The Scribe

watcher had given him.

“No, Malachi. Would you take advantage like a Grigori? She has no idea what it means to be an Irina. She has been thrown into this world.”

“But—”

“We do not know what any of this means. And neither does she. Any Irina, deprived of an Irin family, would have reacted the same way.”

The thought had floored him. Had he taken advantage? Were his feelings an illusion? Perhaps she would have reacted to any man’s touch the same way. The memory of her lips haunted him. The memory of her skin underneath his hands was a silent torture.

“What’s put you in such a bad mood?” Rhys asked from the front seat.

“Nothing.”

“You’re a bad liar.” Rhys switched to the Old Language. “Tell me, what is wrong. Is it the woman?”

He didn’t reply, because Ava shifted and her eyes fluttered open. A beautiful smile spread over her face.

“You guys have no idea how amazing that is.”

“What?” Rhys asked from the front seat.

“Hearing it?” Malachi asked. “Out loud, instead of from our minds?”

She nodded, closing her eyes again as she turned her face to the sun.

“I’ve never understood how Irina handled that,” Rhys said. “Hearing the soul of every person you meet? I’d think it would drive me mad.”

Malachi smiled. “More mad than seeing the shadows of every word written on something?”

“That’s different.”

“Is that what you can do?” Ava asked. “You can see writing? Even if it’s erased?”

“Erased. Painted over. Plastered over.” Rhys glanced at Ava over his shoulder. “An Irin scribe can see beneath the layers to every word ever written. Like your gift, it’s a blessing and a curse. We’re graffiti experts, I tell you.”

Malachi added, “It’s also very useful when preserving and copying ancient documents, which is what most of us are trained for. All Irin magic is controlled and practiced through the written word.”

“That’s why you call yourself scribes?” she said with a smile. “I was wondering.”

“Wonder no longer, my dear,” Rhys said. “You may ask us anything.”

“Really?” She glanced over at Malachi, but he only shrugged.

“Anything you’d like. If we don’t want to answer, we won’t.”

“Oh, that’s helpful.” She sat up and brushed her hair back from her face. “Okay, my voices. You’re telling me the voices I hear are actually souls.”

“Yes,” Rhys said. “What other explanation would you have for every person on earth speaking in the same language? Humans speak in many languages, but the soul…” Malachi saw his friend’s eyes light up in the rearview mirror. “Our souls are the same. All of humanity, Irin, Irina. Even the Grigori have souls, though they’re black as night.”

“The Grigori are the bad guys, right? The ones who were following me before Malachi found me?”

“Yes, those are the Grigori.”

“They sound scratchy.”

Rhys laughed. “What? I’ve never heard that before.”

“You Irin guys sound different than humans. Your voices are… bigger.” She glanced at Malachi from the corner of her eye. “More layered, somehow. But you all—well, most of you—sound similar. And the Grigori voices sound the same, except scratchy. Like they’re out of tune.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Malachi said softly. “Every light casts a shadow. The Grigori are ours. We are the children of the Forgiven. They are the children of the Fallen. Our purpose is to protect humanity and preserve its knowledge. They are predators who have no purpose but to gain power for their masters and indulge their own perverse appetites.”

Rhys said, “And reproduce, of course.”

Ava paled. “What, really?”

“Grigori will procreate with human women, though it generally doesn’t end well.”

“And they were after me?” Her voice held a slight note of panic that infuriated Malachi.

“They won’t get you,” he said. “And they weren’t acting normally with you. They were tracking you, but not attacking.”

“And by attack, you mean…”

“Not rape the way you’re thinking,” Rhys said. “They don’t have to be violent. Leo said you saw them in the bar. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

“Handsome blokes, aren’t they? Charming bastards, every one of them.”

“They seemed a little full of themselves, if you ask me.”

Rhys burst into laughter. “That’s because you’re not human. Grigori seduce. They don’t have to attack humans. Women find them naturally appealing—well, unnaturally appealing, really. They go with them by choice. When a Grigori sets his sights on a human woman, she will go willingly.”

“So…” Ava frowned. “I’m confused. I thought you said they attacked women. I mean, they sound like jerks, but that’s not really an assault.”

“It is when the women don’t have a choice,” Malachi said. “Human nature draws them to the Grigori, and the monsters take advantage. Is that any worse than drugging someone? To take away their free will? Take advantage of them?” He broke off when he caught Ava and Rhys’s shocked stares. “It’s wrong. That’s all. The Grigori use women and leave them for dead most times. Most don’t survive, and if they do, they become infatuated with the very thing that seduced and almost killed them.”

“That’s horrible!”

“Most humans legends of succubi are based on the Grigori,” Rhys said with academic detachment. “If a human woman does bear a Grigori child—it happens occasionally—they’re usually quite extraordinary. You can’t discount angelic blood, after all.”

“And are they… normal? The kids?”

“For the most part, yes. Usually very gifted in some way. Mathematics. Music. Art. Many of the world’s geniuses have Grigori blood.”

“So I could have met a part-Grigori kid and not even known it?”

“Possibly,” Malachi said. “The strongest magic is gone, but most would still have that inexplicable something that makes them stand out in human society. And the majority show no more evil tendencies than the average human.”

Ava rolled her eyes. “Thanks so much.”

Rhys said, “Hundreds, thousands of years they’ve been hunting in the world. Grigori blood is laced through human biology like a dark thread by now.”

“I feel like I’m taking crazy pills,” Ava muttered, and Malachi tried not to smile.

“You’re processing all of this very well,” he said quietly. “I can’t imagine what you must be feeling.”

Malachi saw her reach for his hand, then pull back. And he wanted—he wanted to grasp it. Wrap it in his own. He felt like a man starved, then given a single bite of bread. She was there. She needed his touch. If he could only—

“So if Grigori and Irin are basically the same with the bloodlines and stuff, why aren’t the Irin men predators, too?”

Rhys curled his lip. “We have purpose, conscience, and discipline.”

“Don’t forget, Rhys.” Malachi watched her. “We also have the Irina.”

“The Irina,” Ava said. “What you think I am?”

“Yes,” Malachi said. “The Irina are our other halves. And they are stronger than human women.”

Ava shrank back in her seat. “I don’t have any super-strength, Mal. I think you guys are mixed up about what I am.”

Rhys laughed. “Not like what you’re thinking. And, for the record, the more time I spend with you, the more