Page 64 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

“Tie them up!”

Before he could negotiate any further, three witches pounced on him simultaneously. One of them hit him so hard in the face, it was a miracle she didn’t break his nose. Warm blood trickled down his lip. He glanced at Viktor, who was still trying to charm a semi-circle of approaching witches with his words. Another witch started towards the lycanthrope from behind, holding a rope in her hands.

The hooded bitch wasn’t kidding, then. They had to fight if they wanted to leave this place. Battling women wasn’t his favourite pastime, but…

Someone attacked him from behind, much like the witch approaching Viktor, and tied a rope around his neck. He leaned forward, grabbing their hands and pulling their body towards him. He flung them over his shoulder and threw them on the ground. A subtle noise that only his supernatural hearing could detect told him the spine of the woman at his feet was broken.

“You will pay for this!” Someone else shouted to his left, as pain pierced his shoulder.

That someone jumped on Mikhail. It took him two hits to get rid of her, all while dodging a dagger to the gut from another witch. The attacks on both sides continued.

The beast inside him raged. He hadn’t been truly angry. Until now.

Mikhail bent down to avoid another hit from the witch to his right and grabbed her by her ankle, knocking her to the ground. Before she could escape, Mikhail snatched her other ankle and slid her across the floor, using her to knock down the armed witch to his left.

He wasn’t done. Oh, no. He was only getting started.

He took advantage of the momentum and lifted her body in the air, wielding it as a mace against the others. The witches around him all fell to the floor. The body grew limp in his hands and the screaming had ceased. He must have broken her neck at some point.

Viktor was thrown on the ground face-down by a couple of witches. One jumped on his back, forcing his hands together to tie them.

That righteous bastard! He had given up fighting so he could follow his stupid oath of abstinence. Dammit, Vik, now’s not the time for niceties.

The sight enraged Mikhail further. His body started growing, his muscles contracted, causing adrenaline to rush through him. A few more deep inhales…

His transformation stopped. For some unknown reason, he was still in human form. He tried again, to no avail.

He searched for Viktor, only to find him already tied up with the ropes. Mikhail wanted to help him, but his muscles refused to move, as if his legs were glued to the ground.

Suddenly, his entire body went numb. Someone knocked him over and he tumbled to the ground like a corpse. A group of witches descended on him, kicking and hitting, but he couldn’t fight back.

“How do you like it now, you wretch?” The words came a second before someone struck his groin. Another foot landed on his chest. A hit to the head nearly knocked him unconscious.

“STOP!” Mada’s voice pierced through the cave. “We have new guests to welcome.”

Paralysed and stuck on the ground, Mikhail barely managed to turn his eyes towards the entrance. A moment later, Constantine and Diana walked in.

22

“Now, that’s good company. I am always happy to welcome visitors, just ask my children. Unfortunately, I rarely have guests who are not witches. But today, I have a lycanthrope, a manticore, a vampire and… my favourite – a necromancer! How are you, Constantine? I hear lately you’ve been having trouble with your extracorporeal travels.” Mada laughed with the voice of a small girl.

From where he was lying, Mikhail couldn’t see the witch, but he did notice Constantine’s face lose colour in the light of the candles.

“I could help you with that,” the hooded figure continued, “but you upset me greatly when you killed my dear Irene.”

Constantine remained quiet for a moment but his expression gave out that this was new information for him.

“I did not kill Irene,” he said.

“Really? Then how did her necklace end up in your friend’s possession?”

Mikhail heard footsteps approaching. A shadow swept over him, and someone pulled the medallion out of his pocket.

Diana stepped forward. “He didn’t kill the witch.”

“Ah, Bloody Diana… You’ve come to ask about your brother, I imagine?” Mada sounded bored.

“That’s right. And I can also tell you who last visited Irene. Because when the necromancer left her place, she was still alive. The ones who came after him…were probably the ones who killed her, judging by what you’ve said. I will tell you everything I know. All I ask in exchange is for you to let the manticore and lycanthrope go,” the vampire said with a confidence that, Mikhail suspected, was backed up by absolutely nothing.

---