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of the two men as they walked off in the midst of an argument. Not for the first time, she cursed her face and physique. Despite the nondescript way she dressed, her dark hair, silver eyes, sculpted cheekbones, and pale skin made her stand out in a crowd.
    Reznak landed in LA nine hours later. Alexa watched him cross the lounge toward her and experienced the same mixture of irritating emotions his presence always engendered. Officially, Reznak was one of her employers. Unofficially, he was her godfather, her mentor, and the closest thing to a family she had in this world.
    She bore only hazy recollections of the time when he had found her on the battlefield outside Narva. Once the Crovir noble realized that she would not regain her memory, and after his attempts to trace her family came to a dead end, he took her under his wing and brought her to his home. Over the following decade, Alexa was educated by the finest human and immortal tutors in Europe, not only in conventional subjects such as the sciences, languages, and literature, but also in the art of war; as Reznak quickly discovered, she excelled in all forms of combat.
    It was not until she entered immortal adulthood at the age of eighteen and her aging slowed that she sensed her mentor had developed an attraction for her. Yet Reznak never once acted on his desires. Alexa had always wondered whether this was because of some outdated feeling of chivalry and morality or just that the prospect had literally scared him. As time passed, he seemed to come to terms with his feelings for her.
    Though she would never admit it to him, Reznak was not an unattractive man. Nearly seven hundred years old in immortal terms, he looked like a human in his fifties, and had kept himself in shape over the years. He had a strong and compelling presence most women found alluring.
    ‘Alexa,’ Reznak said with a formal nod as he took the seat opposite hers.
    ‘Dimitri,’ she murmured in response. She glanced to where his bodyguards hovered by the door and the bar, their hooded eyes scanning the room before acknowledging her with a stare. ‘What’s this about?’ she said, her gaze switching to her mentor’s face.
    Reznak did not reply immediately. ‘I hear your mission went well,’ he said with a faintly indulgent smile.
    Alexa clenched her teeth. All she wanted to do right now was catch the next flight to New York and return to the peaceful solitude of her apartment in Manhattan. ‘It did,’ she said briskly.
    ‘Good,’ said Reznak. His expression sobered. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. ‘I have another assignment for you.’
    ‘I haven’t heard anything from the First Council,’ she said after a short silence.
    Reznak shook his head. ‘You won’t be working for the First Council on this occasion.’ His eyes were steady on her face. ‘You’ll be answering directly to me.’
    Alexa raised her eyebrows. ‘Is the Council aware of this?’
    A grimace crossed Reznak’s lips. ‘Not yet,’ he replied grudgingly. ‘I’ll be informing them shortly that I’ve appropriated you for a…special quest for the Immortal Culture and History Section. That’s if you accept the mission, of course.’
    She studied his troubled countenance. ‘It’s not really my territory,’ she said.
    Reznak sighed.
    Alexa observed the shadows under his eyes with a trace of concern. She knew of the pressures that had befallen him in the weeks following the death of the last leader of the Crovirs. Because of the latter’s actions, they had been on the verge of another immortal war with the Bastians, their enemy of old. Reznak had been part of a group of Crovir and Bastian nobles who had helped avert the disaster. She had been on a mission in South America at the time and had not been directly involved in the action.
    ‘I know it isn’t,’ her godfather murmured. Something shifted in his eyes. ‘But I need you for this. You’re the only one who can take on this