Chapter Twenty
“Connor” was the first thing Mila said. It took Lucy a moment to realize that Mila was addressing the stranger in the center of the group. “I need you to get back to your room and shut your door, now.”
“No, Mila, it’s totally okay,” the boy said.
As Lucy took a step closer, she could see that flat, dull look in his eyes.
The same look Natalie had in Lower Alton.
“I’m sorry. I know you said not to invite anyone in because of someone having a bad boyfriend.
But this guy says it’s totally a misunderstanding. ”
“It’s totally a misunderstanding,” echoed Vanya. “And just to make sure there aren’t any further misunderstandings, Connor here can wait with us until you invite us into the room. Isn’t that right, Connor?”
“Yeah, man, of course.” Connor laughed as he swayed on his feet. “Glad it’s all gonna work out.”
“Mila,” Lucy said quietly.
“I know,” Mila said. The threat was clear enough. Invite them in, or that was the end of Connor.
Screw it. Lucy wasn’t about to watch some poor kid get slaughtered. “Come in,” she said.
“Lucy,” Mila snapped.
“Ah, well, Lucy, that won’t do.” Vanya’s smile was so relaxed. Like he was giving her some tips on campus life. “You can’t invite me in. You don’t live here. I’m afraid playing house isn’t good enough,” he added, his eyes flicking to Mila’s arm.
Mila’s next words were in Russian—and Lucy could tell they weren’t particularly polite. Vanya laughed, like they’d just shared an inside joke. “I feel like I’m meeting a celebrity,” he said. “Jon’s cute little girlfriend. Not very cute or little anymore, are you?”
Mila’s body screamed with sheer superhuman restraint.
Lucy could feel how badly her fingers itched for her bow.
But Connor was still staring ahead with his flat, dull eyes.
Addison’s painted nails rested on one of his shoulders, and Sadie was whispering a soft litany over the other.
He was trapped. Which meant they were trapped, too.
“Connor,” Mila said. “Go back to your room. The rest of you…come in.”
Sadie had to lift herself onto her tiptoes to whisper into Connor’s ear. “You did such a good job, Connor. Go on back home now.”
Connor blinked hazily as Addison rotated him by the shoulders and gave him a gentle push down the hall. By the time Vanya, Sadie, and Addison had filed into the room, Lucy could only just hear the slight stumbling of his footsteps.
Vanya shut the door behind him.
The rest happened quickly.
Sadie and Addison flanked Mila almost too fast for Lucy to see.
Mila was already in motion, too—she elbowed Addison in the chest, then rounded on Sadie.
But she was breathing heavily, from exertion that should have been nothing for her.
Lucy’s stomach dropped like a stone as she realized: Mila had lost too much blood.
Lucy lunged to get between them. She only made it a single step. One hand clamped down on her shoulder, and the other gripped her jaw, wrenching her around.
She found herself eye to eye with Ivan Volkov.
There were no blinds between them this time, no window glass. If she’d had a stake in her hand, she’d barely have had to extend her arm to drive it through his crisp white button-down and into his heart. But Lucy’s fists were empty. She didn’t have a weapon. She didn’t have anything.
She fruitlessly clawed for his eyes, even knowing it wouldn’t land. And it didn’t. Vanya’s hand left her shoulder and stopped her wrist cold in the air, with a grip nearly tight enough to break it.
And behind her, she heard Sadie’s toneless whisper. “Aren’t you exhausted, Mila?” she said. “You’ve lost so much blood. Why don’t you sleep for a while?”
Vanya swiveled Lucy’s head to look at the two of them, clamping her jaw tight enough to stifle her scream.
Sadie had sunk to her knees, and Mila was spread across her lap, her face slack and her eyes closed.
Sadie gently tilted her head to let her hair fall away from her neck.
The bruise Lucy had left stood out like a brand.
Addison’s face crumpled with sympathy as Lucy began to struggle harder. “Don’t worry, sister,” she said. “We won’t take her without you. Whatever we have, we share.”
“Please,” Lucy whispered. Vanya’s grip was so tight that she could barely force the words out. “Please, Sadie, Addison—we want to help you.”
Sadie traced the bruise on Mila’s neck and watched Lucy without a word.
Addison just smiled that beatific smile.
“We’re trying to help you, too,” she said.
“You must be suffering so much. You won’t be in pain anymore, not when we bring you home.
” She turned to Vanya. “Can we bring her home now, Mr. Volkov, sir?”
“Well said, Addie.” Vanya was so gentle when he turned Lucy to face him that time. As gentle as her single faint memory of her father, comforting her during a summer storm. “But we can’t bring Lucy home with us just yet. There’s something I’d like to ask of her first.”
He looked back at Lucy. And she remembered, then, something Laurentius had said to her.
Vanya wasn’t a complicated specimen. Lucy looked at the barely concealed enthusiasm in his eyes, and she didn’t have to guess what it was for.
There were two things she knew he wanted. To have Athena. And to hurt Lucy.
So she anticipated the click-click a second before she heard it. She pictured her door. Clicked the lock, flipped the deadbolt. And when she felt the door of her mind catch, and not open, a thrill of victory broke through her fear. Laurentius was right. It was the easiest thing in the world.
“I won’t be doing you any favors tonight,” Lucy bit out. “And now I see why you have Sadie doing all the work. Seems like you’re not very convincing to people who aren’t starving.”
Vanya’s smile had dropped. And in its place, that terrible blankness had returned. “And the night I met you?” he said. “Were you starving then?”
In a way, of course, she had been. “I didn’t see you coming then,” she said. “I see you now.”
Her words landed. She saw them flicker behind his wide, dark pupils. Maybe he’d kill her. But at least if he did, she’d die having gotten under his skin.
“Are you proud of yourself?” he said. “You must feel strong right now. But it’s not your strength, is it? If you hadn’t stolen it, your Mila would have put up a much better fight.”
The truth of it burned. But Lucy held on to her ferocity for dear life. “She would have put up more than a fight,” she said. “She would have put one of those arrows over there through your heart. You’re right. I was selfish. But even if you kill us both tonight, you’re not going to get Athena.”
Vanya considered her. And as he did, his good cheer seemed to return. “Oh, I’m well aware that she’s a handful,” he said. “Why do you think I came to ask your help? But it looks like I need to take care of that borrowed strength of yours first.”
He pulled her in and held her horrifyingly close. She felt his breath before she felt his teeth.
It was the third time Ivan Volkov had bitten her, but the first she remembered. He’d swept the first two out of her mind—or maybe it was her mind that had been trying to protect her from this, from the feeling of her own life being wrenched out of her.
She screamed. She was faintly aware that she shouldn’t have been screaming, not when anyone who came to help would just die too, but once it tore its way out of her there was no stopping it.
And no one answered her, anyway. One of the girls, Sadie or Addison, was playing music, drowning her out.
Even if they weren’t, there were so many reasons for people to scream on a college campus.
No one thought anything of it. No one was going to come save her.
Lucy felt it, in excruciating detail, as everything left her. Mila’s strength. Mila’s warmth. The steady pillar of rage that had been keeping her upright. Nothing remained but ice and weight. She was taking on water, and she was sinking.
Vanya pulled off her neck and leaned in close. There was something so comforting about his voice when he whispered. So reasonable.
“I don’t think I want to wait until graduation anymore,” he said. “I think you should bring Athena Barnes to me before sunrise. Do that for me, and I can give you the two things you want most in the world right now. I’ll give you your girlfriend. And I’ll give you the life you deserve.”
He released her. And as her legs buckled, as her vision tunneled and Mila’s dorm room washed away, she was aware of a faint sound. The sound she had trained herself, for the past few days, to listen for, even in her sleep. The sound of a hand on a doorknob.
But in her last moments of consciousness, she couldn’t find a door to lock. All the doors she could imagine were wide open.
Bring her to me.
The voice was what woke her, but the pain was quick to follow. She rolled onto her side with a soft cry, then tried to lever herself up—her neck was throbbing, her head splitting, but she needed to move.
The room swam into place, and there was no one to move for. There was no Vanya or Sadie or Addison, no Mila. And she had no idea how long she had been out.
Lucy used the wall to haul herself to her feet, closing her eyes against the wave of nausea it brought on. Her phone. She needed to call Athena.
Her hands shook wildly as she pulled up her contacts. She’d need to tell Athena that Mila was gone, and it was her fault. She needed to tell Athena to run.
She needed to bring Athena home.
The phone dropped from Lucy’s nerveless fingers. She pressed at her throbbing temple, as if the pain were something she could smother. But the pulse had a rhythm. A voice that lived only in her ears.
Bring her to me. Bring her to me.