“Wonderful. Thank you.”
“You’re serving her tea?” Ruxandra put exactly how she felt into her voice.
“She is a guest.”
“She’s a devil.”
“Manners, Ruxandra,” Ishtar said. “I thought those years in Venetian society would have taught you better than this.”
“I’m not the problem here,” Ruxandra muttered. “Kade, send her away.”
Kade took a seat in a large upholstered chair. “I am afraid not.”
“Why not?”
“Because I want to hear what Ishtar has to say.” Kade kept his tone polite, but his expression said, Stop this.
Ruxandra growled under her breath and leaned against the door. She might not be able to drive Ishtar out, but she would not sit in the room with her. Ishtar’s left eyebrow rose. She sighed and turned to Kade.
“You asked me for your purpose on this earth,” she said. “Do you still wish to know?”
Kade sat up straight, any pretense of calm vanishing. “Please.”
“To do that, I need to go back a great deal in time,” Ishtar said. “To the first days of human society.”
She sat on the couch. Her lips pursed and her forehead wrinkled as she thought. Then she nodded—to herself, not them—and began.
“In the beginning God created Man and Woman. I’m sure you’re familiar with this?”
“I am,” Kade said.
“Well, it is true, though the actual process of their creation took much longer than that, and woman was not derived from Adam’s rib. At one time many types of humanoids roamed the world. But the humans won out. And that’s when the problems began.”
“Problems?” Kade frowned. “You mean the expulsion from the garden?”
Ishtar shook her head. “The Garden of Eden is a metaphor for humanity’s fall from grace. Humans had to be vicious to survive. But when they defeated the others, that viciousness did not die. Instead humanity turned it upon themselves. Look what happened here yesterday.”
“What happened here yesterday,” Ruxandra said, “was your fault.”
“I did not tell Anna to drive out the Jews.” Irritation, bordering on anger, tinted Ishtar’s words. “She asked me what the Metropolitan desired. I told her he hated the Jews and wanted them out. I also told her of his desire to see more cathedrals rise and to feed the poor. She picked the cheapest alternative instead of the best. It is part of the shortsightedness humans exhibit and why I created you.”
And if you know humans behave that way, why mention the Jews at all?
Before Ruxandra could say the words, Ishtar turned away from her and looked at Kade with her gold-flecked blue eyes. “I wanted Ruxandra, and the others I had hoped she would create, to help bring humanity to its true self.”
“By having us murder them?” Ruxandra scoffed. “How does that make them better?”
“It instills fear in them,” Ishtar said. “It makes them cling to one another instead of murdering each other.”
“A common enemy, then?” Kade sat back in his chair.
“More than that.” Ishtar’s eyes brightened. “An arbiter. One who stands outside humanity and sees their faults and misbehaviors and eliminates the worst offenders from the Earth. Ruxandra has begun, but only on a small scale. She kills the criminals: the rapists, the murderers, the ones who harm children. But you, Kade, work on the larger stage, and you can make a difference in a much greater way, if you choose.”
Realization lit up Kade’s face. “Politics.”
“Exactly,” Ishtar said. “Politics. Russia is huge but not yet a great power. With proper direction it can become something far stronger and perhaps lead the world out of humanity’s darkness. And you can be key to that.”
She looked at Ruxandra. “Both of you, if you wish.”
Ruxandra glanced at Kade and saw the hunger on his face. He wants this. He wants to be a great man, though he is not a man at all. And Ishtar beaming at him like a wise old grandmother, young as she looks, like an angel indeed. The bitch.
“Who has to die?” Ruxandra asked. “Anna? Or maybe Delfino?”
“Enough, Ruxandra!” Ishtar rose to her feet and glared. “You are so determined to think the worst of me! So desperate to prove that I am the evil one here! I am not! I stayed here to help you, to help Kade, and to guide Russia toward something better. What will it take for you to believe?”
Ishtar’s presence blazed in the room like an inferno. Ruxandra felt a sudden urge to apologize, to beg forgiveness. The part of her that was once a small girl in a convent found the old awe of God and his angels coming back to her, the old words forming in her head. Once I was a vessel for what they taught me. A child, trustful, faithful.
Not anymore.
She pushed the feeling away and glared back.
Kade rose and stood between them, facing Ishtar. “My lady, please. Given the first hundred years of Ruxandra’s existence—”
“Do not make excuses for me!” Ruxandra stepped around him. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Yes, people will die.” Ishtar’s voice sounded regretful. “And since you both kill humans to live, and since people die every day anyway, why not kill those that make things worse? If you listen, you could save thousands.” Her voice was infused with a rare charisma.
“I don’t trust you.”
“My darling—”
“I AM NOT YOUR DARLING!”
Ishtar’s face closed. “Then go somewhere else. Now.”
Ruxandra glared back. She turned and walked out.
Why am I backing down from her? What is the matter with me?
She reached the top of the stairs, went into her room, and closed the door slowly and deliberately instead of slamming it the way she wished. She sat in the chair and glared at the curtains.
If it were night, I could get out of here. I could go to the library and figure out what’s happening.
But not without Kade’s help with the books.
Kade’s or Ishtar’s.
Ruxandra growled. Her talons came out. For a moment she considered shredding the upholstered arms of the chair, just to destroy something.
Instead she closed her eyes and listened.
“It is not possible,” Kade was saying. “Not at this hour.”
“Of course it is,” Ishtar said. “You have a great cloak, do you not? My carriage is waiting.”
“I do not see why we cannot discuss this here.”
“Because Ruxandra is most likely listening and will no doubt come storming in, ready to argue every point I make. She is not ready to hear what I have to tell you. So be it. I can wait. You and I will talk somewhere else. I have excellent chambers in Terem Palace, and it will give you a chance to be seen in court, which is not a bad thing at all.”
“This is true. A moment, please.”
Ruxandra heard Kade’s boots on the stairs. She pulled her door open and waited for him to come into sight.
“You’re going with her?”
Kade nodded.
“Why?”
“Because she knows everything.” Kade kept walking.
Ruxandra followed him to his room. He picked the great cloak up off the floor and swaddled his body in it.
“Why do you trust her?” Ruxandra demanded. “How can you trust her?”
Kade sighed. In vampire tones, he asked, “How much of a fool do you think I am, Ruxandra?”
Ruxandra opened her mouth, thought better of her answer, and closed it.
“I spent a hundred fifty years playing this game,” Kade said. “I did it with the Inquisition. I did it at Elizabeth’s court. I have done it in a dozen other countries, and I did it for Emperor Peter here. Ishtar is after something. Refusing to listen to her will not help me find out what.”
He turned to leave. Ruxandra caught his arm.
“She fucked Delfino,” she said. “Last night.”
“Delfino?” Kade shook his head in disgust. “She is an angel. Why that little t
oad?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know how she met him. He was at the party, but . . .”
“I will find out.” Kade pulled the cloak tight around him. “I will find out everything. I promise.”
He kissed her and headed downstairs. Ruxandra listened as the door closed and he and Ishtar drove off in her carriage. Then she sat in her chair and waited for the night to come.
***
She left the house two hours after the sun had set. Kade had not returned. Ruxandra wore the gray dress to blend in with the shadows and walked to the gates of the Kremlin. The big doors were shut tight, the wall above lit with torches. The men on watch whistled as she came into sight.
“Hey, beautiful girl!” one shouted. “I get off duty at dawn! Visit me!”
“Why wait?” Ruxandra called. “Come see me now.”
“Yes!” The man ran into the gatehouse, desperate to obey her command. Inside, someone demanded to know what in hell he was doing.
“The rest of you!” Ruxandra raised her voice to make certain they heard. “Let him!”
Moments later the small door built into the gates opened and a soldier came out. Ruxandra smiled at him. “Very good. Now, guide me inside.”
“This way, my lady.” He stepped through the door and held out his hand. She reached for it and a force she couldn’t see knocked her back twenty feet.
“My lady!” The young soldier looked stricken. “Are you all right?”
Ruxandra sat up, wincing. “Fine.”
“I’ll help you up!”
“Don’t!” Ruxandra glared at the gate. “Go back to your posts. And forget I was here.”
She walked away from the Kremlin, turned a corner, and went unnoticed. Ten minutes later she was at the library. The place looked empty. She expanded her mind and found the Alchemist, Kurkov, Eduard, and several others asleep in the back rooms. She was tempted to wake them just for the company—Was it really only a few days ago we were chatting and joking?—but she had no time for that. She left them and the library, taking the hall to the armory.
At the bottom of the stairs, an invisible force sent her sprawling.
Ruxandra lay on the cold stone floor, staring up at the arched ceiling above her. She couldn’t decide whether to scream in frustration or pound her fists against the walls, so she did neither.
Human magic put in place to keep me from getting into the Kremlin.
Just me or all vampires?
If all of us, how did Ishtar get Kade inside? Is there a magic word to turn it off? Do the spells not work during the day?
She rose, dusted off her dress, and made her way back to the library.
I wonder if it was Anna, Alexi, or Ishtar who thought of it.
Ishtar had to have known it when she invited Kade to the palace. If so, she knew I wouldn’t be able to follow. That means she wants to keep him separate from me.
What is she going to tell him that she won’t tell me?
Ruxandra walked back to the library, found Kade’s desk, and sat down. He’d written ten pages of notes in English, which was not a language she spoke and which did not help. She opened the books, stared at them, and then shut them with a growl.
This is useless. Without Kade I don’t know where to start. I may as well slam my face against the desk and hope that will bring me the answers.
Ruxandra hated being helpless. First Anna’s magicians, thwarting every move she wanted to make, and now this.
I wish I were back in Italy. I wish I didn’t feel responsible, as if I had made her rather than the other way around.
Ruxandra wandered the library, looking at the massive murals on the walls. She wondered about the vampire king. Did he deal with the same nonsense among his courtiers that Anna had? Did he ever have dealings with Ishtar after she turned him?
The Alchemist might know. Or Kurkov.
Ruxandra walked up the stairs and followed the long hallway on the second floor. She had not seen the bedrooms before. The first three stood wide open and empty. The magicians’ pallets and blankets were in stark contrast to the opulence of the rooms. Murals covered the walls: forests and mountains and beaches, images of pyramids and strange fortresses, all under the night sky.
The Alchemist slept on the floor in the fourth room. She had dragged the blankets and the pillow into the corner. She huddled in a ball, trembling in her sleep. She muttered and gasped, and though Ruxandra could not make out the words, she recognized the desperation in her tone. As Ruxandra approached, the Alchemist yelped and put her arms over her head, then her breasts. She went still, her body stiff. Her hands dropped, cupping her groin, and she rocked back and forth, weeping.
Ruxandra wanted to wake her and ask who had done this but was afraid of her own anger. She could not attack anyone here. The magicians would bind her; Anna would order her killed . . . Ruxandra left the library, heading for the worst part of the city. It was not yet midnight, and many people roamed the streets, chatting and laughing or arguing and fighting. Three times she had to step around street brawls. Several men whistled and shouted at her. She ignored them.
She found what she wanted in an alley behind a kabak. Fifteen men stood in a circle, cheering as one, bigger than the rest, pulled a woman to her feet. Blood covered her face. Her head lolled on her shoulders. Still she had her arms up, swinging feebly at the man.
“Now, when they get to this stage,” the big man said to the laughing crowd, “you don’t want them facing you. They’re too ugly. So it’s best to turn them around.”
He caught the woman’s shoulder, spun her, and pulled her into an embrace. The drunken men cheered.
“It is best to break their spirit first.” He hauled up her skirt. “So take her the back way—”
“Shut up,” Ruxandra commanded. She pointed at the big man. “Everyone go home except him.”
The crowd dispersed without another word. The woman, semiconscious, struggled to leave, but the big man held her fast.
The big man’s grip switched to the girl’s neck. “Fuck off or I’ll fuck you next.”
“Release her.”
His hand opened. The woman stumbled, fell, and crawled away.
He stared at his hands, incredulous. “What did you do?”
“Cleared some space.”
“Space for what?” The man spat the words. “Space for your blood to splatter when I beat you? Space to spread you when I’ve done that? What are you doing here, you bitch?”
“Ending you.”
The big man’s face turned red. He drew a long knife from his belt and crouched. Ruxandra’s mouth pulled up into snarl, showing her fangs.
No one came to help when he screamed.
Ruxandra walked out of the alley soon after, wiping her mouth on the remains of his shirt. Behind her the man lay still, his arms and legs bent at the wrong angles, his rib cage a lumpy, broken mess, and his eyes staring up at the sky.
Killing off evil just as Ishtar wanted me to do.
She snarled at the thought, startling a drunk lying on the street. Ruxandra glared at him and turned unnoticed. She stalked through the city, heading for the enclave and Kade’s house.
It is not what Ishtar wants. It’s what she said she wanted. I don’t believe her. Anyway, I had to eat.
She sat in the parlor, waiting for Kade to return. He arrived two hours after dawn, his body swaddled in his great cloak to keep the sun from touching his skin. He saw her the moment he stepped inside.
“I didn’t expect you to wait up for me,” Kade said.
“I didn’t expect you to be gone so long.” Ruxandra stood. “Were you with her the entire time?”
“No. I visited Sahsa, Victor and Dimitri before I returned.” He sighed. “Their bodies are recovering from their beating, but I fear their spirits are damaged as well. They are . . . not the men I knew before, though I suspect they can become so again.”
“I am sorry.” She knew she should say more, but her mind was fixed on one thing. “What did you l
earn from Ishtar?”
“A great amount.” Kade sat on the couch. “But one thing more than anything else.”
“Which is?”
“You need to trust her.”
Chapter 18
Ruxandra shook her head. “Kade, I’m not—”
“Listen!” Urgency filled Kade’s voice. His eyes drilled into her with the intensity of his feelings. “I know you don’t trust her. I know you don’t believe her, but I need you to change your mind on this.”
“Why?” Ruxandra asked. “Why should I?”
“Because she is right!” Kade put his hand on hers, wrapping her fingers tight in his. “I listened to her, and I believed her. She laid out her plans and they make good sense.”
“So we . . . what? Become the saviors of humanity?”
“Humanity doesn’t listen to saviors. They fight about them instead.” Kade leaned closer. “We will work behind humanity, guide them, and help create a better world.”
Ruxandra looked away. Kade let go of her hand and sat back on the couch. He watched her for a time. Then he sighed and stood. He paced the room. Ruxandra still didn’t look at him.
“Do you know what was hardest about being with Elizabeth?” Kade asked.
Ruxandra stared at the floor. “Watching her murder children?”
“No. The purposelessness of it. Days wandering through the world, robbing people to survive, killing for the fun of it, without purpose or meaning to her actions. She thinks of nothing beyond her own immediate needs, and Dorotyas reinforces her behavior. She delights in the torture of men the way Elizabeth delights in torturing girls. It is so . . . pointless.”
He fell silent. Ruxandra risked a look. Kade stared out the window. The buildings’ shadows covered the street, sparing him from the sunlight.
“What would it take to make you trust her?” Before Ruxandra could open her mouth to reply, Kade added, “Don’t say, ‘Nothing.’ Think on it. Ponder it, and when you know your answer, go to her and tell her what you need. She will listen.”
Ruxandra reached out with her mind, searching Kade’s emotions for signs that he lied. All she felt was blazing enthusiasm.
“She said she would do whatever it takes to make you trust her.” Kade’s passion spilled out with his words. “She wants you to help her. So take advantage of that. Go to her, tell her what you need, and she will help you.”