Blood Lands (Savage Lands #5)(43)

Istvan didn’t tolerate failure.

“And remove that as was well. It will contaminate all my experiments.” He pointed his finger to the dead girl next to me. She was no more than garbage soiling his lab now. “Also, while you are at it, get someone to come in here and clean this mess up right away.”

The guards nodded, one heading quickly for me, the other frowning as he was left with the dead body. “Bastard,” he muttered. The guard unlatching my binds smirked with a quiet chuckle.

“You owe me.” The other one with curly brown hair glared over at him, unbuckling the girl.

Her mouth was

still parted in her final words. Her vacant eyes scraped into my soul as if it were my fault.

I didn’t even know her name.

“Come on.” The young guard yanked me up, my legs unsteady, my head spinning at the sudden movement. I was drained, physically and mentally, but followed the man without a word.

The other officer wrapped up the girl in the cloth from the gurney and threw her over his shoulder like a sack.

“Don’t forget to get someone in here. Pronto!” Dr. Karl yelled after the men when we exited the lab.

“Yeah, yeah... we hear you, fat pig.” The one holding me, with short blond hair, muttered under his breath. “Thinks he can order us around like he’s the general.”

“Right?” Brown Curls huffed, hitching the dead girl higher on his shoulder. “We’re not those pill-poppin’ mindless drones the general has at HDF and Věrhăza.”

My ears pricked at their chatter. They didn’t consider me anything more than a walking lab rat.

“Fuck, I’ve heard things about the ones in Věrhăza... like feral and shit.” Brown Curls shook his head, his grip on my arm tight.

“Guess you get what you pay for.”

They both laughed, and I ground my teeth together. Entitled bastards.

“My father is still bitching about how expensive the tank treatment was.” Blondie shook his head.

The other guy nodded in agreement. “But so fucking worth it.”

These two were part of the tank experiments?

Now that I was aware, I could see the huge difference between those in the prison and these guys. The guards at Věrhăza were aggressive, mindless, and feral. These guys seemed “normal” besides the fact they had been turned into fae. Machine-made. Did they know at any moment they could die? Was it weeks? Years? Would it be worth it to them?

“Help me dump this one, find the servant girl, then we can head out for a beer after we return her.” We moved down the hall.

“How about you find the servant and discard the body, and I’ll take her back?” Blondie grinned, tugging on my arm.

“You owe me, asshole.”

“Fine.” Blondie sighed, turning us down a new passage. This place was much bigger than I first thought.

“Hey! Girl.” Brown Curls yelled out at a woman down the hall.

Lena stopped, her gaze quickly jumping over me, her throat bobbing.

“This needs to be dumped, and Dr. Karl needs you to clean up the mess in the lab.” Brown Curls continued as we strolled right up to her. “

“Of course. I’ll go get the trolley. Wait here.”

“Lena and I work at the factory they are using for their fae experiments... we were promoted one day out of the blue about a year ago. To do cleanup.” The words of her brother, Emil, flung back into my head. Is this what they meant by cleanup?

As if she could hear my thoughts, her eyes shot to me. Something in them tugged at my subconscious, as if she was trying to tell me something. But before I could understand, she turned for a door next to us, opening it slowly.

I pinned my lips together to keep from making a noise. My eyes gobbled up what was on the other side of the door. Rows and rows of jail cells. The ones I could see were more like the HDF prisons. Sterile, clean, and even had seatless toilets, unlike the fae cages.

Men, women. Young and old. Sickly, thin, and haggard.

Humans.

They all looked as if they had been plucked right off the streets of Savage Lands. Those who had no shelter, no job, and no food. Living from moment to moment, hoping for someone to actually see them. To care and help.

Lena grabbed a tilt truck, wheeling it through the door.

As the door started to shut, someone moved in the farthest cell against the wall, the same double secured type of lockup Warwick and I were in on the fae side.

I caught a flash of brown eyes, dry, tangled reddish-brown hair, and a boney figure huddled against the bars.

I blinked, and the door closed, but my chest heaved as if it understood something my brain hadn’t picked up on. Prickles danced down my vertebrae, my head dizzy, stumbling me to the side.

“Whoa...” Blondie grabbed for me. “Let’s get this one back to her cell before she passes out on me.”

Brown Curls tossed the girl’s body into the bin, brushing off his hands.

“Dump her and get to the lab,” he ordered Lena.

“Yes, sir.” She bowed her head.

I didn’t even glance at Lena as they pulled me away, heading back for the fae side, my mind still reeling.

You’re delirious.

I was exhausted. Weak. Traumatized. Hallucinating from blood loss and hunger.

There was no way I saw who I thought I saw.