The Nightlife Moscow (Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Suspense) (The Nightlife Series Book 5) (11 page)

Dmitri’s mental voice slithered over and around Aaron’s
mental block. [[You are fed by half-truths, living in ignorance. You are but a
tool.]]

Though coming from a corrupt, twisted creature bleeding on
the ground, Aaron couldn’t immediately discount the man’s words.

“
Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur
.”
As
she whispered the eerie Latin, something about
knowing when to hold your
tongue
, Aaron felt a cold electricity flowing down Urvashi’s sword towards
Dmitri. Her power clamped on Dmitri’s throat, almost choking him.

“Show us where you keep the drug, or I will carve off every
inch of your body a piece at a time, down to the bones. I can keep you alive
for weeks while I slowly whittle away your flesh. I taught the Sultan and his
warlords the myriad ways to make a man scream the deepest secrets of his soul.
I will know what I want to know, this much is certain.” Urvashi dipped her
sword towards his groin in indication of where she’d start hacking.

Dmitri’s eyes tracked Urvashi’s blade, and his head nodded.
Struggling to draw breath, he whispered. “If I give you what you want, what do
I get?”

Facing a gruesome, excruciating death, the bastard still had
the balls to negotiate with a fallen angel. Aaron wanted to stick his sword in
Dmitri’s gut on principle.

“After I finish with my sword, I will let the wolves consume
your flesh while you still live. Their teeth will be the last thing you feel.”
She glanced at Ivan who flashed a bloody, carnivorous grin and nodded. Urvashi
looked back down at her victim. “But I am not without mercy. Cooperate with me,
and I promise you a quick, painless death.” Urvashi’s blade flicked up to
Dmitri’s throat, light as a feather. She handled that steel with angelic power
and grace.

Ivan looked like he was about to balk then reconsidered his
words. “As long as I get his head when it’s finished.”

“I want his balls.” Katya added her request to the list of
body parts to be divvied up.

Dmitri’s face started to show a distinctive change of heart.

* * * *

Renault stood up from behind a flipped over table and wiped
away a line of blood running down his cheek from a gash in his forehead. He
eyed Aaron with one of those smartass looks. The fucker had escaped all the
action. Aaron knew if he checked Renault’s rifle, the clip would be full.

Aaron shook his head. “Way to go, tiger. Douche bag.”

For a moment it looked like the bastard was swinging his gun
in Aaron’s direction, but instead he lifted his middle finger and spit.
“Abruti.”

Urvashi didn’t seem to notice anything beyond Dmitri. She
and Ivan watched Dmitri regain his feet, favoring his left arm and ribs where
Aaron had flayed him open. A dark stain of blood seeped down Dmitri’s torso to
his leg. Thousands of dollars in designer clothing ruined. Having taken a
whopper of a hit, the asshole bajillionaire still carried himself with dignity
and power.

Michelle held her ribs, a wince of pain in her face as she
moved up on Dmitri with that look – the psychotic hunter look. Aaron stepped in
closer to warn her off.

She pushed Aaron gently and reassured him with her eyes,
then focused on Dmitri. “I hope you try to run.” She licked her bloody, busted
lips. “It’s been too long since I had this much fun hunting. I don’t want it to
be over yet.”

The thump of footsteps approaching from the stairs drew
everyone’s attention. A dark-haired woman in a brown suede leather coat with a
bushy grey fur-lined hood walked into the room. She stopped at the sight of
them all, her over-sized hazel-green eyes filled with shock.

Katya growled and raised her gun to the woman. “Kristina!”
The wolves zeroed in on her instantly, all rifles pointed her way. She started
backpedaling out of the room. “Stop or I’ll blow your kneecaps off!” Katya put
a bullet in the floor two feet in front of Kristina and sighted her rifle on
the woman’s knees.

Kristina’s hands flew in the air in surrender and she
stopped moving. The woman positively stunk of fear. She looked like she was
about to piss herself, and she reeked like the fear-adrenaline stench of food. Aaron’s
teeth dropped as he recognized prey.

Urvashi waved her sword towards Kristina. “Bring her with
us. She may be useful.”

Katya squinted at Urvashi. “I claim her for the pack. She
owes us her life.” Katya looked to Ivan with such intensity.

His jaw hardened and he nodded. “She comes with us. Once
Urvashi has what she needs, Kristina will be dealt with by the pack.”

Aaron just wanted to take a taste of the gorgeous little
terrified morsel. She might be pack property, but, he was going to tap that
neck before they finished her off. The woman was surely dead meat. Her betrayal
had caused the death of two packmates.

Kristina’s eyes flicked to Dmitri, and something silent
passed between them. Aaron dug into Kristina’s mind hard and fast and hit that
same barrier he found in Dmitri’s head, though not quite as solid. There were
some small leaks and hints he snatched from her, but, no direct thoughts.
Dmitri must have trained her to protect her mind.
How interesting.

Aaron glanced at Urvashi who was hauling Dmitri towards the
door by his jacket sleeve, her sword pressed against his ribcage, ready to
shish kabob his dark little heart. Was it Urvashi’s mind probe they had learned
to evade? Or were there other telepathic supernatural beasties roaming the
European countryside looking to dip into someone’s head? Aaron sensed layers upon
layers yet to be revealed, and he had nothing but the thin outer skin to go on.

Kristina caught him trying to dig in her head. Her eyes
locked with his, and he sensed only the slightest nuance of acknowledgment. She
knew he probed her.

Ivan exchanged looks with Nikolay and Anatoly. They both
nodded in silent permission to leave them behind. Anatoly signaled with his
rifle. “Make sure the demon dies. Slowly.”

Rifle pointed at the back of Dmitri’s head, Ivan yelled to
his downed comrades. “I will be back, I promise.” With his heavy, muscular
build and Slavic accent, he presented a creepy similarity to Arnold
Schwarzenegger.

Katya advanced on her niece and whipped the butt of her
rifle in a loud crack across Kristina’s forehead. The woman hit the floor with
a squeal of pain and surprise. Katya kicked her hard in the gut and caught
another squeal from her victim.

“I had hoped you killed yourself from the shame of what you
did. We loved you like a sister, a daughter.” Katya spit at her in disgust. “Our
blood is on your hands. Abram and Vitaly died for your betrayal. Ti u menia za
eto poplatishsia!”
You will pay for it!

Kristina wiped blood from her temple and stood on shaky
legs. She turned eyes brimming with tears to Katya, then Aaron and Ivan. “There
was nothing I could do. Dmitri found out I was spying on him. He suspected me
from the very beginning. He took my Lana and forced me to tell his lies.” Her eyes
flicked to Dmitri and her fear of him shone through her pain and despair. “He
took my daughter. He won’t let me see her. I don’t even know if she lives.”

Katya shoved the business end of her rifle into Kristina’s
face. “Why should I care about the bastard child of a bloodslave whore?”

Tears streamed down Kristina’s face and her chin quivered as
she choked on her words. “She’s no bastard! Lana is Abram’s daughter. When you
sent me here to spy on him.” Her finger darted out at Dmitri. “I was pregnant.”

Katya got in her face in an instant, fist cocked back, ready
to brawl. “Did Abram know? During the seven years you spent fucking Dmitri, did
you ever once tell Abram you had his child?”

Kristina’s chin quivered more as she shook her head.

“And why the hell not? We’d have got you out immediately!
The girl should have been with her father, raised with the pack!”

Kristina went weak in the knees as she cried and sobbed,
looking to Ivan and Katya for an ounce of understanding. She locked eyes with
Aaron and pointed at him. “He knows why I cannot leave. Vampires never let go
of their women. They own them.”

Aaron shook his head and Katya snorted. “Fucking bloodslave
whore.” Katya punched Kristina square in the face and snapped her head back.
Kristina hit the floor again with a bloody-broken nose. “You raised a child in
this corrupt house, so you could live with your beloved Dmitri, coddled by his
filthy money. Now you can die with him. The child is ours.”

Despair turned to hatred as Kristina speared Katya with a vicious
look. “You sent me here. You and your precious pack brothers sent me into this
den of vipers with Abram’s child. I loved you, all of you, and you sent me to
Dmitri. You have no idea what it’s like … what he did to me.”

Aaron stepped up to Katya and laid a hand on her shoulder. A
surge of anger rolled through him at the way she treated Kristina. The fury and
pain in Katya’s eyes reminded him of how she had broken down in his arms, bawling
in great heaving sobs, as the grief of her murdered brothers overwhelmed her.
Though Katya understood the difficulty of life as a bloodslave, she felt the
loss of her brothers deeply. Katya’s grief fueled a murderous rage for
vengeance. Kristina was looking to the wrong person for mercy.

From the coiled tension he sensed in Katya, Aaron thought
she might backhand him too, but she only watched him, a fierce intensity of
emotion in her eyes. He stepped between her and Kristina. “Let’s do what we
came here to do. We can figure out what to do with Kristina later.”

Katya bit back a retort and nodded. “You take her. I cannot
stand the sight of her.”

Aaron pulled Kristina to her feet.

Urvashi’s commanding voice called out to Kristina. “You know
where he keeps the synthetic venom? Take us there as a show of good faith.
There may be hope for you yet.” Aaron sensed his master sizing up Kristina. The
wolves may want her dead, but Urvashi held no grudge against her, not if she
could provide what Urvashi wanted.

Kristina wiped blood from her nose and whimpered. “I will
give you anything you want if you bring me my Lana.”

Urvashi seized Dmitri’s arm and squeezed. The sound of
grinding bones accompanied Dmitri’s yip of pain. “Is her daughter here? Is
there nothing sacred, Dmitri? Not even children?”

The grin was gone, replaced with pure malice. He had no fear
of Urvashi, only hatred. “A life for a life.” Dmitri glared at her, daring
Urvashi to choose between him or an innocent child.

She assessed him with her cold, inscrutable gaze. “What are
the lives of mortals to me? They are a blink in the eye of eternity. Yet some
rules of the universe are immutable. Each decision carries consequence. Are you
prepared to pay the consequence of this child’s blood on your hands?”

Compassion for a child was a foreign concept to Dmitri.
Aaron suspected Dmitri had stopped worrying about the consequences of his
actions a long time ago. The thing masquerading as a man laughed in Urvashi’s
face. “My life for the child’s life.”

Urvashi watched Dmitri as Ivan shook his head. Ivan opened
his mouth, but Urvashi cut him off. “Trust me, Ivan. No matter what happens
tonight, we will find the child.”

Kristina started shaking. Aaron could see the heartache
plainly in her face. If she was acting, the woman deserved an Academy award.
Aaron hated this back and forth drama. He wanted to find what they needed to
find, kill who they needed to kill, and get the fuck out of this damn country.
“Are we gonna do this shit or what?” His patience with the smirking fucktard
Dmitri had worn thin.

Urvashi nodded. “We go. Kristina will take us to the serum,
and we will do everything in our power to recover her daughter.” She seized
Dmitri in her inhumanly strong grip.

Kristina’s eyes flared with a spark of hope, but then darted
towards the staircase in fear. “His vault is in the other building across the
plaza. I can take you there.

Aaron pulled her in close with a grip that probably hurt
her, but, he didn’t give a shit anymore. “Keep your word if you want to live
through the night.” He glanced back to the silent, smirking bastard Dmitri,
locked eyes with Urvashi, and flicked his head towards the stairwell. “I lead,
you follow.”

* * * *

Kristina directed Aaron and Michelle up the stairs, back out
to the foyer, and to the front door of the mansion. Renault, Urvashi and Ivan followed
with Dmitri in tow.

Something about the situation wasn’t sitting right in
Aaron’s gut. Too easy. Kristina had walked right up to them, like nothing.
Too
convenient
.

Kristina led them down the broad bricked steps into the
subzero Russian winter through the circular driveway towards the other
building. Aaron’s nagging suspicions grew with each step. He watched the
rooftops on either side, scoped out the edges of the great stone fountain in
the center of the driveway, and then the twenty foot tall juniper bushes that
lined the center of the main road between the two mansions.

Kristina’s eyes darted back and forth. The bitch knew
something was up. Aaron speared a silent message to his master. {{Something is
wrong, this is all wrong.}}

Urvashi returned immediately. {{I know. Kristina was sent as
bait. We are being watched.}}

{{I can get the truth. Give me a moment.}} Aaron jerked
Kristina around to face him, and she squeaked in protest. He growled in her
face. “Stay still.” He buried his teeth in her neck whip-fast, like a viper. He
latched on tight as she tried to squirm out of his grip. A moment later she
stilled, and his deep psychic connection seated in through her blood and
bypassed her mental shield.

The first thing he caught was the depth of her bloodslave
addiction. She’d been hooked on Dmitri’s bite for years, experiencing the same
addiction Katya dealt with every waking moment. Kristina luxuriated in Aaron’s
bite. Her struggles ceased and she simply held onto him for the ride. Dmitri
hadn’t bitten her for several days and she needed it
sooo
badly
. Aaron
caught a sense of all the thousands of times she had given herself over to this
euphoria, how it had weakened her resolve to fight Dmitri. Naturally paranoid,
he’d been suspicious of her motives from the beginning, but gradually began to
trust her. Once Lana was born, he graciously allowed the child to be raised in
his home. Her vulnerability with her infant child led Dmitri to trust her more
and more with the inner workings of his business operations.

He’d hooked Kristina on his bite by the second month of her
undercover assignment as a secretary. What was supposed to be a six month plan
stretched out indefinitely as Kristina faced the harsh reality that she could
never be apart from Dmitri for more than a few hours. The wolves had warned her
not to get involved with him personally, to never let him bite her, but Dmitri
was like a force of nature. He simply could not be denied. The man took what he
wanted, when he wanted. Once he set his sights on her, she never had a chance.

Over the years living with him and the other bloodslaves he
kept close at hand, she found several opportune moments to set him up for an
assassination. She’d begun to anticipate where he would be, and the comings and
goings of his massive security detail. But the timing was never right. One
attempt after her first year had failed miserably and almost exposed her.
Though she tried to arrange something on three more occasions it never worked
out. The wolves were always disappearing for months at a time in their
mercenary adventures in the Middle East or various parts of Africa. They
drifted from one conflict to the next. Kristina had been all but abandoned in
her solitary post spying on a vampire who owned her and her daughter’s lives.

She lived for Lana. For Lana she guarded her heart and fought
the silent battle against the monster that had enslaved her. She held on for
years living in Dmitri’s mansion, vying to create a window of opportunity to
get Lana out of the country, to safety, and ensure the wolves could make their
move to kill the master she couldn’t live without. The turning point in
Kristina’s enslavement happened when Dmitri’s pharmaceutical company, Pharzyme
developed the serum nicknamed ‘otrok’ –
slave.
Kristina finally found a
glimmer of hope that the drug could enable her to survive, free of Dmitri’s
bloodslave bond.

Her tenuous grasp on hope had been shattered when Dmitri’s
head of security – ever suspicious of Dmitri’s bloodslaves – found her hidden
cell phone and traced all her calls and messages to the pack. She had lost her
secret war in one fell swoop. Kristina hated and feared Dmitri almost as strong
as her self-loathing. Only Lana had given her enough hope to keep from killing
herself. In punishment, her master cut her off from the drug and his bite. In delirium
and agonizing withdrawals for seemingly endless weeks, Dmitri still couldn’t
break her, not until he took the one thing she held most dear,
Lana
.

She had tried so hard to hold onto sanity, but the loss of
her child shredded her spirit. The man had stripped her of every ounce of
pride, of her very soul, all for Lana, and the drug she needed more than anything
else. Reduced to a shell, begging for the mercy of God, she had finally
capitulated to Dmitri’s demands. She betrayed the wolf pack and led them into a
trap of Dmitri’s design.

Just like right now.

Aaron broke his connection with Kristina and let up for air,
full of the knowledge of what Dmitri had planned. “It’s a trap! We’re
surrounded!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Ivan put a bullet through the
back of Dmitri’s right shoulder. As the vampire staggered, cussing up a storm
in Russian, Ivan yelled out to the darkness. “We die, he dies! Show yourself or
I kill him now!” Ivan pressed his rifle to the back of Dmitri’s head.

Urvashi’s face had turned cold and hard as stone. Everyone
knew Ivan would kill Dmitri anyway, simply a question of when. The slant of
Urvashi’s eyes accompanied a silent message to Aaron. {{No matter what happens,
Dmitri cannot die before we find the vault.}}

And just how was Aaron supposed to stop Ivan from killing
the bastard? Aaron wanted him dead more than ever, for all that he had done to
the pack and Kristina, and simply on principle. Dmitri had wreaked havoc on the
Royal family, countless victim bloodslaves, shit, all of Eastern Europe. He was
a thing of wickedness with no purpose in the world but to bend everyone and
everything to his will, for his benefit. High time the son-of-a-bitch died.

Michelle crowded in on Aaron and squeezed his hand once to
get his attention. He looked into her eyes and she dropped her mental shield,
just for him. She was sending him a silent message.
I will handle the bloodslave.
You ensure Dmitri doesn’t escape.

So there it was, the ugly truth. No matter what happened,
Dmitri had to die. Venom or no venom. Michelle was right, Ivan was right. The
only person who wanted something more than Dmitri’s head on a platter was
Aaron’s master, and she would be sorely disappointed when he disobeyed her to
do what needed to be done.
Goodbye Dmitri
.

Aaron nodded agreement with his lover and handed a very
worried Kristina over to Michelle. Kristina balked. “No! Keep her away from
me…”

Aaron pegged the squirming woman with a
shut-the-fuck-up-or-die stare. She took the hint and stood quiet under
Michelle’s supervision. Silently, Aaron drew both his swords and moved closer
to Dmitri.

Renault and Katya scanned the rooftops and the landscaping
through the night vision scopes on their rifles. Renault’s roving gun stopped
at the left corner of the building while Katya found her mark on the far right
side of the hedge line. How many more of them were out there?

Dmitri finished his stream of Slavic obscenities and growled
into the night. “My men are former Spetnatz, Russian special forces. My snipers
can kill from over two hundred yards. At this range, there is no escape.”

Urvashi raised her sword into position to take the Russian
vampire’s head clean off with one swipe. “While your death is assured, mine is
not.”

He looked to her with that smug confidence. A look only a
billionaire with a private army could muster. “Perhaps. But there is another
way. I walk away, and you get the serum.”

As he drawled out his seductive sales pitch, several men
popped out of the bushes. Clad in black combat gear, they wore fitted night
vision goggles and carried the same snub-nosed assault rifles.

Urvashi held her position, poised for the killing strike.
“This is not a negotiation.”

Dmitri smiled. “Ahh, but it is.” He turned towards the
hedges and raised his voice. “Bring her out.”

Another soldier stepped from behind the far side of the
hedges, pushing a young girl, no more than five or six years old. She stumbled
slightly as the soldier prodded her back with the tip of his gun. When she
straightened and wiped tears from her cheeks, Aaron finally got a good look at
her. Her little narrow face was framed by curly chestnut hair stuffed under a cream-colored
fur cap. She wore a puffy, light blue coat and matching cream-colored mittens
with blue jeans. Such a cute, normal-looking girl was sorely out of place where
she stood shivering in the subzero night breeze beside Dmitri’s assault team.

Kristina gasped and tried to pull away from Michelle, but
was held in place.

Dmitri called to the child. “Come, Lana. No one will hurt
you. Come closer.” She moved forward very slowly, obviously terrified and
confused by all the men bearing guns.

Dmitri turned around slowly to face Ivan and Katya. Though
bleeding from multiple wounds, he still acted as if unaffected by the ordeal. “I
propose a trade. Urvashi gets her precious serum, you get the wolf cub, Lana,
and I let you all live. At least for tonight.”

The girl perked up when she recognized Kristina. “Mama? Mama!”
She looked ready to run for her mother, but the soldier behind her seized her
coat and wouldn’t let her come any closer.

Katya’s rifle snapped to and sighted in on the soldier
holding Lana. Aaron watched her finger tense on the trigger. One little shot
rang out and the soldier’s head snapped back as he toppled over.

Then all hell broke loose.

Lana screamed at the top of her lungs and bolted straight
for Kristina. The world slowed to a crawl as bullets whizzed past hitting Ivan,
Katya, Renault, and then SLAM, something like a hammer-strike nailed Aaron in
the back through his vest. He stumbled from the impact. Pain came next.

“Fuck!”

Eyes blurring with tears, Aaron watched as Michelle took a
bullet in the side and Kristina jerked free and ran for her daughter. A blur of
blonde hair and black outfit flitted past as Michelle dived into the empty
concrete water fountain for cover. More bullets ripped into the concrete where
she had been standing. By the time Aaron regained his wits, Dmitri was gone,
and Urvashi was flying high, twenty feet in the air, her sword flashing in the
moonlight, chasing her quarry.

Dmitri was her problem.
More bullets cut through the
air around Aaron, spurring him into action. He zigzagged across the plaza,
heading towards Kristina and Lana who met and hugged, both crying. Several
soldiers tracked Aaron’s movements with their rapid-fire rifles on automatic,
so Aaron redirected and flitted off straight for the hedge line. The stream of
bullets passed so close he could feel the heat and score marks on his cheeks
and arms. Adrenaline burned through his veins and full-on bloodlust kicked his
inner predator into overdrive. Both swords out, he darted into the midst of the
soldier lineup. Snow began to fall and he couldn’t help but feel the spirit of
Christmas on this wicked, cold night.

Dashing through the hedges,

with blades a flaying flesh,

opening up their throats,

and slashing all the way.

Arms and tendons cut,

arterial flow sprayed red,

What fun it is to slip and slide in icy blood and death!

Oh jingle bells, Dmitri smells, Katya shot a sniper off
the roof.

Ivan screamed obscenities and Michelle was feeding again.

Oh
… where the fuck did Kristina go?

In the desire to avoid bullets, Aaron zig-zagged his way
back in the direction Kristina had been running. He heard her panting breaths
and muffled prayers before he caught sight of her. She had Lana in her arms,
running down the street as fast as her frail human body could possibly go,
which was considerably slower than a vampire. He sheathed his swords and put on
a burst of speed to catch her seconds later.

She tried to fight him, tears running down her face,
struggling with the desperation of a mother who would kill to save her child. She
was no match for his strength. He overpowered her easily. “Stop fighting me!
Stop!”

“Gospodi! Pomogi! Please let my daughter go, please, I beg
you.” She bawled in his arms, her body shaking in great sobs.

He grabbed her face and forced her to look in his eyes. “I
am not your enemy, Kristina. I didn’t come here to hurt you or your daughter. I
need your help. I need you to show me where to find the vault, where to find
Dmitri.”

The young child was frozen in fear, trapped in a sandwich
between Aaron’s strong grip on both of them. Lana breathed in heaving gasps as
Aaron looked down and focused on this beautiful young innocent, her heart
beating as fast a hummingbird’s wings. “Lana, you understand English? You
understand me?”

The girl nodded slowly.

“I need your mother to help me. I promise you can be
together. I will not hurt either of you. Just help me. Dmitri is a bad, bad man,
and he took you away from your mama, but that’s over now.”

“No, no, no.” Kristina bawled.
“You’re
going to get her killed! Please no. I know you’re not like Dmitri, I know you
wouldn’t hurt us, but please, do not ask this of me. Get my daughter to safety!
Get her out of this palace of death!”