Alexei’s eyes immediately focused on his uncle, a frown furrowing his brow in confusion, “What?”
“It’s true Alexei, your father couldn’t admit he was unfit to lead and wouldn’t reliquish his position. Even as everything crumbled all around him he still thought he knew best, covering his ineptitude with atrocities against the people. Atrocities that ultimately led to the creation of an even greater monster in the Bolsheviks.”
Alexei’s frown deepened even further, “What are you saying?”
Nicholas sighed with a weariness that Alexei had not expected, “I am sorry for what I did, but it was necessary. The war flowed in both directions but, if the Romanov family was going to take power again, then I couldn’t allow someone as weak as your father to simply sit back on the throne once we had finished fighting to restore it.”
Alexei’s legs felt as though they were made of lead as a thought began to worm its way into his mind. Up to now Alexei had been pursuing his uncle because of his part in the brutal murder of his mentor, Grigori Rasputin, but that wasn’t what Nicholas was apologizing for now, was it?
Alexei just stared at Nicholas as his uncle continued to bare his soul, “Removing your father wasn’t enough. You, your mother, your siblings were all weak, meulling and incapable fools who would only worsen the situation. You all had to be taken…”
“Yakov Yuresev,” Alexei managed to say, “the orders he received to execute us in that cellar… that was you?”
Realizing his mistake, Nicholas’ head shot up, his eyes alert and his body tensed in what might have been an initial effort toward indignation, but then his face twisted into a sneer as he looked at Alexei and he raised his sword once more, “I see. Well, this is probably as it should be in the end. You, at least, deserve to know everything.”
Alexei was silent as his eyes lingered on his uncle until a glint of light flickered off the Shaska in his uncle’s hand.
“Whatever the issues you had with my father,” Alexei’s voice broke in sorrow, “we…my sisters and I…we all loved you.”
Nicholas shook his head, “Alexei…”
Fury that Alexei had never felt before raged, “How could you?! Some of my sisters were little more than toddlers and you had them shot! And you have the audacity to say the Bolsheviks were the monsters?!”
Now indignation did rise into Nicholas, “Don’t you dare compare me to the ursurpers of our family. They…”
Alexei cut off his uncle, “Family?! You dare speak of family after what you have done?!”
Nicholas, seeing that there would be no stemming the tide of rage Alexei was in, raised his Shaska once more, “You cannot understand, but I do not expect as much. Your father was weak and, even with your gifts, you are your father’s son.”
Alexei fought to calm his breathing by concentrating on the knife in his hand, “And Father Grigori?”
“I gave him a choice and he chose to support your father,” Nicholas chuckled. “I suspect he only made that choice because your father was little more than a puppet for the Starets to manipulate. In the end I think every idea your father had may have actually been Rasputin’s.”
Alexei’s eyes dropped from his uncle’s face to the Shaska, “That sword does not belong to you.”
Nicholas looked to the Shashka, “The sword belongs to the leader who will…”
“The sword belonged to my Father!” Alexei interrupted, “and upon his death it passes to me.”
Nicholas’s face began to redden and darken his features, “Then perhaps you should come and take it.” Nicholas pointed the Shashka at Alexei and spread his feet readying himself for battle.
Alexei raised his hunting knife and pointed it a Nicholas in a similar manner, “Come then ‘Wolf-Killer’ and let’s see if you can finish what you started.”
Nicholas immediately charged and swung the Shaska in an arcing overhead strike that would cleave Alexei’s head vertically if it connected. Alexei twirled his knife around so that the dull side of the blade lay flush against his forearm, which gave him the added leverage he would need absorb the force of the strike as he blocked and deflected his uncle’s attack with the larger weapon. Sparks flew as the Shashka connected with Alexei’s knife, but Alexei was unable to take advantage after Nicholas’ powerful strike and had to go on the defensive a Nicholas followed through and used the momentum to immediately launch another slash at Alexei.
Forced to shift and pivot with each subsequent blow, Alexei could feel the unbelievable strength that the seven-foot Nicholas put behind each strike. He was completely on the defensive and desperately looked for a way to off balance his uncle in order to get inside his the larger man’s sword range.
Alexei feigned a lunge to the right and tried to come in low, but Nicholas countered the maneuver as he shifted his weight onto his back foot and delivered a horizontal slash at Alexei’s knees. Alexei was able to jump over the strike but, being in mid-air, he wasn’t able to shift his body position around enough to avoid a follow-up thrust that missed piercing his side by millimeters. The edge of the Shaska did manage to score the flesh covering his ribs and the skin parted as the blade sliced cleanly through.
Alexei winced with the pain but kept his attention focused on his uncle’s psotion and realized that the last thrust had overextended the giant’s balance. Alexei flipped the knife around so that the blade was now forward in his hand as if it were a sword and attacked with a thrust of his arm in an upward arc so that the point initially traveled toward Nicholas’ face before dipping back down and threatening his lower abdomen. Nicholas read the move and managed to avoid the lethal stab into his abdomen or pelvis but could not pull his forward leg back in time to avoid the knife plunging into the meaty part of his thigh.
Nicholas howled with the pain and, with one huge hand, grabbed Alexei’s wrist before his could pull his blade free. Before Alexei could realize what was happening Nicholas pulled Alexei’s wrist upward with a violent wrenching motion and Alexei’s knife came out of Nicholas’ thigh with a quick splash of blood. Alexei found himself off the ground, held dangling from Nicholas grip by his right wrist. Nicholas swung his right arm back in order to get his Shaska in position to run Alexei through, but with his left hand Alexei clawed at Nicholas’s eyes, which caused the larger man to abandon his attack and drop Alexei. As soon as Alexei’s feet touched the floor, he spun and launched a kick into his uncle’s solar plexus with enough force to cripple a normal man. Instead of crumbling, the big man only grunted and bent over slightly from the tremendous impact, then the Shaska was again swinging toward Alexei.
When Alexei bolted back to extend the distance between the two of them, Nicholas held his position.
Nicholas looked at the sword, which was slightly wet with Alexei’s blood from the slash that had connected along the ribs. Carefully he wiped one finger down its length until a large drop of Alexei’s blood accumulated on his fingertip.
Alexei watched as his uncle ran the blood between his thumb and index finger and said mockingly, “Not the first time your family’s blood was on my hands, is it Alexei?”
Alexei didn’t answer and thrust his knife at Nicholas’ chest in a wild and unrefined strike. Nicholas parried his attack and countered with one of his own. Alexei was too overextended to dodge or block the strike with his knife, so he was forced to deflect this strike with his bare hand, which he managed without losing his hand or fingers, although his the back of his left wrist was still lacerated.
Nicholas shifted his weight and, with his free hand, punched Alexei in the eye. Alexei could feel his head rock backward from the impact and he let his body go limp as he collapsed on the floor of the warehouse. Nicholas didn’t relent and tried to finish Alexei where he lay on the ground, but Alexei rolled with the fall and had already regained his feet and the two collided with Alexei grabbing Nicholas’s wrist and twisting it so the Shaska pointed out of harm’s way. Nicholas must have had a similar idea because Alexei felt his uncle’s iron grip synch around
his right wrist again..
“You can’t stay out of my range forever boy. The longer this goes on, the greater my advantage!” Nicholas said triumphantly as the two wrenched on each other’s arms trying to simultaneously free themselves while also trying to shift into an advantageous position for the strike that would follow.
Then Nicholas, using his incredible strength pulled his sword arm free and reared the sword back, “So it ends!”
Alexei could see the angle that the sword was about to travel and realized the mistake.
“No we won’t uncle,” Alexei growled, “you shouldn’t have let go of my wrist, I just killed you.”
Nicholas hesitated for the merest moment at those words and Alexei flicked his knife out of the hand that Nicholas was holding and flipped it into the air toward his waiting free hand. The knife tumbled sideways in the air before slapping soundly into Alexei’s palm, which shot forward and plunged the blade to the hilt into his uncle’s abdomen and out the other side. Nicholas eyes went wide with shock and pain as he bent over at the waist and fell too his knees in response to the knife entering his body.
Alexei leaned in for added leverage as he twisted the blade in his uncle’s guts, shooting pain through Nicholas, who dropped the Shaska as his arms went limp and fell to his sides. The sword hit the concrete floor with a “clang” as Alexei’s felt the wet warmth of his uncle’s blood cover his hand and run over his forearm as he held his uncle’s mass in that kneeling position. Without removing the blade, Alexei stepped back and looked down on his uncle as Nicholas used the last of his strength to raise his head and spread an ironic smile at his nephew. Alexei didn’t wait for any words that might have come and he wrenched the knife to one side with all his strength, cutting through his uncle’s abdomen in a horizontal line until the knife burst out in a fountain of blood and gore. The nerves in Nicholas’ body fired sending his form into a spasmodic tremor at the sheer enormity of damage caused by the wound and the giant immediately collapsed on the floor. Alexei looked down, ready to continue the battle, but his uncle’s body seemed to deflate as more gore forced itself from his abdomen.
It was over. Alexei knew that no one, not even an ancient vampire could come back from so grevious a wound. Alexei slowly bent down and picked up his father’s Shashka from where it had fallen and noticed clear droplets falling into the blood that was accumulating on the floor. At first he thought they were beads of sweat falling from his brow, but it was only a matter of moments before Alexei realized he was crying.
Chapter 39
Chris squeezed off the last round of his rifle and watched through the scope as the target's head whipped back from the projectile's impact, and fell to lie alongside the many others strewn around the ground.
Chris could see that Alpha was still doing his impression of a human wood-chipper on the collected mass of Dimitri's people, but the sheer numbers had begun to take its toll and he was losing ground. It was really an amazing sight to see how many of Dimitri's people had been within the confines of the various buildings, especially given how abandoned the entire area had looked, before Steve had set them all into motion with that first shotgun blast.
Out of bullets for the rifle and doing little good where he sat, Chris collected his side arms, as well as a hand full of extra loaded magazines, and was about to make a run for Alpha, when the forest came alive behind him. Figures wearing an unusual black camouflage pattern came toward him from where they had been hiding deeper in the woods. Chris was about let out a cry of shock, when a familiar voice shouted, “Now!”
The soldiers, armed with strange and somewhat antiquated looking rifles, ran past Chris and broke through the tree line. They then began forming into a line on the far side of the forest and started firing into the crowd of Dimitri's people. Dozens of bodies figures fell over but, despite the number of successful shots fired, the sheer mass of Dimitri’s people made it seem as though the effect was mininmal at best in turning odds around.
Chris watched as the people attacking Alpha had their attention shift, and over a hundred sets of eyes turned toward the tree line and charged forward. The sheer mass of humanity that was coming at him was surreal and seemed overwhelming, but the familiar voice called out once more, “Here they come! Pick your targets and prepare to engage at close range!”
Several more rounds of gunfire exploded all around him and more bodies dropped as the mass came closer and closer before someone grabbed Chris' shoulder, causing him to let out a small yelp as he was tugged to his feet.
“You?!” Chris blurted out once he realized who he was looking at. Major Robert Larson smiled an ironic smile as he turned back to the still approaching mass of Dimitri's people, “Had to go loud, didn't you?”
“Wasn't the plan,” Chris said weakly while desperately wanting to ask what, where, when and the how and why of Larson's appearance, but realized that none of the answers mattered, nor did he care.
“So what do we do now?” Chris asked.
Larson pulled out a pair of guns from holsters at his side as he shook his head, “I would have preferred to do this from a distance, with plenty of cover, but...”
Chris got the idea and he lifted his own guns up and clicked the barrels together, “Say the word.”
Larson looked uneasily at Chris, “I don't suppose I could convince you to stay here?”
Chris' face dropped as if he was embarrassed, “Oh! Oh, sorry...”
Larson frowned, “Really?”
Chris smiled, “No,” and he burst from the tree-line at a full sprint, guns raised as he ran toward the oncoming throng in the general direction where he thought Alpha was still fighting.
“Bring that shit to me!!!” Chris screamed as he fired with both weapons and bodies jerked and fell from the impact of the shots.
Chris could hear Larson screaming, “Shit! Cover him! Cover him!” as more bodies fell in front of him, cut down by the soldiers taking out Dimitri's people who were in his path before he could reach them. Suddenly, he was in the pack, shooting at any emaciated head that turned and locked onto him, as he continued to run through them. Surprisingly, most seemed to ignore him, their concentration focused on the soldiers behind him, or even still on Alpha in front of him, but enough of them had registered his presence that he had already expended the clips in the guns and had to reload.
At the push of a button the spent magazines dropped from his handguns and Chris quickly replaced them with fresh clips, when a cry went up by the tree line. It was a collective battle cry from the soldiers on the hill as they charged into the mass and met it head on. The sheer immensity of what was happening was almost more than Chris could take in, even if he had the time to comprehend it, which he didn't, as he had to shoot three more of Dimitri's people that suddenly seemed to realize he was kneeling amongst them. Everything was chaos now as black clad vampire collided with black camouflaged soldier, with the occasional sound of gunfire and the variety of screams, grunts and shouts adding a cumulative disorientation to the melee, which was threatening to overwhelm the thinking part of Chris' brain.
Forcing himself to not think, Chris took in a quick breath, set his feet and resumed his charge toward the last place he had seen Alpha. He gunned down more of Dimitri's people and didn't stop, even when the slides of his guns once again remained back and open, spent of their ammunition. The guns became blunt instruments within the close quarters where Chris now fought, and he pushed through the crowd until, almost as if he had crested a horizon, Alpha appeared in front of him. Strangely, his arrival had surprised both Alpha and his opponents because, for the first time since the fight began, the mass around Alpha seemed to hesitate.
Alpha was battered and bleeding from what looked like fingernail scratches that had dug deep channels into his face arms and legs. His clothes were tattered, but none of the marble white skin underneath appeared damaged as Alpha held his knives out in front of him, pale blood dripping down the blades, over his hands and halfway down his forearms.
Alpha chuckled, “We need to separate the group. Is that Larson up there?”
Chris' head swam, “I am going to assume for the time being that you just made an extremely good guess, but yes, Larson and a bunch of soldiers that seem to be following his orders.”
Alpha nodded understanding, then yelled, “Reload!”
Alpha shot forward and began slicing the air with his blades. Chris dropped the clips and wriggled additional magazines from his pockets into the guns when Alpha ran past him yelling, “Shoot a path to the last warehouse Steve ran for, we can make a stand there!”
Chris surged forward, firing into the crowd and clearing a path, which Alpha widened, as they ran. Shouting as they went, Chris yelled, “We're going to be out of line of sight from Larson's people if we do this!”
“Yes! I know!” Alpha called back as he broke through the crowd and sprinted for the far side of the warehouse and the ruined roll-up door.
Chris shot the last of Dimitri's people standing between Alpha and him, grumbling, “Oh well, as long as you're aware of the situation.”
Chapter 40
Have you ever had a dream, where you think you woke up but you can't get your body to respond? Or maybe one where you sort of wake up, but your head is so confused with whether you are still dreaming or just awake that you become completely and totally disorientated, having no idea what you are supposed to do? Or maybe there was a particular morning where you woke up, but were still so tired that you couldn't keep your eyes open, no matter how hard you tried to rouse yourself from sleep.
Well combine all three of those scenarios, and that was what I was feeling as my eyes fluttered in my attempt to stay conscious. All I could think was, “Sleep, bad. Eyes open...”
Rasputin's Prodigy Page 33