Red Widow (Vivian Xu, Book 1) (32 page)

“
I’m calling to issue an
arrest warrant for Vivian Xu. She is responsible for the murder of
an innocent bystander. I need several units to canvass the downtown
area. Consider Xu armed and extremely dangerous. Lethal force is
hereby authorized.”

Camilla almost cried out
from under the bed.
That son of a bitch!
He’s going to pin the murders on Vivian?! Why is he doing
this?!

Nikolai swooned drunkenly toward his
dresser, catching himself before he could bash his head on the
ledge.

“
Fuck, it’s getting worse,”
he gasped wretchedly. “No, I can’t do this anymore…
I can’t
.”

Still shaking from anger, Camilla
inched forward, straining to peer out from under the bed. What was
he trying to restrain himself from doing? She could hear him
breathing arduously like a man on his death bed. His legs began to
quake and his knees buckled.

His entire body jerked forward with
such violence that she thought he would keel over. She heard a sigh
escape his lips.

Suddenly, his body collapsed to the
carpet at a bizarre angle. Nikolai’s head struck the floor, his
glazed eyes staring into Camilla’s.

She screamed. She saw his fingers
twitching in search of his gun, but his body wouldn’t respond. If
he could move, he would surely tear her apart. A discarded syringe
lay on the carpet, emptied of the strange substance.

Camilla seized his handgun and
scavenged the hollow-point bullets. With a twist of her hips, she
rushed toward the drawer and stuffed the syringes into her purse. A
moan emanated from Nikolai, an inhuman sound frothing with anger.
She could feel the hate oozing from him. He tried to throw his body
forward on his belly, but he only managed a pitiful
slither.

Camilla’s heel slammed into his
face.

“
That’s for the letter you
sent me!”

He was helpless to reply through the
blood dribbling down his nose, but his dilated pupils absorbed
Camilla’s every detail. Memorizing his prey’s face. Camilla
stumbled away and locked the bedroom door before she fled down the
stairs.

SEVENTEEN

Vivian woke the next day.

She sighed and rubbed her aching head
as fleeting images from dreams departed. What little she remembered
from last night’s terrors made her curl up in a defensive ball.
There were so many corridors lined with cages in her dream. Each
cage housed a little girl huddled in the corner, dressed in rags
and covered in filth.

Agate stood in the background,
ornamented in the finest lynx pelts and lustrous gems. She was the
spitting image of Lady Danica Vesely, ripe with cruelty and malice.
Vivian realized with horror that she was trapped in a Magdalene
asylum. She screamed as she rattled the iron bars of her cage,
pleading for release. Her anguished screams were to no avail, and
she was restrained as her long hair was shaved off in the first of
many humiliating rituals.

In her dream, Vivian was forced into
needlework, where she sewed altar cloths and habits until her
fingers forgot their function. If she did not sew fast enough, she
was punched or slapped by the nuns. Other times, she was flogged
simply for being too pretty and tempting to boys. Over the course
of her internment, she came to believe she deserved this
punishment, and she craved it.

Her existence was a sin because she
inflamed the most deviant desires in the hearts of men. It was not
their fault for thinking the way they did. No, the blame rested
solely on her because of her perky breasts, her exotic face, and
her shapely lips. These were the tools of sin, tools that would
earn her an eternal reprieve in Hell unless she paid penance. And
blood was the only form of penance accepted.

Vivian woke up when she felt Agate’s
dream-like hands stripping away her clothes. The scream died in her
chest when the walls of the Magdalene asylum dissolved around her.
Her clothes were still attached, but they were soaked in cold
sweat. She was sprawled in the alley where she fell asleep last
night.

She touched the pavement, confirming
it was real and not a continuation of her dream. Of course, that
wasn’t much of a reassurance. As long as Syllax gushed through her
veins, she could be imagining every detail. It was just a different
breed of nightmare, one that stalked her into the waking
world.

She stiffened as she heard the distant
cries and laughter of children. It sounded unnatural, almost
otherworldly in the alleys.

Vivian looked over her shoulder and
froze.

“
It can’t be…” She
scampered away from the narrow passageway. Was it a coincidence
that her soul was lured to this place? She had fallen asleep just
beyond the alley where the vagrant assaulted her and died. It
moaned for her to take a peek, to revisit that delicious guilt. Had
she really pointed her gun at him and squeezed the
trigger?

She could suddenly picture a scene
reminiscent of her vicious encounter with Viktor. Police tape would
stretch across the alley, and a pool of blood would froth on the
pavement. This time, Nikolai wouldn’t stand by to offer her a
second chance.

Vivian peeked around the corner. She
jumped as her pockets buzzed angrily. She dug out her phone only to
be greeted by a strange voice.

“
Vivian?”

“
Who is this?”

“
Nikolai.” He sounded
hoarse on the other end, almost disembodied. “Vivian, I need to see
you.”

“
What? Right
now?”

“
No. Meet me in the alley
behind Luxus Pavilion tonight at 11 p.m. Until then, I need you to
stay out of sight. Speak to no one and trust no one.”

Vivian bristled as the sounds of
playful children swirled around her.

“
Is something the matter?
You sound…”

“
Everything is fine,
Vivian. Thanks to you, we’re one step closer to ending this
nightmare.”

“
Did you find the killer?”
The lengthy pause left Vivian salivating for answers.

“
We’ll discuss everything
in person when we meet. You’ve been a great boon to this
investigation. Never forget that. I’ll see you tonight.”

“
Okay. See you then.” The
rarest of smiles graced her face. She prayed that Nikolai had
apprehended the killer, and this meeting was merely his formal way
of concluding her services. At this point, she hardly cared about
the cash reward anymore. She simply wanted to go home and fall
asleep in the comfort of her bed. She yearned to curl up next to
the fireplace and listen to her mother hum from the kitchen while
she chopped, steamed, sautéed, fried, and baked. She wanted to hear
the front door creak open as her father returned from work just in
time for supper.

Those memories faded.

An impulse like no other wrenched her
back into reality. She remembered what she was doing seconds before
Nikolai called. The alley where she murdered the vagrant was
virtually humming with decay, taunting her to sate her
curiosity.

Her hands shook and glistening sweat
crawled down her skin. She took a deep breath and peered into the
alley.

The body was gone.

* * *

Luxus Pavilion was once a trendy mall
that catered to the fashion tastes of teenage girls. Four years
ago, it fell into disrepair and never recovered from the
blow.

Vivian’s eyes danced across the
shambles that once housed a budding collection of shops and
boutiques. The last time she came here, she was picking out shoes
with her mother. The youthful vibe and sound of Europop was now
replaced with sinister ambience. The gnarled gates had been forced
opened, and a chain and padlock lay disposed of on the ground. It
had been cleanly severed by a bolt cutter. With a determined
stride, she swept through the gates and rounded the corner of the
building. This must have been the backstreet where delivery trucks
pulled up with the latest batch of high design shoes and
jeans.

She jerked to a stop when she saw the
audience assembled. In place of delivery trucks, there were two
squad cars flanked by three police officers. A fourth figure
swathed in a jacket stood off to the side, his rabid gaze fixated
on Vivian. The expression on Nikolai’s face startled her. He looked
hostile, almost like a wild animal loosed from its cage. His nose
also looked misshapen since the last time she encountered
him.

“
Vivian,” he acknowledged,
holding out his hand.

“
Nikolai.” As soon as his
hand closed around hers, Vivian screamed. Red hot pain scorched
through her fingers all the way to her shoulder blades. Nikolai’s
eyes widened when he saw the rash consuming her arm.

Without warning, he swooped forward
and seized her arm, his eyes almost pressed against the black vein
under her skin.

“
Stop it! That
hurts!”

“
What the hell have you
been shooting up?!” he exclaimed. “It looks like this tissue is
dead!”

“
I haven’t shot up
anything!” She wrestled her arm from his grip. “What the fuck is
wrong with you? Why did you call me here? And what are
they
doing here?” She
venomously indicated the officers in the shadows.

Nikolai sighed heavily and dismissed
them to their patrol cars. His eyes roamed across Vivian’s face,
taking in her raw beauty along with the imperfection.

“
I’ve put you through hell
in such a short period of time,” he whispered. “I can see it in
your eyes. You’ve seen the same disgusting hell that I’ve been
trapped inside for years. You’ve seen the bodies piling up in the
streets. You’ve seen the atrocities humans are capable of
committing against their fellow man. You’ve seen just how guilty we
all are of evil. Can you imagine how hideous I feel, knowing that I
dragged you into this? Because of me, you’ve had to endure more
than any sane person should have to bear. I wouldn’t blame you if
you hated me.”

“
I don’t hate you,
Nikolai,” she said, rubbing her arm. “…but you are a soulless
bastard.”

Nikolai cracked a smile, but it
quickly faded.

“
Vivian, I owe you a debt
of gratitude that I may never live to fulfill. You’ve done more for
this investigation in a few weeks than an entire police department
accomplished in months. And you’ve done more for the victims and
their families than I could have ever hoped to achieve by
myself.”

“
You’re
welcome.”

“
You’ve done so much…” He
closed his eyes. “…which is why it pains me to say I no longer
require your services.”

“
Why? Did you catch
him?”

“
No, Vivian, we didn’t. The
killer continues to elude us. However, your recent actions lead me
to believe I can no longer rely on your judgment.”

“
What actions are you
talking about? Are you letting me go?”

“
If only that were the
case.” Nikolai brushed his hand against his jacket as if to rid
himself of a disease. “A BIS agent named Tatiana Pražakova was
murdered two days ago. Her body was found in the downtown alleys
with a gunshot wound in her chest. Witnesses described the killer
as a female approximately 18 to 21 years old.”

Vivian’s stomach clenched.

“
According to eyewitness
testimony, Tatiana confronted the girl and began questioning her.
Without seemingly any provocation, the girl pulled out a gun and
fired a single round into her chest. The agent died almost
instantly.”

“
Why are you telling me
this?” Nikolai ignored her, intent on telling his story.

“
Most telling of all were
the descriptions the witnesses provided. The killer is said to have
long red hair and every inch of her flesh is covered in tattoos.”
His eyes glinted dangerously. “She also had a birthmark shaped like
an hourglass.”

Vivian’s brain couldn’t take anymore.
Her memories were spinning in a cyclone of confusion. She could
barely remember the night when she encountered the vagrant. But he
couldn’t be an agent… and he was a man, not a woman.

“
Where were you?” Nikolai
demanded.

“
But—but this doesn’t make
any sense. I was attacked…” She backed away. “No, that can’t be
right!” She ducked as Nikolai shoved a photo in her
face.

“
Does she look familiar?”
he demanded. “Do you remember looking into her eyes as they turned
dark and empty? As she took her last breaths through the hole in
her lungs?” Vivian ogled the crime scene photo of Tatiana
Pražakova. Her raven hair was sprawled on the pavement in a morbid
halo. Her pose was both woeful and elegant, her arms spread wide to
embrace her imminent destruction. And destruction flowed from her
chest in a sluicing tide.

Vivian’s lips trembled.

“
I don’t know…”

Nikolai remained ominously silent
before uttering three words she dreaded.

“
I’m sorry,
Vivian.”

She stared into the barrel of his
gun.