Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [564]
Alexei scoffed. “Don’t be too impressed with her, warrior. Renata’s skill has its merits, I’ll grant you. But she’s too weak to control it.”
“How so?”
“She can send the mental wave out, but the power bounces back at her, like an echo. Once the reverberation hits her, she’s utterly useless until it passes.”
Nikolai recalled the debilitating blast of mental energy that Renata had unleashed on him in the warehouse. He was Breed—his alien genes giving him the strength and resilience of easily ten human men—and he had been unable to bear the pain of the incredible sensory assault. For Renata to go through that same anguish every time she used her skill?
“Christ,” Niko said. “It must be pure torture for her.”
“Yes,” Alexei agreed, not bothering to conceal his light tone. “I’m quite sure it is.”
Nikolai didn’t miss the smile on the younger Yakut’s lean face. “You enjoy that she suffers?”
Alexei grunted. “I couldn’t care less. Renata is unsuitable for the role my father has given her. She’s ineffective as his bodyguard—a risk I fear might yet get him killed one day. If I were in his place, I wouldn’t hesitate to turn her out on her haughty ass.”
“But you’re not in your father’s place,” Niko reminded him, if only because Alexei seemed overly eager to imagine it.
The vampire stared at Niko in silence for a long, awkward time. Then he cleared his throat and spat on the ground. “Finish your search, warrior. If you find anything at all of interest, you will inform me at once.”
Nikolai merely stared back at Yakut’s son, wordlessly daring the civilian to command his promise. Alexei didn’t press it, just pivoted slowly on his heel and marched back in the direction of the lodge.
CHAPTER
Six
Renata quietly opened the door to Mira’s room and peered inside at the sleeping child who rested peacefully on the bed. Just a normal little girl in pink pajamas, her soft cheek lying against the thin pillow, breath puffing rhythmically out of her delicate cherub’s mouth. On the rustic little table next to the bed lay the short black veil that shielded Mira’s remarkable eyes at all times when she was awake.
“Sweet dreams, angel,” Renata whispered low under her breath, hopeful words.
She worried about Mira more and more lately. It wasn’t just the nightmares that had set in after the attack she’d witnessed but Mira’s overall health that concerned Renata the most. Even though the girl was strong, her mind quick and sharp, she wasn’t well.
Mira was rapidly losing her sight.
Each time she was made to exercise her gift of precognitive reflection, some of her own eyesight deteriorated. It had been fading steadily for months before Mira had confided in Renata about what was happening to her. She was afraid, as any child would be. Perhaps more so, because Mira was wise beyond her eight years of age. She understood that her value to Sergei Yakut would evaporate the moment the vampire deemed her of no more use to him. He would cast her out, perhaps even put her to death if it pleased him.
So on that night, Renata and Mira had made a pact: They would keep Mira’s condition a secret between them—take it to the grave, if need be. Renata had taken the promise one step further, vowing to Mira that she would protect her with her life. She swore no harm would ever come to her, not from Yakut or from anyone else, human or Breed. Mira would be safe from the pain and darkness of life in a way that Renata herself had never known.
That the girl had been trotted out to entertain Sergei Yakut’s uninvited guest tonight only added to Renata’s current irritated state. The worst of her psychic reverb had passed, but a headache still lingered at the edges of her senses. Her stomach hadn’t yet stopped pitching. Small waves of nausea lapped at her like a slowly receding tide.
Renata closed Mira’s door, shivering a little with the roll of another body tremor. The long bath she’d just come from had helped ease some of her discomfort, but even beneath her loose-fitting graphite-colored