Page 49 of The Red Room
Dimitri nods solemnly. “Da. Promise.”
“Nik!” I scream, and he finally turns to face me. The noise of the busy street fills in the quiet as he peers into my eyes, a beautiful glowing gaze locked on mine. The confidence that normally sharpens his features is gone, and in its place is a combination of rage and dread.
“What is happening?” I ask, my voice cracking.
“Stop,” Nik orders, his Russian accent breaking free for the smallest of moments. The SUV slows to a halt near the sidewalk, engine idle vibrating the seats. He continues to stare at me, opening and closing his mouth as if he can’t find the right words.
I cup his cheek with one hand and he closes his eyes, seemingly reveling in the touch like it might be the last time. “Tell me … What is happening?”
A deep breath. A pinched brow. The way his teeth clench in jaw-cracking pressure. These are the things I notice about Nikolai Vostik, now a shell of the man who wanted to take me to Italy. Who danced with me in a way no one else had before. Kissed me so passionately. Now, it’s someone I hardly recognize. There’s something he isn’t telling me. Some secret he can’t hide anymore. Part of me wonders if I even want to know. Maybe feign ignorance and keep this wonderful and unexpectedblooming in my chest whenever he’s near. The other part, the more rational side of me,has to know.
“Völk is not just a club.”
A terrifying lump forms in my throat. What is he talking about? Not just a club? Nausea lathers my tongue with acid as stomach bile careens up my esophagus. I rip my hand back, my fingers cooling in an instant. There’s pain in his gaze when I pull away. Pain and an unmistakable fear I’ve never seen from him.
Nik continues, no matter how reluctant he is to do so. His voice is low, close to a rough whisper. “Völk is a hunting ground for our pack.”
Blood rushes through my veins with each ragged heartbeat. Fear casts a pit low in my belly. Fear and disgust. I feel the warmth drain from my face, leaving only the chill of the night air.Hunting grounds.They hunt humans there. They use this club to lure people. People like … me.
Nik glances to the ceiling and rubs his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. “Dimitri will protect you until I can get you out of the city. It’s not safe for you here now.”
Fury replaces the terror icing my limbs. He has lied to me about everything. About him. His family. What they are really doing here in Los Angeles. I was stupid enough to believe every word he said. To not ask the right fucking questions because it all seemed so goddamn perfect. Little did I know putting my faith in a monster was really as ridiculous as it sounded on paper. He is every bit the beast I saw chained up in his loft. Only now … he’s somehow worse.
“Safe?” I argue. “Safe from what? Your fucking pack?” My nails bite into my palm when I clench my fists tight. Anger swirls within me.
“From Viktor,” he says, not daring to look me in the eye. “He thinks you are making me weak.” A small, unintended snarl passes through his lips. “That you are creating a weakness withinthe pack. He’s coming for you, Natalia. He wants to take you next.”
I see the flash of Dimitri’s eyes shifting to me in the rearview, and despite the longing there to say something, to intervene, he doesn’t.
Next? What in the fuck does he mean next? How many people has Viktor taken? Is that why he was trying to grab me when I first got to the club? “What do you mean next?”
Nik lets out another sigh, his sharp jaw line flexing. “There’s a reason she won’t respond to your texts. She isn’t with that guy from the bar. She isn’t home. He’s taken your friend. Viktor has taken Courtney.”
No. No, this can’t be happening. I grab my phone and check the message. Nothing. It’s as blank as it was before.Courtney.My chest squeezes, seeming to collapse in on itself. I can’t breathe. Christ, I can’t do anything but glare at him in disbelief. Viktor has taken her. A fucking werewolf has my best friend, and I am in a car riding away to safety while he’s doing god knows what to her.
“What—” The words fumble in my throat. “What happens to the humans you take?” Revulsion slithers up my arms at just the mention of the horrible things Nik is a part of. God, how could I have been so fucking naïve? He’s a supernatural monster, and I believed everything he said so easily. Every horror movie I’ve ever seen had it right. Vomit is a wrong breath away from spilling out of my mouth and onto the carpeted floors now. I manage to swallow down what I can.
Nik reaches for my hand but I move closer to the window, shrinking away from him. “I didn’t know he would take her. Please, you have to believe I’d have no part in—”
I cut him off and shriek, “What happens, Nikolai?”
It’s as if I’ve called him something terrible. Nikolai. Not Nik. Not the name I screamed fifteen minutes ago when he hadme pinned against the glass of his loft. It’s the name his father had given him. A reminder of the life he was so desperate to leave. For us to leave together.
His brows furrow and his jaw clenches an extra inch. “They are brought back to the den,” he says finally, a certain amount of humanity missing from his voice. “To the Vostik estate for the pack to feed.”
The words I want to yell are punched out of me, the fist of realization slamming right into my sternum. The air in the car disappears in a second like some knob had been twisted to induce suffocation. They have been using the club as a farm to herd people to slaughter. It was all a front. All some sick façade him and his brother cooked up to collect people like cattle. And now, Courtney is next on the menu.
Nik opens the door and pauses, reaching for my hand one last time and stopping when I recoil. I can’t look at him. No, I only stare out of the window at the people walking past, hoping to see my friend amongst the crowded streets.
“I will explain everything when I get back.” The words come out sincere but I have a hard time believing anything this fucking animal has to say. “Dimitri will keep you safe.” He starts to exit the SUV, crouching again to clear the ceiling.
“What are you going to do,” I murmur and glance at him.
There’s a flicker of black in his near golden eyes when he looks at me. The same eyes of the beast he keeps chained and hidden away from the world until I somehow stumbled in the middle of it. Then, his irises return to their normal, glowing color.
“I’m going to get her back.”
TWENTY-SIX