Shadow WIngs (Skeleton Key) by Skeleton Key, JC Andrijeski Page A

wish...”
    Ilana scowled, but Tasha only flipped her long dark hair over one shoulder, laughing louder. Ilana couldn’t help noticing that Tasha looked as fashionable as always in a forest green jacket and skirt. Certainly better than Ilana herself did in her dusty black, two-year-old suit jacket and boots. Maybe she should take more advantage of the perks of her position.
    At least buy herself some better clothes.
    “Maybe you and your friend want to get drinks with us later?” Tasha prompted, still grinning at her. “I could ask him these questions myself? I find myself quite... stimulated... by the idea of interrogating him personally.”
    Ilana snorted. “You are ridiculous, Tasha.”
    “Come now, don’t be greedy. Grigor is curious too, I can tell.”
    “I think we will be working,” Ilana muttered, still watching Raguel where he bent over the shoes with Tasha’s husband. “Perhaps another day.”
    “I will take you up on that. I wish to hear all about this ‘work problem’ of yours that comrade handsome with the sex-eyes insists on helping you with personally...”
    Ilana snorted again in spite of herself.
    Again, Raguel glanced back at the two of them. That time, Tasha noticed his glance as well, but only laughed, rubbing her friend’s shoulder affectionately with one hand.
    They’d found black leather dress shoes that fit Raguel by then. As soon as they’d settled accounts, Ilana found herself ushering him out the door as quickly as she could before Tasha could embarrass her for real. Raguel watched her hand over the rubles and then take the receipt from Tasha’s husband with a frown on his face, however.
    As they walked out the door, he spoke to her in a low voice.
    “I have no way to pay you, Ilana,” he said.
    Shouldering on her coat, she waved this off, not bothering to answer.
    He followed her in silence.
    He didn’t try to speak to her again until they were outside the GUM store altogether. By then, they’d walked half of the long block back to where she’d left her used-to-be-gold Zhiguli parked on the snow-dusted street.
    “Ilana.” He caught hold of her arm, right as she’d been reaching for the door handle to her driver’s side door. “We should talk about this.”
    She exhaled, looking up at him. She felt her cheeks heat involuntarily when she saw that intense gaze of his focused on hers, worry etched in his frown.
    “Do not trouble yourself about this, comrade,” she said, dismissive as she averted her gaze. “It is only shoes. You needed them. It is done.”
    “But I’ll need to eat in this form, as well.” He spoke as if these things had only just occurred to him. “...I have no place to sleep. If I sleep outside, I will be even colder than I was this morning. I will also likely be arrested again.” He swallowed, tightening his hold on her arm. “I do not wish to sleep outside, Ilana.”
    Ilana found herself staring out over the street, watching the traffic pass.
    She hadn’t thought about any of these things consciously yet, but it occurred to her that she’d already made up her mind. She simply hadn’t admitted as much to herself, much less to him. Feeling herself flush warmer, she fought an inexplicable wave of irritation at him. It occurred to her that her irritation came from him forcing her to speak that assumption aloud.
    “You will stay with me,” she said, not looking at him.
    His fingers tightened on her arm. “You don’t mind?” He sounded openly relieved.
    “No. I do not mind.”
    “I am a criminal though,” he said.
    She smiled at that. She couldn’t help it. Shaking her head, she exhaled some of that humor in a snort. “If you are what you say, then I should help you, da? As a fellow law enforcement officer, at the very least? And even if you are human now, will I not go to hell if I do not side with the Angels?”
    He smiled, shaking his head in return.
    “There is no religion in the Motherland,” he reminded her gravely.
    She heard the