47

Diana leaned back in the spinning lab chair, watching closely while the peculiar fellow with the Werewolf T-shirt studied the vial. His name was Viktor Volk, Constantine had informed her, but Diana would always remember him as the lycanthrope who had saved their lives in the caves in Alberobello. His transformation had left some obvious side effects. At least, that was how the necromancer had explained his odd behaviour during the meeting. It was probably also why there was tension between him and Mikhail Korovin. Diana had no interest in their drama, as long as it didn’t stop her from getting answers.

Viktor removed the lid of the vial, smelt the yellowish-green substance inside and wrinkled his nose. Diana held back a smile. It stank horribly and she already knew that, but since he’d wanted to try…

He lifted it in front of his eyes and inspected it. His eyebrows almost met. He was cute, to some extent.

“Where did you say you got this from?”

Diana glanced at the female who had spoken. Oh, right. The girl, Alex, was hovering around and watching her with both curiosity and distrust – as she had been since they had arrived in the laboratory.

Constantine had warned Diana about Viktor Volk’s adopted daughter, too. Creepy, but harmless, the necromancer had whispered in Diana’s ear before leaving her with the two lycanthropes.

“I didn’t.” Diana wasn’t usually rude, but at this moment the vial and the man holding it had her full attention.

“Where are you from?”

“I was born in England, but I’ve lived here and there for the last twenty-thirty years.” Diana hoped her curt answer would quench the girl’s interest.

“How come?”

“I—” Diana almost jumped out of her chair when Viktor tapped the vial with his index finger.

“Don’t worry. Viktor won’t do anything to your vial. Not that you’re allowing us to do much to it, anyway…”

“It has already cost me too much!” Her voice rose.

“Your brother died for it, right?”

“He did.”

“And you’d want his death to not be in vain, right?” When Diana only stared at her blankly, Alex hurried to add, “Only, how are we supposed to analyse it, if you won’t let us spill a single drop?”

Diana frowned. “I never asked you to analyse it. I only agreed to you observing my reaction after I drink it, because Constantine somehow convinced me to.”

“Are the two of you dating?”

Diana shook her head. She’d be damned if she were dating a necromancer. Impatience filled her. She turned to Viktor. “How much longer?”

“A minute or two. Not that sniffing and staring at it would give me any valuable information.” He threw her a glance of discontent.

“I have a brother, too. We’re twins. He’s extremely obnoxious, but I guess I’d miss him very much if something happened to him.”

Diana narrowed her gaze on Alex. “If you’re trying to distract me so he can take a few drops from the vial, it won’t work.”

“Not at all. I’m just being nice to you so you don’t think that everyone hates you.”

“Everyone hates me?”

“Well, yeah. Because of your brother and the portal he opened here to deliver the box with a Council member’s decapitated head. And the fact that we don’t know who Kaliope’s real killer is only makes everyone think that it was your brother – as the only known culprit in all this. Thus making you an object of hatred.”

“You heard about the portal?” Diana’s eyebrows shot up.

Constantine had explained the creatures in the Hospital knew about the mysterious appearance of the box, but not about the portal.

“I made Viktor tell me. Something of a compensation for his bad behaviour these last few weeks.”

The two of them looked over to Viktor, who was shaking the vial between his fingers.

“Would you stop that?” Diana screamed.

He raised his palm in apology and placed the substance back on the lab bench, tapping his chin with his index finger, deep in thought.

“Would you read me your brother’s note?” Alex asked.

“ Drink it. It’s short-lasting. Turn. I don’t trust them ,” Diana repeated the words she knew by heart now and would remember for the rest of her life.

“I thought you were New Generation,” Alex said.

“I am.”

“And you haven’t unlocked your secondary form?”

Diana’s eyes narrowed at the persistent questioning. “Of course not. That’s why I’ll drink the liquid.”

“And you believe this substance will magically fix your regenerative abilities long enough for you to survive the transformation?”

“Precisely.”

“You realise if it doesn’t work, you die, right?” Alex lifted her chin.

“Yes, I realise that.”

“It seems to me like your brother is sending you to your death.”

“My brother has given me a way to unlock my secondary form and become stronger!”

“How is he so sure it’ll work? It’s not like you can turn back from it, if it doesn’t. In your case, it’s all or nothing. No sane creature would risk the life of a loved one. Unless…” Alex paused dramatically. “ Unless you’re lying.”

At that, Diana turned her full attention to the girl. “How dare you?”

Alex lifted a finger, forcing her to be quiet. “I just thought of something else. Maybe it wasn’t your brother who left you the note. Maybe it was those creatures he worked for.”

“Alex, quit speculating,” Viktor scolded her. The girl didn’t seem affected by the comment.

When Diana glanced Viktor’s way, she found his eyes still fixed on the vial, as if he could discern its contents that way.

“Has anyone else, other than you I mean, read the note?” Alex said. “Sometimes the mind tends to focus on stuff that reminds them of deceased relatives and refuses to see beyond them.”

“I truly don’t get you,” Diana replied.

“I’m not surprised.” Alex smiled. Then, the expression on her face changed to boredom when she faced Viktor. “Any progress?”

Diana sighed, pleased the girl had tired of asking her questions. Her body felt heavy from everything she had gone through in the past week. Too many emotions and explanations. She was grateful to Constantine for his help, but coming here might have been a mistake.

Her hand fell to the bag swung across her shoulder, and dug in to retrieve the piece of paper. She unfolded it and revealed the words. ‘ Drink it. It’s short-lasting. Turn. I don’t trust them.’ Of course, she had thought about somebody else possibly having written it, but the distinctive cursive letters were in her brother’s handwriting. Luka had the hands of an artist. He had often found inspiration in sunsets or other landscapes and had immortalised them onto his canvas. It was his way to calm his mind.

Diana inspected the drawing underneath the letters. It had been scribbled with a blue pen, clearly in a rush, and it didn’t have Luka’s exquisite touch like his other works. But that didn’t make it any less valuable to her.

“What’s that doodle?”

Lost in thought, she hadn’t noticed Alex fixating on her once more. The girl was now hovering over her.

“Nothing.” Diana folded the sheet.

“I think it means something you don’t understand. Is that your brother’s note?”

“Yes. Why?”

“May I see it?”

Diana backed down, because evidently Alex wouldn’t, and handed her the paper.

“It’s a transformation,” the girl said, musing over the note like a philosopher.

Diana clenched her fists. As much as she wanted to maintain a good relationship with this girl, who claimed to be one of the few here who didn’t hate her, the task was becoming impossible. “Thank you for that clarification, but I had got this far myself.”

The two women stared at the simple drawing. In the left corner was the figure of a man.

“Is that your brother?” Alex asked, pointing to it.

“No. It’s not someone we know. He just drew it to show the transformation. Here, see.” Diana moved her finger to the right corner, where another man, twice as large, with giant muscular hands and strange dark spots on his face, was illustrated. He wore pants, but his soles and shoes were missing, as if the painter hadn’t had time to finish his design.

“Didn’t you know what transformation and turning were, before you saw this?” Alex gave her a sceptical glance. “I know you’re a New Gen like me, but—”

Diana bristled. “Of course, I knew!”

“Then why would he draw this for you? Does he think you’re slow?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know – retarded, mentally impaired?” Alex tapped her chin. “Although, if you were, you probably wouldn’t think—”

“Girl, are you toying with me?”

“Not at all. And what are these spots? Vampires don’t have spots.”

Diana spread her arms out in despair. “I don’t know, damn it! He probably wanted to point out the transformation. Make the secondary form different.”

“Hmm…” Alex smiled. “As I said, you truly don’t comprehend the idea behind this scribble. This is a transformation, true, but not just any transformation.”

Diana winced. “What do you mean?”

“Would you give me a moment? I need to check on something.” Without waiting for a reply, Alex ran out of the lab.

Diana collapsed back into her chair, glancing over at Viktor. At the far end of the lab, he was muttering under his breath, as if chanting a spell. Diana prayed Constantine returned soon, so she didn’t need to face these people on her own anymore.

The girl had also said she had a twin…

“I’m back!” Alex burst through the door a couple of minutes later with her attention glued to the open book in her hands. “I found it!” She tossed a triumphant look at Diana. “Listen very carefully, Diana, because what you’re about to hear will change your world forever.”

Diana blinked a few times, but before she could say anything, Alex started to read.

“ ‘I have always preferred the opposite sex. Despite that, only a blind man would deny the rare beauty of the Foreigner. As soon as I saw him, I knew he wasn’t human. He is immortal. A special creature. He does not, however, have the typical smell of any of the well-known species. Therefore, I suspect he is one of them. Until now, I had foolishly believed they were a minority. Tonight, I was proven wrong. I had to be sure…’ I’ll skip some parts. Not that they aren’t divine, but they’re not the purpose of our reading today.” Alex flipped through a few pages, then began again. “ ‘His mask of poise finally broke and he transformed. The immortal form he revealed was something I had never encountered before. His body became enormous and tough, but not as large as a manticore or lycanthrope. If I have to compare it to something, his size is similar to a vampire’s or the skeleton of a necromancer… His eyes lost their flame because they became two black holes. His beautiful face disappeared, turned into something flat, resembling nothing I had ever seen. But the most striking change was the skin. Flawless before, now it was still smooth, even slimy, but marked by black spots, as dark as his eyes. The more I watched, the more I was sure of what he was… ’”

Diana stared at Luka’s drawing.

“This is not a regular transformation,” Alex said. “It’s the turning of a reptilian, or the eighth kind. I understand why you didn’t think of it, seeing as how you’ve never heard of the reptilians, but I’m pretty sure your brother would have explained it to you in more detail under the drawing. If he hadn’t been interrupted, judging by the missing feet of the figure.”

Viktor approached them. “Alex, I told you to quit with this nonsense. I think I’m done here, and just as I suspected, I learnt nothing about this substance. You can drink it now, but at your own risk.” When she didn’t acknowledge him, he prompted, “Diana?”

“I think she’s right,” Diana whispered, without shifting her focus from the scribble.

“About what?”

“When Constantine and I found Luka, he had completely lost his mind. He was hallucinating, seeing things that weren’t there. Towards the end, he kept repeating the same thing, over and over…”

“What was it?”

Diana forced herself to look away from the sketch. “ Beware the reptiles .”

Alex shot Viktor a haughty smile. “I told you!”

***

Diana couldn’t stop staring at the drawing – more specifically, at the spots her brother had painted on the face of the transformed figure.

“Tell me again everything that you remember about these men.” Mikhail had shown up in the lab a moment earlier, pacing up and down, throwing furious glances in all directions.

She spoke on autopilot. “A month ago, Luka told me he met these men, who claimed they had something that could unlock the secondary form of a New Generation creature. To get it, he had to open a portal to the Hospital and deliver something. I was completely against it, because I’ve read a lot about witch portals, but Luka wasn’t convinced. He claimed the men were serious, all dressed head to toe in expensive suits. They were important individuals, but somehow creepy and slimy. That’s all I can recall at the moment. He also found it strange that they wore sunglasses at night.”

“And he met them at The Seven Horses,” Constantine added, leaning against the wall. His husky voice was like a balm for her tightly wound nerves.

“We argued,” Diana continued. “Luka told me he’d given up on doing the job. But, in fact, he hadn’t. I realised it when I discovered his home a mess, the vial in his safe, and Luka nowhere to be seen. Then I went to Istanbul… You know the story from there.”

“Where were you and your brother when he got offered the deal?” Mikhail asked.

“Here, in Sofia.”

“Do you live in the city?”

“No.”

“Then why were you here?”

“Personal reasons.”

Constantine interfered, “I know these reasons and I swear they have nothing to do with our case.”

The manticore pursed his lips, but left it as it was. Then he had Diana repeat the whole story from the beginning, like he was a detective trying to trip her up in her statement.

When she got to the part with their meeting in Alberobello, Mikhail’s suspicious gaze shifted from her to Constantine. “How is it possible that you didn’t feel her tailing you?”

Diana knew now that her success was due to Constantine’s weakened abilities – something the necromancer had shared with her during their trip. But she wasn’t about to oust him to his friends.

“She’s that good,” Constantine said.

Before anyone could comment on it further, Diana picked up her story. “When we found Luka, he was in no condition to have a meaningful conversation. He was hallucinating, or so I thought. He was seeing demons and monsters at every corner, but occasionally he would notice me and his eyes would clear up. And he said ‘beware the reptiles’ over and over. Constantine heard him as well, but none of us paid attention to his rambling.”

Mikhail stopped pacing. “And now you suspect it was something more?”

“Please, allow me.” Alex stepped forward with the book already open in her hands. She re-read the same passage she had read to Diana and Viktor.

After having listened intently, Mikhail pointed to the book. “What is this book?”

Her eyes shone with pride. “It’s the journal of an extraordinary man. His name is C. and this diary chronicles part of his life. Unfortunately, many pages are missing, including the happy ending.”

Viktor snorted. “I’m not so sure this book deserves our attention. It should be over a thousand and five hundred years old, but it looks like it was written yesterday.”

Diana took in the young girl’s scrunched-up face, ready to argue, and shared a look with Constantine. He shrugged and said nothing.

In an effort to stop an argument she could foresee spiralling out of control between the lycanthrope and his stepdaughter, Diana offered, “It could be a transcript?”

Alex lifted her chin in defiance. “Exactly!”

Mikhail inspected the book in her hands. “I have to read it.”

Alex’s focus dashed between Mikhail and the black cover. “You mean…you want to take it?” She snapped the book shut and brought it to her chest in a strange possessive way. Her behaviour didn’t go unnoticed.

“Where did you get this book?” Mikhail asked.

“I…” Alex glanced at Viktor. “Well, like I told Vik, I found it.”

“Funny, I don’t recall you specifying where ,” the lycanthrope said.

“I… I don’t remember.”

Everyone stared at her.

She sighed. “A stranger gave it to me while I was in the city.”

“You were in the city?” Viktor barked.

She swallowed hard. “At The Seven Horses, to be exact.”

“ When ? And why don’t I know about this?” Viktor’s voice rose in anger with every word. “Who were you even with?”

Mikhail made a gesture for him to shut up. “I want to know what the girl has to say.”

“She disobeyed my orders!”

Alex scowled at him. “You can’t boss me around!”

“Get out,” Mikhail ordered Viktor.

The lycanthrope gaped. “What…”

“Get. Out. ” Mikhail’s eerily calm voice made even Diana shiver. “Your personal issues with Alex can be cleared up later.”

“Fine. So be it.” Viktor stood up, ramrod straight, and stomped out the door.

After his furious exit, Mikhail said to Alex, “Your stepfather isn’t here. Speak.”

“Ten days ago, I went down to the city with a group of creatures from the Hospital.” At first, she was a little tense, but she relaxed more with every word. “We went to The Seven Horses where a lot of immortals get together. I’m not very good at dancing, so I just chilled at the bar, listening to the music. Then a woman sat down on the chair beside me, ordered a glass of wine and started reading this book.” Alex pointed to the black tome in her hands. “After thirty or so minutes, she finished her glass, left the book at the bar and disappeared. I thought she’d gone to the bathroom. But after three hours, she still hadn’t returned, so I couldn’t restrain myself… Nobody was watching, so I flipped through the book. It grabbed my attention instantly and I… I stole it.”

“Was she immortal?” Mikhail asked.

“Yeah. Everyone in there is.”

“What species?”

“I’m not sure. There were so many smells in there… It was almost impossible to tell them apart. It’s not like it’s written on their foreheads. But I thought I smelt a lycanthrope.”

“Do you remember what she looked like?”

“Nothing unusual. Long brown hair, black shirt, jeans, sneakers. Actually, most women at the bar were wearing dresses and heels, but not her. She sat there as if she didn’t belong.”

Constantine cleared his throat, breaking his silence. “Am I the only one who thinks it’s strange that a woman walks into a bar to read a book?”

“Why would it be strange?” Mikhail asked.

The necromancer smiled wide. “My friend, when was the last time you visited a nightclub? Not counting the short stay at The Witch.”

“I don’t know.”

“Once in the last hundred years?” Constantine suggested, but Mikhail shook his head. “It’s overcrowded and loud – certainly not the best place to read a book.”

“And the lighting is horrible, even for supernatural vision.” Alex pointed two fingers at her face.

“It was foisted on her!” Diana exclaimed.

Constantine inclined his head. “That’s what I think.”

“Are you saying that woman targeted me?” Alex’s eyes widened. “She expected me to take the book?”

“You were probably the only creature in that bar who might show interest in a forgotten book,” Constantine said. “And we’re supposed to think there’s this woman who can’t tell the difference between a library and a club, so she accidentally forgets her book right next to you? What are the odds?”

“Her brother couldn’t determine these men’s species?” Mikhail said. “And the drawing matches the description of a hypothetical eighth kind, whose existence we only know of from the planted book?” His gaze met Constantine’s until they reached a silent conclusion.

The necromancer frowned. “Diana, I don’t think you should drink the stuff in the vial.”

“What the hell!?” she exploded.

“It was a bad idea then, and now it’s a death sentence, considering it might come from an entirely different species. Even if it works on them, there’s no guarantee it will work on you the same way.”

Diana stood, clenching her fists. “You agreed. You agreed to mind your own business no matter what!”

“I think we need to read the book and then discuss it,” Mikhail suggested.

Diana’s attention fell on the vial on the counter. She had believed that Constantine understood her motives, but apparently, it wasn’t so.

Then, Alex spoke. “C., the author of the journal, was an alchemist. He made attempts to immortalise humans. Maybe his experiments are connected to our vial?”

Diana threw her a glance. So, it’s ‘our vial’ now?

Whatever was in it couldn’t be worse than what awaited her if she didn’t drink it.

She stared at it again. Sometimes Luka had been too brave, borderline insane, but he was also the brightest creature she had ever known. He wouldn’t send her to her death. Surely, he knew what he was doing. It dawned on her, a little late, that he had probably understood all along what his deal with Mada meant – what the price would be. He knew he’d never get to test out the vial’s contents for himself. He hadn’t taken the vial for himself. He had taken it for her.

Diana’s muscles tightened and, in a heartbeat, she was by the table. She clutched the vial between her fingers and popped the lid with her thumb.

“Diana, don’t!” Constantine’s panic-filled gaze met her own.

She drank the contents, emptying the vial to the last drop, and held her breath in anticipation.

Alex approached her. “How are you feeling?”

“Good…” Oddly enough, her physical state was pretty much the same.

It’s short-lasting. Turn.

Now or never.

But she had never turned before. What if she couldn’t do it? It was natural for them, Luka had often told her. There was no way to not know how…

Pain pierced through her stomach, sending agonising spasms all the way down to her heels. She bent over, hugging her stomach. Fresh drops of blood dripped on the grey tiles. Her nose was bleeding.

“Your eyes are blood-red!” Alex screamed.

The torture dissolved as quickly as it had appeared. Okay, that wasn’t so bad … Diana straightened.

“It’s starting,” Mikhail said.

Starting? She’d thought it was over.

At that moment, each muscle in her body contracted. The pain returned, determined to finish her off. As though someone had sliced her stomach open and was taking out her organs one by one, cutting them off. Without recalling ever having fallen, she found herself on the floor. Every single bone in her body broke.

Diana screamed in horror.