by Tara Rose
Oh my God…
“But for now, go on and take your shower. We’ll have Magda retrieve your belongings from the hotel.”
“And you’ll give me back my phone, as well?”
He shook his head. “Not safe. They might intercept the signal.”
“Oh. But what about the text message you said Dani sent me?”
He shrugged. “Let us hope for the best.”
They picked up the tray and left the room, closing the door behind them, but this time she didn’t hear them lock it. She could leave the house. She could return to the hotel and…and do what? Her phone was gone. Her key was gone. Her ID was gone. She couldn’t even get on the plane to go home without her driver’s license. The hotel staff wouldn’t give her another key without ID. She was stuck here.
As she wandered around the room, touching everything and absorbing the energy, she still couldn’t shake the feeling some of these pieces had come from Russia in the days of the czars. They both spoke the language. She’d forgotten to ask them about that and made a mental note to do so.
When she pushed aside the heavy drapes lining one window, she had no additional clues to her whereabouts. The ground one story below was barely visible through the trees. It looked like a forest outside this window. How much property did they own in the middle of the city? Or were they someplace else and had lied to her about that?
There was no sure way to know without leaving the house. And once again, that plan was rejected. No money, no ID, and no cell phone. She wouldn’t get far. And if she went to the police, what on earth would she tell them? That she and four friends had climbed a fence into St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 last night to visit Marie Laveau’s tomb, and she’d been abducted by two demons in human form, who claimed to have saved her from a turf war between vampires, demons, and who knew what else?
Right. And then they’d lock her up for being drunk and disorderly, not to mention trespassing. That would be a whole lot more fun than being held prisoner inside an opulent mansion by two gorgeous men. Demons. They’re demons. In human form. Luscious, seductive, sultry human form.
“Stop that,” she whispered. She had to keep her emotions and her hormones under control.
Faina crossed the room and opened the door to the bathroom, gasping at the gold faucets and marble countertop. The shower was large enough to hold at least six people and featured two showerheads. She couldn’t help imagining all the fun they’d have in there together. A stained-glass window offered no view, but cast beautiful prisms on the tiled walls and floor as sunlight streamed in. That meant the window faced east, if it was still morning. She had no clue what time it was.
She opened various cabinets to find expensive bath, hair, and skin products. It was everything a woman could want. Did they do this often? Kidnap women and hold them prisoner here? As hot jealousy shot through her body, the reaction caught her off guard. She couldn’t go making this into something it wasn’t.
She selected products by Lancôme because they were items she’d never be able to afford on the salary she made. She wasn’t sure what to do with her clothes, so she left them on the bed. As she showered, she mentally went over everything Alexei and Konstantin had told her, finally concluding that if it wasn’t real, it was the most vivid dream she’d ever had. But Faina knew it wasn’t a dream. She wasn’t quite that naïve.
When she emerged into the bedroom, it was to find that the men had been true to their word. Her luggage was on the sofa, with a note on top of one of the suitcases, written in a flowing script.
We put your ID, phone, and laptop in a safe place. They will be returned to you when it’s safe for you to go home. Everything else is here, and Magda left your hotel key in the room so the staff will simply think you checked out early. Meet us downstairs in the south drawing room as soon as you’re dressed. We’d like to give you a tour of the house.
The south drawing room? How many freaking drawing rooms did they have? And how was she supposed to find it?
As Faina donned a pair of pants and a tank top, she decided that she’d look at this as an adventure. Because it was so freaking fucked up that there was no way to make sense of it. She might as well try to enjoy it because it was now quite clear that she wasn’t going anywhere until these two said she could.
Chapter Five
Konstantin sipped his drink while he and Alexei waited. He barely tasted it. They needed to eat and drink while in human form, although they could exist without doing so. But as the decades passed, they both found they enjoyed food and drink less as time went on. They’d also both expressed concern that one day they’d find their sex drive gone as well. The agony of living in hell had nothing to do with eternal fire. It was the state of being aware without the sensations one experienced and enjoyed as a human.
They went out in the daylight, but the sunlight didn’t warm their skin. They could walk in snow barefoot and not feel the sting of frostbite. They tasted the most delicate wine, but they might as well be drinking tepid water. The spiciest Cajun food barely left a taste on their tongues. And the last time Konstantin had made love to a woman, her touch had left him unsatisfied.
Would Faina be the one to finally help them become human again? Even as the thought took shape, Konstantin forced it from his mind. If she was the catalyst to bring about the transformation they both so ardently desired, it would mean her death. He didn’t want that. He and Alexei had never wanted that for any human woman they’d dared to care about all these decades.
And yet, it had been made clear to them by the fallen angel Dagon that in order for them to break the curse the demon Sargatanas had placed on them, a boon was required. They must sacrifice someone they loved.
Faina’s pull was so strong. They’d both felt it in the cemetery last night. But how could they bring about her death in order to earn their humanity again?
“She’s downstairs.”
Konstantin snapped out of his reverie at the sound of Alexei’s voice and placed his glass on the sideboard. Together they entered the main hall and made their way to the stairs, where she descended like a vision. She’d chosen white capri pants and a red tank top, but was still barefoot. Her hair hung in loose curls, framing her face, and her dark eyes were ablaze with curiosity and excitement. Konstantin’s dick was rock hard, as it usually was whenever he was this close to a human woman.
But this was no ordinary woman. They both knew that. Faina was different. She was gifted. She understood that there were worlds beyond her own, and creatures that coexisted side-by-side with humans that most of them couldn’t sense. But the chosen few could see them and hear them. A rare few could interact with them and not lose their minds. She was one such creature, and Konstantin didn’t want to give her up.
“You look stunning.”
Her face colored slightly, and it was all he could do not to pull her into his arms and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. “Thank you.”
“Would you like to see our home?”
“I’d love to. Thanks for not making me find the south drawing room on my own.”
Konstantin chuckled. “Yeah. We did realize you wouldn’t know your way around.” He took her hand and was delighted this time she didn’t flinch. Her touch was warm on his skin, which surprised him. That was another thing they both had ceased to feel. The nuances of human touch on their flesh in this form.
Alexei swept his hand around the foyer. “We had this designed to mirror one of Nicholas II’s palaces.”
“I was right then. I thought I detected influences of Imperial Russia in the bedroom.”
“The entire house is influenced by the reign of czars,” said Konstantin. “We knew the Romanov family.”
She stared at him for a moment as understanding dawned in her eyes. “That would explain why you speak Russian.”
He curled her hand around his arm, trying to ignore the pain in his groin. It was good to realize he could feel it. “Let’s walk. We’ll tell you more about our history and how we ende
d up here in The Big Easy.”
* * * *
Faina could hardly take it all in. Their home was lavish and over-the-top, but she loved it. Over the years, she’d toured most of the palaces where the last czar had lived, and these two had definitely captured the decadence and richness of those dwellings. She felt as though she’d stepped back in time, and indeed that’s probably why they’d gone to such lengths to decorate their home this way.
“Is that when you died? During the Revolution?”
“Yes,” said Alexei. “We were part of the Provisional Government who fought against the war in Germany. We were overthrown eventually by Lenin and his Bolshevik Party.” His expression was both sad and angry, and it tore at Faina’s heart to realize they both still remembered those days intimately. The stories she’d read were nothing more than part of the rich and convoluted history of her culture, but to these two, they were part of their shared past. They’d actually lived it.
“We weren’t good guys, Faina. We deserved our deaths.”
She shivered. “What…what happened? I mean…I don’t know how to ask this.”
“It’s all right,” said Konstantin. “We don’t mind telling you.” He led her into a library that had her gasping as she twirled in slow circles, trying to take it all in. It soared two stories high, lined with bookshelves that were filled to the brim. A series of ladders and scaffolding had been built into the shelves, matching the wood grain so nothing looked out of place. The room was dim, but when one of them pushed the slide bar on the dimmer switch, she was able to see all the way to the ceiling.
“Holy shit,” she whispered. “How many? Any idea?”
Konstantin chuckled. “Yes. Close to eleven thousand now. And some of them are very, very old.”
“Which explains the lack of windows.”
He pointed toward a grouping of sofas and armchairs in the center. “Let’s sit and we’ll tell you what happened after we died.”
“You mentioned reading at least one book on the occult,” said Alexi. “Were there more?”
“Yes.”
“In the books you read, did you ever come across any stories about a demon named Sargatanas?”
“Maybe. I read a lot of names in a lot of books. But mostly I was interested in the spells. Like I said, I think the reason someone appeared to me that night was because I sort of spoke one out loud.”
“Sort of?”
His grin made her pussy wet. “Well, all right. More than sort of. I spoke a summoning incantation out loud.”
“Probably best not to mess with things you really don’t understand.”
“I realize that now. Is it Sargatanas who appeared to me? Is that what you’re saying?”
“We don’t know. He usually confines his activities to bestowing certain abilities on male demons.”
“Like what?”
Both men looked uncomfortable. “Like extraordinary lovemaking skills, and the ability to astral project, open locks, and go through any door.”
She bit back the moan that threatened as images danced through her head. “Forgive me, but that doesn’t exactly sound like the vision of hell painted in my twelve years of Catholic school.”
Konstantin shook his head. “I’m sure it’s not. But our existence isn’t all fun and games. Sargatanas used us for our military skills to incite war and riots all through Russia. We fought alongside our brothers during our human lives to save our country from Communism, but in our death we were forced to perpetuate the Soviet Union’s advance throughout Europe. Then we were dispatched to other parts of the world to continue Sargatanas’s mission.”
She swallowed hard at the look of pain on his face, and the anger in his voice. She’d never considered supernatural influence in her country’s history, but now it made perfect sense. “My parents came to the US in 1984. They were helped out of the country by relatives in Chicago. Are you familiar with the area of that city called Ukrainian Village?”
Both men nodded.
“We live there. I still lived with my parents until three years ago because apartments in most areas of Chicago are ridiculously expensive.”
“So you lived in Communist Russia.”
“Only for four years. I don’t remember much, to be honest. But my parents certainly do.”
“What do you do back home in Chicago?” asked Alexei.
“I have a bachelor’s degree in legal studies from Northwestern. I work as a paralegal in document translation for Stankowski, Balenchuk, and Diago. They’re a firm specializing in clients whose first language isn’t English.”
She studied their faces, wondering what they could have done so wrong in death that a demon snatched them up. “What happened after you did all those deeds for Sargatanas in Europe?”
“We were eventually sent here,” said Alexei. “He didn’t think the United States had quite enough going on inside its own borders. Several incidents involving civil rights in nearby states were, in part, due to our interference in human matters. But we’d had enough. Repeatedly, we asked Sargatanas to release us. He’d promised so many times to make us human again if we did his bidding, but he never kept the promises.”
“How did you finally get away from him?”
“We enlisted the help of a fallen angel named Dagon. A Nephilim.”
She smiled. “They’re real, then. Nephilim.”
“Quite. And they work tirelessly now to free demons like us from our world and either restore our humanity, or become like them.”
“And that’s what you want? To become fallen angels?”
Alexei shook his head. “No. We want to be human again. We want a second chance.”
She took several deep breaths, trying to understand everything they’d said. “How is that possible?”
“There are many things going on in the spirit world that most humans wouldn’t be able to handle knowing about.”
“So what happens now? What do you have to do to become human? Does it have something to do with this turf war?”
Alexei stood and walked over to a bell chord she hadn’t noticed before. He pulled it. “In a way. I’m asking Magda to bring us some wine and more food. You didn’t eat enough earlier, and you look a bit pale.”
She was hungry as soon as he said it. Was that part of their power over her? How would she ever know whether they were using their powers, or if she was feeling a true emotion or sensation? They’d said they wouldn’t do that to her, but could she trust them? If anyone had told her this story twenty-four hours ago, she’d have thought they were insane. But here she was, in this amazing house that was all too real, talking calmly to two demons who had lived and died in the Russian Revolution.
Dani, Heidi, Shayla, and Erin were never going to believe this shit.
Chapter Six
Alexei watched Faina walk past the shelves, occasionally running a manicured finger along the spine of a book. He waited until Magda brought a decanter of wine and sandwiches, placing the trolley near the sofa on which they sat.
“Don’t spill that wine on the rug.”
“We won’t.”
Magda left after giving him a droll look, and then Alexei poured Faina a glass and handed it to her. “Just curious, but did you ever tell anyone else about the demon visiting you?”
She took a sip. “Wow. That’s delicious. It reminds me of the wine in the Ukraine. What is it?”
“You have a discerning palate. It’s a white muscat from Massandra.”
She nodded, taking another sip. “Wonderful clarity. But we have to make a toast, otherwise it’s bad luck.”
Konstantin raised a brow.
“To my friends, Dani, Heidi, Shayla, and Erin, wherever you are.” They drank to her friends, and then Faina continued. “To answer your question, I was foolish enough to tell my parents about my visitor.”
Alexei nearly choked on his wine. “What did they do?”
“Took me to our priest who wanted to exorcise me. I freaked out and told them it was only a
dream. They finally believed me, but I was in so much trouble.”
“I’m sorry. That’s crazy.”
She shrugged, taking another sip. “It is what it is. They were only doing what they thought was right.”
“But you never believed your immortal soul was in danger, did you?”
“Not really. I was more curious than anything, but after that fiasco I wasn’t about to attempt contact a second time, so I hid the book and never opened it again.”
“But it’s still in your possession,” said Konstantin.
“Yes. Do you think it has something to do with all this?”
“Not sure yet.” He patted the trolley. “Come and eat something.”
She finally took a seat and picked up a sandwich. After she’d eaten half of it, she glanced at them both. “Do you eat food?”
“We do,” said Alexei, “but our need for it is not necessary to our survival.”
She wiped her mouth on a napkin then gave them each a thoughtful look. “And what about other things? I mean, like other human bodily functions?”
Alexei smiled. “In this form, we do everything a human does.”
She finished the second half of the sandwich then drained her wine glass. Alexei poured her a second one. “And what about sex? Can you do that, too? Did Sargatanas give you extraordinary lovemaking skills in addition to making you his personal soldiers?”
He nearly came in his pants and was glad she hadn’t resorted to coy questions. He’d always preferred women who were direct. “We’ve never had any complaints.”
“Not that we’ve taken advantage of those skills,” said Konstantin.
Alexei nodded. “True. We haven’t. We don’t want you thinking we go around seducing human women for sport.”
She picked up a piece of celery filled with cream cheese and took a bite. “None of my business if you do.”
