“Of course. And your friends will serve as your guarantors.”
“Of course.” Kade’s tone perfectly echoed Anna’s.
Anna frowned at him, then turned her eyes to Ruxandra. “What about you, girl?”
Some small part of Ruxandra was tempted to offer to leave Moscow and let Kade meet his fate as punishment for lying to her. As satisfying as that might be, however, it would not stop the magicians from summoning a dark angel.
“I will abide by the same terms as Kade,” Ruxandra said, “save that my ‘help’ does not include killing for political purposes.”
Anna scoffed. “Conscience? In a demon? Amusing. Very well. I agree to your terms, both of you, but know you are under surveillance.”
“We know,” Kade said. “My friends?”
“Alexi will take you.” Anna walked toward the door behind the throne. She stopped and looked back. “I can’t wait to move the capital back to St. Petersburg. This city is a shit-hole.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Kade bowed low, Ruxandra curtsied, and Anna stalked out.
“If you will follow me?” Alexi said. “I can lead you to your friends.”
“Thank you.” Ruxandra glared at Kade, making him swallow hard and back up a step. “And on our way, Kade will explain exactly what is happening here.”
Chapter 8
“Right,” Ruxandra said, the moment they stepped outside. “Talk.”
“I arrived in Moscow fifteen years after I left Elizabeth.” Kade held out his arm for her. She ignored it and stared at him. He shrugged and started down the stairs. “Fifty-five years ago.”
“I can do math,” Ruxandra said. “What I can’t fathom is why you worked for the Russian royal family.”
“Where one finds power, one finds knowledge. I wanted their knowledge.”
“So you advised Peter?”
“The First, yes,” Kade said. “I had established a merchant business in St. Petersburg to keep money flowing, and discovered several things I thought beneficial to the empire. So I arranged to meet the emperor. He was somewhat shocked at my presumption until I told him what I knew. Then he suggested we formalize our relationship. He paid me enough that I could give up being a merchant and gave me access to libraries in exchange for making use of my . . . skills. I lived in St. Petersburg but visited Moscow many times over the years before he died, which is how I knew the Alchemist.”
“How many did you kill for him?”
“Surprisingly few,” Kade said. “Peter was well liked for a reason.”
Alexi led them around the palace. The building behind stood taller and larger, its bricks red and yellow and orange. It looked like a fire, warming the Kremlin against the cold white of the other buildings. Domes and a long sloped roof, both shining gold, capped it.
Ruxandra pulled her eyes off the architecture and back to Kade. “And then Anna came to power?”
“No. Catherine, Peter’s wife, sat on the throne for two years before she died, then his grandson, Peter II. He was the opposite of his grandfather: profligate, uncaring, interested in sex, alcohol, and gambling, not in any particular order or combination. He informed me that he had no use for me, so I moved to Moscow.”
“In the time you worked for Peter, did you ever see his men use magic?”
“Not once,” Kade said. “But then, he did not know I was a vampire. Neither did Anna, until now.”
“So when you said few people saw you . . .”
Kade shrugged. “It was mostly true, after Peter died.”
Ruxandra growled. “You are . . .”
“Infuriating?” Kade suggested. “Secretive, self-serving, and mercurial?”
“All those.”
Kade smiled. “It is fortunate, then, that I am charming company.”
Ruxandra rolled her eyes. “Not as much as you think.”
“But you are,” Kade said. “Charming company, that is.”
“Oh, please.”
“Ruxandra.” Kade caught her hand, bringing her to a stop. She turned, ready to extend her talons to make him let go. Kade bowed, brushing his lips against her skin. It left a tingle that ran from her hand to the hairs on the nape of her neck.
“You are charming,” Kade repeated. “And I wish to stay at your side, if you can trust me.”
He is a smooth one, isn’t he?
And charming.
And very . . . The words that leaped to mind better described his body than his personality. His hard, perfectly sculpted vampire body. She set them aside. Persuasive. He is very persuasive.
“And now,” Kade called as they rounded the corner of Terem Palace, “perhaps Alexi can tell us our destination?”
Alexi pointed ahead of them to a long white building, three stories high and lined with barred windows. The place smelled of coal and smoke, oil and steel, and paint.
“This is the armory,” Alexi said. “Our destination is beneath it.”
Guards flanked the round-topped doors. They saluted Alexi, and one knocked on the door in a complicated code. A moment later it opened, and two more guards appeared in the doorway.
“Memorize these two,” Alexi said in Russian. “They may come and go freely.”
“Yes, sir!” The guards stepped aside. Alexi took them down a long hall to a much smaller iron door and another pair of guards. Again he received a salute, and again he told the men to memorize Ruxandra and Kade. One guard lit a lantern for him, and Alexi led Kade and Ruxandra down a set of spiral stairs carved into rock.
Ruxandra counted a thousand steps before they reached the bottom. A long, narrow hallway stretched out before them, seemingly with no end. The gray stone walls rose up to become the arched ceiling. It felt older than the other buildings Ruxandra had seen in the Kremlin. The cut of the stones reminded her of the ruins that dotted the countryside near Rome and Tuscany.
They walked for a half hour, and still the end remained out of sight. The air smelled fresh, despite the depth below ground. At last they saw a red door cutting off the hallway. Alexi took out a long key and put it in the keyhole. It turned with a loud click. He pushed the door open, and a bell clanged, loud and suddenly.
The door opened onto a wide marble balcony. A domed ceiling stretched fifty feet above their heads. A mural of a forest covered it, trees and grasses adorning the dome in a riot of green.
“Visitors!” called a woman’s voice.
Kade surged forward, pushing Alexi aside. “Alchemist!”
He ran to the edge of the balcony, looked down, and then jumped over.
Ruxandra stepped forward. Below lay a large, open floor with tables lining the length of it. Five people with lanterns in their hands milled about in the empty space, all talking at once. Kade had his arms wrapped around a tall woman in a dark-red wool shawl, her blonde hair pulled back into a high bun. A frail old man with spectacles and an astonishingly fat younger one with a thick black beard stood beside them. Kurkov and Eduard stood back.
“By God!” Kurkov’s voice echoed through the room. “Kade! They caught you, too?”
Ruxandra looked up at the dome above them. “Humans didn’t build this, did they?”
“Why do you think that?”
Ruxandra pointed at the ceiling. “There’s not enough light for them to see the dome, so why paint it in so many shades of green?”
Alexi’s smile returned. “You’re the first to guess it. Your king and his followers built these rooms.”
Ruxandra frowned, then remembered. “The vampire king. Why?”
“To help them escape the summer sun in Moscow, I expect—which lasts most of the night, I should warn you.”
Ruxandra surveyed the room. “How long were they here?”
“A hundred years? Five hundred? No one knows. In the end we rooted them out.”
“How?”
Alexi shook his head. “You must be joking.”
“I wasn’t, no.”
“Then I must disappoint you by not answering. Follow me.”
&
nbsp; He led her to a staircase—also marble—and down to the main floor. The magicians and the Alchemist stopped their celebration. The Alchemist stepped away from Kade, her hands falling to her sides, her eyes on Alexi.
Up close, she stood as tall as Ruxandra, with bright-blonde hair that was fading to gray over a high forehead, a hooked nose, and a strong jaw that held full lips. She was thin and looked tense as whipcord ready to break. She wore a plain brown skirt, stained and smelling of a dozen different chemicals.
Alexi pointed to a bronze door set deep into the wall. “There is another exit there, Ruxandra. It takes you up to the surface, to a church outside the inner walls. Your friends are free to go outside when they please but may not leave the church grounds. You and Kade have the freedom of the city, provided you continue to honor your agreement with the empress.”
He looked over the men and woman standing there. The Alchemist met his gaze without flinching. The others backed away, gathering behind Kade.
Kade frowned at Alexi. “Where are the others? Sasha, Victor, Dimitri?”
“Safe,” Alexi said. “Isn’t that right, Alchemist?”
“Imprisoned, he means,” the Alchemist said. “Kept there for assurance of our continued good behavior. We visit them every day to ensure they stay alive.”
Kade’s voice dropped to a growl. “I do not like that.”
“I will convey your thoughts to Anna.” Alexi did not look the slightest bit intimidated. “How goes the work?”
“Slow,” the Alchemist said. “There are a hundred thousand books, scrolls, and tablets here, plus the ones from our library. We do not know the system they used to catalog them, so we divided them by language, and then by subject.”
“This is not the task the empress gave you.”
“The empress must understand that these things take time.”
“The empress,” Alexi stressed the word, “wants results, and she wants them very soon, or she will insist that you all receive a second correction to your behavior.”
Ruxandra didn’t need to reach out with her mind to feel the collective shudder run through the men there. “I dislike threats.” Anna, so do I.
The Alchemist showed no reaction at all. “Torture will not help us learn ancient Babylonian.”
“And why do you need ancient Babylonian?”
“It is the language of the spell,” the Alchemist said. “What we needed is our friend, who learns languages faster than anyone. Now that he is here, the work will speed up.”
“August is over,” Alexi said. “Her Majesty expects the full ritual to be ready before the end of September.”
Without waiting for a reply, he strode past the Alchemist and opened the brass door with an easy pull. He left it open and went up the stairs on the other side, his light soon fading into darkness.
“That man,” Kurkov said, “needs to be fucked long and hard until his spirit calms. Otherwise he will explode from his own tension.”
“A fuck does not solve everything,” said the older man, who reminded Ruxandra of some strange species of bird with his wild head of long gray hair and thick mustache. “Much as you might wish it. Life is deeper and more sorrowful than that.”
“It may not,” Kurkov said, “but it most certainly does not hurt.”
“Ha!” the Alchemist said over her shoulder. “Spoken like a man who’s never had to fear becoming big with unwanted child.” Her eyes, though, were on Ruxandra. “Kade, is this she?”
“Yes.” Kade stood beside Ruxandra and took her hand. “Please address her in Italian or French, as she only began to learn Russian a short while ago. Friends, may I present Her Highness Princess Ruxandra Dracula, daughter of Vlad Dracula of Wallachia. The first among us.”
“The first?” The old birdlike man peered at Ruxandra. “Nonsense. She doesn’t look a day over twenty.”
Ruxandra glared at Kade. “Exactly how many people have you told about this?”
“Only a few.” Kade patted her arm. “These men I would trust with my life.”
“Only the men?” the Alchemist asked.
Kade bowed low. “My deepest apologies.”
“He apologizes, sure,” the Alchemist said to the rest, “but introduce me? Of course not.”
She pushed the old man staring at Ruxandra out of the way. “Move aside, Michael, you old lecher.”
“I am inspecting this marvelous creature,” he said with dignity.
“You were looking at her tits.” She thumped him on the shoulder and flashed a smile at Ruxandra. “Not that I blame him, because you have a lovely pair. But is it true, what Kade says about you? That you are the first vampire, a great hunter, and a terrifying Beast lives within you?”
“Do you doubt him?” Ruxandra asked. But I am not the first vampire. And that is the most interesting thing of all.
“Every time he opens his mouth.”
A bark of laughter escaped from Ruxandra.
The Alchemist grinned. “Kade’s love of secrets is only surpassed by his love of half-truths. Other than that, he has many excellent qualities.”
“Including excellent skills as a lover?” asked Kurkov, getting a chuckle from the other men.
Ruxandra raised an eyebrow toward Kade. He had his mouth firmly shut but appeared to be enjoying himself.
“Yes, you dirty old fool,” the Alchemist said, without the slightest hint of embarrassment. “As anyone in the house knew already.”
“As anyone on the street knew, with the noise you make.”
“This from you!” The Alchemist winked at Ruxandra. “When this man is receiving, he whinnies and grunts like a mare getting plowed. As anyone on the street knew!”
Kurkov’s face reddened. “The young lady does not need to know details!”
“The lady,” the Alchemist said, the humor vanishing from her voice, “is not young. She just looks young. Don’t you, Princess?”
“Ruxandra, please.”
“Oh no.” The Alchemist moved closer, eyes blazing with interest. “You are definitely ‘Princess.’ And before you think we have no manners, gentlemen, introduce yourselves.”
“Michael,” said the wild-haired mustached one. “Magician and astrologer. And one who is most grateful to have lived long enough to meet you. What you must know, Princess! I am astounded.”
“Less than I would like,” said Ruxandra. “But thank you.”
“Derek,” the black-bearded one said. He might be the fattest man she had ever seen, Ruxandra thought. His cheeks were so plump they squeezed his lips and ears, and his belly strained against his shirt, not only in front but also on the sides. Rings of flesh obscured his wrists. “Also a magician and explorer of occult creatures and rituals.” He sounds self-satisfied, thought Ruxandra. But the old one, I like him.
“Derek is very unhappy here,” confided Kurkov. “They won’t give him enough to eat.”
The man’s color rose. “And what they give us is vile and tasteless. As if we were thieves and cutthroats, not scholars.”
“What scholar breaks his fast with an entire pork shoulder and three black loaves?” asked Kurkov, opening his hands in astonishment. “Oh, my dear fellow, we are lucky you are not a vampire, or the there would be no warm body left in the city of Moscow.”
“Kurkov, one would think you were six, not sixty. Pay no attention to his foolery, Princess. I am, of course, the Alchemist. May I examine you?”
Ruxandra blinked in surprise. “Here?”
“Not here, but there are rooms—”
“The princess came here to help in our work.” Kade stepped in front of Ruxandra. “Unless it changed since Anna took control.”
“Did she?” The Alchemist leaned around him. “Can you read?”
“Romanian, Hungarian, Latin, Italian, and French,” Ruxandra said.
“Not Cyrillic?”
“No.”
“She will learn,” Kade said. “Just as I did. And just as quickly.”
“He does learn quickly,” the Alc
hemist said. “Not so quick as to make up for his other failings. Move, you great ox!”
She pushed Kade. He did not budge an inch. The Alchemist sighed, walked around him, and caught Ruxandra’s arm.
“Come,” she said. “Let me show you the rest of our humble abode.”
“I will go with you,” Kade said.
“Pish.” The Alchemist waved him away. “Don’t be so jealous. I won’t steal your lover.” She turned to Ruxandra. “Unless you want me to steal you?”
“Not just now,” Ruxandra said. “And I am not his lover.”
“Not now but not never? Interesting.” A distinct smell of arousal, unnoticeable to the human nose, rose from the Alchemist. She wrapped her arm in Ruxandra’s. “Come with me and see all the amenities our prison offers.”
The Alchemist grabbed a lantern off the table and led Ruxandra away. To Ruxandra’s consternation, she was chuckling to herself.
“May I ask what is funny?” Ruxandra said as they walked between the rows of bookcases.
“Kade. Jealous.” The Alchemist chuckled again. “As if he has anything to worry about from an old woman like me.”
“He isn’t,” Ruxandra began.
The Alchemist stared at her. “Of course he is! The old lover walking with the new? He definitely is jealous, and worried that we will compare stories.”
“I am not his lover,” Ruxandra repeated. “Nor am I yours.”
“You will be. Mine, at least.”
Confident, aren’t you? “Are you giving me a tour or gossiping?”
“Touchy.” The Alchemist shrugged. “Fine. We’ll begin with the important thing.”
She led Ruxandra down a flight of stairs and a short corridor and through a large brass door. On the other side, to Ruxandra’s amazement, were the baths. Two marble pools—one so hot it steamed, the other cold for soaking—took up most of the room. A trough of moving water ran the length of one wall. Marble benches lined the others. Ruxandra stared in amazement. “How?”
“I have no idea,” the Alchemist said. “It looks like a Roman bath, but I cannot fathom how they managed to build it. The marble looks like the work of a master mason. There are no seams we can see, and the water is always fresh and hot. And we are a good hundred feet below ground. It doesn’t seem possible.”