A Shade of Kiev

Or, if you prefer to meet somewhere more public, we could meet by the well, at the usual time.

  Or, if you don’t respond within two days, I could come to you…

  Sincerely,

  Kiev.”

  I read the note through several times. My cheeks grew warm and my stomach churned at his mention of those questions. I had hoped he would forget I’d ever asked them.

  Why is he still chasing me like this? Is this his way of wooing me? Could Saira have been right after all about him taking a fancy to me?

  I knocked the thoughts out of my head as soon as they had entered.

  Don’t be so stupid, Mona.

  I threw the leaf aside and leaned my back against the wall. Stretching my legs out in front of me, I looked up at the wooden ceiling. I wasn’t sure what to think anymore. I closed my eyes, trying to calm my whirring mind and obtain some clarity as to what my next move should be.

  I could just go to Matteo and complain. Tell him to forbid Kiev to bother me again. That would work. Kiev would have no choice but to listen to him, or he’d be booted out of the island.

  My other option was to meet with Kiev, and have him answer my questions. Although I knew that this would only encourage him to continue badgering me in the long run, I couldn’t hide the desire that had reignited within me. I could always complain to the captain after Kiev had answered them.

  My thoughts drifted back to my unfinished story.

  Adrian and Irina.

  They might benefit if I met with Kiev. Perhaps his insights might be what I need to finish their story. After all, wasn’t that the real reason I asked them of him to begin with? To help me complete their love?

  But, despite my longing to hear his answers, my whole body tensed with fear. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that vulnerable in front of him again, now that I had no idea if I’d ever see the back of him. I’d bared myself enough to him already.

  I sat all day on the mattress, with nothing but my old towel wrapped around me. Kiev wouldn’t seek me out before two days were up. I had some time to think things over.

  Early next morning, the perfect solution dawned on me. I took a spare piece of parchment from my drawer and sat down at my desk. Picking up my quill, I began to write. I paused every so often, crossing out words, and trying to find ways to better express myself. Four hours had passed, with several more sheets of parchment used up, before I was satisfied.

  I dressed and, folding up the sheets, tucked them safely beneath my shirt. Jumping into my boat and traveling toward the forest, I knew exactly where I needed to stop by first. Kiev had either forgotten to include his room number, or deliberately excluded it. Either way, I guessed that the ogre would know. Unless Brett’s guard duty had changed hours recently, he’d be standing by the wall close to the tunnels at this time.

  I was pleased to see that my assumption had been correct. Brett sat on the ground near the gate, humming something out of tune to himself and fiddling with his thumbs. His face lit up when he saw me approach.

  “Eh, Mona! How are you?”

  He stood up and patted me affectionately on the shoulder. I winced. Brett always forgot that I didn’t like being touched. But I didn’t have the heart to correct him as much as I did Saira.

  “I’m fine, Brett. I wanted to know which room…” My voice dried up before I could finish my sentence. I hadn’t envisioned that it would be this difficult.

  “You looking for Kiev?” Brett blurted out, a wry grin forming on his face.

  “Uh… y-yes. How… how did you know?”

  “Well, you’ve been on his mind a lot recently. I guessed he might be on yours too.” Brett winked. “He’s been asking me all sorts of things about you. Even asked me to make a table.”

  Kiev had that made especially for me?

  “He’s in chamber twenty-five,” Brett concluded, still grinning from ear to ear.

  “Th-thank you,” I said, and hurried away, reaching up to hold my burning cheeks.

  The lanterns flickered as I crept into the entrance of the tunnels. I looked around, but the place was empty. Most vampires had no reason to be up at this sunny hour. As I walked along the corridors, the only sounds were the odd dripping leak in the dirt ceiling and muffled snores.

  Breathing heavily, I stopped outside Kiev’s door. My throat felt dry as I withdrew the parchment from my shirt and bent down. As I was inches from dropping the sheets, my hands began to tremble.

  I stopped, my limbs frozen.

  Why are you even doing this?

  This is a stupid idea.

  Just walk away.

  Somehow, the braver part of me took over, numbing my doubts and warming me enough to shove the letter under the door. Then I raced away.

  As I reached the exit and ran toward the forest, I looked back at the dark entrance of the tunnels. I shivered, despite the mild breeze.

  I hope I won’t live to regret this.

  Chapter 29: Kiev

  I awoke to see parchment beneath my door. Rubbing my eyes, I got up and picked up the sheets. It took me a second to realize that they were from the witch.

  How?

  I opened the door and looked around. But as expected, she was nowhere to be seen. I supposed she would have visited me some time during the daylight hours.

  Still standing, I began to read.

  “Vampire,

  I was going to throw away your leaf as soon as I saw it, as I did with your dagger and (my) lilies.

  However, on realizing that it contained a note from you, curiosity got the better of me. I’ve never before come across a brute who could write in coherent sentences. Though I’m still not sure that chucking it wouldn’t have been a better decision.

  In any case, happily, I was able to make sense of your writing.

  I accept your offer of a meeting. But not in the way you have proposed. If we meet, we meet on my terms, which are as follows:

  You will not attend the meeting as Kiev Novalic.

  You will attend as a man named Adrian Angelis. Over the course of the following pages, you will come to know Adrian intimately. I have attempted to detail every facet of his personality. I think you will find these notes quite sufficient to become him convincingly.

  If you’re not able to act as Adrian faithfully, then I reserve the right to cut our meeting short and never speak to you again.

  I will be waiting for Adrian by the well soon after sunset, in two days’ time.

  If you don’t want to meet me on these terms, I will in no way begrudge it. Just pass a note along to Brett for me rather than visiting me again across the water.

  Sincerely,

  Mona.”

  Fuming, I flipped to the next page.

  “Adrian Angelis: lover of Irina Petralia” was the title of the character description. I still had no idea whether this man was even real, or just Mona’s concoction. His name and that of his “lover” sounded ridiculous enough to make me assume the latter.

  What I read on the following pages made my eyes sore. Paragraph after paragraph of sickly sweet descriptions of a man I was now certain could not exist in real life—only in the witch’s frenzied imagination—covered every inch of the parchment.

  “His eyes are the color of the sky on the first day of Spring. His eyelashes are dark, thick and curved at just the right angle to accentuate the shape of his eyes. His lips are soft as cushions, not too thick and not too thin. Just perfectly kissable. His thighs are—”

  What nonsense is this?

  I stopped and rubbed my temples for a minute before continuing. I decided to skip over the paragraph-long description of Mr. Angelis’ thighs, hoping the next part would be less nauseating.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t find any semblance of relief.

  “Adrian is a brave man in every sense of the word. He’s the type of man who risks his life for the woman he loves. He’s virtuous and seeks truth in all circumstances, always standing up for what he believes in. He’s the kind of—”

  I skipped to
the next section.

  “He was orphaned as a child. He has no brothers or sisters. He was raised by a kind family of witches. Although he had a rough start in life, he always speaks gently, and he never lets his past affect the way he treats other people. He doesn’t blame his past for—”

  I tossed the papers on the floor.

  She can go to hell.

  I’d already made many degrading concessions in trying to convince the witch to consider me a friend, but this had stooped to a whole new level. I had no idea what kind of childish game she wanted to play, but I would have no part in it.

  Although I was aware that I might be throwing away my last chance to win the witch over, I simply wasn’t willing to pay her price. Furious, I ripped up the sheets of parchment and tossed them in a corner. I left my room intending to leave a note with Brett informing her of my decision.

  But just before reaching the ogre’s cave, a thought struck me. I stopped.

  Why do I need to give her this message?

  I will just go tomorrow evening as myself.

  If she objects, to hell with her.

  I ripped up my note and threw it into the bushes, then returned to the tunnels. I was glad that she had set our meeting after two days. It gave me some time to cool off after her letter.

  As nightfall approached on the second day, I dressed and left my room. As I emerged from the forest and approached the well, Mona already stood there.

  Only, this wasn’t the Mona I knew.

  She stood wearing a deep blue satin gown, her braided blonde hair cascading down her shoulders. Pearl earrings hung from her ears, complementing her heart-shaped face. Her face… it looked different. I didn’t know what she had done to it—I could only assume she’d applied some kind of makeup—but her eyes looked more defined, her lips fuller. She positively shone as she stood waiting for me in the moonlight.

  I stopped, staring at her, stunned. I had no idea where she could have even gotten hold of such a gown in these parts.

  I cleared my throat.

  “Good evening, Mona,” I said, finding my legs again and walking toward her.

  “Irina,” she said, looking me in the eye.

  “Irina?”

  “My name,” she replied.

  She didn’t mention she was going to play Adrian’s lover.

  “Shall we take a walk, Adrian?” she said, smiling up at me.

  I nodded and was surprised when she slipped her arm through mine as we walked toward the wall. Though she withdrew it as soon as the vampire guard came into view, becoming Mona as she asked him to let us out. But as soon as the door closed behind us, resuming her role as Irina, she held my arm again.

  “It’s a beautiful night,” she whispered, looking out at the ocean. “Thank you for asking me out.”

  We walked in silence along the beach, and as we did, I couldn’t help but keep glancing at her when she wasn’t looking my way.

  I walked in front of her, stopping her short. I reached one hand under her knees and the other around her waist and swept her off her feet. Carrying her in my arms, I looked down at her face again for a reaction, now barely inches from my own.

  She was blushing, but more importantly, she appeared comfortable with my action, indicating that while Mona would have likely slapped me, I hadn’t overstepped Irina’s boundaries. So I continued forward. Now that she was closer to me, the subtle scent of her sandalwood perfume was more noticeable. For that I was grateful, because it helped take my mind off her blood.

  “This dress is a little awkward to walk in,” she said.

  With each step I took, I was keenly aware of the shape of her body against mine. Every curve seemed accentuated as I carried her close to my chest, her arms wrapped around my neck. I had expected her to start asking questions, but she remained quiet, apparently enjoying the view as I walked through the shallow waters.

  “I want to show you something,” she whispered.

  She tugged on my shirt for me to lower her. I placed her on the sand. Lifting the hem of her dress with one hand, and catching hold of my hand with the other, she pulled me further into the water. She continued leading me forward until we were waist deep, her dress billowing around her. My eyes widened as she reached for her gown’s buttons and slid out of it, but I breathed out when I saw that she wore a vest and shorts underneath. She swam to a nearby rock and laid her dress on top of it. Following her lead, I did the same with my shirt.

  I followed her as she swam further into the waves. The winds were high this evening, the ocean more turbulent than usual. While I was strong enough to barely notice the difference, Mona struggled against a stubborn current. I swam up behind her and caught hold of her waist, turning her to face me and pulling her into my arms. She looked up at me questioningly.

  “Climb onto my back,” I said.

  I’m going to show you something.

  Her arms reached around my neck, and the front of her body pressed against my back as she climbed onto me. I slid my hands along her toned legs to make sure they were wrapped tightly enough around me before lurching forward.

  I swam with all the speed my limbs could carry us. I wasn’t as fast as her dolphins—I didn’t have fins, after all—but I was fast enough to make Mona… Irina… lose her breath. I swam the entire circumference of the island, and by the end, Irina was laughing in my ear.

  “I never knew a human could swim so fast, Adrian,” she giggled, gasping for air.

  I swam back to the rock where we had left our clothes. Her undergarments clung to the curves of her body as she emerged from the water, her figure a beautiful silhouette in the light of the moon. I pulled on my shirt and helped her button up her dress, and then I picked her up again and walked back toward the gate. She leant her head against my chest and closed her eyes, her soft breathing warm against my neck.

  She turned back into Mona as we neared the wall, insisting that I put her down and stop touching her as she knocked at the gate. We entered through it and walked into the woods. Her hand slid around my midriff as she walked against me. She placed my own hand around her waist. We walked that way until we reached the lake.

  “Thank you,” she said, her midnight-blue eyes twinkling, “for a wonderful night.” She climbed into her boat, and before rowing off, she looked at me and said, “I’d like to see you again, Adrian.”

  I stayed watching by the banks until she’d crossed the lake and entered her cabin. Then I wandered back to my own room, replaying the events of the evening in my head as I walked. I hadn’t been expecting her to want a second meeting. I thought she would have wanted only one, just to ask me some questions. She had barely spoken, let alone asked me anything.

  I don’t need to become that insipid Adrian fellow to win Mona over.

  Mona. She was so different as Irina. Gone were the frowns, the scowls, the bitter sarcasm. In their place was just… an excitement for living. A lightness to her being. A freedom to her spirit. It hit me suddenly that Irina reminded me of Sofia in that respect.

  For the first time in a long time, that morning, it wasn’t Sofia or Natalie on my mind as I drifted off to sleep.

  It was Irina.

  Chapter 30: Mona

  The moment I entered my cabin, I ran to my desk. Pulling out the pile of parchment I kept in my drawer, I flipped to the chapter of Adrian and Irina’s first date. It was easy to find, because I’d never been able to start it. It was blank.

  I wrote for hours, numb to the pain in my wrists. I didn’t even want to change out of my damp dress. Removing it would stir the mist of the night’s experience. I was afraid that a part of that night might fade from my being if I took anything off.

  Although the scene I was writing was nothing like the time I’d just spent with Adrian, the words flowed more freely than I’d ever experienced in my life. It was as if my hand took on a life of its own and there was nothing I could do to stop the quill from dancing around on the parchment. Because the technicalities of the scene didn’t matter—my
mind had never struggled with that. It was the emotions that my heart needed to immerse myself in my two characters.

  By dawn, I was sitting in front of a finished chapter, the exhilaration of accomplishment rushing through my veins.

  Kiev had been good. Very good.

  In fact, as much as I hated to admit it, he’d surpassed all my expectations.

  I’d actually been surprised that Kiev had shown up in the first place to play this childish game with me—especially after those descriptions I’d written for him. Although my Adrian was a good man, I hadn’t been able to resist exaggerating his characteristics just for Kiev. Because I hadn’t wanted to give Kiev an easy ride.

  Admittedly, Kiev hadn’t behaved according to the character notes I’d given him. But I decided that I could forgive him for it. In fact, I was actually glad that he hadn’t been true to them, because the Adrian I had described was unrealistic, and frankly, less appealing than the version Kiev had decided to play.

  Now that I’d finished the chapter, I took off my dress and earrings. I left the cabin and bathed in the lake, washing the salt from my body. I dried myself and pulled on some more comfortable clothes.

  Then I resumed my seat at the desk and flipped through my story, leaving bookmarks in the other chapters that I hadn’t been able to start or finish. I took notes on a separate piece of parchment of all the emotions I needed to experience in order to complete them. Although the list wasn’t extensive. It was hard to list emotions that you didn’t know existed.

  I walked out onto the veranda and brainstormed when and where I should go on my next date with Adrian. I decided that I would meet him again the following evening. I needed some time to wash and dry my dress so that it was ready. That was the one item I’d been able to bring with me when I left the realm of the witches, The Sanctuary, and somehow I’d managed to hold onto it over the years.

  I picked it up and smoothed it over the railing, frowning. The hems were already starting to look tattered from last night’s escapade despite me trying to be careful. I’d need to try harder, because, other than my pearl earrings that Brett had gifted me, this was the only beautiful thing I’d allowed myself to own.