43

The rising sun caught Mikhail leaning against the wall, unable to ignore the intense fragrance filling the room. Citrus, entangled with an enchanting mixture of rose geranium and something else he couldn’t quite place – but was sure he would soon.

He inspected every inch of Amelia’s sleeping figure in bed. Her hair covered her neck but he knew that if he moved it aside, he’d discover the teeth marks he’d left there last night.

The thought made his stomach muscles contract. Blood rushed to his groin.

He glowered, even more baffled than before. She had recoiled at the sight of him. The uncertainty in her gaze had been a reminder enough of what she was – a human.

And the first woman to arouse him in decades.

He forced himself to stop thinking about that. His task today was to differentiate what had occurred between her and Dave’s attacker. Was it a vision or some type of mind penetration? If Amelia cooperated, he intended to get clarification through a few simple brain exercises – experiments, he called them, if only in his mind. She would most likely baulk at the term.

Amelia stirred under the covers. With the movement, her face twisted in a pained grimace.

Mikhail wished to approach her, worried it was his doing, but fought his desire and stayed put. “Did I hurt you yesterday?”

Her eyes opened at his question and found his. She shook her head. “No, no.”

“No?”

“I mean… It’s just… I slept on my left side and my muscles are tight.”

Mikhail relaxed. The knowledge he hadn’t caused her pain relieved him. With his tension eased, he changed his mind about the upcoming day.

“I want to show you something,” he said. Amelia’s blue eyes focused on him, as if expecting him to explain further. “Just get ready. I’ll be waiting outside.”

The corner of her lips curled slightly. “Okay…?”

Mikhail nodded and strolled out into the hallway. He leaned against the wall, wincing. Had he screwed it all up? That look on her face when she’d glimpsed the beast in her bed, had haunted him until sunrise. Because, last night, he hadn’t transformed. He’d been consumed by desire, yes, but it had been only him – his human shape – on that bed with her.

Well, he shouldn’t have been surprised, should he? He had spotted that expression on Valeria’s features more than once in his past. Amelia might have nothing in common with his ex-fiancée, but she still belonged to a species different from his. A mortal species. It was not an accident that the Tribunal forbade relationships between immortals and humans.

Mikhail pursed his lips, embarrassed by his weakness. He should have controlled his needs. Now he could only hope that last night wouldn’t dissuade Amelia from cooperating.

Mikhail retrieved the key from his jeans pocket and unlocked the door to the tiny library he’d once spent most of his days in. The musty scent of neglected books reached his nostrils when he guided Amelia inside. Morning light poured in through two high-arched windows across the far wall. The dark wood library rose to the right, and a comfortable armchair with a royal blue tapestry awaited, empty, before it. A magical jasmine vine, a gift from Viktor that symbolised serenity, curled up from its marble pot, its delicate branches caressing the windowpane. On the small black table in the middle lay open the last book Mikhail had read before he had finally lost interest in his medical studies.

Amelia took in the dark colours and the dust-covered furniture with a sparkle in her eyes. A slight smile spread across Mikhail’s lips because he’d been right that she would like it. His study. His secret place. Besides him, nobody had been around except Viktor, and only while the two of them had been gaining knowledge of the immortal species’ treatment and comparing it to everything learnt at human hospitals. They had studied medical books, had taken notes, had developed a system to pass the acquired information to all the healers in the Hospital.

Mikhail looked around. The hours spent between these walls had been his light period.

The dark…he wouldn’t think about it. Not now.

Amelia approached the shelves and skimmed her fingers across the forgotten books. On the lowest racks were his textbooks, filled with his personal notes and drawings of the anatomy and physiology of immortals.

As if attracted by an invisible thread, her attention dropped to them. She glanced at Mikhail over her shoulder. “May I?”

He nodded, stepping to the side of the library. Amelia chose a heavy crimson book and pulled it off the shelf. A cloud of dust followed the movement. “Nobody has been here for a while, am I right?” She faced him, fingers splayed across the front cover.

His eyes fell to the book. “I told you that recently I’ve given up searching for answers.”

Amelia’s brow creased. She rifled through the pages, stopping at a familiar illustration. From a distance, Mikhail recognised his drawing of a normal elbow joint and next to it, one regenerating after amputation of the forearm.

“Is this…” she started.

“Something you’ll never see in human medical textbooks.”

“Oh…” Amelia winced. It took her a few seconds before she figured it out. “Wow, impressive. Do limbs really regenerate?”

“It depends on the individual. As far as I remember, that case was of a lycanthrope who regenerated very well, despite the severe trauma. However, I’m not sure he would have if it weren’t for Viktor’s supporting salves, restoring exercises and motivational words.”

Amelia’s gaze focused on his. “Is Viktor your best friend?”

“One of them,” he said, wondering if he had ever mentioned Viktor before, for her to make the assumption. He must have.

She returned to the notes, sifting through pages and making comments. Mikhail found himself entertained by her reactions. Occasionally, she would scrunch up her nose at something, raise her eyebrows, or simply read the text out loud.

Until she suddenly closed the book and looked up at him. “I… I can help.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can work. Here! At the Hospital.” Her face lighted up. “I could read all of your notes and learn from them. I was about to graduate in medicine, after all. It shouldn’t take too long for me to catch up on immortal anatomy and the like.”

“You wish to work as a healer at the Hospital?”

“As a surgeon,” she said. “I’m not prepared yet, but I’m a quick learner, I promise.”

He imagined her in the Hospital’s OR, dressed in scrubs, working alongside creatures. Like she had when he’d taken her under his wing. His gut tightened at the thought, and his chest warmed up simultaneously. Could he allow her? In his OR?

Mikhail had brought her here with the idea of igniting her enthusiasm, but not to that extent. He wanted her cooperative enough to participate in the mind experiments he’d planned for the day. But having Amelia fully invested in his immortals’ healing…

He crossed the distance between them and placed his fingers on the book she held. “Our patients are not humans, Amelia. You may learn their anatomy, but their behaviour is not something you could easily get used to. In states of pain and confusion, which are the states of many of our patients, the internal spirit always predominates.”

She dropped the book on his desk. “Meaning what?”

“For us, unstable emotions often lead to aggression. You don’t have the supernatural perceptions of an immortal to sense when somebody is about to lose it. You might get hurt.”

As her features fell, something inside him stirred. Fuck . He disregarded it, folding his arms over his chest. “A few days ago, you tried to run away, and now you’re talking about working in here. You do realise that if I let you permanently inside the ORs, it means you’re staying here, forever?”

Her eyes widened, suggesting that she hadn’t really thought about it. Just like last night. She had desired him, but hadn’t realised who exactly had been in bed with her. Mikhail made a mental note to remember that.

“I’m aware that it would require me to stay here, but…”

He interrupted her, “Are you also aware these are not humans we’re treating at the Hospital?”

“Of course.”

“Once you get inside the OR, however, it gets as real as in any other hospital.”

“I know, and I can handle it!”

Like she’d handled him… A vision of her moaning softly while he’d taken her to the edge – and over – swam to the forefront of his mind. He chased it away. “What would you do when a patient of yours bleeds like a pig but you cannot get to them because they’ve become violent?”

“I will sedate them?”

Her na?veté made him laugh. “This is no game, Amelia. You flinch, and people die. Just like in real life.”

He pushed aside the memory of her reaction the previous night, but the echo of real lingered. She had sought proof that all of this was real, and when it had come in the form of his aroused – but still human – state, she had recoiled. Mikhail understood her fear, but he couldn’t afford to take risks with what could happen in the OR. His creatures’ lives depended on his surgeons’ focus and control. He wouldn’t hold her past reaction against her, but he couldn’t ignore the reality of their situation, either.

“But I’ll never be alone during surgery. There will be other healers as well, right?” she insisted.

Mikhail towered over her. “And what happens when you glimpse the beast behind your patient’s face? The animalistic fury, the predator’s determination?”

To his surprise, Amelia didn’t pull back like he’d expected her to. She raised her chin so she could meet his gaze head-on. “It took me a while but I’m very much aware of where I am now. And if you’d given me the chance, I might have proven it to you.”

They were still talking about her desire to work in the OR, so why the past tense?

Mikhail let the spirit of the manticore surface, imbuing his eyes with shades of yellow. “I showed you real, and you got scared, little beast .”

Amelia held his gaze, unwavering. “That’s not what I got scared of.”

The beast in him was curious to push it further, but his rational side prevailed. “Doesn’t matter, Amelia.” He waved a hand in dismissal. “I can’t let you work as a surgeon, but the library is at your disposal. You can read it all—”

“The more real it got, the more I liked it,” she cut him off, her voice steady. “And…that’s what frightened me. Not the real part, but my own reaction to it.”

Mikhail let the revelation sink in. The animal growled in eagerness inside him. Oh, but he’d been there, too, and he remembered well her features when she’d looked at him. The expression of pleasure that had dissipated into fear. It had been too pronounced to be mistaken.

Amelia’s blue eyes met his. “And if we’re going all the way down to real, there are things I must tell you. It’s not the… you and me part that scared me. It was another thing.”

For some reason, her words made him bristle. “Another thing?”

Amelia sighed and glanced to the side, as if assessing what to say next. “I believe I could handle working in the Hospital, because… there’s a possibility I’m connected to this world. Your world. The vision about Dave is not the only one I’ve had. Well, to an extent, it was a vision in the true sense of the word. The rest of them were dreams. At least most of them… What I mean is, I’ve been having the strangest dreams since I came here.”

Mikhail had suspected as much ever since their conversation before Italy. Despite his aversion to secrets, he tried to keep his tone inviting. “What kind of dreams?”

“About you, mainly. At first, I thought they were just dreams. But then I realised they were memories.”

“Of me ? I don’t understand.”

“Your scars.” She nodded towards his chest. “That time in the forest, when you turned, and then you had no clothes when you became humanlike again. That wasn’t the first time I’d seen them. I witnessed the exact moment that woman carved them into you.”

The mere mention of Valeria always stirred the anger boiling inside him, but he managed to suppress it this time.

“I’ve dreamt of the woman next to you, and I’ve seen everything that happened after she confessed her betrayal. You, healing in the old man’s house; his granddaughter taking care of you. Your visit to your parents’ house, when you discovered your dead brothers.”

Mikhail’s jaw clenched. “You saw all that?”

“All of it. The blood, the bullets, the pain. Everything you felt, I also felt.”

Mikhail’s eyes narrowed. Something inside him twitched. “This is what you’ve been hiding from me?” He had asked her straight about unusual experiences and she had denied ever having any with a stone face.

Mikhail nudged himself at the thought. It wasn’t with a stone face, though, was it? Hesitation was carved all over her. After all, that was how he had sensed she was lying. For once, he willed himself to listen to the rest.

In a measured tone, he said, “All right. I get it. You’ve been dreaming about events from my past. Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

She spoke more freely now, the tension leaving her with every word. “I didn’t understand what was going on. I still don’t, but I’ve started to accept it. Before, I didn’t trust you. I knew that if I told you about my dreams, you’d never let me go back to my old life because they proved that our encounter was no coincidence. And you said that if in two weeks we discover nothing, you’d let me leave…”

“And you tried to run.”

“I did that because I thought you were lying and would be even more unwilling to let me leave once you found out about my dreams. But then you showed me your work, and I learnt a lot about you! And I started to like you and genuinely want to help you. But I also felt like an intruder because of everything I was witnessing through these dreams – memories, whatever we want to call them. It felt intrusive, like I was digging into your life. I had no idea how you’d react when you found out, or if you’d even want me to know about these memories. And last night, when your eyes changed colour, I thought… there was no turning back.”

Because it had finally dawned on her that he was a beast beast and would dig up her secrets, one way or the other?

Stop it. This is not your ex-fiancée. Amelia had kept her secrets because she’d been scared, not because she was trying to manipulate him. There was no guile or ill intent in those eyes of hers. Moreover, she was also, in essence, admitting that she actually… liked him .

He had promised himself not to touch her again, but his hand moved of its own accord and he traced her jawline with his fingers. “I’ve been thinking for a while that you’re hiding something.”

“You were?” Her voice wavered slightly.

He allowed the corners of his mouth to tilt up in a faint smile. “Of course. But I’m not mad. You were scared and confused, which I can understand. However, I want you to promise me one thing. No more secrets from now on. You need to trust me completely so we can figure out – together – why the Oracle sent me to you and how these murders are linked to you.”

Her expression softened, and her shoulders sagged slightly as the tension drained away.

The dreams did not explain her presence in the murderer’s mind, but her admission was still a step in the right direction. Where that direction was taking them… He would ponder over it later.

Mikhail drew her in, gently brushing her velvety lips with his, holding her gaze. She kept her eyes open, watching the predator touching her. But she wasn’t observing him with fear. Rather, with a wild, untamed emotion in her eyes, the same as he’d glimpsed after her failed escape plan.

“I like you too, little beast.” He pressed her back against the shelves and deepened the kiss. Her body was soft and pliant beneath his, the small strokes of her tongue filling his mouth with her familiar scent. Arousal spread through him.

He would take her tonight.

Or now. Whichever.

“There’s something else,” Amelia said, panting against his lips.

That served as a wake-up call. He might carry an animal in his heart, but the first time he had Amelia, it would be in bed.

“I think the Oracle reaches out to me. No, I don’t think. I know. I saw her. We talked.”

Every muscle in his body tensed, but for a different reason. “What do you mean, you saw her?”

“After the attempt on Dave’s life. When you said you’d go check up on him, and I was waiting for you to return. She appeared in the sky. I recognised her instantly. She was talking in riddles. I barely understood a thing.”

“Was that someone’s memory?”

“No. It was happening to me, right then and there. We… talked. There’s no other way to explain what happened. I said words, and asked questions, and she responded. She said it wasn’t her who chose me, she was just ‘the herald of someone else’s will.’”

“What else did she say?” Mikhail’s heartbeat rarely quickened but now it was threatening to burst out of his chest, making him wary of what was coming next.

“Nothing intelligible, mostly riddles. That I should start with the small things. You weren’t wrong about me… In the end, she said she needed to go. It sounded like goodbye. She also mentioned something about getting answers soon.”

Mikhail employed all his willpower to make his tone come out even, even as his heart thundered to the point of muting everything else around them. “Was this your first chat with her?”

“The day you kidnapped me, I woke up in the room and heard a female voice in my head. She introduced herself as my friend and said she can communicate with me telepathically.” Amelia shrugged, unaware of the effect her words had on him. “I was so frightened, I thought I was hallucinating. Then I heard her again. When you transformed in front of me and drugged me. She apologised for not telling you that I know nothing.”

“Did you say it sounded like goodbye?”

“Well, yes. I had that feeling.”

The realisation dawned on him like a ton of bricks. The Oracle. Something was wrong. “Come with me!” He pulled her by the hand, his pace quick and urgent, towards the end of the corridor.

Amelia’s question reached his ears as if through a fog. “Where are we going?”

He guided her inside the lift and pushed the button.

“Mikhail?”

The lift doors closed, and his gaze locked onto hers. “I’m taking you to your room.” The harshness in his voice was unmistakable.

“Why? What will you do?”

He stared at her. A small part of him registered that she was standing in the middle of the cabin, her hair dishevelled by his hands, her lips swollen by his kiss.

He tore his gaze away from her. He didn’t want to see the confusion or fear that might be there. He knew he was shutting down, shutting her out. But he couldn’t stop himself. If what he’d realised was true…

The lift doors slid open and Mikhail strode out, leaving her to follow. He continued down the wing, Amelia on his trail, until he reached the steel doors he normally never bothered closing. He slowed his step, jaw set, eyes fixed ahead, and waited until she passed him. Once she got inside the corridor, he remained on the outer side.

Amelia slowed down, turning towards him. Before she could ask another question, he pulled the steel doors shut behind her, trapping her on the other side.

***

Shoving thoughts of Amelia out of his mind, Mikhail rushed down the stairs, taking them five or six at a time. In less than a minute, he was in front of the door to the Intensive Care Unit. The Oracle’s door was locked but he had a key.

He walked in, focused on silencing his thoughts. It was all going to be fine. There was no reason to worry.

He recognised the familiar noise instantly. Rushing to the creature’s side, he scrutinised her face under the blinding artificial lights. He placed his palms above her heart, pressed down sharply, and let go. Then he pressed and let go again. And again. Until he’d done it at least a hundred and fifty times in the span of a single minute. The entire time, his gaze searched frantically around the room. He needed a cannula.

His eyes fell onto the monitors that showed the Oracle’s vital signs. Despite his best efforts to ignore it, the straight ECG line on the screen beeped relentlessly to attract his attention, threatening to deafen him with the noise.

He stared into the ghostly pale face, the blue lips, and let his hands fall to either side of his torso.

Too late. He was too late.

The Oracle was gone.