The thing that wasn’t Lucy Easting stared at the scene ahead, uncomprehending. The cushions were still piled in their corner, as was the sleeping bag. The recording equipment sat waiting on the desk. But the drawers looked as if they’d been hurriedly, haphazardly emptied out. The only thing left, as she drew close, was a single stake, left behind in the top left drawer. It shivered a little from the force of her footsteps. Rocked from side to side, as if someone had just let go of it.
In all the years since she met Ivan Volkov, Athena Barnes hadn’t once left the safety of her studio before sunrise. Until tonight.
Which wasthe keenest relief Lucy had ever felt.
And itwasher feeling it. The red voice had faltered. There was no obvious place for the compulsion to drive her now. Natalie had gotten the message. And Athena was gone. Hopefully safe.
Lucy breathed out heavily as she reached into the desk drawer. She had time. She didn’t know how much. Which meant no more hesitating. No more clinging to a life that, it seemed, she was never meant to have.
As she lifted the stake, she ran through a litany of mental apologies. To Natalie, for being such a high-maintenance party guest. To Athena, for driving her to wherever she was now. To her mother, for proving her right. To Mila, for not being able to collect her personally.
But Athena and Natalie would find a way to save her. Lucy hoped, as hard as she could, that they’d all make it out alive. She hoped Mila would get the chance to rethink her best-case scenario.
She lined the stake up against her chest—but something made her pause. A soft footstep against the floorboards. Lucy faltered, and turned.
The last thing she saw was Athena, swinging something directly at her head.
Lucy’s eyelids twitched but stuck. Someone was talking, very high up and very loudly, and whoever it was, Lucy needed to tell them to run. She didn’t hear the red voice yet, but it wouldn’t stay away forever.
“She still isn’t waking up,” the voice said. “What if I gave her a concussion on top of everything else?”
“Not to speak for Lucy,” a second voice chimed in, not unkindly. “But if you happened to give her a concussion while saving her life, that might be the best thing to happen to her this week.”
There was a rustling, and then the second voice was much closer to her ear. “Lucy?” it said. “I know you must be exhausted, babe. But we need you to open your eyes.”
Oh.Lucy shifted, and despite the roaring pain in her head, she managed to pry her eyes open. Natalie was kneeling next to her—Athena a little farther away, closer to the door.
She was still in the studio. She recognized the feel of the cushions she was lying on.
Maybe she did have a concussion. She was surprised to see Athena there, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. If she did have a concussion, though, that wasnotthe best thing to happen to her that week. The best thing was kissing Mila.
Mila.
Clarity hit like an anvil. She snapped upright, but she didn’t get far: One of her wrists was bound to the radiator next to her. And she’d finally gotten her wish, it seemed. Whoever had tied her up had used a length of rope.
“It’s okay, honey.” Natalie, still on her knees, scooted a bit closer. “You’re safe here. But before we do anything else, we need you to drink.”
Natalie lifted her henna-red hair off her shoulders, revealing her neck, and Lucy crawled back as far as she could manage. No. No, no, no, this was a nightmare. The red voice was almost certainly coming back any minute, and there Natalie was, flashing her aorta. “Natalie,” she said. “you need to take Athena and go.”
“Mila said that her blood made you stronger.” Athena’s voice was much smaller than Lucy had ever heard it before—and she, too, was staring at Natalie’s neck with something like dread. She didn’t run, though. Even though she categorically should. “It could help you stay in control.”
“Itdidhelp.” Lucy had pushed herself far enough that her bindings had begun to strain. “And then Vanya took Mila, and she was too weak to fight back.”
“Do you think I’m fighting anything?” Natalie asked. “I’m not the muscle of this operation. Come on. Drink up.”
Lucy shut her eyes, as if not looking at Natalie would do anything for the ferocious hunger that had just returned to her. If they stalled much longer, it wouldn’t be the only thing that returned. “What if I can’t stop?” she said.
“If you can’t stop,” said a third voice, “then I’ll make you stop.”
Lucy’s bindings made it very difficult to twist in the direction of the sound. But once she managed it, she found herself face-to-face with two of the last people she would expect to see in Athena’s sanctuary. Hiro Minamoto, and Laurentius of Rome.
“Poor thing.” Hiro was perched in Athena’s desk chair, his face swimming with pity. “Your lovely little friend there is right. You’ll need a full stomach if you’re going to shake his compulsion.”
Lucy, still shocked to see them at all, barely took in the words. “How are you—”
“I went to them. Last night, after Mila sent me home,” Natalie said. “I thought we should, like…exchange numbers in case of emergency. And then lo and behold, we had an emergency.”
For a long moment, Lucy felt a bit dizzy with wonder. What were the odds that her first college friend was the kind of person who would make a phone tree with two elderly vampires?
