Page 74 of Dissection of Immortal Hearts (Hospital for Immortal Creatures #3)

Amelia

It was well past midnight, yet Amelia lay wide awake, her body tense beneath the thin sheets.

She had to speak to someone about everything that had happened.

Not Mikhail. His presence stirred too much.

Not Callan either. Her barriers refused to lower for him.

No, she needed Viktor. He might not have the answers, but he had always met her honesty with honesty.

She dressed and went back to the restaurant to look for him. Mikhail sat alone at a table with a glass of red wine.

“Have you seen Viktor?” she asked.

He made a vague gesture with his hand. “He disappeared somewhere about half an hour ago.”

Amelia was about to search for the lycanthrope outside, but couldn’t resist and nodded at Mikhail’s glass with her chin. “I’ve only seen you drink alcohol once before.”

He indicated the empty bottle on the floor behind the bench. “I hate it. Presiyan convinced me that it would help me see the situation better... So far it hasn’t worked. I’m surprised you saw me drink even once.”

Changing her mind, she grabbed an unopened bottle of wine and a corkscrew from a nearby table before walking over and handing both to Mikhail.

“It was when you first invited me to dinner,” she said.

“To this day, I’m not sure why you did. Whether it was to learn more about me or because the ring already influenced you. ”

Without answering, he uncorked the bottle. Amelia found an empty glass behind the bar and sat atop the table, facing Mikhail, propping her boots up on the edge of the bench.

He poured her some wine.

“Cheers!” Amelia clinked her glass with his and took a sip. The tart aroma filled her senses, and her chest warmed. Instead of following her lead in the toast, Mikhail raised his eyebrows, not understanding. “Finally, you have a clear lead on the disrupted regeneration,” she explained.

He shook his head. “Kathrine said there’s nothing in Kamchatka.”

“I’m sure you”—she pointed at him with her glass—“will find something.”

He frowned.

“What?” Amelia kept her eyes on him. “Could it be that saving the species no longer matters?”

“Of course, it matters.”

“Or maybe… it never did?”

His golden irises flashed. “Where are you going with this, Oracle?”

She took another sip of her wine, savouring the aromas.

After the first gulp, the sharp tang mellowed, revealing an unexpected sweetness beneath.

“When I first met you and found out who you were – learned your past, what you’d been through…

” He clenched his jaw, but Amelia continued, “I was impressed. No! Stunned!”

“If that’s true, then you must have been very na?ve.”

“Really… The first disappointment came after you blamed me for things that happened to you years before I was born.” He moved as if about to say something, but she stopped him by placing a finger on his lips.

“You quickly corrected your mistake. At the time, I believed it was because of your feelings for me. Now, I realise it was because of that ring. Many things seem to have happened because of that ring.”

His nostrils flared.

“You never cared about saving lives, did you?” she said. “The Hospital was always just a way to soothe your guilty conscience.”

The liquid from her glass spilt onto her fingers when Mikhail squeezed her thighs and dragged her across the table, positioning her in front of him. His voice dropped to a sharp threat. “You might think that while we were rolling in bed, you got to know me, but you know nothing about me.”

Amelia stared at him without blinking. She recognised his face from her childhood dreams. Beautifully defined features with an accentuated masculinity and aristocratic air. And yet, he wasn’t the man from her dreams.

“On the contrary. Wanna hear a truth about yourself? Now that you’re not in the Hospital, you have an excuse to indulge in what you’ve always wanted to do,” she said.

He curled his lips. “And what is that, according to you?”

“To take revenge. To feed your anger. To surrender to the hatred of your past.”

Mikhail’s eyebrows shot up. “For someone who destroyed dozens of creatures today, you’re rather critical. I also noticed how readily you jumped into battle. As if you’d been waiting for an opportunity to destroy something.”

She shrugged. Was there any point in denying it? Who was she trying to fool? “You’re right. I’ve been angry for a while, and I took advantage to take it out.”

Her confession seemed to satisfy him. “Did it pay off?” She nodded. “Don’t worry. It doesn’t last long. Anger always resurfaces.”

Amelia hoped he was mistaken. She lowered her gaze to her glass and started swirling it, watching the liquid within.

After a while, Mikhail spoke. “My true motives behind the creation of the Hospital aren’t as pure as they seem, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care.”

“You don’t owe me any explanations.”

“And yet, I got the impression I’ve disappointed you.”

She shook her head. “Not anymore.”

His lips curled into a sour smile. “So, you’ve finally realised you were never in love with me – only with the idea of me.”

Amelia fell silent. He was right. The romantic nuance she’d attributed to him because of her childhood dreams was nothing more than her own creation.

They continued staring at each other, the spilt wine drying on her hand, releasing an intrusive scent to her nose.

“Now that we’ve cleared everything up…” Mikhail grabbed her by the waist and drew her into his lap.

Her knees collided with the bench on either side of his body.

She raised her hands to steady herself on his shoulders, dropping her glass on the floor.

It shattered, yet no one paid it any attention.

Her body was trapped between his solid muscles and the wooden edge of the table behind. “What the hell?”

“You’re not in love with me, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re still attracted to me,” he said, his tone sharp, as if he were angry, though the way his gaze devoured her implied otherwise.

Her heart raced, much like it had on the battlefield earlier, but this was a different battlefield – one where she… Actually, she didn’t want to fight.

“You’re attracted to me, too,” she said.

His grip tightened on her hips, and he kissed her. His warm breath, tinged with the scent of red wine, flooded her mouth. Every nerve ending on her skin sparked to life. Despite everything… this was Mikhail, and for some annoying reason, her body still craved him.

Her nails dug into his shoulders. Pain seared through her lips as the wound from earlier reopened, the metallic taste of blood flooding her mouth.

Their kiss morphed into something raw – biting, scratching, breathless sounds tangled between them.

Mikhail’s hands gripped her backside, and the heat building between her thighs pressed hungrily against the hard line of his arousal.

He grasped her thighs and began moving her over his length.

Amelia suppressed a moan. “Somebody could come…”

“I couldn’t care less. In any case…” Mikhail licked the wound on her lower lip. “We’re merely smoothing over the differences between us.”

He found the spot between her legs at a precise angle that sent a surge of electricity coursing through her body…

The sound of the door made her freeze. She jumped off his lap and moved to the bench beside him, fixing her hair. Presiyan and Viktor walked in a few seconds later.

“What’s going on?” Viktor’s face tightened with anxiety. Amelia followed his gaze to the shattered glass on the floor.

“Nothing that a bit of broken crockery can’t fix, I suppose?” Presiyan winked at her.

“She dropped it by accident. We weren’t arguing,” Mikhail said, then turned to her, clearly unfazed. “Do you need some fresh air?”

Amelia looked at his cold, composed face, with not a trace of what had happened moments earlier. Swallowing the retort that threatened to escape, she stood up and walked out.

***

Mikhail

The battle had ended hours ago, but the echo of adrenaline kept him alert. Now, with the immediate threat to his life gone, his instincts guided him in a different direction.

No matter how hard Mikhail tried to blame his weakness on his inner beast, he was drawn to Amelia.

He was the one who claimed to care little for her opinion, yet her assumptions about him infuriated him.

He was the one who despised the magic in her blood, yet he found great pleasure in watching her learn to control it.

He was the one who wanted to unlock her full potential, to harness it, and yet he believed it was his duty to protect her.

“You let Amelia go out during the battle today,” he said to Viktor as they walked through the back garden. It was just before dawn, but only now had they found the opportunity to speak in private.

Viktor’s eyes widened. “She wanted to fight. I couldn’t stop her.”

Mikhail studied the lycanthrope with suspicion. Had the lines around Viktor’s eyes become more pronounced?

“I warned you to stay by her side. She went out alone, and you weren’t anywhere to be found either.”

“I was looking after Alex…”

Mikhail stopped dead in his tracks. “No, you weren’t. I spoke to her after we arrived, and she told me you had disappeared for a while during the battle. You weren’t on the battlefield, so where were you, Vik?”

Viktor’s eyes flicked to the side before he looked back at Mikhail.

“Is everything all right?” Mikhail insisted. It was only now that he noticed the white strands in Viktor’s raven-black hair. What else had he missed?

“I…” Viktor furrowed his brow. “Broke my vow again. I hid in one of the rooms to transform… without Alex seeing. But I quickly realised I couldn’t control it, so I reverted to my human form.”

Guilt settled heavily over Mikhail. “We agreed you wouldn’t transform anymore, didn’t we?”

Viktor shrugged. “I wanted to help. I’m tired of wandering around the house like a useless piece of meat.”

Where on earth did the lycanthrope get such an absurd idea? “Do I need to remind you that thanks to you, Amelia and I survived the escape?”

Viktor shook his head. “Callan was the one who helped you—”

“Don’t mention him,” Mikhail scowled, for some reason recalling the intensity with which the firstborn watched Amelia. Like a piece of meat .“ You can’t claim you’re useless. Without you, I wouldn’t have survived the last two hundred years. Without you, I wouldn’t have survived after Antambazi.”

The lines around Viktor’s eyes deepened even further. “I can’t fight, brother.”

Mikhail rested his hand on his friend’s shoulder. “None of us expects you to fight, Vik. Your experience and intelligence are worth far more than another pair of hands on the battlefield. Next time, just do what we agreed on, all right?”

***

Viktor

Viktor had lied to Mikhail. He hadn’t transformed and reverted to his human form. In fact, he hadn’t transformed at all, no matter how hard he’d tried.

For every immortal with an animal spirit living inside them, Vaka Hara was a state where the animal dominated the human half.

The only thing worse for a creature than Vaka Hara?

Mrita Hara .

The death of the animal spirit.