by Raine Miller
“Time to go, empath. Don’t make this mistake again, or next time it will be you who pays.”
Sasa hugged her mother’s body tightly to hers, refusing to release her. She didn’t care if Tatiana killed her now. Nothing mattered anymore.
Tatiana yanked her hair, pulling her head back so she had no choice but to face her. The coldness in her voice matched her expressionless face. “Now.”
“Kill me. Or don’t. I don’t care anymore. You’ve taken the only person I love away. Whatever you do to me doesn’t matter.”
“You’re wrong, Sasa. I still have Vasilije to take away. And you’re going to help me with that. So get up on your feet. It’s time to go.”
Sasa jerked her head forward and looked down into her mother’s lifeless eyes. “I can’t leave her here like this. It’s inhuman!”
“God, you’re a stupid girl. No wonder he likes you. She’s a vampire. Nothing human about it. But if this bothers you, let me finish it for you.”
Stroking her mother’s cheek, Sasa silently begged her mother’s forgiveness for ever thinking turning her into a vampire was the way to end her suffering. Unable to endure the empty look in her eyes, she ran her hands over her eyelids to close them. Tatiana made a noise behind her and before Sasa could turn to see what she was doing, a stake grazed her arm on its way into her mother’s chest. As she held her in her arms, the stake pierced her heart and she disintegrated into dust.
In shock, Sasa fell back onto the floor and stared at the remnants of what had been her mother. Blind with rage, she let the hatred in her heart take over and lunged at her mother’s murderer.
“You fucking bitch! I hope he fucking stakes your ass!”
Tatiana caught Sasa just as she reached her and held her wrists in a vice-like grip. Sasa struggled against her, but it was no use. She was more powerful.
“Now, now, Sasa. Watch your tongue or I’ll be forced to punish you.”
“Go ahead. Kill me. I don’t care.”
Tatiana smiled and shook her head. “Not yet, love. You still have a job to do for me. Tonight you get to play bait, and he’ll come.”
“You’re wrong. You said it yourself. He doesn’t want me.”
“He’ll come.”
Sasa pulled against her hold, but she wouldn’t budge. “I won’t help you get him.”
Holding her wrists so hard she made tears come to Sasa’s eyes, Tatiana glared down at her. “Yes, you will and one more word out of you and I’ll do some damage to that pretty face he likes so much.”
A second later they were racing toward where she planned to lure Vasilije to his death. When they stopped, Sasa opened her eyes and saw the sign above the cemetery in front of her.
Cypress Grove.
CHAPTER 18
A half-hour after Sasa left, Vasilije was still on Teagan’s couch, uneasy about the call Sasa had received from her mother. With every passing minute, his gut told him something was wrong. The timing was just too perfect. Two unanswered calls to her cell phone made him even more uneasy.
Afraid Tatiana might repeat what she’d done all those years ago, he headed for the only place he might get answers. Foregoing Sasa’s preferred mode of transportation in favor of a method far more efficient, he focused on Quiterie’s shop and in seconds was on the sidewalk looking at the storefront of the shop.
Unlike his first visit there, this time he saw a dim yellow light shining from the very back of the store. Trying the handle, he found nothing blocking him from a visit with the voodoo lady and entered the shop, ready for the possibility she actually possessed some magical abilities he hadn’t seen in their first meeting.
Vasilije wove through the cluttered store, running his fingers over mounds of polished stone and dusty containers of all things charmed as he silently made his way toward where the light came from.
“You’re a long way from home, vampire.”
Quiterie sat behind her desk and as Vasilije stepped into the office toward her, she motioned for him to come closer.
“Where’s Sasa?”
“She’s an interesting girl, isn’t she?”
Leaning on the front of the desk, he focused on her black eyes, like two disks of coal in her dark face. “Listen, voodoo queen. You need to tell me where she is. Now.”
“I don’t know. Why you want to bother with her? She’s not the kind of girl who can handle the likes of you.”
“I don’t have time to waste with you. Tell me where she might be.”
“Did you try to call her?”
Vasilije had tolerated enough. She obviously needed some persuasion. His fangs slammed into his mouth with a terrifying click, and he grinned to let her see just what awaited her if she didn’t begin to cooperate.
“One last time. Where is she?”
The sight and sound of his teeth did the job, and Quiterie’s eyes grew wide in fear that gave him more than a tiny sense of satisfaction. “I don’t know. She left right after Tatiana, and I haven’t seen her since.”
“When?”
“Hours ago. I haven’t heard from either of them since.”
Concentrating, Vasilije closed his eyes and attempted to pinpoint Sasa’s whereabouts, but it was no use. She wasn’t one of his vampires. The blood he’d taken from her wasn’t enough. To sense her, she’d have to have taken his.
His mind racing at the thought of her with Tatiana, he opened his eyes to see Quiterie smirking, as if she knew what he was thinking.
“What you feel isn’t real, vampire.”
“What?”
“You care about her—or you think you do. But it’s not real.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, he studied this voodoo woman for a moment. Somehow, he bet, she was more show than anything else, more for tourists and desperate lovers than for anyone truly looking to experience magic.
“Sasa’s not the only empath?”
Quiterie cackled, the sound coming from deep inside her belly, and threw her head back. Her white teeth flashed as she enjoyed herself at his expense.
Fed up with her, Vasilije turned to leave, not knowing where to find Sasa but sure his time was better spent than in Quiterie’s presence.
“Magic is real, vampire, whether you believe in me or not.”
As he moved to walk out of the office, he snapped, “Save it for the tourists.”
“You need to show more respect. I am a mambo, a voodoo priestess. The loa serves me. What you feel for Sasa is what I made you feel. If I decide to reverse the spell, she’s nothing to you.”
Quiterie leaned back in her chair, making it creak under her weight, and said smugly, “And you’re nothing to her.”
Vasilije watched her fondle two black dolls in her lap. Was she serious? Had everything between him and Sasa been because of some fucking love spell?
“You better hope you haven’t done anything that put her in danger because of this spell, or I promise you, I’ll be back. And none of your voodoo nonsense will help you against me.”
“Whatever happens to Sasa tonight will happen because of you. You’ve placed her in harm’s way, vampire. Tatiana’s vengeance is because of you.”
Her words enflamed him, making his rage spike inside him, and instantly he was next to her with his hands around her fleshy throat. He slowly squeezed against the straining cords in her neck and pressed his thumbs against the front of her throat.
“I think you’ve hurt her enough, voodoo priestess,” he hissed.
“And what have you done to her, vampire?” Quiterie croaked out.
The thought that he was to blame for what might be happening to Sasa made something snap in him, and in one swift movement his mouth was at Quiterie’s neck ready to strike. His fangs pierced her skin and amid her cries, he gulped her blood down, relishing the agony he heard in her screams.
It didn’t take long to drain her, and when he stepped away from her lifeless body, discarding it like a useless, empty shell, he wiped the blood that had spilled over his chin and
jaw with the back of his hand. Not the revenge he sought, but not bad for an appetizer.
“Guess that’s the end of you, Miss Quiterie. Now for the main course.”
Heading toward Canal Street and away from the crowds in the Quarter, he ran through places Sasa might be. Just as he’d decided to try her cousin’s outside the city, the cell phone in his coat pocket vibrated. The number on the screen was Sasa’s.
“Sasa, where are you?”
His question was met with silence.
“Sasa? Answer me. Where are you? Tell me and I’ll come there.”
“My dear Vasilije. You sound positively undone by the idea of our little empath in danger.”
The sound of Tatiana’s voice taunting him stopped him dead in his tracks and her last words to him in London flashed through his mind.
Now I take something you cherish.
She wanted to hurt him again.
“I’ve already drained your voodoo lady, so don’t think I won’t kill you.”
“Vasilije! Please don’t try to find me. She’s going to kill you!”
Sasa’s voice so full of fear cut right through him. “Sasa, where are you? Tell me!”
Noises on the other end of the phone sounded like someone hitting someone and the sound of Sasa’s cries told him Tatiana had already hurt her.
“When I find you, Tatiana, you’re dust.”
“Careful, love. I have your dear’s life in my hands. If you want her, come to Cypress Grove Cemetery at the end of the Canal Street line. Follow the sound of her screams.”
The line went dead, but it didn’t matter. Nothing he could say would stop what had been set in motion centuries earlier. What mattered was that he got Sasa out of there before Tatiana did some real harm to her.
Cypress Grove Cemetery loomed in front of him, the name in wrought iron spanning two enormous white stone columns illuminated by the light of the full moon. The gate was padlocked, but to a vampire, this was no real impediment. Vasilije blocked out the sound of the street behind him and focused on trying to hear the sound of Sasa’s voice. Gradually, he began to hear her soft whimpers.
Once inside, he walked slowly down the center aisle in this city of the dead lined with marble and stone crypts. A deep rust colored tomb caught his eye, and as he approached the fence that surrounded it, a cold brush of wind passed him. Suddenly, Tatiana appeared standing on top of the crypt, shielded by a sobbing Sasa.
“I told you he’d come, empath. He knows what I’d do to you if he didn’t.”
Sasa’s desperate gaze met his, full of fear, and she cried out, “Vasilije, leave! She’s never going to let me go, and I don’t care anymore. She killed my mother.”
Tatiana stifled her with a sharp squeeze. “Enough from you. He and I have unfinished business to discuss. Keep your mouth closed or you’ll get what your mother got, and I don’t think you want that, no matter what you say.”
The need for vengeance coursed through him now as he listened to Tatiana refer to their unfinished business. For centuries, it had remained dormant, a dull ache he’d learned to live with and later ignore. The sight of her tormenting Sasa reminded him of those moments just before she let the hunter stake Nina, and that need for revenge was as acute as in the hours and days after Nina’s murder when he roamed the Earth to satisfy his hunger for vengeance.
“Always one for the lambs, aren’t you? She reminds me of Nina, love. Don’t you agree?”
“Don’t say that name. Get down here so I can send you to hell where you belong.”
“Centuries later and you’re still pining for my simpering little sister. Oh, that’s right. She was also your sire. You’ve never properly thanked me for freeing you from her, Vasilije. Look at all you’ve been able to do without having to deal with her oppressive rule over you.”
“You took away more than my sire.”
As the last word left his mouth, Vasilije leapt toward the crypt, but Tatiana was faster and disappeared with Sasa before he reached them. Quickly, he scanned the rows of tombs around him but saw no sign of them.
“Can you honestly say you loved her, Vasilije? That weak thing?” Tatiana said loudly from somewhere in the row behind him.
“Yes,” he answered, knowing what that one word would do to her. “Yes, I loved her for exactly that part of her, that gentleness you took advantage of.”
Just as he guessed, hearing him profess his love for Nina enraged her and she appeared on a crypt in front of him, still holding Sasa to her. The effect of his words was written all over her face.
“Gentleness? What nonsense!” she barked, almost spitting out the words.
“That sweetness was something you never possessed. It’s the reason I chose her when I could have had you.”
“You’re a fool! The weak, pathetic little birds could never make you happy. You know that. You need someone like you.”
Vasilije shook his head in disgust. What he’d always suspected he now knew was true. Tatiana had killed Nina because of him. “I never loved you. It was always her.”
He was treading on dangerous ground. At any moment, she could snap and hurt Sasa, but centuries of hate for his sire’s death made him continue. “You think you’re like me? No. You’re cruel. Nothing more.”
Tatiana walked to the end of the cement tomb and dangled Sasa by the neck, choking her slowly. “Cruel? You think ridding the Earth of weaklings like this is cruel? I’m doing them a favor. Take this one, for example. Even to you it must be obvious that she’s in love with you. And what has she gotten for that? Her mother’s dead and you’ve been spending our time talking about how much you love a ghost.”
The pain on Sasa’s face as Tatiana spoke stabbed at him. His need for revenge couldn’t trump her safety, so he’d do what he must to save her. Anything to make sure Tatiana didn’t do to her what she’d done to Nina because of him.
“Let her go. She’s done nothing and she means nothing to me.”
“So you don’t care if I kill her?”
Vasilije couldn’t bear the sadness in Sasa’s eyes from his words. Focusing on Tatiana, he shook his head. “You want me, not her. She’s nothing. I’m the one who chose Nina over you. I’m the one who took Alex from you.”
Abruptly, Tatiana jerked Sasa back onto the top of the tomb and released her hold on her neck. Gasping for air, Sasa fell to her hands and knees.
“You’re right. You’re the one I want.” Pulling Sasa back to her feet, she added, “But my feminine intuition tells me you do care for our little empath friend here, so she’ll stay with me.”
In a blur, they disappeared from in front of him, and Vasilije jumped to the ground and listened for Sasa. In the distance he heard her scream, “The tree!” and he turned to see the two of them near a sprawling old tree about a hundred yards away.
“Let her go, Tatiana,” he yelled as he walked toward them. “Let her go. You want me.”
Face-to-face with Tatiana, he saw she held something in her hand. As the moonlight glinted off it, Vasilije recognized it as his dagger he’d lost just before Nina was killed.
“Remember this? Remember how when Nina wasn’t around we’d slit their throats and feed like gluttons?”
He remembered. He remembered how Nina had scolded him for being so heartless, forbidding him from doing it again. Even now, her gentle words admonishing him echoed in his ears.
“We were monsters when we didn’t have to be. You should have listened to Nina.”
“And become like her? No, thank you. And I’ll have you know, this dagger has done its job many times since that night I took it from you, including earlier tonight.”
Vasilije knew what was next. In a painfully ironic twist, she planned on killing someone he cared for with the dagger he’d so callously used for the same purpose so many times before.
He couldn’t wait any longer. Ready to avenge Nina’s death and Sasa’s torment, he lunged at them, catching Tatiana off guard. Both women fell to the ground, and Vasilije felt Sasa rol
l away from them. Happy she was safe, he took off after Tatiana when she fled. He caught up with her on the steps to a crypt that resembled the church his father had been buried near. Standing in front of an archway to a central tomb flanked by columns below a domed roof with a cross, Tatiana waited for him—for a showdown that was four hundred years in the making.
“I got rid of Nina but still you didn’t want me. I loved you. I would have killed for you.”
Vasilije stared into her troubled eyes. “You did. You took her away from me. Now I’ll do what I should have done that night instead of mourning her.”
Wrapping his fingers around the sharpened wooden stake concealed in his coat pocket, he squeezed the weapon tightly. Tatiana would be the second of his kind he’d kill. He’d be just like her now.
It didn’t matter.
Without a word more, he slipped the stake out and cocked his arm back to finally send her from the Earth and avenge his sire. She saw what he planned to do, but it was too late. Before she could react, he’d done what he’d wished he could have that night centuries ago.
The stake pierced Tatiana’s chest, and he plunged it deep into her heart. Then she was gone and all that was left was dust floating in what seemed like slow motion to the marble steps in front of him. Emotion threatened to overtake him as he watched the particles fall into small piles on the pristine white marble. He couldn’t truly regret his actions, no matter what their laws dictated, but what he’d done turned his stomach all the same.
Vasilije closed his eyes and hoped somewhere Nina heard his thoughts. I’m sorry, Nina. For not saving you then and for what I had to do now.
The breeze rustled the leaves on the tree behind him, and he turned to see Sasa lying on the ground. His dagger stood proudly erect from her chest, a symbol of Tatiana’s hate for him. Staggering toward her, he fell to his knees beside her. Still alive, she looked up at him, the sadness in her eyes from his words earlier replaced with pain and fear.
“Sasa.”
Her voice barely a whisper, she said, “I’m glad I got to say goodbye, Vasilije. But I need to know. Is she gone? Please tell me I can die knowing my mama’s murderer is gone.”