Free Naomi Grim: Complete Novel (Parts 1-4) (The Silver Scythe Chronicles) by Tiffany Nicole Smith Page A

"What's
this for?" I asked.
         "It's
for you," Dunstan said, "the experiment."
         Nausea
twisted my stomach.
         "See,
you have the perfect blood. No one else here does. Half Grim and half human,
not just a small percentage."
         "So?"
         "We're
going to be recruiting other Grims to live here, starting with the Grims in
Litropolis. In order for them to be able to stay here permanently, they're
going to need some of your blood."
         I
didn't understand. How were they going to get my blood? Before I could ask,
Dunstan put his hand on the small of my back and pushed me inside. Pain shot
through my knees as I landed on the hard tile. I turned to look at him just as
the metal door slid shut, sealing me inside.
         I
stood immediately, despite the pain, pounding my fists against the cold doors.
I screamed for Dunstan or anyone who might save me. I didn't stop until my
hands were sore and my throat was raw. Giving up, I lay across the bed, looking
around the room for a way out. The room was sealed with no possibility for
escape.
     
    * * *
     
         For
the longest time I lay on the bed thinking about random things. It was Keira's
birthday. Her seventeenth. With all that was going on in Nowhere, I was
positive her birthday would suck. I didn't realize I had fallen asleep until I
woke up to someone's cold hands on my ankles. Through the eyelashes of my
half-closed eyes, I saw someone in a white lab coat strapping my feet to the
bed. I had flashbacks from the subtraction chamber. I struggled to move, but
couldn't. My arms were already strapped down.
         "Let
me out of here!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, but the man ignored
me. He walked away and returned seconds later. He felt the inside of my elbow
with his index and middle fingers.
         "What
are you doing?" I demanded, but the man disappeared again without giving
me an answer.
         Dunstan
appeared next to my bed. "We tried to get you to eat, but you wouldn't.
This would be much easier if you had eaten."
         When
did they try to get me to eat? I vaguely remembered someone shaking me and
pushing a bowl of soup in my face, but I thought I'd been dreaming.
         I
looked up at him, trying to appear as pitiful as possible. "'Please let me
go."
         "I
will when we're done."
         I
looked past him. Someone laid on the other bed. Doyle. "What is he doing
in here?"
         Dunstan
put his hand on my forehead, brushing my hair back. I wanted to push his hand
away, but I couldn’t move. "You and Doyle are part of this experiment.
He'll get your blood, and we'll see if that will enable him to stay in the
Outskirts longer."
         Doyle
had a coughing fit. He had already been in the Outskirts too long.
         The
man in the lab coat came back. He wrapped a strip of rubber tightly around my
arm, just above my elbow.  It squeezed my arm. I looked at the area. I could
see my green veins clearly. He wiped the area with a cotton ball and some kind
of liquid.
         Someone
else rolled in a table filled with all sorts of different tubes. The man in the
lab coat opened a package and removed a tube with a needle on the end.
         "Mr.
Dunstan, please. I've already been through so much," I pleaded weakly.
         "I
know, but this won't take long. We'll only take a pint at a time," Dunstan
answered.
         While
I was focused on Dunstan, the man stuck me with the needle. I howled. I hadn't
been expecting such a tiny needle to hurt so much. It was nothing compared to
my branding and the year-subtraction chair, but it was still painful.
         I
watched my blood, crimson and thick, run into the tubes. A pint couldn't be
that much, right? The man in the lab coat switched one filled tube for another
until they were all filled. It felt like they had taken more than a pint.
          "Her
brother," Doyle said. "He's a troublemaker, but he has a lot of
influence with the boys