Saints and Sinners

Fifty-two:

Fifty-two:

There was a plan. Now, however, when he got to the safehouse he saw that Alina was nowhere to be found. Nina and Hanne were alone. He could see the two of them in the kitchen. They knew of him, of the plan. He could easily go in and ask what had happened, but The Starless Saint had been around long enough that he knew what had happened. Alina had not followed through with the plan. She was back with Aleksander, making things difficult. The Starless Saint paced back and forth outside of the safehouse, trying to think of what to do.

Alina was supposed to make it look like there had been a rift between her and Aleks. And to start working for Nikolai in the process. They were supposed to use Nikolai's charity event as a way to be able to get access to The Darkling. But Alina wasn't in the house. Which meant that she had to be with Aleksander.

"Are you spying on me?" he turned to see Alina standing behind him.

"I wanted to make sure you did your part," The Starless Saint replied, "you weren't here."

Alina's cell phone rang then. "Give me a moment." She answered it. "Mr. Lantsov?"

There was a pause.

"Alright, yes, I can call you Nikolai if you think that it's professional..."

The Starless Saint shook his head. He watched as Alina conversed with him, only half paying to the conversation as they weren't talking about anything he needed to pay attention to. "...no, I'm not sure that I'll be needing a plus one for the event. We're not talking at the moment."

He took a breath. That was what he wanted. "You didn't go to Aleksander?"

"No, I didn't," said Alina.

"Then why didn't you come home after your meeting with Nikolai?"

"Are you stalking me?"

The Starless Saint laughed. "The only interest I have in you is making sure that you do exactly what I need you too. Of course, I'm watching you."

A small smile crossed Alina's face. "Did you watch her, too?"

"Who?" he asked.

"Your Alina."

He bristled at the mention of her. "What does it matter to you?"

"Well, she must have been special. If you waited all of this time so that you could be reunited with her. I mean, surely there wouldn't be any other reason that you would want The Darkling open other than to reunite with her, right? You wouldn't lie to us?"

"No," he said, "I wouldn't."

"Right. Can I ask you something?"

"What?"

"How did you come up with the idea of having powers? To fool the Tsars? That's a clever idea, to protect the Saints."

"Why do you care?" he asked.

"Because it's clever."

His lips twitched into a smile. "It wasn't my idea. It was Luda's. The soulmates were persecuted before, and she thought if we could get the tsars to believe that we were magic they would protect us. Luda used her magic to help make it seem real. And then...."

"Then what?"

"You know what happened. I told you the story. You don't need to hear about it again."

"Right," said Alina, "I'm playing my part. You don't have to worry about me. But do we have to worry about you?"

"Why would you?" The Starless Saint asked. "I'm here for Alina. I want to free her from the trap that she's been in for centuries."

"You're an immortal. You've been around for centuries. There's plenty of things that you could be plotting on that we don't know about. You have seen this all before. You've had time to be a million steps ahead."

"All I need is for you to play your part, Miss Starkov. Are you going to?"

Alina nodded. "That was the agreed upon arrangement. After Luda came after me, I don't think I can handle anything else strange in my life. The sooner you are out of it, the better."

"Good. Then we've nothing to worry about. I'll see you at the charity function."

He walked away, and Alina slid into the apartment.

When he was gone, her cell phone rang. "Did he buy it?" a woman's voice asked.

"Every word," she replied."