Anastasia Romanov

by Svetlana Ivanova

  I leaped up the ramparts and stood next to my sister, who was watching the struggle.

  "We're surrounded," she hissed in frustration.

  Behind us, I saw one of the minor gates caved in with a crash and a splintering of timber. The sudden infiltration succeeded in cutting our quarters off from the rest.

  "We need to stop them," I said. The Hunters were better trained than the unorganized ex-Nazi soldiers and usually more resolved to their cause, but the sheer weight of numbers and the suddenness of the attack had caught us off guard.

  The air was thick with the chaos of the hand-to-hand combats.

  "Damn it," my sister growled then drew her knives. I did the same and we ran down the stairways leading to a high rampart above the main gate.

  Out of nowhere, three zombie-like soldiers came at us. They were tall and heavily built, much to our advantage. I dodged their long bayonets and stabbed them in their sides. More of them came forward but they seemed more cautious. My sister parried upwards, locking their rifles with her blades before swinging her leg at the undead's head. It snapped to the side with a crack. Yellow gas burst out from his mask. His body fell instantly to the ground.

  "Alpha, their gas!" I said.

  My sister's eyes sparked in realization. If we disassembled their life support, they would be nothing. Malena quickly spoke to the others, telling them our enemy weakness.

  A far distance away on the scrubby, German Field Marshal sat on horseback in a cypress-scattered plain before the barracks. He was surrounded by a knot of his undead officers and infantry. He was the one who controlled this army.

  If we took him down, the battle would cease, but how?

  I looked at our remaining army. They were slashing and kicking against the wave of those killing machines. There was no chance, we could win this.

  Then I found a small opening in the broken wall.

  Speaking briefly to my com unit, I ran out of the barracks with a selected group of hunters under my command. Men and women ran to and fro, manning the battlements and priming the canons. Outside, the sun had gone behind large clouds, which had suddenly rolled across the sky.

  Then I realized, they were not clouds. They were German Zeppelins. I knew they were heading towards Kremlin.

  Just then, a bullet whizzed past my ears and embedded itself in the wall behind me. I knew it was time to get into action.

  "Vale! Where are you?" my sister's voice rang in my ears. I reached my hand to switch off the com unit.

  "They seem to be getting closer," I said to the others, who had followed me. There were about fifteen of them.

  At that moment a large cannonball crashed into the ramparts nearest to us, sending dust and rubbles of stone flying everywhere.

  "Go!" I cried to my fellows. They darted out with swiftness on their feet. The infantry that guarded their Field Marshal raised their rifles. We fired our pistols, hitting them in the heads. But some of the hunters were also wounded by their bullets. There were about another hundred feet away. We had to take cover behind the mounds of earth.

  "We need to go a little closer," I cried through another round of fire.

  "I believe the Alpha might object to this, Beta!" cried one of us. “We can’t cut through their defense!”

  "We're almost there," I told them as I saw the Field Marshal began to relocate to safety.

  "Beta, we're not afraid to follow you, but we don't want to disobey the order and risk causing a disaster!"

  "Come with me if you wish, but don't stop me!" I cried back.

  I didn't even wait for anyone to follow and jumped out of my coverage. Several of them leaped after me. I ran to one of the abandoned military trucks as the others came along. The rest fired to protect us. Together we climbed into the vehicle and drove through the battlefield in a pursuit of the German commander.

  Chapter 40

  Anastasia

  MOSCOW LAY UNDER A cloudy, blood-red sky. In the distance, the winter sun lanced down its rays. Smokes hung in the air over the wide borders of the capital.

  The monitor screens transmitted images of the battlefields. Some were still active with fighting and shooting while others already died down with either counterpart retreated. Images flashed from screens to screens. I saw a crow standing on a corpse's chin, pecking hungrily at its eyes. A riderless horse stampeded by, driven mad by the smell of the dead and gas. Broken tanks and vehicles overturned. Torn flags snapped in the breeze.

  I tried to locate where a certain group of hunters was. Groaning with impatience, I turned to the operators.

  "Where is Valerina?" I said.

  The officer's fingers glided over their transparent keyboards. Their voices mumbled commands and location codes into their headpieces, yet no one seemed to come up with anything.

  "We couldn't find her and her team, Your Highness," one of them informed me.

  "What do you mean, you couldn't find her?" I growled in irritation.

  "It seems we've lost her signal," a young vampire spoke. "She’s probably gone out of the radar zone, Your Highness."

  I turned to Trotsky. The General seemed quieter than usual. His eyes kept staring at the digital map on the table. It shifted with data of casualties and territories lost on the surface.

  "Have you got anything from Krasnoff?" I asked.

  "No word," he said in a breath.

  I was wondering what my sister was doing at the moment. The last time we heard from Alex was when she informed us of the magnitude of the Japanese Imperial Army. Although the Czarina had her faithful advisor, Victor, and the tactical Cossack Leader Krasnoff, I was still worried about them. The Emperor of Japan was not one to be underestimated.

  "Grand Duchess!" someone called out to me. "We have found a signal from a new invasion of the North."

  "What is that?"

  "A sneak-in attack, Your Highness," a violet-eyed officer said. The red code flashing on the screens drew my attention. There were tiny red dots indicated the enemy mobility into our territory. A robotic warning sound told us the defensive line had been breached.

  "Anastasia," Trotsky spoke as he turned to me. "We're in trouble if they crawl in here. We have no strong hold there."

  I agreed with him, but almost all of our forces had been sent out to defend the frontiers.

  "We don't have enough army to stop them in the Northern quarter," I said. "If we sent our troop there, the capital would be exposed to greater harms."

  The General wheeled himself out of the chair and stood. There was a glint in his violet eyes.

  "I believe you have something you can put to good use," he said.

  It took me a full second to get what he meant. There was no time to debate between right and wrong. I knew I had to make a decision, and one I wasn’t too fond of.

  With a sigh, I turned to the war officers.

  "Release the Sleepers," I said. "Send them to the North."

  "Yes, Grand Duchess."

  I looked back at the wall of screens again, hoping to catch a glimpse of Valerina. A tightness in my chest had worsened ever since she had gone to battle. As time passed, I found it harder and harder to breathe.

  One screen showed our defenders began pouring the mixture of pitch and oil called Greek Fire down onto the undead enemy below. It seemed to work as the screams of burning German soldiers erupted. But a moment later, a wave of shock hit me in full blast. Each screen started displaying a group of German airships.

  "The Zeppelins are coming!" the operator said in a panic tone.

  "Grand Duchess, we have detected signs that their Mothership is carrying an explosive with the power equaled to an atomic bomb!"

  Indeed, the Kaiser truly wants to destroy every last of us.

  "This is not good, Anastasia," Trotsky said as he came to stand beside me before the screens.

  "You tell me," I said.

  Soon the Moscow skies were infested with their Zeppelins and fighter planes like a swarm of bees. Our air force was sent out to combat them i
mmediately. Sirens wailed, alerting everyone without ceasing. Then we heard the first crackling of explosions in a distance. They started dropping trails of bombs over the vast city. This was my home for almost two hundred years.

  My hand balled into fists.

  Suddenly, the screens before us went black.

  "Your Highness, we have an intruding signal from Berlin."

  The transparent screens began to lit up again with the image of an old man sitting on a crested throne. His hair was thin and white. His pale skin was spotty with age. He would have looked like a senile man if it wasn't for his blazing golden eyes. They almost looked reddish with greed.

  "How are you, my beloved niece?" the slurry ancient voice of the Kaiser came. "I'm sending you a gift. I guess you know what it is by now. Your reign is over. It is my turn to rule, and I will not wait any longer. All of you must go."

  "It seems I underestimate your blind conviction through the years," I said.

  The Kaiser laughed.

  "You must be better than your weakling father, the Czar, otherwise you wouldn't have lasted this long," he said with a leer. "But sooner or later, the Diamond Throne of yours will also be mine."

  "The Diamond Throne belongs to my sister," I said, giving him equal stare. "If you want to get it, you will have to ask her yourself. But wanting something does not give you the right to take it, my dear uncle. Wisdom comes through years of thinking, but it seems you have spent your immortality doing something else."

  I gave him a small smile. The Kaiser let out an angry hiss. His fangs showed through his thin crimson lips.

  "Clever tongue,” the Kaiser said. “I can't wait to see your empire crumble into a pile of ashes! And soon the rest of the world will follow. Enjoy the gift, my dear."

  His laughter rang through the room before his image disappeared. As promised by the German Emperor, the screens flashed back to the battlefields where his airships were advancing ever slowly towards us.

  I turned to Trotsky.

  "What do you think we should do?" I asked.

  Trotsky scratched his goatee and then he pointed to the Mothership.

  "Stop her at all costs."

  Chapter 41

  The sound of planes crashing to the ground and bombs going off in the distance filled the city. Buildings, chapels and monuments were blown up, crumbling into piles of bricks and cinders. There were war tanks and cars engulfed in flames.

  We had moved to our underground headquarter. I stood observing the masked soldiers crawling through the streets of Kremlin. The enemy had advanced passed the gates into the capital at last.

  "Where are the other soldiers?" I asked one of my generals.

  "They're all dead, Your Highness. The remaining troops are also wounded. The army we have left is now defending our headquarter and the main bases."

  I realized that we were failing in the battle. They outnumbered us by the thousands. Those rotten undead-Nazi soldiers had finally infested our land.

  "Your Highness!" one of the soldiers burst into the room. "The hunters have returned."

  Relief flooded through me. I was glad to hear that Valerina was back, but when I saw the look on the man's face, my blood ran cold.

  "What's happened?"

  "You might have to be hurry," he said with a deep bow, and I heard a tremor in his voice. "The situation doesn't look very good on both the Hunters and our soldiers."

  I bit my lip and glanced at Trotsky, who seemed equally anxious. We wasted no time at all and went straight to the main base.

  Once we arrived, I stepped out of the military car and walked in haste towards the bunker. They set up a hospital ward for the human soldiers underground.

  The soldiers guarding the entrance immediately punched the button on the lift. The metal doors slid open, and Trotsky and I quickly entered.

  Inside the faculty, I found Vale's older sister waiting there. She turned when she heard us approaching. Her composed face betrayed her with a deep anxiety. Her skin was pale. Blood and dirt covered her clothes. The other hunters stood behind her. They shared similar state.

  "Where’s your sister?" Trotsky beat me to it.

  "General," she said, her voice quivered with suppressed emotions. "Something gone awry during our mission."

  My vision turned black at those words. I clenched my jaw as my hands balled into fists.

  "Tell me," I said. “Where is she?”

  The Alpha looked at me almost in remorse then stepped aside.

  The other hunters parted way. I saw a familiar figure lying on a bloodied bed. I felt as if my heart had been ripped from my chest, but my mind refused to accept it.

  Arkady and two other surgeons and nurses were fusing around her.

  Dazed and shocked, I began step towards the fallen huntress.

  Blood smeared her pale cheeks and hands. Her body laid limb without a hint of life. The physicians shook their heads and stepped away as I approached the bed.

  "Valerina..." I choked and kneeled down beside her. "Vale..."

  At the sound of my voice, the huntress stirred. I watched her arched brows furrow in pain. Then her deep blue eyes finally opened. They didn't seem to focus on anything

  "Anastasia," she whispered. "Where are you?"

  My hands shook as I reached out to hold hers.

  "Vale, I’m here," I said. "You're safe now."

  "Anastasia," she croaked again then tried to look at me. "I didn't."

  "Didn't what?" I whispered.

  "Fail."

  Burning tears flooded my eyes and spilled onto her broken form. A stabbing pain burst in my chest. I bit my lips from crying out.

  "I love you, Vale."

  She tried to smile at me as her own tears rolled off the corners of her eyes.

  "I'm sorry," she said with a deep sadness in her voice. "I can't fight anymore."

  I shook my head back.

  "You don't have to fight anymore," I said, leaning over to kiss her forehead. "Just stay with me, please. I need you here. Everyone I've ever loved is gone. I want you to stay with me, please."

  Trotsky came and turned to his physician.

  "Any other way you can save my daughter, Ark?" the General said. He never once lost his composure, but now the man looked deeply troubled.

  "She's lost too much blood," Arkardy said in a helpless tone. "The vampire blood did keep her alive, but if we give her anymore, she'll die. She needs a full blood transfusion. I'm afraid the blood bank is now empty."

  "Take my blood then!" Malena cried.

  "Alpha, I have medical records of everyone," Ark said. "If I had known someone with the same blood type as your sister, I wouldn't keep standing here."

  The Alpha came to grab his collar. "You can't just let my sister die! Do something!"

  Trotsky went to her and put his arms on her shoulders to calm her down. Maybe it was in the time of life and death that people realized each other's value. I had known this feeling many times. It was a deep dark regret and grief. Nothing tears a person alive quite like this.

  "There is a way to save her," Arkardy spoke softly. "I think you all know it."

  Biting my lips, I mustered up the courage to look at the damages on my lover. Vale had sustained multiple wounds that her blood had soaked through the bandages. The sight wrenched my heart like a rug. Fresh tears flowed without stopping as I stared back at her face. She was lucid from the drug that they gave her to ease her pain, but her mind still tried to fight to keep herself conscious. To keep herself with me.

  "Please," I begged her in a mournful voice. "Don't leave me."

  Vale raised her other bloodied hand to my cheek. I grabbed it in mine and kissed her palm.

  No one spoke for a long moment. I looked up at Trotsky and the Alpha. They stood frozen like statues.

  In a distance, I heard the siren. A loud blast shook the whole earth. White plaster cracked from the ceiling. One of our men rushed in with a report.

  "Grand Duchess! The German undead are coming," he sa
id.

  Trotsky turned to the others.

  "We need every single man and woman we have left," he said. "Gather them here immediately."

  "Yes, sir!"

  Then another officer came running towards us with a terrified look.

  "Your Highness, their Zeppelins...their Zeppelins are getting past our frontiers. They're going to drop the bomb in about an hour. What are we going to do?"

  The siren continued to wail along with the sound of men running outside. Now the chaos wagged through every part of the capital. Despite it all, I stayed riveted to the spot as if the weight of grief had pinned me down to my knees.

  Vale groaned from the pain and squeezed her eyes shut. I gripped her hand to my lips to soothe her. She opened her eyes again, but they were glassy like ice. I couldn't bear to see her like this.

  "Anastasia," she whispered, tightening her grip around mine. I leaned closer to hear her. "I love you.”

  “I love you, too.”

  “Kiss me...before I..." she coughed.

  "Vale!"

  "Do it!" the Alpha's voice cried out to me. I froze and lifted my head to look at her. "Save my sister. Please."

  Trotsky looked at me then gave a nod. I looked back at Valerina again.

  "I need a moment with her," I spoke without taking my eyes off my huntress. "Leave us."

  After I said that, everyone began to move away. The General and the Alpha lingered for a moment before they turned to leave with the others.

  After they all left the ward, I stood and lifted Vale gently then laid her back against my chest.

  The bombardment became more frequent. It rocked the ground beneath me. I was running out of time. Vale's grip on my hand loosened. My heart skipped.

  "Valerina," I said to her, caressing her cheek. "I won't let the one I love slip away from me again. I want to spend the rest of my undying life with you, Vale. I can't go on if you're not there with me."

  I lowered my lips to kiss her first on the lips then on her neck. Then I opened my mouth and extracted my hidden dagger-shape teeth. The sharp tips of my canines broke through her soft flesh, injecting enough numbing venom into her veins. Then I pulled away and bite my own wrist.