Renata stared at this warrior - this stranger, dangerous and cunning, suddenly intruding on her world. She wasn't sure how to answer. She certainly wasn't about to give him the truth. "If you have questions, maybe you should ask him."
"Yeah," he said, studying her too closely now. "Maybe I'll do that. What about the kid - Mira? Has she been here as long as you?"
"Not as long, no. Just six months." Renata tried to sound casual, but a fierce protective instinct rose in her at the mention of Mira's name on this Breed male's lips. "She's been through a lot in that short time. Things no child should have to witness."
"Like the attack on Yakut last week?"
And other, darker, things, Renata acknowledged inwardly. "Mira has nightmares just about every night now. She hardly sleeps more than a couple hours at a time."
He nodded in sober acknowledgment. "This is no damn place for a kid. Some might say it's no place for a female either." "Is that what you would say, warrior?"
His answering chuckle neither confirmed nor denied it.
Renata watched him, questions of her own bubbling into her mind. One in particular. "What did you see in Mira's eyes earlier tonight?"
He grunted something low under his breath. "Trust me, you wouldn't want to know."
"I'm asking, aren't I? What did she show you?"
"Forget it." Holding her gaze, he raked a hand through the golden strands of his hair, then exhaled a ripe curse and looked away from her. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. The girl definitely got it wrong."
"Mira is never wrong. She hasn't been wrong once, not in all the time I've known her."
"Is that so?" His penetrating blue stare swung back to her, both hot and cold as it traveled the length of her body in a slow, assessing glance. "Alexei tells me her skill is imperfect - "
"Lex." Renata scoffed. "Do yourself a favor and don't put your faith in anything Lex tells you. He says and does nothing without an ulterior motive."
"Thanks for the tip." He leaned back against the blade-scarred post. "So, then, it's not true, what he said - that Mira's eyes only reflect events that could happen in the future, based on the now?"
"Lex may have his own personal reasons for wishing it wasn't so, but Mira's never wrong. Whatever she showed you tonight, it's fated to be."
"Fated," he said, sounding amused by that. "Well, shit. Then I guess we're doomed."
He looked pointedly at her as he said it, all but daring her to ask if he deliberately included her in that observation. Since he seemed to find the idea so damned entertaining, she wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of asking him to explain why.
Renata picked up one of her blades and tested the weight of it in her open palm. The cold steel felt good against her skin, solid and familiar. Her fingers itched to be working. Her muscles were limber from the warm-up, ready to be pushed with an hour or two of hard training.
She pivoted around with the blade in hand and motioned to the post Nikolai was leaning up against. "Do you mind? I wouldn't want to misjudge my mark and accidentally hit you instead."
He glanced at the post and shrugged. "Wouldn't you rather make it interesting, spar with a real opponent - one that can strike back? Or maybe you operate best with the odds stacked unevenly in your favor."
She knew he was baiting her, but the glint in his eye was playful, teasing. Was he actually flirting with her? His easy nature made her hackles raise with wariness. She ran her thumb along the edge of the blade as she stared at him, unsure what to make of him now. "I prefer to work alone."
"Okay." He inclined his head but took only a fractional step out of the way. Challenging her with a look. "Suit yourself." Renata frowned. "If you're not going to move, how can you be sure I won't aim for you?"
He grinned, full of cocky amusement, his thick arms crossed over his chest. "Aim all you want. You'll never hit me." She let the blade fly without the slightest warning.
Sharp steel bit into the wooden post with a solid crack, striking home exactly where she'd sent it. But Nikolai was gone. Just like that, vanished from her line of sight completely.
Shit.
He was Breed, far faster than any human and as agile as a jungle predator. She was no match for him with weapons or physical strength; she knew that even before she sent the dagger airborne. But she'd hoped to at least nick the cocky son of a bitch for goading her.
Her own reflexes honed to precision, Renata threw her arm out and reached for another one of her waiting blades. But just as her fingers closed around the tooled grip, she felt the air stir behind her, heat sifting through the swaying chin-length strands of her hair.
Razor-sharp metal came up under her jaw. A wall of hard muscle crowded her spine.
"You missed me."