The Red Queen (24 page)

“Well, that settles it,” said Lucienne.

“But we’ll still follow you until—” Adam immediately put on a brake.

Lucienne knew he was about to say “the end” only to realize the word "end" was like a curse to his mistress.

“Follow you to Eterne,”
Thaddeus picked it up. “That is your call, and our duty is to deliver you there in one piece—and maybe hitch a ride ourselves.”

Lucienne felt tears brimming in her eyes. Eterne—she’d never get there. She and her family had once dreamed of the glory. When she’d obtained the Eye of Time a year ago, she’d believed anything was possible. She’d believed Eterne was within arm’s reach.

After she was gone, who would carry the torch and lead her people to Eterne? Who would harbinger
the first quantum evolution of the human race?

“Hitch a ride? It might be too much for you,” she said. “Now let's go harass our civilian scientists.”

Which, of course, was a ruse. She really wanted to see Jekaterina. 

Stopping in front of the research laboratory,
Lucienne pressed her palm on the scanner. Adam pushed the door open wide and entered first. Even in their most secure home base, the guards followed protocols. She strode in after her captain.

The two guards assigned to watch Jekaterina saluted Lucienne. They were selected from her team, and everyone knew no one could corrupt Lucienne’s guards.

The decoding team was taking notes from Jekaterina. It was a surprise for Lucienne to see these learned men and women—some of whom could read part of the dead languages—humble themselves before her mother.

Dr. Alexander Kubrick, a symbologist and mathematician, debated Dr. Susan Cross, a cryptographer. Bansi Soni, the programmer, ignored the dispute and typed frantically and loudly on his keyboard.

A copy of the first scroll with ancient inscriptions and symbols lay on a large desk. The original was inside Lucienne’s secret chamber. The first scroll predicted the coming of the Eye of Time, while the second revealed the lost city. Lucienne had found both.

The three scrolls formed a complete circle with a full code. Jekaterina had told Kian that the code was the key to purging the ancient poison and liberating her daughter from the infliction of insanity.

Jekaterina was drawing unfamiliar inscriptions and runes on the board. Lucienne realized they were from the third scroll. The woman didn’t trust anyone. Did Jekaterina really want to help her, or did she come here for something else? Lucienne couldn’t detect her mother’s intention.

Bansi Soni stopped typing and looked up from his screen. “Lucia,” he said, “they make me work so hard. I get only four hours of sleep every day.”

Lucienne regarded him coolly. “I also hear you take a two-hour nap during lunch and spend an extra hour playing computer games.”

“I designed the games, but who told you?” Bansi Soni looked around, trying to find someone to glare at.

“Shouldn’t you use your play hours to build a platform for us, Bansi, at this critical time?” Jekaterina cut in, her voice soft, silvery, and assertive.

Dr. Kubrick, Dr. Cross, and the researchers turned to Lucienne, greeting her before making their own demands and complaining about one another.

Unlike her warriors, these civilian scientists still viewed her as a teenage girl who could be easily swayed, even though she was their boss.

“Enough,” Jekaterina said, and they immediately hushed.

This woman had taken control of Lucienne’s most opinionated team within a week.

“I’ve been waiting for you, Lucienne,” Jekaterina said in the now hushed lab.

Lucienne met her gaze, but gave no hint of emotion. She was glad that Jekaterina didn’t call her Lucia. Only friends and family called her that. “Here I am,” she said flatly.

Jekaterina gestured for Lucienne to follow her, as if she were the host. Lucienne raised an eyebrow, but went along anyway. The guards fell in around them. The woman led them toward the east wing of the castle.

After climbing step after step, they stopped before a door at the top of the tower. Jekaterina chose to be Ashburn’s neighbor, but Ash had moved into Lucienne’s mansion.

As Jekaterina strode into her dwelling, Adam and another guard followed her in.

“I did not invite you,” Jekaterina said. “Wait outside.”

The guards hesitated, but didn’t obey her.

“For heaven’s sake, I won’t harm my own daughter,” Jekaterina said, turning to Lucienne. “We need privacy.”

Lucienne gestured for the guards to wait outside.

“After I do a sweep,” Adam said.

“Seriously?” Jekaterina said.

Lucienne gave a small shrug.
She was tired of fighting them over the precautions, so now she just let them finish their procedures until they were happy with them.
“They’ll ask me to shoot them if I stop them from doing their jobs.”

“Then you shoot them,” Jekaterina said. “They need to know who’s in charge.”

“Then we start with you, Jekaterina,” Lucienne said coldly.

The guards sent Lucienne a grateful glance before going in to examine the room. Before they came out, one guard looked down from the window to estimate the chance of the Russian woman throwing their Siren through it.

Adam gave Lucienne a nod, and Lucienne stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

Jekaterina’s
temporary place was
simple as a nun’s—a single bed, a desk, and a chest. She didn’t offer Lucienne a chair, and Lucienne didn’t intend to get that relaxed. A small smile appeared on Jekaterina’s face. “You’ve grown up to be a beautiful young woman. You've exceeded all my expectations, daughter.”

Lucienne was having a hard time thinking this woman in front of her was actually her mother. A youthful, gorgeous Jekaterina looked more like her older sister. “I hope you didn’t come to pick up what was left seventeen years ago,” she said, keeping her face bored. “If you do, you’ll be very disappointed. All I need from you is the knowledge on the scrolls. I assume that’s why we’re alone.”

Jekaterina sighed. “Aren’t you curious why I left when you were born?”

“No,” Lucienne said.
“You said you came with the gift of the third scroll. Where is it?”

“I’m the gift. I’m the last scroll.”

Lucienne narrowed her eyes. “You’re wasting my time.”

“I have all the time in the world, daughter, but I don’t waste it because you don’t have time.” Jekaterina
pulled the amethyst-colored sweater over her head, then started unbuttoning her black silk shirt.

Lucienne could see her mother’s fashionable black bra underneath.

Classic
, she thought. Did Jekaterina hide the scroll in her cleavages? Legend had it that the third piece was on a dinosaur’s bone. Let’s see how this woman hid a big bone between her breasts.

Jekaterina tossed her shirt on the bed. Lucienne didn’t see anything in Jekaterina’s bra, only that her mother had a perfect body—not the body of a woman who had given birth to two daughters, but the radiant body of a nineteen year old.

Jekaterina’s hands went behind her back, working on the hook of her bra. It came loose.

What game was she playing? Lucienne had no interest in watching anyone perform a strip tease, and definitely not her own mother. Yet, she didn’t object, but looked on with cold clarity.

As Lucienne remained untouched, Jekaterina, however, turned around, her back to her daughter, and removed her bra. Lucienne stared at her mother’s smooth, creamy back. “What is this nonsense?” 

“Watch.” Jekaterina breathed in deeply, and her shoulders rose and fell.

In front of Lucienne’s eyes, ancient inscriptions and runes became visible on Jekaterina’s back, glowing faintly. Lucienne widened her eyes. “How?” she whispered, coming closer to Jekaterina to inspect the blazing symbols. “May I?” she asked.

“Go ahead, daughter.”

Lucienne touched the runes on her mother’s skin. They weren’t inked or engraved. They came from beneath her skin. At her touch, the inscriptions and runes fluctuated like waves. Some dimmed and some brightened. She gasped. Before she could mark out the ancient runes again, they disappeared without a trace. Jekaterina’s bare back was blank.

“My ancestors said the third scroll was etched on a dinosaur’s bone,” Lucienne whispered.

“Not anymore.” Jekaterina put her shirt back on and turned to face Lucienne.

“How?” Lucienne asked. “How did you become the conductor of the scroll?”

“You don’t need to know how, my daughter,” Jekaterina said, suppressing a shiver as if she was sparing Lucienne from the horror. “It was difficult, but I succeeded. I became the scroll for you, so no one could use it to harm you again.”

The Sealers already got her.

“For seventeen years, I stayed with the Sealers to get this scroll, so I could protect you.”

“Protect me?” Lucienne was suddenly furious. “My enemies have hit their target—me. I have the slimmest hope of recovery. You knew about their plan to poison me, yet you didn’t whisper a thing. And now you come to my door claiming you want to help me. What’s your real agenda, Jekaterina?”

“The prophecy foretold you being poisoned. It was meant to happen,” Jekaterina said. “Who am I to interfere with the grand design?”

“The grand design?” Lucienne stared at Jekaterina incredulously. “You let me be poisoned for the greater good?”

“You can’t see the whole picture yet. In order for the world to move forward, for the wheel to be set in motion again, you’ll have to suffer just a little longer, my daughter.”

“Don’t call me daughter.”

Jekaterina’s expression saddened
. “I never intended this fate for you, but you’re chosen. Like the hero in a story, you don’t get to choose your own path.”

“So you and your Sealers comrades decided to choose it for me—insanity before death?”

“Your death won’t come while I’m here,” Jekaterina said. “I’ve made progress in decoding the prophecies. I’ll acquire the final code, which is the key to your survival and the future of Earth.”

Lucienne couldn’t tell if this woman was telling the truth or as mad as her, but she knew about the grand design Ash had told her.
Jekaterina
was almost echoing Ash’s words. Only Ash feared that future, while Jekaterina looked forward to it.

“Who are you really?” Lucienne demanded. “Who sent you? You won’t get out of here, so there’s no use denying it. You’re not an ordinary woman. First, you manipulated the genes and produced the first female Siren in an eon. And second—”

“Let’s not go that far,” Jekaterina said. “In time you’ll know everything, but now I have work to do. You’re welcome to join me on deciphering the scrolls.” She opened the door, gesturing for her daughter to depart. “Shall we?”

CHAPTER 21

POISON OF LOVE

Lucienne hadn’t visited Jekaterina since joining her on deciphering the ancient inscriptions on the scrolls a week ago. Today she lingered in the twilight zone. She couldn’t stand wearing white or red. Aida finally found her a grey-silver flowery dress as a compromise.

Lucienne paced from her bedroom to the sitting room, where the guards waited. They were watchful, which irritated her even more. She couldn’t decide if she was mentally sound—only that she felt as if she were being suspended upside down in the air.

She wanted to scream, but that wouldn’t help either. In frustration, she retired to her room.

Real. Not real. Real.
She glanced at a bundle of fresh yellow roses in a wooden vase on the white vanity table.
Who bought me roses
? She sauntered toward it, tore a pedal off, and sniffed it, wishing its scent brought back a memory.

It almost did. A colorful image flashed by, but before her mind could grasp it, it was gone. A flicker of light sank under the surface of her consciousness. She needed to figure out something, but what was that something?

She heard talking from the sitting room. Thaddeus stood with Bayrose. Her half-sister had come to visit. Or had she been loitering around for a while now?
Kian believed being around her family would do her good. Lucienne didn’t object to it, though she also didn’t show any keenness. Her paternal family had spurned her, and she wasn’t exactly optimistic about her maternal relatives.

“It’s getting worse,” Bayrose whispered, “isn’t it?”

Now her cousin and her younger sister confided in each other?

“I can hear you.” Lucienne shot back. “What’s getting worse?”

Bayrose left Thaddeus and approached Lucienne. She wore a lemon-colored skirt, looking lovely. “Lucia,” she said, “why don’t you sit down? You’re making everyone nervous.”

“Then don’t watch,” Lucienne said.

“Sit down, Lucia,” Bayrose said. “Let me fix your hair. You liked the braids I did for you last time.”

That sounded like a good idea, but something wasn’t quite right. Something to do with Bayrose. Did she still blame her half-sister subconsciously, even though she thought she’d forgiven Bayrose? Her sister hadn’t meant to hurt her. Bayrose and Vlad had both been tricked.

Lucienne forced herself to concentrate, and for a second, her senses sharpened. Bayrose’s presence was affecting her. She felt a force from her sister, as if Bayrose possessed a will that could bend hers. In the past few days, Bayrose had made her do things she hadn’t wanted to do and say things she hadn’t wanted to say. Did Bayrose have the power of persuasion? She’d been watching her sister interact with others. The guards often accommodated Bayrose, but Aida and Ash had dismissed Bayrose easily. Maybe her younger sister had a way only with her?

A second later, Lucienne lost her focus.
I’m being paranoid again, even when I’m not in the grip of insanity
. She sank onto the chair before the vanity.

“It would be nice if you had a mirror in here,” Bayrose said, standing behind Lucienne and combing her long, midnight hair.

“Kian removed it,” Lucienne said.

“Why?” asked Bayrose.

“Because of an accident.”

“What accident?” Bayrose asked.

After she’d
smashed the mirror with her bare hand in a rage, Kian had taken away all things sharp in her room. But why did she succumb to Kian? It appeared that everyone could run her life, and that she, their Siren to whom they pledged their undying fealty, had the least say on everything.

When had it become like this? Right, her mental illness. They were doing everything they could to protect her. She should be grateful, but why wasn’t she? Why couldn’t she think straight? It was like a shadow clouded her mind.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Lucienne said.

“But I want to know,” Bayrose said. “I want to know everything about you.”

Tell her. Tell your sister all your secrets
. Lucienne felt the spur, but a stronger part of her told her to resist:
do not let anyone have power over you.
After a torn moment, she abided to the second voice. She was the Siren. She was born to rule. She wouldn’t allow anyone to dominate her. Yet, rejecting her younger sister’s small, innocent request made her feel ashamed.

Then, for a second, clarity opened a crack in her mind. She needed to divert her sister from focusing on her. “
Tell me something about Jekaterina,” she said.

“What do you want to know?” asked Bayrose.

“Was she ... always being there for you when you grew up?”

“Mmm hmm.”

Her mother abandoned one daughter, yet raised the other.

“So you two are close.”

“Kind of.”

“What do you mean kind of? You’re either close or you’re not,” Lucienne said, then caught herself. Had Bayrose detected the hidden bitterness in her voice?

Bayrose halted the comb in the air.
“Mother is an enigma,” she said. “She’s not the conventional mother type.”

“I can see that.”

“Yet I want her approval more than anything,” Bayrose said with uncertainty, “Am I too immature?”

Though abandoned by Jekaterina, Lucienne found herself secretly wanting her mother to be proud of her too. But whenever she realized that, she went on the offensive and challenged Jekaterina instead. She figured she wasn’t any more mature than her sister. “Jekaterina is overbearing,” she concluded.

Bayrose’s lovely laughter was light as a feather. “Mother was frustrated that she couldn’t order you around. It’s refreshing to see you confront her. No one has really defied her before.”

“Don’t let her run your life,” Lucienne advised.

“I’ll try,” Bayrose said. “I got used to obeying Mom. It’s hard to break the habit.” She started to braid Lucienne’s hair into plaits. “I’m glad we can talk about this. I can’t believe that I have a sister, and it’s
you,
the famous Siren.”

“I know I’m not what you expected,” Lucienne said. “I’m not the kind of sister who’s on anyone’s favorite list.” Her half-brother had called her “the abomination,” and more than half her family from her father’s side had once launched a war to dethrone her.

“I’m happy with you as my sister,” Bayrose said.

“Oh, thank you,” Lucienne said in surprise.

“You’re welcome.”

Then they both stopped. This sister talk was awkward.

“By the way—” Bayrose hesitated for a noticeable second, then said casually, “your cousin said Prince Vladimir would return in a couple days."

Lucienne’s heart pounded. Vlad was coming home. She’d thought he’d fled her. She’d thought his feelings for her had changed. In her insanity, she had been unforgivably malevolent to him. Yet, he was coming back to her.

And her half-sister hadn’t
gotten over him. How was Lucienne going to untangle this thread? It had been messy before Bayrose and Violet entered the frame.

“Vlad should be returning anytime now.” Lucienne tried to keep her voice even.

Just then, a stir rose from the sitting room.

Lucienne turned her head in the direction of the commotion. A lock of her hair caught in the ivory comb in Bayrose’s hand. She ignored the tug of pain and fixed her gaze on the figure in a trench coat at the door.

Vladimir stormed in, bringing in the scent of snow and wind and herbs. Two guards moved toward him, but neither stopped him.

“Vlad!” Bayrose dropped the comb and sprang toward him.

Vladimir stopped in his tracks, his hazel eyes narrowing on her. Before she could throw herself into his arms, his hand shot out, grabbing the girl’s throat. “What are you doing here?” His voice was cold, and his stare colder.

Bayrose gagged. Tears of pain streamed down her face.

Lucienne was at their side in a second. “Vlad, let her go.”

Vladimir turned to Lucienne, the cold, hard look in his eyes shifting to tenderness. And in their depth was heartbreak and yearning. “Lucia,” he said in a husky voice. “You have no idea how treacherous this viper is.”

“What you call a viper happens to be my sister,” Lucienne said. “Now let her go before you choke her!”

Vladimir snickered. “Sister? You believe her crap?”

“Bayrose is my half-sister,” Lucienne said. “DNA tests can’t lie. My mother is here too.”

Just then, Kian strode in. He must have heard the report of Vladimir’s arrival before the Czech prince had landed. “Let Lucienne’s sister go, Blazek,” he ordered.

Under Lucienne’s glare, Vladimir finally released Bayrose and shoved the girl aside. “I don’t care if she’s your sister,” he said, “she can’t be trusted.”

Bayrose caught her breath. “I’m sorry, Prince Vladimir,” she said in a mist of tears. “I never meant to deceive you. My late father played me as well.”

Vladimir turned to Lucienne, his hungry gaze roaming over her face as if he wanted to make sure every line was the same as in his memory.

One of Kian’s aides stepped over to Bayrose and directed her to the couch in the sitting room. Kian and the rest of the men also receded from the bedroom to give her and Vladimir some privacy.

Lucienne’s gaze didn’t leave Vladimir. His wheat-colored hair was cropped short. He looked leaner. His once square jaw was angular now, which gave him a harder look. His hazel eyes moldered to golden fire, burning brightly for her. Her disapproval of his rough demeanor toward Bayrose vanished. All was forgiven. Her joy at his returning overpowered all the heartache and disappointment since he'd left.

“Vlad,” she whispered and smiled.

With one long stride, he eliminated the distance between them and crushed her against his chest. She read the message—he’d never let her go. Never again! And she didn’t want him to.

He must have come to see her as soon as he’d gotten off the jet. His new scent of snow and herb confused her for a second, but his usual aroma of wild river and sunlight anchored her. She needed to hold onto something familiar. She leaned her face against his unshaven jaw as he nuzzled against her hair, as if needing to reconcile her scent with the one he'd remembered.

She pulled herself a few inches away from him just to look up at him, to see if he was real. “You're truly here, Vlad,” she said in amazement and ache. “You're here.”

“I’m here,” he confirmed, then over her fluttered look, added, “I won’t leave again.”

A shadow shoved into Lucienne like an invisible knife. It was the same force she’d felt before, but now she was at her rawest moment in Vladimir's arms. While she had no shield up, the shadow
oozed into her brain like slime.

“Can’t resist me, can you?” Lucienne heard herself purr.

Wait.
Had she just said that?
No, no, no. Don’t lose it.
Lucienne hissed at the shadow and shoved it out of her head, but its slime clung to her mind. Lucienne gritted her teeth and tried to peel it from her brain tissues. She must give Vlad a few good hours before she lost it. He’d just come back.

Her will and the shadow played seesaw, and she was up and down, struggling to regain her balance.

“I can never resist you, láska,” Vladimir said. “You never need to doubt that.”

She felt her cheeks go up in flames. Did he realize that she’d started saying the dumbest things? But he didn’t seem to care. He gazed at her as if she was all he had in the world. How could she get the message through to him? Warn him of her borderline state? The malevolent shadow aggravated, in a strange desperation to pin her down. It wasn’t from her poison. It was an alien element. She was sure of it. If Ash were here, he would give her aid to cast out the foreign element invading her. Where was he?

But if Ash were here, how could she handle her feelings toward both of them at Vlad’s return?

Vladimir brushed a kiss on top of her hair. Lucienne clung to his trench coat and pulled him closer. She desperately needed his strength.
Get out!
she commanded the shadow in her mind. Vladimir tightened his arms around the small of her back, sensing her need. She felt his need for her was even greater. How could she give herself to him while she engaged in a heated battle with the alien thing? She dug her fingernails into his arm. The natural pull between them, different than the bond her and Ash shared, enhanced and pushed through.

Her old love stood right here in front of her. No, he was still her love. And his blazing, forever love for her shot through her, shining so brilliantly. Suddenly, the slime was gone from her head.

Lucienne wiped the sweat off her hairline with the back of her hand and tilted her head to gaze up at him. “You look exhausted. When was the last time you slept?”

“Not in a while,” he admitted. “I like to sleep on my own bed.”

He’d once mentioned that he’d give everything just to share a bed with her. In order to break her Siren’s curse and be with her, he’d gone deep into the enemy’s heart to retrieve Nexus Tear. “When you have the last element,” he’d said, “we’ll have a shot at being with each other completely. I’ll finally get to sleep with you—if you want, too.”