Read The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) for Free Online Page B

good, that I’d made it? Or that they’d shot me? And what on earth did they mean by saying I was a keeper? It sounded like a name, not just like, eh, let’s keep her.
    I’d never had such a headache in my life. I tried to squint my eyes open slightly, but the light did me in, and I shut them quickly. The contents of my stomach churned with the pain.
    “Get me a bucket,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure why I cared about throwing up all over their rug. Maybe it was habit. I felt too sick to think about my motivations.
    “What?”
    “Bucket!” I said, as I leaned on my side, my arm hanging over the edge of the couch.
    I felt the coolness of the metal slide next to my hand a second before I leaned over and emptied my stomach. The pain shot at the backs of my eyes, and then I leaned back and moaned. I prayed that now they would shoot me.
    I felt a warm large hand reach down and grab my wrist, and I tugged it back abruptly. I hated being touched, and I certainly didn’t want to have any of these men touch me. He grabbed me again and held firmer. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I was positive it was Hawking. I felt his fingertips feeling for my pulse.
    Even as my head pounded, I couldn’t stop the sarcasm from dripping out, “Clearly, I’m alive.”
    He ignored me, and kept his fingers at my pulse.
    “I want a blood sample done, and I want the results back within the hour,” Hawking said.
    “Who do you think did it?” Dodd asked.
    “Whoever it was, they probably didn’t know. Why would they hide it? There would have been no reason not to register her.” I felt a pinch at my elbow but couldn’t pull away, because Hawking had a firm grasp on my wrist.
    “Stop pulling. You’re just going to make the needle jab you.”
    I pulled even harder.
    “Stop,” Hawking said. I opened my eyes as I felt a weight press on my chest to see Buzz sitting partially on top of me.
    “Get off of her,” I heard Hawking say, or perhaps growl might be a better description of the tone, and Buzz quickly jumped off.
    “How old are you?” Hawking asked.
    “None of your business.”
    “That’s all right. I’ll find out anyway.”
    I didn’t bother replying. Just pretended he hadn’t spoken.
    I looked over and saw Hawking remove a needle from my vein and I yanked my arm bac k again, and this time he let go.
    “Dodd, look up Josephine Davids on our system,” Hawking ordered.
    I tried to push myself upright, but had to stop midway as the searing pain that the movement brought crippled me. If I wasn’t so miserable, I might even laugh. Let them look me up. I sat there and waited.
    “There’s nothing here,” Dodd said.
    Thank you, Oslo. Once I turned eighteen, the first thing I had done was buy myself a new identity from Oslo. I’d needed a clean break from my past. I’d met some unsavory people in my life and a few of those people had known something was off. I didn’t want to leave a trail. Oslo, I didn’t know his last name, had created a new identity for me. It had been worth every saved penny I’d had.
    Cormac left the two guys hunched over the computer, and sat next to me on the couch. Wearing black slacks and a dress shirt, partially unbuttoned and rolled up at the wrists, he looked as handsome as he had the other night, but now instead of admiring his looks, I wanted to stab him in the heart with the first thing I could find that would get the job done.
    “I know you’re angry.” He was speaking to me as if I were a wayward child, not a person he had just ordered killed.
    “You’re a bright one, aren’t you?” The loathing was clear in my voice.
    “When Buzz shot you, we didn’t know you were one of us.”              
    Which was what? Here was someone that could finally give me some answers, and I’d kill him before I’d admit I wanted anything from him. I sat there silent ly and refused to even to look at him.
    “I didn’t have a choice.”
    That shocked a response from me. “That’s a