| |
I was taken to the college.
I wanted to be surprised, but it seemed like the most logical place. There were houses that surrounded the college that were reserved for professors, but I could see that the Ascendancy had easily taken those over.
The room that I was taken into was bare. It had gray-brown cement floors and walls, except for one wall that was a two-way mirror. In the middle of the room, there was a hook hanging from the ceiling. It was lowered by a crank wheel by the door as they pulled me into the room.
I fought them as they carried me and it took quite a few of them to get me into the room and the chains around my arms over the hook. My arms were jerked over my head and but my feet stayed flat on the ground.
When it was obvious that I could not move or get out, the men and women left. More than a few of them were bloodied and bruised and I'm pretty sure I broke a few bones too. I couldn’t help but feel a little proud of that.
As the last of them left, Savannah came in.
I expected gloating or even a long speech about how the nonhumans were a waste of oxygen.
Instead, she had two bottles of water in her hand. She opened one and took a big drink of it, showing me there was nothing in there that could harm her, let alone me. She offered it to me and I did not give any indication of yes or no but when she held it to my lips, I willingly drank.
I finished that bottle and she opened the other one, took another drink, and then offered me that. I drink half of that one before I pulled away.
Without a word, she left. The two-way mirror lit up and I was able to see through it. There was no one behind it.
She came in, carrying a folding chair next. She sat down and stared at the two-way mirror.
There was still a faint reflection of the two of us looking back. Me, bloody and chained up, in a ruined white silk blouse and torn trousers. Despite the fact that Savannah was clean, her clothes neat, and her hair pulled back neatly, she looked worn and exhausted.
Places like Glenwood Lock were not meant for average humans and I always wondered if the magic sought out people like Savannah and the Ascendancy and treated them harshly. It could do things to people's minds and when they entered the forest that effect was compounded.
Azolata told me once that it didn't take being in the forest for the magic to seek out people that wished to do it harm. Sometimes just being in the town, being close enough to the magic, for long enough was enough to drive a person out of their minds.
"Do you know who my sister is?" Savannah asked quietly.
Of course I did. Bianca was spoken about in the werewolf community like she was the bogeyman. There were rumors that she had killed more shifters than anyone else, although her grandfather was a close second. There were other whispers that her little sister was just as bloodthirsty as she was, but the reality was different. Savannah wasn't like her sister. There was something just a little different about her, something that gave me a sliver of hope.
"Yes," I said.
"She's coming. Tomorrow. My grandparents feel like I haven't done enough here, so they sent her as reinforcement. She was polite enough to wait until the end of the five days but she'll be here. Whether we like it or not," Savannah said quietly.
I thought it was interesting the way she used the word we.
"It wasn't supposed to happen that way. They weren’t supposed to pull their guns on civilians and had direct orders not to even interact with the people of your town. That is my job. I don't know what he was thinking," Savannah said quietly. It took me a minute to catch up to what she was talking about, then I realized she was talking about the guard that had a gun to Eli’s head.
I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything at all.
Incredibly, Savannah began to laugh. I looked closer at her and realized that she was teetering on a very dangerous average.
She laughed harder and harder and if we weren't in the situation that we were right then, I could have sworn that we were just good friends and Savannah had one too many glasses of wine. I watched her as her face turned red and she gasped for air around her laughter. She bent over and clutched her stomach and continued to laugh.
When she sat up she wiped at her face and shook her head.
Then she met my eyes and said, "I guess he won’t be saying much more, to anyone. Or those other guys that went into the forest even after I told them not to. I told them not to but they saw your brother running into the woods and went after him. He really tore them apart, didn’t he? It was impressive. Tell him what a good job he did on them, next time you see him."
She grinned at me. I didn’t even try to correct her mistake that it was me that tore those guards apart. Her attitude was too unpredictable. I felt like right now she might be an ally and I didn’t want her to lose that perspective.
That was the moment that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, Savannah was losing her mind and her grip on reality was slipping. I didn't have any doubt that she was professional, but now she looked feverish, exhausted, and five years older than I knew she was.
"It's not funny. I know it's not. But at this point, I don't have much of a choice but to laugh at these things now. He's gone. Dante's gone before I even had a chance to get to know him. My sister might be on her way to kill you, your family, your entire town, and if I piss her off, probably me too."
Savannah stood up quickly and folded the chair up. She left the room with it in her hand and left the door wide open.
When she came back, she stepped up close to me, so close that I thought she was going to kiss me on my mouth for a moment. Instead, she raised her hands to mine and I felt her fumbling around the chains.
"You're risking a lot," I whispered, speaking for the first time since she joined me in this room.
She met my eyes and I saw some clarity there.
"I know it's Lou. He's gone. No one can find them. And I hope he stays gone. Because if he comes back and it's him, Bianca won't stop. Ever. There will be a trail of bodies behind her, more than there is now."
"What are you doing?" I asked.
Her eyes widened and whatever fleeting lucidity I saw there a second ago was gone. "All week, I've been asking myself that. What am I doing? When did I become the monster that I was told I was hunting? Am I even human? Because, I look at you, your town, your family, everything you have. And you have more humanity in your little finger than I've ever seen on anyone's face that I've ever worked with us. What am I doing, Celia? Who am I? Why was it me that was chosen to be the killer?" She asked.
I felt the keys slip into the padlock that was keeping me chained.
I shook my head.
"I want what you have. I want people who love me, because they love me, not because I am a better killer than anyone else. I want a place to call home, not some apartment that I visit every now and again. I feel like I'm nothing, nothing at all. All I feel is the wind and one day, it’s going to sweep me away. I need someone or something to ground me. So why not you? Why not start with you?" She asked.
"You don't have to be what they want you to be. You can have what you want," I told her.
Savannah smiled. "Maybe. But I doubt it. I'm sure this time tomorrow, you and I will be burning in the same fire."