“Adrian? Is that you?”
The voice calling me wasn’t immediately familiar, and I slowly turned from Olive to see who was speaking. We’d set out walking at random, and the place we’d stopped gave us a good vantage on what I thought of as the “Red Light District Cabins.” Another Moroi guy appeared to be leaving one of those cabins, and from the stagger in his steps, he’d been enjoying happy hour out in the woods.
“It is you!” the man exclaimed, smacking his leg in triumph. “I knew it.”
A few more seconds, and recognition set in. “Uncle Rand?” I asked in disbelief.
He strode on up to us and grinned. “The same.”
I could hardly believe it. In my life, I’d come to expect any number of fantastic and wondrous things to happen in day-to-day affairs. Spirit battles? No problem. My wife turning into a cat? Sure, go for it. So it was astonishing that the sight of a relative I hadn’t thought about in years would so completely floor me. Rand Ivashkov was my dad’s older brother, someone I’d neither seen nor thought about since I was a child. Rand hadn’t been disowned—not officially—but it had been clear to me from an early age that everyone preferred it when he wasn’t around. My father had assumed his responsibilities at Court and sent Rand out of the country on errands that were mostly meant to keep him out of the way and give him things he couldn’t screw up. Once, when I’d gotten in trouble as a teen at an illicit party, my mother had urged my father to go easy on punishing me. “After all,” she’d said, “it’s not like he’s as bad as your brother.”
He’s a screwup, whispered Aunt Tatiana. A disgrace. More consumed with women and wine than family honor.
Doesn’t sound that different from me, I admitted.
She scoffed. Hardly. Your family never shipped you off to keep you out of the way.
Last I’d known, Rand was somewhere in Europe. I certainly hadn’t expected to find my uncle in northern Michigan. “What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Same thing you are,” he said, giving me a wink. He had the same dark green eyes I had, and though there was some silver in his brown hair, it was nowhere near the amount my dad had. Maybe living a life of women and wine was less stressful than living a respectable one on the Moroi Council. Rand was tall, even among Moroi, and had to lean down to leer at Olive, making her cringe against me. “She’s cute,” he said. “And I see you’ve got your own little sideline family going, eh? I’ve got a couple of those myself. These dhampir girls breed like—”
“It’s not like that,” I interrupted, getting tired of explaining this. “I’m not—that is, Olive’s just a friend I’m checking up on.”
Uncle Rand perked up. “So she’s available? I haven’t seen her around—”
“No,” I said through gritted teeth. “She’s not available. Look, it’s nice to see you and everything, but this really isn’t the time or place. I have things to do.”
I started to turn away, indicating to Olive that we should head back to Diana’s cabin. To my astonishment, Rand grabbed my arm and turned me back around. That close, the scent of vodka coming off of him nearly knocked me over.
“Don’t be like that!” he said hotly. “A snob like the rest of your family. Your dad and his holier-than-thou wife always acted like I wasn’t good enough to hang out with the rest of you. But look at you now. You’re here, no better than me. And I hear all kinds of things about you too—do you see me judging? We have a lot in common.”
I jerked my arm away. “I don’t think so.”
“You are just like the rest of them!” He lunged toward me, his steps faltering drunkenly. I didn’t know if he was trying to hit me or just grab me again, but I never found out because a tall figure suddenly stepped in between us and sent him flying with a right hook. I looked up and saw Dimitri regarding my uncle, who was now lying sprawled on the grass, with an expression of intense disgust. Rose, Sydney, and Lana came hurrying up to us.
“What the hell’s going on?” exclaimed Rose.
“Thanks,” I told Dimitri. “Though I don’t think we needed quite that much intervention. I was holding my own.”
“He’s an animal,” growled Dimitri. “He has no business being here.”
“Well, I suppose it—” I stopped and reconsidered Dimitri’s words. “Do you know him or something?”
Dimitri eyed me. “Yes. Do you?”
“Yeah,” I said. “He’s my uncle. Rand Ivashkov.”
“Oh?” Dimitri’s hardened expression didn’t change. “He’s my father.”
Chapter 10
AND JUST LIKE THAT, Olive Sinclair’s pregnancy was no longer the most astonishing thing going on. Or, well, at least it had some serious competition for bizarreness.
We all stood there awkwardly in the middle of the path, with the birds singing merrily around us, making this unexpected family revelation that much more surreal. Even Rose, who was rarely at a loss for words, stood there gaping. The Moroi man—Rand Ivashkov, according to Adrian—blinked at Dimitri as though he were seeing a ghost. Some of Rand’s cocky swagger diminished a little, and he took an uneasy step back.
“Well, I’ll be damned. It is you, Dimka.” He wet his lips and tried to smile. “You look pretty good for a guy who used to be undead, am I right?” He glanced around at the rest of us, looking for us to laugh at the joke. We stayed silent. Dimitri turned to Lana.
“Is he causing you trouble?” he asked her politely. “Are you having difficulty removing him? I’ll be happy to do it for you.”
“We can take care of ourselves,” she shot back, though not unkindly. As though summoned by some unspoken signal, Mallory and another dhampir woman who looked like a guard appeared on the path behind her. Mallory no longer seemed like a dreamy fangirl. In that moment she was as formidable as any guardian I’d met.
Rand relaxed a little. “Yeah, see? No need to do anything hasty.”
Lana fixed her glare on him. “That does not mean you are welcome here.”
“Hey,” he said, confidence returning, “I have every right to be here. I was visiting Elaine. She’s a resident. She can have guests.”
“She can have guests at my discretion,” Lana corrected, fists on her hips. “And I’ve told you before, I don’t want you here drinking.”