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

were happy, the pack.
There were many back then, well over twenty. If only he’d stayed away from the
royal family…” Ivan shook his head. “But Rasputin was convinced he could gain
the Empress’s favor and reveal himself to her, to save the boy, Alexie.”
    “Huh?”
    “Imagine if Emperor Nicholas had been given a chance to
raise a young, healthy, educated Alexie, strong enough to stand up to the
people, strong enough to bring his country into the twentieth century without
all the bloodshed and revolution. Imagine the young prince as a wolf, with
Rasputin at his side.”
    “Weren’t there a bunch of revolutionaries, angry mobs?
Bloody Sunday and all that?”
    Ivan nodded and chugged back more vodka. “Everyone was angry
with the mess of World War I. Poverty, starvation, the economy was in ruin. Our
cities had factories everywhere, thousands of men toiling away their days for
meager paychecks. Most were foreign owned factories. We were the cheap labor of
Europe, producing goods for everyone else, yet we walked home on dirt roads and
traveled in horse-drawn carts. The Russian people did not reap the benefits of
our own industrial revolution. Labor Unions screamed in the streets as workers
who earned too little and paid too much taxes listened to new ideals of strength
in unity and political reform.”
    “Bloody Sunday only made it worse. The nobility, once
respected and feared, had become hated. They sat in their mansions and
pretended the problem didn’t exist. They had not learned the lessons of France
two centuries earlier. Sometimes I think that humanity is doomed to repeat the
same mistakes of history, over and over again.”
    “Our pack had evaded the war. We slipped between the cracks
of society and roamed the countryside with the Gypsies, but Rasputin felt a deep
sense of responsibility to the people. He envisioned dark days to come, a great
political upheaval. There was truth to the rumors that he was a Staret ,a mystic, psychic. He had clairvoyant visions and insisted on working his
way into the social circles of the Czar. He thought he could help.”
    Aaron glanced at the early morning dawn creeping through the
cracks in the boarded up windows. The daylight lethargy was on him, but, unlike
Michelle, he could function during the day. Another side effect of Urvashi’s
blood in his system. Still, he hated being awake in the day. It just felt wrong.
    Ivan noticed the dawn’s rays piercing the dusty interior of
the warehouse and grinned like the wolf hiding beneath his skin. Ivan’s fingers
traced the light, and Aaron rose to the challenge by dipping his hand through
the sunbeam that once would have roasted his skin.
    “This I still do not understand, how you can walk and talk
in the daylight. You are very different from other vampires. Dmitri was the
first vampire I met, at court, in St. Petersburg. Rasputin dragged me to court
many times, but I am a simple wolf. The world of the wealthy and influential is
not for me.” Ivan shook his head.
    “Dmitri moved among the nobles and attended their parties as
though born to it. I had no idea what he was back then. I only knew he smelled
different. I hated him, instantly. Of course, he knew what we were, just like
you did.”
    Aaron recalled the precise moment he’d met Ivan and Katya in
London. Their scent alone identified them as something more than human.
Michelle had seen it in their auras, and dropped her teeth, ready to brawl. The
old legends and Hollywood films are at least partially true, vampires and
werewolves are a natural enemy of sorts.
    Ivan watched Aaron, as if reading his thoughts. A sly grin
reached his mouth. “Dmitri hated Rasputin intensely. Me, I did not exist, no
more than a stray dog on the street. The Dukes were split on the issue.
Rasputin had a certain … magnetism, and he knew how to play a crowd. He had a
way with the ladies. Many a Duchess entertained our alpha in their private
chambers. In fact, I believe it was the