Page 28 of King’s Promise

I carry Anya to my massive suite, throw the covers on my bed back with a flick of my wrists and lay her on the soft mattress. Her red mini dress leaves little to the imagination and there is no way she’s wearing skimpy clothing like that for anyone but me.

Hazel appears with cold water in a glass. I force her to drink. She sips slowly. My heart breaks seeing her frail and weak. She’s incapacitated and thank God we got there in time. I’m not accustomed to seeing her helpless and I wish I could do more.

I pray to myself she’ll be fine and hope she lives so she can banter and sass me until my dying day. I pull over a chair to sit by her side. She drifts in and out.

Pavel arrives in the doorway. “How is she?”

“Drinking, it’s a good sign. It could be Ecstasy; we have to cover the bases.”

“Docs on his way,” Pavel relays with an urgency in his voice. No doubt we’re all operating on adrenaline. An attack on Anya is an attack on us.

“She uses a fake name at school. Who would have known who she is?”

“Girls talk, could be anyone. My instinct tells me this Darci is in the wind.”

Hazel’s voice can be heard in the hallway and the doctor is with her.

“Doctor.” I shake his hand. “Thank you for coming.”

“I heard of the incident. I’ll take blood, we’ll test for drugs. How is she?”

“I’m keeping her awake and she’s sipping water.”

He nods, then proceeds to the bed where he administers an antidote and draws blood.

“I think she’ll be okay. The antidote may be overkill given her symptoms. I doubt they wanted to kill her.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Chances are she was to be taken. By whom, that’s for you to figure out. Overdoses usually happen to heavy drug users. Again, it’s just my opinion.”

I thank him and he tells me to call if she’s not improving, other than that we need time. Hazel sees him out.

Pavel is on the phone and hangs up.

“No sign of this Darci, and if she was in her class, I assume she, too, had a fake name. I think we need to look into the people who knew Anya’s fake name.”

“Agreed. We’ll start that tomorrow. We were in the news with pictures, she might have put it together, then again, she might be a plant. For now, I can’t focus on anything other than getting recovering. I won’t rest until I know she’s over the worst of this drug.”

Pavel nods and talks to the crews still looking for the mysterious Darci. Our soldiers will be looking over security footage at the club.

I sit in a chair by the bed and hold Anya’s hand.

“You could have died, that’s not part of the bargain, my dear.” I doubt she can hear me. “When we were kids, I promised to marry you and I won’t be shortchanged.”

10

Anya

Iawake to find Nikolay in a chair by the bed, he rubs his elegant hand over the scruff on his powerful jaw. His eyes have dark circles under them. Judging from last night’s clothes, he’s been here all night.

I squirm and realize I can move, an improvement from last night when I was paralyzed.

“What happened?” I prop myself up in bed, and Nikolay rushes to put pillows behind me.

“You were drugged, but you’re fine. Thankfully, our man at the door alerted us to the fact you were there. Otherwise…” He shakes his head and shrugs as if the alternative would have been a disaster.

“Who drugged me?” I’m alert at last. I scooch my butt to sit higher; thankfully he leaned over to put pillows behind my back. I’m sure I look like a wreck and it’s the last thing I want to hear. “Darci?” I ask, the fog lifting on my memory.

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