Page 26 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts (Hospital for Immortal Creatures #3)

Amelia

A reptilian in a lab coat was ordering them away from Mikhail. Constantine didn’t hesitate for a beat before knocking him unconscious with a single punch.

Amelia did not register the reptilian’s fall. Her pulse thudded in her ears, and her mind refused to accept the truth. Mikhail was dead. She’d failed him. She’d arrived too late.

Her gaze fixed on Constantine, seeking confirmation from him.

His eyes gleamed. “He’s alive, Amelia.”

It took a second for her to register it. Then, she spun around to Mikhail’s motionless body. His chest was now rising and falling in a steady rhythm.

Before she could recover her own breath, Constantine reached for the cord wound across Mikhail’s body. Sparks burst from the contact point, flinging him two metres backwards. “What the hell?”

Amelia inched closer to the cord, a strange impulse drawing her towards it. Her fingers halted just short of touching it. She blinked, half-convinced her eyes were playing tricks on her. The threads of the cord shimmered, intertwining as if alive. “Do you…see that?”

Constantine staggered back to his feet. “See what?”

“The cord… It’s alive .” She dared to skim it with her fingertip.

No sparks. She might have imagined it, but the cord brushed against her hand.

“The cord is one of the Seven Sacreds!” She never would have guessed it if she’d seen it elsewhere.

It appeared so ordinary, yet her connection to the Sacreds – what Gea had mentioned in her letter – flourished to life.

“It must be the Shifting Net, meant for vampires. That’s why the witcher couldn’t move Mikhail through a portal… The cord is restraining him.”

And she wanted to set him free.

No sooner had she thought it than the cord slackened like a tamed snake releasing its prey. It sprang from Mikhail’s chest and coiled gently around her wrist instead, slipping under her sleeve like a creature seeking shelter.

Amelia shrugged off her coat and examined her arm.

The pain she’d expected from the tight grip never came.

The threads had shrunk and reformed into a delicate, decorative design – like a bracelet.

Fine lines twisted into looping sigils and symmetrical curves, as if the Sacred had inscribed a living hieroglyph on her skin.

Guess that explains the ‘shifting’ part. It seems to repurpose itself.

As mesmerised as she was by the Sacred, time was scarce. She needed to get Mikhail out of Antambazi.

Amelia put her coat back on, concealing the cord beneath her sleeve.

“Should I expect an electric shock from the shackles, too?” Constantine asked as he circled Mikhail’s body, though he dared not touch the metal cuffs on his wrists.

Amelia inspected the systems. Nothing appeared to be flowing through the tubes at that moment. “We need to find out what they’ve been injecting him with.” She gestured towards the unconscious reptilian on the floor. “Wake him up.”

Constantine crouched beside the man and gave him a rough nudge. The reptilian frowned but didn’t stir.

Amelia grabbed a glass flask from the table by the wall, uncorked it, and sniffed. Just water. She flung its contents into the reptilian’s face, forcing a reaction.

He coughed and opened his eyes. A bruise was already forming across his cheekbone. His trembling limbs reinforced the impression that he was inexperienced – both in high-pressure situations and in dealings with beings of other species.

Amelia loomed over him. “What are you injecting the manticore with?”

The reptilian remained silent. Constantine seized him by the lab coat and yanked him upright. “Answer.”

The man’s eyes widened in fear. “Her Majesty will have all our heads for this. Please, leave. Whatever you’re trying to achieve, you won’t succeed. She’ll kill you – and me with you!”

He feared the Queen, but not them?

Amelia smashed the flask against the laboratory counter. “I asked what you’re injecting him with.”

The reptilian shook his head. “Please, don’t…”

She held the broken rim to his throat. His gaze froze on her face, terror overtaking his fear. Now, his reaction had nothing to do with the Queen’s punishment. Amelia knew it was because of her Oracle eyes. And she hadn’t even begun.

She dragged the shard down the front of his shirt, where his lab coat parted. All of a sudden, Constantine’s detachment from killing people seemed entirely understandable to her. For Mikhail, she would cross every line. “I’m asking politely for the last time. What are you injecting him with?”

“A… a compound similar to curare,” the reptilian stammered. “It paralyses the respiratory muscles and causes death by asphyxiation…”

Amelia’s heart ignited with fury. She was well aware of curare’s effects!

She pressed the shard harder against his throat. “And the second system?”

Tears streamed down the reptilian’s face as he choked out, “Milliseconds after… after he dies, the second system administers a regeneration serum to bring him back.”

God ! “How many times?” Amelia’s voice was low, alien.

“Wh-what?”

“How many times have you done this to him?”

The reptilian seemed well aware that his answer wouldn’t please her. “Four… four times a day.”

Constantine cursed.

Mikhail had been suffering a torturous death four times a day, for days on end .

That explained why she’d found him lifeless when she entered, and why he’d been revived moments later. The automated system had administered a regeneration serum.

Amelia rushed back to Mikhail. Everything within her ached at seeing her prince with golden eyes, shackled and forced to his knees.

He was the strongest man she had ever known.

Such submission was an insult to his very nature.

Blinking away the sting of tears, she summoned every shred of courage. They would escape. He would survive.

After confirming he was still breathing and nothing was flowing through the tubes, she yanked both systems from his veins. Then, she focused on the shackles. They were locked.

She returned to the reptilian, who remained frozen under Constantine’s imposing presence. “Where’s the key?”

“Please, Her Majesty will kill me!”

“She?!” This wretch had no idea how much Amelia would love to make him her first kill.

“All right, all right,” the reptilian stammered, his eyes wide with panic. “The key is in the room opposite. There’s a panel on the wall. The code is 4443.”

Amelia darted into the adjoining room, entered the code the reptilian had given her, and immediately spotted the panel. Several keys hung inside, so she grabbed them all.

“Which one is it?” she shouted upon returning.

“The… the big one.”

“Thank you, pal.” With startling speed, Constantine snapped the reptilian’s neck in a single motion.

This time, a cold resolve settled within her – no remorse left.

She hurried to Mikhail, fighting the painful urge to embrace him and whisper soothing words into his ear.

Instead, she began working on the shackles while Constantine supported the manticore’s upper body steadily.

Blood from the torn tubes was already drying on his collarbones.

At last, the lock clicked open. Mikhail’s weight slumped forward, and Constantine strained to keep him upright.

“Why isn’t he waking up?” Desperation weakened Amelia’s voice.

“Come on, we need to get to the car. We’ve wasted far too much time.”

Together, they hoisted him by the shoulders and dragged him down the corridor. Mikhail’s body was heavy and lifeless, and he showed no sign of regaining consciousness. Maybe the music is lulling him, Amelia thought. She had reactivated the melody as a precaution.

They reached the outer door without incident. The reptilian stationed outside had shaken off the magic, but the moment the music resumed, he fell under its sway once again.

Once they exited the laboratory, Amelia exhaled with relief. Their battered car was precisely where they’d left it. They placed Mikhail in the back seat. As she moved to sit beside him, Constantine stopped her. “Get in the front.”

“I need to make sure he’s all right…”

“He’s a manticore who’s been chained up for days. It’s possible he won’t be himself when he wakes. Trust me, he’d never forgive himself if he hurt you in this state. Better to keep some distance.”

Amelia was willing to bet her life that Mikhail would never hurt her, no matter his condition, but Constantine’s expression promised a lengthy argument. They didn’t have time for that. So, she obeyed.

“Where are the portals?” Constantine asked.

“They should be to the east.”

He headed in that direction. Amelia took off her coat and draped it over Mikhail’s body. The cord was still wrapped around her arm – its beautiful design extending from her wrist and disappearing beneath the sleeve of her shirt.

“Are you going to explain that?” Constantine nodded towards the cord.

How could she explain something she didn’t grasp herself? “It’s the vampire’s Shifting Net. I recognised it the moment I laid eyes on it… I still don’t understand how I commanded it…” She drew a deep breath. The hard part was yet to come. “Constantine, I need you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“Never lose my coat, all right?”

His brows furrowed.

“If, for some reason, I can’t take my coat, make sure you grab it for me, will you?”