Shades of Red

by T L Christianson

  “You can’t take the good without the bad.” As tempting as it would be to argue with him, I knew I couldn’t defend the moroi lifestyle. “I can’t imagine being raised by a clan leader. A woman I turned, Sarah, was adopted by Aurev and I. I think all she ever wanted was a normal family.”

  Crickets and bird noises filled the air between us until the bounty hunter spoke again, “You and Aurev are together?”

  I turned my head to meet his eye but he avoided my gaze.

  “No,” I laughed, “Aurev and I are not together in that way. We’re just friends.” Shaking my head, I laughed again. “No, he’s like...he doesn’t. It’s not like that…” I stumbled over the words.

  Something changed in his eyes at my bumbled speech and the corner of his mouth quirked up involuntarily.

  “It’s none of my business anyway,” he whispered as his long strides ate up the hill.

  A warm sensation spread through my core. So, it was like that, huh? I laughed and plodded along the grassy slope behind him, a stupid grin across my face. “It’s okay. We’re all adults here,” I told him.

  Our moment of happiness was quickly at an end when Alexei suddenly stopped and bent to a crouch.

  “Pizdec!” He spat out, giving me the impression that it was some kind of swear word.

  The metallic scent hit me like a tidal wave, and I gulped.

  “Blood,” I breathed out.

  Chapter Five

  “I’m going to check it out,” Alexei whispered back at me, charging up the hill toward the raised buildings at the crest.

  “Hey!” I called out quietly. Ducking down, I moved slowly up the slope, my shoes struggling to gain purchase on the mud.

  A screened-in main entrance sat between two wood-sided raised cabins. Gripping the edge, I peeked through the building. Alexei stood, hands clasped behind his head, eyes closed in pain. After a second, his steel eyes snapped open, staring at the ground.

  Biting my lip, I was tempted to call out. Instead, my feet took me around the side of the main building. As I turned the corner I was roughly grabbed, the cold steel of a gun pressed to my temple. It was Alexei, but before I reacted, he’d released me and took several steps away.

  Gasping, I stumbled, bent over, my hands on my knees while I panted in fear.

  “What was that about? You scared me to death!”

  His hands trembled, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t sure it was you. I couldn’t take any chances.”

  Calming my frayed nerves with deep breaths, I nodded. “You’re pretty fast for a human.”

  He turned away from me to where I’d seen him from the other side of the screened room. A moroi man lay in a pool of blood, his body rapidly decomposing.

  Pacing, his hands on his head, Alexei took measured breaths to calm himself. When he’d managed to take control, he strode over to the dead man and kneeled.

  “Fuck,” he spat, hesitating.

  My feet made no sound as I neared the bounty hunter, standing across the body.

  “You knew him?”

  “Yes,” He whispered.

  Alexei swallowed audibly before pulling a ring from the man’s finger.

  Tilting his head to the side, the bounty hunter coughed from the smell, cringing slightly as he unclasped a saint medallion from the body. Wiping his hands on a kerchief, Alexei then patted down the man’s pockets before removing a wallet and mobile phone.

  “Fuck!” He whispered and clenched his fists when he’d finished. “You bastard! Eating your damn semki all the time! Chto, chert voz'mi, sluchilos'?”

  “I’m so sorry, Alexei.”

  Standing, his expression closed, he began to walk away. “I need to dig a grave.”

  “Wait! How do you know it’s safe? Shouldn’t we check the perimeter or try to track down whoever did this?”

  “We’re fine,” he said, running his hands over his face. “This was done by someone else. Amy hasn’t been here. This was another moroi.” He sighed, “They’re gone now. I only hear one heartbeat nearby; it’s the cook. She’s hiding in the kitchen.”

  “How do you know? How do you hear that well?”

  He didn’t answer and just strode away into the forest, picking up a shovel that leaned against a small garden shed.

  I watched him walk away until he disappeared into the trees. Taking a soothing breath, I smelled the air again. Moroi saw scent trails and could track anyone or anything. There’d been three moroi in the building: the dead man, a man and a woman. Two other moroi had been here, and they’d taken a human male, his scent trail infused with fear.

  My own heart raced, “What have I gotten myself into?” I asked over the jungle noise. Behind that sound, a single human heart beat rapidly from inside the cabin.

  Pulling on the screen door, its spring creaked. The screened-in porch lay silent and empty. I reached down and removed my shoes before stepping onto the smooth wood plank floor. My pale, mud-streaked bare feet padded quietly as I moved through the cabin into the dining room.

  “Hello?” I called out, following the heartbeat.

  A whimper came from an adjoining room to my right. My feet followed the sound, and I called out again in Spanish this time. The weak human was terrified and probably in shock. At least I could fix those things.

  Pushing the kitchen door open, I followed the quick beat of her heart toward a cupboard.

  Grasping the rusting metal latch, I opened the doors slowly. Sitting in the bottom was a tear-stained local woman. Her gaze asked if I was friend or foe.

  I drew on my strength to make her forget and fill her mind with a false memory. I spoke in Spanish, “Hey there sweetheart, you’re just fine. Nothing happened here, except for that scary dog that got inside the building.” I shook my head and smiled, pulling a laugh to lighten her mood, “How silly we were to be so scared, you see? No dog anymore.” I motioned to the empty room.

  Her forehead smoothed at my persuasive enthralling words and she smiled back, a short bark of a laugh escaping her mouth.

  “I’m so silly. I don’t know why I let that dog scare me so much.” Her eyes roamed the kitchen, “What a mess! That damn dog!”

  The small dark-haired woman began to pick up dishes and pots, straightening the room.

  I spotted some blood on the floor and quickly amended, “The dog drug a dead animal inside also!”

  Shaking her head, she smiled at me. “It’s fine, sit down, I’ll get you something to drink.”

  “Thank you, I think we both need a pick me up.”

  She opened a carton of juice, pouring it into a glass. I picked up the fallen chairs and set a large pot onto the counter.

  “Are you Senior Vasiliev’s friend? The one he went to pick up from the airport?” She asked, pretty coherent for just having her memories altered.

  “Yeah, I’m Hazel.”

  She smiled and gulped her juice, “I’m Evy. Rodrigo owns the lodge, he’s my uncle.” She glanced around, “Where’s Senior Vasiliev?”

  “He’s outside taking care of the…animal.”

  “I need to start the generator. Are you hungry? I should’ve started dinner already!”

  I shook my head. “Thank you, but there’s no need to cook. You should go.”

  “Are you sure? Those men must be starving. I need the generator to run the lights and clean up at least.” She busied herself, lighting a small gas lantern and re-shelving the remaining pots and pans.

  “I’ll go start the generator—you stay here.” I told her as I watched her continue to clean up.

  “It’s around to the left,” Evy called out. I began to put my shoes on when I heard her cry out in warning, “Watch out for that devil dog!”

  The generator was old but easy to start. I walked back to the central courtyard where four separate buildings protected the space. Alexei rolled the corpse onto a fraying and ancient oil tarp, his face covered by a bandana. I picked up the discarded shovel and began to turn over the blood and gore-soaked soil.

  Our scient
ists struggled to learn more from moroi physiology because of this rapid decomposition. The older the bloodsucker, the less was left.

  Alexei struggled to get the body onto the tarp, so I bent down and pushed from the other side.

  “What’s his name?” I asked quietly.

  “Viktor, he’s—was my closest friend,” his words broke the cacophony of chirping jungle bugs that had picked up their choir in the background.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  He rolled up the bundle and picked it up.

  “This death isn’t what worries me the most. There were two other moroi in our group—Maria and Roman. They’re gone, and I worry about what’s happened to them.”

  I followed him into the jungle, “Amy wasn’t here. But if it was her and she took them, then they’re still alive.”

  He hesitated before setting the wrapped up body down next to a freshly dug grave. “I fear that Viktor may have had the better fate. I’ve heard of what she does to her victims.”

  I pursed my lips. “If it’s any consolation, I’ve been told that she drugs them—with fentanyl—it’s one of the…”

  “Few drugs that work on moroi. Yes, I’ve heard that too.”

  I’d heard the stories from Sarah. Amy was a serial killer of both humans and moroi. She’d earned the nickname “The Butcher” because of what she did to her victims in the name of scientific discoveries.

  Alexei pulled his shirt off, his strapping six-pack flexing as he jammed the shovel into the dark earth, covering the grave. Guilt pricked at me for admiring his toned physique while he suffered. Was this a result of being a moroi, or from merely going without sex for…oh shit, years. I grimaced—I really was married to my job, to Aurev…in all the ways that counted except for the most important. Aurev was beautiful and amazing, but unattainable. He didn’t do relationships. I knew he had women, usually humans, but not for anything more than a night.

  Thinking about Aurev made me curious about this sexy Russian in front of me. He’d awakened something inside me.

  “Is Maria…your…wife? Girlfriend?” I was fishing for his marital status but also wondering how devastating it would be if we didn’t find his friends.

  “No, no, nothing like that. She’s a soldier in my Clan, as is Roman. I find it very hard to believe that they were ambushed and overpowered.”

  “Amy is clever, doesn’t play by the rules and thinks out of the box. I’m sure she manipulated the situation somehow. I’ll look around at the lodge.”

  “I will too, maybe there’s an explanation.”

  He began packing down the dirt with the back of the shovel. When finished, he knelt beside the unmarked grave. Pulling out a GPS device, he pressed buttons until it beeped. He was saving the coordinates of Viktor's resting place.

  When it was clear that he wasn’t going to stand any time soon, I knelt down beside him, the loose ankle straps of my sandals poking into sensitive skin.

  Alexei pulled Victor’s medallion from his pants pocket and crossed himself before kissing the object. His voice was barely above a whisper as he prayed above his fallen comrade. When he finished, his eyes met mine in resignation.

  I wasn’t a religious person, but I knew the Russian Orthodox prayer for the departed. “O God of spirits and of all flesh, who hast trampled down death and overthrown the Devil, and given life to Thy world, do Thou, the same Lord, give rest to the souls of Thy departed servants in a place of brightness, a place of refreshment, a place of repose, where all sickness, sighing, and sorrow have fled away…”

  When I finished, we sat in the quiet, the bug sounds filling our ears and reminding us that life would go on.

  “Thank you for that,” he told me.

  Reaching over, I took Alexei’s dirty hand in my own and squeezed, his rings pressing into my skin.

  I hesitated, “What do you want to do once we figure out what happened to Maria and Roman? Stay here in Peru or go? I’m with you either way.”

  His voice was gruff, “We’re staying. And I’m going to get the Butcher and bring her in.”

  I nodded and studied his long fingers in mine, the dark earth beneath his long nails, his strange rings and bracelets with bizarre symbols.

  “Okay. We’ll stay.”

  When his other hand covered mine, I met his gaze, our breath mingling between us.

  “I’m sorry I brought you into this.” He told me, “I’d take you back if you weren’t my last hope.”

  I eyed his face, long dark lashes framing his eyes above a straight nose that had probably been broken a few times and the black lip ring in his lower full lip.

  Reaching up, he wound his fingers into my hair, cupping my head. When he leaned closer, his lips slightly parted, his steel eyes flicked to my mouth.

  “Are you hungry?” I asked, stopping his advance. I wasn’t sure what I wanted, and this indecision made me hesitate to begin a physical relationship with him.

  “I’m not going to eat until I figure out what’s going on. Let’s go.” He licked his lips, a sad smile in his eyes.

  His hand untangled from mine as he stood. We walked back to the lodge, each in our own heads.

  My mind was on the Butcher, Amy. I hadn’t wanted to come here because it would open up a Pandora's Box of everything that happened with her in New Jersey. Everything I let happen.

  Amy was a monster, and it was at least partly my fault she escaped from the Trenton lab. I’d been the one to arrange her accommodations. My soft spot for Sarah had led me to be careless. She should’ve been in a high-security jail cell, not a luxurious apartment.

  Escaping for her had been child’s play.

  Amy had once been a small fourteen-year-old girl—in Egypt—where she’d been changed by some sick moroi and turned into a pet for the Pharaoh. The girl had survived on wit and grit until she’d become a self-styled scientist.

  The real scientist, a virologist, Dr. Sarah Shepard, told me that Amy’s science notes looked like a cross between medieval alchemy and random medical texts. She was smart, but her knowledge was still full of holes.

  The reason this girl, this child, had a 50 Million Euro bounty was because of a deadly blood borne disease she’d managed to create. It looked and acted like the flu in humans, but in moroi, it attacked our usually impenetrable immune system. Black boils, fever and often death followed, giving it the name Vampire Plague due to its similarity to the bubonic plague of history.

  Chronos was on the path to a cure, but many moroi were dying every day.

  She’d tainted the world’s blood supply for us.

  She had to be stopped.

  She should’ve been stopped long ago, but Amy was such an ancient moroi that the elders turned a blind eye to her murderous exploits.

  Not any longer.

  Chapter Six

  Returning to the courtyard, I stopped Alexei with a hand to his arm and told him how I could see the scent trails of his friends, two other moroi and a human.

  “So, what do you want to do after we eat? Do you want to search for your friends?”

  Alexei pointed to a small bungalow on the right side of the courtyard before heading inside the main building where the sounds of dishes and smells of lovely food came from.

  Picking my packs up from the ground where I’d left them, I sucked in a breath and made my way over to where the Russian had motioned.

  My cabin had a small porch with a hammock and chairs. Under other circumstances, it would’ve been rustic and charming. Inside, there were two twin beds, each with a mosquito net, single pillow and spare sheet folded into a tidy square.

  Throwing the string bag and handbag onto the foot of the mattress, I curled up on the other side, breathing in the humidity dampened pillow. The laundry had been washed in the river and dried in the breeze, giving it a rich earthy scent that reminded me of Alexei.

  Voices came from outside, and I sat up on my bed on alert.

  Evy stood in the courtyard with the bounty hunter, shaking her head as Alexei trie
d to speak to her in English. She held a large bundle made of colorful fabric that bulged with its contents. When Alexei counted out some American money, she readjusted her grip on the parcel to accept the cash.

  He was paying her off to leave.

  Would she be safer here or somewhere else? Was the camp targeted because there were moroi here, or because Amy had new and hungry vamps?

  I had question upon question to ask Alexei and was preparing to call out to him when he spotted me through the window.

  His stride ate up the ground as he retrieved his bag from the porch and opened the door.

  “I think it’s safer for us to stay together.” He held up a hand to hold me off. “I know you’re moroi, and I’m sure that you’re very capable,” he struggled on the “V” sound. “But I’m trained to fight and defend people.” His eyes were tight, and I could tell he expected an argument.

  “Okay,” I shrugged. “What about the cook? Is she leaving?”

  Alexei sat down on the roughhewn bench and began taking off his boots. “Evy leaves every night to go home to her family and comes back in the morning; I paid her for the week. You altered her memories? Did you get any information out of her first?”

  I shook my head. “No, I just wanted her to calm down.” I hesitated, “Are we safe here? Should we leave?” I inwardly cringed and hoped that wasn’t necessary. However, sleeping in the forest was far superior to getting murdered in my sleep.

  “No, I think we’re fine. I checked out the adjoining cabins across the courtyard. All of Roman and Maria’s weapons are gone. I don’t think they were attacked at all. I think they were away when the camp was attacked and are tracking whoever did this.”

  “So, do we go? Help them?”

  “No. We stay here and wait for them to come back. If they don’t come back in a day, then I go. You stay here.”

  Shaking my head, I pulled the pencil from my hair, allowing it to fall down over my shoulders. “I don’t understand. Why did I come, if not to lure Amy out?” Fear prickled in the back of my neck at the thought of seeing Amy away from Chronos, in this uncontrolled space.