Page 26 of The Darkness is Calling

“We’re with you, brother,” Sasha tells me from the back. “You just need to get used to her presence.”

The hope that maybe he is right stays with me as the car stops and all three of us get out in a silence that is only apparent.

No boeviki7are visible, but I know they are watching everything that moves, protecting us from the shadows, exactly as they were trained to do.

“I’ll be in my room until then,” I tell them in a dry tone and start toward the house ahead of them.

I need to clean myself before our guest sees me with my clothes and face covered in someone else’s blood.

I slowly climb the stairs, but stop for a second in front of my bedroom door. With a glance over my shoulder, I look toward the room across from mine, where the source of my current ruin is probably unpacking her luggage.

I expected her to arrive with ten suitcases, but apparently, she is not that kind of person.

Fortunately.

I like a woman to be well-groomed and beautifully dressed, but not excessive. To keep some of her natural beauty, especially if she was blessed with it. Why would some women want to ruin something God already gave them?

But those are women’s problems, and I have no desire to waste my mind on them, especially since they have nothing to do with the one in the room across the hall.

Ekaterina Borislova has something tempting in her blue gaze.

A calm, but also a fire that calls you closer.

The only problem is that her eyes do not call only to me. They lure my demons too, inviting them into a lethal dance.

When I received the mission from my father to bring her here and keep her safe, I never imagined for a second that I would be the greatest danger to her life.

Inside my bedroom – my sacred refuge – everything is quiet.

I press my back against the door and take a deep breath, my head lowered, letting the darkness blend with the blood on my skin and clothes.

But right before I turn on the light, I feel it.

By reflex, my hand goes to my gun, and I aim it at the intruder I reveal a second later, when I switch on the light.

“How does it feel when someone violates your privacy?”

Is she aware that a single second was all that stopped me from pulling the trigger that would have taken her life?

The pounding of my heart is drowned out by the sharp voice this delicate creature uses with me, as if she has no understanding of the danger she is in.

“What are you doing in my room, Ekaterina?” I hiss, the gun still aimed at her head, though it does not seem to affect her very much.

Or perhaps she is a very good actress, which I cannot say about myself, and the inner storm triggered the moment I see her.

On my bed.

With her hair falling long over her shoulders and dressed in a white gown embroidered with silver thread, she looks as if she has stepped out of a painting of angels.

So beautiful.

And so stupid.

Otherwise, I cannot imagine why she would willingly walk into the monster’s nest.

“I thought I would give you a gift,” she simply state, as if this were a normal gesture between us.

I frown, but slowly lower the gun, and that is when I see her analyzing my posture, especially my bloodstained clothes.