Silver in the Blood (23 page)

“By then, the Florescus had established themselves as the guardians of the Dracula family, and after all these years, they continue to protect the family: hide them when needed, support them, act as bodyguards, even. In return there is wealth, status, and the promise that when a Dracula sits on the throne of Romania, a Florescu will stand beside that throne.”

“Or sit on the one next to it,” Dacia said without thinking.

Lord Johnny looked surprised, but he nodded. “Yes, there have been some marriages back and forth, but not many. The Draculas, I'm afraid, seem to think of your family as more in the vein of trusted servants.” He had the grace to look embarrassed.

Dacia wanted to scream. She didn't know what held her back, really. Her life was ruined, Lou was naked and unashamed; why couldn't she do something unladylike and just start screaming and tearing out her hair? But she was already anticipating the disgust on Lord Johnny's face when he learned the truth about her; she couldn't bear to have him think she was mad as well.

“Mihai wants to marry Dacia,” Lou said in a matter-of-fact tone. “So you can see why we were so upset when you arrived. He had just left, after making his attentions vulgarly clear.”

“Did he hurt you?”

Lord Johnny's whole body was rigid with tension, and he stretched out a hand to Dacia, but she was afraid if she took it,
he would feel how clammy her palm was. Also, if she moved she was fairly certain that Lou's shawl would be disarrayed, and Mr. Arkady would see more than her fine legs.

“No,” she managed to answer. “But it was most unpleasant.”

Her voice sounded missish, and she hated herself even more.
Most unpleasant
. It was the kind of thing she had been taught to say if a gentleman pressed her hand too warmly. Not if he groped her and tried to . . . her mind rejected the memory.

“You must help us,” Lou said decisively. “We want no part of Prince Mihai, or his ambitions. But tell us first: Why do you know so much about it, and why do you care? Can you help us?”

Lord Johnny looked to Arkady for confirmation, and the other young man nodded. They both took deep breaths, and then Lord Johnny sighed. He sank down on a small ottoman, near enough that Dacia could have reached out to touch him, if she had wanted to. If she hadn't been too frightened.

“We are part of an organization with members all over the world,” Lord Johnny said. “It's called the Society of Saint Gabriel the Archangel.”

“That's a mouthful,” Lou said. “Are you monks?”

Mr. Arkady muttered something in Turkish that made Lord Johnny look at him sharply.

“No, it's not a religious order,” Lord Johnny said with a little cough. “It was once, but it's not now.” He stopped himself from saying something and then plunged on. “Centuries ago, our ancestors encountered monsters, things you cannot even imagine, and pledged that we would keep the world safe from them. Our men—and women—are fighting this fight all over the world
as we speak. And for now, Theo and I have been sent to Romania to protect King Carol.”

“Why?” Lou asked simply. “King Carol and his wife seem kind, but why all this fuss?”

“As you know, Romania straddles the divide between the Eastern and Western cultures of Europe,” Mr. Arkady said. “So it is both important and sadly rare for the land to be united under a good, strong king. If Carol stays in power, we believe that Romania will remain a peaceful bridge between east and west. If Mihai takes control, he will use this country's position to spread his diseased rule across Europe.”

Dacia felt as if a weight had lifted from her heart. It would be all right. It would all be all right. She smiled at Lord Johnny, and he smiled back, blinking at her rapid change in expression.

“So you're here to get rid of Mihai?” She slipped her hand out from under the shawl as smoothly as she could, reaching for Lord Johnny.

His smile faded, and he didn't take her hand. He tugged at his cuffs again, and looked at Mr. Arkady, who got to his feet.

“In a roundabout way,” Arkady said, his expression grim. “Our orders mostly concern your family, Miss Vreeholt. We are here to stop the Florescus.

“As John said: our society keeps the world safe from the monsters.”

 

THE DIARY OF MISS MARIA LOUISA NEULANDER

15 June 1897

Am I a monster? I don't feel like one. I don't feel like anything, not when I am the Smoke, anyway.

Therein lies the attraction.

I am so very tired of feeling gauche, or embarrassed, or silly, or plump. I am so tired of people looking at me, judging me: What am I wearing, how much did it cost, how is my hair arranged, who is my family, have I been invited to this party, that ball? It is so very wearying to be a part of New York society! There is so much to remember, so many rules and traditions, like the steps in a dance that goes on and on. I feel like Marley's Ghost in Mr. Dickens's Christmas story, all wrapped about with chains of my own making.

But when I am the Smoke, those chains are gone, and I am free. I become giddy just thinking about it. Imagine if I was at a party and someone was horrible to me, like Justine Coombs. I know that Dacia likes her, but she is so sly I simply cannot. Imagine if she were to make some comment to me at a party, and everyone was watching to see if I would blush or cry, and instead I just disappeared? Just floated away to a place where no one was looking at me? It would be heaven!

And now it seems that Lord Johnny and Mr. Arkady have
been watching our family, because they believe we are monsters. I am not sure what to think! It certainly explains Mr. Arkady's rude behavior, but not Lord Johnny's obvious attraction to Dacia (which I think she is oblivious to, despite their earlier time together). I do not feel like a monster. I think that perhaps Dacia does, though. And dare I say that Lady Ioana falls into the “monstrous” category even when not transformed into a bat!

I will have to take Lord Johnny aside and ask him to speak more circumspectly about it. Dacia needs to be handled much more delicately. It is apparent that the gentlemen's secret society is much more accustomed to dealing with monsters than with young ladies.

“You are mistaken,” Lou said politely to Mr. Arkady. “We are not monsters.”

“Of course not!” But he didn't sound at all convinced. “You may not know this, having been raised in America, but some in your family have strange powers that they use in the service of the Draculas. They are the ones we have come to stop, my dear young ladies. Horia Florescu, your uncle, is very well known to our Society, I'm afraid.”

Lou felt that there was something they were not saying. Both men were tense, as though they were communicating silently, trying to decide how much to tell the cousins. She had thought for a moment that they knew what had happened at the family estate the night before, but now Mr. Arkady acted as though he was sparing her a shock.

Dacia had withdrawn the hand she'd extended to Lord Johnny and was pale and shaking. Lou was very worried about her, but
first they needed more answers. Although it was a relief to have gotten as many as they had already.

“Then why were you spying on Prince Mihai at Peles?” Lou asked.

“Hmm,” Mr. Arkady said, and he looked at Lord Johnny.

“No,” came the other's reply.

“They have asked, and they deserve to know,” said Mr. Arkady.

Lord Johnny slumped back on his ottoman.

“Your uncle terrifies us,” said Lord Johnny. “Your grandmother terrifies us. Even Radu, your cousin—”

“Terrifies you?” Lou couldn't keep the tartness out of her voice. No fire had been lit in the parlor fireplace, and she wanted to put her clothes back on before she caught a chill. “Please tell us why, and stop dawdling.”

Lord Johnny gave her an astonished look, but Mr. Arkady smiled at her.

“I fear I must be blunt,” Lord Johnny warned.

“Please,” she replied.

“Many of your uncles, aunts, and cousins are shape-shifters,” Lord Johnny said tentatively, as if his words themselves were explosive. Lou supposed that, had the night before never happened, they would have been. When he got no reaction from either Lou or Dacia, he continued in the same almost timid vein. “In fact, to the best of our knowledge, they all are. They can turn themselves into bats or wolves. Until a few decades ago, some of them could also turn into an amorphous form called the Smoke, but that form has been lost. It was always rare.”

Lord Johnny made a dismissive gesture. Lou bristled at the
implication that the Smoke was of little consequence to him. It was of very great consequence to her. She didn't say anything, though, and the young men began looking from her to Dacia and back, waiting for a reaction that was not coming from either cousin.

“You knew,” Lord Johnny stated, horror dawning on his face. “It is as I feared!”

“What do you fear?” Dacia said dully.

“You have been exposed to these terrible secrets,” Lord Johnny said. Somehow he managed to not sound half so hysterical and, well, silly as William Carver had on the terrace at Castle Bran. But only by half.

Lou arched her eyebrows. “Why do you think we came back to Bucharest alone?”

She realized that she was daring them to accuse her of being a monstrosity. Perhaps it was unladylike of her to have taken all this in stride. She supposed that she should be having hysterics herself, or be in bed with smelling salts and cold compresses. But what good would that do? And with Dacia's reaction to all this, Lou needed to be the strong one now.

“What do you fear?” Dacia's voice was barely a whisper.

“You have seen them . . . take on their animal forms?” Mr. Arkady said before Lord Johnny could answer. The Turkish man looked eager, like he wanted her to describe it. Well, she wasn't without some sense of decorum, and she was not going to indulge his curiosity.

“Yes, we have,” she said. “But how is it any business of yours?”

“In their animal forms the bats spy on the enemies of the
Draculas, and the wolves . . . hunt them,” Mr. Arkady said. Lord Johnny made a noise but didn't interrupt.

“I beg your pardon?” Lou felt a sudden trickle of sweat start down her back beneath the shawl. Hunt?

“They hunt down their enemies, the enemies of the Draculas, and they . . . dispose of them,” Mr. Arkady clarified. “Prince Mihai's father was the first Dracula in generations to acknowledge his ancestry and there were many who set themselves against him. King Carol had just taken the throne, and his supporters tried to strip Mihai's father of his title to avoid conflict. Many of them were found dead, savaged by animals, the others disappeared. If Mihai's father had not died soon after, he could have deposed Carol.

“And it was the Florescus who did the dirty work. Without them, Mihai can only sneer and make empty threats.”

Dacia made a small noise, and Lou tried to put her arm around her cousin, but it dislodged the shawl, showing all of her arm and most of one shoulder. She froze, although it hardly mattered at this point.

“You're accusing our family of murder?” Lou could hardly speak the words.

There was a long silence. Then Mr. Arkady nodded at her.

“I am sorry, ladies. But I'm afraid there is proof,” Lord Johnny said gently. “That is how Theo and I got this assignment: the last person charged with observing the Florescus died a few months ago. In his final message, he said that he had been discovered. He named your uncle Horia specifically as having threatened him. His body was found in the woods near Rasnov a week later.”

“Is that why you approached me, in London?” Dacia's voice cut across the thick silence in the room. Her eyes were fixed accusingly on Lord Johnny. “Not because you'd always wanted to meet an American heiress? Not because I seemed bold enough to undertake ‘a little adventure,' as you called it. But because you had been told to watch my family?”

Lord Johnny ducked his head, unable to meet Dacia's eyes.

“So that's the real reason why you asked me to accompany you to Gretna? Not because you were supposed to watch that man, but because you were watching me?”

“Oh, no!” Lord Johnny looked up, eager to redeem himself. “That was true! I do work for the Home Office, and they did need me to follow that man. He's been selling secrets to a faction of Scottish separatists! He's the one who told the press I had gambling debts, to try to ruin my credibility. I asked you to help because I thought that you seemed game for it.” He winced at the way the words sounded. “At the time I wasn't assigned to . . . I mean, I knew of your family, but wasn't supposed to . . . I just thought you would think it was fun . . .”

“Oh,” Dacia said, mustering a small amount of her usual dignity. “That's all right then.
If
it's true.”

“It is true,” Arkady said. “He was taken to task by our superiors for it. We are not supposed to get quite that close to any of our subjects. Even if we are not specifically assigned to watch that particular, ah,
person
.”