E.V.I.E.: 13 Slayers, 13 Missions

by Lexi C. Foss

  “Or I’ll just have Rowan make me another amulet.” She sounded so sure that I would have believed her had I not known how the necklaces were made for her kind.

  “Doesn’t that require Romanov blood?” While Roskana could jump realms to obtain the precious essence, it wouldn’t be easy. Anastasia Romanov had no memory of her past, thanks to vampire compulsion. Did Kseniya know that? Had they visited their friend?

  I frowned then, considering. If they had visited Anastasia, why hadn’t they tried to free her? Perhaps I wasn’t the only one who’d been screwed over. It seemed odd, though. The four slayers had once been inseparable.

  I nearly asked, only to have Kseniya cut off my thoughts with a snarled “If you want a fair fight, you’ll give me back the amulet.”

  “Darling, even with it, nothing about our sparring would be fair.”

  “Return my necklace and we’ll find out.”

  My lips curled. “Adorable, but no. Meet me tomorrow and maybe we’ll negotiate something.” I gave her an address in New York City, knowing perfectly well I wouldn’t be returning her amulet anytime soon yet needing her to play along regardless.

  Rather than allow her to reply, I licked the blood along her lower lip once more and abruptly stepped back to release her. “I have an auction to kick off. If you want to play nice, you’re welcome to remain as my date. Or you can run along and tell your slayer friends all about me. I’m sure they would find our history entertaining.”

  “Cassius.”

  “I’m not giving you back your amulet, sweet slayer,” I said, fixing my clothes and running my hand over my jacket to ensure I was all put back together. “You may want to fix your hair and makeup.”

  She scowled.

  “Or not. I’m fine with everyone knowing I just destroyed you with my mouth.” I ran my eyes over her, my nose twitching at the delicious aroma gracing her thighs. “It’s a shame they won’t be able to smell how much you want more.”

  “The only thing I want is to kill you.”

  “Mmm, more foreplay,” I drawled. “You know how much I love a good fight to warm us both up.” I winked at her and reached to pull her away from the door. “Have a good night, Kseniya. Dream of me.”

  I slipped out before she could reply, but I caught her angry snarl as the door swung closed behind me. I smirked, then looked at a few guests lingering a little too close to the private area. “The auction is about to begin,” I informed them all, a hint of compulsion underlining my tone. “Go find your seats.” Like good humans, I added in my mind.

  The lambs all did my bidding, turning without so much as a baa in reply.

  That was what I adored about Kseniya. She would never listen, just as I knew she wouldn’t now. I anticipated her walking back out with her head held high and smiled as she stepped through the threshold right on cue.

  She didn’t even look at me. Just proceeded toward the table to collect her bag and then went straight to the exit with her tousled hair still a mess on her head.

  That’s my girl, I thought after her. Then I flagged Gretchen over with a wave.

  “Yes, sir?” she asked, her dark hair perfectly pinned on top of her round head.

  “I need to attend to something important,” I told her. “Can you apologize on my behalf to the guests and run the auction without me? We can provide them all with a bottle of the finest champagne as a consolatory gift.”

  Her ebony eyes told me she wanted to argue, but the intelligent woman knew better. “Of course, sir. Do you need my assistance with anything else?”

  “Just tonight’s benefit,” I replied. “See that everything runs smoothly in my absence, and I’ll add a substantial bonus to your next check.”

  She didn’t react gluttonously to the news, merely bowed her head. “Thank you, sir.”

  “Call me after with an update.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Thank you, Gretchen,” I said, taking my leave without a single glance back. I couldn’t give two fucks about this entire room of society imbeciles and their flagrant displays of money. The only reason I’d shown up was for Kseniya, and as she’d left early, so would I.

  Without her amulet, she was breakable—a state I intended to exploit personally. That didn’t mean I wanted anyone else to harm her.

  So I followed her to the flat she kept in Upper Manhattan.

  She never once thought to look for me. It had me shaking my head in disapproval. The vampires in this realm were too easy to kill, allowing her to forget everything I’d ever taught her.

  We’d speak more about it tomorrow.

  After she found the present I had planned for her.

  My mouth twitched in amusement. We’d just entered phase one of our game. I hope she was ready, or it’d end before it truly began.

  Good night, little killer. Sweet dreams.

  7

  Violet

  I was wrong.

  Jude didn’t call me at all. Instead, he showed up at nine o’clock in the morning with Luci beside him and a newspaper in his hand. I knew what would be on that paper before he even said a word.

  Given that I’d only slept a few hours after fretting most of the night, I had no energy to argue with him or deflect his questions. Rather than try, I just opened my door, allowed him to enter, and went straight to the coffee maker.

  I poured us both a cup on autopilot, added the appropriate fixings, and took the chair across from him at my dining room table.

  Luci wandered over to nudge me with her snout, her big eyes filled with concern. “I’m okay,” I promised her.

  A lie.

  I wasn’t okay at all.

  Cassius is here. In New York City. In our current realm.

  I’d tried to call Rowan to tell her, but she hadn’t answered her phone. For whatever reason, her voicemail hadn’t worked, so I decided I’d ring her back today. After I met with Cassius again.

  My plan was simple: get my amulet back and kill him.

  Of course, I wasn’t so naïve as to expect him to go along with that. And not having my amulet would prove to be dangerous because if anyone could best me, it was Cassius. Just as he’d done last night.

  Jude slid the paper across the table, the photo displaying Cassius kissing my neck as he held me tight against him. “When I asked you to gather intelligence, I meant for you to hide on the sidelines and observe.”

  “You dressed me as vampire bait,” I scoffed. “What did you expect?” I supposed that worked as a nice deflection. But I could see in Jude’s eyes that he knew I wasn’t telling him the truth, and his follow-up question proved it.

  “Who is he, Violet?” The serious lines of his face demanded compliance with that inquiry. Telling a version of the truth wasn’t going to fly. As I had questions for him, too, I figured we might as well get it all out in the open.

  “How did you know the Romanov tie would interest me into taking the case?” I countered him. “Why not give the project to Alaric or one of the others? Why me?”

  “You know why.”

  “I suspect why,” I corrected. “I want you to confirm it.”

  “Come on, Kseniya. Let’s not dance around the truth. Tell me who Alexander Ivanovich is to you. Is he from your home realm?”

  That question alone confirmed he knew Rowan and I weren’t from this reality but from another. “How long have you known?”

  “Stop deflecting.”

  “It’s relevant,” I argued. “I’m trying to figure out how you found out. Was it through rumor? Observation? Did someone tell you about my true identity?”

  His eyes narrowed. “It was through a mixture of observation, my predecessor’s notes regarding your amulet, and a rumor trickling around about your ties to the Romanov Dynasty. I put it all together and decided to test a theory.” He gestured to the photo in the paper with his chin. “That proves said theory. Who is he?”

  I ran my palm over my face and sighed. “Have you spoken to Rowan yet?”

  “I’ve answered
enough questions. Your turn.”

  “So that’s a no,” I muttered. Which of course it was. Had he told Rowan, she’d have shown up with him. “His name is Cassius Alexander Ivanov. He’s a vampire, but not the kind you’re used to slaying.”

  “Go on,” he encouraged when I paused to think about how difficult it would be to take out Cassius. Wanting him dead and killing him were two entirely different sentiments.

  “He’s immune to sunlight, garlic, stakes, and pretty much every other manner taught by the E.V.I.E. trainers. You wondered why I never desired more instruction? It’s because the vampires in this realm are child’s play compared to what Rowan and I dealt with back home.” There was no sugarcoating it. This realm was a complete joke compared to the reality we came from.

  Pushing away from my chair, I went to grab a blanket to wrap around my bare shoulders. Suddenly the tank top and shorts I wore were just too revealing for the story I needed to tell.

  Jude didn’t push, his dark eyes guarded as I re-collected myself on the chair again.

  And then I told him everything.

  Because why bother hiding it? He knew enough already that it didn’t hurt to share the truth about my lineage as Anastasia’s distant cousin. Rowan was a cousin of a different sort, as her family was meant to protect those of the Romanov line.

  “That’s why we have the amulets,” I explained. “One of the key markers is blood from a direct descendant of the Romanov line. Such as Anastasia. So, unfortunately, Rowan can’t make more because the entire family is dead.” I added that last bit to keep him from garnering any ideas on how to use my oldest friend to create an army of immortal slayers.

  Then I went into the history of that night and how the Romanov slayer line ended.

  Which brought me to Cassius and his infamous cousin.

  Dimitri.

  “The Romanovs had a tenuous alliance with the Vampire Dynasty after their king, Dimitri Ivanov, stated his desire to find a meaningful coexistence between our houses.”

  I thought back on those days of wistful hope. While I’d been young, just twenty years old and freshly trained in the art of slaying, there’d been a sort of quiet peace that had hung among the Romanovs and the families of those who supported our cause.

  Everyone had been at war for so long. They were exhausted and beaten down and more than eager to accept the pause that allowed them to negotiate a new way forward.

  “Dimitri lied,” I whispered.

  My eyes fell closed, the nightmare rolling through my mind in a hot memory that singed my senses.

  “His vampires burned the Romanov Palace—which is similar to your current Catherine Palace just outside of Saint Petersburg—and the surrounding grounds to ash.” I swallowed, recalling the flames and heat from that night. “Someone led them through the secret tunnels, right into the heart of our territory. No one had expected them. No one had stood a chance.”

  It’d been Cassius who’d led them.

  I still recalled seeing his white hair glistening in the embers, his eyes wild as he searched for me.

  “Rowan saved my life.” I purposely left out Emerald, the other slayer Rowan had saved. I didn’t want to bring our rebellious sister into this. She’d chosen her destiny as a non-slayer, and I respected that choice. “We’ve tried to go back so many times. But I guess your reality needed us more.”

  Luci put her head on my thigh, her big eyes filled with love and affection. I set my hand on her soft neck, then ran my fingers through her silky fur, scratching her behind the ears and along her nape.

  “I suppose you needed me, too, hmm?” I said to her, smiling.

  She didn’t exactly grin back, but her eyes spoke right to my soul. Yes.

  “I’ve known for a while that your amulets let you travel through portals,” Jude admitted after a few minutes. “I suspected it was also tied to your immortality since neither of you has aged a day since we first met, and my predecessor has information reflecting the same fact.”

  “We weren’t exactly hiding it.”

  “No, you weren’t,” he agreed. “So why not come clean about your origin?”

  I blew out a long breath, considering all the reasons Rowan and I had decided not to talk about it with anyone in this realm. Emerald was at the top of that list, our desire to safeguard her identity of utmost importance. If E.V.I.E. learned about her existence and some of her rarer traits, they’d recruit her in a heartbeat. And Emerald would not react well.

  However, beyond that, we’d worried about Jude wanting Rowan to create more amulets. They took so much out of her and were impossible to complete without blood from a direct Romanov descendant.

  We suspected mine might be enough, if I provided ample amounts of it, but we hadn’t experimented, because it could put my own life in jeopardy.

  But it was more about the toll it took on Rowan.

  Neither of us wanted her to be used or forced to create something that left her so weak and powerless.

  I chewed the inside of my cheek, debating how to phrase that without offending Jude. “We weren’t sure how you’d react,” I finally decided upon. “It’s something we can’t fix or take back, and we never expected our old world to find us. We’ve been here since 1918.”

  “Well, your past has caught up with you,” he returned.

  “Obviously.” I cleared my throat, biting back the series of curses I wanted to add to that statement. This wasn’t Jude’s fault. Nor was it mine. “Cassius and I have history. I suspect he started whatever rumors you heard about me. It’s the only way he could have guaranteed you’d give me the invitation to the fundraiser last night.”

  “So he’s been killing indiscriminately to garner your attention,” Jude translated.

  I frowned. “That… I think might be a coincidence.”

  “Coincidence?” he scoffed. “It all started at the same time. Without the dead bodies, there would have been no need to attend last night.”

  I shook my head. “No, you would have wanted someone to go to check out the new ancient. Spreading a rumor about his age and status is something Cassius would do. Kill without cause… that doesn’t feel like him.”

  Jude arched a dark brow. “Did you not just tell me a story about his brethren slaughtering the Romanov slayer line?”

  “That was Dimitri’s call,” I pointed out. “And it was to end a feud between slayers and vampires that went back centuries.” An entirely different situation, despite the bloodshed involved.

  “Over a hundred years ago,” Jude said. “Who knows what your old reality looks like now, Violet?”

  A fair comment. However… “It’s not his usual methodology. Planning a lavish affair and coaxing me out by dropping hurtful reminders of my past is what I expect from him. He gains nothing by killing the humans.”

  I wasn’t sure why I felt the need to defend him. For all I knew, he was the idiot slaying aimlessly in the street. But my gut told me it wasn’t him, that it was all just a coincidental occurrence.

  Cassius wanted to fuck with me.

  He couldn’t give a shit about everyone else.

  That was the vampire I knew.

  “The scenes were too messy,” I added.

  “Again, a lot can change in a century,” Jude said softly. “Perhaps that’s how it’s done in your world now.”

  I flinched at the thought, my stomach tightening with a rage that boiled my blood. What if Rowan and I were wrong about our fate? What if we weren’t meant to be in this reality, but in our own, and we’d wasted the last hundred or so years working for the wrong team?

  My coffee was suddenly too cold to drink. Not that I’d really touched it since sitting down.

  “Where’s your amulet?” Jude asked suddenly, gazing at my neck. I suspected he’d been checking me for bites, only to realize my trademark chain was missing.

  “Cassius took it.” I sounded far more defeated than I intended, but I’d stayed up all night thinking about his reappearance in my life and how to handl
e it. “I’m supposed to meet him at noon.” I told Jude the place and shook my head. “I don’t know what he has planned, but he’s not just going to give me my amulet back. He knows what it does.”

  “Why is he fixated on you?”

  “Because I escaped him,” I replied.

  His eyes narrowed. “It’s more than that.”

  I lifted a shoulder. “His reasoning is irrelevant. He’s here, he wants to kill me, and I’m not going to let him. So I have to meet him at noon even though I know it won’t be that simple.”

  Jude nodded. “You’ll take Alaric with you.”

  “What? No, he—”

  “Did I phrase that as a request?” Jude gave me a look that told me I knew damn well he wasn’t going to allow me to argue.

  “This is my fight, Jude.”

  “And you’ll get it, with Alaric as backup.”

  “No offense to Alaric, but he won’t stand a chance against Cassius.” He was a human with impressive strength and speed, I’d give him that. However, Cassius resembled a god in this world, one I could barely take down with my hardened slayer heritage.

  Jude’s lips twitched. “You know, for as observant as you can be, you certainly overlook certain details.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  He lifted a shoulder. “I’m not going to spell it out for you, but I’ll tell Alaric to be in that restaurant by half past eleven.”

  “No.”

  “It’s not a debate, Violet. He’ll be assisting you with or without your permission.”

  My teeth ground together in frustration. “Jude, you don’t know Cassius like I do.”

  “I’m aware of that. I’m also aware that he makes you uneasy, something I’ve never known you to be. And he was able to one-up you by taking your amulet.” Jude stood, his coffee mug empty. “You’ll be accepting Alaric’s help, Violet. He’s more resourceful than you’re giving him credit for.”

  “It’s not that. I just…” I trailed off, palming the back of my neck. “I don’t want him to get hurt because of me.”

  “Then prepare him,” Jude suggested. “I’ll have him come here first. You can brief him on Cassius and develop a plan.”