Dimitri accelerated rapidly while firing question after question in Russian to his grandmother. I could see my man's jaw tense, and the needle on the accelerator inching even higher. I stayed silent, but as Yeva offered more information in their native tongue, I was getting increasingly frustrated. I wanted to know what was going on, goddammit!
Pavel's turned in his seat, starting to mutter instructions to his Guardians when he caught my expression. Appreciating I couldn't speak Russian, he quickly switched to English.
"One Strigoi, so far. Castile has engaged and is holding his own. As soon as we get there, we will exit the van and secure the area. If it is safe, we are to move the ladies to this vehicle. Rose? You and Boris will stay in the van and defend and the ladies if necessary. If there are too many for us to defeat, Boris you're to drive Rose and the women to safety."
I gritted my teeth. It was the standard plan in such situations, but if they thought I was going to stay put and leave my man in danger, then they had another thing coming. If push came to shove, and I sincerely hope it didn't, I would be by Dimitri's side, giving it my all. It wasn't just his family out there; I considered them mine now, too.
But there was no point worrying Dimitri and Pavel by announcing that fact. So I nodded in agreement, keeping my plans to myself and hoping I wouldn't need to enact them.
"We're about three minutes away now," Dimitri said, having also switched to English. "We're going to lose phone reception as we have to go through a tunnel. They're not too far on the other side."
I shuddered. I didn't need Dimitri or Pavel to spell it out. One of the first things we learned in Bodyguard Theory and Personal Protection was to avoid long tunnels whenever possible when trip planning. They were a notorious hideout for Strigoi, impervious to sunlight during daylight hours. Even older style tunnels had air circulation service rooms and pedestrian emergency exits that were rarely checked. They were the perfect location for Strigoi and were often used as an impromptu den for Strigoi on the move. No one was saying it, but the fact a Strigoi had happened upon Eddie and the Belikova ladies so close to a tunnel was unlikely to be a coincidence, so we could only hope there was not a whole nest of Strigoi based there.
"The tunnel is fairly straight, and traffic is light. I'm going to take it as fast as I can," my Russian God declared.
He said goodbye to Yeva, instructing her to keep ringing the number and we'd answer as soon as we had cell coverage again.
Thankfully there were dual parallel tunnels, one for each direction, so we didn't have to factor in oncoming traffic. Dimitri centered the van between the two lanes, put the high-beams on the car and stepped up the pace even further. We were pretty much low flying through the tunnel. Dimitri and Pavel both paying close attention out the windscreen, the guardians on each side of the vehicle watching the sides for anything unusual.
"Car ahead," Pavel noted tersely, Dimitri grunting in acknowledgment. He immediately dimmed the headlights and moved into the correct lane to overtake the slow-moving vehicle. Once we'd passed, he moved back into the center of the two lanes, switching the lights back onto high beam.
"We're about halfway now," he said after what seemed like about half an hour. It was more like a minute and a half, but this tunnel just seemed to go on forever. But much as I would breathe a sigh of relief when we were through it, I was also terrified at what we might find at the other end.
Ten minutes was a long time fighting a Strigoi, and I could only hope that Eddie was still holding his own. The alternative that Eddie might meet his end on the side of a freeway so far from home was simply too horrific to consider – and that was before I contemplated what might happen to Yeva, Olena and Sonya if Eddie were unsuccessful fending off the Strigoi, or if more had appeared.
"Open door left-hand side," Pavel observed, and turning to the left I had the briefest image of an emergency exit door slightly ajar, lit from within by artificial lighting. It was our most significant sign yet that Strigoi were indeed using this place for shelter and possibly as a base for hunting. I didn't see any others as we thundered past, but I wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad thing.
"Rose? Do you feel anything?"
One of Abe's Guardians looked at me oddly as I considered Dimitri's question. I knew Dimitri meant my ability to sense when Strigoi were near. I couldn't feel anything right now, and told him so, reluctantly adding that I didn't really know how accurate my feelings were and from how far out I would sense anything. However, I promised if my feelings changed, I'd let him know.
"Alright - get ready, the end of the tunnel is approaching," he warned, his voice tight.
We were all tense, the Guardians unbuckling their safety belts, prepared to spring out of the van as soon as we stopped. Pavel named the Guardians in the back one by one, listing the order in which they'd leave the vehicle by the side sliding door. It was a smart move; even half a second could be the difference between life and death, so by ordering their exit from the vehicle everyone would be ready to spring into action.
I still wasn't happy about being ordered to stay in the van, but hopefully, Dimitri, Pavel, and the three other Guardians would be enough to contain the situation. If not, I'd be out there; orders be damned.
"Here we go," Dimitri said as we exited the tunnel almost at the same time as his cell started ringing. That was a relief. Presumably, if his phone was ringing someone was still alive to ring it! Pavel was pressing connect when Dimitri snapped, "I see them!"
He started rapidly decelerating, and before I knew it, he was crossing the grassy center divide and pulling up behind Olena's old car where it sat on the side of the road, its hazard lights blinking despondently in the gloom. They couldn't have broken down in a more miserable, desolate spot.
"Go go go!" Pavel urged, opening the passenger door and exiting the vehicle almost before the tires had ground to a stop on the gravel of the road shoulder. Beside me, the Guardians exited the van precisely as planned, slamming the door behind them and racing forward towards the defective vehicle, sizing up the situation. But my eyes were trained on the sight in front of me, illuminated by the van's headlights; Eddie leaning against the side of Olena's car, a body at his feet, a stake still grasped in his hand.
My friend was hunched over clutching his abdomen, and I could see his shirt was bloody. His face looked pained, and while I was looking at him, all I could see was Mason's lifeless eyes. I couldn't lose him! I couldn't lose him, too! So before Boris had a chance to react, I'd flung open the sliding door of the van and was running toward Eddie.
"Eddie?" I sobbed as I got close to him. "Are you ok?!"
"Rose! Get back in the vehicle," Dimitri growled. "The area is not yet secure!"
I stopped and felt with my mind.
"We're good – there are no others near," I declared nervously before coming up alongside Eddie.
"I'm ok," he rasped, trying to straighten up a little. "The blood's not mine. It's just a stitch."
"A stitch?"
"I ate too much before we left and with the unexpected exercise…"
Eddie's eyes met mine, and we broke out into maniacal laughter, tinged with more than a hint of hysteria. We were still laughing as I drew him into a long hard hug.
"Got yourself another molnija there, Castile!"
"Yeah well – got a few yet 'til I catch up with you," he joked, walking with his arm around my shoulder as we went over to the van.
Olena and Sonya were already seated in the middle row, both looking wide-eyed and shocked. Yeva was sitting in the row in front of them apparently unperturbed, but I noticed the tremor in her hand as she patted Eddie's cheek when he climbed into the van.
"You did a good job. Thank you, Eddison."
Eddie's full name sounded odd coming from her lips. I didn't appreciate she even knew it. Usually, she called him 'the young man.'
"That's my job," he said easily, seating himself in the back row.
Happy to see him settled, I walked back over to where Pavel and Dimitri had their heads under the hood of Olena's vehicle.
"Try it now. If we can get it started and limp it home, we might be able to repair it," Pavel mused.
Dimitri nodded, looking stressed out. He climbed into the vehicle trying to start the engine, but it wasn't going to happen. He wound down the window.
"It's too dangerous to try anything with it tonight. The best we can do is push it off the side of the road and hope it's still here in the morning."
Pavel and Dimitri emptied the car of the various bags and boxes from Olena and Yeva's shopping in Omsk, then pushed the car off the side of the road, partially concealing it behind a large shrub. The other Guardians likewise moved the Strigoi body, hiding it so the sun's first light could take care of it if the Alchemists hadn't got to it first. One of the Guardians pulled out his phone and photographed the corpse from several angles, SMSing the photos to the local Alchemist with the exact GPS location and crediting the kill to 'Novice Eddison Castile.'
"That's new," I commented. Kills were usually called into the closest Alchemist branch and taken care of if needs be. I'd never seen anyone text in a kill.
"A request came out about it a few days back," Pavel explained. "The local Alchemists want us to text them with the GPS and any details. Said it makes it easier to divide up the cases between them and find them and all that. I think they want us to text because the Alchemists don't like to talk to us," he chortled. Thinking back on my own very limited experiences with the Alchemists, I thought he might have a point.
We were soon back in the van, Dimitri explaining to his mother it was safest to leave her vehicle where it was and come back at first light to try and fix it. Olena nodded, knowing that what her son said was right, but I could tell she was worried. While Baia was not a large town, that car represented her family's independence, and I knew there wasn't the money to replace it if it were gone in the morning or couldn't be fixed.
"We're one seat short," Eddie announced as Pavel, Dimitri and I went to get into the van.
"I'll drive, you sit in the back. Rose can sit on your lap," Pavel said to Dimitri with a smile.
Accordingly, Dimitri climbed into the last remaining seat in the back corner, positioning himself before patting his lap invitingly. I sat down, wrapping my arm around his shoulders and giving my tired, worried man a lingering kiss on his temple.
He squeezed me tight before pulling out his phone and placing a quick call to Karolina to let her know all were well and we were on our way back home.
The mood in the van was still tense, so attempting to distract everyone from what could have been, I asked Sonya for a description of everything that had been done at the unit. As anticipated, she had a lot to say.
"Rose it's beautiful! So much better than I'd ever dreamed. The IKEA kitchen is in, and it's perfect in the space. It's so bright, and now the walls have been removed the back area is huge! The breakfast bar is enormous, and I'll be able to prepare food as I watch TV. I can just see spending all day there with the baby. Kirill has put in a huge brand new fridge, cooker and I got to choose appliances from the shop. I didn't want to go overboard, so I just got a kettle and a toaster, so far."
She stopped for about half a second to draw breath before continuing.
"The flooring that Eddie suggested is perfect. I originally wanted a darker wood look, but Eddie and Kirill persuaded me to go for a lighter timber, and I am so glad they did! The floors match in beautifully with the timber bench top, and it makes the whole place look so much lighter! The new toilet is in, and they're putting in the new bathroom in the next few days. Kirill chose white subway tiles, and I wasn't thrilled, but when he showed me the picture from the magazine of the look he is going for I loved it."
Olena was smiling as she listened to her daughter's excited rambling. It was a relief to have something pleasant to focus on, and it had the desired effect of helping us all relax a little.
"So what did you choose today?" I asked.
"We chose the wall color. I'm going for a warm off-white throughout. We also took measurements for the windows so I can make drapes. Kirill has ordered roller blinds for privacy, but in winter we'll need to keep the heat in, so Babushka, Mama and I are going to make curtains too," she explained.
I sat on Dimitri's lap, playing with his hair as I half listened to Sonya's excited plans – grateful everything had ended ok, and that she and her family were still alive to see it all through to fruition!
"Thank God you're alright!" Abe flung the door of the van open looking inside at us all but particularly me.
"We're good, Baba," I reassured him, climbing off Dimitri's lap and out of the van to hug Abe. One by one the Guardians exited the vehicle, collecting Olena and Yeva's packages from the trunk and bringing them inside where a very relieved Meredith, Karolina, and Paul greeted us.
Karolina had hot cups of tea waiting and a spread of food. It wasn't until I saw the meal I appreciated how hungry I was. The uncertainty of going to collect Eddie and the others, and the terror of thinking something might have happened to them, had suppressed my appetite – but now it was back in full force.
I grabbed a plate and was loading it with a bit of everything when my father came over to say goodbye.
"We don't want to impose. We'll leave you to it. Pavel will collect Dimitri at first light to retrieve the car."
"Nonsense. There is plenty of food for you all to stay," Yeva barked, her most recent brush with death apparently making her even more cantankerous than usual.
Dimitri lifted an eyebrow at my father, all but daring him to defy her. Abe shrugged and replied, "Well I'm never one to pass up free food."
He looked a little tired, and I appreciated he probably needed a feeder more than food, but he seemed comfortable enough. The Guardians and Eddie sat out the back, Meredith and Karolina ferrying out platters with food while Paul peppered them with questions about being a Guardian. Inside I was sitting with Pavel, Abe, and Dimitri at the kitchen table.
"In a week you'll be packing to go to St. Basil's, and the week after that you'll be at the elimination fights," Abe said, in a flat voice.
"Yeah. I've been meaning to talk to you about booking flights back to Court."
He nodded, appearing dispirited.
"You can take my plane. I thought if you left on Friday afternoon? If you leave St. Basil's on Thursday morning you can come here to say your farewells and stay a final night then leave for Omsk on Friday? You'll be back at Court late Saturday ahead of your allocation ceremony Monday?"
"I'll check with the others, but that sounds good," I murmured, also feeling despondent. "It will be weird not seeing you every day."
Abe grasped my hand and squeezed it.
"Don't worry. I think I'm going to be spending more time in the States in the future. In fact, I thought I might come for a visit once you know where you'll be allocated."
He looked as sad at the idea of not seeing each other every day as I was. I squeezed his hand in return. I liked the idea of Abe visiting once my future had been decided – I could use his help to face the change.
"So has Mom called you yet?" I asked.
"No. She hasn't. Which reminds me, I think it's time I put this little game of hers to an end."
He plucked his phone from his jacket, scrolling through his contacts until he came to 'J.' Pausing only to look at his watch, he pressed dial.
I was sitting close enough to hear the ringing through the speaker, and then a tinny approximation of my mother's voice.
"Hathaway."
"Hello Janine," Abe said in his most winsome voice. "It's Abe."
"I know who it is," she said archly. "I've been waiting for you to call."
"I thought you were going to call me?"
"Oh, I think we both know that was never going to happen," she said in a decidedly smug tone of voice.
Abe said a word in Turkish that I knew from our lessons in cussing was not particularly nice.
"Twenty years and nothing's changed I see…" he continued.
"Oh, plenty has changed. For starters, we have a daughter."
"Yes. We do," Abe said his eyes meeting mine fondly. "So how are we going to do this? Can we meet civilly when we have to? Or do we divide birthdays and Christmases?"
"Don't be ridiculous. The day she was born has nothing to do with you, and Turks don't celebrate Christmas. I'm her mother – I'm not going to divide anything!"
"Well, you've certainly changed your tune. Last time I saw you were telling our daughter, and the good townsfolk of Sheridan, that you never wanted her and you didn't care where she went."
"Fuck off, Abe," my mother growled. I knew she was embarrassed about the things she'd said in Sheridan, and didn't appreciate Abe reminding her of them. "I love Rosemarie very much, and she knows that."
"Maybe she does, but it wouldn't hurt you to tell her that a bit more often."
My mother said something I couldn't catch before taking a breath and continuing. "So I assume there's a purpose for this call other than harassing me after a long day of work?"
"I'd like us to meet up. To discuss Rose," he said. "When you're ready," he quickly added. "We are her parents, and I've grown very close to our daughter over these last few weeks. She's an adult now, but there's still room in her life for a couple of parents who care about her. I want to put to bed any lingering resentments so we can be the parents she deserves to have without acrimony or tension between the two of us."
"Did you just say 'put to bed?!'" Janine snorted incredulously.
Abe blushed a little. "Poor choice of words," he admitted. "But I mean it, Janine. Rose hasn't had the support of her parents as she deserves. But that changes now. I want us on the same page, or at least not working in opposite directions. What do you say?"
I could hear Mom sigh. She didn't sound particularly eager, but she also knew Abe would get what he wanted, eventually.
"Fine. Let me know when you're next in the States, and if I am available, we can catch up."
"Ok. It's a deal," Abe said with a wicked grin. "I don't have any immediate plans to come to the States, but I'm sure I will soon."
"Soon like I was going to call you soon?" she asked dryly.
"Who knows, Janine. Who knows?" he said with a grin, terminating the call.
Pavel, Dimitri and I hadn't even pretended to be doing anything other than shamelessly eavesdropping. And if Janine had won the first round, this time Abe was undoubtedly the victor.