by Tara Rose
Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly, but then her face went neutral. Magda had seen her share of strange and frightening shit in the time she’d worked for them, and she knew how to handle it. “I understand.” She rose, taking the paper with her, and then Konstantin turned his attention back to Faina. “We have some things to tell you.”
* * * *
Faina listened to them tell her what Dagon had found online, as well as the story of two girls whose names she didn’t recognize. They were from her hometown, and had disappeared after being visited repeatedly by a demon. Then she read the document that Dagon had given them that morning. “Let me make sure I understand all this.” Her voice shook, but really…how could she help that? “I was marked by the Lidérc who visited me.”
Alexei stroked her arm, but his touch might as well have been from a leaf blowing in the wind. It offered no warmth or comfort this time. “We believe so, yes.”
“And he never came back, but you don’t know why.”
“Correct.”
“But if he had, he would have claimed me.” She shuddered. “Just like one probably claimed those girls.”
“That’s what makes the most sense to us.”
“So I’m already spoken for. That’s the part that Vassago and Sargatanas don’t know.”
Konstantin shook his head. “No, Dagon is fairly certain they do know it, and that’s why they’re searching for you.” He tapped the document. “What we aren’t sure of is whether they know this exists.”
“Dagon found this document in the basement where those girls lived, correct?”
He nodded.
She pushed the document aside for now. “A demon who makes a pact with other demons must be offered a sacrifice to honor the pact.” This was the part where her mind started swimming and she was certain she’d pass out. “And you made a pact with Sargatanas to become human again.”
“With Dagon’s help. Before that, there were only empty promises from him.”
“So, that’s the second pact you made with him?”
“No. That is the true pact. We never had a real contract with him before.”
“And this pact says the only way you can become human is to sacrifice someone you love.”
“That’s correct.”
“And by sacrifice I assume you mean kill?”
Alexei took her hand. “Yes. But even in that person’s immortal life, she would be lost to us. We couldn’t claim her as one of our own kind. She’d be out of our reach forever.”
The sound of hedge clippers and chainsaws outside had stopped. She heard voices in the distance, but even those faded as somewhere in the house a clock chimed. It was too much to take in, and yet the simplicity of it was so familiar…so normal. “Was this why Lisette was killed? She was part of a pact?”
“We aren’t sure. She may have been killed as part of an intended sacrifice because of her strong psychic powers. We may never know the answer to why she was chosen, Faina. I wish we could offer you closure there. I know you and your friends have been seeking that for a long time.”
The tears came, unexpected and unbidden. She reached up to wipe them away, but Konstantin’s hand was there first. “Faina, even if you had been with her that night, you might all have lost your lives. And then…and then we never would have met you.”
She swallowed hard as she gazed into those golden eyes, wondering if her mind was playing tricks on her. Was it possible they felt the same way? Were they in love with her, as she was with them? But how could that be? How could any of them have let this happen?
As soon as the thought took shape, Faina nearly laughed out loud at the ridiculousness of it. One does not allow love to happen. It simply does. This moment had begun early in her childhood when she was fascinated with the stories in school about demons rather than frightened by them. A new link in the chain was forged when she was visited by the Lidérc at age twelve, and more links, one by one, were added with each book she read, each legend she researched, and every erotic dream she had.
These two were her destiny. They always had been. “But you’ve found a way to break the pact with him.”
“Yes. Yes, we have.”
“And I’m the key because I’m already marked.”
“Dagon believes this to be true.”
She pulled the document over. “And this is how you can break it…how you’ve already broken it. But he doesn’t know about this.”
“We aren’t sure if he does or not.”
“How did he know I was here?”
“We don’t know that either.”
She sighed. “Was it because I was on the balconies that morning?”
“We don’t know for certain.”
“And your plan now is to call him out…Sargatanas…and demand they honor your prior claim.”
“Yes. We concluded days ago that he wouldn’t be searching for you if he wasn’t certain there was something about you that would get us out of the pact with him.” He tapped the document again. “And this gave us the missing piece of the puzzle. The Lidérc never came back for you. No one knows who he was, or where he went. According to this, that means the next demonic supernatural being—and that’s both of us—who claim you as their own, take the place of the Lidérc’s claim. We now have taken over the prior claim on you from the Lidérc. We’ve marked you as our own.”
“Even if you never formally took that claim away from the Lidérc?”
“We did formally take it,” said Alexei, “although we didn’t realize that at the time because we didn’t know this process existed until Dagon found this document. You read this, Faina. You now know how we took the claim from the Lidérc. The night we first made love to you we took it, even if we didn’t know that at the time. You’re now marked by us.”
This was the part she needed to know. It meant the difference between being used by them to further their own purposes, and all her endless fantasies and dreams coming true. “Forgive me for repeating this. It’s a lot to take in. You didn’t know about this document before today. You had no idea that making love to me would take away the Lidérc’s hold on me and transfer it to you two.”
“That’s right. We did not know that. We made love to you because you called to us, like a siren. We wanted to possess you, not use you.”
She held her breath as she gazed into Alexei’s eyes, daring herself to finally believe what she’d seen in them and in Konstantin’s eyes these past few days. Her pulse raced, and she swore she heard the blood pounding in her veins. “You love me then,” she whispered. “It’s really true.”
Konstantin and Alexei each squeezed a hand at the same time. “I love you with my entire being,” said Konstantin. “There’s no reason now not to tell you the truth. I couldn’t tell you before. Neither of us could. How could we tell you that loving you meant watching you die?”
Alexei nodded, his face a mask of pain and joy at the same time. “I love you, too, Faina. And I wish we could have spared you this pain and fear. But I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Neither one of us are.” His voice was full of courage and conviction, but all that did was make her cry harder.
“But…but how? How is this possible? And what’s going to happen? I have a home…a job. What about my friends?”
Alexei rose and pulled her to her feet then held her close and stroked her hair while she cried. She couldn’t seem to stop. Her breath came in huge, gasping sobs that tore at her chest. There was actual pain, as if she were having a heart attack or a really nasty case of gastritis. She clung to him like she’d cling to a life raft. “I love you, too. Oh God, how is this real? I love you both.”
She swore Alexei laughed, but then he held her even tighter and she could hardly take a full breath, so that might have been her imagination. Konstantin was behind her now, stroking her back and kissing her hair. “It’s all right, Faina. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to do this, and nothing will happen to you. I swear it.”
She pulled out o
f Alexei’s arms to glance over his shoulder at Konstantin. “Even if you’re able to get out of this without any harm coming to us, then what? What happens?”
They each gave her a look of incredulity. “What happens?” asked Alexei. “We’re human again, that’s what happens.”
“Just like that?”
“Well, we think so. We’ve never done it before, nor have we seen it done.”
“And you’ll remember me?”
Konstantin did laugh. “Of course we will. Nothing will change except our mortality. And then you can be with us for the rest our lives.”
“What?”
Alexei cupped her face. “What did you think we would do? Drive you to the airport and watch you get on a plane for Chicago? Let you leave us forever?”
“But…” Her brain was full of cotton candy. It had to be, because no way was she hearing this.
Konstantin turned her around to face him and placed a hand on each shoulder. “But nothing. We’ll go back to Chicago with you, pack up your stuff, introduce ourselves to all your family members, and then you’re coming back here with us to live. Hell…we’ll bring your family down here to live if that’s what you want. The house is certainly large enough.”
“You two are for real.” Her heart soared. This couldn’t be true. It went beyond any fantasy she’d had. It was well past any expectation she’d ever had.
“Of course we are.” Konstantin brushed a finger along her face, and Faina started to cry again, but not from fear or confusion this time. She was so full of joy that she didn’t see how she’d ever contain it.
Reality came crashing back in when Magda walked into the kitchen, clearing her throat. “The messages are on their way.”
“Good. Thank you.” Konstantin shook his head slightly as if he, too, had been confused for a moment. “We have much to do in order to prepare for tonight.” He gave Faina a long, searching look. “And we must get you ready for the most difficult thing you’ve ever done.”
Chapter Eighteen
Alexei insisted Faina take a nap after he and Konstantin told her what she’d likely see and hear when they called out Sargatanas tonight. He knew she was strong enough to handle it but wasn’t sure he and his brother could, unless it went off without a hitch, which Alexei didn’t believe for a moment it would.
Despite his misgivings, it had been such a relief to finally tell her the truth about everything, including the fact he loved her. But at the same time, he knew their future with her was far from certain. When she’d asked the question, there was no way he could have simply lied or brushed it off. She deserved to finally know the truth, and both he Konstantin had been overjoyed to hear the words from her lips as well.
Now, she was finally asleep, so he and Konstantin crept out of the room and stood in front of the open French doors to the balcony outside Alexei’s study. “The breeze carries an ill will this evening. I don’t like it. We should have waited a day or two.”
“For what? You know it was either Vassago or Sargatanas himself who called the house this afternoon. They know she’s here. Why prolong this any further?”
Alexei knew his brother was right, but he still didn’t like the feel of the breeze, or the slight smell of rotted flesh. How close to the house were they right now? “How long have Seth and Daniel been gone? We should have word by now.”
“A couple of hours. It’s possible they’re having trouble locating some of them.”
“Magda told them it was all right if they didn’t find them all, right?”
Konstantin nodded. “Yes. And she told them to wait for a return message from those they did find.”
Alexei closed the doors and stepped into the center of the room. “We should take Magda with us tonight. Faina will need someone with her who knows what to do if there’s unexpected trouble.”
“We can do that.”
“We should have taken her somewhere to hide instead of bringing her here the night we found her. Dagon would have hidden her for us.”
“And then none of this would be happening. We certainly wouldn’t have made love to her in Dagon’s house. We wouldn’t have been here with her these past few days, or fallen in love with her. We knew her in the cemetery. Surely you realize that now. We saw that she was marked. She called to both of us.”
Alexei sighed. “I know it. I don’t understand it, but you speak the truth. She is ours to have. This has to work.”
“It will. It will work. She belongs to us now. Not even Sargatanas can argue that point.”
Magda came into the room as silently as always. Although Alexei was used to it, a chill ran up and down his spine at the sudden sight of her. “What’s wrong? What has happened?”
She handed him a note.
Alexei swore in both Russian and Ukrainian when he read it. He handed it to Konstantin who punched the wall so hard he knocked a hole in the plaster.
“We have to leave her for now. We have to meet him.”
Alexei looked at his brother as if he’d gone mad. “It’s a trap. You know that.”
“What are we supposed to do with Seth and Daniel, then? Leave them with Vassago to die?” He shook the note in his brother’s face. “Is this not clear enough for you? He has them, and unless we meet him alone, he will kill them. That means he also knows about the plans we had to meet the others.”
Alexei glanced toward Magda. “You know how to get in touch with Dagon. We need you to do it now. Tell him what’s happened. Read him the note. The others must be warned that Vassago knows of our plans, which means Sargatanas likely knows by now as well. Tell Dagon we need help as soon as he can send it. The meeting tonight is now cancelled. We will have to do this with angels as witnesses instead.”
Magda nodded, her face impassive, as he and Konstantin disappeared.
* * * *
Faina woke and knew something wasn’t right even before she heard strange voices in the house. The door to Alexei’s bedroom had been left open. She closed it then glanced around. It was nearly dark. The guys should be here by now, ready to take her and Magda to the meeting. But she knew they weren’t in the house. She didn’t know how she knew it, but something told her their presence was elsewhere.
She lit a candle inside a hurricane lamp and debated, waiting, willing them to come up the stairs and into the room. Then everything would be okay. She tried to remember everything they’d told her before she fell asleep, but her mind was foggy. She strongly suspected they’d helped her to sleep a bit with their powers, but she didn’t mind. It had been necessary. Soon, they wouldn’t have those powers any longer. Would they miss them?
Shouts reached her ears, and then a woman screaming. She almost dropped the lamp as she sprinted toward the door and opened it. The smell of rotting flesh nearly made her retch. Konstantin and Alexei had never smelled like that. Someone else was in the house. But how could that be? They’d told her that Vassago and Sargatanas couldn’t enter the house or the grounds, or the pact would be broken. Had something happened while she slept to change that? Was it a different being in the house?
Her heart beat so rapidly she was sure she’d pass out. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and her legs felt like lead. She didn’t know what to do or where to go. Voices floated up the stairs. They were coming. She heard two distinct sets of footsteps, and one of them belonged to Magda. Faina was used to the sound of her footfalls on the stairs now.
She was never so happy to see the woman turn the corner, until Faina glimpsed the terror in her eyes. “Run, Faina. Run and hide. Konstantin and Alexei are not in the house. You must hide. Now.”
Faina’s mouth was frozen open as she watched a tall, dark, hooded figure rise up behind Magda. Purple sparks emanated from him like he was nothing but pure energy. He had no face or form. He was merely a presence. An evil, decaying presence that rendered her helpless and unable to move. She couldn’t think or feel. Scenes of the past few days floated through her mind then dissolved into wisps of black smoke as though this being wa
s burning them from her memory.
She had to do something. She had to get out of here. Outside of the house and away from this street. She had to hide until Konstantin and Alexei could reach her. Until they could find her again. They’d found her once. They would do it again.
Magda screamed again as this being hit her. Faina didn’t see its hand. Rather, she saw part of it come down over Magda, as if going straight through her. Magda fell and didn’t move. Faina put her hand over her mouth to stifle her scream. Had he killed her? No…this couldn’t be happening.
The being didn’t move toward her, but although Faina couldn’t see its eyes, she knew it watched her.
* * * *
Konstantin picked up the nearest rock and tossed it. Alexei was grateful there were no humans around, because the rock had to weigh one hundred pounds, minimum. “It’s obviously a trick. He’s not coming. And now Dagon is on his way here.”
“Then we wait for him.”
“But where is Vassago? He lured us here for a reason.”
“He won’t go onto the grounds. You know that.”
Konstantin wished he believed that Vassago wasn’t brash or stupid enough to knowingly violate the terms of the pact, but right now he didn’t know what to think. That he and Alexei had allowed themselves to be tricked like this was proof that nothing now was as it seemed.
He was about to tell Alexei that they needed to return home, whether Dagon knew where they were or not, when their golden angel appeared, flanked by no less than two dozen fallen angels. Konstantin and Alexei showed them what they’d found.
“Nice touch,” said Dagon. “He always did have a sense of humor.”
“So you know what this is? What it means?”
“Oh yes. When Vassago decided to leave our side and join Sargatanas, he gave the demons a boon to prove his loyalty. It was a statue of an angel, much like this one, into which he poured goat’s blood. A slain goat, offered as a sacrifice to Lucifer himself.
