Crowbones

CHAPTER 33

Ilya

Firesday, Novembros 2

Sex in the human form wasn’t the same as mating to produce offspring when a Sanguinati female was in season, but with Natasha, there was a pleasure to the act that Ilya hadn’t found when participating with human females as a way to feed. There was pleasure in holding her afterward to strengthen the bond between them.

And there was comfort to not being alone while he struggled with troubling thoughts.

“Does anything about Kira’s behavior bother you?” he asked, thinking about the feeling Michael and Ian Stern had conveyed to Grimshaw about the girl.

“You’re asking about the way she teases Karol?” Natasha countered.

Was he asking about that? “Tell me.”

“He is infatuated in a way that humans indulgently call puppy love. He is eager for her attention, flattered when he receives it, and downcast when Kira shows a preference for Viktor’s company.”

“Kira and Viktor are close in age. Karol is younger and not as mature.”

“Yes, but he doesn’t want to be paired with Lara and seen as a child, so being ignored by Kira and Viktor stings,” Natasha said. “Others in our shadow have heard her set Karol a ridiculous task and then give him high praise if he performs it. She is careful around me—and around you too, I think—but I’ve begun to wonder why she was chosen for this fostering.”

“Why these four youngsters?” Ilya asked softly. “We were supposed to foster Lara and Karol for a season or two. Why did we end up with Kira and Viktor as well?”

“There must have been a reason for the change,” Natasha said. “And all the youngsters had the necessary permissions from the leaders of their home shadows.”

“Did they? Papers can be forged.”

Natasha propped herself on one elbow and looked at him. “That would be so . . . human.”

“Yes. Isn’t a human connection exactly what we’re looking for?” The concern Grimshaw had conveyed to him had been about Kira. Nothing had been said about Viktor, the other unexpected arrival. If Grandfather Erebus had a reason for sending the two older fosterlings to Silence Lodge, he had chosen not to share that reason. Maybe because the leader of all the Sanguinati in Thaisia had decided that Ilya’s experience before becoming the leader of Silence Lodge might be needed? If that was the case . . .

“Is Lakeside hosting as many fosterlings?” Natasha asked.

“I don’t know. But the Lakeside shadow has many more Sanguinati who can keep watch over the young.”

Natasha lay down and settled comfortably on his shoulder. “You’re worried one of the fosterlings is connected with the contamination.”

“They are here. So is Crowbones. It’s hard not to wonder—and worry.”

“If there is a connection, you will find it,” Natasha said.

Will I find it in time? Ilya wondered.

It was a question that might not have an answer—until it was too late.