Princess of Apocalypse Page 11

“Did you ever hear about the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse?”

  I shook my head. I guess I did. There was a TV series or two, but I can’t remember.

  Dimitri combed his gloved fingers through his short hair. “Conquest, War, Famine and Death.”

  “Exactly”, Victor nodded excited. “And the Almanac, beyond other things, stores the whereabouts and reincarnations of their children.”

  “They have children?” I found the existence of the Four Horsemen already hard to comprehend. “Who on earth would enter a marriage with Famine? I’m not sure what he is doing exactly, but he doesn’t sound like marriage material to my ears and I believe I’m speaking out of the heart of every sane girl on this planet.”

  “Wow”, Tatiana’s voice had an awful lot of sarcasm in it again. “Listen gentlemen, this comes out of the mouth of the very Barbie that is dating either Ken or Fred; hard to tell as they look the same to me.”

  “What is it with you and Barbie dolls?” I shot back with an angry glance. “Did someone burn your dollhouse when you were a kid? Are there any undiscussed childhood issues going on?”

  “Ladies, please.” Victor took a deep breath, but contrary, there played a smirk around Dimitri’s lips. “She hates dolls. Used hers for voodoo.”

  “I certainly don’t do voodoo. It was barely experimental and only for the sake of gaining new knowledge. You know exactly, voodoo priests have this smell accompanying them—”

  “You mean they stink”, Dimitri laughed. “Or is this description only referring to Boban Sinclair?” Dimitri turned his focus to me. “A nice looking voodoo priest from the Bahamas, every girl’s dream. He was her sweetheart for entire two weeks.”

  “Let me guess, he dumped her?” I answered.

  “He put a love spell on me”, Tatiana defended herself undignified. “Love potions are my area of expertise! How dare he… when I found out, I broke the spell in no time and cursed him with warts on the face instead. He’ll never come anywhere near me again.”

  “Really?” I muttered. “I’m impressed he went through all the trouble to courtship you at all.”

  Dimitri grinned. “Be assured, he learned his lesson. Since then, he flees the room if one only mentions her name.”

  “Coming back to the Children of Apocalypse”, Victor said. “Yes, those children exist and they’re immortal.”

  Dimitri shook his head. “Not quite. They are mortal, but get resurrected every now and then.”

  Victor nodded in approval. “Yes, the Council’s best spirituals are foreseeing the event of the rebirth and publish them in the Almanac. It’s the job of the Council to find the kids rather sooner than later.”

  “For what purpose?”

  “Making sure they’re safe. The Guild is an ancient secret organisation, who made it their mission to find and kill them as they consider them as abominations of nature. Also, the kids share some of the powers of their fathers. Imagine a child of War in the wrong hands. Or Famine?”

  Dimitri had finished his meal and played absent-mindedly with his cutlery. “Many wars happened through the rampage of their fathers over the death of one of their children.”

  “And you believe, one of us is such a child?” I asked.

  Tatiana shook her head. “Only John or Jake. The Almanac is very clear in this regards.”

  Victor must have recognised my confusion and started to explain. “The Children of Apocalypse are all males, no females.”

  “Isn’t that discriminating?”

  “Of course it is”, Tatiana raised her glass in salute. “An exclusive club of chauvinists.”

  “Practical”, Dimitri corrected. “It’s hard enough finding them if all you got is the month and one piece of information that distinguishes them from the other kids. Imagine if you add all female possibilities in.”

  I swallowed hard, but my next question, as dreadful as it seemed, needed to be asked. “Why didn’t they kill Jake and John straight away?”

  Victor cleared his throat. “For the last years, there is a shift of strategy within the Guild. Kidnapping rather than killing.”

  “For which purpose?”

  “We don’t know. But now, where they have all the kids, we’ll find out soon.”

  “They have all kids?” I asked astonished. “All four?”

  “All thirteen”, Tatiana corrected. “It took the Council some years to figure out that the kids are getting stolen right under the Council’s nose. Total embarrassment, I agree.”

  “Thirteen”, I blurted out. “Hell, they have been busy.”

  “They had a lot of time on hand”, Tatiana offered as explanation. “There are six sons of Conquest, I guess he made a real contest out of it, four of War and two of Famine. Death, most likely due to obvious reasons and a smelly odour of his robe, has only one and we were tipped off to look for him in Beacon Hills, California.”

  “It’s the first time the Prince of Death is reborn”, Victor continued. “Which makes it harder. The other kids have all birthmarks, which makes it easier for the trackers to determine the child being the heir of one of the greatest entities of our universe. The sons of War for example, have two crossed swords on their right shoulder blade. Famine’s sons carry a birthmark that looks like a skull behind the left ear. Conquest’s resemble a half moon mark over the left eye. With Death’s son it’s different.”

  “But certainly there must be records about the son as he was alive once”, I argued. Sure, I’ve seen enough of Jake’s body to tell them that there is no such mark and Vicky, she would have told me if there is a mark on John’s body. She told me everything.

  “There were records”, Dimitri said. While he’d been partly amused all this time, now his face crumbled in pain. “Times were difficult back then and evidence has been lost.”

  I felt pity with him, but I had to dig deeper. “When was that?”

  Dimitri didn’t answer, but I could see his lower lips trembling. This was a story, he wasn’t willing to share.

  “Around one hundred years ago”, Victor answered on his behalf. “At the time of the Russian revolution. The young prince of the Russian Tsar was supposed to be the one we’re looking for. He died a brutal death. The consequences were horrendous. Millions of commoners died in Death’s retaliation.”

  “Death was pretty pissed with the rebel scum for killing his son”, Tatiana threw in. “But as history shows, it repeats. Again, we stuffed up.”

  Dimitri jerked together as if someone has hit him with a whip over the back.

  All I could do to spare my rescuer any more pain was to change the topic. “So what are we doing to get my friends and the kids back?”

  Tatiana burst out into laughter, a hysterical one. Every opera diva would have been jealous of her theatrical play. “Firstly, there is no we. There is you and us. Secondly, there is nothing we can do. We lost any trace and have no clue about their whereabouts. That’s it. Dead end. We, no he”, she pointed at Dimitri, “stuffed up.”

  There was a silence in which everyone glanced at their plates, I felt so uncomfortable that despite of being hungry, I only distributed the mashed potatoes from one side of the plate to the other and moved the veggies to the middle. “Why?” I whispered finally.

  “Why what?” Dimitri whispered back.

  “Why me?”

  No answer. I took a breath. “Why did you rescue me instead?”

  Tatiana took a long sip from her goblet and her next words came out in full delight. “Technically, it’s my fault. I take the blame, because I should have slept with him.”

  “TATIANA!” Victor fell almost out of his seat.

  “It’s the truth. All this testosterone, he’s following her like the bear is glued to a honey pot.”

  Count Dracula cleared his throat. “I beg your pardon, my dear!”

  Dimitri was flushing red, he could have been mistaken as a tomato, even Count Dracula had some red patches on his cheeks, out of anger or embarrassment was hard to tell.

  “I beg yo
urs”, she answered without any sign of embarrassment. “Haven’t you noticed their connection? She’s getting herself into trouble over and over again and he runs to her rescue over and over again. Same with the black widow the other night. Who is so stupid and follows a creepy kid after midnight into a deserted alley?”

  I shot out of my seat. “That was a dream!”

  Dimitri turned to Tatiana. “She was soul walking. It was hardly her fault.”

  My heart was nearly pounding out of my ribcage, my breathing became rapid. “It wasn’t real!” I was almost crying. A soft hand was on my right upper arm. Victor. “Miss Elisabeth. Would you please sit down again? I believe this requires explanation.” I did as I was told, also to prevent myself from passing out.

  Victor looked me straight in the eyes. “I don’t sleep walk”, I told him, but my voice was wavering.

  “Not sleep walking”, he said. “You’re soul walking. Your soul is restless and leaves your body. Usually only people with the sight and demons can see and touch your soul while you’re out of your body. Tatiana was trying to prevent this and put dreamcatchers over your bed in your home and I believe there is now one in your dormitories as well.”

  “Not very successful, if I may comment”, Dimitri said.

  “Which is hardly my fault”, Tatiana answered his accusation. “This lady is falling asleep all the time. On the bus, even a drug that could put down a dinosaur isn’t hindering her soul from having a stroll as she showed us earlier.”

  Dimitri cleared his throat. “To answer your question. I saved you as I have reason to believe that you were the main target of Monday’s attack. I question the correctness of the Accords.”

  “Proof he failed to deliver so far”, Tatiana interrupted.

  “Elisabeth has the sight and sees dead people. What else could have frightened her the other day on the bus?”

  Dimitri looked at me with pleading and I couldn’t help myself. I had to nod. “Yes, but only recently. They’re popping up everywhere. First, I thought I go mental.” For the next ten minutes I told them about my ghost stories. Victor commented now and then with the words interesting and how astonishing. I couldn’t see any of those vocabularies being appropriate to my problem.

  “So there was no way you could have known about the boy’s name from the accident?” he asked.

  I shook my head determined.

  “And the men in the robe you saw—”

  “You don’t contemplate that was Death, do you?” Tatiana asked, but astonishment was now on her.

  “Not even people with the sight have the ability to see Death unless they die. However”

  “I’m not turning into Jennifer Love Hewitt, do I?” All I got were blank glances. “Ghost Whisperer, you must have heard about the series?”

  “We don’t have TV here”, Dimitri said.

  “Not even electricity”, Tatiana said frustrated. “Try to get your hair dry… takes forever.”

  “What are we doing now?” I asked, ignoring her frustration over minor inconveniences.

  “Consulting the Accords”, Victor said as if this was the most logical solution.

  Tatiana clapped her hands together. “Fine, we can have a stop at Nevsky Prospect. I’m desperately in need for some new dresses anyway.”

  Now it was Victor and Dimitri’s turns to roll their eyes. “I believe you have enough”, they said simultaneously.

  “For the last months I had to wear garbage. I believe you owe me some credit.”

  “Very well, St. Petersburg it is”, Dimitri raised to his feet, tossing the napkin on his half-finished plate. We’ll leave at 8pm tomorrow night. I don’t want to bump into tourists again. I better get some training before tomorrow. You’ll excuse me.”

  Tatiana followed his example. “No more homework. Lucky me, I have my old life back.”

  Dimitri nodded in my direction; then he and Tatiana took each other’s hand and strolled slowly out of the dining room. They were not even gone yet, when I made my decision. “I’ll come with you.”

  Dimitri veered around as if struck by lightning, the sudden reaction almost thrusting Tatiana to the ground. “Most definitely not!” he roared.

  I turned around to him, anger mixed with confusion about his sudden outburst. “I’ll have the right to be part of it. They’re my friends. If there is only the slightest chance of getting them back, I don’t want to stand at the sideline.”

  “She has a valid point there”, Victor argued in my favour. “Your decision has made her part of this. It’s decided, she’ll accompany you two tomorrow.”

  Dimitri grumbled something under his non existing beard, swerved around sharply and darted out of the room.

  “Boys”, Tatiana commented with a shrug.

  Chapter XI

  The Other Place

  Something needed to be done with those sleeping arrangements. Last night, Victor had waited patiently until I’d finished dessert, and accompanied me back to my dormitories as he referred to it. I still wasn’t sure if it wasn’t just a nicely furnished prison cell after all. Originally, I’d wanted to speak to either Dimitri or Tatiana if they could borrow me their adapter for the cell phone, but Victor reassured me yet again, there was no electricity in the house — no electricity? To my dismay, I couldn’t find a single power plug in my room and the lights were all petroleum. Anyway… sleeping arrangements… Victor had persisted on another glass of the sweet fluid and before I could count down from ten, I was gone once more, not waking up out of a dreamless sleep before six in the afternoon.

  It turned out Tatiana had chucked out some more clothes for me. Regrettably, another item on the agenda that needed to be addressed most urgently unless, I considered following a career as a hooker. The black miniskirt was, well, by all means too short, the fishnet stockings just screaming “please have me” and the shirt actually revealed more than it was covering. Don’t even ask about the bra. Also, was there anything without heels in her shoe cupboard? Or were the ankle boots with the four inch heels some kind of punishment for Vicky’s comments over the last months? To ruin my self-confidence completely, it turned out she was wearing something very similar, when we all caught up at the bottom of the great staircase just before 8pm. In difference to me, she looked fabulous and knew exactly how to wear those with confidence.

  Dimitri leaned casually against a pole at the bottom of the staircase, his eyes undressing me while I descended the stairs — not that there was much to undress — but his face clearly showed he’d noticed my transformation into a hooker. On the other hand, while Tatiana has grown from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan overnight, he still wore the same hoodie and tracking pants outfit. “You want to eat something before we embark?”

  I shook my head. “Alfred had brought me some sandwiches to my room earlier.” I really could get used to having my own butler.

  “So is this the moment, where you try to convince me to stay out of it and remain here, wherever here is, waiting for your return?” I shot him a fierce glance, the one that was only reserved for those people I immensely hate, not that there were many to begin with. He saved your life, unthankful brat, a voice in the back of my head sounded and added weight to my conscience.

  I took a deep sigh. I know, at least three times, if I count this creepy soul walking demon encounter as well. But instead of thanking him, I went straight into round two and if it was just revenge for his undressing glance just now. “To put it straight, forget about it. I’m coming with you. Deal with it.”

  “Slovakia!” Tatiana said. My forehead crumbled in confusion. “I told you, we’re in Slovakia.”

  “That’s impossible. I have not even a passport.”

  “Alright”, Dimitri said, not feeling offended at all. Either he’s accustomed to be treated badly or I could get away with murder, either way, it made me even more furious. Or he saw Tatiana naked and I’m not living up to her standards. “Let’s move on. I want to be back home before midnight.”

  “I
thought we go to St. Petersburg?” I didn’t know much about Europe, but even I knew that Slovakia wasn’t a stone-threw away from Russia.

  “I thought we wanted to visit the Imperial Club”, Tatiana muttered, the disappointment hard to miss in her voice. “You promised me! I had to endure this western crap music for far too long.”

  “I promised you a shopping trip; we did this the last five hours. But visiting the Imperial with her?” He pointed and talked about me as if I wasn’t present at all.

  “What’s the Imperial?” I brought out.

  “A fancy night club near the embankment, you’ll love it”, Tatiana’s face gleamed with expectation as if I was the only one needed convincing for this detour.

  “A club into which she’ll not set a foot, end of story.”

  “Sure I’ll do. I’m not your girlfriend, Dimitri. You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do.”

  His grimace became a frown.

  “She has a point”, Tatiana sited with me and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “That job is taken by Ken.”

  “He isn’t a Barbie doll! I’m sick of your allusions—”

  “Honestly, Elisabeth”, Dimitri interrupted, before a dispute could break out. “Are you kind of suicidal?”

  “Pardon?”

  He started wild articulating with his hands. “There are demons looking for you?”

  “Not her, the demons look for her peacock of a boyfriend, remember?” Tatiana added fuel into the fire.

  “Yeah? Do you still think the encounter with the black widow was an accident? And then Berserkers. What’s next?” He turned on his heels and was facing me directly, his eyes drilling through mine into my soul, if he would have done this a few days ago, it would have conjured up a creepy feeling, now, I noticed, I interpreted this as upright concern. I felt my cheeks flushing and broke eye contact.

  “Elisabeth, look at me.”

  I most certainly made sure I didn’t. “What are you saying?”

  He sighed. “I’m saying whoever is after you won’t stop until he’ll get you. And your lunatic of a boyfriend or not, I’m sure he would agree with me to keep a low profile. The Imperial club is visited by commoners and supernaturals alike, maybe the worst place to be for someone who wants to escape her capturers. And yes, believe you me, it gets worse than Berserkers.”