I sorted through the dresses in my closet, choosing a long ivory silk one that had purple flowers delicately painted into the fabric. It fit like a glove. I wanted to wear my hair up, but after looking at the bruises again, I decided to wear it down. I’d been provided with a curling iron and makeup recently, so I worked my hair over carefully, turning the ends up in perfect little curls. Once made up, I stared happily at my reflection, certain Dimitri would be happy too. All I needed now was to put on some of the exquisite jewelry he’d given me. But when I turned to leave, I caught a glimpse of my back from the side and saw I’d missed fastening a clasp. I reached around to do it but couldn’t get a hold of it. It was in that perfect spot just out of my reach.
“Damn,” I muttered, still grappling with the hook. The flaw in my perfection.
Just then, I heard the door open in the other room, followed by the telltale sound of a tray being set on the coffee table. A stroke of luck.
“Inna!” I called, walking out of the bathroom. “I need you to—”
Nausea rolled through me, and as I stepped into the living room, I saw that Dimitri wasn’t the source. Nathan was.
My jaw dropped open. Inna stood near him, waiting patiently by the tray, eyes downcast as always. I immediately ignored her and then looked back at Nathan. Presumably, he was still on guard duty, but that had never actually included him coming inside. For the first time in a while, some of my battle instincts kicked in, assessing escape options. My fear urged me to back away, but that would trap me in the bathroom. Best to stay where I was. Even if I couldn’t leave the room, this gave me the most space to maneuver.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, surprised at how calm I sounded.
“Taking care of a problem.”
I didn’t really need any pointers to figure out the subtext here. I was the problem.
Again, I fought the urge to back up. “I’ve never done anything to you.” It was faulty logic to a Strigoi. None of their victims ever did anything to them.
“You exist,” he said. “You’re taking up space here, wasting everyone’s time. You know how to find her—the Dragomir girl—yet you’ll offer nothing remotely useful until Belikov gets off his ass and awakens you. And in the meantime, Galina forces me to waste time watching you and keeps promoting him because he’s convinced her that you’re going to be some amazing asset to us.”
It was an interesting set of grievances. “So . . . um, what are you going to do?”
In a flash, he stood in front of me. Seeing him so close triggered that memory in my mind’s eye—him biting Dimitri and starting all of this. A spark of anger kindled in me but didn’t do much in the way of development. “I’m getting the information one way or another,” he hissed. “Tell me where she is.”
“You know where she is. She’s at the school.” There was nothing useful in giving up that news. He knew she was there. He knew where the school was.
The look he gave me showed he was not happy about me providing knowledge he already had. Reaching out, he gripped my hair and jerked my head painfully back. Wearing my hair down maybe hadn’t been so useful after all. “Where is she going? She won’t stay there forever. Is she going to college? The Royal Court? They must have made plans for her.”
“I don’t know what they are. I’ve been away for a while.”
“I don’t believe you,” he snarled. “She’s too valuable. Her future would have been planned out a while ago.”
“If it is, no one’s shared it with me. I left too soon.”
I shrugged by way of answer. Rage filled his eyes, and I swear, they grew redder.
“You’re bonded! You know. Tell me now, and I’ll kill you quickly. If you don’t, I’ll awaken you to get the information, and then I’ll kill you. I’ll light you up like a bonfire.”
“You . . . you’d kill me once I was one of you?” Foolish question. Strigoi felt no loyalty to each other.
“Yes. It’ll destroy him, and once Galina sees how unhinged he is, I will return to my original place by her side—especially after I stamp out the Dragomir line.”
“The hell you will.”
He smiled and touched my face, running his fingers along my neck and the bruises all over it. “Oh, I will. It really will make things easier if you just tell me now. You’ll die in ecstasy rather than being burned alive. We’ll both enjoy it.” He wrapped his hand delicately around my throat. “You’re definitely a problem, but you are beautiful—especially your throat. I can see why he wants you. . . .”
Warring emotions played within me. Logically, I knew this was Nathan—Nathan, whom I hated for having turned Dimitri in the first place. Yet my body’s need for Strigoi endorphins was raising its head too, and it barely mattered that it was Nathan. What mattered was that his teeth were only a breath away from my neck, promising that sweet, sweet delirium.
And while one hand held my throat, the other ran down my waist, down to the curve of my hip. There had been a sultry edge to Nathan’s voice, like he wanted to do more than just bite me. And after so many sexually charged encounters with Dimitri—encounters that never resulted in anything—my body almost didn’t care who touched it. I could close my eyes, and it wouldn’t matter whose teeth bit into me or whose hands peeled off my clothes. Only the next fix would matter. I could close my eyes and pretend it was Dimitri, lost in it all as Nathan’s lips brushed my skin. . . .
Except, as some small reasonable part of me recalled, Nathan didn’t just want sex and blood. He eventually wanted to kill me.
Which was kind of ironic. I’d been dead set—no pun intended—on killing myself when I got here, lest I become a Strigoi. Nathan was offering me that now. Even if he turned me first, he planned on killing me immediately afterward. Either way, I wouldn’t have to spend eternity as a Strigoi. I should have welcomed this.
But just then, as my body’s addiction screamed for his bite and that bliss, I realized something with startling clarity: I didn’t want to die. Maybe it was because I’d gone almost a day without a bite, but something small and rebellious woke up in me. I would not let him do this to me. I would not let him go after Dimitri. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let him hunt down Lissa.
Pushing through that endorphin cloud that still hung around me, I summoned up as much willpower as I could. I dug deep, remembering my years of training and all the lessons Dimitri had given me. It was hard to access those memories, and I only touched a few. Still, enough came to spur me to action. I lunged forward and punched Nathan.
And accomplished nothing.
He didn’t budge. Hell, I don’t even know if he felt it. The surprise on his face promptly turned to mirth, and he laughed in that horrible way Strigoi did—cruelly and without any real joy. Then, with the greatest of ease, he slapped me and knocked me across the room. Dimitri had done nearly the same thing when I’d arrived and attacked him. Only I hadn’t flown quite as far or had so miniscule an effect on him.
I slammed into the back of the couch, and good God, did it hurt. A wave of dizziness washed over me, and I realized the idiocy of fighting someone vastly stronger than me when I’d been losing blood all week. I managed to straighten up and desperately sought my next course of action. Nathan, for his part, seemed in no hurry to respond to my attack. In fact, he was still laughing.
Glancing around, I latched onto a truly pitiful course of action. Inna stood near me. Moving with a speed that was painfully slow—but better than I expected myself to manage—I reached for her and wrapped my arm around her neck. She yelped in surprise, and I jerked her harder against me.
“Get out of here,” I said to Nathan. “Get out of here, or I’ll kill her.”
He stopped laughing, stared at me for a moment, and then laughed even harder. “Are you serious? Do you honestly think I couldn’t stop you if I wanted? And do you honestly think I care? Go ahead. Kill her. There are dozens more just like her.”
Yeah, that really shouldn’t have been a surprise either, but even I was a
bit taken aback by how easily he could throw away a faithful servant’s life. Okay. Time to go to Plan B. Or maybe it was Plan J? Frankly, I was losing track, and none of them were very good anyway—
“Ow!”
Inna suddenly elbowed me in the stomach. I released her in my surprise. She spun around with a strangled scream and socked me in the face. The blow wasn’t as hard as Nathan’s had been, but it still knocked me over. I tried to catch a hold of something—anything—as I fell but failed. I hit the floor, my back slamming against the door. I expected her to come right back at me, but instead, she darted across the room and—God help us all—threw herself into a defensive posture in front of Nathan.
Before I could fully process the weirdness of her trying to protect someone who was willing to let her die, the door suddenly opened. “Ow!” I said again, as it hit me and pushed me aside.
Dimitri swiftly entered. He looked from face to face, and I had no doubt mine showed signs of both Nathan’s and Inna’s attacks. Dimitri’s fists clenched, and he turned toward Nathan. It reminded me of their scuffle in the hallway, all rage and malice and bloodlust. I cringed, bracing myself for another horrible confrontation.
“Don’t,” warned Nathan, face smug. “You know what Galina said. Touch me and you’re out of here.”
Dimitri strode across the room and came to stand in front of Nathan, knocking Inna aside like a rag doll. “It’ll be worth facing her wrath, particularly when I tell her you attacked first. Rose certainly bears the marks of it.”
“You wouldn’t.” He pointed at Inna, who was sitting dazed on the floor from where Dimitri had knocked her over. Despite my own injuries, I began crawling over to her. I had to know if she was all right. “She’ll tell the truth.”
Now Dimitri looked smug. “You really think Galina will believe a human? No. When I tell her how you attacked me and Rose out of jealousy, she’ll let me off. The fact that you’ll be so easily defeated will be proof of your weakness. I’ll slice your head off and get Rose’s stake from the vault. With your last breath, you can watch her drive it through your heart.”
Holy crap. That was a little worse than Nathan threatening to burn me—wait.
My stake?
Nathan’s face still bore haughty arrogance—at least to me. But I think Dimitri must have seen something that satisfied him, something that made him think he’d gotten the upper hand. He visibly relaxed, his smirk growing larger. “Twice,” Dimitri said softly. “Twice I’ve let you go. Next time . . . next time, you’re gone.”
I reached Inna and gently held out my hand. “Are you okay?” I murmured.
With a look of hate, she recoiled and scooted away. Nathan’s eyes fell on me, and he began backing toward the door.
“No,” he said. “Twice I’ve let her live. Next time she’s gone. I’m the one in control here, not you.”
Nathan opened the door and Inna stood up, stumbling after him. I stared, mouth agape at the events that had just taken place. I didn’t know which of them I found more disturbing. Looking up at Dimitri, I grappled with what to ask him first. What were we going to do? Why had Inna defended Nathan? Why had Dimitri let him go? None of those defiant questions came to my lips, though.
Instead, I burst into tears.
TWENTY-TWO
I DIDN’T CRY VERY OFTEN. And I hated it when I did. The last time I’d done it around Dimitri, his arms had immediately encircled me. This time, all I got was a look of coldness and anger.
“This is your fault!” he yelled, fists clenched.
I cringed backward, eyes wide. “But he . . . he attacked me . . .”
“Yes. And Inna. A human! You let a human attack you.” He couldn’t keep the sneer from his voice. “You are weak. You are incapable of defending yourself—all because you refuse to be awakened!”
His voice was terrifying, and the look he gave me . . . well, it scared me almost more than Nathan had. Reaching forward, he jerked me up to my feet.
“If you had just been killed, it would have been your own fault,” he said. His fingers dug into my wrist as he shook me. “You have the chance for immortality, for incredible strength! And you’re too blind and stubborn to see it.”
I swallowed back more tears and rubbed my eyes with the back of my free hand. No doubt I was ruining the makeup I’d so painstakingly put on. My heart was ready to explode out of my chest, I was so afraid. I expected rage and threats from Nathan—but not Dimitri.
You’ve forgotten he’s a Strigoi, something whispered in my mind.
I’d gone long enough without a bite and had enough adrenaline kicking me to alertness that my nagging voice was speaking more loudly than it had in a very long time. Dimitri said I was weak because I wasn’t Strigoi, but there was more to it than that. I was weak and had been subdued by Nathan and Inna because I was an addict, because I was living a life of blissful ignorance that was taking a toll on my body and my mind. The thought was startling, and I could barely hold onto it. My yearning for vampire endorphins flared up, and the two factions warred in my mind.
I had enough sense not to voice any of those thoughts. I tried for something that would pacify Dimitri instead. “I don’t think I’d be stronger than Nathan, even if I was turn—awakened.”
He ran a hand over my hair, his cold voice thoughtful. He seemed to be calming down, but his eyes were still angry and impatient. “Perhaps not initially, but your strength of body and will carries over with the change. He’s not that much older than either of us—not enough to make a noticeable difference, which is why he keeps backing down when we fight.”
“Why do you keep backing down?”
I felt his body go rigid, and I realized my question might be read as a slam against his prowess. I swallowed, my fear returning. He hadn’t let go of my wrist, and it was starting to hurt.
“Because he’s right about one thing,” Dimitri said stiffly. “Killing him would bring Galina’s wrath down on us. And that’s not something I can afford. Yet.”
“You said before that you . . . that we . . . had to kill her.”
“Yes, and once we do, it’ll be easy to seize control of her assets and organization.”
“What is her organization exactly?” If I kept distracting him, the anger might go away. The monster might go away.
He shrugged. “All sorts of things. This wealth isn’t bought without effort.”
“Effort that’s illegal and hurts humans?”
“Does it matter?”
I didn’t bother with an answer. “But Galina used to be your teacher. Can you really kill her? And I don’t mean physically . . . I mean, doesn’t it bother you?”
He considered. “I told you before. It’s all about strength and weakness. Prey and predator. If we can bring her down—and I have no doubts we can—then she’s prey. End of story.”
I shivered. It was so harsh, such a stark and scary way of viewing the world. Dimitri released my wrist just then, and a wave of relief ran through me. On shaky legs, I backed up and sat on the couch. For a moment, I feared he’d grab me again, but instead he sat down beside me.
“Why did Inna attack me? Why did she defend Nathan?”
“Because she loves him.” Dimitri didn’t bother hiding his disgust.
“But how . . . ?”
“Who knows? Part of it is that he’s promised to awaken her once she’s put in time here.” Sydney’s warnings came back to me, about why the Alchemists feared that humans would learn about vampires—because humans might want to turn too. “That’s what most of the human servants are told.”
“Told?”
“Most are unworthy. Or, more often than not, someone gets hungry and finishes the human off.”
I was getting sick to my stomach, independent of Dimitri’s proximity. “This is all a mess.”
“It doesn’t have to be.” I didn’t think he would shake me again, but there was a dangerous glint in his eyes. The monster was only a heartbeat away. “Time’s running out. I’ve been lenient, Ro
za. Far more lenient than I would be with anyone else.”
“Why? Why have you done it?” I wanted—needed—then to hear him say it was because he loved me and that because of that love, he could never force me into anything I didn’t want. I needed to hear it so that I could blot out that terrifying, furious creature I’d seen a few minutes ago.
“Because I know how you think. And I know awakening you of your own free will would make you a more important ally. You’re independent and strong-minded—that’s what makes you valuable.”
“An ally, huh?”
Not the woman he loved.
He shifted so that his face hovered over mine. “Didn’t I tell you once I’d always be there for you? I’m here. I’ll protect you. We’re going to be together. We’re meant to be together. You know this.” There was more fierceness in his voice than affection.
He kissed my lips, drawing me close. The usual heat flooded me, my body instantly responding to his. But even as my body did one thing, other thoughts were spinning through my mind. I had always thought we were meant to be together. And he had once told me he’d always be there for me. I’d always wanted that too—but I had wanted to be there for him in return. I wanted us to be equals, always watching each other’s backs. Today hadn’t been like that. I’d been defenseless. Weak. Never, never in my life had I been like that. Even in horrible, outmatched moments, I’d put up a decent fight. At the very least, I’d had the will to fight. Not now. I’d been terrified. I’d been ineffectual. I hadn’t been able to do anything except sit there pathetically and wait for someone to rescue me. I’d let a human get the best of me.
Dimitri said me becoming Strigoi was the solution. For the last week, he’d said that over and over, and while I hadn’t agreed to it, I hadn’t been as repulsed as I once had been. Lately, it had become a thought floating around out there, a far-off way for us to be together. And I did want to be together, especially in moments like this, when we kissed and desire crackled around both of us.
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