after the feast is finally over. But there are no vampires using the elevator at this time of “night,” since it’s actually late morning topside, so there’s nothing to see. I’m tempted to punch in what I know and guess the rest, but I don’t want to risk setting off an alarm with too many wrong guesses.
Disgruntled and on-edge, I head back to the tribute wing.
The moment I open the door to my little bedroom, I know something is wrong.
I can feel it even before I take in the chaotic mess that’s strewn about the space, like something hovering in the air. My mattress is lying cockeyed, contorted at an angle from the bedframe to the floor. Sheets and blankets lie scattered over the stone floor, along with all of my clothes and shoes.
Motherfucker.
My room has been ransacked.
Chapter Nineteen
Fuck. What the hell happened in here?
Fear clouds my brain, but a rush of adrenaline parts the clouds in my mind. Someone found out. Someone must have suspected me for some reason. Maybe because I went to Rome and tattled on the other vampires? Or did someone notice that I always seem to be out wandering, and that I tend to stick to certain parts of the palace on my meandering walks?
I want to punch a wall. Better yet, a vampire.
I have to get to Nathan, have to get us out of here before one or both of us gets killed. Did they find my weapons? If they did, I’ll be lucky to get ten feet, never mind trying to get across the palace to the men’s wing.
My mouth is dry, but my heart has finally come down out of my ears to rattle my ribcage at a more reasonable volume.
As my hearing returns to normal, something catches my attention out in the hallway. A whispered voice, quiet but high-pitched.
“—would have paid to see her face!”
“God, I would pay my whole bid price for a spy cam right now.”
Tittering laughter follows that statement, and my hands curl into fists. Something that’s part relief, part anger, and part annoyance rises up from my belly in a wave as I realize it wasn’t a vampire who went through my room.
It was a human. Several humans.
Several petty fucking bitches.
Fury, eager to be tapped after such a long suppression, overwhelms my lingering panic in an instant, and I move, spinning away from my open door. Here I am, trying to save my damn brother, and these assholes are pulling middle school fucking pranks. Blind rage fills every taut fiber of my being as I stalk the sounds to their source.
The girls are huddled in Winona’s room, whispering and giggling.
Several of them yelp as I crash into the room, but I’m not interested. Winona is sitting smugly on her bed, posing like some debutante princess. She gives me a cool, bored look.
Yeah? We’ll see how bored you are in a second, you twat.
She’s expecting a verbal altercation, so I don’t give it to her. Instead, I grab her by her hair and slam her into the wall.
The girls all scream in unison as my fist connects with Winona’s perfectly symmetrical face hard enough to make blood spray from her nose. Winona stares in shock, tense but frozen, her pupils like tiny, terrified islands in the middle of wide white pools. I let go of her, and she slides to the floor, her eyes never leaving me.
“You stupid, petty children,” I growl. “Is this why you came here? Is this why you sold your life away to bloodsuckers? Just so you could live out some mean girl fantasy? You idiots! You.” I point at Winona, who cringes away from me. “You have done nothing but drive wedges between tributes since the moment you set your porcelain feet in the palace. Are you out of your mind? The only people you have on your side are the other tributes! Everybody else either wants to eat you or get you paired up with a vampire A.S.A motherfucking P. so they can get your dramatic bullshit out of their workplace!”
Winona’s jaw stiffens and she looks away.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I grit out between my teeth. Then I turn to the girls on the bed. “And the rest of you, you’re really just going to follow her and do whatever she says? Why? She’d sell each and every one of you out just as fast as she sold herself, and you know it.”
They gave each other shifty looks, with more than