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child without giving her a name, Malachi? What Irina would raise her child outside the safety of a retreat?”
    He had nothing to say. Damien was right. The number of Irin children born after the Rending could be counted on a few hands. They were never unguarded, particularly the young Irina. They were hidden away and treasured by their mothers, most of whom were in hiding. His people hadn’t been whole for two hundred years.
    “I still think there is something different about her.” His voice was irritatingly hoarse. “How else would you explain the Grigori watching her like that?”
    It was Damien who paused then.
    “Jaron is…” His voice was halting. “Not as some others are. Since he has moved West, his people have not been as aggressive.”
    A derisive snort was the only answer Malachi gave him.
    Damien said, “It’s in their nature to be predators, yes. But there haven’t been as many deaths in Istanbul as you’d expect in the past twenty years. And yes, preying on women in the middle of the day like that is unusual. It’s possible that whoever was following her has been taken care of. He’s very controlling. That’s why this area has experienced the relative calm that it has.”
    “You’re acting as if there is some kind of truce between you and him.”
    “There isn’t. There can’t be; you know that. His nature has not changed, nor has ours. But he keeps a lower profile than what you were used to in Germany. Jaron is not Volund. He doesn’t like attention, and his Grigori are more subtle in their pursuits.”
    Their pursuits. Malachi sneered. What a polite name for the Grigori practice of aggressively seducing and bedding human women, often leaving them half-dead or impregnated with children that could kill them simply by being born. Malachi had been tracking and killing Grigori soldiers for over four hundred years. It was his burning purpose in life. He had yet to see any soldier exhibit restraint.
    “Nevertheless, I am going to stay with her.”
    “And when she leaves? Rhys said she’s scheduled to leave Istanbul in another two weeks.”
    “Then we’ll see what happens in two weeks.”
    “You’re not following her out of the city, Malachi. I won’t allow it.”
    Malachi bristled instinctively at the command. “Damien—”
    “I am your superior,” his watcher reminded him coldly. “I will not allow it. Leave the human woman to whatever fate the Creator has for her.”
    Malachi struggled to put into words the compulsion he felt. Ava Matheson needed to be protected. He knew she couldn’t be one of his kind, but there was still something…
    “I sense something in her, Damien. Something different. I feel—”
    “You feel hope, my friend.” The watcher’s voice softened slightly. “Something most of us haven’t felt for a very long time. But this hope… it’s your own desire. Nothing more. You’re not thinking clearly. She’s not Irina. She can’t be.”
    “I know that.”
    “Do you?”
    Did he? His eyes returned to her. Ava was sitting next to a group of children, her eyes easy, her expression relaxed. Everything Damien had said about Ava made sense. There was no logical way she could be one of their kind. None. But something about her—her reactions, her energy—screamed that she was more than human. She was other. Different. Even the way she held herself away from the crowd while trying to blend in was familiar.
    “I’ll follow her while she’s in the city. After that…”
    “You’ll return to your duties, Malachi. You have a job to do. Leo and Maxim are already covering your shifts.”
    A smile touched the corner of his mouth. “But I thought Jaron’s Grigori were the civilized ones.”
    “A civilized Grigori is still a threat and an abomination. Some things will never change, including our mission.”
    Malachi was tired of Damien’s constant discipline. Tired of the endless nights of stalking and waiting and violence. Perhaps someday he would join the more