Free The Nightlife Moscow (Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Suspense) (The Nightlife Series Book 5) by Travis Luedke

They were a death squad.”
    A shiver ran down Katya’s body, a chill she still held in
her soul from that night so long ago. She looked at him, and her eyes were
haunted with torments of things that can never be unseen. “The Czar and his
wife were kind people. I knew from the way they treated me, and the other
servants. And their children.” Katya barely contained a sob as a tear rolled
down the side of her face. “I cooked their meals, made their beds, bathed them
– beautiful, lovely children.”
    She took a minute to compose herself then cleared her
throat. “The guards forced us all into the basement, and shot us over and over.
They shot me so many times. I don’t even know how many times, and to
this day, I still don’t know why I didn’t die.”
    Ivan reached across the table and stroked Katya’s hand. “We
heard the shooting. By then there was nothing we could do but follow the
murderers as they loaded the bodies into trucks and took the evidence of their
crimes deep into the woods, to bury them. We were the only ones who heard the faint
sounds of Katya’s breathing. I knew we had to save her.”
    Katya smiled at Ivan with a love that spanned almost a
century. “I have always thought it was a miracle, or perhaps a mistake. I
should have died that night, buried with the Czar and his wife and children.”
She turned her attention to Aaron. “I lived all these years, evaded Dmitri’s
goons, escaped the bloody Bolsheviks, and for what? To become your chew toy?”
    She was smiling at Aaron, teasing, but, her voice held an
undercurrent that wasn’t so happy. Aaron pecked her cheek. “You’re not a chew
toy, Katya. More like a big, juicy steak, with a great ass and …”
    She elbowed him in the ribs as he broke into laughter and
Ivan grinned, trying hard not to laugh.
    Katya pegged Ivan with one of her fiery looks. “Tell him why
you geniuses saved me , the bloody maid.” There was a tone to her voice
Aaron didn’t like. The sound of a woman who thought herself unworthy of
survival. Survivors guilt, perhaps?
    Ivan shrugged. “We needed a witness. We assumed they would
lie about what had happened, try to cover up their crimes. A witness could tell
the world the truth. Days passed and there was no news. No lies, no rumors,
nothing. It was as if the Royal family had never existed. We told many people,
key officials, old friends in St. Petersburg. No one would listen. For more
than two decades the revolutionaries kept their crimes a secret. By the time
the truth was known publicly, the world had changed. The Russian empire was no
more. We were proud Soviets of the Union, a communist country living by the
ideals of Vladimir Lenin and suffocating in the grip of Joseph Stalin. No one
cared about the truth anymore.”
    Aaron stroked the side of Katya’s face. “It’s not your
fault. There was nothing you could have done.” She nodded, but, her melancholy
remained.
    Ivan nodded. “We have told her many times, it was Dmitri.
He’s a curse on this land, our personal curse. We were not strong enough to
stop him.”
    Aaron frowned. “How can one vampire control the course of
history, of all Russia?”
    “Don’t you understand? If he hadn’t killed Rasputin, if he
hadn’t manipulated the Czar into stepping down off the throne…”
    “What do you mean?”
    “With Rasputin out of the way, Dmitri and the dukes were
able to pressure Nicholas into abdicating his throne to Alexei, his only son, a
child of ill health. Pure idiocy. Realizing their mistake, the Dukes convinced
Nicholas to abdicate the throne to his brother, Grand Duke Michael instead.”
    Aaron scratched his head, not really getting it.
    “Don’t you see? Michael was Dmitri’s man! The leech had been
working towards this all along! It was only after the murder of Rasputin that
Dmitri was able to influence the Czar. Our Alpha was strong in his convictions,
and Empress Alexandra held his counsel in the highest regard. Dmitri