by Jasper Kent
She flung herself across the room, her hands stretched out in front of her. They clamped on to Nikolai’s wrist and her momentum twisted him over on to his back. The two of them struggled, but it took Susanna little time to rip Ascalon from his fingers. Meanwhile Aleksei had rolled away and was sitting up. His hands were touching his body, checking whether he’d been injured. Susanna shouted across the room at him.
‘Get out of here, you little shit. Go!’
Nikolai’s voice quavered. ‘Do as she says, Lyoshka. Go back to your room. I’ll come and find you later. And not a word to Mama, or your sisters. Promise now.’
The tsarevich stood up and went to the door, saying nothing.
‘Promise me!’ His father’s voice was raised, but still full of endearment.
The boy turned. ‘I promise.’ Then he was gone. Neither Susanna nor Nikolai moved from where they were, sitting beside one another against the wall.
‘There’s a simple way out of it, you know,’ I said.
‘And what’s that?’ asked Susanna.
‘Once you’ve stabbed His Majesty with that thing, once he’s become a vampire, then he can turn his son into one by the usual process.’
Nikolai looked up and into my face. A new sense of hope spread across him.
‘Would that be possible?’
‘You know it would. The boy would have to be willing, of course, but he seems like the sort who’d obey his father’s wishes – however unholy they might be.’
Nikolai turned his head away. His eyes fell on the spot where moments earlier his son had been lying defenceless. He shook his head and began speaking softly and rapidly. It was too quiet for me to make out the words, but it had the mood of a prayer.
Susanna got to her feet. As she did so, she drew breath sharply through her teeth and both hands went to the bulge in her stomach. She shuffled painfully across the room to a chair and sat down, breathing heavily. She still held Ascalon in her hand.
‘Are you all right?’ I asked.
‘It comes and goes.’
‘The baby?’
‘Your baby.’
I shrugged. I couldn’t deny it, but neither could I see any relevance in the fact. It might have been my child, but it was her problem. That didn’t mean I wasn’t curious about the scientific processes involved. ‘It’s been there, just the same? Since the day you died?’
‘It’s always there. Never growing, never changing.’
‘I’m surprised you haven’t got rid of it.’
She let out a short, angry laugh. ‘You think I didn’t try? In 1809 I’d had enough. Oh, it didn’t hurt then, but it showed, and that was causing me problems. I’m sure you can guess the easiest way for a girl like me to lure humans to a quiet place where she can feed. But men prefer a virgin, and being pregnant is about the best proof you could have that I’m not.
‘I was in London, and I wasn’t the only girl in town in the same predicament. I went to see a woman. Everyone told me that I was as likely to die as the child, but I knew that wasn’t going to be a problem – she wasn’t going to use a wooden stake to get rid of it.’ She paused, lost in the memory. ‘It was metal: a long, thin blade – flexible. She poked it around inside me, and she seemed pretty confident that she’d killed it. She said it would come out in a day or so.’
There was passion in Susanna’s voice, but it was the wrong kind of passion. She spoke as though complaining, as though describing bad service she had received in a shop. There was no hint of pity, not for the child. What did I expect? She was a voordalak. What was more concerning was my own sense that she should display some more womanly reaction. Was I deceiving myself to pretend I cared so little about my offspring?
‘Of course, it didn’t come out,’ she continued. ‘Why should it? It’s a vampire, like me. I was in no danger and neither was it. Whatever damage she did to it, it healed as quickly as I would have. I knew I’d just have to live with it. I should have lived with it – should have left it at that.
‘But a few years later I was in Paris – this was just before Waterloo. I heard of a doctor there with a different, more specialized technique. He didn’t try to kill the foetus, but he had the skill to cut the birth cord, to starve the unborn child of blood and to let it die in the womb.
‘That sounded as though it might work. You can’t kill a vampire by starving it, but you can weaken it, send it into a state of dormancy which is as good as death. And once it was like that, perhaps my body would reject it – perhaps I’d be able to do something to drag it out.’
‘You could have had it cut out,’ I suggested. ‘A caesarean section.’
‘ “From his mother’s womb untimely ripped”? Don’t think I didn’t try that, but there’s this thing about vampires – we heal. I tried to hold it off, but it wasn’t possible, not with a cut like that. And the surgeon didn’t stick around long once he saw his work being so neatly stitched up by an invisible hand. I asked other vampires to try, but they wouldn’t lay a finger on me, not once they knew what it was for.’
‘So you went to this doctor in Paris?’
She nodded. ‘He used a similar blade to the one the woman had in London – just as long, but with an edge rather than a point. He was very quick and dextrous, told me it was all done in seconds. He enjoyed his work, I could tell – not the fact that he was helping girls who were desperate, nor even because of the money. He just liked having the chance to look, to touch, to—I was his last patient, and his was the first blood to flow into my body without my having to share it with that thing inside me. I knew it had worked almost straight away. I felt stronger, no longer having to provide support for the leech that nestled in my belly.
‘But he – I imagine it as he, if I think of it as a creature at all – he’s a resourceful child. I don’t know if he gets it from his mother or his father. Probably a bit of both. We’re both survivors, aren’t we, Richard?’
She looked at me as if expecting an answer, but I gave none.
‘It was two days later I first felt the pain – the same pain I felt just now, that I’ve felt at least once or twice every day since. The thing needed blood, and it wasn’t getting it through the birth cord, so it decided to get it the way a vampire normally does: with its teeth. It bit me; bit the inside of my womb and drank the blood from me. You wouldn’t think it even had teeth at that age, but with a voordalak, who knows? It can’t drink for long because I heal, so it just moves to a new place and tries again. He doesn’t need much – he’s not big, is he? He only wants what’s rightfully his, what we used to share when my blood flowed into him. I should have left it at that.’
I glanced over at Nikolai. He was hanging on her every word. His face was sallow – sickened – but his lips had a curl of triumph to them. ‘It’s taking revenge for what you tried to do to it,’ he said.
‘No. It has no mind; no desires. It just reacts like an animal. It senses blood. It needs blood. It takes blood. And we’re the same, except for the thin cloak of intelligence we wrap around ourselves to hide our embarrassment.’
She stood up, moving cautiously at first, testing to see whether the pain had gone, but with greater determination when she discovered it had. She held Ascalon in her open right hand, hefting it. ‘I’m not going to wait any longer. Let’s get this over with.’ She crossed the room in a few brisk paces and leaned forward to grab Nikolai by the front of his shirt. She lifted him up off his feet and slammed him against the wall. It was just the action that Iuda had recalled Andrei performing on Vadim, except that here there was no nail. Nikolai was shaken, but uninjured. Susanna let him drop on to his feet. She ran her thumb swiftly down the middle of his chest and the buttons of his shirt sprang away, revealing the curly greying hairs of his chest. She put her hand against it, feeling for his heart, and smiled when she found it.
She kept one finger against his skin, marking the point she had selected, then used the other hand to place Ascalon’s tip at precisely that location. She held it in place wi
th her left hand, and pulled back her right arm, preparing to slam against the blunt end of it with the heel of her hand and drive it home.
‘No!’
It wasn’t as if she were going to heed my shout, but it was sufficient to distract her for a moment, and that was time enough for me to run the width of the room and get beside them. She was standing too close to Nikolai for me to make any use of the stake in the way I’d intended. Instead I employed it simply as a bludgeon. I swung out and the weight of its shaft connected with the side of her head, producing a heavy, satisfying crack. It would undoubtedly have knocked a man unconscious, if not killed him. Even on Susanna it had some effect. She staggered across the room and slumped against the far wall. She stood with her back to it, her fingertips pressed against the wallpaper as though she needed it for support. She scanned the room blearily, unable to focus. I could see a smear of blood close to her temple, but whatever damage I had done would quickly be repaired.
Ascalon had fallen from her hand and rolled into the corner, equidistant from the two of us. I ran to get it. Still she didn’t seem alert enough to react. I reached down and picked it up. If I could just get away now and find a place of safety, then that would be enough for the moment. I turned and headed back for the double doors. From the corner of my eye I could see that Susanna was already regaining her senses. I broke into a run. I stopped for only a moment to open the door, but it was long enough.
I felt her leap on to my back; her forearm was across my neck and her legs were around my waist. With her free hand she tugged at my hair, pulling my head to one side and exposing my neck. I could not see her face, but I could well imagine what she planned next. I could only run backwards, hoping to slam her against the wall behind me and shake her off. But I’d miscalculated. Instead of hitting the wall we smashed into the window. The wide ledge caught me at the back of the knees just before we hit the glass and I fell, whipping her body against the window panes. I heard the glass shatter and felt her grip loosen. I’d managed to keep hold of both my possessions: Ascalon and the stake. I rammed the blunt end of the stake into where I guessed her stomach to be and heard a grunt of pain. Her arms fell away and I was able to take a step forward.
I twisted to look back at her. Her head was out on the balcony. Her torso was pierced by shards of the broken window, but none of it would do her any harm. Her head was lower than her legs and she was squirming to get up, like an upturned woodlouse. I swung round to leave again, as fast as I could run.
‘Look out!’ The cry could only have come from Nikolai.
I turned to see what was happening. Perhaps that was a mistake. This time the force of her charge was enough to knock me on to my back. Ascalon flew from my hand and landed somewhere I could not see. Susanna crawled up my body, her mouth wide open, her fangs gleaming. I took the stake in both hands and raised it above my head, then brought it down hard on her face. I’d thought I had the blunt end aiming down, but I was mistaken.
The sharp point met her face on the bridge of her nose and was deflected to one side, so that it finally penetrated her skin just below her left eye. Her entire skull collapsed, splitting open on either side of the wound. I felt her blood – and more – splatter across my face, and tasted it in my mouth. The spike came to a halt somewhere in her neck. I knew it was not enough to kill her, but it would take her some seconds to recover, if not longer. I kicked out and her body rolled off me on to its back. Her hands went up to her face, searching for the weapon that she could not see. I wondered if I should pull it out and finish the job, but it seemed like too much of a risk. Already I could see that her face was healing. One eye blazed at me with wrathful indignation. If I removed the stake she would recover still more rapidly. And I knew that my main concern should be to get Ascalon as far away from her as possible.
I looked around the room, but could not see it. In my mind I tried to recreate the moment I had dropped it. I realized that it could only have gone out through the door. I followed and saw it there on the landing. I didn’t know how much time I had, so I merely kicked it down the staircase. It bounced off the carpeted steps and came to rest on the half-landing. I ran down after it, holding the banister for support, planning what I’d do next. I’d carry on down, beyond the half-landing, leaving Ascalon where it was. When I was a little way down the next flight, when it was at my level, I would reach out behind me and take it. That would be the quickest way.
I was beaten to it. Before I even reached the turning point in the stairs I saw a hand emerge from around the corner. Someone was climbing up the lower flight. The hand stretched forward and its long fingers curled around Ascalon, picking it up. The figure continued to ascend. I backed up the stairs, but I didn’t want to have to return to face Susanna. Finally the man turned the corner on to the half-landing and I could see his face.
It was Dmitry.
A wave of relief struck me. I ran down to him, but already I could feel the shortness of breath that was an inevitable result of such efforts. ‘Let’s go,’ I said.
He stood for a moment, oblivious to me, staring down at the shaft of wood that he held in his hand, as if unable to believe in its existence.
‘Dmitry!’ I hissed.
He looked at me. ‘Is she up there?’
‘Yes, and Nikolai, but, Dmitry, it’s too much of a risk. We have to get Ascalon away from her.’
‘Why?’
‘She thinks she can use it to bring back Zmyeevich.’
‘No,’ he said resolutely. ‘Let’s get this over and done with, once and for all.’
He strode past me and up the stairs. I still felt the urge to run, but he was right. They were both vampires, but pitted against each other it was unthinkable that Dmitry would not be able to defeat Susanna. And for what little it was worth, he had me on his side. And Nikolai, though I could not be sure he wouldn’t choose the gift of eternal life if it was offered again.
Dmitry was already several paces ahead of me when I followed him back into the room. Nikolai had scarcely moved, except that he had slumped to the floor and was sitting with his back against the wall. Susanna had recovered remarkably. The bloodstained stake had been thrown into a corner. The wound to her face was no longer open, though a livid scar ran down it, centred on the point that my blow had struck. Even as I looked, it was beginning to fade, but despite that, there was an unevenness to her face, an asymmetry, as though one side were a little lower than the other. It was like looking at a reflection in a cracked mirror. Perhaps that would heal too – or perhaps she would be like it always.
Dmitry surveyed the room, taking in Susanna, Nikolai and then me. Then he turned back to her. He raised his hand towards her then paused, as if reluctant to let go. But the hesitation didn’t last long. He gently tossed Ascalon across to her.
‘Get on with it,’ he said.
CHAPTER XXVII
I LAUGHED OUT loud. Dmitry’s apparent change of heart wasn’t in any way amusing, but Danilov’s sense of utter deflation as he realized that the creature in which he had placed such unquestioning trust was just as treacherous as every other voordalak he’d ever encountered was a delight to experience. Even so, I’d been just as taken in by Dmitry, and of the two of us I was the greater fool – I really should have known better. Dmitry, Susanna and Nikolai all looked at me. None of them seemed to share my amusement.
‘Oh, don’t be so bloody po-faced!’ I snapped, speaking chiefly to Dmitry. ‘You’ve been a master of deception. Take some pride in your genius.’
He managed a smile. ‘You’re Iuda now. That’s good.’
‘Good?’
‘That’s why you’re here. We’re not interested in Danilov.’
‘But you’re interested in me?’
‘There are two people in this room who despise you, Cain. Soon there’ll be three.’
I could count more than two already. I was sure Nikolai had no affection for me, and technically Danilov was in the room as well. But I understood what he meant. ‘The third
being Zmyeevich,’ I said. ‘Supposing your little trick with Ascalon comes off.’
Dmitry’s chest seemed to swell a little as I uttered the great vampire’s name. ‘That’s right,’ he said.
‘But why, Dmitry? You were in his thrall. You wanted to get away – to be free of him. And with his death, you are.’
He shook his head. ‘I was never free. All those years ago, you explained it to me. You said that if two voordalaki exchange blood with one another there comes a point where one of them – the weaker one – loses himself completely to the stronger. You thought I hadn’t yet reached that point, but you were wrong. I sailed to America, I lasted there for a decade, but eventually I had to return, had to find Zmyeevich and taste his blood once again. But by the time I got back to Europe, he was already dead. And you’re right, I was free of him, but it wasn’t a pleasant freedom. I went back to America bereaved. I’d lost all hope.’
‘And what about your love for Russia?’ I asked. ‘That epiphany you experienced as you watched The Rite of Spring?’
‘That was true enough. But once I’d come home, I soon realized that Russia could not rule itself. It needs a strong leader. Stronger by far than him.’ He nodded in Nikolai’s direction.
‘Someone like Zmyeevich?’ I said.
‘It never occurred to me until I met Susanna. I should thank you for introducing us.’
‘You’ve been working with her – from the start?’
He shook his head. ‘For me it began that night in the Church on Spilled Blood. I was as much a prisoner as you, but once I’d heard what she planned to do – once I’d heard that she believed she actually could – then I knew there was nothing I would do to stop her, even if I’d been free.’
‘He was as disappointed as I was when the ceremony failed,’ said Susanna, teasingly.
‘I was relieved!’ snapped Dmitry. ‘I knew that I couldn’t defy him, but fate had intervened on my side, so that I would not have to.’ He looked at me. ‘When you had Ascalon in your hands, I could have ripped it from them, but I managed to resist – and you were wise enough not to give it to me.’