The Goblin Warrior (Beneath Sands Book 2) by Emma Hamm (100 books to read txt) 📕

“Hey!” Simon’s voice raised. “That’s mine! You’re going to break it!”

A masked person in a white jacket walked into the room. A syringe was held in one gloved hand which quickly pressed the needle into the neck of the goblin. Juo, in turn, fell limp in the arms of the guards.

The screen behind Simon flickered to life once more.

“Thank you very much for your contribution, Simon. I will not forget your loyalty.”

Simon turned back to the screen. A red blush was starting to crawl up his neck. Anger always made him foolish.

“And my payment?”

The doctor laughed. “I’ll consider your payment. However, I do believe that my thanks should be enough. You have been a great service to our people. You will not be forgotten.”

“That’s it?” Simon’s enraged shout echoed back upon his ears. “You liar! You cheat!”

He was then left alone with his own emotions, until he had screamed himself exhausted. The door he had entered opened once more, and he stumbled back out into the sands.

7

“Catherine, we’ve got something from the Doc.”

The dark haired woman looked up from her microscope. She was a tiny woman, frail in many ways, but she had been extremely intelligent in her class. That had been what caught the attention of the Doctor. From then on, she had been trained exclusively by him. Perhaps because there was a perverse interest from the older man, but also because she looked remarkably like the daughter he had lost early on in his career.

Catherine was one of the lucky ones. Not many people were given such a prestigious position in the City.

She hated every minute of it.

Her eyes squinted as she tried to see the men before her, and then remembered to place her thick rimmed black glasses back onto her nose.

“What?”

She stood quickly as she saw what the guards were bringing towards her.

“No no.” They paused for a moment but then continued to wheel the stretcher and person strapped down onto it towards her. “No. I don’t handle patients. That would be Clemence. She’s next door.”

“Doc says you deal with this patient.”

Catherine pushed her glasses up her nose firmly. “I don’t deal with any patients. You can turn around and tell him that. He knows that’s the deal. I don’t touch humans.”

The guard sniffed loudly as the others locked the stretchers legs into place in the middle of her lab. “Good. It ain’t human.”

“What?” The guards turned as one and left. She frantically tried to stop them but they simply pushed past her. All she managed to do was become out of breath.

“Damnit.”

The glasses were whipped off of her face as her fingers rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“I don’t deal with humans.” She whispered once more before sighing heavily. She had never been the kind of person that could put up a fight about anything. Catherine did what she was told. That was why she ended up here.

The doctor insisted that she help with his experiments. He said her brilliant mind would be wasted if she didn’t help him find the cure to humanity’s existence. Catherine’s only stipulation was that she would only conduct experiments on animals. She would never touch humans.

It was the way she could make herself feel better about the horrible things that went on behind these white walls.

“Alright. Catherine. You can do this.”

The pep talk did nothing to reassure her, but still managed to walk towards the tall being strapped down onto the metal stretcher.

The closer she got, the more she realized that this was not a human. The yellowed skin, the black claws, the pointed ears. Certainly it was humanoid but she could count extra ribs.

This creature was different from them. Far more different than she ever would have expected to see in her life.

It was probably contaminated. Gods know where it had come from or what it had come into contact with. But still, Catherine couldn’t stop herself from touching what was so different from herself.

Her hand gently touched the top of a foot that was scabbed and swollen from infection. She traveled up the body and her eyes devouring the differences. She was under a false sense of security because the creature was strapped to the table.

“Fourteen ribs.” She whispered. “Semi retractable claws.”

The creature had yet to jerk away from her. Catherine took that to be a sign that it was still sedated. Without taking her eyes off of the hand she now held in hers, she reached behind her and grabbed a small jar of ointment. She kept it on her desk because her fingers were constantly cracked and bleeding from the sterile air.

Helping to heal the wounded fingers was the least she could do. She was good at taking care of others and the soothing motion of her own hands would calm her. Catherine didn’t know what she was going to do with this thing that now took up more room than her desk.

A soft sound made her look up. Her eyes locked upon the creature’s, which were now open wide and staring directly at her.

“White eyes.” She said quietly, and slowly she moved her hand back and forth in front of it. The eyes did not follow her hand, instead they remained locked upon her.

“Blind.” She whispered. Her teeth bit into her bottom lip. “Did you come to me blind or did they do this to you?”

Juo had no way of answering the creature who was touching him. He knew that he could not move. But the higher pitch reminded him of the few times he had heard Ruric’s woman speaking. Perhaps this was a female. Perhaps she was here to take care of him.

After all, that was what females did. They took care of others. The knowledge eased the tension in his body and mind.

“Catherine.”

The voice startled her, and she flinched back from the table before turning towards the screen.

“Doctor.”

“Have you managed to find anything interesting about our newest patient?”

She shook her head.