“Oh, shit,” Vin curses, pulling me back towards him. I allow myself to accept his comfort, but only for a moment. A moment of weakness.
Once more, I step away from Vin and press my back against the far wall. Distance. I need distance. If one of them touches me again, I’ll fall apart at the seams, losing tiny pieces of myself in the process.
“I see that we all came to the same conclusion,” I manage to breathe out, grateful when my voice doesn’t wobble. Mason and Vin exchange an anxious, wary glance, but fortunately, they accept my abrupt change of topic. Frankie moves to stand beside me, and though he doesn’t touch me, the heat he emits is almost palpable. It seeps through my Academy-issued clothes and sets my skin ablaze.
“If Dimitri was telling the truth, the portal home should be somewhere in here.” Vin moves to stand in the center of all of us, once more the unofficial leader. I can’t help but find his domineering attitude and no-nonsense tone sexy. Horrible timing? Most definitely.
“What exactly did the scary fucker say?” Mason adds, turning to face me completely. I bite my lip as I try to remember.
Something about…
“Something about bandages, maybe? I don’t remember. It all happened so fast.”
With a brisk nod at each other, the men fan out, pulling open drawers and doors at random. After a moment of indecision, I hurry to follow.
“So, are we looking for a drawer or closet full of bandages?” I query, wrenching open the drawer behind the nurse’s desk. Files. The next drawer proves to be filled with the same.
“Fuck if I know,” Vin grumbles. Turning to the others, he says, “I’m going to take the east wing. Mason? Take the west. Frankie, you’ll head north, and Cal, you’ll head south.” The men all nod at his directive, but I wave my hand in the air impatiently. When he doesn’t immediately call on me, I speak anyway.
“What about me? Where can I look?”
“You’ll stay here.” His tone brooks no room for argument. “Continue searching through the lobby, but when you’re done, wait for us.”
Sit, Violet. Stay. Stay. Good girl. Good girl.
I hate when people treat me like a fucking dog.
When I don’t immediately protest, Vin’s eyes narrow at my easy capitulation.
“Go.” I shoo them away impatiently. “I’ll be a good girl and stay here. Cross my heart.” To prove my point, I create a makeshift X over my chest and hold my free hand up in the air to prove I’m not crossing my fingers.
Vin continues to eye me suspiciously, warily, before he concedes with a heavy sigh, jerking his chin at the others to split up. Mason skips to me immediately and plants a chaste, tender kiss to my forehead.
“We’ll get through this, Pinkie. I promise,” he whispers, his breath fanning across my face.
“That’s a lie,” I protest immediately. “We already lost Barret, and I have no idea where Jack and Hux are.”
And I lost a tiny piece of my heart as well, though I don’t say that out loud.
Mason’s face softens in sympathy before he lifts my knuckles to his lips and kisses them.
“We’ll get through this,” he repeats. “Even if we’re a little broken afterwards.”
At my reluctant nod of concession, Mason releases my hand and strides in the direction Vin indicated. It’s only then that I realize I’m alone. Completely and utterly alone.
I can’t negate the lingering fear that they’ll never return, that something will happen to them within the few minutes we’re separated. Anxiety is a bitch.
Mumbling beneath my breath, I turn back towards the nurse’s station…only to freeze in terror when I spot three dogs circling me, fangs dripping with saliva.
They’re hideous creatures with mangy fur riddled with burns and cuts and vibrant red eyes that make me believe I’m staring into hell’s bowels. All three of them take a step closer as I instinctively take one backwards.
“Don’t hurt the little vampire,” I plead. “I promise I’m not as tasty as I look. And I keep razor blades in my skin, so if you try to eat me, you’ll get a mouth full of pain.”
The beasts continue to stalk forward, their paws thumping against the white tiles.
“If you don’t eat me, I’ll give you a treat. Do you guys want a treat? Huh? A little doggy treat?” My back hits something solid, and I practically fall on my face in my attempt to spin around. This new creature has an expressionless face—almost like a smooth stone that has been polished over—and a long, slinky body.
Fear cascades through me as the creature tilts his head to the side curiously.
“How about we call a truce, okay? A no-killing-or-maiming truce between friends. We can be friends, right?” I back away from both creatures now, my heart threatening to break free of my chest. “I’m Violet. I’m a vampire. And I love long walks on the beach and giving blowjobs to people. Now it’s your turn to introduce yourselves!” I gesture towards the blank-faced man—woman?—who continues to descend on me. “Nope? Don’t want to? Okay, I’ll tell you more about me. I once stabbed myself with a fork. Accidentally, of course, but that shit hurt like a bitch. It took me an hour to remove it from my neck. Honestly, I have no idea how I missed my mouth that bad. Pure skill, perhaps. Pure fucking skill.”
One of the mutts lunges forward suddenly and captures the edge of my shorts with his teeth, tugging.
“I’d like to keep my pants on, please,” I say, shaking my leg to dispel the ugly thing. When he whimpers, staring up at me with bright eyes rife with betrayal, I instantly feel like shit. “I suppose I can follow you…” I trail off helplessly, but the mutt lets out an excited yelp and begins running in a circle, chasing its spindly tail. Fuck, it’s actually kind of cute in the whole “I’m going to murder and eat your intestines” type of way. Sort of like Hux.
Heaving out another breath, I allow myself to follow the beast down the corridor Cal disappeared down, the other two beasts on either side of me. The final creature remains at my back like a silent sentinel.
Pounding hooves echo behind me, and I turn just in time to see an honest-to-fuck centaur barreling towards us. His lips are pulled into a circular smile, revealing row after row of serrated teeth dripping bright with blood. His beady red eyes remind me eerily of a spider’s, and I can’t stop the full-body shivers from raking through me.
You know the saying, “Fuck me?” Well, I really, really don’t want to be fucked right now.
The only reason I’m not running away like my ass is on fire is because I don’t sense any malevolence from the creatures. Instead, they appear nothing but curious, and, in the hounds’ cases, playful. It still does little to quell my growing unease as I venture farther and farther down the hallway.
There is no electricity in the building, and, this far down, there are no windows. It isn’t too long before the entire hall is submerged in a pool of murky darkness. My footsteps sound ear-rupturing loud as they pound against the smooth tiles. I swear I can hear residual echoes, almost as if someone is walking directly behind me, stalking me. The dogs are quieter, their footsteps muted, while the shadowy figure glides across the floor without actually touching it. The centaur, on the other hand, pounds its hooves against the floor while intermittently releasing a prolonged “neigh.”