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Chapter 7

I winced, trying to stifle my moan of pain as Victor jabbed a needle into the thin membrane of flesh on the back of my hand. I was glad that Silence had decided to ‘scout the perimeter’ as she called it; I doubted that she would have anything constructive to add other than something along the lines of ‘man up and stop whining’.

Victor glanced up from the delicate operation that was going on at the rather painful end of my arm and met my eyes. “I’m being as gentle as I can here. Give me some credit- you’re still alive.”

I sighed heavily. “Barely.”

He rolled his eyes. “Of all the horrifying things that have happened today, this is the worst?”

I scoffed. “Kidnappings, undead warriors, Angels of Life and Death, assassins and a hell hound? Please. All in a day’s work. But needles…” I opened my eyes wide, my face dropping in mock terror. “Save me!” I took the opportunity to fling myself into his arms.

Unfortunately, he was balanced rather precariously on the balls of his feet, and the backwards force that I provided didn’t exactly have the desired effect.

The end result was us both lying flat out of the floor, laughing like hell. I caught his eye and the laughter faded, leaving each of us staring silently into the other’s eyes. He opened his mouth and said…

“Will you two get up and actually do something vaguely helpful rather than lying there like a pair of spare beans?”

Huh?

Victor broke eye contact and we looked to the door. Silence was stood in the doorway- again- with a look of derision on her face- again.

“We are in a crisis,” she put a ton of emphasis on the last word, “and all you can do is sit there and gaze at each other like two hypnotic snakes!”

“Your analogies are ridiculous,” I muttered.

Her eyes narrowed. “I heard that.”

Victor hurriedly stood up, pulling me with him.

“Ouch!” I yelled, wrenching my hand away.

His head whipped around. “What the…”

I glared and held up my hand, needle protruding from the skin in a rather grotesque manner.

His face dropped. “Ah. Sorry.”

Silence sniffed contemptuously. “Man up and stop whining.”

Bull’s eye.

“Alright!” Victor pushed Silence out the door. “Just… Go do something that takes you a while that isn’t right here.” She hissed slightly, but stormed out without a word. He came back over to me and smiled, grabbing a tube and attaching it to a large, technical-looking machine. He turned the machine on, letting a light pink, viscous liquid flow down the tube. “Well, she’s going to be in a bad mood for about a week.”

I choked out a laugh, while keeping a wary eye on the tubing. “Oh well. She’ll get over it.”

Without so much as a flicker of warning, he grabbed by hand and shoved the other end of the tube into the socket mounted atop the needle.

I let out a little shriek, then shot him an evil glare. “You god damn arse! I hate you.” My eyes narrowed.

His smug grin turned cocky. “No, you don’t.”

“Yes! I do!” My eyes narrowed as he took a step forward. “No way are you coming any closer.”

“You sure about that?” he inquired, pulling me in close to him. I bent backwards, looking into his bright green eyes. He bent his head towards mine until our foreheads were resting on one another. One of his hands brushed the small of my back, and the other… Flicked the switch on the machine.