Polar (Book 1): Polar Night

by Julie Flanders

  Aleksei stood up and walked towards the window, where he gazed out at the falling snow. “Have you ever been in a rut, Detective?”

  Before Danny could answer, Aleksei continued.

  “I think you have. I know all about your past in Chicago. That messy business of your wife’s murder.”

  “How do you know about that?”

  “I told you before, I looked you up after you so rudely visited me and searched my home. I was curious about you. And, it wasn’t very hard to find all I needed to know about you.”

  “Alright, so you know about my wife. What does that have to do with any of this?”

  “I couldn’t help but relate to you.” Aleksei turned away from the window and stared back at Danny. “I think you and I are a great deal alike.”

  Danny scoffed. “You think wrong, asshole. I have absolutely nothing in common with you.”

  Aleksei seemed unfazed by the insult. “I think you’re the one who’s wrong. But regardless, I was going to kill you anyway. Until I realized that without your visit and your search, I never would have gotten out of the rut I had found myself in.”

  He walked back to Danny and towered over him, his height seemingly doubled by Danny’s position on the floor.

  “Since you know all about me, you know I’ve been around for quite a long time. And let me tell you, I’ve been in this rut for what feels like forever. Vainly trying to replace my Natasha, going from one pathetic woman to another…”

  Danny interrupted Aleksei’s musing. “So is that why you killed all those women? You were trying to replace some vampire bitch?”

  Aleksei’s face darkened as he crouched down to glare at Danny. “She wasn’t a bitch. And she wasn’t a vampire. I’ll warn you not to defile her memory again.”

  Danny swallowed hard. “Fair enough. But you didn’t answer my question. This Natasha. She’s why you killed all those women?”

  “I was trying to find a replacement for her, yes.”

  “Let me guess. Natasha was tall and slender, long blond hair…”

  Aleksei nodded. “The women had the right physical requirements. But that was where the resemblance ended. None of them were worth a damn.”

  “So where do I come into all this?”

  “You forced me to re-evaluate what I’d been doing here in Alaska. You caught me off guard. No one had ever violated my home here in such a manner. I knew it was only a matter of time before my cover here at Snow Creek was blown. And, I already knew my current replacement was a failure…”

  “Maria Treibel?” Danny asked.

  Aleksei waved his hand dismissively. “Yes, yes, her. She was a dismal failure and I finally realized that they would always be failures. I didn’t need a replacement for Natasha. I needed to let go of her and move on.”

  “So you kidnapped a teenager and killed her?”

  “I prefer to look at it as saving her. She can live forever now. Just like me.”

  Aleksei stood back up and walked back to the window. “Katerina is more than I ever could have dreamed. So like I said, I owe you. If you hadn’t figured out the connection between Maria Treibel and Anna Alexander and shook me out of my comfort zone here, I might never have realized that what I needed was a partner, not a replacement.”

  “What did you do with the bodies? Where did you bury Maria?”

  Aleksei grinned. “Can you imagine a more perfect place to bury bodies than the Arctic? Where else is so remote? So completely free of human interference? You and your colleagues could search until the end of time, and you’d never find those bodies. But, Maria, she’s a different story.”

  “How so?”

  “It’s funny, actually. When you came here the first time, Maria was very much alive. You just didn’t know where to look for her.”

  Danny could hear his heart beating in his chest. He tried to respond, but found he had no voice.

  “Have you ever heard of root cellars?” Aleksei asked. “I doubt there’s much use for them in Chicago, but here in Alaska they’re quite common. We can’t have basements here, you see. The permafrost makes it impossible. But root cellars are perfect. People used to use them for food storage. But there are all kinds of things you can store in them.”

  “You son of a bitch,” Danny said, his voice thick with rage.

  “You could have found her if you’d only looked hard enough.” Aleksei looked at Danny with mock concern. “It’s a shame, really. Your personal failures keep mounting up, don’t they? Too careless to save Maria. Too late to save Katie.”

  Danny felt his throat closing up.

  Aleksei returned to Danny and crouched down again. “I am curious. How did you figure out what I am? You people aren’t supposed to know creatures like me exist.”

  “I got lucky,” Danny said, reminding himself to keep Amanda’s involvement to himself. “I guess I don’t have any trouble believing in evil.”

  Aleksei smiled. “Well, like I said, I’m indebted to you. So you have my eternal gratitude. And when I say eternal, I actually mean it.”

  “Are you saying you really aren’t going to kill me?”

  “No, I’m not. Katerina and I are leaving Alaska and I’ll leave you here. If you manage to escape your predicament, more power to you.”

  “What’s to stop me from coming after you?”

  “Nothing. But you’ll never find me. My travel abilities are quite superior to yours. And, think about it. Who’s going to believe you about me? How will your colleagues react when you tell them about your very own interview with a vampire?”

  “I don’t care what they think. I’ll find you.”

  “But you have to find your way out of this room first, don’t you?” Aleksei smirked. “Give it your best shot.”

  He stood up and walked towards the doorway before turning back to Danny.

  “Did you ever see The Silence of the Lambs?”

  “Yes,” Danny said, thrown by the change of subject.

  “One of my favorite movies. Do you remember the ending?”

  “You mean when Lector goes after the psychiatrist?”

  “No, no, before that.”

  Danny shook his head. “I don’t know. Why the hell are you asking?”

  “Never mind. Katerina and I need to get going. We’ve got a whole world waiting for us. Goodbye, Detective.”

  Aleksei closed the door behind him, leaving Danny alone.

  Chapter 63

  Aleksei raced through the streets of Petrograd, certain Maksim was wrong about Natasha. Wrong, or purposely lying just to piss Aleksei off. See where that had gotten him.

  He came to the Summer Garden, and held onto the pillar of stone outside the gates before he went inside. Just as Maksim had said, dead bodies were everywhere. Crows and vultures picked their way through the corpses and rats braved the frigid air to nibble on fingers and toes. This was no place for the living. And no nurses were anywhere to be seen.

  Aleksei knew he could find Natasha now, as he knew her scent and he could sniff it out. Even here where the stench of death permeated every molecule of air. He walked through the bodies, refusing to admit that death was all he could smell.

  He saw a dark blue nurse’s cape out of the corner of his eye and froze in his tracks. He hardly dared to turn his head and see what he knew to be true. The cape was Natasha’s and her body lay crumpled beneath it.

  Aleksei collapsed beside Natasha and took her stiff, lifeless body into his arms. Her head still bore the imprint of a boot that had thoughtlessly stomped on it and her chest was caved in where the stampeding herd had crushed the breath out of her.

  “Natasha?” Aleksei grabbed her shoulders and shook as if willing the body back to life. “Natasha!”

  “I can save you,” he said. “You can come with me.”

  He opened his mouth and bared his fangs as he gently cradled Natasha’s head against his chest. He sank his fangs into her neck and quickly pulled back, spitting out the taste of death and decay.

  Ale
ksei leaned back on his heels and stared out at the sea of corpses rotting around him. He couldn’t save Natasha now; it was much too late for that. He was too late.

  He set her body gently back on the ground and kissed her cheek. He could feel the skin already beginning to decay and it repulsed him. This whole country repulsed him. He couldn’t tolerate a place that would kill something as beautiful and good as Natasha.

  He left the Summer Garden, straightening his shoulders and regaining his composure as he walked back to the street. Natasha was gone, but he could find her again. He just needed to leave Petrograd.

  He briefly wondered if he could find Greger and the others, but he knew he had no interest in traveling with anyone else. He’d always been better off on his own. He didn’t know where he was going but he knew he wasn’t coming back here. It was time to leave his homeland behind.

  Chapter 64

  Aleksei double-checked the guest room door, making sure the lock held tightly. Not that he thought Danny would manage to get out of his ropes any time soon, but it never hurt to be safe.

  He smiled at the thought of Danny struggling against the knots he had made and couldn’t help but wish he could stick around to watch. But there wasn’t time for that. He and Katerina needed to go.

  As if on cue, Katerina walked up behind him.

  “Are you ready, darling?” he asked.

  “I’m ready to get out of this dump if that’s what you mean.”

  Aleksei smiled. In the past, he would have been offended by the insult to his home, but now he felt the same way about the place. He couldn’t wait to leave it behind.

  “You know, I’ve always loved the New Year. It’s a huge holiday in Russia. We should go there and celebrate it properly.”

  “That’s where you’re from, right? Russia?”

  “Right, that’s where I’m from. St. Petersburg, to be exact.”

  Aleksei looked down at Katerina and playfully kissed her nose. “Let’s get going. It’s time for me to go home.”

  Chapter 65

  Lauren Cooper hurried into the Fairbanks police station and stomped the snow from her boots onto the carpet before she headed for the front desk.

  “I’m here to see Captain Jack Meyer,” she said. “Lauren Cooper, Seattle PD.”

  The receptionist nodded cordially and picked up the phone on her desk. Lauren shivered involuntarily as she removed her hat and shook the snow from her long brown hair. To think she had complained about Seattle rain. She’d never been as cold as she was now and couldn’t imagine how anyone lived in this climate.

  She turned at the sound of footsteps approaching and saw a large, beefy man with a red face heading towards her.

  “Detective Cooper,” he said, his hand extended. “I’m Jack Meyer.”

  Lauren shook the man’s huge hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “You just made it in time. We’ve finally got the all clear to get out of here and head up north.”

  Lauren shivered again at the mere thought of heading north and what she presumed would be worse snow and cold, but she forced herself to keep her game face intact.

  “Great,” she said. “Thanks for letting me come along.”

  “Not a problem. We all want the same thing here. I’m hoping we can get up there and return with your teenager.”

  Jack led Lauren into the office and towards a petite woman who was hurriedly getting into her parka and snow boots.

  “Tessa, this is Lauren Cooper. Detective, this is Detective Washington.”

  The two women shook hands and nodded a greeting.

  “Is everyone ready to go, Captain?” Tessa asked. “I can’t stand any more waiting.”

  Terry Yazzie walked in the office before Meyer had a chance to answer. “I’ve got the 4X4 warmed up and ready,” he said. “Michaels and Franklin are meeting us at the airport.”

  “Let’s go then,” Meyer said. “Detective Cooper, you’re going to want to put that hat and those gloves right back on.”

  Tessa grabbed her gun from her desk and checked her supply of bullets before holstering it to her waist. She knew perfectly well the gun was fully loaded, but she needed some kind of reassurance before heading up to what she knew in her gut was going to be a nightmare situation.

  Watching her, Lauren met the other woman’s eyes as she gripped her own gun. She suddenly felt chilled in a way that had nothing to do with the cold and snow, and was briefly frozen, not from the cold but from a fear she couldn’t explain. She wanted to run out of the office and fly back to Seattle as quickly as she could. As she followed the three police officers back out into the cold parking lot, she couldn’t shake the sensation that heading up into this dark and frozen Arctic wasteland was a terrible mistake.

  Chapter 66

  Danny’s head drooped onto his chest and he struggled to keep his eyes open. He had given up trying to wiggle out of the tight knots that held his hands behind his back, and his arms and hands were now completely numb anyway. It was almost as if they were disconnected from the rest of his body. He found he didn’t have the energy to care much anymore.

  The room had become steadily colder since Aleksei had left and closed the door behind him and Danny felt sure that Aleksei had turned off the heat when he and the monster that used to be Katie Bailey had departed for wherever the hell they were going. It was a safe bet that Aleksei no longer cared about burst pipes. Danny could hear the wind howling outside and remembered the frozen night he had stumbled through to get to Aleksei’s front door. It felt nearly as cold inside now. The extreme cold was taking a toll on whatever energy Danny had left.

  Danny heard a voice howling along with the wind, and immediately snapped his head up. Was someone else here? Maybe Aleksei hadn’t left after all.

  “Hello?” Danny said, his voice a frog’s croak. “Is someone there?”

  The howling continued, and sounded like a man in agony. Danny felt every hair on his body standing on edge.

  “Who’s there?” he croaked. “Hello? Can anyone hear me?”

  The howling abruptly stopped, and was followed by the sound of a slamming door.

  Danny jumped as much as the ropes that bound him to the bed leg would allow. Another howl, and he heard his own heart pounding out a beat to accompany the ferocious wind.

  He glanced at the doorway to the guest room, and saw the doorknob slowly creaking in a clockwise turn. He pushed himself back against the bed, wanting to disappear before whoever was on the other side of the door joined him in the room.

  But the door never opened, and the knob stopped moving.

  Danny stared at the door, his breath coming so fast and shallow he was close to hyperventilating.

  “Hello?” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Is someone out there?”

  There was no answer, and the howls that had filled the room were now gone. Danny heard nothing but the wind, and his heart pounding in his chest.

  He leaned his head back against the bed and willed himself to relax. Had he simply hallucinated the whole thing? Or, was Aleksei still here and playing games with him?

  He suddenly remembered the visit he and Terry had made to Snow Creek, and the screaming voices and slamming doors they had heard.

  “Fucking haunted house,” he said, rolling his eyes.

  He closed his eyes and tried to stop the shivering that was now overtaking his body. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard another voice. Her voice.

  “What were you thinking of coming up here alone, Danny?”

  Danny didn’t want to open his eyes as he wasn’t sure if he could bear seeing her in the room with him. He finally did, and felt a tear run down his cheek when he saw her across the room, looking alive and beautiful and exactly as he remembered.

  “Caroline,” he said.

  “Will you answer my question?”

  “I don’t have an answer. Except that I think it’s fairly obvious I wasn’t thinking. I’ve got myself in one hell of a mess, haven’t I?”
>
  “Espèce d'andouille”

  Danny chuckled. “Yes, thanks for the reminder. I’m an idiot, I know. But please, lay off the French. I’m having enough trouble remembering English right now.”

  “It’s freezing in here.”

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “I’m worried about you. You’re shivering terribly.”

  “I think that’s probably a good thing, isn’t it? I think you’re really in trouble once you stop shivering.”

  Caroline pushed her dark hair behind her ear in a gesture that Danny knew was as normal to her as breathing. Except she wasn’t exactly breathing anymore, was she? Did ghosts breathe?

  “So why are you here, Caroline? To keep me company while I die?”

  “I don’t want you to die.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t want you to die, either. We don’t always get what we want.”

  “Do you want to die?”

  “Why do you ask that?”

  “I can’t think of any other reason you would go after a monster in the Arctic alone. Why not just put a gun to your head if you’re so intent on suicide?”

  “It would have been a hell of a lot easier, wouldn’t it? But so messy…”

  “I’m not joking, Danny.”

  Danny’s shivering increased in intensity, and he found it difficult for his mouth to form words.

  “Why not? This whole situation is a fucking joke. And you’re not even here anyway. You’re a god-damn ghost. Which, honestly, makes you fit right in up here in this psycho place. Have you met the other ghosts in residence?”

  “Why do you want to die?”

  “You’re not letting it go, are you? I don’t want to die. I just don’t think I have any say in the matter at this point.”

  “I don’t blame you for what happened to me, you know.”

  Danny felt his throat closing up. “You don’t? That’s good I guess. I sure as hell do.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. Nobody knew about Jackson.”

  “Nobody else was his partner.”