The Nightlife Moscow

by Travis Luedke

  “Our pack had evaded the war. We slipped between the cracks of society and roamed the countryside with the Gypsies, but Rasputin felt a deep sense of responsibility to the people. He envisioned dark days to come, a great political upheaval. There was truth to the rumors that he was a Staret, a mystic, psychic. He had clairvoyant visions and insisted on working his way into the social circles of the Czar. He thought he could help.”

  Aaron glanced at the early morning dawn creeping through the cracks in the boarded up windows. The daylight lethargy was on him, but, unlike Michelle, he could function during the day. Another side effect of Urvashi’s blood in his system. Still, he hated being awake in the day. It just felt wrong.

  Ivan noticed the dawn’s rays piercing the dusty interior of the warehouse and grinned like the wolf hiding beneath his skin. Ivan’s fingers traced the light, and Aaron rose to the challenge by dipping his hand through the sunbeam that once would have roasted his skin.

  “This I still do not understand, how you can walk and talk in the daylight. You are very different from other vampires. Dmitri was the first vampire I met, at court, in St. Petersburg. Rasputin dragged me to court many times, but I am a simple wolf. The world of the wealthy and influential is not for me.” Ivan shook his head.

  “Dmitri moved among the nobles and attended their parties as though born to it. I had no idea what he was back then. I only knew he smelled different. I hated him, instantly. Of course, he knew what we were, just like you did.”

  Aaron recalled the precise moment he’d met Ivan and Katya in London. Their scent alone identified them as something more than human. Michelle had seen it in their auras, and dropped her teeth, ready to brawl. The old legends and Hollywood films are at least partially true, vampires and werewolves are a natural enemy of sorts.

  Ivan watched Aaron, as if reading his thoughts. A sly grin reached his mouth. “Dmitri hated Rasputin intensely. Me, I did not exist, no more than a stray dog on the street. The Dukes were split on the issue. Rasputin had a certain … magnetism, and he knew how to play a crowd. He had a way with the ladies. Many a Duchess entertained our alpha in their private chambers. In fact, I believe it was the Duchesses’ chatter which eventually led Rasputin to a friendship with the Empress herself. Women talk of such things men should not hear.”

  Aaron knew exactly what Ivan meant. He’d browsed through plenty of female minds with his roving telepathy, and encountered thoughts he never imagined women would entertain.

  “Dmitri had the ear of most of the noble families. He was a force of influence and power at court, especially with the Dukes. He feigned nobility, but who can say. Vampires are the original forgers and identity thieves. When a creature lives so many decades, he can no longer stay in the same place and use the same name.”

  Great, a centuries-old scheming vampire. How the hell were they supposed to kill a creature who had survived that long? Aaron could only imagine all the knowledge and experience Dmitri had amassed in his years.

  “Rasputin soon figured out what the leech was about. Dmitri wanted to overturn the throne and replace the Czar with one of the Dukes under his influence.”

  “That’s not in the history books.”

  Ivan grimaced with another swallow of the vodka bottle that was mostly empty. “I told Rasputin to stay out of this business. What can a band of gypsies hope to affect upon the rulers of a nation?” Ivan shook his head. “He believed that one person could make a difference. And I believed in him. I know he could have done it.”

  Unshed tears glistened in Ivan’s steel blue eyes. “We should have killed the bastard leech back then. I argued for action. We were our own army. But Dmitri had so much power, and money. He could manipulate generals. It would have been suicide, even with our numbers.”

  Aaron scratched his chin in thought. Kinda like the suicide mission they planned in a few hours?

  “Prince Alexei, had been sick for a long time. The Empress trusted only Rasputin to treat the boy. Rasputin intended to give the boy the gift of his blood very soon. Dmitri must have found out, or he finally realized Rasputin’s plan. The rest is history.”

  “They poisoned his wine, right?”

  “Yes, and his food. Rasputin never refused hospitality. He thought those snakes were his friends. Has any nobleman ever truly been a friend to a gypsy? They had him fooled. Still, he was not easy to kill. None of us are.”

  Ivan finished off the vodka bottle and pegged Aaron with an intense stare. “They poisoned him, shot him, stabbed him, and finally drowned him in the ice-covered waters outside the Yusupov Palace at St. Petersburg. It took five men to bring him down. The history books don’t talk of the three men he killed in his attempt to escape.”

  Ivan’s fist slammed on the table and the empty vodka bottle wobbled with the impact. He was reliving these moments. Strong emotion surged through his face and his arms popped with tendons and strength as he trembled. A century gone by and still Ivan harbored such intense hatred.

  Katya, looking half-asleep in her heavy coat and PJ’s, slinked up behind Ivan, and reached an arm around him for a sisterly hug. “Wasn’t it you who lectured me on letting go of the past?”

  Ivan visibly relaxed, then glanced to Aaron, a half-grin on his face. Ivan had pushed Katya to let go of the brutal history the pack had with Michelle and join the vampires hunt for London.

  Katya smiled sweetly at Ivan and glanced back and forth between the men. “Why the old stories?”

  “He needs to know what kind of monster we face.”

  Yes, what kind of monster were they facing, who could intimidate Ivan, a man who seemed utterly fearless?

  Katya snorted in disgust. “He’s a ruthless, cunning, vicious creature, who has no respect for life. None at all.”

  Aaron waved her over, and Katya eyed him suspiciously. “Please, let’s keep each other warm.” He watched her face as his logic overcame her patent rejection of his charms. She could never come to him, without question, without reservation. But she did come to him, which would have to do for now.

  She snuggled in and scooched her ass onto his lap. She fit nicely on him, and the slight smile that tugged at her lips was all the reward he needed. Finally, one of those rare moments where they were happy together – no underlying tension.

  Planting a smooch on Katya’s cheek, he looked to Ivan. “So what happened after Rasputin was murdered?”

  Ivan growled. “Dmitri came for us with his Cossack mercenaries and guns loaded with silver bullets.”

  Aaron could hardly believe the television shows and myths had it right. He pinched Katya’s left ass cheek. “You gotta be shitting me! Silver? Does it work?”

  Katya pinched him back. “It’s an allergy! No more deadly than any other fucking bullet made of metal.” She rolled her eyes impatiently. “I can’t wear silver jewelry. It makes me break out in hives.”

  Ivan interrupted. “The people were superstitious then. Silver, crosses, holy water, bibles, rosaries. Gypsies have always been persecuted by the superstitious. They called us “Griazniy tsigan – filthy gypsies.”

  “We tried to fight them off. But there were too many. They killed three good men, and the rest of us fled with our tails between our legs, like dogs. Two years later we heard quiet rumors of the royal family’s exile in Ekaterinburg and risked coming out of hiding. The Czar and his entire family were being held under house arrest. Compared to the majesty of The Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, it was a shack. We watched the house from the woods, day and night. We even managed to get a wolf inside as one of the guards. But this part is Katya’s story. She should tell it.”

  She leaned her head against Aaron’s shoulder and he sensed a great wave of melancholy coming off her. She was resigned to tell him, but she couldn’t mask the sadness of remembrance. “I was a simple maid, a farm girl who foolishly took a job in the city. I should have stayed home in the country, but I was the youngest sister of three, a brat who balked at her father’s rule and rushed off with the first bo
y to get his hands up my skirt.”

  Wishing he could get his hands in her pants again, Aaron had a hard time envisioning Katya so young and impetuous. The woman sitting in his lap was far older and wiser than he, and not easily seduced. The first time he’d tried to get his hands on her, she put a gun in his face.

  Katya’s eyes took on a faraway look of sentimentality and sadness. “My boyfriend, Chevsky, was one of the guards. He thought it was a great job, nothing to do but guard the Royal Family who sat in their apartments all day long, minding their business in mute whispers and hushed family meetings. They had been hidden away from the world, never setting foot outside the door of their house-made-prison. Apart from the maids, the guards, and some high up Bolshevik officials, no one knew they were there. No one knew the night the Bolsheviks changed all the guards and marched the whole family to the basement to be slaughtered like animals. No trial, no judge, no jury. It was cold, calculated murder.”

  Aaron hated to ask the question that hung in the air between them, how did she survive?

  “Ealier there were rumors that the Czechs were advancing with the White Army, coming to liberate us from the Bolsheviks. The Bolsheviks were shitting their pants. They held the royal family under arrest, under the color of law, a band of revolutionaries with a shaky hold on the country. Chevsky told me to leave that night, but I sensed something strange about the new guards. They looked about in furtive glances, and yet avoided eye contact. Like an idiot, I stayed. Chevsky left me there, the bastard.”

  Aaron rubbed Katya’s back, trying to release the tension he sensed coiling inside her.

  “These new guards came from another city, complete strangers. It never occurred to me what that might mean, why the entire guard would be changed, removing all the locals who had become familiar with the Czar and his family. They were a death squad.”

  A shiver ran down Katya’s body, a chill she still held in her soul from that night so long ago. She looked at him, and her eyes were haunted with torments of things that can never be unseen. “The Czar and his wife were kind people. I knew from the way they treated me, and the other servants. And their children.” Katya barely contained a sob as a tear rolled down the side of her face. “I cooked their meals, made their beds, bathed them – beautiful, lovely children.”

  She took a minute to compose herself then cleared her throat. “The guards forced us all into the basement, and shot us over and over. They shot me so many times. I don’t even know how many times, and to this day, I still don’t know why I didn’t die.”

  Ivan reached across the table and stroked Katya’s hand. “We heard the shooting. By then there was nothing we could do but follow the murderers as they loaded the bodies into trucks and took the evidence of their crimes deep into the woods, to bury them. We were the only ones who heard the faint sounds of Katya’s breathing. I knew we had to save her.”

  Katya smiled at Ivan with a love that spanned almost a century. “I have always thought it was a miracle, or perhaps a mistake. I should have died that night, buried with the Czar and his wife and children.” She turned her attention to Aaron. “I lived all these years, evaded Dmitri’s goons, escaped the bloody Bolsheviks, and for what? To become your chew toy?”

  She was smiling at Aaron, teasing, but, her voice held an undercurrent that wasn’t so happy. Aaron pecked her cheek. “You’re not a chew toy, Katya. More like a big, juicy steak, with a great ass and …”

  She elbowed him in the ribs as he broke into laughter and Ivan grinned, trying hard not to laugh.

  Katya pegged Ivan with one of her fiery looks. “Tell him why you geniuses saved me, the bloody maid.” There was a tone to her voice Aaron didn’t like. The sound of a woman who thought herself unworthy of survival. Survivors guilt, perhaps?

  Ivan shrugged. “We needed a witness. We assumed they would lie about what had happened, try to cover up their crimes. A witness could tell the world the truth. Days passed and there was no news. No lies, no rumors, nothing. It was as if the Royal family had never existed. We told many people, key officials, old friends in St. Petersburg. No one would listen. For more than two decades the revolutionaries kept their crimes a secret. By the time the truth was known publicly, the world had changed. The Russian empire was no more. We were proud Soviets of the Union, a communist country living by the ideals of Vladimir Lenin and suffocating in the grip of Joseph Stalin. No one cared about the truth anymore.”

  Aaron stroked the side of Katya’s face. “It’s not your fault. There was nothing you could have done.” She nodded, but, her melancholy remained.

  Ivan nodded. “We have told her many times, it was Dmitri. He’s a curse on this land, our personal curse. We were not strong enough to stop him.”

  Aaron frowned. “How can one vampire control the course of history, of all Russia?”

  “Don’t you understand? If he hadn’t killed Rasputin, if he hadn’t manipulated the Czar into stepping down off the throne…”

  “What do you mean?”

  “With Rasputin out of the way, Dmitri and the dukes were able to pressure Nicholas into abdicating his throne to Alexei, his only son, a child of ill health. Pure idiocy. Realizing their mistake, the Dukes convinced Nicholas to abdicate the throne to his brother, Grand Duke Michael instead.”

  Aaron scratched his head, not really getting it.

  “Don’t you see? Michael was Dmitri’s man! The leech had been working towards this all along! It was only after the murder of Rasputin that Dmitri was able to influence the Czar. Our Alpha was strong in his convictions, and Empress Alexandra held his counsel in the highest regard. Dmitri couldn’t manipulate the royal family with Rasputin at their side.”

  Ivan snapped his fingers. “The country was in chaos, and amidst the political turmoil, the bastard leech finally got what he wanted. Then it backfired in his face, in all our faces.”

  Katya stroked the hair from Aaron’s forehead. “The people no longer trusted the dukes or the Czar. They had elected an assembly called The Duma. The Duma ripped the carpet out from underneath Dmitri and his schemes. They eradicated the Monarchy and had Nicholas and his family arrested. For a few glorious months, a brief moment in our history, Mother Russia was almost a democracy. No more Emperors, no more dictators, no more Czars. Dmitri and the dukes lost everything.”

  Ivan scratched his chin. “The Duma was in the process of rewriting our laws and constitution when the Bolsheviks struck, taking full advantage of the instability. The Duma still exists in concept, but it does not function the way it was intended.”

  Aaron found it hard to swallow. “So, you’re telling me it’s all his fault? Dmitri’s manipulations caused the instability of the royal family that led to the revolution?”

  Ivan nodded, but Katya shrugged. Her fingers absently traced Aaron’s shoulders, a habit he’d become fond of. “Who can say? Would it have happened anyway? Maybe. The way it happened, there can be no doubt of Dmitri’s guilt. His hands are stained with the blood of Russia.”

  * * * *

  Chapter 9

  Squirming in Aaron’s lap to get comfortable, Katya couldn’t help but grin at the hot bulge warming her ass. Aaron always did have a marvelous erection. The sexual tension between them seemed an unwavering constant right along with the insatiable need for his teeth. She caught his hypnotic eyes and let his gaze sink into her soul, letting him see her need.

  His hungry eyes held her in place, rapt. Damned leech was her predator, she his prey, and somehow she was okay with this. Oh how far she had fallen.

  A heavy drugged feeling overcame her, weighing down her limbs, undoing her resistance to his charms. Breathless, she tried hard to gather some wits about her. In the background, Ivan’s rumbling voice was still reminiscing about old Mother Russia, but she couldn’t focus past her body’s response to Aaron.

  This was how it always started, and usually ended in the bedroom.

  After an eternity of drowning in his gaze, he finally blinked and she woke up to find hersel
f panting like a dog in heat. He grinned. “I think we’d better get some more rest before all the fun starts tonight.”

  Ivan grunted, and though she wasn’t looking at him, she could almost hear the smug humor coming off him in that one noise.

  Somehow she found the will power to get down off Aaron’s lap and stand on her shaky legs. He stood, wrapped his arm around her, and pulled her away towards the bedroom. Over her shoulder she caught Ivan saying something, and she looked back at him as he winked at her. She hadn’t understood a word he said, and it didn’t matter. She was already on her way to get exactly what she wanted and needed.

  Aaron latched the door behind them and stood watching her as she tossed her coat aside and crawled onto the mattress on the floor. Not exactly the most romantic place in Moscow. The room was colder than the rest of the warehouse, but the anticipation of all the things she knew Aaron would do to her warmed her from the inside out.

  Her mouth turned dry as he climbed atop her slow and sensual. He didn’t weigh much, but the hard edges of his body hinted at the phenomenal strength within. He could crush her in his hands if he wanted. She loved to feel all the hard lines of his muscular back, shoulders, and ass. Her hands roamed up under his shirt with a mind of their own. Thin, cut, with a supernatural physical power, she truly enjoyed his domination over her body – perhaps too much.

  She lifted a shaking hand to push against his chest in a ‘stop’ motion. “I don’t want all of Moscow to hear us, especially not my brothers … please don’t make me scream.”

  A broad grin split his lips to reveal full-size fangs. How could such a deadly predator be so dead sexy? His eyes assessed her like a meal to be devoured and she enjoyed it.

  “I’ll try. No promises.” His hand was already sliding down past the elastic band of her pajamas, but not as fast as she wanted. He took his time gliding his fingers along the edge of her pants.