“In our defence—“ Dimitri started, but got interrupted.
“I read Victor’s report. You don’t have to convince me, spare this for the Council.”
Tatiana shifted insecure in her seat, her nails digging into the armrest so that I could see the white of her knuckles. “The trace, we would have lost the trace if we would have wasted time calling for reinforcements.”
“They would have come too late anyway”, Dimitri added in support.
Consul Wayland shot out of his seat. “This is the worst I’ve ever come across. Did you even devote a minute for planning your cover? If you only would have called earlier, a magician could have been there in time and backed-up your little charade. But no, you left us completely vulnerable. By now, everyone blames you two for the disappeared teenagers and their four dead comrades.”
“That’s ridiculous”, I shot out of my seat as well. “If it wouldn’t be for Dimitri and Tatiana I would be dead now… or… or… worse.”
“Is it, Miss Parker?” His voice changed to a softer climax and he came around his desk, positioning himself right in front of me. Maybe there was more of the godfather in him than I thought. Certainly, he smelt after money. His dark blue suit was designer made with a crimson tie, his vest made out of the best satin. His Italian leather shoes were polished so that I could mirror myself in them. And then, there were these eyes that seemed to stare right into my soul and forced me to lower my glance like a child that had been administered. “Is it ridiculous or have those two”, his index finger pointing at my saviours, “have those two just played one piece of vital information after the next into the greedy hands of the boulevard press? Can you imagine how gobsmacked those FBI men must have looked when they knocked at the door of their residence only to find out the address is a hoax? The house is deserted. No one lived there in years. And their supposed uncle didn’t exist. The two have not even a valid visa. Worse, more than a dozen witnesses can testify there was an incident hours before the attack, which had almost resulted in a fight. All the investigators had to do was counting one and one together.”
“And what is that?” Dimitri went up, too. In comparison to Tatiana he was the calmest in nature, leaning almost bored against the old mahogany desk of the consul, his eyes wandering through the room as if trying to remember. Same as the suit and the palace, the Consul’s office wasn’t any less luxurious. There were old oil paintings from people I’ve never seen; noble people without a doubt, maybe even Royal. Opposite was a giant window with heavy velvet curtains. The window overlooked the courtyard of the palace, now just illuminated by some spotlights. The sun had set long ago.
“Everyone believes, you lured those kids into a trap and killed them one by one. You were part of some cult worshipping the devil and started a massacre.”
“That’s absurd.” Dimitri rolled his eyes. “They outnumbered us four to one and if this isn’t enough, how could they explain how two teenagers were dragging away four others, two of them steroid junkies, who used to spend three to five hours a day in a gym.”
I cleared my voice in disapproval. He forgot idiots, the voice echoed in the back of my head.
My boyfriend is not an idiot—
He wasn’t even listening to you when you asked him to stop.
With index and middle finger I massaged my temples and silenced the unwelcomed thoughts.
“Is it absurd, Dimitri? Then please explain me why the Catholic Church has sent one of their best men to investigate. No less than seven of my magicians are at the moment on the other side of the globe trying to minimise the damage you two have caused.”
“We might have caused some upset.” It was Tatiana speaking, but her voice was no more than a whisper. “And we regret the inconvenience.”
“Inconvenience? What if we’re getting exposed? Are you calling this still an inconvenience?”
“However”, Tatiana’s voice had gained some strength. “We lodged several reports about the increased demon activity in this area. The Council can’t turn a blind eye on the fact that we were on the right trail. We stirred something up and if the Council would have given us more manpower—“
“I hope that’s not what you’re planning to tell them.”
“No, we’re not”, Dimitri scratched unconfidently the back of his head, maybe considering right now rescuing me wasn’t the best idea after all. “All we ask for is time to prove our case and access to the Accords”, he said instead.
Consul Wayland thought hard and it seemed to take ages until he made his decision. “You’ve a week. And that’s only, because I honour Victor. He was a great man of his time. Nevertheless”, he built himself up in front of Tatiana, placing one hand on each of her shoulders and forcing her to look directly into his eyes. “Times have changed. My offer to you two still stands. Think about it.”
***
Soon later I was sitting in the largest library I had ever seen. And the most luxurious too. Bookcase after bookcase, shelf after shelf, formed an endless labyrinth of books and boxes, scrolls and more books, outstretched over several levels. The Beacon Hills library could have fitted nicely into the ground floor, but the labyrinth continued on another two levels. The chairs and tables on the first floor looked more expensive than the value of our entire house back home. Again, I pinched myself just so to make sure, I was not sleeping. Obviously I mastered my awing well this time. Neither Tatiana nor Dimitri realised how deeply impressed I was. Libraries and old books were always my weakness. I could hardly keep myself back exploring all those treasures. After all, those books couldn’t have all been written in Russian, could they? Spread out over the table in our front were two boxes filled with lots of papers and a huge book with golden pages, yes golden pages, and neat handwriting in black ink. Surprisingly, it was in English. Not that I could make much sense out of the words on the open page.
The Prince of Death will be reincarnated in the city of the spilled blood in the second twin star constellation of the new millennia, when the child prevailing its birthright in a twofold battle.
Neither could I make any sense of the book, nor of the papers. They were mainly in Russian and all looked the same to me, cryptic to say the best. I leaned back in my seat and watched Dimitri and Tatiana flipping silently through the papers and discarding them on a growing tower of uselessness. Finally, I couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “What did the Consul mean earlier?”
Dimitri looked up, surprise in his mimic.
“The offer he spoke about?”
“He thinks Victor is growing old and his mind clouded. He wants us to join him as trackers.”
“Change of management”, Tatiana helped out. “Victor had an argument with the Council, which led to his retirement from his chair at the St. Petersburg University.”
“He was a scholar?”
“A professor, but his theory about a conspiracy made him fall into the Council’s disfavour.”
“Before they could sack him, he resigned, but continued his work by gaining a tracker licence”, Dimitri continued. “Each tracker team requires a scholar. Tat and I are the executive arm of the team.”
“Conspiracy theory?”
“The Guild is always a step ahead of us. There has to be a mole. Then again, he failed delivering the necessary proof. So he resigned. Actually, I would have thought Wayland of all people would believe him.”
“Why?” I asked. The man didn’t make the impression of a real believer, more the facts type of person.
Dimitri leaned back, massaging his left shoulder with his right hand. “His brother got killed by the Guild, when he was on a routine mission.”
“He was a tracker?”
Dimitri nodded. “A legend among us. Wayland never got over the loss. He tried everything in his power to find the murderers. Unfortunately, in vain.”
I pushed a loose strand out of my face and tugged it behind my ear. “Are you taking his offer?”
Tatiana almost startled out of her seat. “Of course not.
I’m not the Consul’s pet dog, who he can order into his office whenever it pleases him. Also he is more interested in him.” Her chin jerked at Dimitri, whose eyes opened wide. “Can’t be. Didn’t you notice how he always goggles at your legs? Sorry, but none of my skills can compete with that super weapon of yours.”
She sent him a touching and oddly knowing smirk a boy probably would have killed for, which made my stomach turn. If it was jealousy that my saviour never seemed to notice my super weapons or simply because I was afraid, they would continue their scene from the lake right here on the table, I couldn’t tell, but it left me furious. Topic change, now.
“So why are we here?”
It worked, the special moment between them was gone.
“Finding something, anything we’ve overlooked”, Dimitri’s voice was lacking confidence.
Tatiana crashed the confidence by poking her finger on the open book. “Read it, we didn’t overlook anything. Let’s call it a day and visit the Imperial.”
He leaned over the table, she did the same, their heads just inches away from each other. My stomach turned again. “I thought we discussed this. No way with her—“
“Hello, I’m still in the same room as you two.”
Dimitri fell back, clapping his hand on the lid of one box. “Okay, these are all boys born in the star sign of Gemini and in the city of Yekaterinburg.”
“Why Yekaterinburg?” I asked perplexed. “Wherever that is!”
Tatiana rolled with her eyes and her finger tipped on the passage in the almanac. “City of spilled blood. Likely this refers to Yekaterinburg. Last time, on his first visit to earth, the prince was killed there. They build a church over the house where he and his family were murdered. The church is called Church on Spilled Blood.”
“The other box”, Dimitri continued too hastily for my taste, “contains all boys that fit the age and living in Beacon Hills.”
“So Jake is in there?”
“Jake, John, Danny, Dean, everyone”, Tatiana nodded. “Took me entire two months to steal all the records. And there are some medical records about Dean you better don’t read. Making those public would have shed a completely new light on his popularity.”
I swallowed by the last memory of my friend. Dean always treated the two like dirt, but knowing that they had a weapon in their hands against him, which they decided not to use, actually made them look like saints.
“How come Jake and John became your target. They were born in the Big Apple!”
The two exchanged a glance of misunderstanding. “Hello, Big Apple, New York.”
Tatiana shrugged her shoulders. “Must be an American thing.”
“Anyway”, Dimitri knocked on the second box. “Lots of blood has been spilled in New York too, when the Twin Towers were attacked.”
“You see the connection?” Tatiana asked, her eyes glowing with expectation. “Twin Towers, the boys are twins, born in New York in the year where blood was spilled and they are twins.”
“It’s a bit far-fetched, isn’t it? It would presume someone could have predicted the attack on the twin towers. And I’m sure there are more boys who meet this vague description.”
“But not many living in Beacon Hills”, Dimitri sounded defensive. “We got tipped off, the Guild would look for the prince in Beacon Hills and is close succeeding. The two seemed a plausible match… well… I have to admit they are out of character and had nothing in common with Alexei. But otherwise they meet the criteria.”
“The first Prince of Death”, Tatiana helped. “But maybe Alexei would have turned as well into a bullying idiot of muscles and the brain of a frog, if he would have grown up there.”
“Doubtful”, Dimitri muttered. “His father called him Alexei the Terrible, but the boy never harmed anyone.”
“Anyway, I’m not saying I believe a word, but what actually does the last part of the prophecy mean? When the child prevailing its birthright in a twofold battle.”
Both shrugged their shoulders. “Seers are creepy people”, Tatiana said finally.
“Oh common, Tat. Only because Stephane revealed his prophesy about him marrying you one day when you were ten, doesn’t mean all seers are creepy.”
“It wasn’t a prophesy, only a wish.” Her grimace clearly showed her repulsion towards the man in question.
“I believe he understood your no as answer. You didn’t have to turn him into a frog for three entire days. Only to make your point that is. Poor boy.”
“Anyway”, Dimitri sighed and tossed me some files out of the first box. “Go through the Yekaterinburg pile.”
Maybe this would have been the moment where I should have told them that I can’t read Russian. But then, I was grateful having something to do. So I flicked through the files, each showing a copy of a birth certificate, at least that’s what I thought it was as there was a date and kilogram mentioned. Nothing made sense to me until I spotted a cross on the right corner of one file. “I believe I found something”, I exclaimed exited and pointed at the cross. “That’s the symbol of death, isn’t it?”
Tatiana leaned over and had a look. She shook her head. My excitement turned into disappointment. “But it does mean death and I thought…”
“His name was Vladimir”, Tatiana said casually. “He died together with his mother, Maria, during childbirth. Only his twin sister survived the birth.” Tatiana flicked the page and revealed a new sheet. “They called her Maria, too, she was born via caesarean a few minutes later. See here, adoption papers. The poor lady had no relatives.” I swallowed down the approaching tears. What for a poor child! How must she have grown up? Who were her new parents? My eyes scanned the document to the bottom. The next moment I squeaked out of my seat.
“WHAT?” both said simultaneously and startled up. With a shaking finger I pointed at the document.
“I told you she was adopted”, Tatiana glanced in misunderstanding at me.
“Yeah?” I pulled up the paper and shoved it right under her nose. “And can you explain”, my windpipe tightened, I could hardly breathe. “Can you explain how my mother’s signature is getting on that document?”
“Pa…r…ker. That can be any Parker. Many Americans adopt Russian children.”
“I know… my mother’s… signa…ture. Only she… swings the P… and the k this… way. And here, there is… my father’s signature.” To underline my statement I poked my finger at the P, which was really useless as my finger had decided to shake as if the temperatures had dropped below freezing point. Well, at least it felt around my heart that way.
Dimitri snapped the document out of Tatiana’s hands and scanned the paper. “What’s your blood type?”
“Zero negative.”
His eyes glanced over the edge of the document at me. “That’s a match. Are you born on 25th May?”
“That proves nothing does it?” I pleaded back. “Just because the girl had the same blood type and was born on the same day, many girls are born that day, it means nothing, I mean, mum and dad would have told me, wouldn’t they, they would, certainly they would have, you’re not breaching this to your poor child on your dying breath or let her find out by accident when running through some decaying files at the other side of the bloody world…”
“What is she doing?” Tatiana asked Dimitri, while I continued talking.
“Nattering. She does this occasionally.”
“Dimitri Ivanov, I’m most definitely not nattering… there is no way my… parents are not… my parents, my sister… not my sister… my lovely sister not…” tears shot into my eyes, “I’m dreaming… I’ll wake up… in my bed… back home in… good old Beacon Hills, California… and…”
“What is she doing now?”
“Hyperventilating.”
“Really, is she doing this occasionally too?”
“Only if she’s really pissed.”
“Oh pissed is… is no word… expressing what I… feel, I’m… freaking adopted… that’s what you want me
to believe.”
“Elisabeth”, Dimitri said calmly. “You’ve to calm down or you pass out again.”
He was right. I stopped nattering, conversing I mean, and took a deep breath. It can’t get worse, can it?
At this moment the door to the level below us sprang open. “They’re in here. Get them, boys!” A glance over the balustrade to the ground level showed me it could get worse indeed, much worse. The Nazis, or Berserkers, whatever they were called were back. At least half a dozen stormed through the doors, their leader, Lucifer, the one who slashed Dean’s throat, leading the pack. And with them were three people in dark robes, hiding their faces behind a skeleton mask, which was by far more frightening than in the scream movies. I just hoped it was a mask. Instinctively, I stole closer to Dimitri. “There you go, Tat”, he whispered. “Didn’t you ask for a party earlier, well, your guests have just arrived.”
Chapter XIII
Run!
“We shouldn’t let our guests wait, should we?” Tatiana said, holding two knives in her hands. No idea where she had hidden those under her skinny outfit.
“Let’s get the party started”, Dimitri said and dashed to the staircase with a long dagger in his hand. There goes my protector, my saviour, who has completely forgotten about me. I was near crying anyway, so a bit more self-pity was just adding towards the misery of my changed life.
Before he even reached the stairs, two Naz… Berserkers had already arrived. My heart skipped a beat, when one of them revealed a mace with pointy stars, which he instantly brought down on Dimitri. Dimitri ducked the horizontal blow and kicked against his opponents kneecaps, which brought the man… demon to a fall. The demon buried his target under his weight, but his limbs went instantly dead like a marionette, where the puppeteer had cut off the strings. The point of Dimitri’s dagger had broken through the demon’s neck, but Dimitri was still caught underneath the demon, who slowly dissolved into black smoke.
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