Page 50 of The Red Room
Dimitri sits acrossthe room next to the front door, sharpening the bundle of arrowheads glinting off the ceiling lights of his apartment. The stool he rests on is small and wooden, but surprisingly holds his weight with ease. He hasn’t looked at me in the past twenty minutes, not even glanced at me on the small love seat set against the wall of his modest living room. And me? Well I haven’t said anything since Nik slammed the SUV door shut and disappeared into the night. No, I’ve only checked my phone every few minutes, hoping this is all some sick joke. That Courtney isn’t really missing. Praying Viktor, the sadistic and murderous werewolf of the family hasn’t taken my best friend.
I’m going to get her back.His words replay in my head over and over, and when the voices in my own mind quiet, it’s his voice I hear.I’m going to get her back.
The lines on the windows and doors still bare the faintest hint of purple. Wolfsbane. I didn’t think it was real until Dimitri pulled a bouquet from the black duffel bag he brought in. Then, he proceeded to drag the delicate violet petals across everypossible entrance in here. How something so beautiful could stop something so monstrous is still another thought nagging at me. But it wasn’t until decapitated flower petals littered the floors that Dimitri seemed a bit at ease. More than usual, at least.
His apartment is not far off from mine. There are stains in the ceiling, maybe even the incoming of mold left unchecked by his landlord. His AC might work a bit better, give or take a few hiccups every now and then. The windows overlooking the street are bright with the lights from the skyscraper sitting opposite, highlighting every uneven board in the floor. This was, well, not what I was expecting to be quite honest. I know Nik has money. And for Dimitri to live in squalor like this? I guess I’m not the only one taken advantage of.
I sip from a bottle of water, letting the cool liquid slide down my scalding insides. It was all he had besides the vodka now resting between his outstretched legs. After another arrow is sharpened to his liking, he takes a swig, then starts on the next. He’s done little else since we got here, his eyes narrowed to slits and fixed on the task like some soldier preparing for war. I’ve counted them all three times so far. Sixteen arrows. I’m not sure how many werewolves are in their pack, but I’m hoping Dimitri has a couple to spare.
“Will those really stop them?” I ask, bringing my knees to my chest.
He pauses on the arrowhead, the scraping metal noise halting and matching the eerie silence of the apartment. “Da. Silver tips.”
I glance around the room, taking in all the things I’d be no stranger to in my own home. “Do you really think they will come here?”
Dimitri lets out a lengthy sigh and drops another finished arrow to the floor. When he hunches forward, the subtlelights gleam off his bald head, offset by the thick eyebrows pinching together and hiding his gaze. “They will try.”
“Great,” I say, scoffing out a laugh. “Fucking great. Courtney is missing, and now I’m being hunted by a pack of werewolves. What a way to die.”
He picks up another arrow and resumes scraping the end to a lethal point. “You will not die here, Ms. Nat. I will make sure of that.”
“And what about tomorrow? Can you promise me I won’t die then?” I raise my voice an octave, anger coursing through my veins. Here I am, sitting in some werewolf safe house while my friend could be having her spleen ripped out for a snack. I should be with her. I should be trying to find her with Nik. But no. I’m sitting on a couch listening to the awful sounds of metal scraping metal and TV noise playing in the background.
Dimitri gives another stern breath, staring only at the silver-tipped arrow in front of him. “Nikolai is good man. He vill not let anything happen to you or your friend.”
Is he fucking joking? Good man? I don’t know if scientists around the world could even classify him as a man, let alone a good one. He’s kidnapping people and using them as a goddamn food source for his pack. My face twists with rage, and after a moment of silence, Dimitri glances away from the arrow in his hands to me.
“Nikolai is not his father,” he says, his voice sharper than the arrow in his fingertips.
“Oh, yeah? How can you be so sure your friend isn’t planning to serve you up next?” I challenge, digging my hands into the couch. Everything he told me from the beginning was a lie. Why in the hell would Dimitri be treated any different? He probably has him wrapped around his finger too. Just another pawn to be used for the Vostik pack. God, it’s almost laughable now. Here I thought this man, this monster, was the exception.The final piece of the puzzle I’ve craved for so long. The one I never thought I’d find. Well I did, and it was short fucking lived.
A gentle smirk curls one side of Dimitri’s face.No.He’s not—shit … he is.Dimitri grins. Why? Why would he be smiling at a time like this? I’m not sure if I should be terrified or curious, but I slam my mouth shut and wait for him to speak, if he will that is.
“You know nothing of Nikolai Vostik if you think that, Ms. Nat.”
The anger boiling within me simmers and settles. What is he talking about? How can he continue to defend him? Their pack takes people. Humans like us, and yet, Dimitri is still carving another arrow into a defined point to protect me, and if I had to guess, Nik.
“You remind me a lot of my sister,” he says, his gaze focused on the silver in his hands. Each time he drags the sharpener to the blade, metal filings litter the floor near his feet. “She vas also stubborn.”
I swallow the lump building in my throat.Vas.She was.Ida.He told us about her tonight in the car. I remember the way he tensed up. How he was more closed off than I have ever seen, even when standing guard at Völk.
“She got sick in her ninth year. Doctors couldn’t help.” Another sharpened arrow tossed to the stack, and Dimitri downs a swig of vodka. He wipes his mouth with a meaty forearm and continues. “I knew what they were. Why we were told to not leave our house at the end of their property every full moon. Why we kept silver charms at all the doors and windows. Of course, I knew what the Vostiks were.” He smiles again, this one bringing tears to his eyes. Dimitri takes another drink, tilting the bottle to the ceiling.
A harsh swallow, and he clears his throat.
“We were friends, Ms. Nat. He never wanted to be in that house, and as the cook’s son, I was never allowed inside. But the forest, that was our sanctuary. How we were born didn’t matter out there. No, Nikolai could be whatever he wanted. A pirate. A cowboy.” Stiff chuckles accompany the tears in his eyes. “And me? I wasn’t just some cook’s son, anymore. We played together every day, even let Ida tag along if the game we decided on needed a third. Sure, he wouldn’t come out of the estate for a few days during the month, but when the full moon had passed, my best friend would come knocking on my front door again. Nikolai.” He grins at the memory, and as quickly as the grin appears, his face grows solemn.
“And then Ida got sick …” Dimitri closes his eyes, letting small tears roll down his cheeks. “It started first with the headaches. Then, she wouldn’t come with us to the forest even if we both begged her to. I watched Ida refuse to eat or drink. Held her hair when she puked throughout the night. And when I stopped pretending it would all go away like some bad dream, I knew there was only one way to save her. Nikolai. I begged him to help her. To change her into one of them and fix what the doctors visiting our small house couldn’t.”
I wipe away the tears building in my own eyes and stare at him, watching this large man shrink into something so impossibly small.
“Nikolai saved her,” he says, his firm gaze locked on mine. “One bite and Ida was stronger than I’d ever seen. No more headaches. No days lost to sleep. She could actually get out of bed and walk on her own two feet again. She was … cured.”
Dimitri picks up the last arrow and begins grinding the silver, his face twisting with anger. “Nikolai helped my family, but at a great cost. He knew his father wouldn’t approve of a cook’s daughter bearing the mark. She had no title. An impressive bloodline of nobility.No one is to be turned withoutpermission.This is the oldest law they have. One put in place by Viktor Vostik the first.”
My heartbeat quickens, thumping wildly in my chest. Dimitri pays it no mind, still focused on readying the collection at his large feet. Sixteen arrows. Sixteen to fend off a pack of wolves intent on finding and delivering me to Viktor.
“Nikolai bit her anyway.” He drops the last one to the stack, and the wood of the arrow clatters against the others first, then the misshapen floor. “She was ripped apart on her first full moon. I hear the screams in my sleep. Listening to my sister be tore limb from fucking limb while in the safety of my cottage with silver charms over the windows. And when Vlad Vostik was done with her … he made sure Nikolai remembered what would happen the next time he put himself before the pack.” Dimitri forms his hand into a claw and slashes down his torso in the same positioning of Nik’s mangled scars.