“The snake?” Radu looked up long enough to frown at me. “I know you woke up and heard everything the headmistress said. You’re about to be tortured and killed all for the sake of covering for one of the hell lords, and the first thing you ask is where is your pet?”
“That’s right,” I snapped. “And you’ve got nothing to lose by telling me, so spill it. Where’s Sabrina? What have you done with her?”
“Wow,” he muttered, once again returning to his game. “You are a strange one indeed. But to answer your question, the snake is fine. She was released—unharmed—outside the gates. No doubt she’s slithered off to where she belongs.”
My eyes narrowed. “Why should I believe you?”
“Why shouldn’t you believe me? Aren’t you the one who said I lose nothing by telling you?” He heaved a sigh. “But if that’s not good enough for you, I’ll confess that the demons-in-charge aren’t quite as certain that Lucifer isn’t involved in this as they want to be. They’re also very aware that most of the snakes in hell are pledged to serve his House. The last thing they’re going to do is harm a potential servant of his.”
Now that, I believed. It was very clear to me as I lay on that moldy carpet that the staff didn’t care about the dead students, they didn’t care about killing another one, and they didn’t care about why all of these terrible things were happening... but they very much cared about invoking Lucifer’s wrath.
“Okay. Fine.” I paused, waiting for Radu to say something. But nothing came. “What happens now?”
“Hmm? Oh,” he said, flicking to me like he forgot I was there. “What happens now is I torture you. First, I start with the fingernails—tear those off one by one. After that, your toenailsare naturally the next to go. That done, I’ll pry your mouth open and remove all of your teeth.”
A band latched around my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs with every nonchalant word that fell from his lips.
“If you’re still not talking by then, I’ll—”
“Not talking? Not talking about what!” I shrieked. “You assholes just stood in that room and agreed I had nothing to do with the murders! You already know I was framed!”
“The murders?” Radu dropped his phone in his cardigan chest pocket just to scowl at me. “What the fuck do those murders have to do with anything? No, I’m saying that I’ll take you apart piece by fucking piece,” he hissed, his predator eyes darkening, “until you admit that you’re human... and alive.”
I blew back, lips trembling. “This is why you wanted to interrogate me alone? So that you could pull this shit?”
A slow, terrible grin spread across his face. “That’s right.”
I twisted around to the door.
“Judging how fast you can hobble to the door while shackled?” he sang. “Well, I can promise it’s not faster than I can run.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I sucked in a slow, deep breath. It did nothing to settle me. “Professor, please—”
“Don’t waste my time with pleading. That would be embarrassing for both of us,” he sliced off. “Everything about you screams that you’re not from this world, but there are more than enough creatures in this wretched place who excel at illusions. It wouldn’t be the first time a demon tricked one of my kind into drinking their poisoned blood.
“So, what you’re going to do is admit it,” he whispered as tears collected on my lids. “You’re going to tell the truth. You’re going to break whatever stupid fucking glamour is keeping you from me, and I”—I screamed when he suddenly appeared in front of me, shoving his face in mine—“am going to feast.”
I sobbed—loud, wretched, heartbreaking sobs. “You don’t understand!” I screeched. “You don’t know what you’re doing! This is bigger than your hunger, you stupid... stupid... vampire!”
“Bigger than my hunger?” Santino laughed out loud—the first time I’d ever heard him make such a loud sound. “Little one, nothing’s bigger than my hunger. I’m dead,” he blared. “All of your petty politics and boring murders have nothing to do with me—”
“Do witches have anything to do with you?” I hissed, snapping forward. “Does the power it takes to send five weak, low-level demons past theclosedgates of hell have anything to do with you? Does the person who brought me herenotto be your lunch have anything to do with you?” My grin widened as his faded. “I think all of that does have something to do with you,Professor, or you wouldn’t have shat your pants when you saw the mark of the Avos coven hanging above the bodies of your kin!”
His eyes narrowed to slits, lips peeling back from his fangs.
“See?” I pushed, getting bolder. “You don’t have things as figured out as you’re pretending you do, so the last thing you—the last thing any of you—should do is kill me. You need me if you want to figure out what the hell is going on around here and—”
“I don’t care.”
I stumbled over my sentence. “Y-you— What?”
“I don’t care,” he repeated, shrugging. “How or who got you past the gates. I don’t care if every single member of the Avos coven is right outside that door. I don’t care who brought you here, little one, or for what purpose.
“All I care about is you telling me the truth in the next ten seconds, because if you don’t, I’m taking that axe and skipping the fingernails—I’ll just go straight to chopping your arm off.”
“What?!”
“—eight, seven, six—”
