50

“We’re done for today,” Mikhail told the members of the Council. Nobody moved. “Meeting’s over. Scram!” he yelled and waved his hands around. He surely resembled a madman, but he couldn’t care less.

Rattling and screeching filled the room as the creatures left their chairs one by one and headed for the exit.

Viktor approached him. “Brother, saying I’m shocked would be an understatement.”

“Then don’t.” Mikhail sidestepped him and hurried for the door.

“Mikhail, don’t do anything stupid!” The lycanthrope shouted after him.

Too late, Vik. Too fucking late.

Mikhail rushed down the hallway, letting his senses guide him to follow the track. Amelia was the Oracle. And she had left. He couldn’t keep her here against her will, not any more. If she didn’t want his protection, he would give it to her the only other way he knew how.

His target was speeding away, her heels clicking on the wooden floor. She had flung a black leather bag over her shoulder, from which she pulled out a phone.

Mikhail caught up with her. “Elisanda, may I speak with you?”

Her eyes moved swiftly from him to the surrounding walls, and back to his face. “I’m busy, Mikhail. Can’t it wait?”

“Won’t take long, I promise.” He managed to force out a smile.

Elisanda offered a phoney smile of her own. “I suppose I do have a few minutes. What a day, huh?” She tucked a red lock behind her ear.

They crossed the hallway together and headed down to Elisanda’s room in silence.

“Come.” She opened the door and gestured for him to enter.

Mikhail relaxed onto the same couch he had been sitting in the last time, and the nymph settled opposite him.

“I hope this isn’t regarding my suggestions for improving the Hospital. You know I have nothing against you. I just want what’s best for this place,” she hurried to say. Her face was soft, but her posture reeked of tension.

“Of course,” Mikhail retorted. “I do have one question, however. Why Kaliope Gazis?”

“Excuse me?”

“I lied. I have more than one question.”

Elisanda crossed one of her long legs over the other, affecting a blank expression. “I don’t understand.”

“Kaliope’s murder was first, right? Of course, that one you didn’t commit yourself, because it was too precise. It was at random. They wanted a member of the Council and you gave them Kaliope.”

“Are you accusing me of murdering Kaliope Gazis?” Elisanda’s features twisted.

“Not exactly. Let’s go back to my meeting with the Oracle, when she told me that someone would need my help. The Hospital lit up with rumours, and when I went down to the city, you knew that something was happening. Only, unlike me, who was too ignorant and questioned my understanding of the Oracle’s words, you had no doubt. You were probably unpleasantly surprised that after so many years of silence, the Oracle had spoken. Surely, nobody expected it, even myself, although I visited her every ten years.” He sighed. “Not wanting to take any chances for further revelations, you decided to kill her, unsuccessfully. Bad luck. On the other hand, you did manage to put her in a coma, which also helped your cause. But you do everything so immaculately, to the last detail. That’s why I’ve always liked you. You didn’t miss the minuscule particularity that the Oracle sent me to help a human woman. A detail the other members, including myself, had thought of as the Oracle’s latest game. Either way, you couldn’t find her. After all, only I knew who she was.”

“This is ridiculous!” Elisanda yelled.

“But it was enough for you and those you work for to sense something was going on. Something important. And you decided it’s time to make a statement. Scare us off. And what could scare us more than the murder of a Council member? Such a disrespectful act that at the same time declared superiority. These reptilians have a kink for drama, right? The entire circus – the portal, the box, the head, the blood message…”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mikhail!” Elisanda’s voice was now up a few octaves.

“Let me return to my initial question, then: Why Kaliope Gazis?” Mikhail pretended to ponder that. “I hope you don’t mind, I did a little digging of my own and was very surprised to discover that you and Kaliope fought over some stolen jewels many years ago. At least, that’s what you accused her of.”

“So? She was a thief. That doesn’t mean I killed her.”

“Hmm. All right, let’s move on. You thought your little blood message would scare me? Seriously, Elisanda? Or, this just came to me, maybe your goal was to shake the Council and weaken my influence as its leader. You know, whatever the reason was, I don’t give a shit about it anymore.”

Elisanda’s eyes drooped and her voice lost its fire. “Mikhail, this is stupid. I’ve always supported you.”

“Yeah, thanks.” He didn’t attempt to hide the sarcasm in his voice. “You know, Amelia is incredibly brave. She tried to escape. During one of the attempts, she ended up on the Intensive Care floor. Do you remember seeing us then?” Elisanda stayed quiet. “The woman screaming in the hallway that she had been abducted? You put two and two together, you’re a clever woman. Too clever, in fact. You pretended not to notice anything strange, although you knew quite well any kidnappings with a medical purpose are now discussed in advance at the Council meetings. Moreover, I’m not the type of man to get…how shall I put this, so you understand… a pet. At least not unless I have a very good reason for it. But,” Mikhail continued without giving her the chance to object, “from then on, you could only speculate. Who is Amelia? What is her connection to the Oracle? These questions were identical to the ones I kept asking myself. Only what you didn’t know was I had as much of a clue as you. You wondered what to do. A lucky turn of events brought you to Mary Clare, who was taking care of Amelia. You started paying her for information about what she saw when she visited Amelia. Not that there was much to share.”

Elisanda lifted her chin in the air. “I’m sorry to prove you wrong, Mikhail, but I had never seen that girl until I discovered her body.”

“You know Stella?”

“The head housekeeper? Of course.”

“Then you know she’s like Cerberus. She keeps all of her subordinates on a tight leash. Takes notes, writes reports. A little too much, if you ask me. But thanks to her precise work, I learnt that Mary Clare was also caring for one of your colleagues’ rooms. Bashar.”

“Bashar doesn’t even live here, for crying out loud!”

“Not anymore, but he used to. In one of the rooms you commandeered to your apartment. You met Mary Clare as she came to clean Bashar’s room. Maybe you became friends. At least until you killed her.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know, Elisanda. You tell me. Because you got rid of the woman who fed you information? Maybe because she started blackmailing you, just as her boyfriend suggested to her?” Mikhail gave himself a moment to revel in the surprise on the nymph’s face. Finally, something she didn’t know. “What? You didn’t think Mary would share the whole ordeal with her boyfriend? Or that they wouldn’t realise how mad I’d be if I found out you were paying someone to spy on my guest?”

“Guest! You kidnapped the girl! I saw how terrified she was as she struggled to escape from you. You know kidnapping is against the Tribunal’s rules?”

Mikhail smiled. “Don’t change the subject. Mary started blackmailing you and you decided to deal with her. You wanted to blame someone, so the boyfriend, who she perhaps told you about, was the perfect target. Then you remembered the man with the strange hair who I’m betting you called to the fifth floor personally on the day of the murder under the pretext that something needed fixing. Good. Could have worked, if Daniel hadn’t been informed about your friendship with Mary. In all honesty, she stayed true to you to some extent, because she never shared your name, just that you’re someone important. Quite frankly, you were very close to getting away with it.” He paused for a loaded breath. “After Mary’s death, however, Daniel realised how dangerous the game you were playing was, and decided to stay quiet about it and feed us a story that didn’t match at all. Or maybe he knew who you were and intended to come back to you for more money. I have no idea. I locked Daniel up with Mary’s roommate, so it appeared like the two of them ran away, guilty of the crime. It gave you a chance to relax, sure in the knowledge no one knew you were behind this, and commit your next act. An act that gave even more clues to your identity.”

“You’re wrong, Mikhail. I haven’t killed anyone, and I certainly never paid someone to spy on you and the human.” Elisanda stood, gesturing to the door. “Please, leave.”

Mikhail settled more comfortably on the couch. “Sit down.”

The nymph obeyed with a dramatic sigh.

“We’re almost to the part where you really pissed me off. The murder attempt on the boy. It must have been so easy. He trusts you, Elisanda. His favourite healer! The best.”

“You must be determined to attribute every sin in the world to me, but I refuse to accept. I’m leaving this Hospital immediately!”

Mikhail wasn’t impressed by her playacting. “Targeting the boy was a weak move, Elisanda. Digging a message into his chest, even more so.”

She stared at him with a dumbfounded expression.

“That’s right. Amelia had a vision. I know what you intended to do. Did you believe I would just return her to her home and forget all about her? I guess you don’t know me, after all.”

“Speculations! You don’t have proof!” The nymph’s eyes sparkled with fury, although she tried to maintain the mask of insult and outrage.

Mikhail leaned forward. “Do you know who Krasimir Ivanov is?” Her forehead wrinkled with confusion. “A quiet, hardworking man. He has stomach cancer, probably won’t last very long. He came to the Hospital two years ago. Works as an orderly. Very efficient. A few days ago, a woman with black curly hair and overalls told him to evacuate everyone living in the East Wing of the sixteenth floor between twelve and two, due to some disinfection. She explicitly said that nobody should be present at that time. He, of course, obliged. I asked him to share more about this woman, and he only said, ‘Don’t know, boss. Black hair, long legs.’” Mikhail glanced at her red hair and crossed legs. “I told him that doesn’t help me much, and then he remembered, ‘She has a pink watch!’”

Elisanda’s blue gaze fell on the rose-gold watch around her wrist.

“I suppose you have a black wig somewhere. And yet, the question is, why so much effort for only a kid? Couldn’t you just get it over with in his mother’s room? No. Don’t tell me you have scruples.” Mikhail laughed. “You knew Dave goes up to Stella’s every night. You waited for him to leave his room. It wasn’t hard. You work and live on that floor, after all. And you went after him. You had an entire floor cleared out, thanks to your made-up disinfection story. You supposed that if you followed him up the stairs, he’d choose the forbidden corridor to escape. But then something went awry. Someone showed up and you couldn’t finish the job. The ploy was either because you wanted to frame someone else, or you just enjoy the thrill of the chase.”

Elisanda looked down before speaking again, “Mikhail, I don’t want to partake in this conversation any further. Your goal is clearly to disparage me.”

“Tell me one thing. Why Dave? Because he and I are close?”

“I’m close to him, too! I was devastated when I found out someone tried to harm him. You know how fond he is of me, Mikhail!”

“Fond enough to mention that he befriended the ‘nymph’ on the nineteenth floor?”

Elisanda feigned confusion. “What nymph? I thought the nineteenth floor was exclusive to humans…”

Mikhail gestured for silence. “I also thought the Oracle would be protected if only a small number of trusted creatures had access to her room.”

“The Oracle’s death was from natural causes, as you well know.”

“I would have been more convinced if an autopsy had been performed, but you vehemently opposed that idea.”

“Because it would have been a desecration! I had nothing to do with the Oracle’s death!”

“It’s a little late to prove that. And right now, I have a much more pressing and unexpected problem, Elisa ,” he said in a friendly voice, but the loathing he felt for her filled every fibre of his being. “With Amelia being the new Oracle and leaving the Hospital, she will be alone in the city. I suppose you can’t wait to disclose that information to your bosses.”

The nymph’s attention shifted to the leather bag beside her. She was surely thinking about her phone.

As if finally realising she was cornered, her mask cracked and was replaced by something else. Regret and guilt. “Mikhail, please. I had no choice. Please, listen to me.”

Mikhail arched his eyebrows. Why did they always claim they had had no choice?

“They threatened they’d destroy the Hospital if I didn’t cooperate. Everything I did was to save this place!” Elisanda cried out.

“What did they want?”

“The Oracle. They always wanted the Oracle. I had to report if I ever heard more. And then the human showed up and they wanted to know more about her… They were raging that I couldn’t give them anything and kept threatening me, Mikhail!”

Her desperation was palpable, but his tone remained unyielding. “And you thought that the best way to solve the problem was to go around murdering creatures in the Hospital?”

“I didn’t…” A tear trickled down her face. “I didn’t mean to. I swear.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?”

“Oh, Mikhail! How could I rest this burden on your shoulders as well? I hoped to deal with them on my own.”

If he hadn’t been so infuriated, he might have laughed at her act. “And in your attempt to not burden me, you decided to remove me from the Council?”

“Remove you?!” The nymph gaped at him. “Never!”

This time, he did laugh. “I was watching you, thinking, ‘there’s no way Elisanda is behind all of this. If it was her, she’d stay quiet at the meetings, at least. Not attract attention.’ I underestimated your insolence.”

“I think you misunderstood—”

“How long have you worked for them?”

She hesitated before answering, “Five years.”

“You had plenty of opportunities to share this.”

“I told you, I didn’t want to mix you up in it. Believe me, I did everything because I care. For the Hospital. For you!” The corners of her pale mouth trembled.

“I don’t believe you.”

For a moment, he thought she would burst into tears. But then a feverish glint shone in her gaze, and the mask fell off. “Join me, Mikhail! Let’s work together. With them. Give them the new Oracle and maybe they will spare us. We’ll save the Hospital and continue our work!”

“No.”

Elisanda lowered her head and spoke, “Then I will leave, Mikhail. I’m sorry I’ve disappointed you. I hope you will find the strength to forgive me one day.”

Mikhail burst into laughter once more, although he didn’t feel the least bit cheerful. “I also regret to disappoint you, but you will never leave this place. Well, maybe you’ll change your living arrangements with something less comfortable, possibly underground and with bars, but you will stay here. Believe me.”

Elisanda’s gaze glowed like lightning. “You stupid, narcissistic ass!” She yelled furiously, forgetting her previous act of a repentant sinner. “You always think everything revolves around you. Your Hospital! Your Council! Your rules! Only, this is something far bigger than you! There is so much you don’t know and that’s why you will lose!”

“Enlighten me, then. Please.”

“They have knowledge. And technologies that you can’t even believe exist!” Her lips twisted with satisfaction. “You have no chance against them. None !”

“Who are they?”

“As if I’d tell you!”

“So, there is a pinch of truth in the eighth species story. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried this hard to convince us of the opposite at the last meeting.”

Elisanda’s eyes flashed. “I guess you’re not as dumb as she thinks you are! And still, you’re a dead man.”

“Who is she ?”

“You don’t actually believe I’ll tell you, right?” The nymph straightened and lifted her chin, as if ready to walk out.

“Maybe I should let every member of the Council try out their particular methods of extracting information on you, until you break? You’re not a favourite among the witches and after I tell them what you’ve done, I doubt you’ll have any admirers left.”

“The Council! I was supposed to lead the Council! These spineless creatures deserve a stronger leader. A queen to guide them to excellence. Not you!”

Mikhail shrugged. “You’re right. I’ve never been fit to be queen.”

“You think it’s funny, don’t you? Soon it won’t be as funny, manticore.”

“All right, Elisa. You said you should be the leader of the Council. Is that what they promised you?”

“The Council, the Hospital, the building! I will be head of it all!”

“And where will I be?”

“You’ll be dead.” The nymph radiated pure hatred. “You should already be dead. They said you’d be dead right after Kaliope Gazis’ murder!”

“I should, I should… I guess your friends aren’t as powerful. Tell me, what are they fighting for? The Hospital?”

“Your dear Hospital is a drop in the sea. Do you think that someone like her would be impressed by your little building? She will take something far greater.”

“Like what?”

Elisanda smiled. “This entire planet, you wretch! Only, you won’t be here to see it!” She screamed and threw herself at him. Her long black nails aimed for his face but Mikhail had been prepared for that from the beginning.

Without the element of surprise, the nymph wasn’t a threat. He grabbed her wrists and twisted until she stopped fighting.

“I hate you!” Elisanda hissed.

“Yeah, I figured that one out on my own.”

He headed for the door, dragging the squirming nymph across the expensive rug.