“I had to—Lorelei. It isn’t as you think.”
“Like Vincent?”
“No—but, well, yes.”
“What about the others? In the icebox.”
My breath caught, twisted in my lungs.
“A better question would be, who did you feed to me?”
“I don’t know—”
“Be honest.”
“I asked him to not tell me their names.” My answer was cowardly, but it was true.
He stood still at the top of the stairs, his face hidden from me as the spotlight glared from behind. His expressions were a mystery to me; I had no clue as to whether he was angry or disappointed.
I took a deep breath, opting to wait for him to speak.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did—”
“The truth.”
“You got the truth. It was just in pieces, or skimmed from just above the surface. I always gave an answer,” I said sternly.
“What did you neglect to tell me, then?” His voice became cool, his shoulders still tense from what I could see. “You know my secrets. It is only decent to share your own.”
“I would have told you, in time.”
“You ate them, Petre.”
The words rang in my ears, bouncing off my canals like a deep-rooted tinnitus.
The silence was taken as an answer, and he laughed. As if it were some tired joke.
I considered the answer carefully. “Some on my own, some fed to me.”
His form rummaged for something, stepping closer as he pulled out a photograph. He held it straight in front, stepping forward enough for me to see it.
A little blond girl, kneeling beside two massive white guardian dogs, an empty metal bowl shared by all three.
“When did you start?”
My eyes shifted from the photo to his hand, blood on his fingers and smudged on the corner of the paper.
I stepped back, and he stepped forward quickly, his other hand extended in a halting motion.
“Wait.” He was visible now, smudges of dark red stuck to his face, his eyes dark from either the poor lighting or some other force entirely. “I want to know how long he was helping you.”
I shook my head, covering my face as if it would hold back the sob swelling in my throat.
My hands were pried from my eyes. Arkady holding them far enough away where I couldn’t hide, I couldn’t resist. His eyes were sosharp, I couldn’t read them as they cut me down to something small, something to be dissected.
“You lied to me,” I cried. “You told me you’d never given in to your urges! You promised me I would be safe!”
