The Gathering Storm

I felt my blood run cold. "What did you say?" I whispered.

There was a wicked gleam in Elena's eye as she told me. "Princess Cantacuzene. Has. Been. Murdered."

"That cannot be," Dariya said. "By whom?"

Elena shrugged. "She had enough enemies, I believe. I do not think she was a favorite at the Romanov court."

"How did it happen?" I asked. How exactly did one murder a vampire?

Surely not with a stake in the heart, as in the Gothic novels. Although that would certainly accomplish the task, no matter whom one was attempting to eliminate.

"I heard the headmistress speaking with the guards. Madame Tomilov said she'd been poisoned. But I think it must have been something stronger than that. Don't you think?" Elena grinned evilly. "There were no marks on her, though."

"Then why would you think it was murder?" I asked, wondering how much Elena truly knew about the Romanian princess.

Dariya shook her head. "She could have had a heart attack or choked on a bonbon. Or just passed away from old age, for heaven's sake. The woman was ancient."

"Older than you think," Elena said. "Are you two coming to dinner? I think we are having lamb tonight."

She left us reeling in shock. And apprehension. Was Princess Militza responsible for Cantacuzene's death? If it was true, she was much, much more powerful than I'd believed. The thought of traveling to Cetinje suddenly made me ill, and I lost all appetite for dinner.

"Elena's not only dangerous," my cousin said. "The stupid girl is mad." I followed Dariya to the dining hall, entering just as the instructors were being seated. I slid into my seat beside Elena, bowing my head for grace.

Princess Cantacuzene's death was the talk of the table.

Erzsebet leaned across the table to whisper, "Oh, Katerina, did you hear? It is so awful!"

I nodded, mechanically taking a roll from the bread basket.

"She was such an elegant lady, even if she was a bit strange," Augusta said with a sigh. "Do you suppose the tsar will call for official mourning?"

"Why would he?" Elena asked. "She was no member of the imperial family."

"But she was an important member of society. Didn't she donate one of her palaces for a museum?"

"I did not know that," I said. "How many palaces did she have?"

"Several!" Erzsebet said. "One in St. Petersburg, one in Tsarskoye Selo, one in Moscow, a summer palace in the Crimea, plus all the property she owned in Romania."

"How do you know all that?" Dariya asked.

"Because I heard our mother talking with the princess at our uncle's funeral. I know she did not have any children. I wonder who will inherit all those beautiful palaces."

Princess Cantacuzene had been the mortal enemy of the Montenegrins, and Grand Duchess Miechen had led me to believe that her vampires had been the most powerful of the vampire families. Not to mention the warning from the ghost of Tsar Pavel. Could the dead tsar have been wrong? It seemed to me that whoever had killed the princess was even more powerful.

What this meant for the people of St. Petersburg, I did not know. Were we being caught in the middle of a war for dominance between vampire families? Vampires that were not even supposed to exist?