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I cry into her hair until I feel her body being pried away from me
"No!" I scream out at whoever it is "Get away from me! Leave her alone!" My voice cracks and strains under the weight of eo," Victor’s voice says froer"
"No!" I lash out, reaching up with one hand and trying to shove him away
"Now, Victor," Niklas says frorabs me from around the waist and scoops me up with ease and tosses me, belly-down, over his shoulder I kick and scream and beat him on the back with my fists as he carries me toward the SUV and away from Lydia’s body
"We can’t just leave her here!"
"We have to"
He sets me in the backseat with Cordelia
"Victor! You can’t! Please don’t leave her here like this!"
There is reh hidden behind the ever-present
He shuts the door and the locks click in place again I ride in absolute silence to wherever it is they’re taking us
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Victor
Niklas has never knohen to remain silent He lacks discipline and because of this our Order has always been fonder of es of seven and nine, but so were two other neighborhood boys who had been good friends of ours We had been playing ball in the field behind the schoolyard, like we did every Saturday afternoon, when the men came Niklas and I did not knoere brothers at the time But ere the best of friends Inseparable like brothers should be So perhaps deep down a part of us knew all along
It wasn’t until four years later, after my mother was killed while on a mission that we found out the truth Niklas’ mother told us in secret
It has been kept a secret ever since
"What have you done, Victor? What were you thinking? Where is your head?"
Niklas white-knuckles the steering wheel He turns to look at ive hiive
Quietly, I bite back the pain searing through ut that they shot first," I say and I see the argument cloud his features instantly "Tell him that I had no choice"
"Victor" He shakes his head and then hits the steering wheel with the palrits his teeth, holding back the kind of words he wants to say but knoould be better left unsaid
He hits the steering wheel again
"I have always done everything you have ever asked me to do Not once have I refused you Rarely do I question you But I don’t because I trust you as I should" He inhales a sharp breath and I notice his eyes stray toward the rearview mirror And then he looks back at : your place in the Order, your relationship with Vonnegut, your life, my life" He slashes the air between us with his hand "All for that girl"
"I a of the sort"
"Then ould you call it?" he snaps "If not for her, then for what? Make me understand, Victor!"
He swerves into the opposite lane of the highway tocar
"And why have you told her your name? You’ve become unstable They eliminate the unstable ones, Victor, you know this"
He forces his eyes back on the road having hit his own nerve His mother was one of the ‘unstable ones’
"I will not let anything happen to you because of ut the truth, I will understand I will not hold that against you"
He shakes his head dejectedly "No As I have always done, I will tell hirips the steering wheel with both hands, es of the leather as if to keep his hand fro else
"I hope that one day you will tellatto you About what really happened in Budapest And if that has anything to do hat you’re doing now"
"There is nothing to tell," I say
"Daut!"
"No, you are Niklas, the only person in this world whom I trust" I point out ahead "Drop us off there I’ll need to get a new car"
Despite wanting nothingsatisfying, Niklas drops it altogether Discipline Soate of a car dealership
"Around to the side," I say "Wait for me there"
Without objection, Niklas does as I say and parks on the side of the building next to another custoirl, Sarai She’s motionless and lost Her eyes are open, but whatever it is that she’s staring at somehow I know she doesn’t really see I want her to look upon me, just for a moment But she never does and I walk away