Sweat dripped into her eyes, burning and stinging, but it was no use. Her bonds had been tied with expert hands. Viktor hadn't left any wiggle room.

"Shit," she hissed. Her thumbnail split down the side and red welled beneath the faded pink polish. There was nothing she could do but wait for him to come back and taunt her long enough for a plan to form in her mind.

"Break a nail?"

"Fuck!" Skylar yelped.

Viktor chuckled, pushing away from the doorway and sauntering back to her. "You're decently popular, aren't you?"

Skylar scoffed, turning her face away from him.

Viktor clicked his tongue. "Let's be on the same page, shall we?" His sleek shoes clicked neatly, coming to a stop before her own dirty Converse. Long, hot fingers spider-walked up her arm, over her shoulder, and pushed a few strands of hair out of her face where the sweat had matted it down. "You know it's incredible how identical you are every single time I see you."

Her brows furrowed. "Don't touch me," she said and spit as hard as she could.

Viktor didn't flinch as he barked a laugh and used her shirt to wipe it away. "How much do you think he's made you forget?" He walked over to the steel table and toyed with the tools. His hand hovered over a scalpel, almost as if he was still trying to decide, but he picked it up.

"No!" Skylar rocked her chair this way and that. A new desperation to flee had every bone in her body begging her--forcing her-- to move. "Get away from me!"

"Oh calm down," he condescended. "I haven't even touched you yet."

A groan from behind her drew his attention. Skylar's eyes widened as he gripped the scalpel and a wicked grin split over his face. "He's awake!" Viktor clapped his hands together, holding the scalpel between his teeth.

Jake's exhausted groans turned to shouts of panic when his surroundings settled in. "Wh-where am I? What the fuck! Who the fuck are you!"

"Mouthy little bastard, aren't you?" Skylar ripped at the seat, hopping and rocking, desperate to face Jake again. The sickeningly moist crunch of metal piercing flesh consumed her--rang in her ears as though it had been amplified. Jake's grunt was all the confirmation she needed.

"Stop it!" Her eyes burned. Fresh tears sprung forth and mingled with the sweat. "Don't hurt him! Please!"

"Sk-Skyl--" he was cut off by another brutal blow and the dripping sound became quicker, heavier.

Openly sobbing, she begged, "Viktor please." Her head hung forward, temples throbbing.

Jake's crying thankfully overshadowed her own pathetic sobs and she chastised herself for being so weak. The footsteps came back to her and she felt warm hands, one sticky, rest on her trembling shoulders. "If you remembered then you wouldn't stop me." His breath tickled her neck and a shiver racked through her.

He spun the chair back around and caught it before she fell over. It moved so effortlessly under his hands that she had to wonder if she tried hard enough to move it herself. Jake's limp body hung upside down, his eyes closed. Fresh blood gushed from two wounds pierced through shoulders and joining the flow from the prick on his throat.

"Oh my God," Skylar breathed in shock, "Is he--"

"He passed out. Such a waste of a life." His lip curled, watching Jake sway.

"Why are you doing this?" Skylar choked out.

"Because of you," he answered sincerely. "I need something from you."

Her chest tightened and a wave of nausea nearly crippled her. "I--I don't have anything. I swear!"

Viktor smiled, a deceptively warm gesture, before he moved to kneel in front of her at an ethereal pace. "You have no idea the things I'm going to do to you," he said softly, as though speaking to a child.

She swallowed. "Let Jake go," she ordered in a shaky voice. "If you want me then let him go!"

Viktor scoffed and stood up. Disgust painted his handsome features. "I didn't bring him here because of you." He gave a bored once over at the swinging boy. "I just wanted a snack."

His head rolled back, cracking and stretching. Those green eyes shifted in front of her and she could only gape in horror at the change that took him. Red rings now rimmed his emerald orbs. Deep, dark indigo veins pulsed over his cheekbones and beneath his lower lashes.

But his mouth--it widened inhumanly. Where porcelain white teeth had once been were now a row of brilliant fangs that slid down overtop his human teeth, piercing through the gums and stretching an inch or so long. The hairs on her arms rose and her heart beat so fast that she swore he could hear it by the way he smirked. 

"Now," he purred, placing his hands on either side of her face. She thrashed, tugging away but he held her firm. "Look at me." She didn't. She didn't want to. He wasn't natural--wasn't human. The sight of him made her blood run cold. "Look at me!" He squeezed her face and she winced, reluctantly bring her gaze to meet his. "Good girl," he praised, stroking her cheek with the pad of his thumb. "Remember," he whispered. "Remember how he tried to take what he wanted from you."

"Wha--who--" His eyes pulsed, the pupils going large then small, and she felt the breath whoosh out of her as her mind was invaded with a vision. No--a memory.

She could rememeber it all now; Jake driving her up to that place after the Halloween dance. His hands on her body, the carelessness in his voice, the utter disregard for her as he tried to take what he wanted from her. And then eyes--big green eyes dilating in front of her face telling her to forget it all. Bear's eyes.

She gasped and panted when the vision finished. "What the fuck was that!" She tried to sound strong, demanding, but her words were choked and hoarse. "What was that?"

Viktor grinned demonically and walked to Jake, still hanging unconcious. He grabbed a cup from the metal table and dipped it into the gathered blood. Her mouth went dry as he brought it up to his lips and drank. His throat bobbed up and down as he gulped the blood. He let out a satisfied sighed and set the cup down when he finished. "Fresh is better than dead, I always say. Bear would disagree, I'm sure."

Bear. Brother. Skylar snapped her head to him. "What are you?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.

"What he made me." Viktor sneered. "What he tried to make you. He would have cursed you too."

Electricity tickled her fingertips, her body humming with protest. Her bound legs itched to run and flee this place, flee him, but she couldn't move. "And what did he make you?"

Viktor beamed at her. Rows of white teeth back in place, but coated in crimson. "A beast," he stated. "Immortal."

Skylar fought the lump in her throat that threatened to overwhelm her. "Why am I really here?" The thought of those fangs ripping into her skin was enough to make her shudder.

Viktor wiped away a tear she hadn't realized fell and tsked condescendingly, feigning sympathy. "You're going to tell me where my brother hid my crown."

Her brows knit together. "I--I don't know anything about a crown." But even as she said it, the image of that iron crown with the red gems came to the forefront of her mind. 

"You do," he assured her. "You were there when he took it from my head, and you were there when he slaughtered my father, and you were there when he buried it." His eyes gleamed and his voice took a guttural turn as he growled, "I want it back."

She bit her lip to keep from vomitting all over his shoes. "I don't know what you're talking about! I swear! I've never--"

"Not in this life." Those words hung in the air. "He brought both of our bodies back, you know. Your bones were too charred and ruined to have life breathed into them again." Can you feel the fire? "But even the ancient gods were merciful and gave him a piece of what he desired. You got fourteen lives. One for every piece Osiris had been carved into when his brother mutilated him and scattered him across Egypt."

Skylar swallowed hard, the lump forming more of a hollow within her as she tried to cling to his message. "I don't understand," she whispered, barely breathing.

Viktor grinned. "Don't tell me he hasn't told you the story? He always tells you the story. Can't keep that glorious mouth of his shut."

"What story?"

"The story of how we came to be revenants. How my brother and I came to be these blood drinking immortals from the depths of hell all thanks to him and his pact with the goddess." She couldn't help the chill that crept down her spine. The paintings--the collections--everything was too much. She stopped breathing when her mind drifted to the paintings of her.

"Please," she began softly and he scoffed, anticipating another slew of begging, "please tell me the story."

Something shifted in his expression. Something sinister and ancient took over his emeralds and he flexed his hand in front of his fact, his fingernails lengthening into points and he picked his teeth casually. "You've already heard it haven't you? His version." She nodded once. Viktor chuckled and hopped onto the steel table, gracing her with a few yards of space.

"My father was a merchant from Macedonia. We lived on the very tip of the Greek Peninsula on the Aegean Sea, and your people--your father--came and took us to be sold as slaves."