I was too busy blinking back tears to answer him.
7
After a soft knock, the bedroom door opened halfway. Estelle slid in. "It's time," she whispered.
I stood , and she adjusted my dress and hair before leading me to the staircase , where Dunningham was already waiting in a black tuxedo and top hat. I stood beside him with the biggest smile I could muster plastered across my face. I was sure my cheeks would be sore by the end of the night. Dunningham hooked his arm into mine. He smelled like strong cologne and a cigar.
"Ladies and gentlemen, without further adieu, I introduce to you the couple of the evening, Mr. and the future Mrs. Dunningham," a man announced over the microphone.
For a moment I felt I would pass out as we descended the massive staircase. I hoped I wouldn't trip in the long dress and high heels since I wasn't used to wearing either. The room overwhelmed me. Since I had entered earlier that day, it had been magnificently decorated and crammed full of people. Silver candelabras sat in the centers of tables covered in silky black fabrics. Sheer silver material hung from the walls and shimmered in the candlelight. Tall pillars with bouquets of black roses on top stood in every corner of the room.
I heaved a sigh of relief once I made it safely to the bottom of the stairs. Next would be the most difficult part. The mingling. I had never been to such an event and I had no idea what to say to people. Thankfully, Dunningham was the type who just wanted me to be quiet and look pretty.
I wasn’t prepared for some of the reactions I received from the women of the Upper Estates. Some of them complimented me, but most of them looked at me as if I were garbage. I guessed I understood. I was only a lowly girl from Farrington, unworthy of such a position. Dunningham should be marrying one of their daughters, not me.
I spotted my father not far from me and removed myself from Dunningham's clutches before he could object.
"Daddy!" I said as I fell into his arms.
He held me close. "Dahlia, you're doing great. You look marvelous."
I wanted to tell him how badly I wanted to get out of there, but we were interrupted by a loud, obnoxious woman who wanted to know about my dress. Father patted my shoulder and removed himself from the conversation, but not before making me promise him the second dance of the night. The first, of course, would be with Dunningham.
"Where did you get that dress? It's fabulous." The woman's jet-black hair was formed into some kind of hard-looking beehive , and she was wearing far too much makeup.
"Um, I don't remember the name of the place. Whatever the best dress shop is, that's where it's from."
She covered her mouth with her hand and gasped. "Fazzio's? This is a Fazzio?"
"I guess so."
"If you don’t mind me asking, how much was it?"
I didn't know much about these high society things, but I knew it was incredibly rude to ask people how much they’d paid for something.
"I have no idea," I answered curtly.
"Of course you don't. This must be like a fairy tale for you, huh?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Most of the original fairy tales didn't have happy endings. So yeah, this was kind of like a fairy tale.[C3]
The woman's eyes widened as she focused on something behind me. I turned to face Dunningham.
"Hello, Mr. Dunningham," the woman said. "I was just telling your future bride how beautiful she looks. Congratulations to you both."
"Thank you. I was wondering where she had gotten to." Then he turned to me. "I wanted to show you the food I've had prepared for you. I want you to taste the best Nowhere has to offer. Excuse us," he said, leading me away from the woman.
He took me to a room where a smorgasbord had been set up. Swirls of steam rose from a station with over thirty different kinds of soups: some orange, some green, some yellow, most filled with chunks of meat and vegetables. I'd never been a soup person, but they looked tasty.
Another table held finger foods—things wrapped in leaves and fancy pastries. There were also meat, pasta, and dessert stations.
"Grab a bite of something," Dunningham insisted.
I didn't want anything, but he stood there watching, waiting for me to try the delicacies.
I grabbed a plate and put a few small things on it to be polite. He was obviously trying to use this food parade to win me over.
Thankfully Fortunately , a group of important-looking men in top hats identical to Dunningham's pulled him away. He became deeply engrossed in a conversation with them and seemed to forget about me. I put the plate down on a table and left the room.
I found myself moving toward the front door. I bumped into a woman wearing a dress made out of fur. Just looking at her made me want to perspire.
"Where are you going, dear?" she asked.
"I'm just getting some fresh air," I answered honestly. The aroma of the food and the amount of people crowded around me made me feel faint. Two butlers stood on either side of the door.
"I need some air. I'll only be a minute," I told them. One of them nodded and opened the door for me.
I stood on the front porch and inhaled the crisp nighttime air, which felt marvelous flowing through my lungs.
The next thing I knew, I had removed my heels , and I was running. I raced past the fancy cars parked in the driveway and through the open gate that led to the street. I darted down the streets of the Upper Estates, ignoring the pain the concrete caused my bare feet. I raced past mansions and across the border that divided the cities of Farrington and the Upper Estates. I knew at any moment my absence would be noticed , and Dunningham would send someone looking for me.
I didn't stop running until I was close to my street.
I stood in front of my house, but I didn't want to go inside even though no one was there except my brother Josh, unless he'd spent the night at Dorian's. He was too young to go to the ball, so he was supposed to have gone to Bram's wedding instead. That reminded me of something—Bram was a married man. I was sure the ceremony had already taken place.
I walked to the side of our house and sat on the air-conditioning unit watching tears drop onto my silver dress. How was I supposed to do this? How was I supposed to live forever with a man who would treat me like an object he owned?
I jumped when something leaned against my back. I turned. "Bram!" I shot up. "What are you doing here?"
"I come here every night." He turned to look at me. "You look nice. Too much makeup, though."
"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be with your new wife?"
He looked ahead blankly. "I don't have a wife."
I sat beside him. "What do you mean?"
"I couldn’t do it."
"What? You didn't get married?"
He shook his head. "If it hadn't been for Doyle and Dunstan and this experiment they're talking about, I probably would have done it, but—"
"But what?" I tried not to feel happy that he hadn't married Senka, but I couldn't help it.
"If I married Senka, that would have been it. The rest of my life doing the same thing day in and day out. If there's something else out there, I have to at least try it out. I have to go back for Naomi."
"So what? You're just going to leave and go there? Let them inject you with human blood? Bram, we don't know how that will affect you."
"Affect us. You and Chase are coming with me."
"I'm not. I can't. I'm engaged."
Bram looked at me sharply. "Is that what you want? To be married to Dunningham? I used to have all sorts of respect for the guy until he tried to have my sister killed and let our people sit with injuries instead of accepting the offer of medical care from his brother. Dunningham is going to live forever. He's going to make sure you live forever with him—or you can end up like his other two wives if he gets tired of you. Is that what you want?"
No, it wasn't. I'd rather be dead than that. "I'm not going. I'm mad at you, Bram."
He frowned. "What did I do?"
I sat back down on the air-conditioning
unit. "Nothing!"
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, Keir, you're going to have to help me out here because I don't know what that means."
"You did nothing, Bram. When you found out I was engaged to Dunningham, you didn't even care. It was like I'd told you what I'd had for breakfast that morning."
Bram sat next to me. "Really? Well, the feeling's mutual. Before you'd even gotten engaged, I told you about Senka and you didn't even blink. I figured you didn't care, so what was I supposed to do? You seriously think I want you to marry him?"
He'd made a good point. I'd hidden my true feelings about him and Senka because I hadn’t wanted him to know I was upset about it.
Bram's arm brushed against mine. "Maybe we were both wrong."
"Yeah," I agreed. "I don't want you to marry Senka or anyone else."
He looked at me, the left side of his mouth curling into a smile. My face warmed and I quickly changed the subject. "When are you going back?"
"Right now."
"Now? What about our families?"
"What about them? They'll still be here. They'll be okay. If this thing works, maybe we can get them to come over."
I closed my eyes and thought about how many things could go wrong.
Bram leaned in close and whispered in my ear. "Don't think. Just do what you feel."
I looked down at my dress and bare feet. "I have to change."
Bram stood up. "Okay, change and pack some things that you need. I'll get Chase and then we'll come back for you. We have to hurry. They'll be looking for you soon."
I dashed to my bedroom and changed into my usual attire: black jeans, a matching hoodie, and leather boots. I filled a backpack with extra clothes, a nightshirt, a photo album with pictures of my friends and family, and a stuffed bear my father had given me when I was three. After taking one last look at my home, I stood on my back porch waiting for Bram and Chase. They didn't take long.
We tore through the streets this time. They had to be looking for me by now. No Watchers were guarding the wall this time. We slowed down to a walk once we were in Litropolis.
"So what happened, Bram?" Chase asked. "Did you just leave Senka at the altar?"
"Nope. There was no altar. But did I decline the wedding vows? Yeah."
I felt sorry for Senka, though I was happy that she and Bram hadn't exchanged vows. Getting rejected at your own wedding ceremony had to be humiliating. "Bram, what did you do?"
"I told her the truth. That I couldn't marry her because there was something else I needed to do. She was pissed. He father was extra pissed. My father said he was going to disown me, but he didn't mean that. They just want me married already."
"What about you?" Chase asked, eyeing me. "Shouldn't you be at your fancy-schmancy engagement ball that none of us were invited to?"
I shrugged. "I ran out."
"That's great. Dunningham is going to send the hounds out looking for you," Chase said. "If we have to go back there, how are you going to explain that?"
"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it," Bram answered. "Until then, we don't worry about it."
It didn't take us as long to get to Dunstan's this time, probably I guessed since because we had been in a hurry to flee Farrington and our troubles.
Dunstan's young assistant answered the door and let us in. Once again Dunstan was up sitting at his kitchen table poring over some papers.
"We want to hear the rest. Tell us the rest of the deal," Bram blurted out before Dunstan could even utter a greeting.
He stood and smiled. "Great. Great. But first, let's get you all to the lab."
8
Dunstan refused to answer any of our questions as he took us to a building that looked like it belonged in the human world. The structure looked like a plain beige box with glass doors in front. It didn't look like the buildings we had in Nowhere.
"Is my sister here?" Bram asked.
"You'll see your sister soon enough—if you do what I ask," Dunstan replied as he led us down a long hallway and into a colorless room filled with cots. A man in a white lab coat seemed to be organizing bags and tubes. He looked up when we entered the room, but said nothing.
"Colden brought in our first haul today," Dunstan said.
"Haul? What haul?" Chase asked.
Dunstan ignored his question. "Who's going to be first?"
"First for what?" Bram demanded. "If you want us to do this, I suggest you start answering our questions."
"First for the blood transfusion," Dunstan answered impatiently. "Time is of the essence here."
I grabbed Bram's arm. "We have to think about this. We don't know what that blood is going to do to us."
"I told you. It hasn't affected Naomi in any negative way," Dunstan said.
"Yes, but Naomi's half human. We're not," I reminded him.
"True, but there's no way this blood will hurt you." Dunstan waved his hands to indicate the lab. "Trust me. We have plenty of time on our hands here since we're not busy collecting lives. We've done our research and run numerous trials. You'll be fine. Now, who's going first?"
"Me," Bram answered, not skipping a beat. He turned to me and Chase. "I'll try it first and if nothing happens, you guys can do it. It'll be okay."
This felt wrong, but I knew there was no way to stop it.
"Okay," said the man in the white coat. "I need you to lie down on the table and relax. This will be quick and easy."
Not seeming worried at all, Bram flopped onto a table and lay on his back. Chase and I stood against a wall and watched.
I heard a faint screaming coming from somewhere in the building, getting louder by the second. The door flew open. Colden entered the room with the source of the screams—a man he held by the waist. A human. The man's hands and feet were bound together with pieces of rope, but he still fought to get out of Colden's grasp. Colden's strength became evident as he manhandled the poor guy. He slammed the man down on a metal table. The one in the lab coat stuck a needle into the man's neck and then pressed down on the end of the syringe , which contained a clear liquid. The man calmed down in a matter of seconds. What was in that stuff?
I wondered who the man was and where he'd come from. He had long stringy blond hair and couldn't have been older than twenty-five.
The man in the lab coat, whom I assumed was some kind of doctor, drew blood from the man by inserting a needle into the vein at the middle of his arm. The crimson liquid ran from the man's arm through the tiny see-through pipe and ended up in a plastic tube. Another doctor entered the room and sealed the filled tubes with a cap. As soon as the blood was collected, he took the small tubes and brought them over to Bram.
Bram lay flat on his back , staring at the ceiling. I had no idea how he was going to react to this. I'd watched him get his tattoo , and he'd cried like a baby.
The doctor wrapped a rubber strip around Bram's arm and stuck a needle into his vein. Bram winced, but that was it. The blood flowed from the tube, through the pipes, and disappeared into Bram's arm. They did this with a few more tubes.
"Who's next?" Dunstan asked.
I was still unsure. Hardly enough time had passed for us to be able to tell whether or not the blood would have a negative effect on Bram.
Chase shakily raised his arm. "Me," he said, trying to look brave in front of Bram. He didn't even flinch as the needle pricked him.
Dunstan turned to me. "Your turn."
I looked at Bram , who nodded. Don't think about it. Just feel. I wanted to save my friend as well as hear about this other option Dunstan had for us.
I lay down on the cold metal table and focused on taking deep breaths. I was already beginning to feel weak from being on the Outskirts for too long. I hadn't experienced much physical pain in my life. Pain wasn't something we Grims normally dealt with, so the needle being stuck in my arm hurt like hell, but I was determined not to let my discomfort show. After the prick, I felt the blood flow through my arm, trying not to think of the long-term e
ffect it would have on me. How would this affect the years I had collected? Would this make me live a short lifespan like a human?
The man put what seemed like ten tubes into my arm and then, thankfully fortunately , removed the needle.
The other doctor examined Bram, touching the side of his neck with his index and middle fingers.
The room spun as I began to feel woozy and light-headed. "This isn't working," I said to Dunstan.
"Give it some time," he said. "It took a while for Doyle to feel the effects, but he was fine."
I squinted, trying to focus. On the table, the man, the blood donor, lay lifeless. "He's dead," I mumbled.
Dunstan didn't appear to be the least bit concerned. "Naturally. That's what happens when you drain a human of their blood."
"But we don't kill," Chase said weakly. "We're Grims. That's a part of our Covenant."
"You're Grims," Dunstan said. "It's part of your Covenant. Not mine."
From the corner of my eye , I saw Bram trying to sit up. "Where did he come from?" he asked. "Was he even a Fated?" One of the doctors pushed Bram back down on the table.
Dunstan stepped toward the door. "I'll answer all of your questions later. Right now you need to rest and let the blood kick in. When you wake up we'll have something for you to eat."
I wanted to say something else. I didn't want to sleep, but my body had other ideas. My eyes fluttered as I struggled to keep them open. The men left, closing the door behind them and leaving us alone. Chase said something I couldn't make out and then I succumbed to the drowsiness overtaking my body. I had no clue what this blood would do to me. I prayed that I would wake up.
A woman in a lab coat shook me awake. The room was still spinning, but I was breathing easily. Somehow the blood had made it possible to stay in the Outskirts longer than usual. Perhaps Dunstan and his doctors were on to something.
"Come eat something, dear," the woman said gently. She helped me sit up. Bram and Chase were already sitting at a table , scarfing down soup. On wobbly knees, I made my way over. I was famished and couldn't remember the last time I had eaten. I took the empty seat next to Bram.
Keira Grim: The Final Breath Chronicles Book Two Page 6