4 Blood Pact by Tanya Huff

Author:Tanya Huff [Huff, Tanya]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-03-17T04:00:00+00:00

“Geez, Cathy, don’t you ever go home?”

Catherine looked up from the monitor and frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You know, home. ” Donald sighed. “Home with a bed, and a television, and a refrigerator full of condiments and half a container of moldy cottage cheese.” He shook his head and laced his voice with exaggerated concern. “I’m not getting through to you here, am I?”

It was Catherine’s turn to sigh. “I know what home is, Donald.”

“Can’t prove it by me. You’re always here. ”

Catherine’s gaze swept the lab and her expression smoothed into contentment. “This is where my work is,” she said simply.

“This is where your life is,” Donald snapped. “Don’t you even go home to sleep?”

“Actually,” pale cheeks darkened, “I have a bit of a place set up down in the subbasement.”

“What? Here? In this building?”

“Well, sometimes the experiments can’t be left or they have to be checked three or four times in the night and my apartment is way out on Montreal Street by the old train station and, well, it just seemed more practical to use one of the empty rooms here.” The explanation spilled out in a rush of words. She watched, lower lip caught between her teeth, as Donald propped a buttock on the comer of a stainless steel table, pulled a candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth.

“I’ll be damned,” he said at last, grinning broadly. “You never struck me as the squatting type.”

“It’s not squatting!” she protested hotly. “It’s . . .”

“Caretaking.” When she continued to scowl, he tried again. “Behaving in a responsible manner toward your experiments?”

“Yes. That’s it exactly.”

Donald nodded, his grin returned. “Squatting.” She could rationalize any way she liked, but that’s still what it was, not that he disapproved. In fact, he considered it an amazing show of initiative from someone he considered too tied to her test tubes. “Why the subbasement?”

She glared at him for a moment before she answered. “There aren’t any windows to seal off.” They both glanced at the plywood covered west wall. “And I’m less likely to be disturbed.”

“Disturbed?” His brows jumped for his hairline. “What are you doing down there besides sleeping?”

“Well . . .” Catherine rubbed the top edge of the monitor with the ball of her thumb, her eyes on the screen.

“Come on, Cathy, you can tell me.”

“You won’t mention it to Dr. Burke?”

He traced an X across his chest. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

“I’ve got a small lab set up down there.”

Rolling his eyes, Donald pulled out another candy. “Why am I not surprised? You’ve got yourself a secret hideout, a perfect opportunity for debauchery, and what do you do in it? You work.” He dropped off the table and walked across the room to a clutter of microscopes and chemicals and a small centrifuge. “You work all the time, Cathy. That’s not normal. I can’t remember even being in this lab without you being here, too.”

“Like you said, I have a sense of responsibility to my work.

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