Chapter 30

Black clothes. Maybe sweatpants and a hoodie with the hood pulled up? It happened so fast. But not a big person. Hard to tell if they were thin or just rangy with the baggy clothes, but definitely not bear-sized. Average, I guess.

No idea on height. I’m no good at that and they were on the road, with nothing to compare against.

—Eyewitness report as recorded by Detective Vo Zaitsev (today)

“EXIT ONTO EMERGENCY shoulder,” Theo instructed the car once she was close to the scene.

As she’d expected, the system didn’t question that order; it tended to be one of the built-in overrides when it came to mandated automatic navigation zones. Communicating seamlessly with the other vehicles around them, it shifted lanes with ease until it came to a stop on the emergency shoulder, mere feet from the Enforcement cordon.

The red beams of lasers sparked angrily against the morning light.

An officer in plain clothes immediately walked over to the window she’d already lowered. “You can’t stop here,” he said in rapid Russian. “Is your vehicle in trouble? If so, we can give you a ride out and you can organize to retrieve it once the area is clear.”

“This is Yakov Stepyrev’s vehicle.”

The officer raised his eyebrows, then stood up and spoke into the microphone dotted at his collar. Leaning back down shortly, he said, “You’re cleared to remain here. But don’t leave your vehicle. This is a live scene. Understood?”

“Understood,” Theo said, because she knew how to play the game when it came to people in power. No one ever expected trouble from the meek and mild persona she adopted in such situations—so no one watched her.

So easy it was to fool others into seeing her as not worth their attention.

In this case, however, she had no intention of breaking the rules. “Officer,” she said before he could walk away. “Is Yakov all right?”

“Of course. He’s a bear.” As if that was all that needed to be said.

She found that strangely reassuring.

A little of the tension leaching out of her muscles, she relaxed into the seat and observed the scene in front of her. A white tent blocked any view of the body, for which Theo was grateful. She’d had enough death in her life, didn’t want to see any more.

But not all of what was happening was obscured from view.

The forensic techs in their head-to-toe white coveralls, their faces covered with clear masks and their hair tucked neatly under the hoods of the coveralls, moved around the site in a quiet swarm.

Taking samples, shooting photographs, setting up evidence markers.

Enforcement officers outside the cordon wore the city’s dark blue uniform. A number spoke into phones, while their colleagues directed traffic. But she was most interested in three people in ill-fitting suits—two women, one man—who stood on the far left of the road, their attention on the forested area on that side.

Detectives. Waiting for Yakov.

Who was too fast for them to follow.

Climbing into the rear section of the vehicle through the seats, she grabbed a bottle of water from the storage area for when he came back, then returned to her seat. She expected to sit there for some time, but Yakov appeared out of the trees less than ten minutes later. His face was grim, the shake of his head a hard negative. After a short conversation with the dejected-appearing trio, he looked around, spotted her, and jogged over.

Theo had already shifted to the passenger seat and now passed him the bottle of water. “You lost the trail?” she asked after he’d emptied it, his body so hot with energy it was tongues of flame on her skin. “At another road, I assume?”

But Yakov shook his head again, a pulse ticking in his jaw. “In the middle of the forest.” Grit in every word. “I even went up a tree, thinking that perhaps he’d climbed up. Bears aren’t the best climbers, but I checked the canopy on every side, and even did a wider circle just in case. Nothing.”

Light dawned, the reason for his frustration crystal clear. “A teleport-capable telekinetic.” A nightmare of a person to hunt. Someone who could vanish and appear at will, constrained only by the level of their power.

“That’s not the worst of it.” Exhaling, Yakov threw the empty bottle into the back seat. “This stays between us, Theo.” Not a question. Not an order. Just . . . a statement of trust.

Warmth uncurled inside her stomach, flowed into her veins. “I won’t say anything.”

“I tracked one scent from the body to the place in the forest where I lost it—but I’m certain I scented two different individuals at that spot.”

Theo sucked in a breath. “A teleport assist?” She could barely wrap her mind around it. “Serial-killing pairs are rare.” A fact she knew because of her obsessive research about murderers and what drove them.

“Rare but they do exist.” Yakov stared at the scene beyond the windshield, the tendons in his neck standing out starkly against his skin. “My nose doesn’t lie. There are two people involved in this.” His hand fisted against the steering wheel. “I can scent the victim’s death from here.”

Theo didn’t know much about how to offer comfort, but she did what he’d done for her and reached out to take his hand. His fingers closed over hers, his body a furnace.

It did something to her that he accepted her faltering attempt at help without a pause.

“Unless Enforcement needs you to stay, we should go,” she said, hating that evil had found this man so warm and good. “Get you some clean air.” Now that she had a better idea of his sense of smell, she knew why he’d used the word “death” rather than blood. Because it wasn’t blood alone that he was picking up.

“My nostrils feel lined with malice.” With that, Yakov lifted Theo’s hand to his nose and took several long breaths.

She’d been trained all her life to pull back from physical contact—but she’d never been truly Silent. And she liked touching Yakov and being touched by him. More than that, she understood that this wasn’t about crossing boundaries. “My scent?” she asked softly when he raised his head at last.

Perhaps it was her imagination, but he looked calmer and more centered.

“Delicate and steely and lush and complex and far better than the mess outside.” Rubbing his cheek against the back of her hand before he let it go, he started up the car and told it to merge back into the flow.

He only lowered the windows once they were some distance from the site.

“I’d better call Moon and Elbek,” he said a couple of minutes later. “Give them a heads-up about our detour.”

Theo nodded, scanning his face as she did so. The lines of strain had eased, his skin no longer pulsing with heat and anger. With his hair falling across his forehead, he could have looked young and boyish—except that there was too much determination and maturity in his expression. This was a man who could be relied on, a bear who was a foundational piece of his clan.

“Got you on speaker,” he said when Elbek answered. “So act like you have some manners.”

“You’re just sore I won that award for Best Manners in fourth grade” was the growled comeback.

“It was a pity award,” Yakov said with a sniff. “We’re running late.”

“Yeah, Valya called already. Bad situation. You okay?”

“Other than wishing I could rip off the fucker’s head, yes. We’re twenty minutes out, with coffee and baked goods.”

“See you both then. Bye, Theo. No good-byes for you, you sore loser.” The last words were followed by an apparently unfriendly grunt.

Yakov was grinning when he hung up, his bad mood vanquished—at least on the surface.

Theo did not understand bears. “Your clan has an unusual way of interacting.”

“Can’t argue with that.” He drank some of the coffee he’d abandoned earlier; she’d closed up his cup so that it’d remain hot. “You’ll get used to it.”

Theo felt her skin tighten, wondered if he realized what he’d just implied.

From the way he went still for a second, she thought he did. Then he said, “I trust you, Theo,” and completely cut her legs out from under her.

People didn’t go around just declaring such things.

But he wasn’t people. He was a bear.

And she was starting to realize what that meant.

“You’re under my skin, pchelka.” Taking her hand again, he lifted it to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles.

She sucked in a breath, panic beating at her because of how much she wanted this. “Aren’t you afraid of how fast it’s happening?” Theo had no ability to judge, had never before been—or wanted to be—in such a situation. “I’m a fractured creature of pain and shadows.”

Another kiss to her knuckles, this one softer. “Oh, I think you’re a lot more than that.” He put her hand on his thigh.

Her heart thudded, her face hot, but she didn’t break the intimate connection.

“As for the speed of things . . . I have a confession.”

“Oh?” Theo froze.

And got a scowl. “Stop expecting a knife in the back.” An order. “Bears don’t do that shit. We’d rather punch someone full in the face than go about trying to be stealthy and sneaky. That’s for cats. Never trust a cat who offers to sell you a life insurance policy, that’s what my dedushka Viktor always says.”

Theo found herself digging her fingers into his thigh in an effort to hold on to her footing. “Do cats often sell life insurance policies?” she asked, befuddled.

“No, but they could. Don’t buy one.” Yakov squeezed her hand. “So you know how my great-grandfather was an F-Psy?”

“What?!” It came out a shout.