The Gathering Storm (34 page)

“How?” I could not believe in folk medicine. I wanted cold facts to back up his claims. I wanted to examine the medicine under a microscope—to identify the herbs and their chemical compounds. “It can’t be magic.”

He shook his head. “Of course not.”

“But the vampires cannot be studied in a lab, or dissected by scientists. How do you know your potion will work?”

The Tibetan smiled. “I know only from firsthand observations. Not all vampires drain one completely of blood. The veshtiza moths only take a tiny bit when they drink. It is their poison that is deadly.”

“Poison!” I shivered and thought immediately of the girls at Smolny and the members of the Order. My worst fears about Elena and her sisters were confirmed. Elena was turning into a moth at night and poisoning us while we slept.

“Veshtiza moths are particularly fond of hemlock leaves.”

“And the moths inject the poison into whoever they bite?” My mind was reeling. Dariya needed the Tibetan’s medicine immediately. “Frankincense is the antidote for the veshtiza’s poison,” I deduced in a whisper.

He closed my hand over the bottle. “You come back and visit me, Katerina Alexandrovna. I am sure we have much to discuss.”

I
needed to return to Smolny with the antidote right away, before all the girls went home for summer vacation. I decided to believe in the kind-looking Tibetan doctor. But I asked the coachman to take me to the Oldenburg Hospital first, because I had several questions for Dr. Kruglevski.

The doctor was looking more and more like a peasant drunkard. His hair astray, his eyes slightly glassy, the doctor shuffled from patient to patient in the large hospital ward, blinking several times as he tried to read each patient’s medical chart. I went and brewed some strong tea in the samovar in his office and found Rudolf.

He confirmed my fears about Dr. Kruglevski. “The poor man is exhausted. He has been working all night.”

I convinced the doctor to lie down in the morgue and get some rest. There was no other place for him to sleep. Dr. Kruglevski finally agreed, after admitting he had not left the
hospital in several days. I covered him with a blanket, and he was soon snoring softly.

Rudolf shook his head. “I must go make rounds on the patients. Will you excuse me, please?” With a quick bow, he left me alone with the doctor. And with the body of Princess Cantacuzene.

I knew it was her, even though the body was covered with a sheet. I walked over and pulled the sheet from her face, surprised at her coloring. She was pale but did not have the familiar bluish tinge of death to her skin. There were no marks on her body that I could see. I pulled the sheet down farther and picked up one of her hands. It was cool, but decay had not set in yet. I was surprised. She had been dead for over forty-eight hours.

Suddenly, the princess’s eyes opened and she awoke with a horrid gasp. “They have taken the talisman!” she ranted. “Protect the Dekebristi!”

I jumped back, dropping her hand. “Your Highness!”

Eyes still fixed straight ahead, the Romanian princess drew in a ragged breath. “Blood … I must have blood.…”

I backed away to the door, bumping Dr. Kruglevski’s bed. The doctor stirred in his sleep.

Princess Cantacuzene sat up, looking at the doctor.

“No!” I screamed. I ran over to the doctor and tried to shake him awake. “Dr. Kruglevski, you must wake up!

Hurry!”

The princess stood up off the morgue table.

“Get away from him!” I screamed.

Rudolf appeared in the doorway. “What is going on?” he demanded. His face paled when he saw Princess Cantacuzene
upright. “Holy Mother of God,” he said, crossing himself.

I managed to wake Dr. Kruglevski, and he muttered the same thing as he saw the vampire princess coming for him. Still groggy, he stumbled off the bed he’d been sleeping on and tried to push me ahead of him to the door.

I turned around to see the princess grab him by his hair. She was trying to bite his neck. I’d never noticed her tiny fangs before.

“No! You mustn’t!” I grabbed the doctor’s walking cane from the corner and struck her shoulder. This distracted her long enough to let go of the doctor.

“Katerina! No!” Dr. Kruglevski said. He took the walking cane from me and pushed me into the hallway, then shut the door on me. I heard it lock with a click.

“No!” I beat on the door. “Do you have a key?” I asked Rudolf.

He shook his head. “Move aside!” he said. He proceeded to ram the door with his shoulder, but he was not a large man and it didn’t give way. He tried a second time, with the same result.

“What is the meaning of this?” a familiar voice asked.

I spun around. It was, of course, the grand duke George Alexandrovich. He had an uncanny habit of showing up whenever bad things happened. “Hurry!” I said. “The doctor is in there with a vampire!” We could hear horrible noises from inside.

He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me away. With one forceful kick, he broke down the door.

It was too late. I could see that Princess Cantacuzene had
Dr. Kruglevski’s head in her grasp, and she was drinking blood from his severed neck.

I turned my head.

The grand duke withdrew his saber and rushed into the room.

The princess made a sound like a hiss. I had to see what was happening, so I looked back. The princess Cantacuzene was still draining the doctor of his blood. His eyes were closed. I wanted to cry. Why had I insisted he lie down in the same room with her?

The grand duke did not hesitate. With one clean slice the princess was not expecting, he separated her head from her neck. Blood spurted everywhere. The vampire let go of the doctor’s body and they both slumped to the floor.

“It’s my fault!” I sobbed. “I never should have told him to take a nap. And I never should have left him next to a vampire. I should have known she wasn’t truly dead.”

“Katerina,” the grand duke said, his voice tired. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his sleeve. “You are not to blame.”

“Your Imperial Highness,” Rudolf said nervously. “We have the results back from the toxicology report on Princess Cantacuzene. It was not hemlock, as we first believed, but frankincense.”

“Where the devil would someone get that?”

I pulled the small brown bottle out of my purse and opened it. “Badmaev,” I said. “The Tibetan doctor.” I held the bottle up for the grand duke to see, the heavy scent of frankincense filling the air. “But I don’t understand. Dr. Badmaev said this counteracts hemlock poisoning from
veshtizas. Would it harm a vampire that was not a veshtiza? I thought the princess was another kind of vampire.”

“Obviously, its effects were not permanent on her,” the grand duke said as he took the antidote from me. “Perhaps it is poison to all vampires. Or perhaps she is a different kind of veshtiza. Doctor, can you close off this room until General Tcherevine’s men arrive?”

“Of course, Your Imperial Highness,” Rudolf said.

The grand duke turned back to me. “Duchess, you will be safest if you come with me. We need to discover who poisoned the princess in the first place, and why.”

“It was negligence on my part that caused the doctor’s death. He was looking so tired that I convinced him to lie down for a rest in the morgue. I should have known that Princess Cantacuzene would—”

“Would what? Return from the dead?”

I sighed and stared out the window. “She was a blood drinker. Who would have wanted to poison her?”

“Can you think of anyone powerful enough to match Princess Ruxandra as her rival?”

I shook my head. “The only enemies she ever spoke of were the Montenegrins. She believed Princess Militza wanted to take over the St. Petersburg bloodline.”

“What did the princess do when she awoke?”

I had to think for a moment. Everything had happened so fast. “I was holding her hand, and she opened her eyes and said, ‘They have taken the talisman.’ ”

The grand duke looked puzzled. “Has she ever mentioned a talisman before?”

“Not to me.”

We had approached the clinic and herbal shop of Dr. Pyotr Badmaev. The grand duke looked at the sign on the door, which said all patients were welcome regardless of method of payment.

“Are you ready?” he asked me. “Or do you need a minute?”

I took a deep breath. “I am fine. But thank you for asking.” He was such an agreeable young man when he tried hard.

He smiled, his faerie blue eyes lighting up. “You can be rather agreeable too, Duchess, at times.”

I blushed. I had forgotten about his gift. I thought something very rude about him, and he just laughed out loud. “You should stay here in the carriage. I shall return as soon as the doctor tells me who bought the frankincense.”

I nodded. Then I suddenly remembered. “Your Imperial Highness, she said something else when she awoke.”

“Princess Cantacuzene?”

“Yes, she said to protect the Dekebristi.”

“The Dekebristi?” The grand duke’s face went pale. “Katerina, are you sure?”

I nodded. “I know everyone says the Dekebristi are gone, but what if they aren’t? What if the vampires brought them back?”

He sighed and rubbed his temples. “It means that we know who she was raising the undead army for. Stay here. I will speak with the Tibetan doctor and then we must hurry back to the palace. I must speak with my father immediately.”

His face was grim, but he touched my cheek with the back of his hand, only for a moment, before leaving the carriage. My heart began to palpitate. My legs felt weak and shaky. The grand duke caused the strangest effects on my body.

That was the last thing I thought before the grand duke stepped inside the clinic and everything went black.

I
woke up in someone’s warm, strong arms with my head pounding. The grand duke? I had the tiniest happy feeling inside. Then I looked up and was immediately disappointed. And frightened.

It was the crown prince Danilo. I had not known he was back in St. Petersburg. “What am I going to do with you, Katerina Alexandrovna?” he said, a menacing smile on his face. “I leave you alone briefly and you are off gallivanting in another man’s carriage.”

“What did you do to me?” I tried to sit up and look around but the crown prince held me fast. The only thing I could see was that I was now in a different carriage. Even the horses’ hooves sounded different on the street. Were we still in St. Petersburg? “You must let me go.”

“Must I, my love?” He stroked my hair. He laughed when I flinched. “We are leaving for Cetinje tonight, for my birthday celebration. Your mother has already been notified and
has been invited to join us. She believes you are leaving on the train with my sisters. Your father has already given me your passport papers.”

“You cannot do this.” I tried to struggle, but it was no use. The pain in the back of my head throbbed. I wondered if the grand duke could hear my thoughts.
Your Imperial Highness? George?
I was desperately trying to stay conscious. But the pain in my head was so intense my eyes closed again.