Page 5 of Buried Secret 295
My eyes look down at my chest, yet nothing is there. It feels as if the surrounding ground is no longer there. My body weight drags me downwards, falling through blackness until I crash land inside of my body. A coldness seems to crawl inside of me. It causes me to take a sharp intake of air, making the leather strap in my mouth fly. The sound echoes around me, making me flinch from the noise. Every breath seems to vibrate throughout the room. The air seems thicker than normal, and my lungs try to pull as much air inside as I can, which causes gasps and coughs to leave my body.
My heartbeat is out of control, but my body no longer burns, though I am still strapped down onto the table. Nobody seemed to be around, but I couldn’t see anything but the bright light above me. My gasps for air must have caught the attention of someone, their footfalls sounding heavy. “Sarge!” I hear someone yell, “We were wrong. This one is alive! Get medical here!”
What the hell was happening? A man is wearing a helmet, goggles, and tactical gear moving above me. His head hits the overhead light, causing it to tilt out of my eyes. “Who are you?” I bark gruffly, thinking either they might be worse or that small bit of hope that maybe it’s someone shutting this place down. Can I let that hope build up?
“It’s okay. We are with the Fae Protection Services–FPS and will get you out of here.” My body shakes with the words, ormaybe it’s the vampire venom that remains in my veins. The needle from the venom still stands out of my chest. Dr Vic usually hits me with a shot of adrenaline right about now. The shakes have begun, which happens when the venom is being absorbed. My veins appear gray rather than black. A sob breaks through my lips. My body shakes more violently as I let myself cry, something I haven’t done in a long time. “Sarge! I need some help here! Where is that medic?”
Did I need medical attention? Maybe. Without the shot, I will be even more miserable. When he touches my arm to let me free, I hiss and cry out in pain. Until I heal, every touch feels like it will bruise. “Careful,” I say through gritted teeth. His hands jerk away, and perfect fingertip-shaped black bruises appear on the surface of my arms. “Vampire venom. It’s still working through my system. I’m going to need you to stab me with that needle there on the table.” He takes a staggering step backward, hitting the light once more.
“Stab you where?” His voice heightens, almost causing his deep voice to go through a puberty change. That, along with his brown eyes looking enormous through his goggles, causes me to laugh. A deep belly laugh, and I can’t stop. The poor man looks so out of his element. Somehow, I don’t think they cover this in basic training.
“Sorry. Your eyes in the goggles.” I wheeze with laughter and try to take a breath and not freak the man out further. I close my eyes and try to calm my breath. Either way, I’m not helping prove my mental state. “You won’t hurt me.” The laugh subsides, and I nod to the man. “I’m ready. I pull out the other needle, and you hit the same spot in my heart. It’s adrenaline. It will help the venom settle. I will heal slowly.”
His hand shakes. I look at him, needing him to do this for me. “It’s okay; just do it.” My gaze feels like it’s challenging him, pushing him to do something he doesn’t want.
Sweat drips from his nose. He does what I suggest and stabs before pushing the adrenaline in. The relief is almost instant. “Thank you. Now, quickly undo the straps, and I think I can walk out of here.”
He nods before opening the right side, then the left. When I sit up, I shove the overhead lamp out of the way. My limbs felt so heavy, but it wasn’t new. A new person approaches the room; the one who found me halts him from touching me. “Don’t touch her or touch as little as possible.”
When I stand up, I collapse into a heap, and my world goes black once more.
Chapter five
Beeping. Why is therebeeping? Why is it this annoying? I clench my teeth, wanting to scream to turn it the fuck off. I roll onto my side and curl into the soft pillow, which causes me to frown. It’s too soft. How am I supposed to sleep on this? I suck in a breath as the memory of armed guards coming to close the facility down hits me, causing me to sit up on the bed. Panicked breath leaves me as I take in my surroundings.
Blue flowers are painted on the white walls, with square white tiles lining the floors. I am lying in a bed where someone had tucked me in with starchy white sheets and a coarse white blanket. The smell of bleach lingers in the room, causing my nose to twitch. My eyes flicker down to the IV in the crook of my arm, and I immediately grip and rip it out, ignoring the blood and saline that start to drip onto the bed. Next, I pull the wires at my chest, pulling the sticky pads off and tossing them to the side.
My wrists catch my eye, and I almost choke on the air as I take them in. The white scars that line around where my cuffs were are hard to ignore. I know it’s from when the metal dug into my skin as I tried pulling them off. It all comes back to me, Dr. Vic’s lab and all of it is at the front of my mind. Panic grips me once again, and this time, I don’t think it will let me go as the fluorescent lights flicker. The sound and light are popping and bouncing off the glass like static. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I feel like I am in a horror movie. I grip my blanket as if that is going to protect me. All I can do is watch helplessly as the shadows leak from the ceiling.
My eyes widen as I take them in, as they slowly descend toward me. They are back, and this time I can run. I throw off the blankets, preparing to run. I push myself over the arm rails, trying to get out of bed as quickly as possible. The damn blanket causes me to trip, my head flying towards the tiled floors. My hands fly to my face to protect it, as I know this will hurt. My eyes close, preparing to fall head-first onto the hard tiles. When I don’t feel pain, I open my eyes. My shadows have wrapped around me and gently sat me on the floor. They don’t attack me; if anything, they seem to soothe my anxiety.
They wrap themselves around me like a second skin. The shadows surround me; all I can feel is love and happiness coming from them. What is happening? The last time I saw them, my world imploded. Every part of me screams that these are dangerous. Evil. They are why I was taken away to that place. They are what made me a dirty secret, that’s clear from my memory. The proof that I wasn’t Marcus’s daughter. Yet, their presence slowly calms me as they embrace me. Instead of feeling terror, I feel secure. It feels like nothing can touch me while I am wrapped inside them.
When the door opens, I jump back. I scramble backward, trying to hide even a little. My hands pull me across the squaretiles to use the bed to shield me from sight, no matter how slightly. I am terrified of whoever is going to come through that door. While I hope it is better than where I just left, life hasn’t proven trustworthy. Looks are often deceiving. The nurse walks around the room. I watch her movements and wait for her to spot me hiding beside the bed. She walks into the bathroom and flicks on the light, causing light to stream into the dark room. The light almost causes me to hiss at the brightness. Her movements quicken when she exits. She looks at the bed with panic on her face. “Where did she go?” She walks around the room, turning on all the lights. Her movements become nervous as she opens and scrambles through cabinets and drawers, flinging them open while pulling everything out. I can feel her nervous energy as it rushes to me. While it makes me nervous, it gives me a slight head rush of energy throughout my body. Am I feeling her feelings?Yes.My shadows seem to whisper to me.
Can she not see me?No. We have shielded you.Relief hits me, my eyes close, and I feel like I can breathe. I am invisible, or at least hidden, well enough not to be seen by the average person. I want to see what they want with me before I reveal myself.
The nurse tosses everything from every nook and cranny, throwing its contents onto the floor. She places her hands on her head, her fingers gripping her blonde hair, and looks around again. ‘The freak is gone.’ Her voice enters my head, but her lips don’t move. She turns before running out the door, yelling, “We have a code yellow!”
A sigh escapes my lips, but part of me wonders what to do next. I can’t hide here forever, even if every part of me wants to. Maybe I should find a weapon? At least this way, maybe I can figure out what they want to do with me. I move slightly, but the door opens before I can move, so I tuck up against the bed. The nurse has two other people following closely behind her. Thefirst person is a lady wearing a beige suit with a shirt that falls below her knees. Her mousy brown hair is in finger waves, and she looks like the type that carries wet wipes everywhere.
Along with a tall man next to her, standing well over 6’ in height. He stands with his back straight, almost like he used to be in the military. His bright turquoise eyes scan around the room. My heart skips a beat when I swear he looks straight at me. His dark reddish-brown hair is shaggy and slightly messy at the top, making you want to run your fingers through it. He seems professional yet a little edgy, wearing an all-black suit. I swear his head tilts to the side, and his eyebrow cocks as he seems to watch me.
The beige woman speaks as she places her hands on her hips dramatically. “How could you have lost her? Are the windows damaged? Did she jump out?” Her heels click against the hard floors. ‘All my credentials and I am stuck doing the shitty jobs nobody wants. This is a waste of time. The lot of freaks will probably have to be put down.’Her voice enters my head, she turns, and I see a small smile light her lips.‘I wonder how they will put them down? The ones nobody wants to claim.’
“Will you shut up!” I scream at her as my hands grip the side of my head. What is happening to me? Tears gather in my eyes as the panic grips me once more. “Get out of my head!” My shadows try harder to wrap themselves around me. Their presence is soothing to me, but the terror that grips me is hard to ignore despite their best efforts.
The man tilts his head at me once more. “Ladies, can I have the room?” He asks them.
“We still have to search the room! Who knows how far she has gone? We don’t even know what exactly she is!” The nurse is panicking. My body seems to glow slightly, a smoky hue bursting out of me. The smoke seems to pull at the nurse, pulling at the surrounding air around her before latching onto her. Her bodyslightly sways, but when my smoke latches on, she straightens as if it’s holding her up, pulling as it seems to wrap around her. As my eyes close, a head rush surrounds me, unlike anything I have ever felt.
The man eyes the nurse, who has grown pale. Her eyes close, and her body goes lax, yet I still hold on to her. “Out! The both of you.” He yells at the two. He steps in front of her, which causes my concentration to break, and I growl, angry that whatever is happening has stopped. The man slams the door closed before raising his pointer finger and waving it. “I know you’re still here, and I can only imagine how overwhelming this is for you. Hiding will change nothing!” He makes that statement like he is scolding a small child with his hands on his hips. “Come out to talk to me. I can’t help you if you don’t come out.”
What do you want us to do?My shadows whisper to me. I have to come out at some point. The lights flicker, a bulb bursting from its confines.That doesn’t mean we can’t scare him along the way.They flicker off from me, going to him, and he hisses as they slide by him before they disappear back inside of me. “Fuck.” He swears when he looks at me and slightly shivers as he glares somewhat.
Not exactly the best way to get on someone’s good side, but I am glad he knows not to fuck with me. With the shadows, I don’t feel so alone. Yet that leaves me feeling confused and shaky, considering they seem to be what my father hated most about me. They were the final nail in the coffin of our relationship. I shake my head and must stop thinking of him as my father. It was another reason he could use to hurt me. They gave him the excuse that he needed to put an end to them and me. It was the first time he physically hurt me because, of course, it was okay when it was only my feelings. Emotion scars are something that nobody saw. As I think about my shadows, they purr under my skin. It feels as if a part of me snaps back into place. A piece thatI didn’t know was missing. I feel whole with them; they preen with joy at my thoughts. I return his glare and try to act like I am braver than what I am feeling. “Why are you here?”
The man tilts his head to the side once again. “Salem, right?”