Page 12 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts (Hospital for Immortal Creatures #3)

Viktor

Viktor Volk felt like he was falling – backwards, backwards, backwards, into a time when his world revolved around a single passion. Gluttony. No, he wasn’t hungry for ordinary food, as a typical lycanthrope might be. He craved blood.

Viktor glanced around his room in the Hospital – the same space he’d inhabited for a hundred years.

The furniture had been replaced throughout the years, but the view always remained the same.

From the seventeenth floor, the Vitosha Mountain was stunning, especially when the sunlight bathed it at just the right angle.

And when bloodlust didn’t cloud one’s gaze.

Viktor grabbed his white coat from the wardrobe hook and put it on.

As he buttoned it up to the collar, he checked his face in the mirror for any revealing signs.

The tan of his skin had paled, giving him an undernourished appearance.

However, his lips were a richer red than usual, in sharp contrast with his raven-black hair, which he hadn’t bothered cutting in months and now fell to his shoulders.

His broad face – with prominent cheekbones and deep-set eyes – possessed a handsomeness that opened doors and earned trust.

Those who knew him well might notice that the warm grey of his irises had taken on a darker, steely hue – the kind that suggested he was on the brink of transforming into a bloodthirsty wolf.

Viktor had heard rumours of what was happening beyond the Hospital’s walls – rumours that the Tribunal no longer served the good of the immortal world. But he didn’t believe it. Presiyan wasn’t a traitor.

Nor was Viktor. He wouldn’t succumb to his bloodlust as long as he needed to keep the Hospital running in Mikhail’s absence. Sooner or later, the manticore would reclaim leadership of the Hospital. Viktor’s sole duty was to ensure there was a Hospital left to lead.

It wasn’t a simple task. As one of Mikhail’s closest confidants, he was under strict surveillance, which compelled him to find inventive ways to communicate with the detained residents and patients.

He stepped into the corridor and walked down the hall, suppressing the wolf’s voice in his mind. The inner spirit wanted freedom, blood, death… Viktor clenched his fists until his nails dug into his palms.

In the vestibule, three guards were on patrol – two humans and one reptilian.

Viktor recognised them by their attire – humans in military uniforms and reptilians in dark grey fitted suits – and their demeanour.

The humans appeared smug, while the reptilians had more reserved expressions.

Wherever they came from, they had clearly undergone rigorous training.

The two groups seldom spoke, but they always joined forces when punishing someone for disobedience or asserting their new authority.

“I’ve been asked to deliver this ointment to a patient in the ICU,” Viktor lied, pulling a small jar from his coat pocket.

Good thing they were disinterested enough in the Hospital’s affairs to accept his words without suspicion.

As he stepped into the lift, Viktor couldn’t shake the feeling of their gazes boring into his back.

If it had just been the humans, they would have exchanged jibes at his expense, calling him a ‘freak’, a ‘perversion’, and other insults he’d often heard directed at immortal creatures.

However, the presence of the reptilian among them made them think twice.

The lift opened on the ICU floor and…

Elisanda Grace.

How in hell? The wolf clawed at his chest in fury. If there was one being in the world Viktor loathed, it was the nymph. She had betrayed Mikhail by allying with the reptilians, but she’d also killed a housekeeper from the Hospital with her bare hands and even attempted to murder a child.

Damn her to hell! Hadn’t Mikhail handed her over to the Tribunal?

“Viktor Volk! Well, isn’t this a pleasant surprise!” the nymph exclaimed with a cheerful tone..

He stared at her. The lift door began to close, but Elisanda blocked it with her leather-booted foot. “Have you upset my guards so much they’ve cut out your tongue, Viktor?”

Her fiery crimson hair was clean and vibrant – hardly the look of someone who should have been in prison.

She wore lipstick in the same scarlet shade, and a figure-hugging red dress with a high neckline and long sleeves draped her feminine shape…

nothing like the prison uniform she should have been sporting.

Viktor’s gaze dropped to the large suitcase she was gripping by the handle. “What are you doing here again?!” he growled.

“Oh, he can talk…”

Viktor snapped out of his shock enough to step out of the lift. The moment he did, he spotted the guards flanking Elisanda as if she were a movie star. He wasn’t supposed to show emotion or react in front of the guards, but he couldn’t hold back. “How did you get out of Prokaliya?”

She curled her lips into a mocking smile, but it was so twisted with hatred that it resembled more of a grimace.

“Like any innocent person, I didn’t have to ‘get out’.

Though I’m not exactly free, given the responsibilities waiting for me…

” Viktor’s body stiffened. “Oh, I see you haven’t heard.

The Hospital is now under my management, and I’ll finally implement all those changes I’ve long planned but couldn’t get anyone to support.

Well, now I don’t need support, because I alone will call the shots. ”

Viktor’s pulse thundered in his ears. Red hair, red lips, red dress… it all blurred into the bloody haze that had been clouding his vision for days.

Elisanda brushed past him to enter the lift. Her guards followed, one carrying her suitcase while another shoulder-checked Viktor.

Once inside the lift, she pivoted on her heels and faced him.

“Before I was unjustly removed from my position, I lived in a flat in this wing, but I don’t think it suits me any longer.

And since it doesn’t seem like Mikhail will be returning anytime soon, I’ve decided to relocate to his quarters on the top floor. ”

The lift door slid shut, leaving Viktor alone.

No, not alone. Just a few metres down the corridor, more guards waited.

Move! It wasn’t the wolf’s voice this time, but his own, urging him to save himself from self-destruction.

Now he had to enter one of the rooms and persuade the beings inside that salvation was on its way. To hold on. Not to sign blood oaths to the Queen. To keep their faith alive.

But… Elisanda Grace should have been in Prokaliya, yet she wasn’t. Did that mean the Tribunal was really collaborating with the reptilians? And if so… was there no hope of liberation?