Andrei

 

I fidgeted as Roy, Finni, and Faye talked. Svetlana had gone upstairs with Tulila, to lie down and take a nap before they left. Spinning my phone between two fingers, I glanced down at it, wondering what was going on back home. Had other people left Grandfather’s house?

How many of his own family would Ivan sacrifice to slake his thirst for power?

“Oye, thunderclouds, I think we got somethin’,” Finni said, jerking me awake.

“Faye should go back to Russia with Svetlana,” I rumbled.

“No,” Roy said, his face pained. “We need to get her to LA. Get her to talk to Lhambo, Drax, and Hassun. Get them to believe us.”

“Hassun’s to be trusted,” Finni said. “He’s my brother’s father-in-law.”

I thought of the old, rangy wolf shifter and nodded. Hassun hated the TLO and everything they stood for. He’d lost a nephew in the Foundry explosion and had been bowed under it since.

“That doesn’t solve the most obvious problem. Frost and Parasite…” I trailed off.

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking,” Roy said, watching me. “If he hadn’t been arrested that night, he would have gotten himself arrested another night. Parasite wanted to be placed inside HQ.”

“Damn,” I muttered, wondering uneasily what powers and intel that chameleon might have that made him so confident he could take down an ancient Order.

“If we can at least stop the burn order from happening on Friday, we can stop them.”

“So, today is Saturday,” Roy said. “Finni and I will be back at work on Monday, acting as though nothing is amiss. We’ll tell everyone we trust and try to figure out how she’s going to do it.”

“It’s an automated call,” I said heavily. “All she has to do is push a button.”

“Computer-based? Maybe Keon or Talori can take care of it, then,” Roy mused. “Talori is in San Francisco and I’ll see if I can’t fly Keon out, too. In the meantime, you and Faye should go to San Fran, too. You can stay in our apartment – Kesari made up a nice guest room.”

“Where is Kesari?” I asked. When I met my Roy’s eyes I knew the answer.

“LA. Mirois called her back there last week,” Roy’s voice shook for the first time.

“I already told Dara and Obi not to leave her side,” Finni told Roy, reaching over and grabbing his shoulder. “Don’t worry, boss.”

He shot a grin at Finni. “You don’t have to call me that.”

“You’ve saved my life more than once, dummy. I’ll call you what I like,” Finni shot back.

Roy shook himself and looked back at Faye. “Soraya and Dez are staying only a few blocks away. You can coordinate with them on how to get back into LA unnoticed and help Talori.”

“I wouldn’t fly,” Finni cautioned. “Airspace is being tightly monitored. I’d drive down the PCH to Malibu and slip in through the back to the Lafi’s or the Weslark’s. That neighborhood is safe.”

“That’s the first place they’d come looking, though,” I argued, feeling sick at heart. “Svetlana, Tulila, Piper and the twins, Isla… that’s a lot of innocent lives in danger.”

“Piper would murder you for saying that,” Finni said.

Faye shook her hair back from her face and bit her lip. “I’m not staying with the Lafis or the Weslarks in Malibu,” she said slowly. “Andrei’s right, it’s too risky.”

“Where will you go then?” Roy asked.

“Russia,” I interjected. “I should ship the whole lot of you there.”

“Will you cool it with that, man?” Finni asked. “No one in their right mind wants to go hole up in those dark and snowy mountains with your grumpy goat of a Grandfather.”

“I’ll go to my apartment,” she said and we all gaped at her. “No, think about it – that’s the last place they’d expect me to go.”

“Maybe,” Roy said. “But if I were them, I’d have someone watching it just in case.”

“No one knows I’m alive except the people in this house,” Faye said impatiently.

“I’ll go with her,” I said and Faye gave me a look. “What, I said you weren’t leaving my sight and I meant that.”

Finni let out an “ooooh,” under his breath, while Roy stared between us, looking awkward.

“Wait, are you two… a thing?” he asked, sounding for a second like a revolted teenager.

“Got a problem with that, Roysey?” I shot at him and he gave me a bemused look. “No? Good. You’re going to go to Faye’s apartment. Sweep it for bugs and scope out if anyone’s watching the place. Make up some excuse like you wanted something of Faye’s. Maybe have Piper go with you.”

He nodded, looking thoughtful, but Finni made a face. “We still don’t have a plan.”

“That’s because we’re winging it at this point,” I said with a growl, not wanting to admit I was curious to know what Piper Weslark would cook up. “The best thing we can do is watch, see what happens and act. Keep it simple, stupid.”

After that, we made ourselves lunch and Svetlana came down with Tulila, both of them tousle-haired and yawning. Faye offered to hold her and something powerful went through me at seeing Faye with my niece. Her oval cheek pressed into the baby’s soft curls and she smiled.

Svetlana elbowed me in the side and I glared down at her. “I knew you’d find yourself a nice girl one of these days,” she said in Russian. Roy looked over with a grin. “Can I tell Mom?”

“No,” I growled and she made a pouting face. “Svetty, I swear…”

“Ugh, you’re no fun when you’re in love,” she said, flouncing away and Roy started.

Finni and Faye, who of course hadn’t understood a word of that exchange, merely looked amused, probably assuming it was innocent family drama.

“Woah,” Roy muttered. Some knee-jerk reaction told me to deny it or shrug it off, but I couldn’t. Roy came over and put an arm around my shoulders. “Hey, cuz, I’m happy for you.”

“Shut up,” I muttered.

Roy let out a small chuckle and murmured, “I can’t wait to tell Kesari.”

“You can’t tell her anything yet,” I told him and he nodded tightly.

“I know,” Roy said and he swallowed. “I meant next week. When all of this over.” He gave me a crooked grin. “I should have known you’d never break a promise. Thank you, Andrei.”

Feeling a little thick-throated, I grabbed him in a one-armed hug and ruffled his hair. “Don’t go all soft on me, you’re still a Zima, even if you look like a blond Kai Weslark.”

“Not this shit again!” Roy burst out in English and shoved me away.

“What’s wrong?” Faye asked, appearing in front of us and she scowled at me. “Andrei, are you being an ass? What did he say, Roy?”

“Yes,” Roy muttered.

“What?” I asked. “I’m only telling the truth…”

There was shouting and laughter, the former on Roy’s part and the latter on Faye, Finni, and Svetlana’s. I laughed, too, as I caught that shine of joy in Faye’s eyes.

That’s how you should always look, I thought. I’m going to make sure that’s the case.

 

After my family and Finni left, the house was oddly empty. And even though the last people I wanted to see were Svetlana and Tuly and Roy, I missed them.

Night fell in the blink of an eye and unfamiliar dread pooled in my stomach. Tomorrow we had to go to San Francisco, inching Faye ever closer to the very last place she should be.

I found her in the kitchen, thoughtfully washing out the glasses from a late dinner and I leaned against the counter next to her, pressing my palms against the edges of it.

“Faye, you know my word would be enough to convince them,” I said softly.

“Maybe,” she said, her eyes flashing at me. “But we can’t know that for sure.”

“You won’t hide out until this over?” I asked in a softer voice. “Stay here or–”

“How can you ask me that?” Faye said, her hands starting to shake as she put down a glass and dried them. “I’m still a Shifter of Anubis! I have a responsibility. I took the same oaths as you.”

I had no response to that and I looked away. “I don’t want you to get hurt.” The unfairness of it all rose up like a bitter bile in my throat. “After everything you’ve been through at the TLO’s hands… And now you’re heading straight back into the eye of the storm.”

“That’s who I am,” Faye said, in a stern, but gentle voice.

“And now, with me–” I said abruptly, folding my arms and looking at the floor. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea. Maybe we are rushing things.”

“What?” Faye asked and I sensed her take a step back.

Guilt and longing were making a mess of my thoughts. “Faye, Svetlana wasn’t being impossible when she said I avoided meeting you. Though that girl’s damn timing,” I grumbled. “I knew what I was getting into being a spy – I’d read your parents’ reports. I knew the bravery and selflessness that would be asked of me.” I bowed my head. “I also knew there were consequences.

“That’s why I’ve avoided serious relationships. I meant what I said the other day – about not wanting to put someone through…” I was suddenly absurdly nervous. “And then, irony of ironies, you come along…”

“You don’t want to hurt me,” she said softly. “That’s why you’ve been so weird.”

My head flew up. “I have not been weird.”

“Hot and cold, then,” Faye said in a humoring voice. Her eyes were filled with a golden light as they focused on me. “Does this mean you want to be with me, Andrei Zima?”

Never in a million years did I think a woman would ask me that with Faye’s bare-faced gravitas. It took my breath away. I couldn’t move as she tugged my arms free and held my hands.

“I don’t want to put you through that kind of pain again,” I got out and pulled myself free. “It seems selfish – even cruel to think you could…” Be with me.

Faye nodded, her face serious. “But my parents’ deaths taught me to seize what time you do have. And try not to worry about what’s ahead. To love fully and without restraint.”

Her bravery was my undoing.

Pushing my hands into her hair, I kissed her, as fiercely and bravely as she deserved.

“Yes,” I said, when I pulled away, staring straight into her eyes. “I want you.”

“That’s not what I asked,” she said, sounding breathless.

“I want you and I want to be with you,” I corrected, swinging her up into my arms.

Faye laughed as we left the kitchen and I headed for the stairs, then stopped. A diabolical grin crept up over my face and I turned, heading for my office and the door within it.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“You’ll see,” I said, as I opened the door.