Page 118 of The Scarlet Veil

His eyes widen. “You’re revoking our friendship privileges?”

“Can we not talk about this right now?”

“Well, Ididjust save your life—”

“Michal needs blood,” Odessa says sharply, ignoring us both. Sunlight creeps steadily across the floor through the broken window. “This house belongs to humans—two of them. I can hear them sleeping below. Dima, bring them to us and barricade yourself in the basement.” She locks eyes with him. “I’ll call you when it’s over.”

His smile falters, and he tears his gaze from me to scowl at his sister. “I can control myself—”

“No, you can’t”—Odessa shakes her head forcefully—“and we don’t have time to argue. If you go into a rage and kill those people, Michal will die too. He won’t last until nightfall to find fresh.”

To find fresh.My stomach plunges to somewhere around my ankles. “You’re going to—to give them to Michal? The people who live here?” When Odessa nods, I ask rather stupidly, “He’s going to drink their blood?”

She jerks her chin toward the door. Wooden chairs have beenstacked against the walls there, along with hatboxes and trunks cloaked in cobwebs. “You may join Dimitri in the basement if you wish. This won’t be for the faint of heart.”

“I’m notfaint of heart. I just— Will he kill them?”

“Most likely.”

“But they’re innocent.” Unbidden, I imagine the people sleeping below, perhaps an elderly couple, perhaps young and in love, or perhaps not a couple at all but a mother and her child. Bile rises in my throat. I flit to the trunk in agitation, unable to sit still any longer, and wrench it open. Pillows and neatly folded blankets lie inside. Seizing one of each, I dart back across the room. “They’ve done nothing wrong, nothing to deserve such a—a cruel and unusual fate.”

“Cruel and unusual?” Odessa asks incredulously. “We’revampires, Célie. Would you prefer Michal dies instead?”

“Of course not, but—”

“Do you have another suggestion, then?”

Unable to look at her, at Dimitri, atanyone, I stuff the blanket into the crack above the window, plunging the room into shadow once more. Into silence. I squeeze the pillow between clammy palms, and the words building in my chest burst out with a painful breath. “He can drink from me.”

The Petrov twins both stare at me with identical expressions of disbelief. “Did you not hear me?” Odessa’s brows climb steadily higher. “You could die.”

For example, our pythoness once predicted that I would take a bride not unlike yourself.

She also predicted that I’d kill her.

I straighten my spine in resolve. “I won’t let Michal kill anyone.”

“Don’t be stupid.” Voice suddenly earnest, Dimitri darts to stand between Michal and me, blocking my path. “You won’t have a choice. If Michal drinks from you, his instinct will take over, and he’ll drain every drop of blood from your body. When he wakes, clutching your corpse in his arms, he’ll tear out our hearts in retribution, and he’ll kill the humans out of spite. Is that what you want? A house full of corpses?”

He isn’t you, I want to snap, but I bite my tongue. I know nothing about Dimitri—not truly—except the many faces he wears. Perhaps this is his real one. Perhaps the blood rage isn’t his fault. For all I know, it could be hereditary, which means Michalcouldlose control when he tastes my blood. “I won’t let innocent people die.” Lifting the silver knife, I add fiercely, “And I won’t let him lose control either.”

“You think you can stop him?” Dimitri pinches the bridge of his nose as if pained. “You’ve clearly never shared blood with a vampire. You won’twantto stop him, Célie. You’ll beg him to take it all, and when you realize you’re dying—ifyou realize you’re dying—it’ll be too late.”

“Get out of the way.” Shoving past him—careful to keep the silver between us—I drop to my knees beside Michal and force the pillow under his pale head. “I’ve made up my mind.”

Odessa seizes my wrist before I can cut open my palm. “Are you sure you want to do this, Célie?” Though her eyes are canny and dark and identical to her brother’s, I force myself to meet her gaze anyway. She isn’t Dimitri. She didn’t leave Mila’s body in the garbage, didn’t demand the grimoire of a blood witch—the same witch who tried to kill Michal, who admitted to working with Mila’s killer. “Dima is right. None of us will be able to stop Michalif he loses control. Hecouldkill you. Are you really prepared to sacrifice yourself?”

“I won’t let innocent people die,” I repeat stubbornly.

Odessa stares at me for another second. Then— “Fine. But use this to make the cut, or the silver will poison your blood.” She plucks a sharp golden pin from her hair and thrusts it at me before rising swiftly and towing Dimitri to the door. He digs in his heels. “I still want you to wait in the basement,” she tells him in an undertone. “I’ll compel the humans to leave before joining you.” As if sensing my argument, she adds in exasperation, “We can’t return to Requiem until nightfall, and I doubt they’ll appreciate vampires crouching in their attic all day. Besides, Michal will need to rest.” She rubs her temple with one hand, still dragging Dimitri along with the other. “He’s hellishly lucky that we followed you two. You’d both be dead otherwise.”

“Whydidyou follow us?”

“I didn’t,” she says frankly. “My brother did, and I followedhimagainst my better judgment.”

As one, we look to Dimitri, who shakes his head in bitter disappointment and stops resisting. “We’re friends, Mademoiselle Tremblay, and Michal—he isn’t thinking clearly.” He pins me with a heavy gaze. “None of us are.”

“A fact proven by Michal allowing a blood witch to overpower him.” Looking disgusted, Odessa flings open the door. “If anyone on Requiem hears of this, there will be riots in the streets. I hope Michal is prepared to suffer the consequences of his actions.”

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