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

by Lexi C. Foss

  “And next you’ll tell me you didn’t attack the palace. But I saw you that night, Cassius. Your eyes were crazed with bloodlust. You wanted me dead.”

  “I wanted to save you,” I corrected on a low growl, furious at her for believing such a sordid version of events. “When I heard what was happening, I ran straight to you. If you saw anything crazed in my expression, it was the thought that I had arrived too late. But you weren’t there. Instead, Grigori Rasputin was waiting for me.”

  She narrowed her gaze. “Sure. Okay. We’ll pretend I believe that for a minute. So what did Grigori want?”

  “The throne,” I answered simply.

  “What throne?”

  “Dimitri’s throne.” I studied her, watching the disbelief filter through her pretty features. She truly believed her version of events over mine. Which meant she hadn’t lied at all, that we’d both read this situation entirely wrong. “I can prove it, Kseniya.”

  “By taking me back,” she replied. “You expect me to fall for that?”

  “I expect you to give me a chance to explain the truth. If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.”

  “That’s not how you play the game, Cassius. You draw it out to inflict the maximum amount of pain imaginable, then you end it.”

  “True,” I agreed. “But I’m not playing a game with you.”

  “You’re always playing a game with me,” she argued, throwing her hands outward. “You set all this up just to fuck with my head. Again.”

  “And what do I win?” I asked her. “What do I gain from ‘fucking with your head’?”

  “Pleasure in my agony.”

  “I’d rather absorb that through sex,” I tossed back. “Next reason, please.”

  She placed her hands on her hips, her expression infuriatingly stubborn. “I’m the last Romanov alive, right? You get the joy of tormenting the final heir, like some sort of trophy to parade around in our old world.”

  “You’re not the last Romanov alive,” I corrected her. “Not even close.”

  That gave her pause. “What?”

  “You also wouldn’t be much of a trophy since you’re a cousin, not a direct descendant,” I added. “If I wanted power or a medal of vampire honor, I wouldn’t be here tracking you down. I came here to settle a revenge debt, one I thought I was owed. But I’m beginning to see that it was all a lie, a way to drive a wedge between us. Something I should have suspected, considering the source, yet here we are.”

  “Go back to the part about me not being the last slayer alive,” she said. “Did others survive?”

  This was the moment of truth. The Kseniya I once knew would react a very specific way to this information. I felt it to my very soul, that this was our pivotal sequence. How she reacted now would tell me everything I needed to know.

  “Yes.” I didn’t elaborate on who had survived because only one person would truly matter to her. “Anastasia survived.”

  16

  Violet

  Anastasia survived.

  The two words repeated through my mind, circling with the phrase He’s lying. He has to be lying.

  This was all just a ruse to convince me to go back with him.

  But what if it’s not? What if she’s really alive?

  I shivered at the thought, my stomach clenching at what that implied. It would mean that I’d abandoned her all these years, thinking she was dead. Not that I could have returned even if I’d wanted to, but I would have tried harder had I known.

  Cassius’s comments about the last hundred years continued to plow through my head. Something about imprisonment and me trading my life for his. He kept talking about Grigori, too.

  It was all so backward from what I believed, but I hadn’t been there to watch it all play out. We’d escaped.

  What if he spoke the truth?

  What if I had this all wrong?

  “She’s… she’s alive?”

  “Yes.” His eyes gave nothing away, those silver orbs almost appearing bored. But I felt the scrutiny behind his gaze. He was watching me for a reaction; I just didn’t know what one he expected me to give.

  I sat down on his bed, my legs suddenly unsteady. “How?” I asked, my voice as weak as I felt. “Did she escape?”

  He gave a humorless laugh. “No. Only the three of you managed that. Not even I escaped.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  He leaned against the door frame, his hands in his pockets as he casually crossed one ankle over the other. “I used the tunnels that night to try to find you. I went straight to your room, which Grigori had turned into a trap. One of his lieutenants shot me in the heart. I woke up in his dungeon, where I remained imprisoned for nine decades. It’s not a pretty story.”

  This was what he’d referenced last night. But I still didn’t understand. “Why would he imprison you?” The better question would be, How did he accomplish such a feat? Cassius was a royal. His kind would consider him untouchable.

  “There’s so much you don’t know,” he said softly. “Starting with what really happened that night. Dimitri didn’t attack the Romanovs, Kseniya. Grigori did. It was a power play to overtake my cousin’s throne. And he won.”

  “Grigori,” I repeated, doubtful. “You expect me to believe that Grigori overpowered Dimitri?”

  “I can prove it.”

  “Yeah, by taking me to our home realm,” I guessed. “How convenient.”

  “Dimitri’s intentions to negotiate peace with the Romanovs created dissension among the ranks. Grigori took advantage of that dissension. He orchestrated an attack, utilizing human and nonhuman contacts, in an effort to show that he could finish the job my cousin refused to start.”

  Cassius pushed off the door frame and stalked toward me.

  “You can choose not to believe me, Kseniya. But it doesn’t change the fact that your best friend is trapped in a hell she can’t escape from.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Grigori kept her for himself,” he said, stopping in front of me. “Rumor has it that she’s his pet assassin. But no one knows where she is. Which is why Sapphire—a witch, very much like your Roskana—is busy trying to locate her. I can prove all of this with a single visit, Kseniya.”

  He held out his hand, the offer clear.

  This could all be some sort of elaborate trap meant to hurt me emotionally, in addition to physically. Because if anyone could set the terms of this devious game, it would be Cassius.

  Yet I couldn’t detect any amusement in his features. With his wild white hair, he appeared disheveled. Unkempt. So very unlike the Cassius of my past. He almost seemed… tired.

  “I won’t force you, Kseniya, even though we both know I could,” he added softly, his hand hanging between us. “At one point in our history, you trusted me. I’m asking you to do it again. Just for today. Let me show you the truth, just as you’ve shown me.”

  “What truth have I shown you?” I wondered out loud.

  “That you had no idea I was imprisoned for nine decades. That you never gave me up to Grigori. And perhaps the most telling truth—that you really don’t know how to travel the realms. Because if you did, you wouldn’t mind going with me now. You have your portal key, slayer. It’s hanging around your neck.”

  I frowned down at my amulet. “It doesn’t work like that. Rowan and I have tried.”

  “It does work like that,” he corrected. “You just don’t know how to use it correctly.” He sounded sad, causing my gaze to flicker back to his. “I spent so many years thinking you could return to me and chose not to. I realize now how wrong I’ve been.”

  “I wouldn’t have returned to you,” I told him. “Because you…” I trailed off, unable to utter the phrase with the conviction I once possessed.

  “I never shared your secrets,” he promised, lowering his hand to his side. “A slayer long before your time did. Dimitri’s known about them for longer than you’ve been alive. Just as I did.”

  He c
rouched before me, looking up at me rather than down at me while I remained seated on the bed.

  “I would never have betrayed you in that manner, Kseniya. And some part of you knows it, too. Which is why you let me touch you last night. Why you allowed me to love you. Why you’re sitting there now, considering taking my hand.” He balanced with his forearms on his thighs, the picture of ease. “Come with me, little killer. Let me show you the truth.”

  Luci picked that moment to snort from the doorway, her expression one of boredom. I swear she was saying, Let’s go already.

  Cassius grinned, likely reading the same thing I did from her big brown eyes. “Luci believes me.”

  My hellhound grunted and plopped her butt down, then cocked her head to the side while looking at me.

  “You don’t know him like I do,” I told her.

  I swore her eyes actually rolled.

  “Pretty sure your hellhound is a good judge of character,” Cassius drawled, standing once more to walk over and scratch her behind the ear. The little traitor leaned into him on a happy huff, urging him to continue. “You accepted me even when I wanted to kill your master.”

  She licked her chops at that yet somehow made the mannerism cute while leaning into him more.

  “You’re right,” he whispered. “We both know I was never really going to hurt her.” He patted her on the head and turned toward me again, waiting.

  I swallowed, my instincts rioting in a myriad of directions. If I had my phone, I’d call Rowan for her advice.

  Actually, no, I wouldn’t. She’d tell me to get the hell out of there and to not look back.

  But what if he’s right? I wondered for the thousandth time. What if Anastasia is alive?

  He’d claimed Grigori had her, just like he’d held Cassius prisoner.

  “How could Grigori turn Anastasia into his personal assassin?” I asked, my brain finally catching up with everything Cassius had said. “She’d never agree to that.”

  “Compulsion,” he replied. “Intense compulsion.”

  I shuddered at the thought, my mind turning over what Cassius had done to me just the other night. I’d been out of my mind with lust, unable to think for myself. It’d served as a stern lesson, one that confirmed he’d never compelled me before. Not like that.

  My thumb grazed the tanzanite stone hanging from my neck, a memory of Rowan enchanting it to counter compulsion gracing my thoughts. That had occurred after we’d escaped. Because I’d thought Cassius had persuaded me with vampire magic to love him.

  Rowan saw through it but allowed me my belief—a belief Cassius had single-handedly shattered in a night.

  We were in love once. Might even still be in love now.

  All these years I wanted to punish him, to kill him, to hate him for what he’d done to me. Then he showed up with this outlandish story, inspiring hope inside me that refused to die.

  If he was telling the truth, then we could have a future together. It would be harsh and riddled with a violent past, but that was how we thrived. Our passion had never been easy, the very notion of a relationship between us forbidden.

  Yet at one point, I would have sacrificed everything for him.

  Could I do that today? Could I sacrifice my pride on the mere glimmer of possibility that he might be telling me the truth?

  He lifted his hand again, his silver eyes gleaming with promise.

  “If this is all a ruse, I will find a way to end you,” I vowed.

  His lips curled. “Likewise, baby.”

  I nodded. “Then we have a tentative accord.”

  “Sounds familiar,” he taunted.

  Yes. It did. Because those were the exact words the Romanovs said to Dimitri when he proclaimed he wanted to strike a deal.

  Only, this wasn’t about an arrangement or temporary peace. This was about a potential path. A new destiny. A twist of fate I never saw coming.

  With my heart in my throat—or perhaps on my sleeve—I stepped forward to press my palm to his. “Take me to the past.”

  “No,” he said, pulling me into him. “I’m taking us to our future.” His lips whispered across mine. “Let’s go.”

  He brushed his thumb over the gem on his index finger, the ruby flaring to life as he murmured a word in Russian that meant “revenge.” A portal opened, just like mine usually did, only the inside glittered like diamonds. Luci snarled at it, her fur lifting on end. I felt similarly, the energy surrounding the portal all wrong.

  “Trust me,” Cassius said, his silver irises locked on mine. “Please.”

  Luci grumbled, then bumped his leg as though to say, Lead on.

  However, his gaze was on me, waiting.

  It’d be so easy for him to throw me inside, to force me to comply. Yet he wanted me to choose this, to trust him, just like he requested.

  My instincts flared, my heart panicking at the thought of how he might use this against me. But my soul urged me to take a step forward, to see where this went, to find out if he spoke the truth.

  A part of me was curious. I wanted to know what had happened to my old world, to witness firsthand what I’d accidentally left behind.

  With a decisive nod, I allowed that growing curiosity to inspire me forward and followed Cassius through the shimmering curtain of cool air. Magic pooled across my skin, shrouding my limbs in goose bumps. The cool stone beneath my feet reminded me that I was barefoot and wearing only Cassius’s clothes.

  I nearly turned back, wanting a strong shield for whatever awaited me on the other side, but the kiss of sand gave me pause.

  Black sand.

  I studied my feet, noting the dark, grain-like texture covering my soles. “Where are we?” I asked, lifting my gaze to find dark blue waters to my right and an estate of white walls to my left.

  “The coast of Greece,” Cassius replied, his hand still in mine. Luci stood a few feet ahead, her nose buried in the earth as she inhaled the foreign scent. Then she danced around, frolicking in the essence that matched her sable fur. I frowned as she darted into the ocean, her hellhound shape taking form as she sent the water up around her in a misty cloud.

  “Huh,” I said, surprised. “I had no idea she liked the ocean.”

  We’d never been, but from the look of it, Luci loved the water. She began to roll around, shifting between hellhound form and wolf form, her tongue hanging out of her mouth in a happy grin.

  “What the fuck is that?” a deep voice demanded, causing my spine to stiffen.

  Dimitri, the king of vampire kind, is standing at my back.

  Oh, shit…

  17

  Violet

  I turned slowly, my heart firmly lodged in my throat. I had allowed Cassius to take me here unarmed and barely dressed. It was the worst decision of my life. And now I would face the strongest, most dangerous vampire in existence… without a stake.

  Not that a stake would work on him.

  No, Dimitri would require a different brand of death. One where I removed his head and burned his body. I could do a lot of things, but I wasn’t sure I had that in me right now.

  Part of being strong was knowing one’s limits, and I knew mine very well.

  The vampire king sauntered down the beach, his focus not on me but on Luci playing on the shore. His dark hair resembled waves in the warm breeze, his ocean-blue eyes glistening in the late afternoon sunlight. “Is that a hellhound?”

  “Yep.” Cassius grinned. “It’s Kseniya’s familiar.”

  “Seems appropriate,” Dimitri drawled, stopping a few feet away from me.

  His aristocratic features had hardened over the years, the perfect symmetry of his face somehow appearing more severe. The intensity increased as his gaze met mine, his pupils resembling dark pits of fury carefully contained by the tumultuous blue rim around them.

  I swallowed, my pulse skipping a beat. Something I knew he noticed because his attention went momentarily to my neck before shifting to his cousin. “You tamed her.”

  Cassius s
norted. “She’s under the impression I’ve tricked her into coming here.”

  “Didn’t you?” Dimitri asked.

  “Not like I’d originally intended,” Cassius admitted. “She didn’t give me up to Grigori.”

  “You’re certain?”

  “Yes.”

  Dimitri nodded. “Good. Then perhaps you can stop sulking and figure this shit out.” He stepped away from us and toward Luci.

  I nearly went after him, intending to stop whatever he planned to do, only he went to his haunches and held out his hand to allow her to sniff him.

  Luci shook out her coat, the black fur returning once more, and pranced over to him, her intelligent brown orbs accepting as she bumped his palm with her snout. He chuckled and ran his fingers over her dark head to scratch her behind the ear. “You’ll be a fun addition,” he said, seemingly pleased.

  “Addition?” I said, my voice coming out with a slight croak from forgetting how to use it the last few minutes.

  “Yes,” he replied, glancing back at me with his fingers lost in Luci’s fur. “Assuming you intend to stay and help us track down Anastasia? I imagine she’ll appreciate having a familiar face once we break whatever compulsion she’s currently under.”

  I blinked at him. “So it’s true? She’s alive?”

  “Why would I make up such a tale?” he countered, giving me a look that said, What a waste of time that would be.

  “Look around you,” Cassius suggested. “Do you think we’d be hiding here if Dimitri were still leading the Vampire Dynasty? Where are all his royal guards? His mortal harem?”

  Dimitri snorted. “I did not have a harem.”

  “You had several toys.”

  “Only for eating.”

  Cassius shrugged. “Fair. My point is, they’re gone, as are all your guards.” He returned his attention to me. “Is that what you expected, Kseniya? Or were you envisioning another sort of reality?”

  I’d expected this world to resemble hell, to see humans enslaved and vampires overindulging in rivers of blood. Not a sandy shore on the coast of Greece.