Wilder Destiny

by G. K. DeRosa

  “Yeah, maybe later.” Celeste was amazed at how calm and collected her aunt was. She supposed she must have traveled a lot when she was living in Europe. “So flying doesn’t bother you at all?” she asked.

  “Nah, not anymore. When I was living in Warsaw, I flew to Moscow or St. Petersburg at least once a month to visit Maks,” she answered and then fell silent.

  Celeste could tell by the look on her aunt’s face that she was reliving those memories with Maks. She really hoped that they would be able to find him in just one week. There was so much riding on what happened in the next few days, it made Celeste nauseas. Okay, maybe it was also the airplane. If Maks confirmed that it had been Roman who killed and turned him, she wasn’t sure she could ever look at Roman the same way again. Having a vague knowledge that he had done bad things in the past and seeing firsthand evidence of that were two completely different things. All of these uncertainties floated through her head as she drifted to sleep, the motion sickness medication having finally kicked in.

  Celeste stumbled along a dark alley, the cold wind whipping at her unprotected face. She pulled the woolen scarf up over her chapped lips and tried to warm her nose by exhaling her own warm breath and blowing it upwards. The cobblestone road was slick and covered with a fresh blanket of snow. She stepped gingerly, hoping to avoid the black ice and a painful fall. Just ahead she could make out the outline of a large brick building. The narrow road was opening up into a square with a charming brick castle at the end. She recognized it from Aunt Maddie’s pictures. She was in the Old Town of Warsaw, but what was she doing here?

  Suddenly, she heard footsteps trudging in the snow. They were moving fast and it sounded like they were ahead of her. She quickened her pace and as she entered the lantern lit square, two figures raced by her. The first one was a tall man, his features too much of a blur to make out, but the second one she recognized without a doubt. It was her aunt.

  “Aunt Maddie! Wait!” she yelled as she took off after them. She ran as fast as she could through the desolate streets trying to keep up with the two dark figures ahead of her. She was losing them, the distance between them kept growing and in a desperate attempt to keep up, she quickened her pace without regard to the icy conditions. The street abruptly turned to a steep decline, and Celeste was going too fast to stop herself. Her foot shot out in front of her as she slipped on a patch of black ice and began tumbling downhill. She hit the hard cobblestones with an excruciating thud, and gave in to the blackness that drowned her vision.

  A roaring applause snapped Celeste back into consciousness. Startled, she looked around and realized she was still on the airplane, and apparently they had just landed in Warsaw. The thud must have been the sound of the wheels touching the ground, she reasoned hazily.

  “I can’t believe you slept the whole way,” said Aunt Maddie as she slipped her foot into a tall leather boot.

  Celeste looked at her with a bewildered expression on her face. It was all just a dream – or was it a vision? She ran her hands over her face and tangled hair attempting to make it presentable. “Yeah, I can’t believe I did either,” she replied groggily.

  “You better get your boots and coat on,” Maddie said as she glanced out the window at the newly fallen snow covering the runway, “it looks like it’s going to be pretty cold out there.”

  Walking through the ultra-modern Warsaw airport, Celeste couldn’t help but look around in amazement. The décor was basic with floor-to-ceiling glass windows, white walls and steel beams and matching aluminum chairs. She wasn’t sure exactly what she expected, but it wasn’t this. If anything, she had pictured a much more antiquated airport littered with Soviet-era remnants.

  “What do you think?” asked Aunt Maddie.

  “It’s much more modern than I expected,” she said, still scanning the area as they walked toward baggage claim.

  Once they collected their luggage and passed through immigration, they walked through a sliding door and entered into the main arrivals terminal. Standing before them as the door glided open, Celeste was greeted by a familiar smiling face and dark inquisitive eyes.

  “Marco?”

  “Ciao bella!” he replied and gave her a quick kiss on each cheek.

  “What are you doing here?” After the thrill of the flight, she had momentarily forgotten about her deal with Dante.

  “I was sent here by the Council. Apparently you need my help,” he said with his trademark irrepressible smile.

  Aunt Maddie cleared her throat and stepped forward.

  “Oh sorry,” said Celeste. “Marco, this is my aunt, Matilda Wilder.”

  “Piacere,” he said leaning in for a kiss, but Aunt Maddie quickly pulled back before he made contact. “I’ve heard so much about you,” he said coolly.

  “That’s funny because I’ve never heard of you,” she quipped. “Come on we can skip the introductions for now. We have to get into town. I have to meet my informant in an hour.” Maddie led the way, and the threesome boarded a bus to the center of Warsaw.

  The conversation on the bus ride was strained at best. Maddie’s responses to Marco were clipped as her mind was obviously elsewhere. Celeste wondered if there was any other reason for her brusqueness with him, or if he merely rubbed her the wrong way like he had when Celeste first met the attractive Italian guardian. She tried to play the mediator and engage them both in conversation, but her efforts were mostly disregarded. She finally gave up and settled back into her seat to enjoy the snow-blanketed scenery.

  The hotel that Maddie had secured was right in the center of town; just a few blocks away from Old Town, and a quick taxi ride to the train station in case they needed to move swiftly. She had agreed to meet her CI at a small bar around the corner from the hotel. It was a popular street with the young crowd, lined with bars and nightclubs, but it would be conveniently deserted on a Sunday morning.

  They decided on getting just one room for the three of them – safety in numbers had been the reasoning. As Aunt Maddie freshened up in the bathroom and Marco flipped through some Polish TV channels, Celeste shot a quick group text message to her mom, Stellan, and Roman. She had promised her mom she’d check in everyday, and checking in with Stellan had been a prerequisite to her coming so the group message seemed like the best option. Including Roman was a given. She knew he would be worried about her and wanted to keep him in the loop.

  “So when exactly do I get clued in on the mission?” asked Marco as he dropped the remote.

  Celeste looked around the room uncomfortably. She could hear the water running in the bathroom, meaning her aunt had to be in the shower. They had originally agreed upon divulging as little as possible to their guardian tag-along, but that was before she knew it was Marco. She trusted him, and he knew her aunt’s story anyway, so telling him seemed like a viable option.

  “Okay, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise not to judge. And don’t do that snarky thing you do around people you don’t know,” she said.

  “I have no idea what you are talking about,” he said with an arrogant smile. “I can’t help it if my superior humor goes above most people’s heads.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m talking about!”

  “Relax, Celeste Wilder. I promise I will be on my best behavior,” he retorted.

  She filled him in on the details of her aunt’s decision to go rogue, and everything that had led up to it. She left out Roman’s part in the story, referring only to the informant who had tipped her off on Maks’ location and incited the adventure.

  When she finished, he looked up at her with a teasing smile. “I just have one question for you.”

  “Okay.”

  “What are we going to do when we find this vampire? Generally the rules are fairly simple, but now…”

  “I know,” she said with a sigh. “I guess for now the mission is just to find and capture.”

  “Bene,” he responded. “Have you ever tried to capture a vampire before? It’s not going to be easy. And
I will tell you this – if it comes down to his life or mine or yours, he’s going to find a stake through his heart.”

  Celeste nodded. She knew he was right. Killing a vampire was hard enough, but bringing one in alive was going to be an even bigger challenge. She was suddenly very grateful that Marco was with them.

  The two-block walk to the bar was brutal. The wind was raging, showering them with frozen ice and frost. Celeste pulled the hoodie from her puffy white jacket up over her head. Before leaving the hotel, she had looked unhappily at herself in the mirror, her reflection reminding her of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. Now she couldn’t be more thankful for the well-insulated coat.

  Arriving at the dimly lit bar, Celeste made out a shadowy figure in the corner. The place was empty with the exception of the one bartender who was prepping his station for the night ahead. They followed Aunt Maddie to the table in the back where a teenage boy was sitting smoking a cigarette and sipping on a beer. He looked to be no more than eighteen with blonde scraggily hair that went to his shoulders. His eyes scanned the threesome suspiciously as they approached. His expression reminded Celeste of a skittish deer, ready to bolt at the slightest sign of a threat.

  “Who are they?” he hissed with a fairly discernible Polish accent.

  “They’re with me, don’t worry about them, Franek,” replied Aunt Maddie in a harsh voice that Celeste didn’t even recognize. Maddie sat down at the drab wooden table and motioned for the others to sit. “So where is he?”

  “Last I saw him, he was hanging with some vamps in Old Town. He’s been cruising his old haunts,” he said bitterly.

  “Did he see you?” she asked.

  “Oh yeah, he saw me. I made sure of that. I want to make sure he knows who betrayed him when you shove a stake through his black heart.”

  Celeste was taken aback by his words, and even more so by the hatred laced in his voice. She wondered what his connection to Maks was as the two continued their whispered conversation.

  After Maddie got some more specifics about Maks and his whereabouts, she stood up abruptly. “Thanks Franek, I owe you one,” she said.

  “How about a little nibble?” he asked with a smirk as his fangs shot out. Celeste almost jumped out of her seat, and Marco instantly pulled a stake out of his jacket. A vampire CI was not something she had expected.

  “Relax,” Aunt Maddie said to the two of them, taking the weapon out of Marco’s hand. “He’s only joking.”

  “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not,” he said with a sneer. “I have heard that guardian blood is like no other.”

  “Too bad you’ll never get to find out,” interjected Marco as he stood up, his tall shadow looming over him.

  “I said relax,” repeated Aunt Maddie as she slapped her hand across Marco’s chest and shot him a stern look. He took the stake back from her and shoved it into his jacket pocket. “Let’s go,” she said.

  Celeste led the way out of the bar with Marco close behind her. Aunt Maddie lingered behind for a few minutes whispering to Franek. Celeste was too freaked out to try and eavesdrop; she just wanted to get out of there. The three of them walked back to the hotel in silence as the blistering cold seeped through their warm layers.

  “I’ll be back in a little while,” said Maddie as they reached the entrance lobby.

  “Where are you going?” asked Celeste.

  “Something I need to do.”

  “You shouldn’t go alone, Aunt Maddie. That’s what I came for, to help and keep you company.” Celeste was worried about her aunt. She had been acting like a completely different person since their arrival.

  “Sorry kid, but this is something I need to do by myself. And anyway, it’s still light out – sort of,” she said as she looked up at the gray sky. “I’ll be fine.”

  Celeste looked to Marco, but he just shrugged his shoulders and turned toward the lobby entrance. She could feel the heated air from inside as he opened the door and looked back at her. “You coming?” he asked.

  She turned back to her aunt and saw she was already down the block. She sighed and followed Marco back to the beckoning warmth inside.

  ***

  Dani Lynn sat huddled on the front steps of the stately but timeworn mansion, rubbing her gloved hands together. Looking up, she could just barely make out the sun hidden behind always-gray clouds. She stared out sullenly into the vast never-ending snow covered fields all around her. It had been a few days since Alek had created the black onyx pendant that allowed her to walk in the day without the threat of bursting into flames, but the gloomy weather had not allowed her to take advantage of its benefits. “This is so not what I signed up for,” she grumbled to herself.

  Throwing open the front door, Dani searched the vacant house for Alek. She hadn’t seen him at all this morning, but she could still discern his scent somewhere in the home. Using only her nose as a guide, she began wandering around the monstrous estate. It had been over a week since he had brought her here, and still she wasn’t certain she had seen everything on the grounds. Turning the corner, Dani came to a thick metal door, which had been left slightly ajar. She peeked through the opening and her senses were assaulted by a musty odor filling the air, but intermingled with it was also Alek’s scent. She opened the door and descended down the steep stairwell, relying on her keen vampire eyesight to see through the darkness.

  After the long descent, Dani reached a stonewalled corridor lit by an occasional gas lantern. She followed the dimly lit path, which eventually ended at a massive oak door. She cautiously turned the handle, but it was locked. Putting her ear to the door, she could just make out a faint mumbling inside. Her curiosity getting the best of her, Dani yanked at the door with all her might. The wood began to splinter under the strain and she fell backward with the old brass handle still in her hand, leaving a gaping hole in the door.

  Through the hole, she could see Alek spin toward her, his face a mask of fury. He hauled the door open and shouted, “What the hell are you doing down here?”

  Dani’s voice was quivering as she responded. “Nothing, sorry, I was just looking for you. I’m so bored…” She picked herself up off the floor and glanced around the room, catching sight of the body on the altar. “What’s that?” she asked, her eyes shooting open.

  “That is none of your business, Dani,” he growled. But she shot past him, and tugged the cover off of the prone figure. She gasped when she recognized the face underneath.

  “This is the same woman that Fabian had months ago in the caves,” she murmured. “Who is she?”

  Alek remained silent for a moment, considering his next words carefully. “She’s my mother,” he finally blurted out.

  “What?” asked Dani. “Wow, Roman is way off on this one. He thinks you have his mother.”

  “I do. They are one in the same.”

  Celeste paced anxiously in the hotel room. It had been hours since Aunt Maddie had left, and darkness was beginning to set in. She pushed back the heavy navy curtain, and peered out the window into the busy streets of downtown Warsaw. Nothing.

  “Looking out that window every five minutes isn’t going to make her appear any quicker,” said Marco, stretching lazily on the bed. Celeste shot him a look. “What? I’m sorry, I’m not trying to make light of it, it’s just that you’re wearing a path on the rug from all that pacing.”

  “I think I’m going to go out there to look for her,” she said, grabbing her puffy jacket.

  “No,” said Marco, standing up to stop her. “You have no idea where she went. We’re in a strange city, and it’s like twenty degrees and snowing out. You remember what your aunt said about vampires coming out to hunt at this time. I’m not going to let you go out there and get yourself killed.”

  “Well I can’t just sit here,” she said. “We have to – ”

  Celeste was cut off by a sudden sound at the door. They both turned toward it and tensed, ready to spring into action. The door swung open and Aunt Maddie walked in, her no
se and cheeks rosy from the frigid air outside.

  “Thank God you’re okay,” said Celeste as she ran to her.

  “I’m fine,” she said as she dropped a black duffel bag on the floor. She brushed the snow off her coat and hung it on the rack.

  “Where have you been?” Celeste asked.

  “Yeah, you really shouldn’t be going off like that on your own,” Marco chimed in.

  “Relax, both of you. These are my old stomping grounds, and I needed to pick up a few supplies,” she said as she unzipped the duffel bag revealing three burner phones and a variety of demon hunting weapons. “And I needed to do some recon. I checked out some of the vampires’ favorite haunts, and it looks like they’re all the same ones from when I was around. I have a pretty good idea of where Maks will be tonight.”

  “Okay great,” said Marco. “So what’s the plan?”

  “Just follow my lead, eager young guardian.”

  “Great plan,” he said snidely, ignoring Celeste’s glare.

  “Be ready to leave in an hour,” Maddie said as she locked herself in the bathroom once again.

  After a warm bowl of zurek, a traditional Polish soup, and steaming hot pierogies from room service, Celeste felt much better. She zipped up her coat, placing a dagger in the interior pocket, slipped the woolen beanie on her head, and tucked a small blade into her boot. Her sword was in the duffle bag that Marco was carrying, as she couldn’t very well walk through the hotel lobby with a medieval sword swung over her shoulder. Aunt Maddie wore a turtleneck hiked up to her nose and a black beanie with her long brown hair tucked inside. It was imperative that Maks didn’t recognize her if they had any hope of capturing him.

  As they headed out into the blustering cold, Celeste was again thankful for her thickly padded jacket. She stuffed her gloved hands further into her pockets as they walked. The streets were mostly free of pedestrians as they made their way to Old Town. There were a handful of black Mercedes taxis parked in front of the luxurious Bristol Hotel next door to the Presidential Palace, but due to the traffic restriction in this part of town, there weren’t even cars on the road. As they approached the Royal Castle, Celeste remembered the dream she had on the plane. It had been so vivid that she still wondered if it hadn’t been a premonition. Aunt Maddie led them down a narrow cobblestoned side street, and Celeste and Marco followed close behind. After a few blocks, the street opened up into a small square of colorful late Renaissance style houses with a lovely bronzed zinc statue of a mermaid. In one of the dark corners of the square, a small group was huddled.