Skin Deep by John Riley

Author:John Riley [Riley, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Golden Keys Publishing House
Published: 2018-10-18T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

'Oh god.' Frank was well used to the sensation of waking up hung over. He opened his eyes blearily, putting a hand over them when he found the world to be filled with a piercing white light. 'God what happened.'

'You climbed into a box with a genetically modified, possibly unstable, unknown entity.' Came Jack's voice dryly. It was unbearably loud and seemed to be coming from inside Frank's skull.

'Argh, quiet please!' Frank cried, squeezing his eyes shut until the throbbing at his temple died down. 'I meant, what was that white shit?'

'Knock-out gas.' Naomi answered, Frank managed to squint at her as he sat up. They were all still in the lab, but the correct side of the cell's doors.

'Ah.' He grunted, still rubbing at his throbbing head. 'Is Sedana ok?' He glanced in her direction but couldn't see her in the cell.

'She is.' Jack harrumphed, 'Woke up about half an hour ago, she isn't happy but she's healthy enough.'

'She said some pretty scary things.' Naomi said with a shiver. Frank took a hold of the nearest chair, pulling himself up and into the seat. He winced into a comfortable position, concerned by the tingling numbness down one side of his body. He let his head fall back tentatively, trying to breathe the dizziness away.

'She can't do anything from in there.' Jack said reassuringly, though Frank could hear the frown in his voice. 'trust me.'

'She wouldn't do anything anyway.' Frank stated, peering at them both through slitted eyelids in annoyance.

'That explains the slices she took out of your arm then.' Jack stated, pointing with a nod. Sure enough, unfelt despite their size, Frank found three perpendicular cuts along the length of his forearm. They weren't deep, but they stretched from wrist to elbow and they were lined with beads of dried blood. He felt the beginning burn of pain now that he was conscious of them. His mind snapped back to the short moments before the gas. Sedana, beautiful and dangerous, reaching for him, pulling. The image was powerful and more than a little scary, but he had read ownership in her eyes, felt the feeling of “you are mine”, not “you are dinner”.

'She was just trying to touch me.' Frank replied, poking at the raised flesh beside the longest. He looked up to see Naomi holding a first aid box, and he proffered the arm, so she could clean and dress it.

'One hell of a touch.' Jack stated, wincing as he watched Naomi dab the wounds with disinfectant. She applied gauze to each of the cleaned scratches and then wrapped the whole thing in a bandage.

'So how long was I out?' Frank smiled at Naomi as she finished, pulling his partially shredded jacket sleeve back over the bandages. 'Did you get the sample out for analysis?'

'Three hours, give or take, and yup.' Jack said with a grin, taking the first aid box from Naomi and tidying away the mess. 'You're a mad bastard, but you get results! Now we're just waiting.

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