“We don’t. Not until this war is over. But if it ends, and we win, I’ll take you there.”
“I—I don’t know what to say.” She stands and grabs her notebook. “I’ll definitely take you up on that.” She hurries to the door.
“Astrid?” Evie calls.
“Yeah?”
“Did you come here for a reason?” she prompts.
“Oh.” Astrid gives her a sheepish smile. “Yes. I just wanted to let you know that um—” She scoots back to Evie, then drops her voice to a whisper I can barely hear. “My roommate is sleeping at her boyfriend’s tonight.” She goes back to the door, more of a sway in her hips than before.
“See you later, Astrid,” Evie calls, a wolfish smile on her lips.
“Bye.”
The moment the door closes, I give Evie a wry look. “You’re hooking up with the nerd?”
Evie tosses her blonde hair over her shoulder. “I’m a nerd, too, so it works perfectly.”
“Robbing the cradle, too. She’s what, thirty?”
She feigns a look of befuddlement. “Tell me, how old is Valen, exactly?”
My lips twitch. “Touché.”
“Next time, try not to insult her right off the bat. Ease her into it, eh?” She spins back to her computer.
“Ugh, that was kind of the worst. Got reacquainted with what my foot tastes like. Do not recommend.” I open the binder again and continue my search for the proteins I’ll need for the poison. My thoughts keep going back to what Astrid said about experimenting on vampire prisoners, but then I get a flash of Whitbine’s house. The dead women that lined his walls, the organs in jars. Monstrous things. I give up on the catalog and sit back, rubbing the heels of my palms in my eyes.
“You okay?” Evie asks.
“Yeah. I think I’ll stretch my legs. Be back in a few.”
“Okay cool.”
I head out of the lab.
The soldier assigned to my door stiffens, pretending he hadn’t been leaning against the wall.
I roll my eyes at him and walk in the direction of the cafeteria, or where I think it is. The corridors down here are as much of a maze as the Dragonis Manor. I traded one underground labyrinth for another.
The soldier follows, annoying me at every turn.
“Ma’am,” he calls from behind me.
I stop in the middle of the hall as a few people pass by, all of them dressed in military gear. “What?” I call.
“You aren’t allowed to wander. I’ll have to ask you to return to the lab.”
I whirl and face him. “Are you even old enough to drink?”
His mouth drops open.
“I didn’t think so. I’m letting you be my shadow. That’s going to have to be enough for you. Don’t tell me where I can and can’t go.” I turn around and resume my pace.
“Ma’am, stop.” He puts a bit more force into his voice. “I have orders. Colonel Howard said?—”
I groan. “Let me tell you something, Lieutenant Who-Gives-A-Shit, if I could shove my foot up Colonel Howard’s ass, I would.”
