The Romanov's Pursuit (14 page)

“So what is the real reason for this chitchat?”

“To offer you a little background on the twins. Sometimes they may act as things don’t affect them, but it really does. Do you know what else I see when I look at you?”

Nya rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed. “I’m sure
you’ll
tell
me
whether I care to hear or not.”

A slight smile tilted his lips. “You’re a very perceptive woman, Nya.”

She shrugged. “
Well
,
are you going to tell me or not?”

He caught her chin between his finger and thumb and tilted her head so that their eyes connected. His eyes color was the same shade of ice blue as the twins. “What I see is a woman who has shut herself off from the rest of the world because she’s too scared to live. You’re an immortal Nya, embrace it. You can choose to be happy or miserable in your memories. My brothers circled the Earth several times over to track you down because they weren’t willing to let the past dictate their future. They went crazy when you couldn’t immediately be found.” Steel released her face from his gentle grip and stood up. “Now that they’ve caught you, don’t make them regret it.”

And with that, Steel walked away.

Chapter Thirteen

“Do you think this could be connected to the other bodies that were found in Mother’s house?” Blade touched the woman on the ground whose gaze was frozen in fear. All natural color had been drained and her body was ice cold, signaling that she’d been dead for quite some time.

Cutter frowned, wishing he had the answer. “It’s exactly like the other bodies we found but I don’t understand what the connection to us is.”

Steel knelt beside the body and placed his hand on top of its head. “I don’t either. I’m almost certain that this woman was a witch but I can’t detect what her power level once was.”

“Do you think her power level really matters?” Cutter asked.

Steel began a search through the dead witch’s clothing, probably to find anything that might identify her. “I think it does. Simply judging from what we already know, it seems the culprit is hitting low-level witches and wizards. I’m not sure exactly how the soul-suck spell works until we hear back from Sasha, but all those bodies were the family’s servants.”

Cutter furrowed his brow as he tried to figure what his brother was getting at. Steel had a habit of
over
-
explaining
things that could have been short and sweet. It was probably a trait of being the oldest sibling. “I’m not sure where you’re going with this?”

“Every servant who worked for our family was conquered. They traded their powers and freedom in exchange for their lives.”

Long before a Council of Immortals had been formed there were no rules amongst immortals other than the ones they set for themselves. When another witch or warlock killed one of their
kind
, they were able to absorb some of the slain victim’s powers. Over time those confrontations turned into battles where there would be actual challenges, and the loser would transfer their powers to the winner and agree to a period of servitude usually, two to three centuries in lieu of their lives. Ivan had amassed a great deal of his power and collected many servants through this method. When Cutter and his brothers were younger they too participated in this barbaric practice until they realized how inhumane the practice was. It was no better than the slavery humans participated in. “Well, if you’re saying that this spell only works on bound witches and warlocks then that wouldn’t explain Edmund. His powers weren’t bound.”

“No, but he was a low-level warlock. I wouldn’t call his abilities extraordinary so I’m guessing this spell may be easier to perform on those who can’t fight back.
Mother
said that she was able to fight off the shadow creature that came in her house and though her skills aren’t as adept as they should be for someone her age, she still has a great deal of power in her arsenal.”

“That’s possible,” Blade agreed. “But I can’t shake the feeling that all those deaths were somehow tied to us.”

“Then explain this woman.” Cutter pointed to the body. Upon further inspection, she looked familiar, but he couldn’t place her.

Steel stood up. “I’ve seen this woman before, but I can’t think from where.”

They had run into dead ends all week as they exhausted their contacts in search for answers. Steel had turned to Dante Grimaldi, head of the Underground, a secret agency that was dedicated to taking down any rogue threat. It had started out for just vampires but had been extended to include other immortals. He and his brothers had been on several missions for the Underground but now they were the ones who needed help, and he appreciated that his friend was willing to lend the resources needed to follow up on these leads. Dante sent some of his agents out to investigate anything that might be connected to the soulless bodies, which is how they learned about this woman who had been found in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Moscow. It was only a short distance away from the estate that his parents used to live in.

“We should snap a picture of her and show it to Mother. She might know who this is.” Blade suggested.

“Good idea,” Cutter agreed, removing his cell phone from his pocket and doing just that.

By now Steel had distanced himself from the body and seemed to be staring off into space.

Cutter walked over to his older brother. “Is something the matter?”

Steel shook her head. “Something occurred to me. Don’t you think it’s odd that we’d find this woman only a few miles away from our parents’ old estate?”

The house Steel referred to had been the family home for many centuries. After his father had been killed they’d released all the servants in residence from the debt despite their mother’s objections and boarded up the house. There were too many bad memories attached to it for any of them to continue living there.

Blade nodded. “I did wonder about that.”

“It has to tie
into
the other incidents,” Steel continued. “But do you get the feeling that Mother isn’t telling us everything. I’m almost certain she’s hiding something.”

Their mother was probably one of the most selfish people Cutter knew but something of this nature seemed to be way beyond her scope. “Are you saying she’s involved in this somehow? If she were practicing black magic wouldn’t he know?”

Steel begin to pace the floor. “Not right away, besides, I have her comings and goings monitored just in case she gets it into her head to continue our father’s work.”

Cutter glanced at his twin who seemed equally nonplussed. “We didn’t realize you were keeping tabs on our mother. Has she given you a reason to think she’d get herself involved in a scheme like this?”

Steel sighed. “Honestly, I don’t think she’s involved in this per se but she was after all our father’s mate for several centuries. I wouldn’t put it past her to align herself with someone very powerful, but I didn’t think it would hurt to keep track of her activities.”

Again Cutter looked at Blade.
Ever since our father died, Steel has become very paranoid. Maybe he’s the one not telling us something.

You and I both know Steel wouldn’t hide anything from us if he found out something important. He just takes his role as head of the family seriously.

It was so like Blade to give people the benefit of the doubt.

“I know you two are having a mental conversation
about
me and maybe you think I’m going too far but I’m responsible for taking care of this family and I will not allow anything to happen to any of you. In case you’ve forgotten, our mother isn’t exactly innocent. She was right there with our father, helping him carry out his schemes. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s noticed that she’s a witch who has lived nearly a full
mille
n
nium
and is only at a level five. She transferred some of her powers to Ivan to help him with his plans. She likes power as much as he did, but she was just willing to allow someone else to do the work for her.”

Steel made some good points. Cutter had figured that is what had happened to his mother’s powers but he’d never quite jumped to the conclusion that she would latch on to another powerful warlock. There weren’t many warlocks stronger than the ones in his family and those who were kept to themselves. “We’re not faulting you for being cautious but Blade and I feel that you’re not telling us everything you know either.”

“Trust me, what I know you know,” Steel answered firmly.

“We believe you,” Blade interjected. “In the meantime, I think we should get rid of this body and head back to our home. I don’t feel comfortable leaving Nya and Mother by themselves for this long.”

“Agreed.” Cutter had been reluctant to leave Nya at the villa with only their mother in residence, which is why there were a few agents from the Underground watching their home while they were gone. Nonetheless, it wasn’t the same as being there. Besides, in the past week, he felt that they were starting to make some progress with Nya. She seemed to be opening up about her former life although she was still guarded, but something was better than nothing, and he couldn’t wait to get back home and he was certain Blade was as well.

The three men stood over the body and whispered a chant together to make the body disappear. Once it was gone, Steel turned to Cutter and Blade. “Now that this is taken care of I’m going to head back to England to search for more clues because that seems to be where the bulk of the activity occurred. You two should go back to your villa and I’ll contact you if I find anything else. I trust you’re okay with our mother staying with you until we figure out what’s going on?”

“We’ll make due.” Cutter turned to his twin. “Let’s go home to our woman.”

<><><><><>

Cutter and Blade had been gone for less than 24 hours and she was ready to strangle Elizabeth Romanova. Not only was the woman incredibly rude, but she expected Nya to entertain her. She reminded Nya of Mary
Randolph
, self-centered and entitled.

“Nia. I’m speaking to you.” Elizabeth snapped her fingers, demanding Nya’s attention.

Nya didn’t bother to correct the witch because she’d been called several variations of her name since they’d met. She’d come to the library to escape the other woman’s presence but looked like she wouldn’t be granted any peace. She thought with the twins gone off on their mission she would at least be able to have some time to herself and think about everything that had happened in the past week, but this woman made it impossible. With a heavy sigh, she closed the book in her lap and glared at the woman who’d suddenly appeared in the library.

“I heard you the first time you shouted for me, Elizabeth.”

The blonde witch crossed her arms over her chest. “Then why didn’t you come? I’ve been calling you for at least five minutes.”

“Because first of all, my name isn’t Nia. And second, I’m not your servant. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m ignoring you.”

“You’re very rude. I don’t understand what my sons see in you. You’re a vampire, but not a very old one. What do you have to offer them?”

“Considering they pursued me, why don’t you ask them? Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to finish reading my book.” She reopened her book and attempted to concentrate but apparently Elizabeth refused to be ignored. Before she realized what happened, the book flew out of Nya’s hand, even though the other woman was standing on the other side of the room. Nya really fucking hated magic with a passion. Trying to hold on to her temper, she stood up and walked to
one of
the expansive
bookshelves
and searched for something else to read. She hoped Elizabeth would get the hint but the other woman seemed hell-bent on annoying her.

All the books flew off the shelf and started flying around the room. Nya had to duck so that she wouldn’t get hit. “What the hell is wrong with you?” she yelled.

“I hate being ignored!” Elizabeth screamed back.

The woman was clearly unhinged. She sent books flying and one thumped Nya in the back of the head. Hard.

She’d had enough. Nya let her incisors descend and she charged the
witch
, managing to catch her before she could teleport away. The momentum of her crashing into Elizabeth’s body sent them both to the floor.

Before Elizabeth could let out so much as a yelp, Nya wrapped her fingers around the witch’s throat and squeezed with all her strength.

“I told you to leave me alone but you wouldn’t listen.”

Elizabeth turned bright red and then blue as she clawed at Nya’s hands. For some unexplainable reason the anger she felt turned into rage and she felt the need to maim and destroy this woman. The face before her morphed into someone who still haunted her nightmares. Mary
Randolph
. She could practically hear Mary taunting her.
Your baby is in hell, the same place you’re going
.

Elizabeth seemed to draw her final breath when voices cut through the fog her brain was in.

“What the hell is going on here?”

“Nya, no!”

The next thing she knew, she was being yanked off the witch by an invisible force she wasn’t strong enough to fight off. Once she realized what was happening to her she saw Cutter and Blade standing amongst the chaos. She looked down to see Elizabeth whimpering on the floor, holding her neck that was covered in purple bruises.

“She’s a monster,” Elizabeth whispered.

What had happened to her? One second she was trying to mind her own business and the next thing she knew she was attacking Elizabeth. Nya probably could have ignored the other woman’s tantrum, but something had come over her she couldn’t explain. It felt like she was being controlled.

Seeing the look of concern and surprise on Cutter and Blade’s faces was more than she could handle
in
that moment so she did the only thing she could. She fled the room.