Chapter 35 Mattie
MATTIE
"There he is." Petrov raised his glass as Dimitri walked over to his table. "My replacement has arrived."
Mattie set down the tray she'd been carrying and smiled at Dimitri, drinking in the sight of him.
He looked better than he had any right to after what he had gone through.
The pallor was completely gone, his eyes were clear and bright, and his movements were fluid as he pulled out a chair and sat down.
"What can I get you?" she asked.
"Whatever he's having." Dimitri nodded toward Petrov's whiskey.
"Coming right up."
She returned a moment later with his drink and lingered by the table, reluctant to leave.
The bar had quietened since the afternoon rush, the offending immortals had thankfully left, and only a handful of patrons were scattered among the tables, and none of them seemed interested in her now that Petrov's claim had been established.
"Sit," Petrov said, pulling out the chair beside him. "Take a break. No one will question it."
Mattie glanced around the room. He was right. After the scene earlier, the other immortals had given her a wide berth. She was claimed property now, gifted to Petrov by the ruler of this place, and no one dared to question Lord Navuh's decisions.
She sat.
"You missed all the excitement," Petrov said to Dimitri, his voice low enough that it wouldn't carry beyond their table. "Mattie had some trouble with one of the patrons of this place who showed too much interest in her and behaved rudely."
Dimitri's hand tightened on his glass. "Which one?"
"Doesn't matter. He already left." Petrov waved dismissively and then leaned closer to Dimitri's ear. "I told them that Lord Navuh gifted her to me, and they bought it."
"Really? They all see you visiting the brothel."
"The objection came up, but I solved it easily, saying that I had two ladies to service my voracious appetite." Petrov grinned and tapped his temple. "See? My genius works in all kinds of ways."
Dimitri's expression softened slightly. "Thank you. That was fast thinking on your part."
"You're welcome. But I'm not telling you all of this to boast." He lowered his voice further.
"You need to act accordingly." Petrov drained the last of his whiskey and leaned over to kiss Mattie's cheek.
"Until later, my dear," he said more loudly.
"I will be counting the minutes." He winked and got up.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. "
He ambled toward the exit with the slightly unsteady gait of a somewhat inebriated man, except in his case, it was a lot. It just didn't affect his balance as strongly as it would have any other human, and his mind never seemed to suffer from all the alcohol either. He was always sharp.
Mattie watched him go with a smile, then turned back to Dimitri and frowned.
Something about him was off, making her gut clench. He was staring at his drink, not at her, and his brow was furrowed.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Hopefully, he wasn't jealous about Petrov's performance or, worse, having doubts about their relationship.
"It's nothing."
"Dimitri." She reached across the table and touched his hand. "Is it about what happened with the immortals? Or about Konstantin pretending I was his?"
"Neither." He looked up, meeting her eyes. "It has nothing to do with you." He sighed. "Well, in a way it does, but not directly."
He wasn't making any sense. "I don't understand."
He glanced around the bar, checking who might be within earshot, then shook his head. "Later. In the lab. Are you coming to see Petrov tonight?"
Mattie would have laughed at how bad his performance was, but his troubled expression drained her amusement. "Of course." She looked around before leaning closer to him. "No one made a fuss about my sleeping arrangements the last two nights, so I don't see any reason for changing them."
"Good." He squeezed her fingers briefly, then released them. "We'll talk then."
She nodded. "I should get back to work."
Reluctantly, Mattie rose to her feet and lifted her tray.
The rest of her shift dragged. Every minute felt like an hour as she moved between tables, taking orders, delivering drinks, and smiling at immortals, who regarded her with varying levels of interest. Some looked through her like she was furniture, others with barely concealed lust.
She needed a shower. A long, hot shower to wash away every hand that had touched her, every leer that had crawled across her skin. And then she needed Dimitri. His hands. His eyes. The touch that made her feel like a person, a human being, and not a piece of meat.
A little after eleven, Anil waved her over.
"You can go," he said. "There are only a few left. I can handle the rest."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. You've had a long day, and so have I." His dark eyes held understanding that went beyond the words. "I'd rather your day ended now."
He was afraid of more trouble, which was understandable given the two fiascos. In fact, he probably thought she was more trouble than she was worth.
She wouldn't be surprised if he asked the head of housekeeping to assign her back to maid duty, which would be great.
"Thank you." She filled up another glass for Dimitri and slipped out from behind the bar.
"That's the last one for tonight." She put the glass in front of him. "I'm leaving early. Wait for me at the staff entrance? I don't want to walk to the lab alone."
He nodded.
She hoped that whoever had heard her would believe the pretense that Dimitri was just escorting her to the lab to meet his boss. Some would, but Tarik and his gang wouldn't. Attacking an immortal with a syringe to protect what belonged to another man was not very believable.
Mattie's room was dark when she entered, her three roommates already asleep, their soft breathing filling the small space.
Quietly, she pulled a fresh uniform from her shelf in the closet and clean underwear from her drawer. She was almost to the door when one of the beds creaked.
"Mattie?" A sleepy voice. "Where have you been?" Alina asked. "You didn't come back last night or the night before."
"I'm staying with the scientist," Mattie whispered. "Lord Navuh gave me to him."
"Oh." Alina yawned, apparently satisfied with the explanation. "Good luck."
"Thank you."
"Have fun." Alina rolled over, and within seconds her breathing had deepened back into sleep.
That had gone much easier than she'd expected. Her roommate hadn't questioned any part of her story.
Mattie slipped out the door and made her way to the staff entrance.
Dimitri was waiting for her in the shadows just outside, his tall form barely visible in the darkness. "Everything okay?"
"Yes." She lifted on her toes and kissed his cheek. "My roommate woke up and asked where I've been for the past two nights, so I told her that Lord Navuh gave me to the scientist." She smiled. "I didn't specify which one."
"Smart." He wrapped his arm around her shoulders but then dropped it and put his hands in his pockets. "I'm supposed to be just the escort."
"I know. It's not a long walk to the lab." She smiled, imagining what she would do once the lab door closed behind them.
She had some nervous energy to unpack, and Dimitri looked like he could use some unpacking himself.
The night air was warm and humid as they walked through the compound, carrying scents of tropical flowers and seawater, and the distant sound of waves breaking against the shore.
It could have been peaceful, even romantic, if not for everything else that this island represented and whatever had put that troubled expression on Dimitri's face.
"Are you going to tell me now what's going on?" she asked.
Dimitri glanced around, checking that no one was nearby, then took a breath. "You know about all the strange symptoms I've been having since that immortal bit me."
She nodded. "Your neck healed freakishly fast. Was there anything else?"
"Yeah." He let out a breath. "My senses sharpened. I no longer need glasses, my hearing is more acute, and my reflexes are lightning fast."
Mattie frowned. "Can the venom do all that?"
He chuckled. "Apparently so, but not in the way you think.
I talked to Dave today, asking him questions about immortal physiology and whether immortals are born that way or are turned immortal later.
I framed it as research for the enhancement project so he wouldn't suspect that I was turning into one. "
He was turning into one of them? Mattie's gut twisted into a tight knot. "How is that possible?"
Dimitri turned to face her, his expression serious in the moonlight. "According to Dave, many humans carry dormant immortal genes, and those genes are activated by an immortal's venom. All the immortals you see on this island were born human and activated at puberty."
"How do they find them?"
"I don't know. I was afraid to ask too many questions. Perhaps they are born here on the island, so their bloodlines are known."
She still couldn't wrap her mind around Dimitri being one of them. He was too nice, too gentle, too human. Was he going to lose respect for other humans now that he was immortal? Would he start treating her as an inferior?
It would be intolerable, soul-crushing, devastating.
"I crushed a syringe today without meaning to," he murmured.
"I just squeezed it, and the glass shattered in my fingers.
I'm getting stronger. Dave described the symptoms associated with the transition, and I have all of them.
Not only that, but it happened fast. I couldn't ask him why, but I bet it carries significance. "
The words hung in the air between them, impossible and yet somehow inevitable.
"You're becoming one of them," she whispered.
"Never," he said vehemently. "I might share the same physiology, but I'm still me, Mattie. The same person I was before. The only difference is that now I'm stronger, faster, and harder to kill." His voice hardened. "Now I can actually protect."