Selena
“No matter what happens, I need you to trust me,” Varick said as we walked. I noted his clothes were still sodden from the shower he'd taken. It didn't seem worth mentioning; he either didn't notice or didn't care.
As we walked, I felt that I was balancing on the edge of a knife, one slip would end me. But I'd never felt more alive, or more reckless. I knew what was driving my actions now. Kissing Varick had made my heart beat faster. And reminded me I was still here, still fighting.
Thoughts of Cass flitted in and out of my mind. Of Briony's closing eyes. Of Kite falling, her fingers grazing freedom. I was standing here because of all of them. And I wouldn't forget that.
Varick bashed his fist against Brice's door; it was located in the northern tower, each level housing the men in corridors full of rooms. A group of men passed us and I felt their eyes eating into me. My chin was held high, and I stared right back at them, mentally killing them over and over in my head.
The door opened and Varick immediately thrust me into Brice's arms. I prayed he had a plan, because I was being thrown to the wolves here.
Brice was younger than I'd expected, perhaps in his early twenties. Attractive too, not the kind of guy who needed to bid for a night with a girl. Certainly none as plain as me.
His fingers curled around my wrist and the warmth of them was more disconcerting than Varick's cold hands had ever been.
“She's all yours,” Varick said without emotion and Brice pulled me backwards into the room.
Varick swiftly followed, shutting the door with a kick.
“Some privacy would be appreciated,” Brice said, pushing me toward the bed and heading for a bottle across the room. Whiskey. Typical.
My mouth curled into a sneer, but I quickly reconstructed my expression into fear as Brice turned to face me.
Varick moved toward him at speed, knocking the crystal glass from his hand. He gripped his neck, forcing his eyes to meet his.
“Relax,” he commanded and Brice went slack in his hold, but Varick didn't release him. “You will tell the Helsings I brought Selena to you. You spent the night together and she left in the morning.”
“In the morning,” Brice murmured vaguely.
My heart lifted with hope as I watched.
Varick glanced at me. “I'd appreciate you covering your ears for the next part. A guy like this would share the details with his friends.”
I screwed up my face in disgust. “Can you at least make him think I put up a good fight?”
Varick's mouth pulled up at the corner. “I doubt he'd expect anything else.” He fixed his gaze on Brice's dreamy eyes once more and said, “Ears.”
I sighed, covering my ears, feeling idiotic.
Varick started speaking and I was too curious not to listen. I lifted my palms and immediately clamped them back down, my cheeks flaming. Damn Vampire. Where did he get ideas like that?
I found myself sinking onto the bed, my back to them so I didn't even have to watch Varick talking about me like that. A glint of silver caught my eye beneath the pillow and I lifted it, immediately springing to my feet. My heart thumped loudly as I took in the chains ringed around the bedposts. At the heart of them, lay a silver dagger.
I was suddenly there again, beneath my stepfather. What if I hadn't had that knife to save myself?
My breaths grew ragged as I considered what this man had been planning to do to me. And I grew angry. Angrier than I'd ever been in my life. After everything I'd been through, everything I'd survived and this monster had been planning to rip the last piece of humanity from me.
I grabbed the dagger, murder flooding my veins. Varick's words halted and he snapped around, sensing my approach.
I screamed out, slashing the dagger at Brice, but Varick caught my wrist, his eyes blazing at me.
“Selena!” he warned, then his eyes slid over my head, taking in the chains on the bed. I saw the same thing break in him that had broken in me and without a second thought, he snapped Brice's neck.
I lurched backwards at the sound of the sickening crack, the dagger dropping from my hand. “Varick,” I gasped in shock.
His shoulders were hunched, his breathing heavy as he tried to regain control. A barrier dissolved around my heart; one I hadn't realised had been in place. Varick had protected me, without thought, without even a brief hesitation.
I laid a hand on his back, tears filling my eyes. “Thank you.”
He stiffened, turning to me and dragging me into his arms. His heart thumped against me, hard and fast and so very human.
A knock came at the door and we split apart, gazing at it in horror.
“Hey mate, you in there? We want a look at her.”
I shuddered internally and ducked down, taking the dagger into my hand.
“Let them in,” Varick growled in a deadly tone, but I shook my head, knowing we had to leave.
“We have to get out of here.” I glanced toward the window with a sinking feeling. We were half way up the tower. How could we possibly escape?
Varick followed my gaze, looking to me then back to the door. He shut his eyes, his hands visibly trembling.
“Calm down.” I rested a palm on his chest.
In a flash of movement, he grabbed me, chucking me over his shoulder so a scream of surprise escaped me. He climbed onto the bed, pushed open the window and clambered through it.
I gasped, clinging to him as I hung like a doll over his shoulder. I bit down on my lip, forcing myself not to scream again as he started shimmying down the wall, using the gaps in the ancient bricks as hand and foot holds.
Snow was falling, obscuring my view. Flakes caught in my hair as it swung below me and the arctic wind froze me to the bone in seconds.
When we hit the ground, Varick started running, so fast that I felt sick. It was like the time Ravenos had carried me, but even faster, the world just a stream of white passing me by.
We halted so abruptly that my head smacked against his spine.
“Put me down!” I demanded and Varick complied, planting me on my bare feet before him. I was so dizzy, I immediately dropped to the floor.
“Sorry, sweetheart.” He scooped me up like a baby and I clung to his neck, having no choice but to hold onto him as my mind spun in circles.
A noise reached to me that made every hair on my body stand to attention. The rise and fall of a screaming alarm, like a bomb siren, whirring in my ears.
The creak of wood and lap of water caught my attention and I managed to focus enough to find us walking along a pier.
My vision restored as Varick carried me onto a yacht: the same one I'd been brought to this island on.
Varick set to work, hurrying around me, readying the boat to sail. I was useless, watching him, having no idea what he was doing. He headed into a cabin and, after a minute, a motor hummed in my ears.
The cry of nearing Vs sounded across the island and I sucked in an icy breath, realising they were coming after us.
“Go!” I urged Varick, hurrying to his side in the cabin.
The snow sat in the calm bay, the flakes falling, sheeting us in a curtain. I prayed it gave us enough cover to escape.
Varick turned to me, his eyes hardening to steel. “Press this lever forward. When you're ten miles south of here, you'll be able to use the radio to call the Norwegian coastguard.”
I was already shaking my head. “Aren't you coming?”
His brows drew together, forming a sharp V between his eyes – strangely marking him as what he was. “They'll kill me the second they realise I'm gone.” He pointed to the back of his head and a sobbed escaped me.
“I can't leave you,” I blurted, knotting my hands into his shirt. It was still damp, colder than his chest beneath it.
Through the silent snowfall, I heard Vs hit the water, splashing over the pier into the icy bay, hunting us.
His lips met mine for the briefest of moments, just long enough that I shut my eyes to savour the feel of them. Then he was gone.
“Varick!” I shouted, running to the edge of the yacht, spotting him down on the pier, casting out the yacht. The Vs brought him to his knees and I screamed out again.
It was only then I realised, he'd already pressed the lever forward, causing the yacht to sail into the bay. The sweeping storm engulfed the sight of him, surrounded by the Vampires.
I dissolved into tears, my hands trembling as I brought them to my mouth.
Impossibly, the moment I'd been imagining for so long was finally here. I was going home, leaving this nightmarish island far behind. But now there was no part of me that could bear to leave. Not without Varick. Not when the Helsings still lived, still playing their sick games.
And then there was the promise I'd made Cass. One I knew, deep down in my heart, that I could never break.
A promise for revenge.