Liam must see something out in the darkness because he takes off after Konstantin.
“Lauren honey, we have you, you’re going to be okay,” I babble, taking someone’s offer of a towel and replacing my soaked sweater.
“Who hurt you?” Lucca cups her face in his hands, trying to get her to focus. “Can you tell me anything?” Her mouth opens in wide, gasping breaths and my heart sinks as blood flows over her lips with her soundless words.
“Move!” Dr. Giardo shoves me aside. The mean old bastard can move like the wind when he’s motivated. His quick, sure hands pull out a chest seal bandage and he rips off the backing off the adhesive. “Pull the two sides of the wound together,” he snaps, “keep it steady.” My hands are slipping, there’s so much blood and holding the wound closed is hard, but he gets the bandage on her chest and looks at her side. His mouth is grim. “This one hit a lung.”
Lucca smooths Lauren’s hair off her face, her wide, panicked eyes focusing on him. He’s whispering to her, I see her lips move but-
“Focus!” Dr. Giardo snaps at me, and my gaze darts back to her wounds. His hands are moving like lightning, but I watchhelplessly as her chest heaves for air, slower and slower until she stops. “CPR!” Giardo orders, “You do the chest compressions.”
I center my hands on her chest and begin, remembering the silly Bee Gee’s song that I learned to keep the rhythm for CPR,“Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive…”The snow is soaking into my thin leggings and falling on Lauren. I lean over her more, trying to protect her from the storm. It’s stupid, I know. My attempt at protection is too late.
“Stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive…”
Steam is coming from her stab wounds, curling up into the freezing air. I close my eyes and keep counting my compressions.
“How could this have happened? Lauren is… she was so tough,” I said blankly, tears pouring down my cheeks.
Konstantin found me mechanically washing my hands in the medical clinic sink and brought me back to his suite.
“She is- was,” he agreed sadly. “The angle of the stab wounds shows there were at least two people who attacked her. I found bloodstains on the path about fifty feet away, so she caused some damage.”
“You saw someone running away, didn’t you?” I ask, “That’s why you took off so fast?”
“Someone was rounding the corner of the gym when I looked up,” he said, “Liam and I searched the entire area, but there was nothing but the bloodstains. The snow was falling so heavily that any footprints got covered up.”
“Lucca was talking to Lauren when Dr. Giardo and I were working on her,” I said, “has he told you anything?”
“He’s with Dean Christie right now,” he said. “She’s going to want to question you, too. Let me get you some coffee.”
“Yeah, thanks.” I stared at the coals in the fireplace, wondering how everything could go wrong so quickly. Poor Lauren.
Konstantin…
The next day…
“This has to be the newcomers,” Lucca said, running his hands through his hair.
We’re in Mariya and Tatiana’s suite. They’re on the couch, Lucca and I are pacing.
“You can’t rule out staff or someone breaking in from outside the Academy,” I remind him. We’re both feeling shell-shocked. Aside from Lucca’s completely justified murder of that prick who tried to rape Tatiana last year, there hasn’t been a killing on campus for nearly twenty years. The ‘eye for an eye’ law is a strong deterrent.
“No, I talked to Ivan, he’s the one who testified on behalf of Tati last year, remember?” Lucca said. “He’s the one who reviewed the security footage from all the fences and the gates. No one got in or out of here last night.”
“What did the footage from the back terrace show?” Mariya asks.
“Three assailants,” he said angrily. He and Lauren had a brief romance our freshman year, I know this is hitting him hard. “She fought like hell.”
“Have they found any weapons?” Tatiana asks him.
“Those fucks tossed the knives over the west-facing cliff, a couple of the guards rappelled down and found one of them caught up in some rocks.” He snorted bitterly, “No fingerprints.”
“Lauren’s parents are on their way from Los Angeles,” Mariya said sadly. “Her father is threatening to rain hellfire down on the school.” She looks over to Lucca. “I couldn’t hear anything when you were talking to her, what did she say?”
He shook his head.
“Come on,” she persisted, “I know you’re pretty good at reading lips. She must have had said something.”
