The Vampire of Tinkerfall (Elysium #3)

Chapter Thirty-Five

 Trinket gripped the doorframe as Booker rushed to Daphne. "What happened?" he asked, scooping Gin up into his arms.

Daphne held her hands out helplessly and shook her head. She was still in her nightgown, her hair mussed and sleep in her eyes. Looking to Trinket, she opened her mouth as if to speak, but closed it and swallowed before turning her worried gaze back to the injured urchin.

"We need to tend to these wounds immediately," Booker said as he raced down the stairs.

Trinket threw one last desperate glance at Daphne. The woman bit her lip, a line forming between her eyes as they darted to the laboratory stairway. Trinket took a shaky breath and gave a short nod before chasing after Booker.

Gin was lying on the operating table while Booker frantically collected jars from the shelves lining the walls. Unsure of what to do with herself, Trinket stood by Gin and gently brushed the dark hair out of the girl's face. It was tangled in sticky knots, and as she ran her fingers through it, she felt something wet and warm. Pulling back, she found that her hand was covered in blood. There was a gash the length and width of her finger on the back of Gin's head.

Grabbing a rag, she pressed it against the wound and held it firmly despite the urchin's hiss of pain. Swallowing down her emotions, Trinket tried to focus on Gin's face. But that, too, caused her throat to tighten when she took in the girl's crooked nose and bruised jaw. Someone had brutally tortured her. And by the looks of her missing nails and broken fingers, they had been very thorough.

The thought made Trinket's stomach turn.

Booker stumbled over with tools and supplies in his arms, clumsily tossing them onto a nearby table. His face was pale and drawn as he accessed the condition of his favorite informant. "All right, Gin, I'm going to give you something for the pain."

With trembling hands, he scooped powder out of a jar and mixed it into a beaker of water. "I didn't tell him anything," Gin wheezed, turning to face him.

A muscle in his jaw twitched at the sound of her hoarse, strained voice. "Who?"

She shook her head. "I didn't. Not a word. Not anything."

His eyes briefly darted to Trinket before returning to Gin. "Scales?"

He barely whispered the name, but it seemed to echo throughout the entire room. Gin nodded and smiled, her bloodied lips lifting to reveal missing teeth that had not been missing before. "He kept asking about the vampire and your friend. But I didn't say a word. Not one word."

Booker bit his lip and turned his attention to the mixture in his hands. "Here, drink this. It'll help."

But the urchin pushed the beaker away as she sat up, her swollen eyes fixed on him. "I swear, I didn't say anything. I swear."

"We believe you, Gin. We do," Trinket said, trying to ease her back onto the table.

Gin refused to cooperate and grabbed Booker's wrist. "I had to go," she said, her voice cracking, her eyes wild and desperate. "I had to go out and watch for Scales and keep him from trying to hurt you. I had to. You understand, right? I had to protect you."

Booker parted his lips, and they trembled slightly as he groped for words. But when Gin cried out and doubled over in pain, he set his jaw and put the beaker aside to check the girl's pulse.

Trinket's eyes stung from the tears she held back as she imagined the sadistic grin on Scales' face, the sick delight he must have gotten from breaking this precious little girl. All to punish Booker.

Booker.

She turned her gaze to him. His fingers trailed gently over each bruise and cut, flinching whenever his touch elicited a wince from the urchin. Though he worked with the same concentration he had with all his patients, there was an undeniable fear in his eyes. His hands shook and his nostrils flared with both anger and panic as he examined his beloved Gin.