Page 106 of The Cannibal

I shifted my hips under her to get comfortable. A shrug is all I offered her as an answer.

“Isn’t he neither one nor the other?” She smirked. “If it’s not a factor, why not somewhere in between? Nonconforming?”

“It’s none of my business, I don’t know.”

“Hypothetically.” She began tying her hair back into a neat updo with a ribbon.

“As a medical professional, he confounds me. As a person, I can admit I’m curious,” I said.

“So given the opportunity . . . ?” She grinned.

“I’m a man of discovery” is all I said.

“Interesting.” She seemed satisfied enough to smile and get off me.

She grabbed her stockings, shimmying them on and tying her garters. “Can you go another month without me or are you going to be worse when I come all this way to visit again?” She tossed my shirt at me.

I caught it and sat up, pulling my arms through the sleeves. “Depends.”

“So short with me today,” she mockingly pouted. “What happened to the cheeky cruelty of Mr. Novikov?”

“Perhaps next time you’ll come at a time much less arduous.”

“I will see you at dinner, then?”

“Possibly.”

“Then goodbye, for now,” she teased, slipping on her heels.

The last sound being the door fitting back into its frame and the dainty clicks of shoes down the hall.

I lay back on my bed to stare at the ceiling, digging for another cigarette, though the efforts were in vain. My quarters were a mess. Staff didn’t touch the rooms of the basement, barely allowed bedfellows, and not nearly enough of my own time was spent in this dusty hole.

My bedroom was located in the servants’ quarters. Everyone had their own room, newer staff shared, more established ones earned their solitude.

It didn’t bother me much. Though, if I knew how to relax or were home enough to use my room, perhaps I’d prefer something upstairs. One of the nice things down here is you could smell everything from the kitchen. Great for the senses, but not for the stomach.

The past year had shaken me. I look back at myself and wonder how I could have possibly predicted the situation I find myself in now. From lone wolf to responsible for a pack, from respected Fixer to disgraced by society along with Silas. And finally, having to save the woman who permanently maimed me, at the fear her death may mean my head.

Frontier medicine and at-home surgery was not impossible, but it wasn’t my specialty. We stitched her up right there in the lab. It wasn’t her head wound that worried me, it was the reason she still had seizures. Many who turn lose their chronic ailments. Alina, as always, seemed to be an exception. Unless this was our sign to escalate efforts.

That level of unsterile procedure could never have been done on a human. In this case, she may be glad she was already dead once over.

My hand trembled as I rubbed my face, my scarred skin stinging as I pressed against my eye. I wasn’t positive I was even seeing out of it anymore, considering the slightly more limited peripheral on that side.

I was being punished.

For all the havoc I’d created in my lifetime, I was paying back the time with interest. This was my life, a new station, a new mindset, and a new set of goals that were equivalent to freezing the sun.

All will be well by the end of the Appraisal, or all will come to an end.

Time won’t just tell, she’ll scream.

30

THE POISONER

As with every day since waking, the day was slow, my body was slower.