Ten chapters... it feels like such a milestone! Good work, me. Thanks, me! Here's to ten more chapters!
Thanks again for all the kind words of encouragement. As mentioned last chapter, I try to give all my reviewers and PM supporters previews of upcoming chapters, but I don't always keep material in reserve. I think I'm all caught up, but please don't hesitate to remind me if I miss you!
Thanks as always to Miss Annavance92 for her beta work.
Happy (belated) Thursday,
-Kano
Moscow, Russia: Lower City: Ivanovich Residence
November 24, 1486; 8:34 AM
"Streltsy," Vlad repeated, letting the foreign word roll off his tongue. "Streltsy... What a strange word for a strange group of people."
"Strange? They are cowardly mercenaries! A dime a dozen! How is that strange?" Sophia rebutted.
"It's strange that a group of dogs like them would bark for their master, and not bite his hand."
Sophia tilted her head, wondering what was going on in the vampire's head. "What do you mean?"
"What does our dear Grand Prince Ivan have on them? Men do not throw away their lives for a ruler with no honor, like Ivan. He must have some way of keeping them under control..." Alucard mused.
Sophia nodded; it made sense. She bit her lip, thinking for a moment, but it wasn't the Streltsy on her mind. A hint of pink graced her cheeks, and she snuck a quick peek at Vlad through her blonde hair as it dangled over her ear. His pale skin was even fairer than hers, and even in the dim indoor light, it attracted the eyes to it, to him. By contrast, he had a dark look on his face, but that only served to make him more alluring. His blood red eyes reminded her that he wasn't just another man, that he was something more. She could already feel her heart beginning to race. Carefully, delicately, she gave into her instincts and rested her head ever so gently on his shoulder.
Vlad glanced at her curiously, and then went back to puzzling through Ivan's power structure. Sophia counted that as a success; he hadn't shoved her away like she feared. She let herself smile a little and savored her small victory.
And then Vlad stood up. "Food!" he declared as she slid to the floor.
Sophia sat up, rubbing her shoulder. "I can make you somet-"
Vlad grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ivan's feeding the Streltsy and their families! That's why he's letting the city starve in a year of record crops!" He wrapped her in an inescapable hug. "It's brilliant. Come with me!"
Sophia stood frozen for a moment after the vampire released her, memorizing the places his hands had grasped her arms, savoring the warmth of his chest against hers before it faded away into the cold night.
"Are you coming?" he asked impatiently, holding the door open for her.
"Wait up," she laughed. "Us mere mortals can't move as quickly as you."
"Grab that basket, then if you're going to take your sweet time," he teased back.
She reached down for the repurposed hamper with a puzzled look on her face and lifted the lid. Inside was a smorgasbord of food, enough for quite a few meals. "You really are hungry, aren't you?" she murmured almost inaudibly.
"Not in the least, otherwise I'd track down a guard to feast on," he said in response to her hypothetical question. "Just trust me."
Sophia nodded, preparing to do as she had so many times in these past months. Trusting Vlad was almost as natural as breathing. She slipped her feet into her outdoor shoes and shuffled after him, struggling with the heavy basket. After a few moments, the basket suddenly grew lighter and then lifted away altogether.
"Thanks," Sophia giggled as Vlad took the heavy parcel for her.
"Any time," he replied with a wide smile. Sophia couldn't help but smile back. His grin was so compelling, when he wasn't standing in the blood of his enemies, that is. She caught of the glimpse of Vlad's past life in that moment, the glorious Voivode of Wallachia. The girl could feel the blood rushing to her cheeks again.
The Russian beauty followed the vampire through the crowded streets of Moscow. They had only dodged skinny dogs and playful children for about two minutes when they stopped suddenly, so suddenly in fact that Sophia slammed into Vlad's back.
"Shh!" he told her. "We're here!"
"Here? Where is here? We're in the middle of nowhere!"
He rolled his eyes, extended a hand, and knocked on the wooden wall. It promptly fell over to reveal a huddled mass of people. Vlad knelt down, appearing to be entirely unphased by the progression of events.
"Kazimir Noscov?" he asked.
The man in the middle politely pushed his family aside. The woman who appeared to be his wife had tears streaming down her cheek. Sophia bit her lip, wondering how they saw Vlad. Why were they in hiding? Did they think Vlad was here to hurt them?
Vlad opened the basket and pulled out a little meat pie, a delicious pirozhok. Sophia watched as their eyes dilated. It was clear they were hungry. The girl reached into the basket and loaded her arms up with food: pirozhki, vatrushka, and syrniki. She then shuffled across the open space to the weeping woman. With a wide smile, Sophia handed the woman a tasty morsel.
"Thank you," Mrs. Noscov said gratefully.
Sophia happily emptied her arms, giving food to Kazimir and his family. One of his daughters, little Eleena, gave her a big hug with her face still covered in crumbs. She was so happy surrounded by this big, joyous family and their rejoicing that she didn't even notice when Vlad left the shack with Kazimir or when the pair returned.
Vlad placed a hand on Sophia's shoulder, nodding toward the door. It was time to leave. She hugged the children goodbye and, with a cheerful wave, followed the No-Life King out the door.
"That was fun," she chatted exuberantly on their walk home. "I feel like we really did something."
Vlad chuckled. "Yes, it certainly was a productive outing."
It wasn't until Christmas Eve that Sophia learned the hidden meaning behind Vlad's words.
"You can't be serious," Alucard groaned, crossing his arms over his chest.
"But I am," Anderson said. He held the door open for the sadistic vampire, ushering him inside the decrepit kitchen.
Alucard shot the man a pained look as he crossed the threshold, stepping one foot on the aged tile.
"Go on," the priest insisted, shooing him along with a wave of his hand and a wicked smile on his face.
Waiting inside for him was a middle-aged woman in a hairnet. Her dyed red hair, the same shade as her garish red lipstick, was poking through the net. "What have we got here, Father?" she asked in a heavy Cockney accent. "Fresh meat?"
"Fresher than your herb garden, Nellie," Anderson promised. "Show him the ropes. It'll do him some good."
"Let's see if he does anyone else any good today," Nellie sighed, eyeing the newcomer with a skeptical glance. "You'll want these," she added, handing the vampire a frilly apron, a pair of latex gloves, and a clean hairnet.
"I'll pass," Alucard hissed venomously. This punishment was tedious enough without the ridiculous getup.
Suddenly, he found Nellie blocking his way into the kitchen. "Do not pass go, and do not collect two hundred pounds." She stood on her tiptoes and tossed the pink apron, lace and all, over his shoulders, patting it with a self-satisfied smile on her face.
He narrowed his eyes at the tiny, color-blind woman. Six hundred years ago, she would have lost her hand... and her arm... and stomach... But that was then and this was now, and now Anderson stood, tapping his toe as if to remind the vampire that he had better hurry up and listen to the cook or he could kiss his financial records good bye. So it was, with a rising temper, that he ripped the piece of fabric from his shoulder and wrapped it around his waist. He snatched the hairnet from the bossy volunteer, pulling it over his hair, and then yanked the gloves onto his hands with two loud snaps.
The sassy cook then allowed Alucard into the kitchen, a smug smile plastered on her face. Anderson gestured inside the door, looking almost as gleeful as Nellie. Alucard shuffled inside, muttering darkly.
"Time to see if you can tell a ladle from a lentil," Nellie droned, clearly skeptical of her new cook's skills, and attitude for that matter.
"One is a type of food, and the other you can shove up-"
Alucard was interrupted by a swift elbow to the ribs, courtesy of Father Anderson. He was also met with a silver soup ladle to the shin from Nellie.
"Rule number one," she declared. "There will be no back-talk in my kitchen, is that clear Mister Sassy Pants?"
"Look, lady," he spat, rubbing his fresh battle wound, "I'm not a very nice man. I'll make food for the unwashed masses because I have to, but you had better not expect me to do it with a smile."
Father Anderson leaned over and whispered in the angry vampire's ear. "You'll do it with a smile, or I'll shred your precious documents."
If the vampire still had blood coursing through his veins, his blood pressure would have shot off the charts. As it was, his breathing became so violent that his shoulders rose and fell with every temperamental gasp. He took one deep breath, drawing air into the very bottom of his lungs. He then let it out slowly, releasing his anger with the airstream. "Fine," he said at last, making eye contact with the ferocious Nellie.
Nellie balked. For the first time in Anderson's recollection, she took a step backward. This was a woman who had watched a scruffy homeless man piss all over her kitchen and a mud-covered child scream at the top of her tiny lungs for three hours straight. She had been assaulted, insulted, mocked, teased, and wheedled all without batting an eyelash. But this... this was too much.
Alucard showed his teeth in a wide, awkward smile. His face was meant to scowl or smirk, but a toothy smile made it look... wrong. The pointed teeth only added to the disturbing visage.
"Let's get you started on the prep station," Nellie murmured, a little less forcefully than usual. She warily handed Alucard a carving knife and guided him toward a roast ham, still steaming from it's stay in the oven.
The thing was, Alucard prefered meats of a raw variety. He also didn't have the manners to cut his food. Slicing a ham was something completely foreign to him, but Nellie didn't need to know that. The vampire raised the dull knife above his head and brought it down on the ham shank with considerable force. The blade cut through the meat, gradually slowing down until it stopped right in the center, embedded a centimeter deep in the hambone. With a cheeky smile that said 'I clearly know what I'm doing,' Alucard proceeded to push the knife down, though the difficulty of it surprised him. He tapped into his vampiric strength for a moment and forced the tempered steel through the marrow and bone, snapping it like a Kit-Kat bar. He carved through the rest of the ham and down into the wooden cutting board with a self-satisfied air about him.
Nellie raised one eyebrow and placed a hand on her hip. "This just ain't your station, honey," she sighed, shaking her head. She ripped the knife from the vampire's hand and replaced it with a soup ladle. "Maybe it's better if you just stay out of the kitchen all together. Go serve some people."
Alucard rolled his eyes. "She wanted me to cut it, and I did," he explained to a sniggering Anderson as soon as the red-haired volunteer walked away to stir a pot.
The priest might have had a snappy comeback if he wasn't laughing so hard that he could barely breathe.
With a displeased look on his face, the frilly-aproned vampire slunk toward the waiting line of the hungry homeless. The ladle wasn't a new invention, and it was pretty self-explanatory, but Alucard underestimated its malicious desires. He dipped the utensil into the kettle of soup then lifted it over a scruffy-looking man's chipped bowl. He tried to pour the chicken noodle soup into the bowl, but the ladle... the ladle worked it's evil magic. Not a single drop of the golden broth made it to its target, dripping down the ladle, off the bottom, and away between the cracks in the concrete floor.
The homeless man looked at Alucard like he was crazy, likely wondering if the unwilling volunteer had ever served soup before.
Alucard, meanwhile, pursed his lips at the infernal utensil, something which did not escape the attention of a very cross Nellie. She stormed over and ripped the ladle from the frustrated man's hands, then stared at Father Anderson. "Why did you send me this git?! He's useless!" she insisted.
"Our friend here needed a lesson," the priest explained.
"A lesson! My kitchen is not a place for lessons! It's a place for food!" she hollered, rounding on the holy man, snatching a wooden spoon off the counter.
"Lessons don't feed people! Competent volunteers do!" she shrieked, brandishing the spoon at Anderson. "You better be putting on an apron and making up for this mess!"
"Yes ma'am!" Father Anderson answered, snatching the hair net off of Alucard's head.
"You might want this," Alucard said with a smirk as he untied his apron for the priest.
"And this," added Nellie, holding out her hand for the vampire's gloves. He happily forked them over, to which she replied, "Now get out of my kitchen!"
Stick around for next Thursday when Vlad marches to war against the Streltsy and Alucard tries to discover Sophia's next victim before she strikes again.