Legacy in Blood (Book 1 of The Begotten of Old Series) by Masha Dark Read Free Book Online Page A

a shit about state secrets.”
    “Don’t be in such a rush,” said Goldberg mournfully. “You have no idea what kind of sight awaits you.”
    “I want to see my friend,” Marisa repeated.
    For several tense moments they drilled holes in each other with their eyes. The elderly man and the young woman. The ex-teacher and the ex-student. The superior and the subordinate. He had experience and she had youth, and therein lay their strength…and their weakness. Finally, he yielded.
    “Go,” Goldberg said in a tired voice. “I’ll order them to let you pass.”
    As far as Marisa Sukhostat, Special Agent of the Homicide Division of the Coalition could remember, she had never cried. Not even when she was in a lot of pain. When she was five, her cheek had been cut and three of her teeth knocked out by a bully. The insult of being beaten had overwhelmed the pain, even though he had been twice Marisa’s age. The event took place in the cellar of the orphanage where the young people struggled for position among themselves by stealing tins of caviar from the food store. Not black caviar, and not even red caviar. Squash caviar. Marisa was quick on her feet, but her agility lost to brute physical strength. The children stood and watched as Sery grabbed Marisa by the hair and pushed her face into the dirty, concrete floor. But she did not cry – she withstood the humiliation, gritting her remaining teeth and swallowing saliva salty with blood. And after a minute a black-browed boy burst into the cellar with the hilt of a shovel in his hands and hit Sery on the back as hard as he could. Sery let out a piecing howl and dropped to his knees, freeing Marisa.
    “Let’s get out of here!” said the boy. As Marisa got up, he took her by the hand and dragged her towards the exit. “Make way, you sons of bitches!” he screamed at the children who were trying to block their path.
    Apparently, the shovel hilt in his hand dispelled their doubts, and none of Sery’s gang dared to hinder the escapees.
    It was Marisa and Ruslan’s first meeting. From that time forward, they were always together. He was a part of her life, and she was a part of his. In their virtues and shortcomings, their advantages and disadvantages, they complemented each other. Marisa was a brilliant student, Ruslan often received D’s. In the end, this disparity cost them both: him because he copied from her, her because she allowed him to copy.
    Later, when they were at the Academy, things changed somewhat: he stopped copying completely and eventually received a commission; she, no longer guilty of any infractions, traveled to the US and Europe a few times to acquire experience and exchange expertise with foreign students. The first time they were separated was before the boom of cheap texting. It was the internet that saved them. Every day, Marisa received two short, awkward emails from Ruslan. She sent back two of her own – much longer. They missed each other greatly, even if they never admitted to it openly.
    There was also rivalry between them. After the Academy, when they came to work in Goldberg’s department, Marisa and Ruslan burned brightly on the job, completely giving themselves over to their labor of love. Ruslan had received optimal physical training, and he emerged victorious from any scuffle without having recourse to the handle of a shovel. However, Marisa also improved herself every day. She studied languages and the occult sciences, investigated the theoretical aspects of world religions and read a lot of literature, from belles-lettres to the classics. Ruslan was ready and willing to kill time by tailing some follower of a voodoo cult around the clock, but he had difficulty reading translations of the reports of his colleagues in the US, which Marisa could recite from memory. As a result, the victor’s laurels almost always fell to Marisa. Ruslan, of course, suffered because of it, but he never showed any evidence of doing so. And in truth, he