Saints and Sinners

Twenty-five:

Twenty-five:

"How can you be so sure?" Alina said with her hands on her hips, glaring at her soulmate. "Is this why you've been sending Fedyor with me? I figure Matthias was just on vacation, and that he'd be back. But you...you've been vague ever since we had that dinner at The Emerald Palace."

Aleksander sighed. "Matthias might work for me, but I know you and Nina are friends. And that you're friends with him too. I didn't want you to worry until I knew that it was something."

Alina glanced to her friend.

The med school student gave her a sad look. "I'm sorry, I should have told you sooner. But Matthias mentioned you were having a hard time with your own Blessing so I didn't want to freak you out sooner. But I can feel everything he feels you know and..."

"What?" Alina said. "Is he in pain?"

Nina nodded. "I think he's been taken by his former commanding officer. Jarl Brum looked at him like a son and Matthias tried to kill him when he discovered that he was doing some unsavory things. He came to Ravka and ended up working for Aleksander, and then he met me. He never went back home and Brum wanted him to marry his daughter. Matthias and me had actually met first because of Brum, because I went to boarding school with Hanne, Brums daughter, and Matthias was her guard. Her father had plans to arrange a marriage between them because Matthias was supposed to take over his position once he retired as head of the Fjerdian Royal Military Intelligence. I.... well....I got a letter from Hanne not too long ago and Matthias went to check on her because he was worried. That was a day and a half ago."

"Do you think Hanne is working for her father and trying to lure Matthias back home?" Alina asked.

Nina shook her head. "No. Hanne's not that kind of person. She was the sweetest girl I knew, and fiercely brave, but she came from a hard family. She didn't have the chance to be the kind of person that she would have like to have been, I think. I always worried about her after I graduated but with my med school studies, I never had time to keep up with everything going on."

"We've got to take you to a safe house, Alina," Aleksander said, "that's why I was going to come get you."

Alina frowned. "A safe house? Why?"

"Brum and me have a history," Aleksander said "and not a particularly good one. He doesn't like that I helped Matthias seek shelter instead of turning him over to him. So, he's going to come after anyone that kept him from getting revenge on his favorite son, for lack of a better word. He'll go after everyone I care about. That especially includes you, Sunshine. I need to keep you safe, so you've got to go away for a while."

"But school----"

"I've already talked with the University," he said, "everything will be fine, I promise."

"What about you?" Alina said. "We're not supposed to be away from each other for that long. If we are, we won't be able to survive without each other."

Aleksander walked around the desk over to where she stood, cupped her face and kissed her. "There's a way around that. A very, very dark way but for me to do what I have to do to help Matthias we're going to have to make do."

"How?" Alina asked.

"I can give you my blood."

Alina flinched. "Sasha, the last time I checked, we were soulmates, not vampires."

He smirked. "No. It's just that your life force and mine feed off each other. Soulmate legend says that if you give your soulmate a little bit of your blood, it will keep the two of you strong enough that you won't lose your energy if you're away from each other for a few days. Nina is going to draw some blood samples of us before we go and she's going to come with you to keep herself safe and administer shots."

Alina glanced at her friend. "But what about you, Nin?"

Nina smiled. "Matthias and I already had a few vials put away in case something like this happened. We knew there was always the possibility that Brum would come after him. But we didn't think that it would be this soon. I've got everything I need to survive in my car. I just need Fedyor to take us to the safehouse, and as long as Aleksander and Jesper manage to get back in one piece with Matthias alive then I'll be okay."

Alina didn't want to ask the question she had on the tip of her tongue. Which was, but what if Matthias doesn't come back? Soulmates couldn't live without one another. They withered and died if they were kept away from each other, or if the other was killed, so would their soulmate. Alina couldn't imagine a world without either Nina and Matthias in it. She didn't like to think about that, and she certainly didn't like to think of Aleksander going off on such a dangerous mission.

Aleksander reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It will be fine, Alina. We'll rescue Matthias and everyone will come back in one piece. No one will die, I promise."

She frowned. "How did you know I was thinking about that?"

"Because," Aleksander said, "I'm your soulmate, remember? I can feel what you do." He kissed her again.

Alina pulled away and sighed. "Okay. I'll go to the safe house. But if you die on me, Aleksander Morozova, I swear to whatever Saints will listen, I'm going to be pissed. Because I'm too young and too cute to die just yet."

Aleksander chuckled. "Don't worry, Sunshine. I wouldn't want to deprive the world of your cuteness."