Page 49 of Veradel
Swinging my free arm, I land a fist to the side of his head, knocking him out without letting him finish his sentence. Before he can crumple to theground, I lower his body and drag him until he’s slumped against the wall, cringing at what I just did despite the necessity of it.
He almost ratted you out, and you’re feeling guilty for silencing him?Lucan asks incredulously, still lurking in my head.
Well, I probably gave him a concussion.But more than that, I can’t bear the thought of taking someone’s life while Claudia’s dead body hangs overhead. The only ones I want to kill right now are the Guardians themselves. Which I will do. I’m sure of that now.
Good thing he’s right next to the Healing Center,Lucan grumbles.
Without glancing at the camera, I whisper a promise to Claudia, then slip inside the building as the doors seal closed behind me.
Apparently, the rioting, beatings, and execution didn’t touch my old favorite place, because it’s business as usual here. Or at least the facade of business as usual.
Two patients sit in the waiting area, eyes cast downward, while an information clerk sits behind the desk, her blonde head buried in her computer. Before any of them can look up, I disappear behind the first door to my left.
The hallway is empty, but I pull my hood down tighter around my face. The cameras here blink from every corner, operable as always.
I stick as close as I can to the walls, trying to act as normal as possible as I navigate the maze to the laboratory.
Each healer I pass politely nods their head without looking too hard at my face. They don’t peer too hard at anything. They don’t question or think. The Rules are ingrained too deeply, I realize, and Claudia’s death just makes them too frightened to look up and peer even closer at the truth.
Which is why when I turn the corner and see Gaia, I swallow my nostalgia and keep my head down.
“Good evening,” she says as she passes me.
My ribs clench. It’s so good to hear her voice, to know that she’s alive. I wonder if she participated in the riots, or if she kept her head down and clung to the Cardinal Rules. Probably the latter, judging by the lack of bruises or scratches on her face.
Masking the tone of my voice into something slightly higher-pitched, I repeat, “Good evening.”
Then her footsteps recede, unaware that anything is amiss, as I slow.
The laboratory door looms ahead of me, closed. The frosted glass distorts my view of the inside, so I have no other choice but to take a deep breath and swing it open.
Instantly, cold, sterile air hits my face. Several refrigerators hum on the far end of the room, while other analyzing machines whir and clink and emit a high-frequency pitch that my new vampire hearing can’t block out.
I can smell the blood, too. Old blood, new blood, blood in vials, blood everywhere but nowhere in sight at the same time, locked away in one of the many metal cupboards lining the wall above a counter that spreads across the room…
Where one man, hunched over a microscope, looks up to find me still standing in the doorway.
“Hello.” He blinks rapidly, as if trying to adjust his eyesight. “Can I help you?”
It’s him—the healer who turned me in for arguing with Gaia what feels like a lifetime ago.
Making a split-second decision, I say casually, “Dr. Edward asked me to get him a few things. Would you be able to show me where they are?”
Dr. Edward, I know, is the Healing Center’s leading pathologist, so it’s not like I’m pulling a random name out of my ass. Itcouldbe true.
The healer, however, squints at me, rubbing at his eyes with a frown as he takes in my cloak and hood—not healing scrubs. Shit. Maybe I should have just knocked him out like I did the sentry, but I really don’t want to give a second person a concussion in the same night. Even if he kind of deserves it for reporting me to the Guardians all those months ago.
“I’m sure if Dr. Edward needed anything from the laboratory,” the healer says coldly, abandoning his microscope and standing up to face me slowly, “he’d know that all lab equipmentstaysin the lab. Now come a little closer and tell me your name.”
I sigh. If he insists…
In three powerful strides, I’m in his face with the tip of a dagger pressed under his chin. Two days ago, I wouldn’t have even dreamed of doing such a thing, but Claudia’s body strung up in front of the Healing Center door lit every fuse in my body. This man had to have walked under her corpse to get to work today, and he’s worried about who I am? Maybe he should be worryingabout whoheis, deep down.
“Name’s Saskia,” I say with mock brightness. “I believe we’ve brushed shoulders before.” The man gapes as he takes in my face, my eyes, and the cold touch of metal against his skin. “And right now, a very talented doctor needs some equipment toleavethe lab, so I’d appreciate it if you could direct me to where I can find them.”
That’s my girl, Lucan coos.
I wouldn’t actually use this against him, I argue, glancing down at my blade.
