counted on her strength; his shove didn’t even knock her off balance.
“Robert . . . , ” she said, trailing off. There was only one way to get his attention.
Show-and-tell. She shrugged off the leather jacket and watched Robert’s eyes widen at the sight of her fresh wounds. “I know a lot more about him than you do. I’ve fought him twice, and I know he plans to try to kill me soon. I need to know what Kristin knows, and if she knows some way to hurt him.”
Robert hesitated, then stepped back reluctantly. “Fine.” He got in his side of the car and reached over to unlock the passenger-side door. “I can’t guarantee she’ll talk to you, but if you think she can help you get that monster . . .” He trailed off. “Get in the car.”
CHAPTER 23
THOUGH THERE WAS COLOR in it, Robert’s house seemed bleached of life.
“Kristin’s room is upstairs,” Robert said quietly, and led Sarah up the blue-gray carpeted stairs. Just outside his sister’s door, he spoke again. “If you can help her, or get her to help you, fine. But Kristin . . . isn’t all there. She probably won’t even notice you. Don’t bully her—she doesn’t need any more abuse.”
Kristin was dressed in a long white nightgown with a high collar. Her hair had been dyed black, though the natural brown showed for about an inch at the roots.
The room was devoid of even gray—black paint covered every spot that might have been colored, and flaked off the handle of the hairbrush Kristin was using.
Nikolas’s house had been just as colorless, but that had been neat, artistic somehow—this was just sick.
“Kristin, I need to talk to you.” The girl didn’t look up, but continued brushing her hair. “Kristin?” Still there was no reaction from the girl. “I need to talk to you about Nikolas.”
The brush paused.
“Kristin . . .” The girl returned to brushing her hair, and Sarah sighed.
Sarah knelt, moving the marks on her arms into Kristin’s line of sight, and finally the girl looked at her.
“
There was pain in Sarah’s voice as she answered, “No. But I need to talk to you about him.”
“I . . . I don’t know much. It was only one party—”
“Just tell me what happened there.”
“I don’t—” She looked at her brother and shivered as her eyes fell on his washed-out blue shirt; he took it off, throwing it from the room.
“Better, Kristin?”
She nodded slowly and Robert left to get a different shirt.
“This girl Heather invited me to the party. She said the people were cool, and the music was awesome, and the guy she was going with was completely hot . . . which was strange, ’cause Heather is so cold, not really caring about anything . . .”
Sarah choked back her revulsion. The Heather whom Kristin was talking about was probably the one Sarah had seen at Nikolas’s bash, asking Kaleo to bite her. What kind of human invited other, defenseless humans into that kind of place?
Kristin had trailed off. “Tell me about the party,” Sarah prompted, and Kristin nodded.
“The house . . . there was so much color in it, like walking into a kaleidoscope . . . one room was all red . . . it scared me . . .”
“Was Nikolas there?”
“The people . . . it was strange, the groups. Some of them were like me. They didn’t seem to know what was going on, really, and the house unnerved them a bit. Others were like Heather. They had connections. And others, so detached, so . . .” She shook her head, unable to find the description she was looking for.
“And then there was
“He was so beautiful, completely in contrast with everything else . . . his skin was so pale, and he was wearing all black . . . beautiful. He asked me my name and I told him it was Christine . . . he didn’t like that. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell.”
Christine . . . did she remind Nikolas of the Christine who had hurt his brother? Had some slight nuance of expression been so important that the girl now refused to respond to her real name?
“But he asked me to dance, and I thought I might just
Kristin sighed, then continued. “After the dance he held me in his arms a minute longer, and I remember . . . I remember his lips on my throat and I just
“And then?” Sarah said, and the girl blinked.
“No, I don’t want to talk anymore.”
“You started telling us, Kristin—you have to finish,” Sarah said, meeting her eyes. She wasn’t as good as the vampires at influencing human minds, but Kristin’s defenses were weak.
Kristin nodded. “He . . . he didn’t really take much blood. I remember not wanting him to stop when he pulled away, because it felt so good . . .”
Robert made a sickened sound, but Kristin didn’t notice as she went on. “And he said . . . he said, ’I want to make you mine.’ And I said yes and yes was all I could say for a moment, but then I said no.” She shook her head, trying to clear it. “And he . . . he looked so
She put her head into her hands and started to cry. “And he . . . he pushed me away and said, ’Get out,’ and that’s all he would say to me. I didn’t understand and I tried to talk to him, but he pulled some other person over and said, ’Get her out of here.’ ”
“And then?”
“Then . . . the other guy asked, ’And do what with her?’ and Nikolas said, he said, ’I don’t care, just get her home to her brother.’ And . . . no.”
“Go on, Kristin,” Sarah urged, but the girl just shook her head.
“No, no . . .”
Despite Sarah’s encouragement, Kristin would say no more. The block was partially vampiric mind control, but mostly simple, human denial.
CHAPTER 24
ALL THREE OF THEM jumped at the knock on the door.
“Who is it?” Robert called.
“Is Sarah in there? It’s Nissa—I need to talk to her—”
Robert had opened the door before Sarah could tell him otherwise. Sarah fell back into a fighting stance, unsure what Nissa wanted.
“Sarah, I’m glad I tracked you down. Nikolas is calling for your blood. What the hell did you do to Christopher?”
“I did what I needed to do to survive,” Sarah answered, but Nissa’s attention had left her and moved onto Kristin, who was huddled in a corner, sobbing.
“God . . .” Nissa looked at the marks on Kristin’s arms, and then said, “Nikolas didn’t do this to her. These are his marks, but he would never . . . leave someone like this.”
