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She winked at me before closing the door, and I groaned again, pulling the covers up over my shoulder. So much for that nap.
What had Dr. Blanton found in that book to make her call in outside help? For all that I'd held the book in my hands, I hadn't gotten a chance to look inside it. Had it been printed? Or handwritten? Was there anything inside it at all? What experts had she called?
I heard the shower shut off in the bathroom, and chewed on my lower lip. Should I tell Vanessa about my strange experience with the book? If there was something weird going on, she should at least know before she took off for Palia with a piece of the cover, right? What if something happened?
I shook my head, nearly laughing aloud. What the hell was going to happen? It was a tiny piece of leather, for God's sake. Besides, I couldn't even prove there was anything wrong with the book. I was clearly losing my marbles.
I stretched my legs out in bed, feeling something gritty against my feet. What…?
At that moment, Vanessa emerged from the bathroom, dressed in something much nicer than she would have worn for a day in the field.
"Just taking a piece of leather to the mass spec lab, huh?" I said dryly.
She raised her brows mischievously. "Dating that sample is going to take hours. It's not like she can expect us to sit around and wait for it. Besides, we've got to eat, right?"
I snorted, and she tossed me a grin before slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading to the door. "Have fun in the lab," she called back as the door clicked closed behind her.
I rolled my eyes, then dragged myself up to a sitting position, feeling that grittiness against my legs once again. "What the—?"
I flung back the blankets and stared. There was dirt in my bed.
Dark, crumbly soil, almost as if—oh my God, what had happened to my feet? They were…filthy. That was where the dirt had come from, clearly, flaking off my mud-stained feet, as if I'd been walking around in the field barefoot. But…I’d showered just before bed. I scrambled up, rushing into the bathroom. Yes, there was my towel, still damp from the night before. And I'd been wearing boots at work. Even if I hadn't showered, there was no way my feet would be streaked with dried mud. What the hell was going on around here?
It was a prank. Right? It had to be. Vanessa was messing with me, for some reason I couldn't figure out.
I blew out a shaky breath, then stepped into the shower. A few minutes later, freshly cleaned and dressed, with new sheets on the bed, I felt marginally calmer. It wasn't a big deal. I would just ask her about it when she got back. And until then I would keep busy in the lab, cleaning artifacts, keeping my head down.
While the blue car had once again been left behind in the lot for me, I decided that a walk would clear my head. The archaeology lab at the University of Kulmeira wasn’t far from the dorms, and although it was still raining, the downpour had slackened into more of a gentle drizzle. I grabbed an umbrella from the stand in the kitchen and made my way out of the stifling warmth of the building. I took deep gulps of fresh, rain-scented air as I made the trek across the mostly-deserted campus, beginning to feel more human as I put some distance between myself and the dorm. It was a joke, I told myself. There was no other explanation.
What about the book? The thought buzzed in the back of my brain, but I shut it down. Today I was going to put on some loud music, bury myself in work, and enjoy a little solitude.
But when I ducked through the lab door, shaking raindrops off my umbrella and brushing my hair out of my eyes, I found I wasn't alone after all.
Instead, a pair of green eyes looked up from where a tall figure was bent over the bench, watching me intently as I froze in the doorway.
A small smile pulled up the corner of Luca's mouth. "I thought I might find you here."
8
“I…hi," I stammered.
Luca straightened up and sauntered over to the doorway. "I promised I would help you," he reminded me, looking slightly amused. Evidently, my bewilderment showed.
"So you did," I said faintly. I edged past him, catching a breath of his cologne, something sharp and spicy, and I fought the urge to breathe in deeply. "Uh, it's probably been a while since you've processed artifacts, but…”
"Oh, no," Luca said, following me to the bench and dropping onto a stool next to me. "On the contrary. I spend quite a bit of time with the university students. I think you will find I am very…helpful."
He quirked one dark eyebrow, making me feel as though I was about to tumble backwards off my chair. I tore my gaze from his and cleared my throat. "Okay then," I said, too loudly. I reached for the stack of newspaper on the corner of the bench and busied myself unfolding it and spreading it over the stainless steel counter. "Maybe get the bowls ready, then."
"You mean these bowls?"
I looked up. Luca was grinning at me, one hand resting lightly on the rim of a large silver bowl filled with water. A second identical bowl sat beside it, and four toothbrushes were lined up on the counter.
"Well, I guess let's get started," I mumbled.
He reached across me, his well-muscled forearm just inches from my face as he lifted a dusty fragment from the tray and dipped it into the bowl. I watched him turn it in his fingers, the pad of his thumb gently brushing away surface dirt. The water clouded and swirled with his movements.
"Here," he said.
