“Forever? Oh, no,” Prince Mihai said with a light laugh. “In fact, I don’t have more than an hour to wait for her to make up her mind. I have other things to do today. The priest is waiting at a church on Calea Victoriei.
“So let me make this all much clearer: Dacia can decide to marry me now, of her own free will, or she can refuse. But please understand: if she refuses, I will simply force myself on her, and ruin her more effectively than simply being abducted in her underthings has already done. And if she still refuses I will tie her to this chair and force her to watch while I have my way with you.” He said all this in a reasonable tone, as though saying he was going to order a tea tray from the hotel restaurant.
“You’re mad,” Lou choked out, bile rising in her throat.
Mihai frowned at her. “You will keep a civil tongue around me, girl,” he said. “I am your king!”
“You’re mad,” Lou said again, her voice shaking. Mihai’s face filled her vision. She recognized him, suddenly, as the dark man from her nightmares. The man whose words turned to blood when he spoke.
“I will possess Dacia, then I will possess all of Europe,” he announced.
Dacia made the little noise again, and crumpled to the floor.
“You—you—you monster!”
It was all Lou could think to say as she followed Dacia down. She was relieved to see that her cousin had not fainted, but merely folded in on herself, to crouch on the floor of the hotel room while Mihai loomed over them.
“Dacia?” Lou tried to pull her up, but Dacia was too limp. Her expression, oddly, was thoughtful.
“Overcome by your love for me, Dacia?” Mihai sneered.
“Get out!” Straightening, Lou pointed an imperious finger at the door.
“You really don’t understand, do you?” Mihai said. “Dacia must choose. Now. She can be married before or after our . . . wedding night.” He smiled, and Lou thought she might be sick. “The choice should be fairly simple, now that I have you in my power as well—”
“Hardly,” Lou interrupted. “I should like very much to see you stop me from going anywhere I please . . . and bringing help to free Dacia!”
And then Lou knew that she would have to leave Dacia. Mr. Arkady and Lord Johnny had reached the hotel; she could sense them both. But they wouldn’t know how to find Dacia’s room, and Mihai had no doubt posted guards. She would have to leave Dacia behind so that she could guide them to this room before Mihai could—before he—
Lou put Mihai’s threats from her mind and slipped into Smoke, leaving Dacia, Mihai, and her gown behind. She flowed across the floor and through another keyhole, this one leading into a narrow stairwell. She slithered down the stairs, then the elevator shaft, all the while feeling for Mr. Arkady and Lord Johnny.
They were in the lobby, and Lord Johnny had Prince Mattias by the collar.
“Where is she?” The young lord’s face was only inches from the prince’s. The older man had a sneer on his face that must have been a Dracula family trait.
Lou blew herself between them. Prince Mattias cursed and drew back, and Lord Johnny let out a startled oath of his own.
“Lou! Miss Neulander,” Mr. Arkady corrected himself. “Lead the way!”
Twisting around in the air, Lou raced back to the stairs, the men just behind her. Prince Mattias followed, but Lord Johnny turned and punched the prince square in the jaw. Prince Mattias went down with a thud, and Mr. Arkady leaped over him and started up the stairs after Lord Johnny, who hadn’t even waited to see his opponent fall.
By the time they reached the top, the men were panting and pulling themselves up by the railing. Far below, they could hear sounds of excitement as someone found Prince Mattias, but the elevator did not clank into life . . . in fact, they passed it on the fifth floor, waiting for some hotel guests who stared as they raced by.
At the top of the hotel, Lou flew through the keyhole once again, frightened by what she might find. It was not as bad as it could have been. Mihai had Dacia on her feet, holding her up by one shoulder in a grip that was painful to behold. With his other hand he was tearing at the sash around her waist. Dacia’s face was blank, and she was staring at the wall behind Mihai as though unaware of what was happening.
Lou decided to try something new: she slipped into her discarded gown, and then returned to her human form. Her arms were at her sides, and the gown was twisted around her torso, but Mihai barely registered her entrance. She slipped her arms through the sleeves just as Mr. Arkady burst into the room, having smashed the door open with his shoulder.
Lord Johnny leaped into the room after him, a pistol in his hand.
“Dacia,” the young lord cried out. “Are you all right?”
“She’s fine,” Prince Mihai said. He pushed her down on the bed. “And soon she will be more than fine: she will be my bride, and a princess!” He shrugged off his own coat in a swift motion, oblivious to Lou, who was trying to lunge around him and grab Dacia.
“You whoreson! Release her!”
Lord Johnny leveled his pistol at Prince Mihai, but the prince only smiled wider. Lou actually felt her hand raise of its own accord, ready to slap the smile right off Mihai’s face. She froze, however, just as Lord Johnny and Mr. Arkady did, when Mihai coolly pulled Dacia upright and held her in front of himself.
“Go on and shoot, if you have the stomach for it,” the prince said.
“Release her, you coward,” Lord Johnny said, his voice just as cold, despite the sweat running down his temples.
“Oh, I don’t think so,” Prince Mihai said. “This is what I’ve wanted all my life, you know, all my family has wanted for generations, and I will rule. With my queen using her power to keep my enemies in their place, it will be much easier. This is my birthright, and no one will keep me from it!”
Lou let out a small cry as Dacia’s head lolled and she sagged in Prince Mihai’s grip. Lou thought her cousin had fainted, but then Mihai swore. Dacia had only been throwing him off balance so that she could move her head around . . . and bite him, hard, on the arm.
“She bit me!” He slapped her with his injured hand. “How dare you bite me, you vicious little dog—”
“Don’t say another word,” Lord Johnny said, cocking his pistol as Dacia, freed from the prince’s grip, rushed to wrap herself around Lou like a frightened child.
“I have just one more word to say,” the prince said, and Lord Johnny moved forward another step.
“Stop him!” Lord Johnny shouted.
Mr. Arkady lunged forward as Prince Mihai shouted a strange word and threw a handful of choking dust in his face. He leaped over Mr. Arkady, shoved Lord Johnny hard to the ground, and ran out the door.
When they had stopped coughing, and checked to make sure that the prince was indeed gone, Dacia wiped her face on her sleeve and looked at Lou. Her expression was like a person waking from a long sleep, then she drew a deep breath and pulled herself taller.
“Well!” Dacia put one arm around Lou’s waist and rested her other hand on her hip. “Can you believe the nerve of him, calling me a monster and a dog?”
“Appalling,” Lou agreed. She faced the two young men. “So, what next? I am determined to slap that smile off his face, and I suppose it’s up to us to stop him from taking the throne while we’re about it.”
“Us?” Lord Johnny said, setting his jaw. “Now, ladies—”
“Think very carefully about what you say next,” Dacia warned. “I’ll bite you, too, if I have to.”
Lou was so pleased to see Dacia returning to her normal spirits that she clutched at the nearest set of hands and laughed. Then the laughter turned to blushes and hmm-ing when the nearest set of hands proved to be Mr. Arkady’s.
THE DIARY OF MISS DACIA VREEHOLT
15 June 1897
Perhaps I am a monster. But does it really matter? I still can choose whether or not I make the change, and I still can choose what I do with my life. I hope that aiding Lord Johnny and his cohorts
will redeem my soul somewhat.
If I even have a soul.
THE HOTEL BUCHAREST
“Where do you think they’ll strike?” Lord Johnny was leaning over a map that had been spread on the table in his hotel suite.
“If they want to attack the king and queen, they’ll go to Sinaia, won’t they?”
Lou had changed back into her Parisian gown when they had reached the gentlemen’s hotel. Her hair had come loose, and she kept fidgeting with it. Finally Dacia took her cousin’s dark curls and fastened them with a ribbon so that they hung down over one of Lou’s shoulders. Her own straight hair she had braided, but decided against pinning across her head like a coronet. With the traditional garb she wore, it would make her look like some peasant milkmaid. She’d also taken the time in the hotel suite’s bathroom to adjust her gown so that the neckline had a nice swoop, and the sash was smooth and tight. It almost made her look like she had a bust.
“But do they want to attack? How strong are their forces?” Mr. Arkady took a pencil and drew a circle around Sinaia on the map.
“Mihai is done biding his time,” Dacia told them. “He said that everything was in place, and the last step was to marry me.” She couldn’t repress a little shiver.
Lord Johnny reached over and squeezed her hand where it rested on the map. Dacia felt her heart and stomach trade places, and concentrated very furiously on the map until Mr. Arkady cleared his throat and Lord Johnny moved his hand.
“Why you?” Mr. Arkady asked. “Forgive me, and you are both lovely and strong young women, but why have you caused such a stir?”
“There’s a prophecy,” Dacia said. She did her best to make light of it. “A prophecy, mind you, as if we weren’t on the eve of the twentieth century!” She forced a laugh, and Lou stared at her.
Dacia wanted to explain, but felt suddenly shy in front of Lord Johnny. Also, she hadn’t quite worked out her own feelings on the topic yet. Yes, a prophecy was a silly thing to plan one’s life around in this day and age, but what if it was true? Turning into a wolf had seemed impossible three days ago, too. And what if the prophecy could be turned to her advantage, used to manipulate her family into overthrowing Mihai?
“The prophecy Lady Ioana spoke of?” Lou frowned. “It was rather vague, wasn’t it?”
“Radu told me more,” Dacia said. “Apparently it’s about two girls who will have fathers from the New World, and will return to Romania to lead our family from darkness into light. Which Lady Ioana thinks means to glory at Mihai’s side.” She snorted.
“So they sent . . .” Lou trailed off. The lines between her brows went deeper than ever.
Dacia put an arm around her. “They sent Aunt Kate, my mother, and your mother to New York specifically to find American husbands, so that we would be born,” she said gently.
“How very . . . calculated of your grandmother,” Lord Johnny said.
“She’s not the most doting grandmother, it’s true,” Dacia said. “In fact, she—”
“She killed them,” Lou blurted out. She gave a long shudder.
“What? Who?” Dacia asked, drawing away from Lou to look at her face.
Lord Johnny and Mr. Arkady stared as well. After a minute, when Lou just stared over their heads, clenching and unclenching her fists, Lord Johnny softly asked her who it was Lady Ioana had killed.
“The babies,” Lou said, her face a mask of horror. “That’s why we have no girl cousins our age. Why there hasn’t been a Smoke in generations. Lady Ioana killed them. Her own daughters. Her own granddaughters. The Smoke leads the family, not the Wing.” She let out a strange little laugh. “I guess there would have been a lot of us. And now there’s only me.”
“No,” Dacia said, pulling Lou close again. “I don’t believe it. Who told you this?”
“Aunt Kate,” Lou said. “She lied for me. She told Lady Ioana I was the Wing, but she knew I was the Smoke.”
“I still don’t believe you,” Dacia said, feeling like her head was packed in wool. It was just all so much! Too much! “I believe she said that to you,” she said, not wanting to call Lou a liar, “but I can’t imagine it to be true! Not even of Lady Ioana.”
Mr. Arkady looked apologetic. “Sadly, Miss Neulander, that is in keeping with what we know of your grandmother. We also have records of eight Florescu girls being born to your aunts and uncles, but none survived their first year. We did not know why until now.”
“No,” Dacia said weakly. “No, no, no!” She sank down on the sofa with Lou. “How could someone be so . . . evil?”
“There is great evil in the world,” Lord Johnny said. “That is why we are fighting against it.” He sighed. “I’m sorry that you are caught up in this, Dacia. And you, Miss Neulander. But will you help us all the same? You are both in terrible danger, but you are also in a position to be of great help to us. Will you help?”
“Can we?” Dacia said, half to herself.
“Of course we will help,” Lou said, blinking as though waking up. “Of course. I’m sorry that I laid the burden of this on you all so suddenly, but I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer.” She straightened. “I’m fine now, and we will help you, of course. Won’t we, Dacia?”
“How can we?” Dacia asked. “We don’t even know our own family!” All the plans she’d started to make were crumbling. How do you manipulate a murderer like Lady Ioana?
“But you do know Mihai’s plans,” Johnny pointed out. “And for all the atrocities she may have committed on her own, Lady Ioana still defers to Mihai in this case.”
“Did he confide anything else to you, Miss Vreeholt?” Mr. Arkady asked.
Dacia thought for a moment about throwing hysterics, and then she checked herself. She needed to be strong, so that she could see Mihai brought low. And Lady Ioana, too. She wanted to help Lord Johnny, and his society or brotherhood or whatever it was.
She sat up straighter beside Lou and wrinkled her nose, thinking back. “He said that he had waited all his life for his time to begin, and that time was now. He would marry me to gain a powerful asset against his enemies as he rose to power at last.”
“I don’t know if slapping will be enough,” Lou murmured, and Dacia smiled.
“No, it won’t,” Dacia said. “But we’ll start with that.
“Anyway, then he said that he would sweep away his enemies the way his ancestor Vlad the Third had done, in his own Night Attack.”
Lord Johnny blew out his breath in a whoosh. “He said that?” He reached out and took Dacia’s hand again. But this time his grip was tight, as though he was urging her to change her words. “He said that exactly? His own Night Attack?”
Startled, Dacia pulled her hand free. “Yes,” she said. “I’m certain of it. He said it as though I should know what it meant, but I haven’t the faintest idea.” She looked from Lord Johnny to Mr. Arkady to Lou, who shook her head in equal bafflement.
Lord Johnny pushed himself away from the table with an oath, and began pacing around the room. He ran his hands through his already unkempt hair and then scrubbed at his face.
“It means that he’s attacking tomorrow night,” Mr. Arkady said.
“Tomorrow night?” Lou’s voice was barely a squeak. “Are you certain?”
“The Night Attack was one of Vlad Tepes’s most famous battles,” Mr. Arkady explained. “My people—the Turks—had attacked Romania and were holding Bucharest and Snagov. Vlad and his men, dressed as Turks, came to their camp in the night and slaughtered thousands of soldiers. Their aim was to kill Sultan Mehmed, but Vlad entered the guards’ tent by accident. While he was fighting them, Mehmed escaped.”
Mr. Arkady said this all very drily, with no hint of how he felt that thousands of his people had been slaughtered.
To Dacia’s surprise, Lou reached out and gently touched Mr. Arkady’s wrist. “How very awful,” she said softly.
Now Dacia saw surprise and a hint of sadness on the young man’s face. “It was a long time ago,” he murmur
ed.
“Or, tomorrow night,” Lord Johnny said grimly.
“Why do you say that?” Dacia looked from one to the other. “This Night Attack would have been over four hundred years ago . . . why tomorrow night?”
“Because the Night Attack took place on June 17, 1462,” Mr. Arkady said. “If Mihai is hoping to evoke that, to remind people of his illustrious ancestor, then I have no doubt that he will strike on the anniversary of that night.”
For a long while, they all stood and stared at the map as though it would have the answers they were seeking. Except for Lord Johnny, who continued to pace.
“Very well,” Dacia said when she realized that neither of the gentlemen was going to do anything sensible. “First things first: we need to send a telegram to the palace, to let Their Majesties know that Mihai is planning to attack.”
“They have a telephone there,” Lou pointed out. “We could telephone. It would seem more urgent and convincing.”
“A good idea,” Dacia agreed. “Should you make the call, Lord Johnny? I am perfectly willing to, but if they know about your Society, it would be better for you to do it.”
“Yes, they know about the Society. I’ll call,” Lord Johnny said, looking annoyed. Dacia guessed that he was mostly irritated that he hadn’t thought of that himself. Men could be that way sometimes. “I’ll use the hotel telephone before we leave.”
“Are we going straight to Sinaia?” Dacia thought she might like to stop and pack a bag on their way, and opened her mouth to say so, when Lord Johnny answered her question.
“We are. By which I mean Theo and myself,” he said. “We will take you and Miss Neulander home on our way.”
Once again, Dacia opened her mouth to speak, and once again, someone interrupted her. This time it was Lou, but it was still most vexing.
“First of all, you may call me Lou,” Lou said. Then she looked at Mr. Arkady. “You may also call me Lou,” she said in a softer voice, and Dacia started to make a remark, when Lou continued on. “And second, Dacia and I will be going with you.”