Page 19 of Helsing: Demon Slayer
Ryan, his eyes narrowed as he watched Germaine, started to answer his superior regardless of how odd it would seem to the two women. Before he could speak, Dianne stepped around her friend. She looked embarrassed.
She cleared her throat. “You’ve got it wrong,” she said to her friend. “Nothing happened between us. He just took care of me after that insane dance party.”
“Then what’s the problem?” asked Germaine, her eyes narrowed. “Is he taking you off the ship against your will or not?”
“Helsing?” said Olivia in his ear. “How copy?”
“The sitrep can wait. Your sister can’t,” said Ryan to Olivia. “We’re in port. She needs confirmation of your orders or she’s making a big scene.”
Germaine and Dianne swiveled to look at him. Germaine’s gaze gleamed in odd avarice. Dianne’s brows had bunched in confusion, distrust visible beneath her puzzled expression.
Then her cellphone rang.
She looked at the screen, amazement now lifting her features. She glanced between Germaine and Ryan. “It’s Olivia!”
Ryan sucked in a sharp breath through his nose, his jaws again clenched.
Dianne swiped the answer button and lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
Olivia heard the wonder in her younger sister’s voice. And the thread of anger. Clearly revealed over the enhanced cellphone technology that theElioudand their retainers used.
“I guess you’ve met Ryan Helsing, my head of security,” she said, feeling her way into the conversation. She needed more intel about the situation. If Ryan’s harmonic grid had absorbed as muchdaemonicenergy as it had recorded … well, she needed to get them out of therenow.
“You can say that,” said Dianne, her words clipped. “What the hell, Livia? You sent this, thisbeastto grab me? How did you even know I was on a cruise?”
Olivia sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She really didn’t have time for this. Her feet ached. So did her upper back. Mihàil, who’d read the tension in her sore muscles, had offered to rub her shoulders for her, but he’d looked half dead himself, though that shouldn’t have been possible given how much angel blood flowed through his veins. But their daughter, only seven months old, had been up teething all night. It was the reason Olivia hadn’t checked the system logs until the cruise ship had docked in Split.
She hadn’t wanted to drag Miles into the ops center to monitor this side job. He was already covering for Ryan’s absence. And Miró needed to stay close to Stasia, who expected their first child in a matter of weeks, not lose sleep because Olivia had a foreboding about her wayward little sister partying on a Mediterranean cruise.
Olivia injected patience into her voice when she answered her sister. “Mom told me about the cruise. I’ll explain what’s going on when you get here, but Di, you know I wouldn’t have sent someone to ‘grab’ you.”
Dianne sighed. When she spoke next, she sounded a little less irate. “No, I know that. Ryan told me you sent him to protect me. Now he wants to take me to Fushë-Arrëz. Like right now. We just got off the ship, and he’s planning to pick up a car and drive me into Albaniatoday.”
“That’s right. ” Closing her eyes, Olivia paused and gripped her courage. It was always hard to convince civilians about imminent threats, but coming from an older sister, it was almost impossible. “And if he’s telling you that you need to leave now, you need to trust him. It’s literally his job, and he’s one of the best at what he does.”
Olivia watched the nanotracker that Ryan had slipped onto her sister. She’d moved about ten meters away from him. Olivia imagined her chief of security glowering, his keen gaze searching, searching for the next threat.
Dianne continued arguing.
“But it’s over the top, don’t you think? Maybe he’s been out of civilian life too long. He’s a little uptight. I mean, yeah, the dance party looked more like a rave. I won’t lie. It got a little scary there.” Dianne laughed. Olivia heard the nerves her sister didn’t intend to show. “But in the bright light of morning, everything seems fine.I’mfine.”
“Dianne.” Olivia let her authority as thezonjë, the wife of azoti, swell her voice. It was just short of compulsion, which none of Archangel Michael’s warriors would ever use, not that she wasn’t tempted.
Only DarkIrimcompelled humans against their will.
Olivia heard her sister gulp.
“What?” asked Dianne in a low voice.
“You have to trust me. Trust Ryan.”
“Actually, I do trust Ryan.” Olivia heard reluctance before Dianne hurried on. “But I don’t know why we have to leave the ship right now. All my stuff’s still in my cabin, including my passport.” She paused. “I can’t just leave everyone before the end of the cruise, Livia.”
Olivia exhaled and stood, pacing around the TOC, where the two young staff members that Miles had recruited to monitor their security systems had just started the day shift. They glanced at her, but being well trained, returned to their tasks. It was a good thing that Olivia had sandboxed Ryan’s personal harmonic system. She didn’t need Mihàil to see the danger. He had enough on his plate right now.
The sense of foreboding filled her again, sharper and more urgent. She tamped it down.
Now she exuded casualness. “Don’t worry about your stuff or your passport. They can be recovered later.” She paused. “Mom and Dad are here. And Michael’s flying in tomorrow.”
