In the video Mercy’s skirt was pushed up to her waist, her panties pulled down. “Jesus,
look at all that bush!” Blake giggled, a high, giddy sound, his eyes tearing with laughter.
“It’s so straight. You doing good, hon?”
Mercy nodded.
“Haven’t had too much to drink? You’re sober and consensual as they say?”
“You bet.”
Mercy’s eyes were bright, lively, alert, not glazed or heavy lidded. She didn’t look drunk or like she’d been roofied.
“On your knees, hon. Time for Chinese takeout.”
Mercy knelt, her dark eyes wide and wet. She opened her mouth. Her tongue was
stained purple from the punch. Alex paused the video. No, not the punch. She knew that
color. That was how those servants had looked that night at Manuscript. That was Merity,
the drug of service, taken by acolytes to give up their will.
The door opened and Lauren slipped inside. “She won’t let me take her to the health center.”
“They’re rapists. We should be going to the cops.” They should be good for that at least.
“You saw the video. She told me she barely drank.”
“She was drugged.”
“I thought so too, but she isn’t acting like it. She doesn’t look like it. Did you watch it?”
“Part of it. How bad does it get?”
“Bad.”
“How many guys?”
“Just the two. She thinks he’s going to send it around to his boys if he hasn’t already.
Why weren’t you with her?”
I forgot. Alex didn’t want to say it. Because, yes, a girl had been murdered and Alex had been attacked, but at the end of the day, Alex hadn’t spared a second thought for Mercy, and Mercy deserved better. She deserved a night out to have fun and flirt and maybe meet a cute boy she could kiss and take to a formal. That was why Alex had agreed
to go to Omega Meltdown with her. She owed Mercy, who had been kind to her and helped with Alex’s papers and never pitied, just pushed her to do better. But she’d forgotten all about the party after the gluma attack. She’d gotten caught up in her fear and desperation and her desire to know why she was being hunted.
“Who did she go with?” Alex asked.
“Charlotte and that crew from upstairs.” Lauren’s voice was an angry growl. “They just
left her there.”
If Mercy was under the influence of Merity, then she would have said she was fine, that
they should leave, and they wouldn’t have known her well enough to argue with her. But if
Alex had been there, she would have seen Mercy’s purple tongue. She could have stopped
this.
Alex put her coat back on. She took a screenshot of the video and sent it to her own phone showing Mercy’s mouth open, her purple tongue out.
“Where are you going?” Lauren whispered furiously. “Does Darlington’s mom need
some more help?”
“To fix this.”
“She doesn’t want us talking to the police.”
“I don’t need the police. Where does Blake live?”
“The Omega house.”
Up on Lynwood, in the filthy frat row that had sprung up when the university had kicked the fraternities off campus years ago.
“Alex—” said Lauren.
“Just try to keep her calm and don’t leave her alone.”
Alex strode back out of Vanderbilt and across Old Campus. She wanted to go straight to Blake, but that would do no good. A group of Grays flickered in the corner of her vision. “Orare las di Korach,” she spat. Her grandmother’s curse felt good on her tongue.
Let them be swallowed alive. All of her anger must have gathered in the words. The Grays scattered like birds.
And what about the gluma? If it was out there hunting, would it go running? She would have been glad for a glimpse of the Bridegroom, but she hadn’t seen him since their encounter in the borderlands.
Alex knew she shouldn’t have riled Detective Turner. He might have been willing to help if she hadn’t messed with him. It was possible he still would. Part of her believed he
really was one of the good guys. But she didn’t want to rely on Turner or the law or the