Page 60 of Glitter Rose
I stand up too fast and immediately regret it, gripping the exam table as the familiar dizziness hits.
“Whoa there.” Mike’s hand lands on my waist, fingers digging in. “Can’t have Gabriel’s prize falling and hurting herself.”
“I can walk.” I need to keep myself from throwing up.
“Sure you can, sweetheart.” His palm drifts to the small of my back. “But I’m here to help anyway.”
Min-ji turns away, busying herself with the samples.
No help there. Never is.
Although I would love some human connection that isn’t tainted with Gabriel’s agenda or Mike’s eyes stripping me bare.
“See you tomorrow,” I say.
She nods once, already absorbed in her work. Or pretending to be.
“Back to your cage, sweetheart.” Mike steers me to the door and down the corridor, his hand a constant unwelcome presence on my back.
The walls are another endless parade of sterile white, with white-coated scientists working on whatever horrors Gabriel has commissioned, passing by us.
“You smell good today.” Mike’s breath hits my ear. “New soap?”
“Get your hands off me.” I wrench away from him, nearly stumbling against the wall. “I know the way back to my room.”
“Boss says you don’t go anywhere alone.”
“Your boss is my brother. Maybe he can act like it instead of my jailer.”
Nobody here has the spine to acknowledge what’s happening. They just scurry past like frightened mice,pretending not to see the walking blood bank Gabriel keeps locked up.
“Slow down, sweetheart.” Mike’s hand clamps around my bicep. “Blood loss makes you unstable.”
“Your face makes me unstable.”
His fingers tighten painfully. “Cute. Real cute.”
I yank my arm free the moment we are back at my old family mansion, flanked by several men patrolling. We used to take ‘family’ vacations here, which was really my dad being closer to his town-lab he created.
Inside, everything is full of ghosts I’ve been trying to forget, from high ceilings that carried my mother’s piano notes to expensive furniture we bounced on to an old family portrait showing the aristocratic Green family.
From the main entrance, it takes one flight up to my ‘suite,’ which is really my old bedroom transformed into a gilded prison cell. The stairs wind upward, each step sapping what little energy I have left after Min-ji’s vampiric session and the uphill walk.
“Taking your sweet time today,” Mike says behind me.
“Maybe if Gabriel fed me more than prison rations, I’d move faster.”
“If you were nicer.”
I turn on the landing, facing him. “I’d rather eat dust.”
His eyes roam over me, lingering on places that make my fists clench. “Your loss.”
The mansion used to feel like a home… before Gabriel filled it with assholes like Mike.
He opens the door for me with a mock bow. “Home sweet home.”
I step inside, keeping as much distance between us as possible. “You can leave now.”
