Page 67 of Sweethearts and Savages
Stacey
Both Alistair and I stared at the test tube on the bench and the computer screen in front of us. A frown bunched his forehead, his face extra pale, more so than his Saxon roots would deem necessary.
“You know what you’ve done, right?”
I nodded, my heart thrumming in my chest. “I didn’t mean to. I was trying to find a solution to the deterioration caused by strained mate bonds.”
“Destroy the files. Destroy every reference that you’ve ever made to it, every note scribbled on anything. It all has to be eradicated, Stacey. Now.”
I didn’t argue. I deleted all my files, then deleted the deleted bin, and then put my entire laptop in the x-ray machine. I burned my notebooks in the sink. The whole time Alistair watched me intently, until I’d destroyed everything except the vial on the bench and a single white mouse.
“What do we do with those?”
Alistair hesitated. “Keep it at the back of the vaccine fridge. Like right at the back. Call it something… redundant. Smallpox vaccine or something.” Thejust in casehung in the air. “The mouse can come home with me, I guess. Hannah would like a pet.”
There was a knock on the door and Reese poked his head around the jamb. Reese was the human mate of Celeste, the snow leopard shifter. He was also the financier of the Academy way back at the beginning. Entirely human.
He gave us a megawatt smile. “Hi guys. Alistair, I just wanted to go over the security logs with you and show you the information Talbot sent up from his crawlers on the dark web. It’s… disturbing.”
Both Alistair and I shot a look at the vial on the bench, and back to Reese. Alistair cleared his throat. “Let’s head up to my office.”
Alistair ushered Reese out of the lab and back toward the elevator. Labelling the vial as a vaccine for smallpox and making it generally uninteresting, I stuffed it right to the back of the vaccine cooler. I was going to treat it like that one carrot that’s always in the bottom of everyone’s fridge. If I put it slightly out of sight, no one would ever think to use it. That being said, it was unlikely that anyone but Alistair or I would be administering any of the drugs stored in the infirmary, so it should be fine.
Yes, fine.
I’d accidentally created something that could change humanity as we know it, but it would be fine.
I grabbed the mouse’s enclosure and locked up the lab. I’d drop off the mouse to Hannah like it was her birthday, then I’d go find my girlfriend. She looked better already, a little bit of color back in her cheeks, especially when she was touching Bohdie.
A stab of jealousy that their relationship had out-progressed ours hit me, but I pushed it down. It wasn’t a competition. I was content with my decision to wait until happier times to become her mate. I was only eighteen. Well, in two weeks.
I had time, and I had faith in the longevity of our relationship, even without the mate bond.
As if I’d summoned her with my thoughts alone, Enit appeared in front of me, Frost jogging behind her to keep up.
She leaned forward, kissing me briefly before squealing and dropping into a crouch to look at the mouse.
“Look at this cutie, Frost!” Glimmers of the old Enit tantalized the edges of her tone, the softness of her face.
Frost grimaced. “Adorable.” His tone said he wasn’t actually a fan, but it was hard not to get caught up in Enit’s enthusiasm.
“Where are you taking him?” she asked, poking her finger into the cage. The mouse came over to sniff her fingers, its whiskers twitching. Enit was like a living, breathing Snow White, and I loved that about her.
“He’s retiring from lab life.” I hesitated. “Do you want to keep him?”
Alistair was going to kill me, but the look of absolute joy on her face would be worth the tongue lashing I would receive.
She stood up, her eyes wide. “Can I really?”
I nodded. “All yours.”
I passed her the cage and she danced on the spot. The mouse seemed pleased too, standing on its tiny back legs, front paws windmilling in the air. “Does it have a name?”
Yeah, subject 632. But I don’t think that would suit Enit. So I said the first thing that came into my head. “Uh, Lucky.”
Frost snorted, nudging me with his shoulder. “Lucky he didn’t get exploded in the lab like his siblings.”
Frost had no idea.
