Drawing Down the Mist
Page 21
Sasha brought her thoughts and emotions back to this place. “No, it was never right. But we have to move now. No time to revisit the travesty that was poured down upon me and my family.”
Dee looked out the window at the massive park, now dark and foreboding, even though it was one of the most beautiful places in the city. “You know, I do get it. We’ve got vamps to take out. We’ve got human lives to try to save. Tell you what, Sasha. We get out of this alive, you have to tell me the whole story. I mean, you have to have met that guy, Rasputin, right? That’s some kind of crazy.”
Crazy didn’t even begin to describe the last few years of her human life. No one could possibly imagine what they’d gone through. The memory should have faded, given the years that had flowed by. That wasn’t the way it was. She still remembered it all. Every last second. Sasha took one of Dee’s hands. “If we make it through, you have my promise. I will tell you everything. Even about Rasputin. He was a strange and interesting man.” She brought her hand up to her lips and kissed it.
***
The shot of electricity that jolted through Dee when Sasha’s lips touched the back of her hand was as powerful as the best orgasm she’d ever experienced. She wanted to yell “do it again” and caught herself before the words passed her lips. Not the time or the place.
Instead, she kept her cool, or thought she did anyway, and said, “I’m going to hold you to it.” Yeah, she sounded calm and collected. Sasha would have no idea she’d just rocked Dee’s world with that kiss. She only wished it had been her lips rather than her hand.
“Deal.”
Dee looked out the car window and wasn’t sure why they were here, of all places. Seemed kind of weird to her. Sasha moved with a confidence that suggested she had a firm plan in mind. It would be nice if she shared this master plan. So far that wasn’t happening. Not that she could really blame her. After all, they didn’t really know each other, and how would she even know she could trust Dee.
She looked outside the window at the night that was more ominous than she could ever remember and questioned whether they would live through this siege. Or rather, if she would live through it. She was relatively certain Sasha would live to fight another day. Everything she’d seen today told her it was truly war on home soil. She’d always figured it would be because some inept politician said the wrong thing to the wrong unstable leader, and boom, the nukes would fly. That wasn’t even close to what was happening here, and she knew that millions of people out in the world just like her had been totally blindsided. Nobody in their right mind could have ever seen this coming.
Since when did folktales and horror movies actually come to life? At this point, the bigger question was why didn’t everyone know they weren’t alone in this world? It wasn’t a fair fight. If they’d known, then maybe they’d have been prepared for what they were up against. Better yet, maybe they could have found a way to coexist. The phrase “why can’t we all just get along” popped into her head.
She almost laughed out loud. People of different backgrounds, religions, and beliefs had a hard enough time making it all work. How on earth would it have worked with humans and the not-so-humans? The preternatural kept out of sight for a valid reason, and she couldn’t blame them.
She glanced over at her companion and knew that if there were many like Sasha, or Maria, or whoever she was, Dee could make it work. She was drawn to this woman, and not because she was beautiful or intriguing, but just because. Sure, she was easy to look at. That was only the book cover. There was so much more beneath that thrilled Dee. She thought of the old love-at-first-sight thing, and while that was a leap she wasn’t willing to make, it still had that feel to it. They better get out of this alive, because she really wanted to know what was beneath this feeling she had for Sasha. She wanted to know each and every page inside that book.
For the moment, however, she needed to focus on the here and now. “Why are we here?”
Sasha said nothing at first. Then she sat up tall and said, “Two reasons: information and revenge.”
Information and revenge in the deep, dark night in the middle of a massive park that was closed and most likely overrun by young, hungry vampires. Again she almost laughed. The park rules said it was closed after dark. Given the state of the city right now, it was stupid to even consider that any rules could or would be enforced. Exactly how many vampires were traipsing through the roses and flowers and trees as they sat here talking? No, back that thought up. She didn’t want to know. Sasha might be a righteous vampire, and thus being at her side was cool. Clearly those waging this war were not cut from the same cloth. There was nothing righteous about what they were doing, and to be at their side was as far from cool as one could get.
Sasha had told her their journey was to gather information, which was a great idea. The more they could collect, the better off they’d be. That wasn’t what got Dee out of the car, however. It was the comment about revenge. She wanted to know exactly what Sasha meant and toward whom it was directed. From the look on her face, Dee definitely would not want to be on the receiving end of that. Somebody had pissed her off in a big way, and she suspected that revenge would be on an equally big level. Somebody was going down, and she was glad it wasn’t her. But did she really want to be there to see it? Then she thought of something her grandmother used to say: in for a penny, in for a pound. She glanced over at Sasha, and it was an easy decision. In for a pound.
“What do we do now?” Dee shut her car door and stood waiting for directions.
Sasha looked at her over the hood of the car. “You need to get back into the car and lock the doors. Here are the keys.” She tossed them over, and Dee barely caught them.
“No way.” She didn’t move to open the car door she’d just closed.
“This isn’t your fight. You’ll be safer here.”
“The fuck it isn’t. This isn’t only about your need for revenge. My house, my neighbors, my friends? What about all of that makes it not my fight? At this point I think safety is overrated anyway.”
Sasha stared over the hood of the car at her, clearly wanting to argue with Dee. She couldn’t. Dee’s points were valid. “You walk out there with me,” she pointed in the direction of Duncan Gardens, “you are putting yourself in real danger. You saw what those two downtown were like. This will be worse. I may not be able to protect you.”
Sasha’s arguments were just as sound, and Dee thought for only a second. “I’m willing to take that risk.”
***
Katrina stopped breathing the moment she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t even have to turn her head to know who it was. She recognized the cadence of the walk. It hadn’t changed in a century. “At last,” she murmured, more to herself than anything. Her fingers buzzed.
She whirled around and there it was, the face she hadn’t glimpsed in a hundred years. The same feeling she’d experienced on that long-ago day when she’d come through the garden to see the princess and her sisters sitting on the garden wall rolled over her now. That night too the moonlight had cast a warm glow onto her pale cheeks and her long, shiny hair. In those days the paleness was a result of the restrictions she’d been under as a captive. Tonight it was because of the life she’d led since then, one that meant she lived in the darkness just as Katrina did. It didn’t change a thing, not all the years or the betrayal. She had loved her then, and the feeling was still there as deep and intense as always.
She had taken the night duties guarding the tsar and his family on a lark. Her thoughts were that it would be fun to see history as it was made from the inside, and the bloody war raging in the country was going to be like one of today’s buffets. Easy sustenance was everywhere, and the fun she’d anticipated was delivered. What she hadn’t expected was the beauty of the young princess, the lightness and joy she brought. Katrina had been hardened to the world long before she’d been turned, and for that brief bit of time when she’d been loved by Maria, she’d experience
d emotions she hadn’t known existed within her. When Maria rejected both her love and her gift, hope withered and died, replaced by a deep desire for vengeance. The hardness that had defined her life as a child returned tenfold.
Her chin came up while the look of shocked recognition that she’d waited so long for didn’t happen. Maria, or rather the reinvented Sasha, came toward her and Eli with a determined stride, her shoulders back, her long hair whipping in the light breeze. Behind her hurried another woman, tall and dark-haired, and clearly human. She could smell the blood that roared through the human’s body, and it made her ravenous. She pushed her urge to the back. She would have time enough to feed when this was done.
What she wanted to witness, what she’d waited so long to witness, was some kind of reaction from Sasha. She had to know that Katrina was here to settle what should have been taken care of all those years ago. Rejection wasn’t okay, not then and not now. Those who dared turn their backs on what she offered had only one avenue open to them: death. Nothing about that had changed in the ten decades since they’d seen each other.
Call her the Grim Reaper, because she had come prepared to make this Sasha’s last day walking on this planet. She’d gotten lucky when she escaped back in Russia, first from the firing squad and then from Katrina. That luck was running out tonight. Once this was over, she and Eli would call their pilot and take her private jet back to Seattle. She could then peacefully watch as her troops did the work necessary to bring the world to its knees.
When they were about twenty meters away, Sasha stopped and said something to the other woman. At that point, Katrina could see the woman’s face clear enough to realize she was the troublemaking writer. How this Dee person had turned out to be with Sasha was a story she’d love to hear, though it was unlikely. She didn’t intend to give either of them enough time to explain, and really, it didn’t matter one way or the other. Except now that she thought about it, she was rather pleased they were together. Two problems in one place. Two solutions in one place. This was going to be a good night.
When Sasha turned back around and started walking again, the writer did not. She stayed where they’d stopped, her eyes on Katrina and Eli. She smiled. Did Sasha really believe the woman would be safe a whole twenty meters away? In the old days, Katrina had been impressed by her intelligence and common sense as much as she’d been by her beauty. Maybe she’d lost all of that in the intervening years. Too bad. She preferred her prey to be sharp. Made the game much more fun.
“Maria,” she said when Sasha got within ten feet. She liked goading her with the name of the woman she’d fallen in love with back in the mother country.
“Maria died a hundred years ago.”
“Not to me.”
“Especially to you.”
“I’m surprised you came. You did know I’d be here.”
“I was banking on it.”
“Why?”
“You owe me.”
Katrina laughed. “I owe you? Oh, that’s rich.”
“You took everything from me. I want it back.”
“What? Like this?” She fingered the necklace she’d put on before they left the hotel and smiled broadly. “Well, yes, I helped myself to a few things. After everything I’d done for you, I was entitled. You and your spoiled sisters would never be in a position to wear anything like this ever again. Your foolish mother thought sewing them into your dresses would protect them. Her big secret. We knew, we all knew, and I for one saw no sense in letting good jewels go to waste. In case you’re curious, I have more like this, and I’ve enjoyed them immensely over the years. I think of you every time I put a piece on.”
Sasha’s gaze swept over her, and she detected contempt in her gaze and her words. It wasn’t the reaction she was expecting. “I don’t care about the jewels. I never did. Mother, yes, but me—no, I never needed them and never will.”
Her fingers dropped away from the diamonds. A note in her voice made Katrina believe she meant what she said. She was profoundly disappointed her bait didn’t have the anticipated effect. “If not the jewels, then what can I possibly give you back?”
This time Sasha smiled. Her expression held a cruel edge that in her previous life she never could have pulled off. She’d been too sweet. “You really don’t get it, do you?”
“Enlighten me.”
“You took my world from me then, and now you’re trying to do it again. Not going to happen, Katrina. Not again.”
Blah, blah, blah. Apparently in the intervening years she’d become tiresome. Too bad. Once when she was young, Sasha had been a pure delight, and she’d been more than happy to introduce her to the pleasures of loving another woman. It had been a wonderful time that she’d hoped would continue forever.
“I’ll take whatever I want.” Her earlier feeling of attraction was beginning to fade, replaced by lust. Blood lust. Again she caught the tantalizing scent of the human’s blood as it rushed through her veins.
“Think again.”
She’d gotten cocky since the last time they’d seen each other. Good for her. Too bad it wasn’t going to help. She’d glimpsed that strength back in the old days and always wondered what she’d be like if she grabbed it with two hands.
She raised a single eyebrow. “Oh, please enlighten me. You know me well enough to know you don’t stand a chance.”
Shocking her, Sasha turned her attention away from Katrina and to Eli. “You have what I need?”
“Absolutely.” He tossed a flash drive in her direction, and Sasha caught it. As soon as she did, he tossed the bag with all the cell phones at her. She caught it as well.
“What the fuck?” Katrina whirled to look at her trusted confidant, almost speechless. Almost. “What have you done?” she screamed.
He laughed. “Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it, Boss?” His face was filled with self-satisfaction, and she intended to claw it off.
“What are you talking about?”
“My family, you arrogant bitch.” Now rage transformed his face into one she’d never seen before. “You killed my family, and now I’m going to watch while they kill you.”
She was going to rip his throat out, but before she went after him, she whirled back around to face Sasha. Sasha and her scribbling companion were nowhere in sight. Her scream filled the quiet night air.
Chapter Twenty
As much as Sasha wanted to exact her revenge at this opportune moment, she did the right thing and waited. It took every ounce of her self-control to turn and flee. This was bigger than her, and she couldn’t afford to waste time or lose the element of surprise. She moved with the speed that came to all of them, and in this instant she was more grateful for it than at any other time. With the flash drive safely in her pocket and the bag of cell phones slung across her shoulders, she grabbed Dee around the waist and had her back at the car in a matter of seconds. They were racing out of the park before Katrina had enough time to fully react. It was exactly what she had been banking on. If she and Eli hadn’t been able to catch Katrina off guard, she could never have matched her in speed or strength. Sasha knew she was good. She also knew Katrina was better.
“What just happened, what do you have, and where are we going now?”
Sasha looked over at Dee. “Which answer do you want first?”
“Take your pick.”
“We’ve got to get these back to Rodney.” She patted the bag still around her shoulders, although she actually meant both the bag and the flash drive. They were critical to the plan.
“Why?”
“They’re going to save you and everyone else.”
“You have got to start answering in full paragraphs so I can understand. How can a flash drive save the world from any of this?” Dee pointed out the window at the activity on every corner. It wasn’t the good kind of activity that should be happening in a place this nice and had picked up in intensity in the short time they’d been up at Manito Park. In fact, it had picked up at an alarming rate.
“I got my hands on the Consortium plans, and I enticed Eli over to my side not long after.” She thought briefly of the traitors in her own network and wondered for a second if Eli’s information would be tainted by that betrayal. He’d been working with Rory and Crystal. She weighed her earlier conversation with Crystal and went with trust. Rory and Crystal hadn’t been aware of her arrangement with Eli. They had simply been feeding Katrina all she wanted on Sasha, so the information Eli had just handed off to her would be valid and helpful. He was working his own angles for his own reasons, just as she had been doing. As long as she got what she needed, it was all fair play.
“It’s more than a flash drive. It’s information and access. We’ve been working on countermeasures to every plan they’ve devised for years. And have been waiting with our ducks in a row for quite some time. All I’ve needed since this showdown started was the final call on what they planned to use to bring the humans down. The phones are an added bonus. They should be quite helpful.”
“You’ve been waiting for this? Wow. I still can’t figure out how the human race can be so incredibly oblivious. I’m embarrassed on behalf of all mankind.”