Honored Vow

you and me, who cares?”
    “Right.”
    “I get it.”
    “But do you also see the problem?”
    “Well, yeah, Russ was here for months without telling the semel of
    LA he was here, so that’s why he’s in trouble.”
    “They probably think he’s an amenta.”
    “I’m lost again.”
    I just looked at her.
    “What?”
    “You know, really, I weep for your tribal education. Who taught all
    you guys?”
    “Just never mind, what the fuck is an amenta?” she snapped at me.
    “Well, it used to be that a semel would send an amenta into another’s
    territory to live and gather information and sometimes even join another
    tribe to learn all their secrets before they attacked and took over.”
    “Like a sleeper cell.”
    “I guess, sort of.”
    “And so they could, what, execute Russ as an amenta?” She giggled.
    “Yes,” I said solemnly.
    “Oh, Jin.” Her face scrunched up, and I saw the fear finally grab
    hold of her.
    “Honey,” I soothed her, taking her hand. “If they were going to do
    that, they would have to alert his family first, that’s the law, and since if
    anybody called the house it would forward to my phone,” I said, holding
    up my iPhone so she could see it, “we’re okay. They’re probably getting a
    hold of their maahes, and then he will contact his semel…. We have time
    to figure this all out.”
    “Okay.”

    Honored Vow

    45

    “First things first, we have to make contact with the manu or the
    bakhu or the maahes.”
    “Okay,” she said again, calming down, “all right.”
    We started walking again.
    “But what keeps them from hurting us once we make contact with
    them?”
    “Love,” I said, smiling gently, “I’m a reah.”
    She took a deep breath. “I forget sometimes.”
    “Which I like.”
    She threw herself at me, and I grabbed her and hugged her tight.
    After a minute, we went on.
    The bistro was small and intimate, located close to the Santa Monica
    pier. There was seating outdoors close to some heaters, and when the
    waitress showed up after the hostess left, we ordered some flatbread to
    start and the house wine. It took only minutes for a very handsome man in
    a Versace suit, no tie, to show up at our table.
    “Good evening,” he greeted us. “I’m Dennis Jennings, the manager
    here. Welcome to Bella Mia.”
    “Thank you.” Delphine smiled at him, offering him her hand. “It’s a
    pleasure to meet you.”
    He took it, kissed it, and gave her a dazzling smile, all perfect white
    teeth and gleaming blue eyes. “The pleasure’s mine.”
    “I’m Delphine Kovac, and this is Jin Rayne.”
    He turned to me after reluctantly releasing Delphine’s hand.
    I offered him mine.
    The second he took it, he jolted and his hand tightened involuntarily.
    The smile was gone, the muscles of his jaw clenching tight instead.
    “I’m looking for Ruslan Church,” I told him, lowering my voice,
    narrowing my eyes as I looked up at him. “Tell me, have you seen him?”
    His eyes were huge as he stared at me, and I parted my lips, inhaling
    him, his scent, tasting his power or, as it turned out, lack thereof.
    “Are you the manu or the bakhu here?”
    “I—” He looked so confused. He understood I was powerful, but he
    also knew I wasn’t a semel. He didn’t have the overwhelming feeling to
    submit to me, so I couldn’t be a semel. “I don’t.” He shook his head.
    “Who are you?”

    46

    Mary Calmes

    I released my pheromones, because he was fighting instead of
    answering.
    The man grabbed for the edge of the table, clutching at it to keep
    standing. My hand, he held onto for dear life.
    “Jin,” Delphine whimpered, her eyes, when I looked at her, heavy
    with need.
    Shit.
    I stood and eased the man down into the chair beside me. When I
    looked at him, his eyes were glassy and unfocused.
    “That was fuckin’ brilliant,” Delphine snipped at me, taking shallow
    in-and-out breaths.
    “I didn’t mean to—”
    “It’s because you’re missing Crane. Right now you don’t have 100
    percent control over your power, and since you don’t know how strong it
    is to begin with….” She trailed off.
    “You’re saying I’m like some nuclear reactor or something?”
    “Yeah, an unstable one. Think about it. Back when I first met you,
    we could all tell you were different, but we couldn’t quite put our finger
    on why. The difference was noticeable but not overwhelming. Now your
    power sort of grabs you by the throat and shakes