THE POISONER
If I rubbed my thumb into my palm anymore, I may wear away the skin.
I stood in the hallway outside the lab. Everyone from representatives to private security from all Nests surrounded the door. We had to treat him to avoid nullifying any goodwill we’d earned with our guests, but I feared it was already gone the minute Silas laid his hands on Levi last night.
Much was speculated about what was going on behind those doors, yet no one dared to speak too loudly.
My back was flat against the wall as I stared at my shoes, unsure what to do with myself.
The ghost of hands on me made me flinch uncontrollably.
This morning, I was buttoned entirely up to the neck, not even an inch of lace to avoid skin contact.
The red color I chose for my wardrobe made me ill.
All too bright, too noticeable. I wanted to be a shadow, never to draw the eye again.
Even staying in Phoebe’s room the entire night did not ease my tremors.
I was awake, more than ever, even if my body begged to be put down.
It was like my mind couldn’t shut off. Memories that were tucked away for years resurfaced involuntarily with far too much detail.
I couldn’t wake from an endless loop of dreams, only to be woken with terrible dread.
The hand on my shoulder made me want to desleeve my arm.
“Alina.” Luka’s voice broke through the barrier, and suddenly the ache in my spine made me incredibly ill in spirit.
I couldn’t look at him.
“He won’t let me touch him.” He leaned close, to shield his face from prying spectators itching for anything to spill. “He said he will only let you.” Luka took both of my hands, one by one, and wrapped them around a jar.
I swallowed, glancing down.
A jar of milk, a long fang’s point breaking the surface of the white substance.
“Why me?”
“Punishment.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Not you,” he clarified, his hands only leaving mine when he was sure I wouldn’t drop the glassware. “I will be outside.”
He stepped away.
The spectators in the hallway stared. Some held their handkerchiefs over their faces in disgust, either at myself or what was in the jar—most likely a mixture.
My brow twitched involuntarily. There was no settling my exhausted nerves.
The bodies avoided me the minute I pushed off the wall and approached the heavily guarded door.
Men stood like statues, not even a single glance as they let me into my own laboratory.
The skylight lit only half the room, dust dancing in the air before it found a home on the cabinet glass or stuck to the surface of the table.
A dark figure sat at the back of the lab at the end of my workbench.
Light reflected from the back of his irises when he looked up. He was so still, as frozen as the ice against his head. Like some insect, he uncurled from poor posture when the door closed gently behind me. But I didn’t move.
“I don’t bite, dove.” The tone was cool, slow enough to hear a slight rattle as the phantom spoke.
“I do.”
“Of course you do,” the words were smooth like smoke, “but I don’t mind.”
Each step was just another terrible, awful mistake. He watched me steadily, not even a blink as I made my way around the table.
He leaned against the table as he turned, not letting his back face me while I approached.
Levi’s shirt was stained. You could see the pattern of where his vest and coat were when Silas beat him. He ran his tongue over the gap in the teeth, anticipating the next step.
I gestured to the stool behind him to take a seat.
He still did not take his eyes off me.
It was almost as sickening as touching me again.
“Open,” I said, pulling one of the cabinet drawers for tongs and cotton pads.
A couple vials rolled and rang against the metal forceps when they hit each other. My old blood poison moved sluggishly within the glasses. They were right there in front of me. I could end this here.
“You won’t need those,” Levi said.
My skin ran cold.
I stared at him.
He raised a brow at my forceps. “Teeth are slippery things.”
I hadn’t realized how tight my grip on the tongs were until I let them go, slowly pushing the drawer back into place.
The milk was room temperature at this point.
My fingers dipped into the liquid, scratching around for the tooth before I felt the prick of the tip.
When I pulled it out, it was heavier than I thought.
The gold tip covered about a third of the fang.
With my nail, I picked at the edge of the casing, slipping it off.
The tooth was nearly black at the tip, the gold possibly the only reason it was usable, at least fourteen karats for durability.
Levi held his hand out expectantly.
I dropped the gold in his palm.
“Open,” I said again.
“Not even a bit of cannabis for the procedure?” he replied cheekily. “A dentist usually provides pain relief.”
“I am a poisoner, not a dentist.”
“I prefer salvia,” he continued to talk, “also called the holy herb. Fantastic plant.”
“Would you prefer I reinsert your tooth before the root dries, or would you rather keep talking?”
The deepest, most dramatic sigh came from the man. I hated that I saw Silas’s relation so transparently. He really was the spitting image of him, facial hair aside.
He opened his mouth, his other fang flexing forward.
Carefully, I pressed my thumb to his upper lip.
The missing spot waiting for the return of the tooth.
He was unique to the others. In Silas, the only difference was the primary and secondary fangs, the tongue only counted as a major difference if he stuck it straight out.
When the fangs were withdrawn, he looked like anyone else.
Levi’s front teeth were typical, but that’s where it ended.
Everything hidden within his mouth was sharp, jagged. His mouth was filled with hound’s teeth. I pressed the root of the fang into the gums, having to hold it there for a good minute before it stuck back in.
I glanced at his eyes; his pupils widened when I met his gaze.
The man was as baleful as the things described in old texts. Strange men whose only goal was a wicked, evil agenda known solely to them and the depraved souls they dragged down with them.
Folding the tooth back required me to stretch my finger farther into his mouth.
The next few seconds were the longest. I half expected him to take my finger right there.
I shoved the cotton against the base of the tooth, removing my finger quickly as he closed his mouth.
“Bite or keep pressure on it so it won’t dislodge,” I instructed, immediately wiping my hands on my dress. “Keep the gold off until it is stable enough to hold the extra weight.”
“You look rather pale,” he commented.
“Would you like stitches or are we finished here?” I ignored the bait.
“So grim. Not even a smile?” He smirked. “Bedside manner is important, even for dentists.”
“I am no dentist.”
“You’re no doctor at all,” he laughed, “you’re a woman.”
“Then why request me? Luka could have done this perfectly fine.”
“Don’t worry, after the trial, you won’t have to beat yourself up trying to figure out what that nagging sense of uselessness is.” He stretched his elbow back to roll his shoulder, as if this were anything but a casual conversation. “You’ll be all right. More than most.”
I didn’t want to entertain him any longer. I dumped the milk into the liquid waste bin, then the glassware off to the side.
There was a wistful, breathless sigh. “You look just like her.”
There was a pause.
Did I hear him correctly?
I only spared him a sly glance. “Who?”
Levi held his hand out, forming an oval with his fingers. Only one striking eye through the view. “Your mother.”
No reactions, do not let him win.
“You should have seen her—”
I couldn’t do it. It was too much. My feet were moving toward the door without thinking, the lab and man. The door hit a guard as I opened it, shoving harder when I felt the resistance.
Luka called for me, but he did not chase my long strides down the hall.
Every nerve in my body, from my metatarsals to my brain, was firing so hot I thought catching fire would be a kindness to me. A carbonated fizzing inside my skull I could not shake.
I yearned for the days when I could be alone, bothered by no one.
Everyone was in a place they did not belong, myself included.
Exhausted was far too weak of a word to use when every crevice of your new home was full of people you didn’t know, of conversations you wished not to have, and leeches that you had to just simply watch as they fed on every drop you had.
That thing was a poison in human form, one I refused to swallow with grace.
All I desired to do was to burn.