Polar (Book 1): Polar Night (19 page)

Chapter 45

Aleksei opened to door to
his guest room, and saw Katie still unconscious on the bed where he had left her. He had foolishly hoped that sedating her wouldn’t be necessary, but her high-pitched, piercing screams when she had first regained consciousness and saw him standing in front of her had quickly dispelled him of that notion. Not that he was worried about anyone hearing her. He knew that wasn’t an issue here in Coldfoot. But he could only take so much of the screaming himself. Katie had a lot to learn before she became his permanent companion.

He had gagged her now and left her on the bed to sleep off the sedative. When she woke up, he’d start teaching her about good manners and ladylike behavior, neither of which included screaming loud enough to wake the dead. He left the room and closed the door behind him before heading to the kitchen. There was something he couldn’t put off any longer.

Not bothering to put on a coat, as he knew no one would see him here and there was no need to blend in, Aleksei opened the kitchen door and walked outside towards the root cellar. He hoped Maria was still alive, as he wanted her to be Katie’s first kill, but he couldn’t deny that it wouldn’t bother him if she wasn’t. He almost wished he hadn’t left her the food and water he had before he went to Seattle. He had moved on, and his mind was too occupied with Katie to deal with her. Plus, Maria had disappointed him, and he’d never had any tolerance for those who didn’t live up to his expectations.

Aleksei brushed the snow from the root cellar door, and opened it. He walked down the stairs into the cellar, holding a lantern in front of him, and found Maria curled up in a ball in the corner of the dirt floor, her fingers clutching her blanket around her face. He could tell instantly that she was still alive, but he knew she was pretending to be sleeping, regardless of the fact that she’d tried this trick with him before. He
was amazed at how truly tedious she had turned out to be.

“Time to wake up, Sunshine,” he said. “I’m home. Did you miss me?”

Maria opened her eyes and remained silent, staring at him with a vacant expression.

“I see you still have some food left,” Aleksei said, glancing at the plates he had left on the cellar floor. “So you took my advice about conserving your resources.”

“Don’t you even want to know where I was?” he asked. “What I was doing?”

“I don’t care,” Maria whispered.

Aleksei grinned. “You’ll care soon enough.”

He walked over to Maria and squatted on his haunches in front of her, bobbing up and down on the balls of his feet. It was all he could do not to tear her neck open right now, but at the same time, she looked so gaunt and frail that it hardly seemed worth the effort. She wasn’t going to be any challenge for Katie at all.

“Sit up,” he said. “Now.”

“Why?”

“Because I said so.”

Maria pushed herself up with arms that were starting to become bony and leaned against the wall. “Satisfied?” she said.

Unable to control himself, Aleksei bared his fangs. He couldn’t conceal his delight at the fear that invaded Maria’s face, and the whimper that escaped from her mouth. So much for the vacant expression.

“I am now,” he said.

He stood back up and paced around the cellar. “I see you still have food so I won’t bother to bring you more just yet. Nice job of conserving your water, too.”

“So you’re leaving me down here now?”

“Yeah, the house is off-limits now, sorry. I have a new guest.”

“What are you?” Maria asked.

“I’m a man with very sharp teeth,” Aleksei said. “I don’t have time to tell you anything more, and maybe if you hadn’t asked so damn many questions you wouldn’t have found yourself back down here in the first place.”

Before Maria could respond, Aleksei headed up the stairs. “By the way,” he said, turning back around. “You don’t have to worry about being Natasha anymore. That was a hopeless cause. I know that now. And you won’t have to be down here too much longer anyway.”

He turned away and walked up the steps, stopping again when he got to the door. Unable to resist, he yelled back to Maria before pushing the door off its hinges.

“You’ll be dead soon enough,” he said. “My new guest and I will see to that.”

Ignoring her cries, he let the heavy door slam shut behind him.

Chapter 46

Aleksei prowled into his study
and poured himself a tall glass of vodka before taking a seat in his favorite chair. Maria had riled him up and he found himself regretting the strong sedative he had given Katie to knock her out. He should have gone a bit lighter. He wanted her to wake up now.

But for now he'd have to be content with planning the life he would give her and imagining all they would do together. It wouldn't go wrong now. He wouldn't be too late this time
.

Aleksei was starving. He needed to feed, and he needed to do it soon, but he had to find Natasha first. He didn't have time to hunt.

He felt so confused, more powerful than he ever could have imagined, but also more lost. He should have joined Greger and his group of vampires. He needed to be among his own kind and learn how to manage his new life. He'd find the group again once he had Natasha. They'd learn from Greger together.

He raced through the streets of St. Petersburg, moving so quickly he was a blur to the hundreds of injured protestors and beggars who shuffled through the streets like zombies. He occasionally grabbed blond women he thought could be Natasha and tossed them into the gutters when they disappointed him.

Desperate, he knew the only way he could find Natasha was to turn to the one person he loathed above all others. Maksim Bodrov. Aleksei hated to admit it, but he knew Bodrov was the person most likely to know where Natasha was. Once he got the information he needed, he'd kill Bodrov and feed on him to ease his hunger.

Finally, he came upon the St. Petersburg barracks.

“
Bodrov!” he yelled. “Maksim Bodrov! Where are you?”

He knew it was possible Bodrov would not be at his post, as most of the St. Petersburg guard had deserted amid the chaos of the protests. He nearly shook with relief when he heard Bodrov answering his calls.

“
Who wants to know?” Bodrov yelled, walking towards the sound of Aleksei's voice.

“
It's Aleksei Nechayev. I want to speak with you about Natasha.”

Aleksei heard footsteps behind him and turned to see Bodrov entering the room. He dragged his right foot behind him and moved with a stilted gait, his face wincing in pain with every step. Aleksei didn't bother to ask Bodrov what had happened to him. It was of no interest.

“
What about Natasha?”

“
I need to know where she is. She hasn't shown up at the hospital. It's urgent that I find her!”

Aleksei felt himself losing control as he talked. It was all he could do to keep from jumping on Bodrov and finishing him off.

“
You're a little late.”

“
What do you mean?”

Bodrov stared at Aleksei, feeling a sense of unease. He had never liked Nechayev and had tried to convince Natasha that he was a nutcase, but he seemed ever stranger now. What was wrong with him?

“
I asked you what you mean!” Aleksei yelled.

“
I mean you're not going to find her. Natasha's dead. She was killed yesterday in the protests. Knocked over and trampled by a god-damn herd of idiots.”

Aleksei stumbled backwards as if reeling from a physical blow. He stared at the floor and tried to maintain his composure. Surely this couldn't be true? Why had he bothered to find this piece of trash Bodrov?

“
Sorry, man,” Bodrov said.

Aleksei saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and looked up to see Bodrov shuffling, pulling his dead leg behind him. He leaped forward and grabbed Bodrov's collar, pulling him half off the ground.

“
What the fuck?” Bodrov said. “Get the hell off of me.”

“
Where is she?”

“
I told you, she's dead.”

“
Tell me where she is.”

“
I can't...”

“
Tell me!” Aleksei screamed.

Bodrov stared into Aleksei's eyes and felt a rush of terror. “They moved the bodies to the Summer Garden, by the Field of Mars. You can probably find her there.”

Aleksei loosened his grip on Bodrov's shirt. “Right. Of course. She's taking care of them. That's what she does.” He stared outside the barracks, imagining Natasha in her nurse's uniform, tending to the wounded, just as she had done to him.

He felt Bodrov shift, obviously trying to pull away from him. He pulled Bodrov's shirt tighter, bringing him closer.

“
You didn't take care of her,” he said. “What good are you? What kind of a soldier are you?”

“
There was nothing I could do...”

“
Shut up!” Aleksei said. He stared at Bodrov's neck, watching his vein throb with fear. He looked back at Bodrov's face, and bared his newly-made fangs.

Bodrov shook with terror, and futilely tried to pull away from Aleksei's grip. “What the hell? Help! Someone, help me, please!”

Aleksei chuckled at his cries and moved within an inch of his face. “There's no one here to help you. And now that I know where Natasha is, I don’t need you anymore. I’m done with you,” he said, and sunk his teeth into Bodrov's quivering neck.

The screams intensified before Bodrov slumped in Aleksei's arms. Aleksei drained the last drops of blood from the body, and let it drop.

He was gone before anyone responded to Bodrov's screams, or found his dead body crumpled on the floor of the barracks.

Chapter 47

Danny tossed aside a folder
of documents pertaining to Russia’s role in WWI, wondering what on earth he was doing back in the archives for a second day. He couldn’t read Russian, and the odds of finding another picture of Aleksei were clearly slim to none. And he couldn’t get behind Amanda’s idea that all this could somehow lead to finding Maria. He’d never been a history buff and that’s all these materials were as far as he was concerned. History. And ancient history, at that.

He rocked back and forth in his swivel chair and let out an exasperated sigh.

“This is a waste of time,” he said. “We’re not going to find anything else.”

“Do you always give up so quickly on your cases?” Amanda asked.

“None of my cases involved sifting through 100 year old documents.”

“Well there’s a first time for everything.”

“Maybe I’ll just leave this to you and go do some exploring around Sitka. It’s a lot warmer here than it is in Fairbanks.”

“It’s balmy here compared to Fairbanks. Sitka is totally different.”

“I think I will go look around then. I can’t stand being cooped up in here anymore.”

“Suit yourself. If I find anything, I’ll call you.”

Danny was about to get up from the chair when his phone rang. He took it from his pocket and glanced at the incoming number, noticing a Chicago area code. He considered not answering, but realized that would be childish to say the least.

“Hello?” he said.

“Danny? This is John Fisher.”

“Fisher? What do you want? How’d you get my number?”

“You called me to ask for help, remember? What the hell?”

“Right, right. Sorry.”

“Besides, I’m an FBI agent. You think I’d have trouble getting your number if I wanted it?”

“Alright, fine. We’ve cleared up the phone number mystery. How about telling me what you want.”

“I don’t want anything. I just came across a case that I thought might interest you, so I decided to call.”

“What is it?”

“We’re investigating a sex trafficking ring in Seattle, so I’ve been monitoring their police reports. I noticed a call about a missing girl, and when I looked at the report and saw her photo, I thought she looked a lot like the women you asked me to run a report on for you. Same physical characteristics you told me to look for anyway. Tall, slim girl, long blond hair.”

“That’s hardly an unusual physical description.”

“I know, but something about this girl just hit me. And apparently her parents mentioned visiting Alaska recently. I thought you might want to take a look at the report.”

Danny rubbed a hand through his hair and nodded. “Alright,” he said into the phone. “I don’t think it has any connection to be honest, but it can’t hurt. Send it through to me.”

“You’ll get it in a minute.”

“Thanks, John.”

“You had any luck with your case?”

“No. It’s basically dead in the water.”

“Well that sucks, sorry to hear it.” He paused for a moment. “Did you get the file?”

Danny clicked on his messages. “Yeah, it’s here. I’ll let you know if it leads to anything.”

“Okay, buddy,” John said.

Danny ended the call without further comment. He wasn’t interested in any of his old “buddies.”

“What was that about?” Amanda asked.

“My old friend from the FBI ran across a case he thinks might be connected to mine. He’s the one I asked to run the report on the old missing women cases.”

“Do you think it’s connected?”

Danny shook his head while he waited for John’s attachment to download onto his phone. “It doesn’t sound like it. Apparently it’s a missing girl case in Seattle.”

“Why does he think it’s connected?”

“Apparently the girl looks like our cases.” He glanced over at Amanda, who was pushing her long blond hair behind her ears with slim and elegant fingers. “And you.”

Danny turned back to his phone and opened the report from Seattle. Katie Bailey, 17 years old, disappeared from her grandfather’s restaurant the day before. Purse and phone found next to her parked car. He looked at the photo of a smiling Katie, and looked back at Amanda, who was watching him with questioning eyes. No doubt about it, Katie had the right look for Aleksei.

“She does look like you,” he said. “And like Maria and Anna.”

“Let me see.”

Danny pulled his phone away. “I know we’re kind of working as partners here but there are limits. I can’t show you a police report that technically I’m not even supposed to have.”

“Well then keep reading it and see if you find anything interesting.”

“Okay, Chief.”

Danny returned to the report. He felt a twitch of adrenalin as he read through the detective’s report of her interview with Katie’s parents. She had asked if Katie had any travel plans, and the parents had mentioned that the family just returned from a trip to Alaska. To the Arctic. And Katie had hated it as Katie was at the age where she hated traveling with her parents and brother.

It was clear the parents were desperate and babbling, but Danny was quickly convinced that their off-handed remark about the Arctic might just be the most important information they had shared.

“What is it?” Amanda asked. “You look like you’ve found something.”

“I might have. The missing girl recently went on a trip to the Arctic.”

“To Coldfoot?”

“I don’t know. I need to find out though.”

Danny continued paging through the report files. “But this doesn’t fit his pattern. He just got Maria. Why would he be going after another victim so soon?”

“Maybe he doesn’t stick to a pattern. Maybe he kidnaps women whenever he feels like it, and the Solstice was just a coincidence.”

“Maybe,” Danny said, unconvinced. “But I still think the Solstice is significant. Too many went missing on that day for it to be a coincidence.”

Danny sat up straight in his
chair. “I need to contact this detective.” He skimmed back through the report for a name. “Lauren Cooper. She needs to ask the parents if their trip included Coldfoot.”

Amanda felt her heart beating in her chest. “I can’t believe he got someone else. And a young girl? My God.”

“Yeah. Looks like Aleksei’s branching out and going younger.” Danny remembered the list John Fisher had given him, and the girls he believed were among Aleksei’s earliest victims. “Actually, I think he started out with young girls. Maybe he’s decided to go back to his roots.”

Danny stared at the photo of the pretty teenage girl smiling back at him from the pages of the police report, and was overcome with nausea. He stood up and paced the room as he called Seattle PD, and Detective Lauren Cooper.