Page 78 of Thrall
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 theclick-clicka 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.
