Free Blood Moons by Alianne Donnelly Page B

both mentally and physically, and Tristan's gaze snapped up to lock with hers. His face was blank, but there was surprise in his eyes. "You—"
    "Dara Frost." The man at the door was tall and lanky, his hair slicked back with either gel or grease. Dara didn't want to 81

    Blood Moons
    by Alianne Donnelly
    guess which. He wore a white coat and was reading something on his electronic notepad, not bothering to look up. "You are reporting to the med lab."
    "For what?" she asked, frowning.
    The man looked up at her, his dark eyes sharp but uninterested. "No questions. Follow me."
    "She's busy," Tristan told him, using his most persuasive glare on the doc. If Dara were in the doctor's place, she would have backed down.
    The doc didn't. "Not your call, buddy," he told Tristan flatly. "Miss Frost here is overdue for a physical."
    "What physical? I don't need one."
    The doctor speared her with his gaze. "Follow. Now. Or I'll call the guards."
    "We'll finish the game later," Hunt told her at the same time as he spoke in her mind. "Just relax. Keep your shields up. Don't let them see what you know."
    "All right." She nodded apprehensively and stood off her bunk. "No cheating."
    The doctor turned impatiently and led the way down the catwalk to a corridor. There was an elevator at the end and they took it, going down. The man didn't say a word to her.
    He didn't even look at her and Dara was grateful to be ignored. When the elevator door opened, they went down another corridor, this one sporting large glass windows that provided a view into the labs.
    They passed five of them. The first two rooms held prisoners seated in odd chairs while doctors stood at their sides and wrote something down. The next two were empty, 82

    Blood Moons
    by Alianne Donnelly
    immaculately clean and sparkling white. The last one was being cleaned of blood.
    Dara looked away hastily, shutting out the sight of it. She resisted the urge to glean information out of the doctor's mind. He'd seen her look inside and was probably thinking both the real explanation and a fake one he'd have rehearsed for just this type of situation—when a prisoner saw something she shouldn't have. People did that often—thought of the things they couldn't say, reminding themselves of the secrets they had to keep.
    There was no trace of a body in that lab, so it was probably nothing. But her heart was racing and it was becoming difficult to keep her breathing even. It wasn't nothing. Something had happened in there. She didn't want to know what it was, but in this case, not knowing was worse than finding out.
    Before she could convince herself to try it, the doctor opened a door and waved her inside. Dara hesitated but one look at the man told her it would be better if she didn't piss him off. She went inside.
    He didn't follow her. Instead, the door closed behind her and she was left inside the lab with no supervision or instructions. She wiped her moist palms on her thighs.
    "Dara Frost?"
    Dara faced the woman at the lighted keyboard to her right.
    She was a slight woman, not small, just thin. Her hair was as blonde as Dara's was black and her features were elfin rather than elegant. There was a mischievous spark in her blue eyes that was muted by her glasses and a great deal of 83

    Blood Moons
    by Alianne Donnelly
    professionalism. She approached Dara with an outstretched hand. "I'm Dr. Amelia Chase," she said with a friendly enough smile.
    Still apprehensive, Dara shook the offered hand carefully.
    "Why am I here?"
    "Please," the doctor said, indicating the chair. "Have a seat; I'll explain everything."
    Dara sat, placing her hands on the armrests. They didn't feel right. Everything in the lab looked shiny and new, gleaming clean, but the texture of the armrests was strange.
    She pressed her fingers into the material and felt along the grooves. But as soon as she recognized the shape, she snatched her hands away. They were handprints, pressed into the tough material with an