The Vampire’s Priceless Treasure

by Painter, Kristen

  But the drinks were part of a show designed to help them blend in and disappear amongst the other tourists, most of whom seemed to be European.

  While they sat there, they both watched the crowd around them for any sign that they’d been followed. They sniffed the air, testing for traces of shifters. More specifically, wolf. But after her run-in with the creepy vampire at the D&B, Kora had to wonder if the Brotherhood didn’t have some other supernaturals working for them.

  Anything was possible in this day and age.

  Greyson kept his head and his voice down. “I don’t see anyone.”

  She picked her glass up, then put it back down again just to look occupied. “Neither do I.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  He’d already paid at the bar, so they got up and left. Eyes wide open, senses on alert, but with all the nonchalance of tourists out to stroll the city and see the sights.

  Kora hooked her arm through his as they stepped outside. When he looked at her, she smiled up at him, playing the part of his adoring girlfriend. At least she hoped he understood that’s what she was doing.

  He seemed to as he put his hand over hers, and they walked through the cobblestone streets with deliberate aimlessness. Not easy to do when they were absolutely headed toward a specific destination.

  But the wandering was important. It was one more way to be sure they weren’t being tailed.

  She snorted. Tailed. Considering the Brotherhood was a bunch of hyped-up shifters, that was funny.

  Greyson gave her a questioning look, but she shook it off.

  They continued on, looking very much like a couple in love taking in the sights. That was the goal, anyway. Not once did either of them get the feeling they were being watched or followed.

  Maybe this Brotherhood wasn’t as keen as they’d made themselves out to be. But it wasn’t really the Brotherhood Kora was thinking about. Was the Fox a woman? If so, who? Could she be the witch who’d originally hidden the treasure? If she was also a vampire, there was every reason to think she’d still be around.

  But why would that woman do such a thing? Was it some kind of test? And if so, for what? And beyond all questions about the treasure, how did this woman know what had happened to Kora’s mother?

  Or maybe the Brotherhood was just making it up that the Fox was female.

  The questions were enough to make Kora’s head hurt, but she supposed she’d know soon enough when she turned over the treasure and got the answers she sought.

  After a few more minutes of wandering, they finally approached the cathedral. At this late hour, it was closed, of course, but well lit. And just like all the tourists around them, they stopped and took pictures. The church had been built as a monument to Tsar Alexander II, who had been assassinated on the very spot. And what a monument it was. Not an inch was left undecorated in some way.

  They kept taking pictures while speaking softly.

  Greyson held his phone up, snapping away. “It’s better lit than I expected. And there are a lot more people here.”

  She nodded. “We might have to wait until the streets empty out a little more. Even if that means into the wee hours of the night.”

  “But the longer we wait, the more chance we have of being found.”

  “You think the Brotherhood are actually on to us? We’ve been very careful.”

  “They might be. I was careful in Paris, too.” He looked at her. “Do you really want to risk it when you’re this close to finding the thing you need?”

  “No. But we can’t exactly waltz in with all these people here or with the place lit up like a Christmas tree.”

  “That, we can’t. Not without bringing a whole lot of unwanted attention to ourselves.” He glanced at the river that ran alongside. “We might have to go in from the water.”

  “Which means finding a boat. The walls of that canal are straight up and down.”

  He sighed.

  She nudged him. “I guess being able to turn into a bat sounds like a pretty good idea right about now.”

  He snorted. “That would make things easier.”

  “Let’s walk all the way around and see if we can find the best access point. Actually, you look. I’ll keep an eye out for anyone watching us. Then I might have a plan.”

  His brows lifted, but he said nothing, just started to walk. They made their way around. She didn’t see anyone looking at them for more than a moment and then only in the most disinterested way.

  But twice, she could have sworn she felt eyes on her.

  As they rounded the building, Greyson smiled. “Scaffolding. Perfect.”

  She glanced over. The back side of the cathedral was under renovation, according to a sign written in Russian and English. “That’s excellent.”

  “Now we just need a distraction.”

  They stopped by the iron fence that separated the curved street from the gardens that sat next to the church. She peered through the bars of the fence. The park beyond was pretty vast. It was as perfect as the scaffolding.

  Her gaze shifted back to him for a moment. “I can handle that.”

  He leaned on the fence beside her, his interest still exclusively on the church. “What are you going to do?”

  She held on to the fence, but looked at him. “Small boom. Nothing to worry about. Then all the cover you could ask for.”

  “A small boom is nothing to worry about? I like the cover part, but how exactly are you going to make this happen?”

  She glanced down at her belt bag, then back at him and smiled brightly.

  He shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”

  She decided to tell him anyway. Better to be prepared than scared, that was her motto. “Magic. A spell that cost me three uncut diamonds.”

  “I said I didn’t want to know.” Then he sighed. “But now I’m curious. Who’d you get it from?”

  “An Egyptian witch in Turkey. Yezmani. Nice woman. Not a lot of teeth, but very cordial and a grand master of Bedouin magic.”

  A muscle under his eye twitched. “What is this spell going to do?”

  “A little noise to draw attention, then a sandstorm will sweep through this area, giving us about three minutes of cover. Really helps, too, that we don’t need to breathe. This spell has always kind of been my get-out-of-jail-free card.”

  “And I appreciate you using it now, but…” His brows bent. “A sandstorm. In Saint Petersburg.”

  “You have a better idea?”

  He frowned. “No.”

  “Great! Then just give me a minute to read through the enchantment a few times, and we’re good to go.”

  He hitched his thumb toward the church. “Shouldn’t we go stand by the scaffolding so we can duck under tarps as soon as this starts up?”

  “You can, but I need to be by the gardens here. This spell only works if it’s within spitting distance of ten cubits of sand or dirt.” She tipped her head toward the gardens. “That’s way more than ten cubits.”

  “I’m not leaving you here alone.” Then he snorted. “I’ll tell you one thing, hanging out with you is never dull.”

  She winked at him. “You’re welcome.”

  “In all seriousness, that’s a pretty hefty spell you’re about to use up. You sure you want to do that for this situation?”

  He’d given up a million dollars so he could keep kissing her. She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Okay. I’m ready to run when you are.”

  She pulled a yellowed piece of parchment from her bag and read through the words in her head a few times. As she read them, the Arabic pronunciations came back to her. When she felt comfortable with them, she steadied herself and spoke them out loud.

  For two long seconds, nothing happened.

  Then a crack formed in a patch of bare ground on the other side of the fence. A low rumbling followed, like a steam engine off in the distance. Or thunder. Or an earthquake.

  The sound grew, intensifying in breadth and depth so that people had no ch
oice but to stop and look for the source.

  Confusion covered the face of every person around Kora and Greyson.

  Then, as a great billowing cloud of swirling dust spilled out of the heart of the garden, panic took over. People ran, screaming and yelling in too many languages to count.

  The cloud spilled over the fence. Sirens cried out in the distance, and the stars overhead started to disappear in the dust.

  Greyson grabbed Kora’s hand. “Let’s go.”

  Together, they raced through the curtains of sand toward the church. It wasn’t far, and they were fast, but they were still covered head to toe in grime by the time they reached the scaffolding. And the sand was pervasive. Even without having to breathe, Kora could feel the grit in her mouth, nose, and ears.

  But they had work to do, so they ignored the dirt and started to climb. The tarps covering the scaffolding gave them a little protection from the storm, but as the seconds ticked by, that protection vanished as the sand pushed through every crack and crevice.

  “We need an open window,” Greyson said, eyes squinted against the onslaught of particles. He was a level above her, scanning the building. “Or at least one we can—there!” He pointed up and to the right.

  “I see it.” She pulled herself onto the same platform. “That should work.”

  “It’s going to be a tight fit.”

  “I’ll go first.” The howl of the winds started to die down.

  “You realize getting out is going to be a completely different story.”

  “I know.” She shrugged. “And I don’t have any magic for that.”

  “We’ll figure it out. We’d better get in there before our cover is gone.”

  “Right.” She jumped onto the next platform and went to the window.

  As he joined her, she gave him an odd look.

  “What?”

  “It just occurred to me that we’re about to enter a church. Hallowed ground. I mean, if I become human again before I land, I’m going to end up with a pair of broken ankles, but you could be a pile of ash before you hit the ground.”

  He shook his head. “Not in this case. I did some research on the plane. First, this might be called a church, but it was built as a memorial for the assassinated tsar, and secondly, after the last restoration, it was never reconsecrated. I don’t believe it qualifies as sacred ground anymore. If it ever did.”

  “You feel sure enough about that to jump through this window?”

  “Mostly. But I figure if you land and you’re human, then I know not to follow you.” He frowned. “Which also means I won’t be able to rescue you.”

  “If I land as a human and break my ankles, just call the cops. They’ll get me out, and you can rescue me once I’m outside the cathedral walls.”

  “Deal.”

  Kora took hold of the sides of the window. It was a long drop.

  She really hoped she was still a vampire when she touched down.

  Greyson had thought long and hard about the possibility that stepping inside the church, or jumping into it through the upper window, could be very detrimental to his health.

  As a precaution, he’d checked the European Vampire Council’s website to see what the church’s status was. It had been listed as a noninflammatory site, which was great. But the building was under renovation, so the chance existed, however small, that the space had been consecrated again recently.

  For that reason, he was cautiously optimistic, but not a hundred percent sure he wasn’t going to burst into flames and then disintegrate to ash before he hit the floor. Fortunately, Kora was the willing canary in the coal mine.

  Kora slipped her feet through the window, teetered on the edge as she got her arms in, then let go.

  Please don’t let her get hurt. He braced himself as he waited for the verdict, listening for anything that sounded like a bad landing.

  “You were right,” she called up. “It’s not hallowed ground. I’m still vampire.”

  He exhaled the breath he’d been holding, an old human habit few vampires ever lost. “Glad to hear it. On my way.”

  He shimmied through the window, tight as it was, and dropped.

  He landed softly, with bent knees and the catlike grace of their kind. Kora was a few feet away, toward the center of the space, staring up. He could see why. “Wow.”

  She continued to gaze at the cathedral’s incredible interior. “Have you ever seen anything like it?”

  “Never.” The massive crystal chandeliers weren’t lit, but the light spilling in from outside illuminated the place nicely, making the tiny glass tiles of the mosaic-covered walls gleam like jewels. “The pictures online don’t do it justice.”

  “No, they don’t. It’s like standing inside a jewelry box,” Kora said.

  “I was just thinking something very similar.” Much like the outside, every inch of space was decorated, but unlike the outside, the cathedrals walls were much more intricate because of the mosaics. And what wasn’t mosaics was marble. Color was everywhere, as were touches of gold. The floor was a gorgeous pattern of inlaid semiprecious stone that went a few feet up the wall.

  “You know what else is interesting?” Kora asked.

  “What’s that?” His nose wrinkled at the faint but pervasive smell of incense. This might not be a true church, but it smelled like one.

  “There are suns everywhere.”

  As soon as she said that, he saw them. In the halos around the heads of the saints depicted in the murals, as part of the decorative patterns, in the floor tiling, carved into the stone, everywhere. “How are we supposed to know which one is meant for us?”

  “Good question.” She turned to face him. “I think the last clue we found has to be our guide. It should point us in the direction we’re supposed to go. All the other ones have.”

  “True. Okay, the dolls, then. The Romanovs were all represented as themselves, except for Tsar Nicholas, who was represented by a depiction of this building and his coronation crown. The building led us here, obviously, so how does the crown help us in this space?”

  She bit her bottom lip, turning slowly to look at everything again. “This entire place exists because of the assassination of Tsar Alexander. Tsar Nicholas was also assassinated, along with the rest of his family.”

  She stopped turning, her gaze fixed on something straight ahead. “The shrine. I read about it in my research.”

  Greyson nodded. “So did I. It marks the exact spot where Tsar Alexander was killed.”

  They looked at each other. Kora stopped biting her lip. “We start there.”

  Together, they walked over to the four stone pillars that surrounded the cobblestones where Tsar Alexander had been attacked. In truth, he’d died elsewhere, but the bomb that had wounded him had detonated on this exact spot, according to history.

  The pillars were capped with an enormous canopy in the same colors as the inlaid stone floor. An ornate, knee-high gate closed off the columns at the front. Out from the gate, a stone wall ran around the perimeter of the pillars at the same height. On the outside of the gate, a red carpet ran back a few feet to where Kora and Greyson were standing. They were stopped from going closer by a simple gold rope strung on thin brass stanchions.

  Clearly meant to block overly curious tourists, not vampires in the midst of a treasure hunt.

  Kora stepped over the little rope to get closer, but stopped at the ornate gate. Greyson joined her, and the two of them stood there, studying every inch of the shrine.

  Outside, the sirens prompted by the sandstorm had faded away, and he imagined things were returning to normal, although he expected the dust storm would probably make the news.

  Kora sighed. “Do you see anything?”

  “Halos around the heads of the icons on the four corners. Also, the round flowers at the top of the canopy. Those could be suns.”

  “They could be. But in every other clue, the suns were distinctly the same as the locket. Why would they be different now?”


  “Good point.” He tipped his head, trying to see under the canopy. “Do you really think the suns would be visible to the general public?”

  “They were in the pub and the dungeon. Well, if the general public was allowed down in the dungeon, they could see them.”

  “But they aren’t that way in the catacombs.”

  “So they might not be here either.”

  “I’m going in.” She stepped over the gate and onto the cobblestones.

  He followed.

  She tilted her head back and stared into the depths of the carved canopy above them. “The lack of light and the dark paint aren’t helping. Do you see anything?”

  “Not really. Which is odd, because our eyes should be picking up something.”

  Kora glanced at him. “Maybe there’s a deliberate reason for that.”

  “Magical protection?”

  “Could be.” She turned her gaze back to the canopy. “Nothing’s out of the question at this point. Especially if the Romanov maid was a vampire and a witch.”

  “Then maybe you need to get closer.”

  She snorted. “I’m not suddenly going to grow a few more feet.”

  “Yes, you are.” He crouched down. “Sit on my shoulders.”

  “Okay.” With a little snicker, she climbed on. “Don’t drop me.”

  “Not in a million years.” There was no way he’d ever let her fall. He took hold of her legs to secure her as he stood. “How’s that?”

  “I’m definitely closer. Now for a little light.” She reached into her belt bag, took her lighter out, and fired it up. The small flame seemed like a bonfire in the enclosed space. She gasped. “Greyson.”

  He looked up as best he could.

  There in the center of the canopy, sunk into the stone or whatever the roof was made of, was a sun symbol that perfectly matched the locket.

  Just like they’d thought. He moved closer to the center to put her directly under it. “Can you reach it?”

  “No.” She wiggled her fingers at it, but there was still a few feet of air above her. “Too far.”