Page 89 of The Silent
“On second thought,” Leo said. “You head to Alyah and Sura. I’ll go back tothevan.”
“Very well,” Niran said. “Though she’s not as helpless as youthink.”
“It’s not that she’s helpless,” Leo said. “It’s that I’d be uselesswithouther.”
* * *
Kyra watchedthe forest from behind shaded lenses and waited. Every now and then, she’d hear something stir, but she thought it was only birds or small animals. She tried to look like a bored tourist, all the time keeping her senses open and aware of the humans and others around her. She didn’t want to listen too closely and threaten her own consciousness. She knew if she reached too far with her hearing, she was deaf to anything else, and the last thing she wanted was to bevulnerable.
She heard an unknown Grigori coming and her hand went to her knife… but the voice veered away before it reached the road, heading back into the hills above her. There were humans up the road, but they were going about their daily life and didn’t appear to be moving either toward or awayfromher.
Twenty minutes after they’d left, she heard Leo coming through the trees. He sounded easy and happy, and she knew nothing was wrong. She turned toward him before he broke through thebushes.
“There you are,” he said with asmile.
“Everythingwentfine.”
He nodded and embraced her. “We had to kill four soldiers who came at us with weapons, but the rest fled or we were able to knock them out. Have you heard anythingfromSura?”
She shookherhead.
Leo said, “Niran was going to lookforthem.”
“Convincing the women might bedifficult.”
“It probably will be, but you never know. Most of it depends on how many women they’ve seen die. Do you rememberPrague?”
Kyra nodded. How could she forgetPrague?
The Fallen they’d killed outside Prague the year before had abused his human lovers horribly. He’d killed so many that the survivors were plotting to find a way out with their children even before Leo and his previous watcher, Damien, had led a team to extricate them and kill the Fallen. Most of the children they’d rescued were still in Damien’s castle, learning how to control their sometimes fearsomepower.
“We’ll give them ten more minutes,” he said. “Then we’llgoin.”
They emerged in eight. Niran carried a little girl, no more than three years of age, while Alyah carried a baby and three women walked behind them, Sura following. One of the women was visibly pregnant, though Kyra suspected another might be from the softness around her face. The other woman looked nearly dead. She followed Alyah closely, and Kyra suspected the baby the Irina singer was carrying was a Grigori son who had nearly drained his motheroflife.
We’re all murderers. We kill our own mothers when they giveuslife.
Her brother’s bitter words never left her. Kyra’s own mother was dead, of course. All the human mothers were. Looking at Niran and Sura, Kyra wondered if they carried the same guilt that Kostas carried like a yoke aroundhisneck.
“Can I help?” she askedAlyah.
Alyah nodded to the nearly dead woman. “Do you speak anyFrench?”
“I do.” Kyra approached the woman, who began to cry and reach forherbaby.
“Please,” she said in broken French. “Please,myson.”
“What is your name?” Kyra asked, bringing a blanket and a bottle of water to the woman. “Look, my friend is being so gentle with him. Ipromise—”
“He’s my son,” thewomansaid.
“She’s from a hill tribe,” Alyah said. “I tried to explain to the others, but I don’t think sheunderstoodme.”
Kyra put the blanket around the woman’s thin shoulders and helped her into the back of the van while Leo and the others helped the other women into the middleseats.
“Sit next to us with the baby,” she told Alyah. “She’s not going to listen unless you bring him close enough for her toseehim.”
Through rudimentary French, Kyra tried to explain to the human woman why her own child could be making her ill, but Kyra didn’t know how much the woman understood. Eventually, as the van bumped back to the country inn, the human woman fell asleep, her bronze skin sallow and her cheeks hollow withsickness.
