Page 120 of The Midnight Order
Corvin
The microscope lenspresses coldly around my eye as I watch little cells dance on the film, my eyes blurring in and out as I try to focus on the damn thing.
Fuck, I’m tired.
Asher’s come and gone multiple times, and I’m waiting for him to send in the big guns—Lowell—to force me to sleep, but I’m not ready for the moment Silver traipses through the door with a knowing smirk on her face.
“Good afternoon,” she says.
Shit, is it afternoon?
I look at my watch, noting the time but also realizing the date. I’ve been in here for four days.
“Hey,” I grumble, turning back to the microscope, where her blood dances with the agent I mixed it with so I could see the cells better.
“What are you up to in here? I hear you haven’t been out in a few days, not even to eat.”
I realize that point when her sweet scent wafts up my nose as she leans close, causing thirst to burn up my throat.
“Silver, could you back up? I don’t want you to compromise the slide.”
She scoffs. “The slide? I presume I’m the one on the slide. Aren’t I? Or are you so hungry that you don’t want me close?”
I growl.
My patience is fragile, being that I’m so exhausted and hungry, but I don’t think I realized it until she entered the lab.
“Please, let me work.” I sound like an addict chasing his next high.
As if Silver realizes the same thing, she grabs my arm and turns me, tugging me away from the microscope. She leads me to the rolling chair in front of my computer and plops me down.
My body aches as it relaxes, but I try to stand again, and Silver cuts me off by dropping her body over my lap. “Now,” she says. “A few people told me you won’t leave this lab. You’re burning the candle at both ends, and it will come to a head soon. Trust me, I know. I’ve done it many times over.”
The idea that she understands me on this level is something I relish for a moment before I realize how hard I’ve grown beneath her.
My body knows what it wants even when my mind wants to remain in the lab, wrapped up in slides and blood results. “I need to finish this. I’m so close.”
“It’ll be there tomorrow.”
“But what if I missed something?” I argue, sounding more unhinged than I realized I’d become over the last four days.
“It’ll be there tomorrow. Now, will you come with me to the dining room? Or do you want me to get Asher?”
“I want to keep working!” I snarl, my hands gripping her hips to tug her off of me, when she wraps her arms around me, and they feel as if they weigh a thousand pounds. As if she’s holding me hostage.
“Silver,” I breathe, and she leans in.
“I could feed you, Corvin. I know you don’t love to drink from me, but if you’re too hungry to wait…”
Am I dreaming?
I have the distinct feeling I’m going to rouse on the floor of this lab any moment now. There’s no way Silver is offering herself to me on a platter.
But when her nose brushes mine, the touch causing a tingle to ripple through my body like a gong, I know she’s really here.
“Don’t tempt a monster,” I tell her, my words choked under hunger as she plays a dangerous game with me.
“You’re not a monster, Corvin. And if you are, what does that make me?”
