Ironic Sacrifice (14 page)

As he returned to the village, it became apparent that Radu had been there as well…and that he knew what had happened. Countless bodies littered the streets. All had their throats torn out. He heard a shout behind him and turned to see a man charging at his back, wielding an axe. With lightning speed, Razvan disarmed the man and sank his teeth in his throat. He drank until his belly could hold no more, then seized his attacker’s head and squeezed, gratified when he heard the crunch of the skull crushing.

Now that he had nourishment, he could fly. Razvan rose up in the air, calling for Radu. He flew until his muscles ached and with a heavy sigh he landed to search for another meal. The scent of terrified prey came to him from a hut nearby. He kicked open the flimsy door with a growl, eager to punish another murderer. A small sound crept out of a narrow cupboard. Razvan opened it and seized a little girl by the scruff of her neck.

She couldn’t have been much older than eight. Her blue eyes were so wide with fear they nearly overtook her face. Razvan sighed in disappointment. He couldn’t kill an innocent child.

He forced his features into a gentle countenance and said softly, “It is all right, little girl. I will not hurt you.”

Those enormous eyes with fan-like lashes blinked up at him for a moment before the child hurled herself into his arms.

“Monsters,” she sobbed. “
Strigoi
!”

She didn’t recognize him, he realized. It made sense, being that she was lower caste and he looked human. When her sobs died away, he tilted her chin up and asked, “What happened, child?”

Her tears streaked into the dirt on her cheeks which she rubbed with a grubby fist. “There were
strigoi
in the castle. Mama and Papa helped burn them up in the castle today because the priest said we had to, but one got away. Papa was k-killed when part of the castle fell down on him. Mama told me to hide when the monster came. It was flying.”

Razvan wondered if it was he or his brother she saw. Before he had a chance to ask, the door was thrust open and a bloodcurdling scream rent the small space. The child’s mother had returned. He forced his will upon her, hoping that hers wasn’t strong enough to fight him. Luckily she seemed to be desperate for any reassurance and he felt the pull of his mind upon hers.

“I mean you no harm, but you are in danger here. You must take the child and leave this place.” He detached his purse from his money belt and handed it to the astonished woman.

“But my husband!” her mind struggled against his. “He needs to be laid to rest!”

“I will attend to that for you, madam,” he said. “But first you must pack your things.”

While mother and daughter obeyed Razvan’s command, he fetched a container of ale from a shelf and two crude wooden cups. He filled them and turned from view to pierce his finger with a fang. He allowed a few drops of his blood to fall into the cups. It wouldn’t Mark them permanently, but the protection would hopefully last until they were safe in another
ţări
.

After he helped them load their meager possessions on a horse-drawn wagon, he asked the mother, “Have you seen a man that looks like me, only with less of a beard?”

The woman nodded. “Yes. That is why you frightened me so. I thought you were he.” She shuddered. “He was
mad.
”

“Where did you see him?” he demanded.

“By the ruins of the castle.” She grabbed his arm. “But do not go there! It is dangerous.”

Razvan laughed bitterly, “I will be safe. If you see him again, tell him his brother is looking for him.”

He slapped the horse’s flank and sent them galloping off before she could reply.

Razvan returned to the ruins. Radu was not to be found. He searched until dawn. He searched the next day, and the next, never guessing that he wouldn’t see his twin for nearly seven hundred years.

***

Jayden came back to herself. Her pillow was soaked with tears for Razvan’s suffering. It seemed she could still smell the smoke from the fire that burned his parents to death. If she had a time machine she would have gone back in time and killed that bitch Uta herself. The woman had caused the deaths of a family and split two brothers apart.

But Jayden was going to try to bring them back together. Through Razvan’s memories she’d seen Radu and heard his voice. Through those memories, she knew him. Now she was going to try to find him with her mind.

She took another deep breath, let it out slowly, and focused on Radu Nicolae, the sound of his voice, his face, identical to Razvan’s except that his eyes held more laughter. In and out she breathed, focusing her energy to a pinpoint. Her skull began to throb and she realized she was clenching her teeth. Jayden forced herself to relax a little. She tried something else. Keeping her focus on Radu, she flexed her powers then willed them to cast outwards as if she were fishing. In a way, she was.

Her metaphysical seeker drifted out for what felt like a thousand miles. It seemed like she could touch people across the globe. Her inner vision blurred and again she was propelled towards something or someone. As her sight cleared, Jayden heaved a sigh of disappointment.

Again she found herself with the vampire Delgarias. Again he looked up at her and smiled. And again he shook his head and pointed, this time to the left and she was blown away under the currents of a phantom wind.

Then it happened. There was a tug on Jayden’s psychic line, a feeling that it had grabbed something. It was so sudden that she nearly dropped the connection in her surprise. Slowly shades and colors crept into her vision.

Radu lay on a stone slab in a cavernous chamber deep underground. The room was full of cobwebs and ancient debris, chunks of rotting wood, crumbled bits of rock. A thick layer of dust lay like a blanket over everything. The stone walls were spotted with a patina of scorch marks, chillingly familiar.

Jayden drew her power closer to Radu’s still form. Her mind brushed against his. She slipped under the very surface of his thoughts.

Radu had been sleeping for five hundred and seventy three years…but now he was preparing to wake, to face the world again…and to seek—

Jayden gasped as she suddenly realized where Radu was. He had been resting under the ruins of Castle Nicolae this entire time!

Radu’s eyes opened, and narrowed. It was like he could see her! His mind clenched on to hers like a vice. In a way, he had. His force built up like rumbling thunder, and he shoved her out. She slammed back into herself with such force that it was like being thrown against a wall. Black spots danced across her vision and her inner sight faded like a dying sun.

Seconds later, her eyelids fluttered open and she placed a shaking hand over her pounding heart. She had found Radu!

When Jayden awoke, Razvan’s side of the bed was empty. She hoped he’d only gone hunting rather than having left again for Spokane. It would be agony to wait that long to tell him her revelation. She practically leapt out of bed to open the closet door. She wanted to look her best when she told him what he had been longing for centuries to hear.

After an eternity of deliberation, she settled on a dark green velvet dress. The matching shoes were uncomfortable, but it was a gorgeous outfit. Her hands shook as she buttoned up the dress and imagined various scenarios of Razvan’s responses to the news that found Radu.

She longed to see him smile and give a sign of the enthusiastic boy he used to be. Maybe he would sweep her up in his arms and say,
“Jayden, I knew you could do what all others have failed. I am glad I chose you. Will you stay with me forever?”

Jayden paused and made a face. No, that was a little melodramatic. He would likely be a little more formal, maybe kiss her hand and bow before saying,
“Jayden, you have done me a great service, however may I repay you?”

No, too polite for him. The most likely case would be that he would incline his head slightly and favor her with his sinister smile and a pat on the head. Still, she knew he’d be overjoyed. Jayden frowned in self-disgust at her naked desperation for the slightest scrap of affection from him. She didn’t dare allow the fantasy of the three words she ached to hear:
“I love you.”

After what felt like the longest hour of her life, Razvan returned home from his hunt.

“So what is this momentous news you have for me?” Razvan asked once they were alone in their room.

He smiled down at her. He was so handsome it nearly made her heart stop.

“I’ve found Radu!” she said, unable to conceal the pride from her voice. Now he would feel something for her. She looked up at him in happy anticipation for his reaction.

The vampire’s face paled. All semblance of expression vanished. For a moment he resembled the corpse he was fabled to be.

“What?” he whispered.

“He’s still in Romania, sleeping beneath the ruins of your family’s castle.” Jayden smiled, pleased at his surprise. She must have succeeded far beyond her expectations. “Oh, Razvan, he’s going to wake soon!”

He moved forward in a flash and grabbed her arms. “How do you know of my family’s castle? How do you know any of this?” His grip was like a vise.

Jayden was suddenly nervous. She knew he would be surprised, but he seemed almost angry. Still, she took a deep breath and plunged on, hoping he wouldn’t break her arms. “I used my power to see into your memories when you slept. Eventually, through your visions of Radu, I was able to make enough of a connection with him to sense his location. He’s been under those ruins all this time. You both have suffered so much and—” She moved to embrace him and he thrust her away. She looked up at him in hurt confusion.

As his eyes narrowed and turned to that eerie glittering black, her throat went dry. Yeah, he was pissed.

“
You invaded my mind?
”
Razvan growled.

Jayden took a trembling step back. She didn’t expect him to see it
that
way. “Y-yes, but…but I only wanted to help.”

“I didn’t ask for your help,” he snarled. “And if I had, I certainly wouldn’t want you to have gone about it in such a sneaking, invasive manner!”

“I’m sorry!” she said, fighting back tears. “I didn’t mean to…to…” Jayden stumbled over her words. She
did
mean to invade his mind. She just didn’t mean to make him mad about it.

Razvan didn’t seem to care either way. He turned away from her and strode to the door.

“We will discuss this later,” he said over his shoulder before the door slammed with a crash that nearly shook the house.

What the hell just happened?
Jayden sank to her knees and gave in to her burgeoning tears.

***

Razvan strode up the stairs, fists clenched so tight his nails drew blood. He passed Silas in the living room. Silas opened his mouth to ask what was wrong but Razvan held up a hand to ward off his questions and continued out of the house.

She knows
, his mind repeated in time with his rapid steps down the frosty road.
She knows everything!
Never in all of his centuries of existence had he allowed anyone to know of his past. To know the pain he’d suffered, his foolishness in killing the woman that Radu loved, rather than exposing her as the woman who’d betrayed him. His mistake had caused the deaths of their parents and until now, no one had ever known that Razvan had been the one to set in motion the events of their destruction.

Even after nine hundred years, he heard his own voice:
“Let’s go to the village, Radu.”
If they hadn’t met their birth-family and formed a centuries-long bond, his parents would likely still be alive, and his twin wouldn’t be in a coma of grief.

His breath made transparent clouds before him as he walked down the steep hill. Razvan shivered and wished he’d brought a coat. The cold wouldn’t kill him but it was damn uncomfortable. When he reached 15
th
Street he looked north, then south, having no idea where to go, only that he needed to be alone, that he needed to think. His feet continued to carry him south, and then west until he found himself in front of the Powder River Saloon.

Razvan grasped the smooth elk antler handle and the door opened with its signature groan. The bartender, a pretty older woman he didn’t recognize, greeted him and was quick to bring a cup of coffee. Though the bar was practically abandoned, she seemed to sense that he wanted solitude and returned her attention to a football game on TV after he paid, giving him a small chiding remark over his lack of a coat.

He wrapped his hands around the hot mug, grateful for its warmth. He still couldn’t believe Jayden’s audacity in invading his mind, in doing what all others feared to attempt. With Selena, Silas, and countless other psychics, he’d fed them his blood and revealed to them only his happiest memories with his twin, never letting on to the truth that it was his fault that Radu was missing.

But Jayden knew. Jayden, the half-mad waif he picked up in a stinking alley and committed to the dangers of his world. Jayden, a woman who was so powerful that she had been able to connect to a vampire’s mind through another’s. His lips curved in a rueful smile. Despite his anger at her violation, he was impressed.

He sighed and reached into his pocket for his pipe and tobacco and unwittingly, his mind crept back to her revelation. Jayden’s eyes had been so open and shining with adoration as she told him what she’d done.

As he loaded and lit the pipe, a low, throbbing pain began to pulse in his gut. Razvan frowned and shifted uncomfortably on his bar stool.

He’d been a little harsh with her, he admitted, taking a deep draw on his pipe. She had truly been trying to help him. Jayden didn’t know that four hundred years ago, Silas had made enough of a connection to Radu that it was obvious he wanted nothing to do with his twin or that after another three hundred years Razvan finally reconciled himself to that fact.

Yet now Jayden had discovered his brother’s exact location. It was hard to believe that Radu had been under the ruins of their old home all this time. Though in retrospect, it made sense.

When his coffee had cooled a moment, he sipped the acrid beverage to warm his lips. Yes, he had been overly harsh with Jayden. In truth, another emotion had overridden his anger at her intrusion: fear. A low growl built in his throat at the debilitating emotion, but it would not leave. The facts continued to haunt him.

It was possible that Radu was still furious at him for killing the woman he loved. If his twin knew that there was a woman Razvan cared about…. He shook his head in a futile attempt to ward off fear’s icy fingers. Suddenly he wasn’t so eager for Radu to awaken. Jayden was already in enough danger from Selena… yet another folly from his past.

He would have to apologize to Jayden…but not too much. After all, perhaps his behavior towards her would be useful in dampening her dangerous infatuation with him. And as much as her adoration pleased him, he would have to resist succumbing to her charms. Razvan sighed and took another draw from the pipe, mentally tracing the curves and hollows of Jayden’s body. Such a thing would be easier said than done.

The bar door emitted its gravelly groan and Razvan was mildly surprised to see Max stroll in. He hid a smirk from the aging mechanic. Had Akasha been carrying tales?

“Hey, I didn’t expect to see you here!” Max said jovially as he plunked down on the barstool next to him.

It seemed his presence was a happy accident. The man’s cheeks were flushed from the cold, but his heavy breathing was somewhat alarming. The vampire decided to stay with him for awhile.

As he listened to Max’s tirade about the inefficiencies of the local parts store, Razvan tapped out his pipe and formulated his apology. It was difficult, for apologies were not something he was accustomed to.

***

Jayden’s heart leapt in surprise when Razvan came into the library. She’d been hanging out with Akasha and struggling to read in a vain attempt to shut out the pain of Razvan’s angry reaction to her confession. And now was the moment. He was going to send her away, she knew it. It was time to go back to the streets and cold sleepless nights in her car.

He dipped his head and shoulders in a stiff bow. This time she could detect no sarcasm in the gesture, but there was something else.

“I apologize for my currish behavior earlier. I overreacted.” His words were as rigid as his stance and gave the impression of a rehearsed speech. “I would also like to thank you for locating my brother. I am certain the information will prove useful in time. You have my gratitude.”

He favored her with another overly formal half-bow and left the room before she could form a response.

Akasha’s mouth hung open and the book she held looked in danger of falling off her lap. “What the fuck was
that
?”

Jayden forced a weak laugh. “I don’t exactly know.”

Her friend blinked at her with amethyst eyes that were so penetrating Jayden confessed the story of how she entered Razvan’s mind and found Radu. When she finished she shook her head and said, “And after all that time being in his head, I still can’t figure him out.”

Akasha gave an indifferent shrug. “He’s always been a mystery. I think he prefers it that way. But I know he likes you so don’t worry, he may be pissy for awhile, but he’ll come around.”

As it turned out, Akasha was wrong. Razvan avoided her for the next two weeks. The vampire spent most evenings in Spokane. The few times he was around, he treated her with deferential courtesy when she spoke to him and otherwise ignored her. Max and Akasha observed Jayden’s futile attempts to mask her hurt with growing outrage, whereas Silas seemed to grow more cheerful every evening. If his kindness to her had not remained during their training sessions, Jayden would have suspected that the Lord of Coeur d’Alene didn’t like her. But his regard seemed to have grown, which made his joviality in the face of her pain all the more confusing.

***

After the evening worship session, Selena summoned Lionel and Michael, her two most trusted apostles. She allowed them to remain on their knees a moment longer than necessary, reveling in their loyalty and adoration. At last she bade them to rise and held up her arms for one of them to remove her ceremonial robe.

As Michael gently untied the sash, she shrugged out of the garment and spoke, idly tugging on a lock of hair. “The deadline has arrived and our enemies have failed to deliver what we have demanded. They must be punished. Who will go forth and deliver our wrath?”

“I will, my lord,” they both chorused and fell to their knees.

Such devotion was music to her ears, but she had already chosen her emissary.

“Rise, dear Lionel,” she said and stroked his short blond hair, enjoying the sight of such a powerful male bowing to her.

Michael’s lower lip jutted out petulantly, and Selena suppressed her amusement. He would be placated when she related the details of her commands to Lionel.

As her chosen apostle departed to fulfill his mission, Selena turned to Michael, placing a gentle hand on his cheek. “You see now? I have much greater plans for you.”

Michael rose and took her hand, bringing it to his lips. “Indeed, my lord, and I shall be overjoyed to obey.”