Cold Blooded

“Valdov,” he managed, “has doomed us … the Queen can do … nothing.”

I sat up a little straighter. “Valdov is in charge?”

“He wields … much power … over her.” His eyes flickered in earnest now, mostly staying free of black, his face almost fully healed. What he really needed was blood, but he wasn’t getting mine. That was not an option. “My niece … will not rule … much longer … have to … stop him.”

Niece? “You’re Ivan the Terrible’s brother?” I gasped, jumping to my feet. “How did you get locked in here? If you’re Eudoxia’s blood-kin, this is even worse than I first imagined.”

He shook his head, his eyes rolling back in his head for a moment. I understood. It was too much to tell me right now and we needed to move on.

“Listen”—I crouched onto the balls of my feet—“what I really need to find is a way out of this dungeon without raising attention. I’m beginning to think I’ve been put in this cell for a reason. All this can’t be a coincidence.” His eyes were focused back on me. “I’m searching for a vampire named Naomi. Do you know where they might keep her? She has something valuable in her possession, and if Valdov has already gotten ahold of it, it may be too late for your Queen.”

“You are not … in a dungeon…” He gasped. “It is trickery. We are in a crypt … behind the mansion. Below us … is only one way out. There are … tunnels below.”

“What?” I exclaimed as I stood. I had not expected that to come out of his mouth. “The muscle vamp took me down steps and we never came back up. We have to be underground. That can’t be right.”

“It is an ancient ward … few can sense…”

The strange signature I’d felt was a ward? It had all been an elaborate illusion. Damn. “You said the only way out was tunnels beneath us. How do I find them?”

He lifted his hand and pointed to the corner.

Right where Alana was lying like a corpse.

“It is below…”

I peered at the corner skeptically. “So we’re actually in a crypt aboveground? And below us are underground tunnels. Is that what you’re saying?”

He nodded. “There is a vast … graveyard on the grounds. Each crypt is connected … by a network … of tunnels.”

It was hard to wrap my mind around it, but I had no reason to doubt him. There was an easy way to find out if he was telling the truth. If there was no access to a tunnel in the corner, he was lying. “If I free you now, will you stay away from me?” I asked. “I need you to tend to your bride so I can uncover the tunnel. I knocked her out, but she should heal—I have to warn you it’s a little gory.”

“I will not attack,” he managed. “But you will … promise to … honor your part…”

“Of course I will honor it,” I said. “Once I find my friends, I will come back and break you out of this horrid prison.” I had no idea what freeing him would do, or why the two of them were kept here, but I didn’t care.

“It’s been too long…” He sighed. “We will finally … have our retribution.”

“I’m going to unchain you now, and then I need to move Alana.” I reached above his head to the rebar. It was easier than trying to pry the cuff off his leg.

Right as my palm touched the metal, a cold, bony hand wrapped around my ankle.

I had to resist a very strong urge to kick him off and quiet the growling wolf in my head. Instead of reacting, I angled my head down to meet his gaze, my eyes holding a question.

“We have waited … for you.” His eyes were now a clear muted blue.

I pried the rebar open just enough to unhook the chain. Then I stepped back, breaking his grip on me. He let go without a fight. “What exactly do you know about me?” It was hard to believe this emaciated vamp, left in a crypt to rot for centuries, would know anything about me.

“It was foretold…” he whispered.

“But you attacked me when I first arrived. You didn’t think I was anything special then,” I pointed out. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

He said one word in Russian. “Sila.” When my expression didn’t change, he said another. “Strength.”

16

I waited for Yuri to elaborate on his comment. “Okay…” I said when he remained silent. “I guess we can choose to continue this discussion at a later date.” I glanced around the cell. “I need to get out of here,” I muttered.

I strode over to Alana.

Dragging her along the ground would just be wrong, so I bent down to pick her up. It was the only decent thing to do. She weighed next to nothing and thankfully did not stir. As I carried her to Yuri, the end of the chain still attached to her forehead clattered along the ground. Nice.

I lowered her carefully into his open arms.

His face said it all. This was his bride. “I’m sorry, you know”—I pointed to her head once I deposited her in his lap—“about her wound. She wasn’t very reasonable and I had to stop her.” And a metal plate to the forehead did the trick. “I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out, but you may want to act fast and do it while she’s still unconscious.”

“She will … heal…” he said quietly. “Go now. They will be back soon…”

I headed over to the corner.

The entire cell was full of dirt. I knelt, plunging my hands into the ground. About a foot down I hit wood. It was some kind of trapdoor. “Do you use this often?” I asked, glancing over at him. “It doesn’t seem like a super-duper idea to have a permanent escape hatch in the floor of a prison cell.”

“It is not nice … below,” he answered. “You must … beware.”

That sounded ominous.

My wolf snarled. After the creatures we’d encountered fighting Selene, I wasn’t looking forward to meeting any new surprises. “Care to shed a little more light on that before I head down into the depths of despair?”

“Trows,” he answered.

“Trolls?”

Gads! I didn’t want to fight a troll.

He shook his head. “No, Trows. The Queen employs them … to keep intruders out and … us in.”

“You mean like fairies?” I replied, flipping quickly through my mind for my limited knowledge of a Trow. If I was right, I had a vague recollection of them from old books I used to page through in my father’s library when I was a kid.