Seeing the knife abandoned on the bed, I reached forward and, with shaky arms, cut through the rope at my ankles. As soon as the rope snapped in two, I kicked it off my legs.

Bending over the side of the bed, I vomited on the floor. Feeling light-headed from the fear I had felt, I rolled onto my side. When I looked up it was to see Valentin, back leaning against the nearby wall. His blue eyes were haunted and his arms shaking as he looked upon me.

Zoya, he mouthed, shame shining in his now-clear eyes. I tried to speak, I wanted to, but his massive body began to shake. I watched as his lips thinned and his hands lifted to his collar. It was strange, but as Valentin began pulling at the metal collar, trying his best to rip it apart, his eyes were focused on my breasts. Not understanding what he was staring at, I managed to look down, only to see my skin covered in red teeth marks.

A frustrated groan came from Valentin. He pulled at his collar, legs weakening with every attempt. Spatters of blood began spilling from under the restricting metal. As the collar pulled off his skin, inch by painful inch, I could see needles inserted into it.

Seeing Valentin fall to his knees, the metal collar half hanging from his neck, I forced myself to move to the edge of the bed. I needed him to stop. His face was bright red with the effort to remove the collar, and capillaries were bursting in the whites of his eyes, red replacing the bright white.

I had opened my mouth to shout for him to stop when, with a final broken bellow, the metal collar fell to the floor with a thud. I stared at the metal collar on the floor, the inner band of the device the most horrific thing I had ever seen. Tens of needles were standing, equally spaced around the edges. Beside them were small plastic pellets filled with liquid. Half were empty, but half were still full.

I breathed a sigh of relief when it hit me that Valentin had removed the collar. When I glanced up, Valentin was slumped against the wall, his hands holding the skin around his neck. His face had paled, but what had me pushing my bruised body from the bed was the blood pouring down his chest.

Frantic in my movements, I staggered to where Valentin slumped. As I fell to my knees by his side, his dull eyes found mine. He moved his mouth to speak, but I shook my head.

“No,” I whispered, “don’t try to speak.”

Reaching up, I pulled at his hand, and when it dropped free I swallowed hard. The needle holes around his neck were bleeding badly. A thick red scar appeared soldered onto his skin from where the metal collar had been. I knew that he must have been wearing that collar for years, Lord knows how long. Valentin opened his mouth to speak.

“No,” I pushed firmly.

Closing his eyes in obvious exasperation, he lifted his weak hand and pointed to a place in the wall. At first I couldn’t see what he was seeing. On closer inspection I glimpsed the outline of a door. Getting to my feet, I slowly made my way to the door and pressed on the shape. The door clicked open. Inside was a small bathroom. I nodded my head when I realized it was the bathroom he’d let me use since I’d been here. He’d always blindfolded me before I used the toilet, to add to the torture. So I didn’t know where I could go to relieve myself unless he took me there.

My eyes had scanned the shower, the toilet, the basin, when they landed on a small closet door at the end of the room. I walked toward it, flinching as I saw my reflection in the bathroom mirror. When I opened the door towels were piled high. Bottles of hydrogen peroxide were there, along with other medications I didn’t recognize.

I grabbed some towels and peroxide and hurried as fast as I could out of the bathroom. As soon as I entered the chamber, I found Valentin’s eyes already watching me, his broad and bulking chest awash with blood.

Getting on the floor, I immediately took a towel and pressed the soft fabric around his neck, trying to soak up as much of the blood as I possibly could. Valentin didn’t even flinch; instead he stared down at my breasts, his nostrils flared and his lips thinned.

“I am fine,” I said.

His eyes met mine. Nothing was said. I wasn’t convinced he could speak now anyway.

Removing the towel, I took the bottle of peroxide and pressed my hand to his cheek. When he looked to me, I said, “This will sting, but we need to close up the holes around your neck. We need to stop the blood.” Valentin’s lifeless eyes never moved, even when I poured the peroxide over his cut and all around his neck.

I winced, knowing how it must have felt. I re-covered the holes with a clean towel. I moved closer, my heart as bruised as my body, to take in the broken expression on his face.

Valentin tracked me the entire way, but I could see his eyes closing. Dread and fear filled my aching bones. Touching his face, I said, “It’s gone, Valentin. You removed the collar from around your neck.”

The black stubble on his face stood in stark contrast to the paling sallow skin beneath. My heart surged when his lips twitched, then pulled into a ghost of a smile. A strange feeling washed over my soul as I saw that smile on his savagely scarred and brutal face, but it quickly faded when Valentin’s eyes closed and his body grew frighteningly still.

12

VALENTIN

“Where are they taking us?”

I gripped Inessa tighter as the truck we had been thrown into started to move, taking us away from the orphanage that had been our home for the past two years.

“I don’t know, dorogaya moya.”

I blinked, trying to see something in the darkness of the truck, but I couldn’t make anything out. I could hear the cries of the other children the Night Wraiths had chosen, whom she had chosen. I could hear their sniffles and fast breathing.

I closed my eyes, pulling my little sister toward me, stroking through her hair. I rocked her back and forth, sighing when her little body stopped shaking and she slumped against my chest.

I worked on keeping still; I worked on breathing in slow and steady breaths. But the truth was, I was terrified. The woman who dressed all in black had ordered the Wraiths to bring us out to the truck. When the door opened, the back of the truck was filled with small cages.

The blood drained from my face. I looked over to Inessa, who was being held by a Wraith. As he went to throw my sister in the back, she started screaming for me, holding out her hands.

As I rammed my elbow into the Wraith that held me his hand released my neck, and I climbed in the van after my sister. The Wraith turned when he saw me running and held out his gun. It didn’t stop me. I kept going, seeing the Wraith remove the safety, when a cracking sound hit the wall of the van and the woman commanded, “Stop!” The Wraith holding my sister froze at the woman’s command. Heels clicked on the floor behind me, and something ran over my neck and into my long messy black hair.

“Interesting reaction, don’t you think?” the woman said to the guard holding my sister.

I suddenly saw what had been running through my hair when the woman hit out a whip toward the guard’s still-raised gun. The gun fell to the floor. Inessa cried out and tucked her head in the Wraith’s shoulder. My hands balled at my sides and my teeth gritted together as I saw my sister looking so small in that bastard’s arms.

The woman then turned to me and ran the edge of the whip down my face. Her dark eyes were bright, and she leaned in, using the end of the whip under my chin to force my head up. “You’re going to be an interesting one, I can tell.” Her voice was as sharp as a knife, and my skin broke out in shivers at the way she watched me.

She stared at me in silence, but my eyes drifted over her shoulder to check on Inessa. Inessa’s blue eyes were watching me, her bottom lip trembling. My stomach roiled at seeing her so upset. I wanted nothing more than to take her in my arms and tell her everything was going to be okay.

The woman followed my gaze; then as she snapped her head back to me she cracked her whip across my cheek. I staggered back as blistering pain sliced across my face. My hand lifted over my cheek, and when I pulled it back blood was on my palm.

I looked up at the woman, rage building in my veins. When my rage-filled eyes met hers, her eyes flared and her thin lips spread into a wide smile. Without turning to the male Wraith, she ordered, “Put them in the same cage! One last ride will not make a difference.” My shoulders sagged in relief as the male walked to a cage and put my sister inside. My heart squeezed as I looked at Inessa so small in the metal cage. Her dark hair fell down her back and her blue eyes were so big they almost appeared unreal.