Unbondable(Kindred Birthright #1) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,27
refusing to wear the right dress but this is permanent damage—pulling my fangs would change me forever in a way I don’t want to be changed!” Kara objected.
“It’s not just social standing at the Snowdrop Festival at stake, my dear,” Dr. ThrobGood said. “I happen to agree with your aunt and uncle—it’s our moral obligation to be certain someone with such an obvious deformity doesn’t procreate. And since the paperwork has already been signed, I feel I must perform the procedure.”
“What? No! Don’t I get any say in this?” Kara demanded.
“Of course you do—you’ll get to choose the prosthetic teeth I insert into the empty cavities left by your fangs. I promise you, I have some very nice ones,” the doctor assured her. “Nice and white and normal looking.”
“No!” Kara yelled. “You know that’s not what I meant! What’s wrong with you?”
“Not a thing, Kara—it’s what’s wrong with you that we want to fix. This is all for your own good,” Aunt Zeelah said, smiling sweetly. “Now be a good girl and come along…”
The three of them were still advancing on Kara and she was beginning to feel cornered. Her great aunt and uncle and the doctor were getting closer and closer—in a moment there would be no way out!
Breaking away, she ran towards the front of the domicile, trying to keep to one side of the heating stream so she didn’t fall into it and twist her ankle.
Have to get away from here—get out now! she thought, her heart drumming so hard she could barely breathe.
She got to the door but found to her horror that it wouldn’t open.
“Hey, what’s wrong with this? Let me out!” she cried, tugging at the handle but the thick door was shut tight.
Suddenly Dr. ThrobGood was right behind her.
“Take it easy now, my dear,” he murmured. “Let me just give you something to relax you and then we’ll continue this at my office.”
Something sharp bit the side of Kara’s neck and she gasped, feeling like she’d been stung by a wasp. She raised her hand to push whatever was hurting her away but noticed almost at once that her arm didn’t want to work right.
“Hey!” She turned to Dr. ThrobGood and nearly fell as her legs started to give way. “Hey…wha…what did you give me? Whas wrong with…with my body?”
“Just an effect of the relaxing agent, my dear.” He slipped an arm under her on one side and nodded at her uncle. “Grennly, I believe I’m going to need your help. She’s not exactly pocket-sized is she?”
“Do be careful!” Aunt Zeelah exclaimed as Kara’s great uncle grabbed her other arm. “Be sure you keep her absolutely quiet on the way to the office! We can’t have word of this leaking out—we just can’t.”
“Don’t worry, Zeelah—we have the situation well in hand,” Grennly said, doing something to the door which made it unlock.
“The paralytic will reach her vocal cords momentarily,” Dr. ThrobGood added. “And no one ought to be up at this hour. We’ll have those fangs extracted and bring her back to your domicile before even the earliest riser is up.”
As he spoke, he and Grennly had Kara by the arms, dragging her out into the Central Corridor. It was dark and quiet at this hour, only dimly lit by some natural luminescence from the ceiling above. Kara’s feet were dragging on the ground as they pulled her along and every moment it felt as though more and more of her body was going numb. Soon she would be completely under the spell of the drug the awful doctor had given her and then it would be too late…
“No!” The voice that spoke in her head was as loud as a shout but it was clear that no one but Kara heard it. “No, my daughter—you must fight this!” it insisted. It was the same voice that had spoken to her from Nadiah’s picture, Kara realized. “Fight it, Kara,” the voice urged. “Call for help and it shall be given to you.”
Kara’s mouth already felt heavy and her lips felt rubbery, as though she’d been given a huge dose of numbing agent at the dentist’s office. But somehow she managed to call out.
“Help! Somebody help me!” Her lips were so numb the words sounded more like “som-bod hel ee” but her voice carried surprisingly well down the echoing Central Corridor.
“Stop that!” Grennly hissed, clamping a clammy hand over her mouth. “Do you want the entire grotto to know you’re here?”