Page 125 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

Viktor pinched the bridge of his nose. “Which is?”

“An immortal species, whose secondary form is an enormous reptile.”

“And where do these reptilians live? In the Nile?”

Alex hugged the book to her chest. “You’re mocking me.”

“No, I wouldn’t… Honey, I’m a thousand years old. If there was an eighth kind, I would have encountered it. Or someone else would have.”

“Well, clearly, somebody has.” She gestured to the book with her chin.

“And who is he?”

“I don’t know his name. He signs himself as C.”

“C., is it?” Viktor forced himself to maintain a level of interest. “And is this C. a reptilian?”

“No. He isn’t. I don’t know what he is, but he’s definitely not a reptilian. Actually, he doesn’t seem to like them very much and describes them as extremely unpleasant creatures. He believes that they want to destroy the other species.”

“Sounds like fiction.”

“It gets even more interesting when you continue reading. C. believes he has found a way to stop them.” Alex frowned. “Unfortunately, a lot of pages are missing.”

Viktor was getting distracted again. Memories of last night were playing on repeat in his mind. Him, pouring himself whiskey and celebrating life because life is short and time flies by. Him, surrounded by drunk girls in the middle of the dance floor under the sounds of music that made no sense. Him, entering the miserable student housing…

“It’s remarkable, Vik! This man tried to immortalise humans—”

“Where did you find this book?”

“Lying around somewhere. Point is, something huge happened,” she started talking hastily.

“I thought I’d read every book in this building,” Viktor remarked, digging through his jacket for his phone. He turned it on and a string of messages bombarded him.

“I guess you haven’t read this one.”

He skimmed through the texts. “Mikhail wants to see me. Can we continue this later?”

“Okay.”

“Don’t go walking around the building until I find out what’s going on.” He headed for the door.

“You can’t tell me what to do, Vik. You’re not my father.” He froze, flabbergasted by her tone. “And you may now be finding out what’s going on, but I already know because I was in the building throughout the night, just as you ordered me.”

“I may not be your biological father, but I care about you,” he replied, his tone firm.

“No need. I’m not a child anymore.”

“No, you’re not. But that doesn’t mean you’re not vulnerable.”

Alex jabbed a finger in the air between them, her face flushing red. “You know what, Vik? I actually came to tell you something else, too. I intend on joining Zacharia’s guards.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Yeah. I asked him and he said he’d train me, if you agree. I told him you do, so we’ll be starting soon.”

“But I don’t agree!” He gave up on trying to leave the room. “You’re kidding. How the hell did you come up with this absurd idea? Why do you want this at all?”

“Just because.”

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