Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

auras. For all you know, black is good and rainbows are bad.” She tugged at her hand but Aleksandr refused to relinquish his hold on her. “I’m the one having a difficult time believing Prakenskii really could have the ability to use such strong magic.
    Other than my family, I’ve never known anyone else born with the same kind of strength. I guess it was rather arrogant to think we’d be the only ones.”
    “His coffee was always hot. It never cooled down.” Aleksandr suddenly grinned at her. “We used to go on field trips. Our trips were to learn to tail someone without being seen, to make a drop or rendezvous with a contact under the eyes of our instructors without their knowledge.”
    “How could you do that if they were watching you?”
    “That was the point of the exercise, to learn to be skilled enough to make a handoff or follow someone who knows they might be followed without being caught. When we were training together, no matter how long the stakeout or how cold the night, Ilya’s coffee was always hot. I wondered how he did that.”
    “I know you think he’s dangerous because of his skills as a trained operative, but Sasha, with his powers he can do incredible things and that makes him far more dangerous than you can imagine. He can slip in and out of places using suggestions to have those he wants to remain hidden from look the other way. It doesn’t mean it will work on everyone, and sometimes it’s dangerous even to wield magic, but he’s an adept user, I can tell just by how subtle he was.”
    “What did he do to Joley?”
    Abigail sighed. “We all have silly childish retaliations when we’re angry. It’s better than to lose control of our tempers. Joley intended to make him stumble as he walked back to his table, but he felt the push of her magic and he retaliated with a virtual power slap. The energy turns back on the user. In all honesty I think he shoved a little harder than he intended and it hurt her hand. We didn’t let Libby touch her because he would have felt Libby’s ‘fingerprints.’”
    “You don’t think he was really trying to harm Joley?” Aleksandr leaned forward to look out the window.
    “There they are. They have two cars. I’m going to hang back because I’m guessing they’ll have a sleeper car as well.“
    “I don’t know what that is.”
    “Sometimes a third car waits to see if the principal—in this case, Nikitin—is followed. Ilya is driving the Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    second car.” He stayed still as the two cars turned out of the parking lot. “It’s a gamble waiting for a third car, but I can’t imagine Ilya, if he’s responsible for Nikitin’s security, not taking the precaution knowing I’m here.”
    “You trained together, Sasha. He’d have to know you would be waiting to follow them. If there is a third car and it leads you to the house where they’re staying, he’s deliberately letting you find them. And you’d better worry about a trap, especially if you think Nikitin is the middleman for Leonid Ignatev.”
    “I have reliable sources telling me Ignatev put out the hit and Nikitin brokered it for him.”
    “And Ilya Prakenskii works for Nikitin. You said he’s reputed to be a hit man.” Abigail sighed. “I know you well enough to know there’s respect and even admiration in your voice when you talk about him.”
    “I had few childhood friends, Abbey.”
    That simple statement tore at her heartstrings. Damn him for doing that. There was no way to have single-minded resolve when she ached for him. She rubbed her temples, trying to ease the beginnings of a headache. “He isn’t a friend if he’s trying to kill you. You have to listen to me, Aleksandr. If he can wield magic the way I suspect he can, he has a tremendous advantage over you.”
    “We’ve had several battles. I have scars. He has scars. If he had such an advantage, why hasn’t he used it against me? We fought with fists, with knives, even took a couple of shots at one another.“
    “I have a hard time believing that you shot at him and didn’t hit him.”
    “I did hit him.” He turned on the engine. “There it is, the third car.”
    “You didn’t kill him, Sasha. And that could be anyone leaving the bar, not necessarily one of the Russians.”
    “I have a feel for these things. It’s the sleeper.”
    “You didn’t kill him,” she repeated. “Was he using magic to deflect your aim