His sharp movements and angry shouts made my skin crawl and bile roll into my throat. I struggled against my gag as my stomach rebelled.
Someone shoved me again, hard enough to make me stumble. My foot teetered on the edge of one of the steps, hanging there for a long moment, before my body slumped with fatigue and fell hard against the auditorium chairs. My head cracked against something and everything went hazy.
I heard shouts all around me and felt rough hands yanking me up. A brilliant white pain raced through me as my shoulder snapped out of joint.
I heard the rough shouts of the man and shivered as he came closer to me. I shrank back, trying to hide. Even through the pain and shadows, I knew I had to get away from him. He leaned in close and shouted something at the people holding me.
Their hands fell away and I found myself being scooped up, carried with a gentleness that confused my still ringing brain. My eyes fluttered open and closed, unable to focus on the face before me.
I was set down on something soft and laid back, then my gag was removed and I could breathe again. The air felt like heaven on my burning throat. I sucked it down like a man dying and felt my mind begin to clear.
The stage stretched before me with bright lights and props arranged to imitate a living room set. I was lying on a couch, I realized, and my hands were free by my sides. Deep cuts laced my wrists, blood stained my forearms, and my shoulder was severely dislocated, but I was alright, I thought, or I would be soon enough.
Someone moved in front of me and crouched down so we were face to face, and a sense of unease skittered up my spine again. It was him, I knew, I could feel it in my bones.
“What do you want from me?” I croaked out the words from my raw throat.
“Drink,” the single word was issued like a command, with no room for question.
I took the bottle of water from his hands, lifted it to my lips, and drank. It cleared away the last cobwebs in my mind. When I’d finished the entire bottle, I let it drop to the floor of the stage and closed my eyes. This was the big moment, I’d either convince this maniac I was the wrong girl or he’d torture me, and Bash, to get to me.
“You’ve made a mistake,” I said slowly, emphasizing each word. “I’m not important.”
His chuckle started softly then picked up thunder as it built. I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth, afraid that if I gave into the fear, I’d turn into a blubbering mess and I needed to keep my wits.
“No, my dear, there’s been no mistake,” his accent was melodic, almost beautiful, but the dark edge of laughter in it was anything but. His hand snaked out and strong fingers gripped my chin.
I lifted my head, knowing he’d force me if I didn’t comply, and finally opened my eyes to meet his. They were blue, it was hard not to notice. So deep and intense, a rare color even in our world. They reminded me of the eyes I’d looked into every day of my life.
His were shining with amusement now and something darker that I couldn’t begin to fathom, and they were watching me expectantly.
The air was too thick. I couldn’t make it travel through my lungs like I wanted. My brain began to fuzz again, this time because too many thoughts bombarded me at once. Those eyes, too familiar, that nose and chin, more masculine but still… mine.
A band of pressure started in my chest, pinning me to the spot, unable to pry my gaze from his. My mind raced, endlessly, trying to decipher all the little details that linked us physically. It didn’t make sense, my parents didn’t have family, they’d told me every time I’d asked why I didn’t have legions of cousins, aunts, and uncles like most wolves I knew.
So, why did this man look like me?
“Who are you?” My voice trembled slightly and the answering look of smugness in his eyes made my stomach clench.
“You really don’t know, do you?” His smile was wide and toothy, almost as if he was baring his fangs at me. I took it as a threat and refused to answer.
He chuckled and stepped back from the couch to look down at me with those eerily similar blue eyes. “Oh, come on little girl, look at me. See me.” He stretched his arms out wide. “Blood runs true, it always runs true.” He moved like lightning, grabbing my arm and yanking me to my feet. I bit back a scream as he pulled me across the stage to where a long mirror stood.
“Look!” he commanded, his voice echoing through the auditorium like a god.
I looked, because I had no choice anymore, because maybe I’d never had one. I looked and I saw.
He leaned in close enough that I felt the heat from his breath on my ear and whispered, “Don’t you recognize your uncle Viktor, little wolf.”
Chapter 23
I shook my head automatically, refusing to believe that my parents had lied about having family, although I'd lie about being related to a psychopath, too, I suppose.
His laughter boomed in my ear, but the sound in it was not amusement, not anymore. Self-satisfaction oozed from him, completing the image of a madman. I pulled away from his hands, but his fingers dug deeper into my damaged shoulder and wouldn’t let go.
“Strange, isn’t it?” he murmured, watching me in the mirror. “Seeing someone you didn’t know existed and recognizing yourself in them. I understand completely.” His eyebrow arched and he pulled back with a hiss. “Well, not completely. See, I knew you existed, I just didn’t care.” He tilted his head to the side and considered me. “Until now, obviously.”
It was too much. Too much for me to understand, too much for me to question, all of it… was too much, so I did the only thing I could and lashed out. “Back off, asshole!” I screamed the words and tried not to notice the way the men and women in the room glanced at me as if those words were going to be my last. “You’re not my family. I don’t know how this happened,” I pointed between our faces, “but looking alike doesn’t make us family. It just makes you a psychotic fuckwad who attacked an entire campus to get to someone you could have found on the street in Newfoundland.”
I felt the color drain from my face as my own words sunk in. People had died today, in pain and terror, because this guy had wanted to find me. They’d died because of me.
But why? Grief and frustration swirled in my head, making it hard to think straight. “Why?” The question slipped from my lips. I raised my eyes to meet his gaze. “Why did you…” I trailed off, unable to finish my own question.
He just shot me a cocky grin and shrugged. “Why did I attack an entire campus and allow my men and women to kill indiscriminately just so I could find you?” He tapped a finger on my chest with each word. “I couldn’t just leave a straight trail back to me, now could I? No, a little misdirection goes a long way. As far as the world is concerned, this has nothing to do with you. After all, little wolf, it’s just as you said. You’re nobody.” His voice fell flat and deadly.
It still made no sense. He claimed I was his niece, so what? What kind of uncle slaughtered innocent kids to find his niece so he could deliver a diatribe about how awesome he was? I frowned and shook my head. If I was going to die today, I wanted answers. “Why did you need to find me? What’s so fucking important about me that you’d plan all…” I threw my hands wide, “this, to get me?”
Viktor made a humming sound in his voice and gazed down at me as if he were searching for something in my eyes. “That’s the question, isn’t it, little wolf? What’s so fucking important about you?”
Before I could even cringe away, his hand shot out and struck me full across the cheek, sending me crashing to the floor in a daze of pain and disorientation. I struggled to regain my feet and cried out when he grabbed my hair and pulled me viciously up so that his face and mine were an inch apart.