I hated lying and using my condition as an excuse, but I didn’t want Conan to think I was that cruel, that heartless, to just ditch Kaleb like that.
I had some medical complications from my heart transplant and
went back to Elmaris for a series of surgeries, and then I went home to recoup.
I was in and out of it for weeks and didn’t even find out about Kaleb until
the funeral was over. It’s taken me a while to get my life back
together after learning what happened.
A little blue dot next to his profile told me he was still online, and he messaged me back a few minutes later.
Fuck, I didn’t know about that. Are you better now?
I am, thanks. I still don’t know what happened
to Kaleb, though, because no one will really talk to me.
How did he die?
His parents were told he’d been in a car accident, but another friend of ours swore he was attacked by vamps. But you know how it is here—non-cits are second class. If we end up as vamp food, the authorities don’t care.
Especially when it was the authorities who were committing the crimes.
Do you remember my friend Nellie, the merfolk?
She died too, and I can’t believe she’s gone.
Yeah, she OD’d, apparently. The Premier even set up a special memorial fund to help students struggling with addiction afterwards.
I felt like I was going to throw up again. Nellie had experimented with bruum—who hadn’t? But she’d never done anything harder than that, and you couldn’t overdose on bruum.
And if Victor’s “memorial fund” didn’t say guilty conscience, I didn’t know what would.
My skin felt clammy as the realization sunk in—Victor had really killed my friends. Killed Nellie because she knew he had taken me, and killed Kaleb because he had been looking for me.
And possibly killed my parents…
Thanks for reaching out, and sorry if I’m keeping you up.
Oh, no worries. I’m actually finishing my Ph.D. at Umbris, so I’m on Noctis time. I’m at a dig right now, but maybe when I’m back, we can catch up? My Starlight Dominion crew could always use a new member.
My breath caught in my chest, and I let out a sob as this small thing broke me. This innocent invitation back into my old life, back when I wasn’t just a shell of a person, a living doll for all of Victor’s wants and needs. When I had a best friend, a boyfriend, a family…
Sure, I’d love that. Good luck with your dig!
* * *
The days with Victor crept by even more than usual as I counteddown the minutes until I could have my phone again. I still didn’t know where my parents were, and I’d stopped contacting any more people when I realized that if word somehow got to Victor, he might kill anyone who knew I was alive.
At the very least, I had the chance to research more about mate bonds. Because no matter what Victor said in the afterglow of sex, he didn’t really love me. I didn’t think he even liked me. Not really.
Everything I’d ever heard about mates, which was all anecdotal since I didn’t know any mated couples in real life, had said they were perfect for one another in every way possible. Not that they didn’t fight or have differences, but that they were what the other person wanted and needed in a partner.
And Victor barely tolerated me when I was just being myself.
When I’d asked him for a video game console, he’d looked at me like it was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard and made some snide comment about how gaming was for children.
