Page 148 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

Diana glanced at the female who had spoken. Oh, right. The girl, Alex, was hovering around and watching her with both curiosity and distrust – as she had been since they had arrived in the laboratory.

Constantine had warned Diana about Viktor Volk’s adopted daughter, too. Creepy, but harmless, the necromancer had whispered in Diana’s ear before leaving her with the two lycanthropes.

“I didn’t.” Diana wasn’t usually rude, but at this moment the vial and the man holding it had her full attention.

“Where are you from?”

“I was born in England, but I’ve lived here and there for the last twenty-thirty years.” Diana hoped her curt answer would quench the girl’s interest.

“How come?”

“I—” Diana almost jumped out of her chair when Viktor tapped the vial with his index finger.

“Don’t worry. Viktor won’t do anything to your vial. Not that you’re allowing us to do much to it, anyway…”

“It has already cost me too much!” Her voice rose.

“Your brother died for it, right?”

“He did.”

“And you’d want his death to not be in vain, right?” When Diana only stared at her blankly, Alex hurried to add, “Only, how are we supposed to analyse it, if you won’t let us spill a single drop?”

Diana frowned. “I never asked you to analyse it. I only agreed to you observing my reaction after I drink it, because Constantine somehow convinced me to.”

“Are the two of you dating?”

Diana shook her head. She’d be damned if she were dating a necromancer. Impatience filled her. She turned to Viktor. “How much longer?”

“A minute or two. Not that sniffing and staring at it would give me any valuable information.” He threw her a glance of discontent.

“I have a brother, too. We’re twins. He’s extremely obnoxious, but I guess I’d miss him very much if something happened to him.”

Diana narrowed her gaze on Alex. “If you’re trying to distract me so he can take a few drops from the vial, it won’t work.”

“Not at all. I’m just being nice to you so you don’t think that everyone hates you.”

“Everyone hates me?”

“Well, yeah. Because of your brother and the portal he opened here to deliver the box with a Council member’s decapitated head. And the fact that we don’t know who Kaliope’s real killer is only makes everyone think that it was your brother – as the only known culprit in all this. Thus making you an object of hatred.”

“You heard about the portal?” Diana’s eyebrows shot up.

Constantine had explained the creatures in the Hospital knew about the mysterious appearance of the box, but not about the portal.

“I made Viktor tell me. Something of a compensation for his bad behaviour these last few weeks.”

The two of them looked over to Viktor, who was shaking the vial between his fingers.

“Would you stop that?” Diana screamed.

He raised his palm in apology and placed the substance back on the lab bench, tapping his chin with his index finger, deep in thought.

“Would you read me your brother’s note?” Alex asked.

“Drink it. It’s short-lasting. Turn. I don’t trust them,” Diana repeated the words she knew by heart now and would remember for the rest of her life.

“I thought you were New Generation,” Alex said.

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