(Author's note: Thank you for everyone who continued to encourage me to keep writing this story. I really appreciated the kind words and now that life has settled a bit more I am trying to finish strong, here is an extra long chapter hope you enjoy it!)
Chapter 19
Rose POV
We turn around at the sound of a male voice coming from the hallway we just went through. A male voice I had heard for the last time almost a year ago at the Academy when he had tried to escape after making another classmate, his daughter, turn Strigoi and attempt to kill me.
As I fix my eyes on the man standing about 10 meters from us, I can't help but notice he looks just as he had that first time Lissa had been forced to heal him; mid-forties, couple silver hairs and confident demeanor, which is also aided by the gun he is casually pointing at Lila, who is the one closest to him.
Before we can say anything else, Victor carries on. "I am happy to see how your spirit training has progressed Vasilissa, already able to tell when an object has been infused with spirit. Imagine all the things you could continue learning if you had proper instruction." He leans slightly on one leg as he surveys the rest of us. He tries to appear nonchalant, but I can see his eyes linger on the door behind Lisa and Dimitri, as if checking its still untouched, and then his gaze lands on me.
"Oh my, but I see maybe spirit training may be even more useful for practical matters. I see much has changed for you as well, Rosemarie." He smiles slightly, though I can tell his grip on the gun tightens.
"We'll today is your lucky day," I say, "you get to showoff your crappy teaching skills and help us sort through this mess." I am already calculating how fast I can get to him and disarm him, and also kind of wondering how much a bullet will hurt if I have to use myself as an undead shield while disarming him. "Or maybe we should ask your brother instead, is he around?"
Though he tries to hide it, I see his gaze harden, but he keeps his casual demeanor. "It seems you have me at a disadvantage, as you have all the information. Why don't we go somewhere else we can continue this chat?"
"Why? Something you are hiding here?" Dimitri chimes in. "The gun sure makes it seem you were expecting even less friendly company than us."
"What, this? It's a big city, you never know what kind of trouble you could run into. I just thought Rosemarie would enjoy being outside for a change, I assume you don't get out much lately, with the sun and all."
I suppress the urge to throttle him and say casually. "While I appreciate the concern, you can just tell us how to fix this here, and we can part ways amicably."
"Please, you really are expecting me to believe you don't have a squad of Guardians waiting for me after I give you the information you want? If you want my help, you will let me leave, unescorted, and we can meet at another location of my choosing."
I'm about to tell him what I think about his suggestion when I hear a faint sound to my back, like a lock turning in. The door opens slightly, and we see a man standing there. Medium build, shabby beard, and slightly unfocused eyes, he stares blankly at us, and then his eyes set on Victor. The dazed look sharpens as he takes in the scene.
"Robert" Victor says, his voice suddenly gathering a gentle touch. "Go back inside and close the door. I am just talking with some people who got turned around but are now leaving."
Robert hesitates in the doorway, looking at us. "Their auras seem angry brother." He lingers on Lissa for a bit. "You're… like me." He cocks his head, seeming more like a curious child than a man in his fifties.
"Yeah… I'm a spirit user." Lissa replies. "How did you know that?"
"Your aura, it has a golden hue to it. You can't see mine?" Victor shifts slightly closer, opening the door wider.
"No, I haven't been using Spirit long…." Lissa trails off as she stares down at Robert's right foot, where a shackle is placed.
"What the hell?" Lissa turns to stare a Victor. "Why is he chained?" Her voice climbs an octave higher than normal and she takes a step towards Victor.
"It's for his protection." Victor says, lowering the gun slightly. "He is not, present all the time, this way he remembers he has to stay here, right Robert?"
"Y-Yes," Robert replies. "My head is so full sometimes, Victor says that it would be dangerous for me to get turned around in the city, and here he can come visit me all the time, and I can control who comes in" he gestures to the chain, which now that he has widened the door we can see is actually attached not to a back wall but to the door itself. He must be powering the door with spirit, effectively feeding power to his own cage against anyone opening the door.
"Visit." Lissa says, her anger raising. "And I assume this has nothing to do with having a personal healer anytime you need it, who cannot leave."
"Unlike you, Vasilissa, Robert understands that everyone has a role to play for the greater good and is happy to help out his older brother."
"You are using him as a human battery!" Lissa yells. "He should be in a hospital; you can't continue draining him like this!" I feel her emotions continue to climb through the bond; for a normally non-violent person, Lissa looks ready to do some serious damage to Victor now.
"Actually Victor, there is no reason to keep him chained if you are here to watch over him, and plus, looks to me like your brother is really who we would want to talk with as we are looking for a spirit user who could help us turn Rose back." Lila cuts in before things escalate further. I am not sure if she is using some compulsion on Victor, and hope that if she is Victor is too busy noting her still Dhampir exterior to consider she may be influencing him. Regardless, after a moment of consideration, he nods, and reaches into his pocket to bring out a key, which he then throws over to Lissa.
The fact he then beckons Robert over to his side, which effectively has them facing us with their back to the exit hallway is not lost on me, so I am ready just in case they decide to bolt out of the tunnel.
"So," I say to Victor and Robert. "How do we fix me?" I decide to keep Lila's potential turning back quiet for now, the less information we offer these two, the better.
"Why that's a bit hasty, don't you think Rosemary?" Victor replies, I really hate him using my full name like he is still some elder I should be paying respect to. "We haven't yet discussed what this information is worth to you, and more importantly, what you'll give us in return."
"Excuse me?" I am starting to lose my patience. Though the charms Lissa built into my bracelet drain some of the darkness away, my impulses are getting harder to reign in.
"Of course, you wouldn't expect us to just offer our society's biggest hope out like it is nothing. Certainly, we are entitled to something in return." At his side, Robert's eyes keep moving from each of us, as if he is trying to focus on one place and follow the conversation. I briefly consider going the old-fashioned violence route but dismiss it, it is too risky if he decides to use the gun in these close quarters. I look over a Dimitri and nod in his direction.
"What do you want?" Dimitry cuts in.
"Well as you can see, our current situation is less than ideal. Pesky Tarasov's Guardians are still combing the city which makes it hard for my brother and I to leave, and since my… detainment, access to financial funds has been cut off. Thus," He summarizes "I need access to a private jet, which I presume you have access to Princess, and some funds to leave New York for a while. Once at our new destination, I will let you know how you can bring Rosemarie back."
"How do we know you won't just disappear again and not tell us anything if we let you go now?" I don't bring up the other part, that we could just get the information needed and notify the Guardians about wherever the plane is meant to land.
"Ah, because Vasilissa here would come with us of course. She can then relay the information we provide her when she meets up with you again." I stiffen at this. There is absolutely no way this psycho is getting alone with Lissa again. Christian steps in front of Lissa at this, clearly echoing my thoughts.
"Christian comes with us on the plane, and you have a deal" I do a double take when Lissa sidesteps around Christian to stand in front of Victor and agrees to his terms. "Listen." She says to us all, before we start yelling. "at the rate this is going," she quickly glances at Lila at this, "we don't have time to lose. If he tries anything funny, Christian and I can handle it, and with our plane's documents we can pass them off as unnamed passengers to wherever they need to go."
"We'll then," Victor seems very satisfied at this "We can get going. We have to make a quick stop on our way out of town, you are all welcome to escort us if you prefer." Lissa nods and starts walking the way we came in towards the exit, so we start following them.
"This is a bad idea." Lila whispers when she passes by. I really hope she is not right.
We trail Victor and Robert for close to an hour to one of the New York outer boroughs. After a lifetime in an academy in the middle of nowhere you would think I would be happy about being in a big city, but the heightened smell in a city of 8 million with trash and constructions all around us really makes me wish I was back in Montana, and not just because we are walking through a deserted part of the city with my least favorite person in the world.
"So, where exactly are we going again?" Christian asks again. After exciting the tunnels, Victor mentioned some documents he needs to collect before they can leave New York, which was the reason they were in the city in the first place was to get forged paperwork for their journey outside of the US. Looking at poor Robert who is already showing signs of tiredness I feel a twinge of sympathy about him bring dragged in all this by his brother, and how you can't always choose family. On the other side, I wonder what he was doing before Victor came along, or if he would have been hidden away from public view by the rest of the Dashkov family; after all, weakness of any kind, not to mention mental instability, was not something the aristocrats liked to have the public see.
"Just a few minutes or so." Victor says. "He should be there already to meet us."
We walk for a minute or two more and Victor stops on a side alley and motions us to follow. On the other side it opens up to reveal an open space of some sort, probably a parking lot that is used by the surrounding buildings. Or would be at least if the buildings were occupied. Now that we stopped walking, I notice there is no noise coming from the buildings, which has most of its window's boarded up or broken, graffiti on the side and trash pilling on the inside parking lot.
"Okay, I think this is the place." Victor smiles at us, pulling from his pocket a small device. He pushes on what appears to be a small remote control, and a siren starts blaring from somewhere inside the nearest building. In rapid succession, Victor has pulled his gun again before we can react fires it at Lila's stomach.
Lila grunts and goes down clutching her stomach.
"What the hell are you doing?!" My adrenaline starts flowing, not sure where the threat will be coming from. Victor points it to Lissa, just a few feet away from where he stopped.
"Now Rosemarie, I'm not sure if you are fast enough to stop the bullet this close, so let's just all calm down for a few minutes. You may want to check on your friend, she doesn't look so good."
It takes all my self-control not to jump at his throat then and there, but he's right, I may not be fast enough to stop him from firing at Lissa from that range, enhanced speed or not.
"Victor, we had a deal, you were getting out what are you doing?" Lissa pleads. I feel through the bond she is trying to remain calm, weighting if compulsion will work with Robert potentially in on this double cross.
"Well, it is pretty simple really." Victor says, gun still aimed at her head. "You didn't actually think I would give up Moroi's way out of the darkness and just disappear to be forgotten. No Vasilissa, I plan to bring this knowledge back to court, negotiate my freedom and become King. Strigoi have been a plague for far too long, and our people just cower in fear and send our Guardians to be slaughtered. We are losing ground, and we need to give a pulse to the system that will bring us into the light" I can see he truly believes in his cause, twisted methods as he may have. "I've been in New York coming up with a plan to return to the Queen's good graces, and as fate would have it, what better way to wake people up to the truly important matters than by having a martyr to light the first fire. Poor Vasilissa, who tried to save her best friend after getting turned, only to be killed by the strigoi she tried to save. Her long-time friend Victor tried to save her but arrived too late, only to learn the truth about saving our race and be forgiven by the princess on her dying breath. The story really writes itself don't you think?" Victor smiles manically.
"Really moving indeed." Says a voice suddenly. A voice I recognize even as a chill goes through my strigoi body, as the voice comes from the entryway of one of the buildings. As I move my gaze from Victor to the new threat and I see Martin, the very strigoi that turned me standing there.
"Ah, just in time." Victor says smug. "You would be surprised how easy it is to find interested parties in finishing off the last Dragomir, and this one seems to have a personal score to set with you Rosemarie." I'm still frozen to the spot, flashes of my capture and beatings coming back to me, of Martin's arm chocking me as his blood turned me. A few steps to my right Dimitry has his stake out assessing Martin's moves. He steps outside the building, and I see 5 more figures follow him out.
"Oh shit." Christian whispers. He brings his hands closer to his body, fists closed, as if trying to concentrate and bring out the fire which would be very effective if he had ever been trained in combat.
Oh, shit indeed.