A Shade of Kiev

by Bella Forrest

  Her smile was broad as she took a seat at my table. It paled slightly when I didn’t return it.

  “Long ago, this island was founded by a group of outcasts,” she said, “or pirates as many call themselves. The group consisted of seven werewolves, ten vampires and two ogres, if memory serves me correctly. They’d finally grown tired of roaming the seas and wanted a base. They invited others to join them, and over the years, The Tavern has evolved to be a place of shelter for all kinds.”

  “Yet many don’t live here full time?”

  She nodded. “That’s correct. Many enjoy the sea life. As for myself, I wouldn’t be able to stand living on a boat and having nowhere to call my own.”

  “And who is Elizabeth exactly?” I asked.

  “She’s a relative of one of the original founders. As am I. Elizabeth and I are sisters, you see. We’ve helped run this place for years—”

  “And why do people say it’s so safe here?” I interrupted. “The wall is impressive, but I doubt it’d last five minutes if subjected to any real attack. What makes you think you’re safe?”

  “Well, because most of us are outcasts. We’ve already been rejected by other realms. We’re not wanted. Of course, there are some who truly are rebels or escapees and left voluntarily, but for the most part, we’ve all been rejected for one reason or another. The other realms have little interest in what happens to us or what we get up to.”

  This was interesting to me. Mona had never described the situation like this; she had always spoken of herself as a rebel, a wanderer by choice. But now that I knew this, her having no magic and being a wanderer made perfect sense. Perhaps that was why she had been so upset with me when I’d questioned about why she wasn’t better off living in The Sanctuary.

  “But humans… surely they’re of interest to the Elders?”

  Michelle shook her head. “There aren’t many humans here. And even those few who are here aren’t of interest to any realm. They’re contaminated.”

  “What do you mean, contamina—”

  “They’re either sick or there’s something physically wrong with them that renders them useless.”

  I stared at Michelle. “And what about someone like me? Or Mona? Escapees.”

  “If the hawks wanted you, there’s no reason they wouldn’t come looking for you. It does happen. But Aviary is so wrapped up with Cruor, I honestly doubt they’d waste time looking for you.” She paused and raised a brow at me. “Unless you really are that valuable to them.”

  Before I could say anything more, the front door swung open. Elizabeth walked toward us. She wore the same long dress with a white apron wrapped around her waist. Her grey-streaked hair was pulled tightly back in a bun. She nodded in my direction. Michelle left the table, and Elizabeth sat in her place.

  “Good to see you up early, Kiev.” She opened her book and ran a finger down one of the pages, mumbling to herself. “Aha, we do have a space there today. Good.”

  She shut the book and looked up at me.

  “So, anyone wishing to stay at The Tavern for more than one week must contribute a minimum of five hours of work per day. Which isn’t much when you think of what you get in return: protection that the Tavern offers, free board and lodging…”

  I nodded.

  “Given that you’re a vampire,” she continued, “you’re obviously limited in the hours of day that you can work outside. So we’ll allot you work accordingly. For example, this evening, I’m planning to send you for work on a new construction at the far end of the island. We’re building some new housing to accommodate the influx of new vampires who’ve arrived here recently. I’ll have someone come for you after sunset, so make sure you’re around. They’ll bring you to the building site and give you instructions as to your task.”

  I nodded again.

  “After work, I’ll have someone take you to your new accommodation in the vampires’ quarter.” She jotted something down in her book and then continued, “Next, as for important rules you must abide by if you are to avoid trouble—”

  She was interrupted by a loud knock on the tavern front door. Elizabeth twisted in her chair to face the bar.

  “Michelle!” she called.

  Michelle had disappeared. Elizabeth sighed and walked toward the direction of the front door.

  “We don’t open until just before lunch! You know that,” she called through the glass to whoever was knocking.

  The knocking turned into banging. The door swung open and Elizabeth protested, “What are you doing, Jack? I told you, we’re closed!” I strained my neck to see who it was but a pillar was obstructing my view.

  “Which room is Kiev Novalic staying in?” a deep male voice asked.

  I nearly choked on my drink.

  “A tall vampire. Red eyes,” he continued. “I know he arrived last night. Michelle said—”

  “Yes, why do you want him? He’s sitting over there.”

  I stood up. A man wearing a long dark cloak ran toward me. A human. I stood frozen to the spot, trying to place his face. But I couldn’t; I had no idea who this man was or how he knew me. I extended my claws in anticipation. Arriving at the table, he slammed his fist down, leaving behind a rusting metal pendant.

  “Do you recognize this, vampire?” His light blue eyes blazed into mine.

  I recognized it immediately.

  “I won’t blame you if you don’t,” he scoffed. “You’ve likely murdered hundreds of innocents in the past few years.”

  He withdrew a sharp wooden stake from his cloak. Elizabeth gasped behind me.

  “This pendant was my mother’s,” he shouted. “You murdered her five years ago.”

  It wouldn’t have been difficult to overpower him, to knock the stake from his hands and send him crashing to the ground. Hell, even ripping his heart out would have been a trivial effort for me. But as I stood there looking at this human, I didn’t want to hurt him. Because I had killed his mother. I deserved every bit of anger he was showing me.

  I just wished he would put down his stake, because watching him brandish it at me was beginning to trigger an urge to punish him for his insolence.

  “You are mistaken,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. “I never touched your mother.”

  “Don’t lie to me,” he snarled. “I’d recognize your face a mile away… the face of a cold-blooded killer… Do you remember the night you stormed our village?”

  As he lifted the pendant inches away from my face, images of that bloody night flooded back. And then it happened. I lost control over my actions. It was as if I’d regressed to the same state I was in that horrific night, despite a part of me begging myself to stop.

  I lunged at the human, knocking the wood from his hands and pinning him against the floor. I dug my claws deep into the sides of his neck until he screamed. He tried with all his might to throw me off, but he was helpless as a worm.

  “How dare you,” I hissed.

  I was about to rip my fangs through his throat when two sharp thuds hit the base of my neck, sending spasms of pain down my spine. I turned in time to see two large ogres, iron clubs raised in the air, stained with blood.

  My blood.

  Chapter 11: Mona

  I shuddered to think what might have happened had I arrived at The Tavern even a day later. It was my good luck that I’d met Saira in the pub that night and she’d warned me of our captain’s plans. She’d said he wanted everyone on board the ship early the next day. We were to set sail in the evening, but there was preparation to be done.

  She’d asked me dozens of questions about my time away, but to my annoyance, most of them had been centered around Kiev. She seemed to be determined to convince herself that I was secretly in love with him.

  I’d only managed to sleep a few hours before I had to wake and make my way to our ship. But those hours in that clean soft bed, all alone, without the worry of devilish eyes watching me, had been heaven.

  I was so relieved to be finally rid of the
vampire, I didn’t say goodbye. I couldn’t deny the slight tinge of guilt I felt over it. Even in spite of everything, if it hadn’t been for him carrying me on his back to the boat, I likely wouldn’t have escaped Aviary.

  But it wasn’t difficult to brush thoughts of him away. What he had done was for his own survival, not mine. He had needed me and my boat. He hadn’t done anything generous that made me owe him my thanks or farewell.

  The only personal belongings I had were already strapped to my belt, so there was no packing to do. I left the room and walked down to the beach. I bathed in the sea before pulling on some clean clothes Michelle had given me.

  Then I rounded up Evie and Kai, fastened them to my little boat and navigated it to where Saira had told me the main ship was anchored. I soon caught sight of it towering overhead. The ship was as I had remembered it and looked quite unscarred—Saira had told me that they’d left The Cove just in time before the hawks took over. It was made of dark brown wood, and at its stern and helm were carvings of dolphins. The sails were made of a deep orange fabric. Leyla, we called it—in memorial of the first dolphin that had ever served us.

  In front of the stern, a group of two dozen dolphins were already gathering. Henry, one of our werewolf crew members, organized them into harnesses. Abandoning my boat, I led my own dolphins over to join the rest.

  “Thanks, Mona,” Henry called to me. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

  I nodded and walked to the entrance of the boat. Members of the crew were already milling about, preparing everything for departure.

  I headed straight to my room on the lowest level of the ship, avoiding speaking to anyone on the way. I arrived to find the door of my cabin slightly ajar. The captain sat on my cot. He encouraged me to call him by his first name, but most of the time I preferred to keep things formal—as I did with everyone—and addressed him as ‘captain,’ or Captain Matteo.

  A smile spread across his handsome face as I entered.

  “Saira told me you’d be joining us again,” he said. “I’m very glad you’re all right, Mona.”

  He placed a hand on my shoulder and squeezed it. I inched away, feeling uncomfortable. He knew I didn’t like being touched, but I guessed his relief to see me safe again had made him forget that request of mine.

  I smiled back faintly.

  “Yes, I’m fine.”

  “How did you escape? Saira didn’t tell me much…”

  I really wasn’t in the mood for recounting that wild escapade now. I just wanted to put it behind me and forget about it. But he would keep asking until I’d told him, so I gave him the briefest recap I could of what had happened.

  “You were exceedingly lucky to have met that vampire,” he said. “Kiev, you said his name was? Now, that’s a funny coincidence! I met him on a walk along the beach just last night. Seemed to be an amiable fellow.”

  Eager to change the subject, I asked, “So how have things been with you? What happened? Saira filled me in on some things already. She told me you had to leave The Cove because of the hawks, but I didn’t have much time to talk to her last night.”

  “Yes,” he said, sighing. “They came suddenly and we had to act fast. You understand why we couldn’t wait for your return.”

  “Of course,” I said. “So what’s the plan now?”

  “We head back to our island,” he replied. “And start planning our next attempt at getting our hands on a witch.”

  “What?” Heat rose in my body. “You can’t seriously still be considering trying to storm The Sanct—”

  “No, no. Not The Sanctuary,” he said. I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Sorry, I forgot,” he continued. “This is a development that happened while you were still in Aviary. The vampires of The Black Bell have three witches captive on their island. Each of them can wield magic.”

  I winced. I hardly needed that last piece of information; I’d never heard of any powerless witch other than myself.

  I didn’t need to ask him why he wanted the witches. It’d been a subject of discussion ever since we’d formed our crew. We suffered every day on our island not having adequate protection, constantly at risk of other pirates trying to plunder our resources. We’d had to build a large wall around the island, but even then, we needed guards to keep us safe. We could never all leave the island at once; even now, only half of us were on board the ship. The situation was distressing, especially for the vampires of our group, who were forced to live in underground tunnels during the daylight hours. The werewolves were lucky in that respect; they could be exposed to daylight at all hours, and at night, they’d have their transformation.

  It was unfortunate that The Tavern had never been an option for us to make our home. Individuals were allowed to live there, but never groups as large as ours.

  “But The Black Bell,” I said, “You can’t seriously be considering taking on that ship? Those vampires… It would be disastrous. They’d rip you all to shreds.”

  This entire subject was a painful reminder of my uselessness. I had no magic to help them when they needed it most.

  “I agree,” the captain said, nodding his head. “But you can understand why it’s hard for us to just sit still knowing that The Black Bell contains three witches who would change our lives immeasurably. We only need one witch.”

  “How do you even plan to do this without getting yourselves killed?”

  “We don’t know yet.” The captain rubbed his forehead. “We know they have an island, and the witches have cast upon it a protective spell of eternal night. I’m still discussing it with Saira and the others. I just thought you ought to know.”

  His face relaxed as he saw the look on my face. “Look, don’t worry about this now. You’ve been through enough trauma. I’m sure you’re still recovering and want time to yourself. We probably won’t attempt to do anything for a few months anyway.” He stood up and motioned to leave the room. “Oh, but speaking of news, our cook has been really honing his skills recently. He makes a marvellous seaweed dish. There’s some left over from breakfast. If you head over to the kitchen I’m sure he’ll be happy to oblige…”

  “Thanks,” I muttered, and Matteo left the room.

  Now that he’d mentioned food, I couldn’t deny that I was hungry. It had been too long since I’d eaten a cooked meal. I unstrapped my belt and placed it on my dressing table. I left my cabin and headed toward the kitchen.

  I almost collided with Saira as she came dashing down the corridor.

  “Mona,” she panted. “Are you sure that vampire wasn’t a friend?” In her human form, she was a short plump woman with bushy brown hair. Her grey eyes looked down at me with concern.

  “Uh, yes,” I said, looking at her with annoyance. Being old enough to be my mother, Saira would often try to look out for me as one. I knew she meant well, but I wished she would just leave me alone. There was a reason newcomers called her “Mother Wolf.” She’d lost her only daughter and seemed to overcompensate by lavishing attention on others, regardless of whether or not it was wanted.

  “All right,” she said. “So then it won’t mean anything to you that he’s in the town square now about to be executed? Just thought you ought to know…”

  Chapter 12: Kiev

  Barely a month had passed since I’d met Natalie, and I was already wondering how I could have ever done without her in my life. I felt my chest tense up as she entered the moonlit meadow. God, she was beautiful. Sparkling eyes framed by perfectly arched brows. Thick dark hair flowing down to her thin waist. Soft red lips I craved every time I laid eyes on them.

  Everything about her lit me up and made me ache with want.

  She gave me a soft smile as our eyes met.

  “Good evening, Kiev. You’re on time, as always…”

  It delighted me when she held out her hand, allowing me to kiss it. Placing her arm through mine, I led her through the meadow. She bent down every now and then to scoop up clusters of bright orange marigolds. Once she’d collected a fist f
ull of them, she sat down in the grass.

  “Sit here with me,” she said, pointing to the space behind her.

  I sat with my legs either side of her, her back against my chest. She dropped the flowers on the ground beside me. I ran my fingers through her hair until I’d separated it into small sections. One marigold at a time, I braided all the flowers into her hair. She ran her hands along my upper legs absentmindedly as I worked. I didn’t let her get up until I’d finished. And once I had, she reached for my face and planted a tender kiss on my cheek.

  I wanted to stay and relish her lips against my skin. Perhaps even return the gesture. But, as if my legs were no longer my own, I shot up and began running away in the opposite direction.

  She called after me to stop.

  But I couldn’t.

  My legs ran closer and closer toward a crater that had opened up at the end of the meadow. I reached the edge and gazed down at molten lava.

  A wave of heat rushed up and burned my eyeballs.

  “No!” Natalie shouted from behind me. “You don’t have to do this, Kiev!”

  Charred black hands shot out of the liquid, beckoning me to take the final step. Pebbles crumbled where my feet were planted and dropped into the lava.

  It would be so easy to let myself fall. A few inches forward would be all it would take…

  When I came to, the first sensation that hit me was agony coursing through my body. I couldn’t open my eyes. They had deliberately placed me in direct contact with the sun. They had left nothing on me but a piece of cloth tied around my waist. I lay on my stomach on a hard wooden surface. I felt like a piece of meat being sizzled on a barbecue. I tried to move, but thick chains were attached to my ankles and wrists.

  “This is what we do to anyone,” a gruff voice said above me, “particularly newcomers, who think they can come here and act like they own the place.”

  A kick hit near my kidneys and I was sure that I was about to vomit. Rough hands gripped the back of my neck and pulled me to a standing position. My vision still a blur, I could just about make out crowds beneath me. I was standing on some kind of raised platform. I twisted my head to catch a glimpse of the person holding me. All I could make out was the outline of a large brown creature. An ogre. A soon as I turned to face him, he slapped my head back to position facing forward. Then I heard the sound of wood being sharpened behind me.