra"s caravan and into the cold, misty rain. She was exhausted, and they had barely scraped the surface.

"Hale and whole I see, shamanitsa." Yvan was standing under the awning of a caravan, the collar of his jacket up high to keep the rain out, and his black hair wet and glossy.

"Thanks to you and my other helpers, I"m doing okay," Anya said joining him. "Have you been standing here long?"

"A while. I was hoping your bodyguards would"ve freed you by now."

"They have been teaching me the ways of the great shamanitsa"s!" she mocked playfully.

Yvan grinned and leaned against the caravan. "I"m happy to hear it. I"m looking forward to seeing what you can do with all that magic. Are you learning anything useful?"

"Bits and pieces. They are going to teach me how to link with Katya"s mind this afternoon. Baba Zosia seems to think I have the talent for it."

"Even a blind man can see you"re talented, shalos?." His own eyes were soft and severe, and Anya felt the weight of them when he looked at her.

"Where"s everyone else?" she said, ignoring the blush burning her cheeks.

"They are around. Trajan and Izrayl went on a scouting trip. Cerise, I have no idea. I saw her a little while ago. Katya disappeared with her bow and sword. I get the feeling being in the tribe and around so many people makes her uncomfortable."

"It"s certainly a change for me too. Our little group is growing every day. I swear I"m going to start handing out name tags soon so I can keep up," Anya joked.

"Katya told me her intentions of joining with us. I don"t see the harm in that. She can take care of any threat that comes against her. I"ve never seen a woman warrior like her," Yvan said. Anya felt a pinch of jealousy at the admiration in his tone, but she buried it.

"Cerise tells me you were lighting yourself on fire last night. How"s that going for you?"

Yvan shrugged. "I"m fine now that I know you are well."

"You were that worried?"

"Are you surprised that I would worry about you?" Yvan asked, dark brows drawing together.

"I"m surprised when anyone gives a damn. It"s a new experience for me."

"Of course I give a damn. If you had died yesterday, I never would"ve forgiven myself," Yvan said softly, wrapping her cold hands in his. "That my own brother was the one to hurt you"

"Hey, stop. What Vasilli does has nothing to do with you. You carry too much guilt as it is, Yvan. Don"t shoulder the burden of me as well."

Yvan smiled. "You"re a burden I don"t mind shouldering."

"Just don"t let it become so heavy that you can"t carry it and you have to leave."

The pain of losing Trajan the first time around was fresh inside of her, and she couldn"t handle losing Yvan after all they had been through.

Yvan squeezed her hand before letting it go. "Don"t worry, I"m not going anywhere, Anya. You are stuck with me to the bitter end."

"Here"s hoping it"s not bitter," Anya laughed softly.

Trajan was pacingacross the forest floor. Every few minutes, he would stop and touch his bottom lip, the sensation of kissing Anya still imprinted on them. Talking to Anya about it in the forest had made it worse. The way she was looking at him and talking to him was changing. The spark of recognition and affection was in her eyes, filling him with warmth.

From the few times he had caught up with Eikki over the years, he knew that Anya had grown into a unique, beautiful woman, but experiencing it firsthand was a different matter. He"d never kissed a mortal before. Anya had tasted of magic and fire, and he couldn"t stop thinking about it.

Izrayl sat on a rock not far from him with an amused expression on his face as he watched him pace. Cerise appeared through the trees, her hair standing out brightly against the forest"s greens and browns.

"Relax, Trajan. Anya"s fine, but I"m not. Whoever thought camping was a good idea needs to have their brain examined. Baba Zosia and Aleksandra are training our girl as we speak, so we have some time to talk," Cerise said.

"I"m such an idiot. Eikki used to speak about Baba Zosia and this tribe. He called her Zosi. He never even told me Anya"s real name is Anyanka," Trajan complained as he paced. "Now, she"s getting all of her memories back, and she"s going to be hurt by how much Eikki took away from her."

"For goodness's sake, between you and Yvan, there"s enough worry to smother the poor girl to death," Cerise said, exasperated.

"It"s not like she hasn"t been through enough already! She could"ve died yesterday."

"But she didn"t, so get over it," Izrayl replied before adding slyly. "She"s rather beautiful in that frost princess, Norse way. Although you already know that, don"t you, Trajan?"

Cerise hit Izrayl across the back of the head. "Take your mind out of the gutter. Trajan damn well knows better than to think about going there with a mortal. Right, Trajan?"

"None of your business. It"s not like you"ve never had relationships with mortals before."

"Once we get to Paris, we can come up with a real plan in five-star accommodation," Cerise said, changing the subject. "With any luck, Vasilli won"t find out that his stunt with the thorns hasn"t worked until we are long gone from here."

"At least in the human world, Anya won"t be trailing magic all over the place," Izrayl said, picking leaves out of his hair. "Paris is a good idea considering all we have is rubbish options. Can"t go back to Russia. They still have a bounty on us for that time we rescued Anya in Moscow. They are still touchy about all their operatives you killed, Trajan. Last time I checked, the bounty on your head was close to five million euros."

"They had it coming. Anya was alone and defenseless," Trajan replied, without an ounce of remorse.

Cerise tapped her nails against her chin. "Katya could teach Anya how to defend herself while she learns magic. She"s great with a blade."

"Just as long as Katya doesn"t teach her any of her bad manners," Izrayl grunted. "That girl has some serious issues against volk krovi. I wonder what happened to make her hate us so much."

"Sounds to me like you"re sulking because she hasn"t looked at you twice," Cerise teased.

Izrayl rolled his eyes. "Please, like I could give a damn."

"If you two would get back to the problem at hand," Trajan interrupted.

Cerise lit a cigarette. "Relax, Trajan. Anya is going to learn some magic today, and then tomorrow we go to Paris. Your house will be able to hold us all, and it"s a veritable fortress with all the security. Anya can learn her magic and get ready to shut the gates."

"The gates aren"t going to hold forever," Trajan said as he began to pace again. "We are going to need to figure out a way to get her back through to her farm when the time comes. At least if she has a little time to explore her talent, she may be able to use the gates without killing herself."

Izrayl stood up and stretched. "We can"t leave it longer than another day here. We are putting these people at risk. Vasilli won"t be fooled for long, and he will kill these people for sheltering us just out of spite."

Cerise stubbed out her cigarette on a rock. "Well, I don"t think I could handle much more of this trudging through mud and lack of hot showers. Also, my supplies are running low. I only have three vials of dead man"s blood left," she said and gave Trajan a disapproving look. "We all know that you will be okay for weeks, thanks to that unfortunate incident with Vasilli"s pet."

"Let it go," Izrayl warned.

"Don"t worry, Anya isn"t scared of him over it. Though, in my opinion, she should be." Cerise poked Trajan in the shoulder. "Be careful there, old friend."

Trajan was smart enough not to bite Cerise"s bait. He would never want Anya afraid of him, but he wouldn"t hide what he was from her. He had missed her and was intrigued by the woman she had become.

They hadn"t even left the forest before they heard Anya"s laughter, and Trajan smiled and hurried to find her.

Anya was sitting on a wooden stump with some of the tribe"s children, teaching them scissors, paper, rock. Yvan stood with them, laughing at their games and arguments. She looked more carefree than he had ever seen her, making her even more beautiful.

"She"s very patient with them." Trajan turned and saw Katya leaning against the side of a caravan.

"Yes, she always had a kind heart even though she hides it," he told her as he turned back to watch Anya.

"That trick you did with the dragon, any chance of it happening again by accident?" Katya asked, her eyes not leaving the children.

"None at all. I"d never hurt anyone here. You have my word."

"Good," Katya grunted but didn"t push him. "When we get back to the human world, I don"t know what kind of reception we are going to get. Probably a bad one knowing the Darkness. Vasilli and Ladislav will have their operatives looking everywhere for Anya and Yvan."

"You"re not afraid of a fight, are you?" Izrayl asked. He and Katya eyed each other up like gunfighters. She hooked her thumbs in her belt, close to the sheaths holding her daggers.

"I live for it. I"m worried about an old dog like you taking on the big boys, that"s all."

"Settle down, pup. Those teeth aren"t sharp enough to take me on just yet," Izrayl retorted. "I"ll give you a rematch if you want, but right now, we got bigger problems."

All three of them turned and looked at Anya again. She gave them a puzzled glance but was interrupted by one of the children clamoring for her attention.

"Aleki tells me she learns remarkably fast. She thinks it"s too fast, but I think Anya"s a natural. She certainly has enough power to fly around, that"s for sure," Katya commented. "She"s smart, and she wants to learn. I"m sure Eikki had his reasons for protecting her, but damn, she has talent. Kind of surprised the Darkness hasn"t tried to take her already."

"They tried once in Moscow before Anya had learned a thing about magic. They were suspicious of what Eikki had told them about her having no abilities and thought to find out for themselves," Trajan replied. He could still feel the rage he had released that night, taste the blood in his mouth.

"The Darkness do love a press gang when they are keen to recruit, don"t they? What happened?" Katya asked. "Anya only told me you both found her in the park in Moscow."

Trajan said, "Izrayl and I had been tracking her for days, trying to get her back to Eikki. The Darkness had been following her too."

"Eikki finally managed to get a hit on her with his tracking spell, and we found them closing in on her," Izrayl continued, his eyes flicking over to Trajan. "Trajan kind of lost it. He raged out and tried to kill all ten of them. They had backup, and we didn"t. It was a messy fight. Trajan almost died, but we got Anya back to Eikki in one piece."

"They would"ve found it a hard task to kill me," Trajan argued.

That night was still a sore spot between them. Izrayl didn"t like to kill unless he had to, but Trajan was his best friend, so he had made the exception. Trajan had fought with Eikki about coming back into their lives then, and the old man had refused.

"I won"t say the Darkness didn"t deserve it. I know what they do to people who have magical abilities," Katya muttered. "Sounds like it would have been a good fight."

"The problem is we are now high on their shit list. That"s why we have been keeping away from Russia. I"m happy to go back to the human world, though. I have missed the girls there for countless reasons." Izrayl gave Katya a wicked smile. She rolled her eyes.

"I am sure. You two having a bounty on your heads is going to create even more trouble."

"I"m sure you can handle some trouble," Izrayl said.

"I can handle a lot of trouble." Katya"s mouth twisted into a grin. "And I could certainly handle you."

Izrayl laughed. "You keep telling yourself that, hunter."