Page 26 of Curiosity

Not enough to lose too much of the frigid air, but not ideal. I grabbed the whipped cream and tried to close it, but quickly realized something must be off.

“Hey, do you know what’s up with the fridge?” I asked, and the young woman shook her head.

“I noticed earlier that it wouldn’t quite close all the way, but couldn’t figure it out with a quick glance, so I moved on.”

I nodded. “Understandable. Give me a second, let me see if I can figure it out.”

The last thing I needed was some damage for that expensive ass refrigerator coming out of my check.

When I opened it again, a bit of investigation revealed that one of the big drawers at the bottom wasn’t fully seated, which was blocking the main door from falling into place. I tried to push it closed, but something kept thatfrom happening. So I pulled the drawer out and bent down, peering to the back of the massive fridge.

Right there.

One of the little metal tubes from the day Irina had showed me around.

There was a weird feeling in my chest as I grabbed it, as if I were seeing something I shouldn’t.

It wasn’t a “tube”.

It was a metal casing around a syringe.

Filled with…blood?

Instead of tossing it onto the counter… I slipped the tube in the pocket of my pants, then replaced the drawer, and closed the fridge.

Completely.

While I was at the sink scrubbing my hands so I could join the plating station again, my mind raced, wondering what the hell I’d stumbled upon. Thinking back to the day I’d seen them without knowing what I was looking at, there had beendozensof those tubes, neatly lined up trays.

Maybehundreds.

It’s not actual blood, girl.

Yeah.

Of course not.

I had to remember, some of these people thought they were damn vampires – it was probably tomato juice or something, some fun interactive element for one of the night’s signature cocktails.

As a matter of fact, the bartender had been in the kitchen earlier, grabbing supplies – that was probably how the vial in my pocket got lost.

Yes.

Thatmade actual sense.

I finished my sanitation and went to help plate dessert – all four hundred plates went into the chiller up front for the servers to pass around later. Again, there was no cleaning in my contract – the gallery had hired people for that — but I hung around for a bit to help, just to make sure.

I didn’t like leaving until the last course had actually gone out.

I’d been holding my bladder for what felt like the entire night, so as I soon as I could reasonably get away I did, leaving my chef’s coat hanging in the kitchen. I made my way to the same bathroom that weird motherfucker had followed me into the last time I was here.

This time, there were many more people.

I had to wait in line a bit, so I was squirming by the time I sat down to relieve myself. On the way back out, as I was zipping and re-buttoning, my hand landed on the vial in my pocket.

I pulled it out.

It… didn’tlooklike something for a bloody Mary.

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