Back then, she’d believed she did. When Dagmar had found her curled up in a ball, deep in a cave, she was almost gone, and her unintelligible mumbles were prayers for release. Her body was a shadow of what it had been, and if she’d had a mirror, she had no doubt a monster’s face would have stared back at her. The beautiful daughter of a tsar had been erased. She’d been a skeleton with large eyes and a dying soul.
Fortunately for Sasha, Dagmar wasn’t afraid or put off by the feral creature she discovered. Sasha smiled now, thinking of the kindly woman who had brought her back. It had surprised her to discover that Dagmar knew not only who she was but what she was, or rather what she’d become. Neither had put her off. In fact, Dagmar had taught her everything she needed to know to survive without becoming a cold-blooded killer. How to feed and sustain herself without leaving a trail. How to move and hunt and protect herself against those who sought to destroy her and her kind. Dagmar had become more of a mother to Sasha than the woman who had given birth to her.
That was one reason she so strongly identified as Sasha Rudin. Dagmar had bestowed the name upon her at her second birth day, the one where her past disappeared and she became what she was still.
If Dagmar were here now, she’d admonish Sasha for being stupid. Only a foolish vampire would push beyond rational limits. Everything that was happening outside the sanctuary where she now found herself would still be there when the sun set. Only a foolish vampire would forgo the rest and nourishment that would make her strong and ready for battle.
“I’m not foolish,” she whispered and felt that somewhere in the great beyond, Dagmar could still hear her and was shaking a bony finger in her face, her black eyes fierce and her long silver braid swaying.
“What?” Dee turned and looked at her. A tiny thrill coursed through Sasha as those eyes met hers. What about this human was so appealing? When the world above them was no longer falling apart, perhaps she’d take time to figure it out. If, that is, the world survived.
Sasha shook her head slightly. “Nothing. Just thinking out loud.” She turned to Rodney and opened her mouth. Before she could speak, he stood up.
“Come on. You need to lie down before you fall down.” Good old Rodney. He reminded her of Dagmar. They’d have liked each other. In fact, she could almost hear Dagmar telling her he’d be a good man for her to marry. Even though Dagmar had accepted Sasha for the vampire she was, she’d always harbored a hope that she’d be like other women and find a soul mate. It was hard for her to accept that Sasha’s soul mate would never be a man. Sasha didn’t love her any less for that misguided hope.
Rodney put an arm around her shoulders and led her to a room in a back corner, where he flipped a switch to turn on the overhead light. It wasn’t a big room, though large enough for the double bed pushed up against one wall. It wasn’t her beautiful bedroom with the king-sized bed, plush bedding, and custom window blinds that blocked out all light. She’d never see that room again.
“This do it for you?”
“Yes.” Her eyelids were growing very droopy, and her arms felt heavy. At the moment, a slab of plywood would work. This was more than marginally better.
Rodney nodded and left her. “I’ll see you at sundown.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
Her fingers found the wall switch, and she turned out the light before taking the few steps to the bed. It was soft and the room cool. Perfect. It was all she needed for now.
She’d worry about the blood part later.
***
Dee watched Rodney and Sasha as they left the great room. She looked as good retreating as she did from the front. Stop it. What was with her? She didn’t get puppy-dog eyes when a good-looking woman walked into a room. She was the cool, professional novelist who sat at the celebrity table at writers’ conferences and signed autographs. People did that to her, not the other way around.
Until she met her first vampire. Or maybe it had just been so long since she’d had a date that she was susceptible to a pretty face. Except Sasha wasn’t simply a pretty face. She had never met anyone this deep before, and it was like an addictive drug. She wanted more. She wanted it all.
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Prima handed her a cup of tea. “Herbal,” she added.
“She’s interesting.”
Prima sipped her tea. “She’s a lot more than interesting. That woman has some stories to tell. Not that you’d get her to spill a single one.”
“Why didn’t you ever spill to me about her?”
“Easy. Not my place.”
“Lame excuse. I’m one of your best friends. How could you not let me in on this incredible secret?”
Prima put a hand on her shoulder. “I love you like a sister, you know that.”
“I do.” And she did. Prima was always there for her, good times and bad. When Dee became a hit, Prima didn’t treat her any different, for which she was incredibly grateful. That wasn’t the case with more than a few people she’d known her whole life, and it had made it difficult to maintain those relationships.
“Sasha is special, and her secret was always safe with me, just as yours are.”
“Then why introduce us now?”
“Sasha has told me at least a dozen times since I met her that sometimes humans need to know. She can pick those she can trust, and she told me I’d know too. Not just the who but also the when. She was right. You opened that door, and I knew it was time for you to be brought into the fold.”
“My research?”
“It was more than the research. It was the threat. That screamed to me it was time to bring you in, and most important, I knew you could be trusted.”
Strange as it all sounded, it made sense to her. “Did you know about this?” She waved her hand toward the computer monitors, where chaos was still evident across the various sections of the city.
“No, but I get the feeling Rodney and Sasha suspected.”
“Suspected what?” Rodney came back into the room and dropped into his chair. He had six or seven baby carrots in his hand. Instead of tossing them into his mouth, he set them on the desktop.
“What’s happening out there?” Dee was looking at the monitor showing her street.
He nodded slowly. “It was more than suspicion. We knew they planned to do something and were waiting for them to play their hand.”
“Now what?” Dee was lost. She wanted to go home, except she didn’t have a home to go to, and frankly, she was scared what she’d find even if she did. If they were willing to blow up her home just because she’d uncovered their identities through her research, she was pretty sure they wouldn’t stop at mere destruction of her property. She shivered as another thought struck. Perhaps they thought she was inside her home when it went skyward.
“Now, we rest.”
Both Prima and Dee looked at him. “What?”
“Has anybody gotten any sleep? You realize we’ve been up all night.”
At his words, fatigue hit her like a baseball bat. “You’re right.” She looked down at her hands. The tell was there. They were shaking, which told her one of two things: not enough sleep or too much coffee. She hadn’t had coffee for hours.
“Pick a bed and I’ll hit the sofa. Let’s sleep for a few hours and then…”
Dee yawned. “And then what?”
Rodney whirled back around to face the monitors. “We’re going out there.”
***
Katrina sensed the daylight dawning outside the blackout drapes of the hotel suite. It weighed on her heavily, yet she still resisted the pull. A great many things were going through her mind. A myriad of tasks to accomplish in the coming hours, and she didn’t want to waste time by resting. The urge to resist was as powerful as the urge to lie down.
The biggest problem wasn’t all that she needed to do to accomplish her coup. No. She couldn’t get her out of her mind. She wanted to see her face sooner rather than later. Now. She wanted to stand before her this very moment. N
ot tomorrow. Not the next day. Now.
Even as a child she’d been this way—impatient and demanding. It was a survival mechanism. She’d embraced it as a human, gloried in it as the superior being she had become. She didn’t have to wait for satisfaction or the obedience of those who surrounded her. She demanded and received it.
Only one had been contrary enough to defy her. In any other circumstance she would say strong enough to defy her and live. Not just live but also evade her and thrive as if throwing that very success in her face. She refused to think of this person as possessing the necessary strength and intelligence to become a ghost. Strength hadn’t put her out of her reach for so long; it was dumb luck.
Like others who foolishly thought fortune was on their side, her luck had finally run out. The ghost had been found. She would bow before Katrina before another twenty-four hours elapsed. That’s why Katrina was fighting so hard against the darkness that demanded her acquiescence. Her racing mind was warring with her bodily needs. Slumber was getting in the way of her glorious victory. She didn’t want to waste precious time.
It didn’t matter what she wanted. Ultimately she would lose only one fight, and it was the battle against rest. Her strength was legendary, her determination the envy of all, but she wasn’t immune to the whims of the universe that set the rules for her kind.
She’d been railing against this complication for a very long time. It didn’t make sense to her. How could the most powerful beings on the planet be brought to their knees by something as stupid as daylight? It wasn’t right, and to her way of thinking there had to be a way around it. She’d been trying to find it for centuries and was close.
Clearly not close enough, or she’d be out there right now watching the waves of change flow over the city. When the sun set and she was able to rise, things would be different everywhere. Once she had her empire established, her research project to counteract the effects of daylight would go into overdrive. She’d put the best and the brightest on task to solve this particular quirk.
A plan formulating, she relaxed into the comfortable bed, her mind calming as well, and as it did, her thoughts returned to another time.
Katrina couldn’t help but notice her as she sat on the low wall staring out into the night sky. She should have been inside by now, but the lively young woman couldn’t be contained. At least that’s what the others had warned her of when she agreed to take the watch. She wasn’t like any royal she had ever encountered before. She was kind and gentle, and everyone liked her, which was why she was allowed to do what no one else could.
For Katrina, it was a fluke, a game. She didn’t need to be here, certainly didn’t need to pretend to be something she wasn’t, yet the thrill of playing the game was irresistible. This was history in the making, even if the majority of those involved didn’t realize the import of what was occurring. Katrina did and had decided it would be fun to see it up close and personal. Hence the demeaning job and horrible uniform. It gave her a ringside seat to witness what was to come.
Now as she stood by the corner of the building and watched the beauty in the unflattering skirt and blouse, something inside her blossomed. The feeling was as surprising as it was shocking. Her world no longer had room for attraction and emotion. Lust, yes. Desire, yes. The kind of attraction that was a precursor to love, never. Yet there it was. Strong and undeniable. She wanted to sit next to her on that low wall, hold her hand, and gaze into her eyes. She wanted to kiss her lips and hold her in her arms. She wanted to strip away the awful clothes and gaze on her perfect body.
As if sensing she was being watched, the young woman turned her head her way. A slight smile turned up the corners of her mouth. It was the smile of an angel. She was lost.
A tear slipped from the corner of Katrina’s eye before the darkness she’d been fighting finally won the battle.
Chapter Thirteen
Sasha came back to consciousness with a start and snapped into full alert mode. She tensed at the unfamiliar darkness and strange sounds. Not at home. Then it returned in a flash. She didn’t have a home to be in, and all of her trusted vampire friends were gone. Her home and business were destroyed. Those she thought were her allies were traitors. All she had was one off-the-grid survivalist and a gentle-soul psychic. Well, and perhaps one beautiful, smart, and headed-for-trouble writer.
She pushed up to a sitting position and thought about Dee. She smiled, which was surprising, given the state of her life at the moment. She couldn’t help it. Dee wasn’t just attractive, she was smart as they came, and from everything she’d seen so far, fearless. Seriously, she was the first one in decades to even get a sniff of the preternatural forces that had been working behind the mist for at least a thousand years. That was impressive. Dangerous, but impressive.
As she swung her feet around to the floor, she wished she’d had time to pack a bag of clothes. Her shirt was stiff with dried blood and not what she really wanted to wear. Since she didn’t have anything clean, she was stuck with what she had, at least for now. On the upside, Rodney’s hideaway possessed all the comforts of home, which included a shower. It was bound to be a long night, and she wanted to be fresh and ready for whatever was going to happen, even if she had to put blood-stained clothes back on.
Before she hit the shower, she walked out to the main living area. Empty. Rodney’s command center was alive with images flashing across the screens but void of human monitoring. He wasn’t in his chair, and neither Prima nor Dee was anywhere in sight. She stopped in front of the multiple monitors and watched for at least five minutes. The scenes that played out across them were something out of a futuristic movie. It was as if toxic poison had rained down upon the area, and in a twisted way that’s what had happened.
Sasha possessed a great deal of information about toxins the Consortium was working on, designed not to kill all the humans but to destroy the weak and render the survivors powerless. In short, they intended to create a worldwide herd of cattle—strong, powerful, and full of nourishment but lacking the will or intelligence to do anything except as their new masters directed. The mist would clear, their masters would step out, and for the first time ever, the vampires would assume their rightful place.
She’d heard the story long before the rumors became persistent enough for her to realize they were more reality than rumor. The one who made her had bragged about the time to come when vampires would no longer have to hide. Sasha had been horrified then and had told her maker how she felt. It hadn’t gone over well. It had gone over even worse when Sasha refused to become what her maker had intended her to be: a lover and a partner in the ultimate takeover. Fury didn’t even begin to describe the emotion that had rained down on Sasha as she’d run for her life. She continued to feel the heat of that fury like a hot breath on the back of her neck.
Right now, she didn’t want to remember any of that. Instead, she wanted to concentrate on how to reverse this situation before it was too late. For some, it already was, which was clear from the bodies shown on the many screens. Nothing more could be done for those tragic souls, but she could concentrate on helping everyone else. That and finding her maker. It was time for old debts to be paid in full.
After wandering through the rest of the bunker, she was surprised to discover it empty. Getting Rodney out of here was no small feat. The man was set up to be self-sufficient for years. He could be Social Security eligible before he would have to step out into the sunshine. Dee and Prima must have used some serious persuasion, and she would have loved to hear what they’d said to get him to agree to leave. At the same time, it was nice to have a little silence. She’d known this day would come and had plans at the ready. The problem was, some of her trusted colleagues were in on those plans, and right now, beyond the three she was holed up with, she didn’t know who to trust. She checked her cell phone on the off chance the friends she’d tried to reach last night might have gotten back to her. Not a single call or message in the hours she’d been out. Just as she�
��d feared last night, instinct told her she’d never hear from any of them again.
Instead of dwelling on that depressing thought, she decided to take care of her immediate needs, and that meant the shower. She went back to her small room and undressed, leaving her clothes on the bed. She looked at the bag she’d taken when she left Imperial and wished it had more in it instead of just the egg, her cell phone, some folders, and a tablet. No clothes. No toothbrush. No packets of blood. She tried not to focus on the last missing item.
Naked, she walked the short distance to the compact but well-designed bathroom. She smiled as a vision of her mother popped into her head. How shocked she would be at the thought of her little princess walking around naked. Times have changed, Mama. The water was hot and felt nice against her cool skin. Surprisingly, Rodney stocked his shower with vanilla shampoo and a lovely lavender-scented soap. Who would have guessed the mountain man had a taste for sweet and floral. It was an unexpected and appreciated luxury.
After stepping out of the shower, she dried off and was walking back toward her room while rubbing the towel over her long hair when she heard a noise. Her head snapped up, and she stopped as she came face-to-face with Dee. She smiled as a flush colored Dee’s neck.
***
Dee didn’t know what to say. Almost walking into a beautiful, naked vampire was absolutely the last thing on her mind when she’d started toward the bathroom. She couldn’t pinpoint if it was nerves or the very large coffee she’d downed just before they made their way back here, but in any event, a trip to the bathroom was first on her agenda. The urge was so great she didn’t even bother to drop the bag she gripped in her right hand.
Now, she stood with her mouth open, all thoughts of needing to use the bathroom gone. Her whole focus shifted in a millisecond from her own bodily needs to Sasha’s incredible body. Her breathing seemed to have stopped as well, and the only word that came to her was “damn.” She quickly shoved her left hand into the pocket of her jeans to keep herself from reaching out to touch the skin that was so smooth it looked like silk. Wasn’t really her style to go around touching anyone without their permission, but for the first time ever, she was tempted. Shame on her.
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