Dark Obsession (Vampire Royals of New York #3) - Sarah Piper Page 0,37
are intentional. My God, the detail work is just exquisite.”
“Did you say a raven’s wing?” Colin asked.
“Yes, the motif is repeated here too.” She pointed to a few etchings in the bone handle. “The raven was often associated with death and immortality. It was probably a symbol of power for the men who’d forged it—allegedly, members of one of the original Russian assassin’s guilds.”
“Where does the immortal bit come in?” Aiden asked.
“According to legend,” she said, “this blade was given to the most skilled assassin in the guild—a man known only as the Bessmertnym Soldat. The Immortal Soldier.”
“Immortal, as in, all of this is no more than a myth?” Aiden asked. “A story told to naughty children at night to frighten them into behaving?”
Charlotte shook her head. “Immortal because he lived forever. At least, his persona did. Upon his death, his greatest apprentice would take up the blade and the identity, continuing the legacy. At any given time, no one knew the true identity of the Immortal Soldier, or for how long each assassin carried the name. The soldier—and this dagger—killed hundreds. Thousands. It vanished from the records soon after the Battle of Borodino, but there were rumors it was smuggled into England, hidden in a piece of art created for just that purpose. No one ever knew which piece.”
“The Mother of Lost Souls.” Dorian shook his head, glancing at the broken shards still scattered on the ground. “All this time, I thought it was just another esoteric piece of art. Yet it was hiding something far more valuable.”
“Obviously, Rogozin and Chernikov knew better.” Charlotte set the blade back on the slab and paced the small chamber. “A few months ago, I would’ve told you this piece was the Bratva’s holy grail. But Rogozin and Chernikov’s organizations make the Bratva look like schoolyard bullies. And with so many supernaturals bidding on other pieces from your father’s collection… No. This isn’t just a Russian cultural artifact. There’s something more to all of this.”
“She’s right,” Colin said suddenly, emerging from the shadows with one of their father’s anatomy books in hand. “There is more to it. A lot more. In fact, it’s not a Russian artifact at all.”
“What is it, then?” Dorian asked.
He glanced at Charlotte, then cut his eyes back to Dorian, as if he wasn’t sure how much to reveal.
“Speak candidly, brother,” Dorian said.
Colin let out a long, slow breath, then said, “This blade was forged in hell by an ancient demon called Azerius.”
Cole barked out a laugh. “Just when I thought there might be a dull moment around here, you Redthornes gotta kick it up another notch.”
“Colin, how did you come to know this?” Dorian asked.
“It’s only a hypothesis, but…” He set the book on the slab, then rummaged excitedly through one of the stacks of journals until he found what he was looking for. “Father’s journals spoke of a cure for demons—a weapon that would essentially strip a demon’s essence from his vessel and trap it for eternity. The journals are cryptic at best—the fanatical rantings of a madman at worst—and I’d assumed the weapon he referred to was an actual formula, not unlike the one he synthesized to cure vampirism.”
“Isn’t it?” Aiden asked.
“I think the weapon, in this case, may be literal.” Colin flipped open the journal and pointed to a passage in the center. “Many of his entries have odd references to ravens, like this one: ‘The wing of the raven shall cure the darkness as surely as the sunrise cures the night.’” He flipped past a few pages, then read, “‘Black as a demon’s heart, forged in the very same darkness, the raven’s gift is the key to its demise.’ There are literally hundreds of notations like this.” Colin set the journal back onto the stack, then grabbed the anatomy book he’d left behind. “At first, I couldn’t decipher whether raven wings were part of the formulary, or a metaphor, or some other clue. I set aside that mystery in order to work on re-creating the vampire cure, but when Charlotte mentioned the raven’s wing, I recalled this book.”
He held it up so they could see the cover.
“Corvidae: Anatomy and Physiology,” Dorian read. “What does that have to do with father’s rantings?”
“Corvidae is the family of birds that includes the raven.” Colin gestured around the lab. “In all of the anatomy and medical books father brought back here, this is the only one that doesn’t deal specifically with humans.”