Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I’m right.
Gregor is dying.
She yanks her hand from me and tears from my room, the door slamming against the wall and vibrating from the force of it.
24
Recovered Journal of Dr. Georgia Clark
March 18, Year 1, Emergence Era
Blood that’s more like a virus. Blood free of so many markers, so many ways we’ve always used science to analyze cells now made useless in the face of a brand new set of genetics. If the vampires were actually helpful, instead of sending Valen to sneer at me on a nightly basis, they would have provided me with someone from their ranks who actually knows something about medicine. Or even basic biology. I don’t know their numbers, their backgrounds, or anything more than the little bits of data I get from Valen, but surely there’s a vampire amongst them who knows their way around a microscope?
“You let her into my room?” I yell down the hallway.
David appears from a few doors away. “You were safe.”
“Safe?” I scoff. “She could’ve ripped my head off!”
“She didn’t. I wouldn’t have allowed it.” He trudges toward me, at least having the decency to look slightly chastened with his downturned gaze.
“That doesn’t mean anything! She could’ve—”
“I wouldn’t have allowed it because Valen would rip my head off the moment he found out, all right? If I’m good at anything, it’s self-preservation. Relax.”
“I can’t ‘relax’ when you just let anyone waltz into my private space—”
“Weren’t you two friends?” he asks.
“No!” I huff out a breath. “I mean, yes, but not now, obviously. Now we’re …”
“Did she harm you?” He asks, hands in his pockets.
“Well, no, but—”
“Just because she’s a vampire doesn’t mean she’s an enemy.” He meets my gaze. “You know that, right? We aren’t all the same.”
“Are you chastising me for wanting to stay alive?”
He shrugs.
“Let me make it simple for you: don’t let strangers into my room!” I yell.
His wings pulse outward for a moment, then retract.
We stand there for a while in utter stalemate.
“What did you get in return?”
“What?” He looks away. He knows damn well what I’m asking.
“She said she had to make a deal with you to get in here. So what did she give you?”
“I’m just a housekeeper, remember?” He gives me an exaggerated bow and turns his back, striding away.
Mouth open, I stare after him. What an asshole.
I eat my dinner in angry silence, my mind constantly replaying the conversation with Fatima. I still don’t know what she thought she’d get from me. Everything I know will eventually be dissected by Whitbine and regurgitated to Gregor. That thought is enough for me to put down the rest of my sandwich, my appetite gone.
I’m fast asleep when a rhythmic knock sounds at the door. David. “Time to go up top,” he calls through the wood.
Though I’d much rather sleep, I don’t want to miss any chances at going outside, so I dress a bit warmer and follow him to the elevator.
“Were you born a vampire?” I ask him as we walk out into the cloudy night.
“Yes.”
“How old are you?” If this was the old days and I just met him somewhere at the university or at a restaurant, I would think he was no older than early twenties.
“Why do you want to know?”
I shrug. “I don’t know how vampires become vampires except vaguely.”
“Learning about your enemy now?” he asks, then continues before I can respond, “I was born about fifty years ago. Young in vampire years.”
“You’re a baby to them.” I peer up at him.
“They treat me like one.” He frowns. “Keeping me here to be a—”
“Housekeeper. I know, I know. I slip up one time and you can’t let it go.” I give him a half-smile. “Would you prefer ‘butler’?”
“Ugh. Go do human stuff,” he gestures toward the garden as his lips twitch with amusement.
I wander away down my usual path. David and I may not be friends, but he’s right: he’s a vampire, and he’s not my enemy. At least, not yet. Nothing is black and white. Not even this.
I wander past the fountain, the frogs singing in the moonless gloom. Distant lightning flashes infrequently, the thunder too far away for me to hear it. I’m drawn back to Melody’s monument, and I sit and lean my back against it.
I’m still there when a shadow catches my eye.
I freeze, my heart doubling its rate as someone moves from between the hedges.
“Georgia?” he calls, his voice familiar.
I look around for David, but he’s out of sight. Should I yell? I open my mouth to do just that when the shadow becomes clearer.
The redheaded man who’d met with Valen before. He’s here again. The human spy.
I scramble to my feet and move around Melody’s statue, putting it between us. “What do you want?”
“Georgia. It’s Gage.” He holds his hands out, palms toward me. “It’s me.”