Page 29 of Sergi
A female lab assistant rushed over and grabbed my arm like I was a toddler, dragging me to the commercial-sized refrigerator.
“I was expecting you an hour ago.”
Honestly, if they were going to continue assigning me to multiple jobs, they needed better coordination with scheduling. I didn’t bother responding because she would either ignore me or slap me, which wouldn’t have been the first time, and I wasn’t in the mood for either.
For some reason, all I could focus on was the whispered “thank you” from the vampire. After days of torture and limited feedings, I hadn’t expected his skin to be so warm.
“Are you listening to me?”
I glanced up at the female, taking a long whiff and determining she was human. Her throat was so enticing, and my wolf urged me to take a bite. I sighed. I’d have to shift for that delicious snack, then shift back to clean up the blood just before they put a bullet in my head or stuck me in one of their silver cages so they could shoot their experimental serums in me.
It was all I could do to hold in my hysteric laughter. Then S-272 was next to me, and he nodded at the assistant.
“She understands the task.” He held his head down as he always did. His voice wasn’t patronizing but calm and even.
The female stared at S-272, and her lips formed words, but she paused. She glared at me as she nodded. “See that she does, or you’ll be the one punished for her sloppiness.”
The female stormed out, and it wasn’t until then I realized my body was shaking.
“Are you alright?” S-272 kept his head down as he spoke to me. He was always aware of the cameras.
I blew out a breath. “Yeah. It’s been a rough morning.” I followed him as he opened the refrigerator doors that had been left unlocked. “What’s going on?”
“They’re restarting the experiments soon. They want everything cleaned from top to bottom, including all the equipment.”
His words slammed into me like a rollercoaster on its downward trajectory. More experimenting on shifters, killing them without a second thought.
“The vials are labeled with colored dots. Anything with a yellow dot is to be removed and tossed in the red container for hazardous waste removal. Everything else is to be wiped down and pushed toward the back to wait for new vials.”
He turned toward me when I didn’t respond. All I could do was stare at the contents of the refrigeration unit. Dozens of vials. Most appeared to be blood, but others were filled with a variety of colored liquids, similar to those stored in the cabinets, though they must be different if some had to be refrigerated. They were all labeled.
“S-473. Do you understand?”
“My name is Alexandra. Alex. And I understand.”
I stepped forward and took out the first rack of vials. Each rack held ten vials, and these were filled with a thick, purple substance. The labels were marked with a blue dot. I set them on the counter to the right of the fridge and picked up the next one. This one held vials of light green with a yellow dot. I placed them on the counter to the left.
My motions were slow and methodical. And at first, I didn’t hear S-272.
“S-473, are you alright?”
I think I nodded, but wasn’t sure.
“Alex, are you alright?”
I stopped, a rack of dark-orange vials with green dots still in my hands. I glanced over at S-272 with my head lowered like his. “I’ll be okay.”
He pulled out a rack as if he was instructing me on the task. “You don’t look okay. Why were you late?”
I set the rack on the counter to the right and pulled out a rack of blood. I took a moment to check the label. It was marked H-9 with a date and a yellow dot. The date was five days ago.
I set it on the counter to the left. “Did you know they have a vampire prisoner on level three?”
I’d never shared that information with him, but it was possible he might have overheard it from someone else. The assistants tended to talk freely as if we weren’t there. We were nothing to them after all, except a future experiment test case.
“Are you sure?” He sounded surprised.
“I clean his cell every day, and they torture him. They have him strapped to the wall so he can’t move.” My hands shook as I retrieved another rack of blood labeled the same as the previous one. “They made me wash the blood off him today.”
