Polar (Prequel): The Turnagain Arm by Julie Flanders

Chapter 1
    February, 1917 ~ St. Petersburg, Russia
     
    Aleksei wanted to run.
    He needed to get out of St. Petersburg and away from the mobs of marching lunatics who had killed his beloved Natasha, the woman who had nursed him back to health after he’d nearly died on the battlefield.
    The Russia Aleksei loved and had fought for was crumbling before his eyes, thanks to the ravages of war and the Bolsheviks with their endless calls for revolution. That revolution had trampled his Natasha to death, angry and frenzied boots smashing her head to pieces before he could save her. Before he could make her what he had become. Even the name of his beloved home St. Petersburg had been changed to the detestable Petrograd in 1914. Aleksei had steadfastly refused to use the name.
    There was nothing left in Russia for him now and he wanted only to leave. But he couldn’t head west into the heart of Europe. He’d seen enough of combat to know the devastation that would be waiting for him there. He wanted peace. He needed time to decide on a new path for himself. Time to adjust to his new abilities and heightened senses.
    He walked along the deserted street and heard the whistle of a train as its wheels chugged away from the station. He knew the train was returning wounded soldiers to the collapsing front. Aleksei had been smart enough to avoid this fate. From his cot in the hospital tent he had remembered the stories his grandmother had told him about the undead who roam the earth at night. He had seen them himself and had watched as they preyed on soldiers too weak and pitiful to fight back. When Aleksei had heard the vampires outside his tent he had boldly asked the group of immortals to make him one of them. He’d had no intention of succumbing to the misery and death that swallowed up his comrades one by one. He had more living to do.
    And so here he was, more powerful than he could ever have imagined and facing an eternity of living, but without the woman he had planned to spend this eternity with. He needed to carve out a new path for himself, far away from St. Petersburg. He listened to the whistle growing fainter as the train headed away from him and thought of stories from his childhood about the building of a railroad that would connect Russia’s western cities with the frigid eastern landscape of Siberia. Perhaps that train was exactly what he needed.
    He could take the train all the way across the country, away from the noise of battle and the screams of marchers calling for revolution. Eventually he’d come to the city of Vladivostok and to the sea. From there, who knew? He could go anywhere now. Do anything.
    Aleksei had always been an exceedingly handsome young man, tall and lean, with broad shoulders and a slim waist. His hair was thick and blond and his eyes were the color of sapphires. Even the ravages of combat hadn’t dulled his appearance. He had always been able to use his looks as the tool he knew they were. He smiled as he realized how well his appearance could complement the powers he now had. It was as if the world had suddenly become a giant toy that existed only for his pleasure.
    Aleksei headed for the train station. He broke into a run.
    ***

Chapter 2
    October, 1917 ~ Potter Creek, Alaska
     
    Kenneth MacNeil pulled his coat tighter around him and shivered as he waited in vain for a fish to take his bait. For what must have been the millionth time, he cursed himself for ever leaving his home in the Appalachian Mountains and traveling to this god-forsaken frozen wasteland. He’d only wanted to try his hand at a little gold prospecting but, as his luck would have it, he’d arrived in Alaska too late to get in on the action. The only action he’d managed to find was the construction of the Alaskan railroad and his job helping Mr. Dzubenko with his traveling saloon.
    He’d been miserable from the get-go, but this stretch of rail in the Turnagain Arm area was by far the worst yet. He never understood why