BooksBarbecue
Back When Villains Rise Save as PDF
Chapters (52)
  1. Copyright
  2. Dedication
  3. One
  4. Two
  5. Three
  6. Four
  7. Five
  8. Six
  9. Seven
  10. Eight
  11. Nine
  12. Ten
  13. Eleven
  14. Twelve
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Acknowledgments
  49. Read More from the Market of Monsters Series
  50. More Books from HMH Teen
  51. About the Author
  52. Connect with HMH on Social Media

“Not that I’m aware of,” Nita had whispered, but she’d thought about the vampire blood Kovit had drunk that morning, known to improve healing and lifespan, and her own blood running through his veins. Maybe it had been enough.

“Ah. Well. He’s been lucky so far.” The doctor had given her an encouraging smile. “We’ll see if it continues. We’re not out of the woods yet.”

Nita hadn’t been able to return the smile, or any of the other optimistic comments the doctor had made in the days since then. She just listened to the steady beep of the heart monitor and watched as Kovit’s sleeping face grew more and more hollow.

Outside the hospital, the world changed and morphed. Countries suspended INHUP operations pending investigations, exposés were done on various INHUP founders. The Dangerous Unnaturals List was taken down in most countries—most, but not all. Never all.

Nita had leaked what information she could to the press, and a reporter had been able to get access to INHUP’s research facility in France, where he’d filmed and photographed a comatose Nadezhda Novikova. She looked young, far too young for her age, and rumors and theories flew fast and furious. The pictures were analyzed, and old scarring on her neck made people scream vampire, but it wasn’t until one of the scientists at the research facility spoke out that the theory was confirmed.

For days, headlines blared articles with titles like Dangerous to Us, or Dangerous to INHUP’s Internal Politics? The DUL History Exposed. And in the center of it all, the scandal around Kovit raged, information and misinformation flying fast and free. A transcript of Nita’s first conversation with the police right after Kovit was shot was leaked to the press and made more headlines, igniting further speculation. Kovit’s sister had been fired from INHUP and had vanished. Reporters and private investigators tried to hunt her down, but so far no one had found her, and she wasn’t speaking out.

Police had come twice more to visit Nita and ask her questions. She kept her story as consistent as she could, making sure all the lies she wove in were things that only INHUP could prove false. INHUP, which was currently under investigation in multiple countries, with operations in some parts of the world completely suspended. The world was caught up in a frenzy of INHUP-related scandal, and the organization began to crumble internally from the pressure. The acting head resigned amid a tax fraud scandal—something Nita had exposed with her new information from Tácunan Law.