Wicked Circle

defined muscles like that? “He’s sending another bodyguard and more perimeter guards. He has an idea for getting help, but he wasn’t clear about whose help.”

“Of course not.” He flipped over the slices in the pan. “When will the horde arrive?”

“They are already here,” Zhan answered for me. “The perimeter guards are set up and in position.”

I leaned over the table to peer out the window.

“They’re camouflaged,” she said, pouring a cup of coffee. “You won’t see them.”

“What about the other sentinel?”

“Waiting in the car out front.” She joined me at the table. “Ares wouldn’t be quiet about someone new in the house, and I didn’t want to wake you.”

I smiled. “Thank you.” Her consideration was remarkable. Well, to me it was, perhaps not so much to the sentinel stuck in the car. “Who did he send?”

“Ivanka Chernov.”

The plainness of her voice was atypical. “And?”

Zhan sipped her coffee. “And what?”

“What’s her story? Do you think she’s a good choice?”

“She came to this country as a Russian mail-order bride. Her husband had a heart attack and died a month after the wedding. Nine months later she signed on with Menessos. That was almost six months ago. I think. Since then, she’s been well trained and is very disciplined.”

“That’s a very tidy description.” I smirked. “Now say what you honestly mean.”

“She’s scary dangerous and overbearingly stern.”

“Stern?” I asked.

“She sees everything in terms of her rank, above this one, under that one, and is eager to climb up the status ladder. She’s smart, but her strict adherence to the rules and regulations keeps her from seeing the bigger picture. So, she’s unlikely to accommodate your ‘unusual’ requests unless you pull rank. And her English is pretty basic.”

“She’s been here over a year. Won’t speaking English help her make rank?” Johnny asked.

“Yes, but she’s not much of a conversationalist, so mastering the language hasn’t exactly been her priority.”

Johnny put down the spatula. “What has been?”

His authoritative tone stunned me. Zhan hadn’t missed it either. “When you see her, you’ll know.”

I could feel heaviness fill the room, and the weighted silence made it hard to breathe. “Does she like bacon?” I quipped. “This could be a good time to bring her in.”

Zhan opened her mouth and shut it again without answering, then left.

To avoid the pup going into a sniffing and snarling conniption, Johnny coaxed Ares into the garage with another slice of bacon. “I have to give Zhan credit,” he said, putting a plate with eggs and bacon in front of me. “She’s more than a pretty thug.”

“Minimum IQ for an Offerling is two standard deviations above average.”

“Intellect doesn’t always mean someone is perceptive. Or adaptable.”

I picked up my fork and teased, “Is the Domn Lup saying he trusts a certain Offerling?”

He brought his plate and sat across from me. “Do you remember the exchange she and Kirk had at your mother’s right before the pack had to leave because of the spell?”

“Yeah. Kirk charged her with your safety. And she accepted it.” It wasn’t quite that simple, but it was an adequate summation.

“Zhan hit it on the nose when she pegged this Russian chick as a by-the-book, rank-and-rule-abiding Offerling.”

“You make it sound like rule abiding is a bad thing.”

“It can be. It sounds like she’s a . . . a . . . drone, Red. That kind of sentinel will protect you and die for you, period. But a sentinel who can think independently, who can understand the master’s bigger goal and bend the rules to be a team player in support of that goal, that’s a rarer person, a rarer kind of loyalty.”

A bite was ready on the fork, but I didn’t eat it.

“You need to know who you’re dealing with and what you can expect of them. In no uncertain terms, Zhan just told you.” He shrugged. “If you expect rigid adherence to rules, you won’t make a fine-line request that bites you in the ass.”

We locked gazes for a moment, but when the front door opened, we both ate. Still, I watched Johnny. A few months ago, he would have been flirting shamelessly with me the whole time we were alone. Now, he was telling me how to lead people. I was proud of him, glad for his shared insight, but I was also sad for the loss of our carefree days.

A tall woman appeared in the doorway. She had short, spiky black hair and a beautiful oval face that didn’t have a brush of makeup on it. Because Zhan usually wore business casual, I had expected something similar of the new sentinel. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Ivanka wore a khaki green T-shirt and military fatigues. Add combat boots and a handgun on each hip, and the zero-percent-body-fat military bodyguard ensemble was complete. Her muscular shoulders and bulging arms dominated her appearance. She had a single backpack and a stuffed GNC bag.

It was shitty of me, but I couldn’t help wondering if she’d ever been part of some Russian super-soldier experiment.

“Erus Veneficus Persephone Alcmedi, this is Ivanka Chernov. Ivanka, this is your E.V.”

Ivanka set her bags on the floor, lowered herself to one knee and bowed her head. Then she stood and mimed shooting a gun. “I have ninety-eight-point-four percent accuracy with revolver.” Her accent was thick. “I have black belt and run mile in three minutes, forty-two seconds.”

“That’s all very impressive, Ivanka.”

She pointed at the nutrition store bag. “I fix own meals and clean up. I sleep little, talk less. All I ask is three personal hours every day for strength training. This work for you?”

“Yes. You’ll do just fine.”

After Zhan ushered Ares out to Mountain’s trailer, Ivanka drove us downtown in my Avalon. She remained in the parked car.

Once we were on the sidewalk and headed for the Cleveland Arcade, Zhan casually inquired, “May I ask you something personal?”

“Sure.”

“Is Johnny okay?”

“Yeah, why?”

“He seems . . . different since Pittsburgh.”

I didn’t know what to say. He was different. Responsibility changed people, or at least when they accepted that burden onto their shoulders it did. And Johnny had accepted a burden much heavier than most. Not only had he just been confirmed as the Domn Lup—meaning he would have to step into a global spotlight—but he also had access to all the power formerly bound in his tattoos. That wasn’t something I wanted to point out to Zhan, though. Saying he seemed edgy or unlike himself would imply that he was having trouble dealing with it all.

I couldn’t do him that disservice.

Yet Zhan was just being my friend. After the commanding vibe Johnny had exuded in the kitchen this morning, any good friend would say something. Celia would have mentioned it sooner than this had she witnessed it.

But Zhan had shown she was willing to bend the rules. If I treated her like a confidante, like a good friend, that would put her in more danger. Not that I thought she would disclose girl-talk to her master, but if Mr. Manipulative wanted “the dirt,” she could be a source of it.

Ability to see the bigger goal or not, her first and foremost loyalty isn’t to me or Johnny. She serves the vampire.

We arrived at the Arcade before I had decided on an answer. Zhan hurried ahead of me to open the door. “I’m sorry, she said. “It’s not my place to ask things like that. I shouldn’t have.”