The Ruby Circle

by Richelle Mead

  “Is he causing you trouble?” he asked her politely. “Are you having difficulty removing him? I’ll be happy to do it for you.”

  “We can take care of ourselves,” she shot back, though not unkindly. As though summoned by some unspoken signal, Mallory and another dhampir woman who looked like a guard appeared on the path behind her. Mallory no longer seemed like a dreamy fangirl. In that moment she was as formidable as any guardian I’d met.

  Rand relaxed a little. “Yeah, see? No need to do anything hasty.”

  Lana fixed her glare on him. “That does not mean you are welcome here.”

  “Hey,” he said, confidence returning, “I have every right to be here. I was visiting Elaine. She’s a resident. She can have guests.”

  “She can have guests at my discretion,” Lana corrected, fists on her hips. “And I’ve told you before, I don’t want you here drinking.”

  He held up his hands in what was apparently supposed to be a pacifying gesture. “Fine, I won’t have another drop. I swear it. But you can’t kick me out now—not when my son and nephew are here. This is practically a family reunion.”

  Rose finally found her voice and turned on Dimitri. “Really? This guy? Are you sure?” I shared her disbelief.

  Dimitri’s gaze was cool as it rested unblinkingly on Adrian’s uncle. “Positive. Though I thought he was off wandering Europe.”

  Rand shook his head. “Haven’t been there in years. That business Nate hooked me up with said they didn’t need my consulting services anymore. How’s Olena doing these days?”

  “Do not ever speak my mother’s name to me again,” growled Dimitri.

  “Really?” repeated Rose. “This guy?”

  The mention of Dimitri’s mother and Adrian’s father—whom I’d never, ever heard called Nate—suddenly triggered the most astonishing revelation of all. Adrian’s jaw dropped as understanding hit him as well. “Are we . . . does that mean . . . are we cousins?” he exclaimed, turning toward Dimitri.

  Rose’s eyes widened even more.

  Near us, Olive shifted uncomfortably and rested a hand on the small of her back, wincing as she did. As mind-boggling as this family drama was for the rest of us, I had to imagine it was of small concern to her, what with everything else going on in her life. Dimitri immediately swooped in and linked his arm through hers. “You’re tired. There’s no need for you to stand around and endure all this. I’ll escort you back.” He began leading Olive toward Diana’s cabin but paused to glance at Lana. “Whatever you do with him is your choice, but I’m more than happy to get rid of him for you, if you wish.”

  “We’ll deal with it,” she replied.

  Dimitri gave her a nod of acknowledgment and then escorted Olive away, like a knight from a chivalrous, albeit surreal, fairy tale. Rose appeared torn about whether to go with them or stay and finally followed the twosome down the path. Lana turned to Adrian and me.

  “Will you vouch for him if he stays?”

  “My uncle?” Adrian asked. “Hell no. I haven’t seen him in years. I don’t know anything about him.”

  “Oh, come on,” cried Rand. “We’re family. And Lana, you can’t really turn me out. It’ll be sunset soon. There’ve been reports of local Strigoi sightings this week.”

  I wondered if he was exaggerating for his own benefit, but Lana’s grave face suggested otherwise. “Fine. You can spend the night in our guest quarters at the front of the community.”

  He gestured back to the private cabins. “No need to put yourself out. I’m sure Elaine would—”

  “Guest quarters,” Lana repeated more loudly. “Or you can leave now.”

  Rand exhaled dramatically, like he was being terribly inconvenienced and not actually receiving a great kindness from her. “Fine. Will you at least walk me there, Adrian? Then you can get back to that dhampir girl you knocked up.”

  Adrian scowled but didn’t correct him. Lana was already retreating, leaving Adrian and me no choice but to walk with Rand. Nonetheless, I noticed her guards trailing at a respectful distance as the three of us made our way back toward the commune’s front. Lana wasn’t going to leave Rand unsupervised.

  “How’s your dad?” Rand asked Adrian companionably. “And your mom?”

  “Not living together,” Adrian replied. “I figured you knew that.”

  “Nate doesn’t talk to me anymore. No one does. I have to get all my information through secondhand gossip.” He sounded terribly put out by that as well. This was someone who felt sorry for himself a lot, I realized.

  “Maybe that’s something you should think about,” Adrian remarked evenly. “If ‘no one’ is talking to you, maybe they’re not the problem. Maybe you are.”

  He shot Adrian a wry look. “Don’t act so high and mighty. I told you—I heard about you. You and your . . . human wife.” Rand came to a sudden halt as it dawned on him. His gaze fell on me, then turned back to Adrian. “Wait . . . her? The Alchemist? And you’re just . . . out in public like this? No shame at all?”

  Adrian remained remarkably calm. “Her name is Sydney. And we have nothing to be ashamed of. Humans and Moroi used to marry. They still do in the Keepers. Sydney and I love each other. That’s all that matters.”

  Rand shook his head in disbelief. “Well, welcome to the family then, Sydney. At least this way I’m not the most scandalous anymore.” He glanced back at Adrian. “I tell you, though, our aunt would be rolling in her grave if she knew what you’d done.”

  “I think she’d be okay with it. I know her pretty well,” said Adrian. A moment later, he seemed to realize what he’d said. “I knew her pretty well, that is.” I watched him carefully, trying hard to determine if it had been an honest slip of the tongue. Ever since he’d admitted hearing his aunt in his head to me, he’d been reticent about elaborating on how often she spoke to him. Seemingly unfazed, he kept his attention on Rand now. “Why weren’t you at her funeral?”

  Rand shrugged and slowed his pace as we came to a stop in front of a building labeled GUESTS. “I don’t like funerals. That, and there wasn’t enough time to get back by the time I heard. I was in Europe when it happened.”

  “Russia?” I asked. I’d spent a fair amount of time in Russia and was pretty sure I would’ve remembered seeing someone as obnoxious as Rand Ivashkov in the Moroi circles.

  “France,” Rand corrected. “I haven’t been in Russia in a while.”

  “You were there at least once,” Adrian pointed out. “If Dimitri really is your son.”

  Rand straightened himself up. “He is, and I was there lots of times. That family never appreciated me, though. So I stopped coming around.”

  Adrian eyed him carefully. “Really? That’s all there is to the story? Despite his badass exterior, Dimitri’s a pretty forgiving guy. I guess you’d have to be, to go on with life after being a Strigoi. But you? He’s pissed off at you.”

  Rand looked away from us. “His mother and I stopped getting along. Boys overreact to that kind of thing, that’s all.” He stepped up onto the cabin’s porch. “You coming in? Might as well claim your room now before the other guys staying overnight show up.”

  “We’re not staying here,” said Adrian.

  Rand gestured to the darkening western sky. “You’re here for the night. This is their only free guesthouse. Where else you going to stay?”

  Adrian and I exchanged brief glances. Staying overnight hadn’t come up in any of our planning. “Not here,” he said adamantly. “Not with you.”

  “Dismiss me all you want, but I’ve made the best of what I’ve got,” Rand said angrily. “I never fit in, never played by their rules, and one by one they rejected me. That’ll happen to you, just wait. That’s the price of marrying her. You lost everything you could have had, could have been, as an Ivashkov. Soon you’ll see what it’s like, drifting from place to place.”

  �
��We have to go check on my friends,” Adrian told him, taking my arm and steering me away. “Nice running into you.”

  “You’re a terrible liar, boy,” Rand called after us.

  “Is he right?” I asked quietly, once we’d put some distance between the guest cabin and us.

  “That I’m a terrible liar? No. I’m a fantastic liar.”

  I came to a halt, forcing him to as well. It was dark enough that our only light came from strategically placed lanterns along the camp’s main path. “Adrian, I mean what he said about me . . . did I really cost you all that? We always talk about me being on the run from humans, but you gave up the life of a royal to—”

  “Sydney,” Adrian interrupted, cupping my face in his hands. “Never, ever think like that. I don’t regret anything we’ve faced. Being with you is the best thing that’s ever happened to me, the one perfect decision I’ve made in a lifetime of fumbling and poor judgment. I’d go through it all again to be by your side. Never doubt that. Never doubt how I feel about you.”

  “Oh, Adrian,” I said, letting him wrap me in his arms, surprised at the bubble of emotion welling up within me.

  He held me tightly. “I love you. If anything, I can’t believe you gave up everything you did to be with me. You changed your whole life for me.”

  “My life didn’t even begin until I met you,” I told him fiercely.

  Adrian pulled back and looked at me closely, shadows on his face. “When you see someone like him, like Uncle Rand, does it make you nervous? That I might turn out like that?”

  I felt my eyes widen. “No,” I said adamantly. “You’re nothing like him.”

  I could tell from Adrian’s face he wasn’t so certain and was in danger of falling into one of those terrible depressions of his. His recent spirit usage with Nina would only make him that much more vulnerable. Adrian might not have any doubts about me and our love, but the future Rand had predicted—us bouncing around with no place to live—might very well be a real one. That scared me, and it had to scare Adrian too. With great effort, I watched as he tried to force his dark thoughts away and put on a cheerier expression.

  “Well, I guess on the bright side of all of this, I can celebrate a new family member.”

  I’d nearly forgotten the startling revelation about him and Dimitri. “Is it really true? How could you have not known that?”

  Adrian gave a rueful headshake and began walking again. “From what I’ve heard about Uncle Rand’s ‘activities,’ he might very well have dozens of illegitimate children around the world. Why not Dimitri?”

  “It just seems weird Dimitri wouldn’t have said anything before this,” I remarked.

  “That surprised me too,” admitted Adrian as Diana’s cabin came into view. “Though to be honest, I never thought of him having a father. He just seems like the kind of guy who sprung into being fully grown up. Or, if I was going to picture a dad for him, I guess I’d just go with a gray-haired version of him, complete with duster.”

  I laughed at that and followed him up to the cabin’s porch. Someone called for us to enter when we knocked, and we found Rose and Dimitri sitting in the cabin’s little living room. Diana had apparently left. Olive was lying on a bare-bones sofa, looking pale. “Is he gone?” asked Dimitri. His tone clearly told us which he was being referred to.

  Adrian and I sat down together on a wooden bench. “No,” I said. “He’s staying in their guesthouse and seemed to think we would too.”

  “I can think of a dozen forms of torture I’d rather undergo than spend a night under the same roof as him,” said Dimitri, deadpan.

  “I’m sure it won’t come to that,” Adrian replied.

  “Olive says we can stay here for the night,” Rose explained. “If you don’t mind making a bed on the floor.”

  “Considering the alternative? No problem.” Adrian fixed his gaze on Dimitri. “When were you going to break the news that we’re one big happy family?”

  A pained expression crossed Dimitri’s face. “I honestly didn’t know.”

  Adrian threw up his hands. “Come on. You’ve got, what, two or three sisters? That guy was obviously around a lot. It never occurred to you that Rand Ivashkov might be related to another Ivashkov you knew?”

  A smolder of anger shone in Dimitri’s eyes. “He never told us his full name. He was always just Randall. We knew he was an American royal who frequently came by on business. We never asked questions. My mother liked him . . . for a while.”

  “He mentioned that they stopped getting along,” I noted. “He claimed he wasn’t appreciated.”

  That smolder in Dimitri’s eyes turned into a flame. “Wasn’t appreciated? He shoved my mother around when he’d been drinking and didn’t get his way.”

  Those words drew even Adrian up short. “Then what happened?” he asked softly.

  Dimitri didn’t answer, but Rose did. “Dimitri shoved him back,” she replied.

  Silence fell, broken only by Olive shifting on the couch. She’d been listening quietly, her face creased with discomfort. Adrian regarded her with a look I’d come to know by now, one that somehow managed to be both focused and distracted. He was viewing her aura. I’d tried chastising him about aura viewing for a while but had finally given up. It was so second nature to him, he didn’t even realize he was doing it half the time. It really did use only a little spirit, according to Sonya, so I tried to pick my battles over larger expenditures.

  “Are you okay?” Adrian asked Olive with concern.

  “I don’t feel well,” she said. She slid her hand down her stomach. “Some pain. I’ve had it throughout the whole pregnancy.”

  “Your colors are all over the place—different from earlier. It’s almost like looking at two people’s auras blurred together.” Adrian’s eyebrows shot up. “Are you in labor?”

  She looked startled at the thought . . . but also afraid. “I . . . I’m not sure. The pain’s worse than usual, but it’s still more than a month before I—”

  The deep booming of a large iron bell rang out through the air. Rose and Dimitri were on their feet in an instant. “What’s that?” she demanded.

  Dimitri pulled a silver stake from his belt. “Strigoi warning. We have the same system back in Baia.” He ran to the door, Rose close on his heels. Before leaving, he gestured to the fireplace. “Build a fire. If any Strigoi come in, throw them into it.”

  He didn’t elaborate on how exactly we were supposed to accomplish that, with brute force or Adrian’s spirit, but they were gone before I could question them. Adrian and I met each other’s gazes, the new threat spurring us to action. With only a small spell, I made the fire in the hearth suddenly double in size. Fire was our best weapon against Strigoi, and while I could summon it out of thin air, having a ready source would aid both Adrian and me.

  Olive cried out as the flames rose. I turned to her. Pain contorted her features as she rested a hand on her stomach. “Are you okay?”

  “I think . . . I think the baby might be coming after all,” she gasped out.

  Adrian blanched. “When you say ‘coming,’ do you mean now or kind of in the near future?”

  The question was ridiculous enough to momentarily draw her from her pain. “I don’t know! I’ve never had one before!”

  Adrian looked up at me. “So . . . um, you know how to do this, right? Deliver a baby?”

  “What?” I asked. Panic seized me now. “Why would you even think that?”

  “Because you’re so good at everything else,” he said. “All I know is what I’ve seen in movies. Boil water. Tear up sheets.”

  As usual, I clung to logic to try to calm myself. “You could boil water for sterilization. But the sheets? That’s not really—”

  A scream from outside interrupted my babbling. Adrian moved his body protectively to shield Olive, and I summoned a fireball to my palm. We
all stared wordlessly at the dark window, unable to make out what was happening. We heard shouts and another scream, making my imagination run wild.

  “I wish Neil was here,” Olive whispered.

  “Me too,” I said, thinking I’d feel a lot better with him standing by the door with a silver stake.

  Adrian squeezed Olive’s hand. “You’re going to be fine. Sydney and I will protect you. Nothing’s going to come through that door that we don’t want.”

  Just then, the door burst open and Rand Ivashkov appeared, face frantic.

  “What’s happening out there?” I demanded.

  He slammed the door shut behind him and sank into a chair. “Strigoi. Dimitri told me to come stay here with you guys.” He eyed Olive’s state uneasily. “In case you needed help.”

  “Not unless you’ve got a secret medical degree you’ve been hiding from the family,” snapped Adrian.

  “How many Strigoi are there?” I asked.

  Rand shook his head. “Not sure. Probably only a few or we’d all be dead by now. But a few can do a lot of damage if they get the drop on you.”

  Olive made a small cry of pain, and we turned back to her.

  “Another contraction,” I noted.

  “At least it’s been a few minutes. Maybe he’ll wait until this is all over,” Olive replied.

  “He? You know it’s a boy?” Adrian asked.

  “Not for sure,” she admitted. “But I just have a hunch.”

  “I believe in hunches,” Adrian said seriously.

  Another scream sounded, and I tried to provide a distraction for Olive. I might not know everything about labor and delivery, but stress like this couldn’t be good for a pregnant woman. “What are you going to name him?” I asked her.

  Adrian followed my lead. “Adrian Sinclair has a nice ring to it,” he said.

  Olive’s eyes, full of fear, watched the window and door, but her lips curled into another smile at the joke. “Declan.”