The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [103]
Nissa was the one she was worried about. The girl didn’t take human blood meals, but if the other hunters learned Nikolas was her relation, she would never be able to rest safely. The last thing Sarah wanted was for hunters to push Nissa into killing to defend herself.
Christopher … what was she going to do about Christopher? She might have just helped Nikolas convince his brother to start killing again, but it was what she had needed to do to survive.
It wasn’t her fault. She had never asked for any of this. She had never asked for anything more complex than the simple definitions of good and evil she had been raised on.
All she could think was that she was marked, that Nikolas had signed his name on her skin as if she were some kind of object, and now he was hunting her. All to defend his brother. Wouldn’t she have done the same — worse, actually — to someone who had hurt Adianna?
She shook her head violently, trying to let go of these dangerous thoughts, and threw herself down on the bed, hoping for a sleep that eluded her.
She would kill him.
If she could.
If she could turn her heart into stone and make her knife her only morals, if she could stand to kill Christopher and Nissa when they came to avenge Nikolas’s death, if she could stand living after killing her friends, then she would kill Nikolas.
CHAPTER 22
SARAH INTERCEPTED ROBERT by his car at the end of the next school day.
“What’s up?”
She was aware that she looked very different than when they had last spoken. Her black jeans and white shirt were plain, not exactly her style, but she wore them because she planned on visiting someone who wasn’t fond of colors. Her leather jacket covered her arms. She had not bothered to replace the bandages after last night. Her blond hair was down, slightly wild, stirred up by her running to the parking lot. Her eyes smoldered with intensity and purpose.
“I need to talk to your sister.”
“Not likely I told you already, Kristin doesn’t talk to anyone. She barely even sees anyone anymore.”
Sarah leaned back against his car door, and repeated herself. “I need to talk to Kristin, and I’m pretty sure she’ll talk to me.”
He snorted. “I’m not bringing you to her. If she notices you at all, she’ll just freak out.”
“Robert —”
“Leave me alone, okay?” he snapped. “I get it. I’m not as … important … as you are. I’m human, yeah, fine. I talked to your mother, and she made that quite clear. Now leave me alone.”
“No,” she answered calmly. She felt a little guilty about sending this human to her mother, but he had received no colder welcome than any other hunter had. “I need to talk to Kristin, and I thought it would be more polite to ask than to break into your house.”
This time he tried to muscle past her, pushing her to the side. He was bigger than she was, but he hadn’t counted on her strength; his shove didn’t even knock her off balance.
“Robert …,” she said, trailing off. There was only one way to get his attention.
Show-and-tell. She shrugged off the leather jacket and watched Robert’s eyes widen at the sight of her fresh wounds. “I know a lot more about him than you do. I’ve fought him twice, and I know he plans to try to kill me soon. I need to know what Kristin knows, and if she knows some way to hurt him.”
Robert hesitated, then stepped back reluctantly. “Fine.” He got in his side of the car and reached over to unlock the passenger-side door. “I can’t guarantee she’ll talk to you, but if you think she can help you get that monster …” He trailed off. “Get in the car.”
CHAPTER 23
THOUGH THERE WAS COLOR in it, Robert’s house seemed bleached of life.
“Kristin’s room is upstairs,” Robert said quietly, and led Sarah up the blue-gray carpeted stairs. Just outside his sister’s door, he spoke again. “If you can help her, or get her to help you, fine. But Kristin … isn’t all there. She probably won’t even notice you. Don’t bully her — she doesn’t need any more abuse.”
Kristin was dressed in a long white nightgown with a high collar. Her hair had been dyed black, though the natural brown