Page 17 of A Lab Rat's Guide to Fated Love
Suppressing a shiver, Nori pulled the hood of her stolen sweatshirt up and turned to Vir again. “Vir, we’re here.”
His eyes fluttered open at the nudge this time. And as he blinked at her in a slow, dazed fashion, she noticed just how outrageously long his eyelashes were. The impulse to pluck one just to see if they were real made her internally balk at herself.
He blinked again, even slower this time.Like a cat’s slow-blink.
Ryan stepped out first to push the purple wrought iron gates open, allowing Fehim to drive them up to the house. The garden lights should’ve turned on automatically as they drove in, but the whole place remained steeped in darkness.
Nori hurried up the porch steps and punched in her door’s key code, thankful for battery powered technology. Once inside the living room, she switched her phone’s flashlight on to look through the contents of the electrical panel before turning on her heels to step out again.
“The generator is out of fuel,” she announced, reappearing a moment later.
“There’s a gas station a few miles from here,” Fehim said, showing her the map on his phone. “We’ll get the fuel there. And hopefully, some food as well. Whoa—” He caught Vir as the latter began swaying on his feet.
“Nor,” Ryan said, eyeing Vir’s slouching form skeptically. “How many of your mice made it out alive after the shot?”
“At least nine out of ten survived in all the qualifying rounds.” She crossed her arms against her chest. “Why?”
“The odds look good for your next nine subjects, then.”
“Dude…” Fehim elbowed Ryan. He half-dragged Vir to the three-seater couch nearby, where Vir folded like a deflated balloon as soon as his body made contact with its surface.
“Not funny.” She narrowed her eyes pointedly at Ryan.
“Alright, sorry.” He laughed. “I’ll drive.” He added to Fehim.
She had a feeling he wasn’t sorry at all, but she was too tired to bicker. Vir showed no signs of having heard the exchange at all. The man lay so still; she wondered if she’d calculated wrong, if Ryan might be right after all.
Was he not going to make it a single day with the mites? Had his heart already progressed much further into failure than she’d anticipated? Was his family going to blame her for killing him by dragging the sick man away from his ward? Forget her career, what if she was imprisoned for abduction and murder?
She clearly hadn’t thought this through.
“Not dead,” Vir groaned from the couch; his eyes remaining closed. “Just tired.”
She let out a quiet huff, swallowing the dryness in her throat.
“Let’s go,” Fehim said, walking through the front door.
“Be right out,” Ryan called after him. Turning to Nori, he jerked his head towards the other door far on his left. “Can we talk? In private.”
“What is it?” Nori asked, pressing the door closed once they were in her grandma’s old study.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked softly. “You’d be alone with him. For months.”
It took her a few seconds to reign in the panic before she turned around to face him. “I’m sure. He is my subject. I’m not scared of him.”
He eyed her quietly for a moment. “I know you’re not. I’m sorry, I wish I could stay.”
“You can’t disappear in the middle of your semester.” She couldn’t ask him to drop everything and hide away with her for herwork. But a small unreasonable part of her hoped he’d do it, anyway.
“Call me if you need anything.”
“I will,” she mumbled, deflated, before continuing in a lighter tone. “It’s all good, really. From what I know, he seems like a good person. It’ll be fine, really.”
A shadow flickered across his face. “You always assume everyone’s a good person, Nor. Just use him as your lab rat and don’t bother empathizing too much.”
“What are you—?”
“I didn’t want to mention this earlier,” he interrupted. “But since he’ll be staying here… You should probably know he’s a snob, always looking down on people. Thinks he’s too good for everyone. He doesn’t even have friends as far as I know. Honestly, I don’t see why Fehim hangs out with him, either. Pities him, maybe. All I’m saying is, don’t be too soft. Let him know who’s in charge right away and keep reminding him that his survival lies in your hands.”
