Mother of Chaos Read online

  “They weren’t human.”

  “The vampire king?” The Alchemist shook her head. “He’s a myth.”

  “Like Kade?” Ruxandra asked. “Like myself?”

  “Kade I have examined closely. You I know nothing about except what Kade has told us.”

  “Is that not enough?”

  “Certainly not.” The Alchemist put the lantern down on the bench. “Everything Kade says must be verified. Did you know he told me he was born in Scotland? His mother was burned as a witch when he was very young. He was raised in Spain by a sorcerer who used him for sex magic.”

  I didn’t know that. No wonder . . .

  “Whether those things are true I cannot say for certain. What I can say is that he is well hung. Now, shall we continue the tour, or shall we bathe?”

  The pools looked very tempting after so long on the road and three nights in the city without a proper bath. Even so, Ruxandra was not ready to step in them just yet.

  “Perhaps later,” Ruxandra said. “Are you still going to summon the fallen angel?”

  The Alchemist’s eyes narrowed. “That’s why you’re here, is it not?”

  “It is why Kade wanted to bring me here. I came here to stop you.”

  “Why on earth would you do that?”

  “Because it is dangerous,” Ruxandra said. “You may die. All of you.”

  The Alchemist nodded. “And?”

  Chapter 9

  “‘And?’” Ruxandra stomped back and forth across the churchyard. “I tell her she will die and her response is ‘And?’ What sort of idiot is she?”

  Kade leaned against the church wall. His lips twitched in what might have been a smile. Ruxandra spotted it in the corner of her eye and glared. It vanished at once.

  “She is not an idiot,” Kade said. “A genius, yes, and possibly insane, but not a fool.”

  “She is if she wants to summon a dark angel! I was there the last time! I know what happened! People died!”

  “You were what happened,” Kade said. “You were the one who killed them, not the angel.”

  Ruxandra stopped pacing.

  “That is why I wanted you here.” Kade pushed off the wall. “The dark angel created you. With you here, she will not kill them.”

  “You don’t know that.” Ruxandra glared at the gray sky. The clouds were heavy, and she could smell the rain waiting to fall. She wished they would open and soak Kade’s calm, smug face.

  “I know the magicians have no choice. If they do not summon the angel, Anna will torture them to death.”

  “But . . .” Ruxandra wavered, knowing he was right but hating what that meant.

  “Ruxandra.” Kade walked toward her, his hands out and palms up. “Neither you nor I know what will happen when we summon this creature.”

  “I know nothing good will come of it.”

  “You came of it.” Kade came closer, though not near enough to touch. “I would not have met you if not for her.”

  “You would not have murdered thousands if it were not for her!” Ruxandra spat the words. “Elizabeth would not still be torturing young women. I would not have a ravening Beast inside me that goes insane with hunger and kills without discrimination if not for her. Forgive me if my opinion differs from yours!”

  “I understand your fears. I sympathize with them.” Kade looked at the church. “Do you ever wonder why humans need to believe in God?”

  Ruxandra tilted her head.

  “Their lives are so short. Our lives were so short before we became what we are. They are desperate to live longer, desperate to believe they have purpose. So they go to church and obey the rules and hope that God exists and he will tell them their lives were worthwhile.”

  “Then why summon a devil?”

  “An angel.”

  “A fallen angel.”

  “You prayed to God for years. When was the last time he listened?”

  Ruxandra opened her mouth to answer. She shut it a moment later.

  “Precisely.” Kade brought his hands together and pointed the fingers at Ruxandra. “God works in mysterious ways, not comprehended by mortal men. The devil works very simply. He offers you a bargain. He gives you what you wish for in exchange for your soul. And if you got what you asked for and discovered it wasn’t what you wanted, well, that’s not the devil’s fault, is it?”

  “So now she’s the devil?” Ruxandra shook her head. “I thought she was an angel.”

  “Lucifer was the brightest angel,” Kade said. “He is now the devil. So yes, this fallen angel is also a devil. And humans will make bargains with her, when they cannot get their God to give them what they want.”

  “What do they want? Before Anna, before it would cost them their lives to not summon her, what was so important that the Alchemist and her friends would give up their lives and maybe their souls for it?”

  “The thirst for knowledge can be all-encompassing,” Kade said. “And to gain knowledge that no one else in the world has? That is a powerful temptation.”

  Ruxandra growled at the stupidity of it. “Listen,” she said. “I, too, want to know things the angel might be able to tell me. But such knowledge is not only not worth it—not even remotely—there is no reason at all to believe what she might say.”

  “You believed what she said.”

  She was speechless. He was right, but he was wrong.

  Kade smiled. “We should head home, don’t you think?” He pointed up at the lightening sky above them. “And not to my bolt-hole this time, but to my home.”

  “What about the Alchemist and the magicians?”

  “Today? Nothing. Tonight we will talk to them and work out a strategy.”

  “Fine.” Ruxandra pulled her cloak tight around her. “Lead on.”

  They stepped outside the church. Ruxandra sniffed the air and caught the scent of four men in the streets. Three she spotted at once: Two stood against the wall on the other side of the street, chatting. Another sat under a tree, hat pulled down almost over his eyes.

  But not quite, which is how Ruxandra spotted him watching her. She glanced at the other two men and saw them also tracking Kade and her as they walked away from the church. After a few steps, they returned to their conversation, but their eyes were focused on the church, not on each other.

  The other man she could not see. She put his scent into her memory, to recognize him later.

  Kade led her at an easy pace across the city toward the inner walls. Ruxandra spent the rest of the walk looking at the vegetables ripening in the fields and the fruit on the trees. The houses along the way were solid and in good repair. It was a prosperous city. Given what Kade had said about the raids from Tatar slavers, she wondered how long it would stay that way.

  Wood hit bone, and someone grunted in shock. Ruxandra spun in time to see a pair of men wearing scarves wrapped tightly around their faces swinging clubs at empty air. The clubs bounced off bone that Ruxandra couldn’t see—then stopped. Something hit the ground with a dull thud.

  “Rob him,” said the first man. “Don’t kill him. He hasn’t seen us and ending him will bring trouble.”

  His companion knelt and rifled through pockets invisible to Ruxandra. The first man nodded his satisfaction and took off his mask. He was pale, with blue eyes that sparkled, shaggy blond hair, and a beard. He walked right toward them.

  “Do not fear,” he said in Russian. “He is not dead, and he will think someone robbed him. Nothing will connect him to us, or us to you.”

  I understood that. My Russian is improving.

  Kade frowned and stepped forward. “Who are you?”

  “One who knows the invaluable service you rendered to Peter,” the man said.

  Ruxandra looked up. In Russian she said, “We do not have time.”

  “It is early morning,” the man said. “The entire day lies ahead of you.”

  “I see.” Kade looked the man up and down, his eyes pausing on the ring he wore. “I take it you have a carriage
nearby?”

  “I do. This way, please.”

  The carriage was deep green and better appointed than the last they had ridden in. The blond man swung up top to ride with the driver. Kade settled into the seats and made himself comfortable. Ruxandra glared at him.

  “Where are we going?” Ruxandra demanded in vampire tones. “And what are we going to do when the sun comes up?”

  “That is an hour from now,” Kade said, his tone matching hers so neither the driver nor the blond man could hear. “We’ll be home by then.”

  “How are you so certain?”

  “Because I recognized the man’s ring.” Kade leaned forward. “He belongs to Prince Belosselsky. Former member of the empress’s guiding council.”

  “Former?”

  “She dissolved the council.”

  “Ah. What does he want with us?”

  “With me. They don’t know you. The same as Anna, I suspect. Please don’t let on how much Russian you understand.”

  Kade smiled and sank back in his seat. Ruxandra glared, but he stayed silent.

  The carriage rattled over the roads and, to Ruxandra’s surprise, through the gates of the enclave next to the Kremlin. Its streets were clean and cobbled. The buildings here were stone—white or gray—and most were new. They resembled the great houses she had seen in France and Italy: flat fronted, with many windows and a central door. The windows were smaller than in the south, no doubt to keep out the worst of winter’s cold.

  Outside, the sky grew lighter, making Ruxandra more and more nervous.

  “Kade . . .” Ruxandra looked pointedly out the window.

  Kade smiled again. “Not to worry.”

  Infuriating, self-involved, smug . . .

  The carriage pulled up in front of a large gray stone house. The blond man jumped down and opened the carriage door. Ruxandra stepped out with Kade almost on her heels. He stood beside her as she surveyed the street and house and offered his arm. Ruxandra took it and allowed him to guide her.

  The blond man led them to a parlor with carpets spread over the floor and three plush couches. They had been red once, but time and use had faded them to pink. Well-worn paths ran the length of the faded carpet. The massive candelabra above had only half its candles, and none were lit. A small fire crackled in the large fireplace, and the curtains were open wide to let in whatever light the gray morning was bringing. The entire house spoke of better days.

  “Here is the man himself,” said a deep voice in French.

  “Prince Belosselsky.” Kade bowed, shortly and precisely. “To what do we owe this summoning?”

  If Prince Belosselsky had allowed his home to fade and wear, he had not given up on his wardrobe. He wore a white silk shirt and a vest of red velvet, and his jacket and trousers were deep purple. His polished black boots shone so much that Ruxandra suspected he could use them as a mirror. Gold-and-diamond rings adorned his fingers. He wore his shoulder-length gray hair slicked back with pomade.

  “Do you know,” the prince said, “that at one time I could have commoners hanged for questioning me?”

  He sounded at once amused and wistful.

  “How unfortunate,” Kade said, “that times changed.”

  “More for me than for you, I suspect.” The prince took a spot on the couch facing them. “Sit, both of you.”

  Kade took a place opposite the prince. Ruxandra sat on the middle couch, where she could keep an eye on the windows and the light that grew brighter with every passing minute.

  “It is unlike you to be awake so early,” Kade said.

  The prince shrugged. “The vagaries of age. Some nights I barely sleep. And when I heard you had reappeared, I had to wait for your arrival before I could even think of sleeping.”

  “You know a letter from you would have brought me at your convenience.”

  “I thought it unwise, with the secret police following you.”

  For the first time, Kade looked surprised. At least to Ruxandra he did. She doubted if the prince even noticed the way his eyes widened for the shortest of moments.

  “The who?” Kade asked.

  “The secret police. An innovation of dear Empress Anna. Police who wear no uniforms, arrest whom they like when they like, and answer only to Anna. They arrested you, too, did they not?”

  “They escorted us,” Kade said. “The empress wanted words with me and insisted it happen at once. Again, had she asked . . .”

  “You would have run like a wolf from the hunters.” The prince said it matter-of-factly, without rancor or accusation. “Especially with your friends arrested.”

  “Relocated.”

  “As I said.” The prince offered a lupine smile. “Kade, where are your manners? Will you not introduce this beautiful, though plainly dressed, young lady?”

  “Prince Belosselsky, this is Princess Ruxandra Dracula,” Kade said. “She is . . . my companion.”

  “Is that what they are calling it these days?” The old prince looked amused. “So much younger than you, too.”

  “Not so much as all that.”

  “Do you trust this companion enough that we may speak frankly to one another?” the prince asked.

  Ruxandra felt a sudden urge to growl. There was a subtle threat laced through the man’s words. A sense that, should Kade say otherwise, Ruxandra would find herself in a sack sinking in the river.

  “I do,” Kade said.

  “Well, then. A great pleasure to meet you.” The prince inclined his head. “My dear, do you speak French?”

  “Yes,” Ruxandra said. “Though not as well as you.”

  “You may blame Peter I,” the prince said. “His desire to modernize Russia led him to force all who would be in his court to learn this abominable language, so we could read the writings of engineers and tradesmen, should we want to or not.”

  “I see.”

  “Where did you learn it?”

  “It was part of her education,” Kade said. “How many languages do you speak, Ruxandra?”

  “Five. I am working on Russian for my sixth, but I have not gotten very far.”

  “She is also skilled in math and the sciences, and knowledgeable in history,” Kade said.

  “At such a young age, too.” The prince smiled.

  “I’m a prodigy,” Ruxandra said.

  “And the reason I tell you all this,” Kade said, leaning forward in his seat, “is to impress on you that I value her a great deal and would be distressed if something were to happen to her.”

  The prince’s head cocked to the side. “Did you tell Anna this, as well?”

  “In no uncertain terms,” Kade assured him. “Now, why are we here, my old friend? It’s not like you to be so quiet.”

  “It is not like you to run away for months,” the prince said. “Yet you did. Tell me, what do you think of our . . . dear empress?”

  “She is a forceful woman,” Kade said. “She pursues what she desires.”

  “She is that,” the prince said. “So forceful that when the nobility attempted to rein in her powers, she stood in front of the people, destroyed the document she’d signed, and had half of them arrested.”

  “You were not?”

  “I was not so stupid as to step between royalty and power,” the prince said. “When she declared the council had no power over her, I applauded her and congratulated her on her wisdom. Unlike my friends, many of who are now deceased.”

  “I see.”

  “Several are still alive, I’m told. The secret police are using them to test new interrogation techniques.”

  Ruxandra remembered the agony she’d sensed from inside the Kremlin. If those are his friends, then he must be furious and terrified.

  “Which brings us back to this present moment,” Kade said. “So I ask again, what do you want of me, Prince Belosselsky?”

  “To help restore order to Russia, the way Peter did.”

  “You hated Peter and everything he did.” Kade’s voice went flat. “You called
his plan to modernize an abomination. You wished that he die a long and painful death.”

  “Did I now?”

  “Eaten by rats while chained in the hold of one of his own ships, I believe was one of your fervent wishes.”

  “You have an impressive memory.”

  “Drowned in a vat of the shit from every whorehouse in the city was another.”

  The prince ignored him. “As I recall, your skills are even more impressive than your memory. Tell me, have they grown rusty?”

  “They have not. Why do you hate Anna?”

  “Peter did many things, but he respected the nobility. Anna does not. She will destroy whoever stands in her way. Also, she is a woman. Women are unfit to rule.”

  Ruxandra bit the inside of her cheek and looked away.

  “So lend me your skills.” Passion, strong and dangerous, filled his voice. “Let me rid Russia of this abomination of an empress and put a true Russian on the throne.”

  “I would . . . have to think on it,” Kade said.

  “Do that, then.” The prince’s bland tone suggested he could not have cared less. It was a studied blandness, though. “Some dear friends and I are having a soiree in the near future. You should come and listen to our discussions.”

  “We shall.” Kade rose, and Ruxandra followed his lead. “If you will excuse us?”

  “Certainly,” the prince said. “And I need not remind you to mention this conversation to no one.”

  “We will not. Just as I trust your blond man standing outside this room will refrain from using his pistols.” Kade bowed. “Good day, Prince Belosselsky.”

  He offered Ruxandra his arm and led her away. The sun was in the sky. Ruxandra could feel it, though it was not in sight. The walls around the inner enclave and the tall buildings around them kept them in shadow. Even so, the light hurt Ruxandra’s eyes.

  “That was interesting,” Ruxandra said in vampire tones. “As is walking in the daylight.”

  “We will be at my house soon,” Kade said. “Is his man following us?”

  Ruxandra glanced over her shoulder, sniffed the air, and listened. “Just out of sight.”