A shimmer of anger passed over her face. “So volatile,” she muttered. “But I suppose you’ve always been so, haven’t you? After all, you did kill your father.”
Danika frowned. “What is she talking about, Elena?”
I felt my molars grind together as I reined in my temper. “Why are you here, Tatiana?”
“I won’t stay long,” she mused. “I just came to speak to you. Unfortunately, I want you alone.”
I yanked Danika back as soon as I saw the glint of silver beneath the fluorescent lights. The bullet was too fast to see, but the impact shattered the room.
I heard her cries before I saw the blood.
Danika hunched over–I grabbed her before she hit the ground, my own cries rising up fast in my throat. I couldn’t hear anything, feel anything. Some instinctive part of me was reaching forward to try and help. Blood soaked my skin as I put pressure on the wound. It trickled down my wrist and arms like red paint.
“You bitch!” I realized I was screaming. “Why would you do that!”
Tatiana crouched down beside us, holding the gun lazily. “I want to speak to you alone, Elena.” She sounded so calm, so casual.
“You raised her.” I hissed. “You fucking raised her, and this is what you do? Hurt me but don’t touch them!”
Danika’s eyes were fluttering close.
“Hey, hey, no, no, stay awake.” I shook her cheeks, slapping her into consciousness. “Stay awake. You’re okay. Danika. Stay awake.”
Tatiana regarded me. “How much you’ve changed,” she murmured. “Ah, well. Nobody can change that much, can they?”
“Get out.” I spat. She flinched when I got her, wiping her cheek in disgust. “Get the fuck out.”
“Not until we have a little talk.” She aimed the gun at Danika’s forehead, a deadly shot. “Now, shh, Elena. Or else the little interrogator never wakes up again.”
Danika let out a raspy breath, eyes pleading. “I...I don’t…want to go.” She breathed. “I...I’m not r-ready.”
I smoothed down her hair with a spare hand. “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying right here.” I snapped my blazing stare to Tatiana, letting her see all the vengeance and hatred that raged inside of me. “I’ll kill you. I swear I’ll fucking kill.”
Tatiana smiled. “Such savageness. Which leads me to the topic I wanted to discuss with you.” I hate her, I hate her “I want to offer you a job.”
“A job?”
Even Danika turned her head.
“A job,” she confirmed. “This world isn’t for you, Elena. You’re too wild and violent to ever be accepted by these men. I’m going to create a new world, and it has a place just for you.”
I let out a shaky breath. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll work for me as my lead scientist. You can go to any college you want, and no man will dare question your expertise. Can’t you just picture it? Dr Elena Agostino, famous scientist and unstoppable woman. You’ll write books, lead research and never have to succumb to a man again.” Tatiana reached over and gently grabbed my wrist. “Come work for me, Elena, and you’ll never have to bow again.”
“Except to you.”
Her lips twisted. “Do I look like some self-important man to you? I do not need you to bow–only to help me change the world.”
A hand twisted around mine. I looked down to see Danika’s band aid-patterned hand covering my blood-soaked one.
I squeezed her back gently.
“What do you say?”
I met Tatiana’s eyes. “You’re a bitch and I will see you in hell.”
She pursed her lips. “Such a pity. You could’ve been something more than a Pakhan’s whore.” She rose to her feet, sending Danika a pitying look. “Both of you could’ve been something more.”
“You could have, as well. So much more.”
Tatiana laughed. “I am something more. I am everything more.” She turned, heels clacking as she went to leave. Before the door closed behind her, she looked back at me, eyes all-knowing. “Let me know if you change your mind, Mrs Falcone.”
I didn’t have a second to process her parting words. I leaned over Danika, tearing off the ends of my skirt and using it to soak up the blood. The red ichor stretched over her yellow dress, blooming like a rose against her stomach.
Danika’s eyelids grew heavier.
“Help!” I screamed for anyone, for anything. I couldn’t leave her, couldn’t take my hand off the wound– “Help, please!”
I shook her. Her brown eyes narrowed. “Stay awake, you hear me? Do not go to sleep, Danika. Do not fall asleep.”
She smiled sleepily.
“Dani, I’m serious.” I turned my head to the door again and cried out for help. My throat scratched with pain as I got louder and louder.
Danika’s head got heavier, lolling to the side.
“Hey, hey!”
“Tell him...” she whispered. “Tell… Roman.”
“He’s not here. You have to tell him yourself.” I slapped her but she didn’t budge. Her eyes closed peacefully, her breathing becoming shallower and shallower…
“No, no, no.” I scrambled to my feet. The blood pooled out the wound as soon as I took pressure off. I slipped on the floor, crawling to the door. “Help! Help!”
A stray patron noticed me with a blue fascinator and her eyes popped open when she saw me crouching in the arch of the door, covered in blood. Her screams joined mine, catching the attention of more people. I heard someone saying something about an ambulance.
A familiar shout rose in the air. Roman burst from the crowd, shoving people into the ground. His face went as white as sheet where he saw the red ichor.
Roman is here, my instincts soothed.
I crawled back to Danika, pressing my hand against the waterfall of blood.
I rested my forehead to hers as the bathroom filled with noise. Tears slid down my cheeks and onto hers.
“Please, Danika. Please.” I whispered. “Please, please, please.”
I heard his voice as he stepped into the bathroom and then felt the world shatter as his roar tore through the air.
“NO!” Roman skidded over the blood, his knees hitting the ground with enough force to dent the tiles. He crawled to her side, begging with the universe and God and whoever would listen. “Oh, God, no. Dani, baby, wake up, baby, please–”
I watched as he brought her onto his lap, his cries piercing the room. I felt like I was standing at million miles away, a casual onlooker on the tragedy that was unfolding.
“Danika, wake up!” he was screaming now. “Wake up! Baby, I’m here–I’m right here. Please, don’t leave me. Don’t leave me without you.”
Strong arms came around my back and Konstantin crouched down beside me. He wiped my hair away from my face and thumbed away the tears dripping down my cheeks. “What happened, lyubimaya?”
I clung to his voice like a raft in a storm. “Tatiana.”
His jaw tightened but his touch remained gentle. “Is this only Danika’s blood?”
I nodded.
“Okay.” Konstantin cupped the back of my head. He turned and barked orders in Russian, tone changing from the caring one he had used with me to the tone of a king giving commands.