The Darkness in Dreams (Enforcer's Legacy, #1)(57)

Two padded iron chairs were arranged around a table set with glasses of lemonade. Renata sat in one chair. Lexi slid back the other chair. Renata looked younger than expected, but perhaps the photos had aged her. Or the look of terror that had been in her eyes. When the woman spoke, it was in English.

“You have memory lines?”

“Yes.”

“Mind if I check?”

Lexi allowed Renata to take her wrist and hold it in the light. Two lines glimmered in the sun.

“You haven’t recovered many memories,” the woman said as she released Lexi’s hand.

“Does it matter?”

“I can’t expect you to understand if you haven’t remembered enough to know.”

“I understand what it’s like to have the dreams,” Lexi said. “That should be enough.”

Renata’s face tightened. Her right hand held a tracery of memory lines that looked like a spider’s web. The woman sipped at the lemonade and Lexi felt precious time tick by until Renata returned the glass to the table.

“What do you know about warriors?” Renata asked.

“I came to Italy with them.”

“Do you know what they are?”

“Yes.”

“Can you accept that?”

“I’m trying,” Lexi answered truthfully.

Renata’s gaze centered on the red geraniums where a bee darted through the curling petals. The buzz was distinctive and blended with the sound of nearby traffic. The heat of early afternoon was beginning to shimmer; all of the shutters on the upper windows were closed.

“Tell me about your dreams,” the woman said.

Lexi hadn’t expected the request. For a moment she felt reluctant, then spoke clinically as if describing a location to a client.

“The night terrors are of short duration. They’re full of violence. Overwhelming grief. It takes a long time to… shake the fear, and then I’m afraid to sleep.”

Renata nodded. “Dante helps me recognize the difference between the night terrors and the past life dreams. Does your mate do that?”

Lexi stared at the plants edging the balcony and said yes, Christan did. She didn’t elaborate.

“But you’re lucky.” Renata was staring at the bee as it moved from flower to flower. “You haven’t had many past life dreams.”

“Why am I lucky, Renata?”

The woman looked at Lexi. “You can taste the food, yes?” Lexi nodded. Renata shrugged. “You don’t want those dreams.”

Lexi remembered the dream of Gaia, trembling in a man’s arms. The sense of longing and loss. The touch and the taste. Sunlight cast hard shadows and Lexi shivered despite the heat. Recalling the purpose for this visit, sitting on this little balcony, Lexi leaned forward and asked, “Can you tell me about an American girl named Katerina Varga?”

The report compiled by the Italians revealed the long friendship between the two women. They had remained in touch for years. Were probably still in touch. Renata stared impassively. “Why are you interested?”

“We think she’s in danger.”

“She already knows.”

“Your warrior protects you, doesn’t he, Renata? Kat’s warrior wants to protect her, too.”

“I doubt he’ll find her. She doesn’t wish to be found, but she definitely doesn’t want to be found by him.”

“Why?”

“Because of the Agreement. You’re one of us. You know.”

“Perhaps I don’t understand, Renata,” Lexi said. “Why does the Agreement alarm you?”

“If they find you, they claim you, and you become a used thing, not even in control of your own choices. The only way to be safe is not to be caught.”

“Is that what Katerina is doing, hiding so she can’t be caught?”

“He traps her. We’re all trapped.”

Renata’s eyes were bright with moisture and her expression vacant, as if she was tangled in her own skittering thoughts. It was clear, now, that she’d been broken in a way that crushed the heart. Lexi felt a wave of compassion.

“Your English is excellent,” she said, moving the conversation in a safer direction. Renata seemed to refocus on the geraniums. The woman was fragile and violently strong at the same time.

“I lived in England for several years,” Renata said. “That’s where I met Katerina. Why she came to Italy.”

“To see you and for her research?”

“Yes.”

“Did you teach her Italian?”

“I helped with pronunciation. She speaks like a woman from Florence, now, not Rome. She’s very good with languages.”

Lexi leaned forward, placed her hand on Renata’s arm and took one more chance. “Do you know where Katerina is? If she’s having dreams like you have, like I have, I can help her.” Lexi paused. “Will you help your friend?”

Renata’s eyes tracked another bee as it flirted with the red flowers. The woman was so silent, Lexi thought she was lost again, running alone, down an alley in her memory. But when Renata refocused, her eyes were dark and clear.

“She likes a little cafe by the museum where you were today.”

“The Museo Archeologico?”