Page 41 of Across the Sapphire Sea
“You catch on faster than I did. I didn’t know what he meant. Only that I was drunk and unhappy and about to be homeless. Fedor offered again, ‘I can help you.’ I asked what he meant, and he told it to me straight. ‘I will kill Evgeni. I’m good at making death look like an accident.’”
“Perhaps that’s when I should have realized Fedor had killed my father, but it didn’t occur to me. What I did realize was Evgeni’s death would solve all my problems. And I only half believed Fedor would do it. So I asked how.”
“‘Never mind how,’ said Fedor. ‘Do you want it?’ Yes. ‘It will cost you.’ I have money. ‘More than money,’ he said. ‘Ask me to do it.’ I looked him dead in the eye and said, ‘Kill my brother.’”
This story had taken a turn Elias hadn’t expected. He’d never had a family of his own. Valeri was the closest thing he had to family. He couldn’t imagine ordering a stranger to kill his own brother. A chill gripped his spine despite the roaring fire.
“The next day, Evgeni was dead. Leapt to his death from the north tower of the family estate. Penned a note first in his own hand. Couldn’t bear the grief over our dear father. I had no idea how Fedor finagled that. Evgeni had a strong will, but apparently not strong enough to overcome a master vampire’s power of compulsion.
“We had two funerals in the span of a week, and I inherited the lordship, the lands, the staff, and piles of money I didn’t know what to do with. Turns out that was not a problem. Fedor had plenty of ideas for what to do with piles of money.”
“So he killed your family to have you and your wealth?”
Valeri snorted. “He killed my family for the wealth, alone, Elias. He didn’t care one whit for me. He needed a willing pawn, and he had one. I owed him. I wasn’t out on the streets thanks to him, and I knew as much. I gave him free rein with the estate for that is what he required. That and he could not kill me because then the family fortune would fall to an uncle who would not be so easy to influence as I. We were stuck together.”
“How awful.”
“Not really. At least not at first. I had everything I needed. All of Evgeni’s old friends wanted to be my friends, of course, since I’d become a lord. Even the boy who’d fucked me to be near my esteemed brother wanted my attentions. I spurned him. I spurned them all. I’d learned by then that I needed no friends. It was safer to keep them at arm’s length.”
“Did you get along well with Fedor?”
“Well enough while I was still human. He was thrilled to be dripping in jewels once more. His own history was a tale of feast or famine, and he’d a strong preference for feast. Not long thereafter I learned he was a vampire. It wasn’t enough for him to control the lands and the money, he demanded my blood as well.”
“And you complied?”
“What choice did I have? I knew I’d sold my soul to the devil. I pay my debts.” Valeri rolled onto his side to look Elias in the eye.
Elias saw a man there he’d only had glimpses of before tonight. A man who knew a loneliness so desperate, he’d kill to escape its depths. He leaned up to kiss his mouth.
“None of it was your fault,” Elias said softly, pushing Valeri’s curls behind his ear.
“Does it look like I feel guilty?” asked Valeri, his expression open. “Perhaps I should, but I don’t. What happened, happened, and three years later, he made me a vampire.”
“Why?”
“His motives never changed. Wealth, status, prestige. We had an easy enough relationship, why not cement it in stone?”
“You agreed to it?”
Valeri blinked. “I didn’t say no.”
“Which is different than agreeing.”
“Only in words. I let him turn me. I didn’t protest.”
“How long were you together?”
“Forty-three years.”
Elias let that sink in. Forty-three years was more than twice his own age. “How old are you?”
“One hundred and sixty-something. Three, I think.”
Elias’s jaw dropped, and his mouth hung open stupidly.
Valeri laughed and kissed his forehead. “And you so young. Do you think me a cradle robber?”
“I suppose you are,” Elias teased. “What, were there no other one-hundred-and-sixty-three-year-olds for you to court?”
