Page 150 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

“Is that your brother?” Alex asked, pointing to it.

“No. It’s not someone we know. He just drew it to show the transformation. Here, see.” Diana moved her finger to the right corner, where another man, twice as large, with giant muscular hands and strange dark spots on his face, was illustrated. He wore pants, but his soles and shoes were missing, as if the painter hadn’t had time to finish his design.

“Didn’t you know what transformation and turning were, before you saw this?” Alex gave her a sceptical glance. “I know you’re a New Gen like me, but—”

Diana bristled. “Of course, I knew!”

“Then why would he draw this for you? Does he think you’re slow?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know – retarded, mentally impaired?” Alex tapped her chin. “Although, if you were, you probably wouldn’t think—”

“Girl, are you toying with me?”

“Not at all. And what are these spots? Vampires don’t have spots.”

Diana spread her arms out in despair. “I don’t know, damn it! He probably wanted to point out the transformation. Make the secondary form different.”

“Hmm…” Alex smiled. “As I said, you truly don’t comprehend the idea behind this scribble. This is a transformation, true, but not just any transformation.”

Diana winced. “What do you mean?”

“Would you give me a moment? I need to check on something.” Without waiting for a reply, Alex ran out of the lab.

Diana collapsed back into her chair, glancing over at Viktor. At the far end of the lab, he was muttering under his breath, as if chanting a spell. Diana prayed Constantine returned soon, so she didn’t need to face these people on her own anymore.

The girl had also said she had a twin…

“I’m back!” Alex burst through the door a couple of minutes later with her attention glued to the open book in her hands. “I found it!” She tossed a triumphant look at Diana. “Listen very carefully, Diana, because what you’re about to hear will change your world forever.”

Diana blinked a few times, but before she could say anything, Alex started to read.

“‘I have always preferred the opposite sex. Despite that, only a blind man would deny the rare beauty of the Foreigner. As soon as I saw him, I knew he wasn’t human. He is immortal. A special creature. He does not, however, have the typical smell of any of the well-known species. Therefore, I suspect he is one of them. Until now, I had foolishly believed they were a minority. Tonight, I was proven wrong. I had to be sure…’ I’ll skip some parts. Not that they aren’t divine, but they’re not the purpose of our reading today.” Alex flipped through a few pages, then began again. “‘His mask of poise finally broke and he transformed. The immortal form he revealed was something I had never encountered before. His body became enormous and tough, but not as large as a manticore or lycanthrope. If I have to compare it to something, his size is similar to a vampire’s or the skeleton of a necromancer… His eyes lost their flame because they became two black holes. His beautiful face disappeared, turned into something flat, resembling nothing I had ever seen. But the most striking change was the skin. Flawless before, now it was still smooth, even slimy, but marked by black spots, as dark as his eyes. The more I watched, the more I was sure of what he was…’”

Diana stared at Luka’s drawing.

“This is not a regular transformation,” Alex said. “It’s the turning of a reptilian, or the eighth kind. I understand why you didn’t think of it, seeing as how you’ve never heard of the reptilians, but I’m pretty sure your brother would have explained it to you in more detail under the drawing. If he hadn’t been interrupted, judging by the missing feet of the figure.”

Viktor approached them. “Alex, I told you to quit with this nonsense. I think I’m done here, and just as I suspected, I learnt nothing about this substance. You can drink it now, but at your own risk.” When she didn’t acknowledge him, he prompted, “Diana?”

“I think she’s right,” Diana whispered, without shifting her focus from the scribble.

“About what?”

“When Constantine and I found Luka, he had completely lost his mind. He was hallucinating, seeing things that weren’t there. Towards the end, he kept repeating the same thing, over and over…”

“What was it?”

Diana forced herself to look away from the sketch. “Beware the reptiles.”

Alex shot Viktor a haughty smile. “I told you!”

***

Diana couldn’t stop staring at the drawing – more specifically, at the spots her brother had painted on the face of the transformed figure.

“Tell me again everything that you remember about these men.” Mikhail had shown up in the lab a moment earlier, pacing up and down, throwing furious glances in all directions.

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