by Rena Marks
“What’s wrong with her?” she heard someone ask.
“I’m not sure. Her B levels are off the charts. Dangerously high, causing anxiety, headaches, fatigue. Alannah? Can you hear me?”
Alannah shook her head, groaning at the sensation of feeling like she was caught underwater.
“Dizziness?” asked the voice.
“Yes. Please. I need my vitamins.”
“I don’t see how I can give you that,” the woman said. “Your levels are already so elevated.”
“I need—”
Someone gasped and she knew what happened. It was too late.
“Her hair! Is it turning…red?”
The horror was worse than seeing all the abnormal people. Alannah fell blissfully into a mind-numbing sleep.
Life hadn’t been this awful since her childhood treatments. Someone thrust a pan under her mouth while she dry-heaved because the few appetizers she’d had the night before had come up long ago. A wet, blessedly cool rag was placed on her forehead but she was too dizzy to even thank the staff who cared for her yet again.
“No more treatments, please,” she said, waving her hand. “Just shave my head.”
The lady-in-waiting looked surprised. “I can’t do that, mum.”
“It’ll be fine. I’ll wear a wig.”
“What about your eyebrows? It’s a tell-tale giveaway to have those drawn on.”
She sighed, long and loud.
“Why didn’t you just get a license to color your hair?” the lady asked and it made Alannah’s eyes pop open. She didn’t wear a beautiful scrap of lace over her face but more of a solid piece of white—a medical mask. Not a lady-in-waiting at all. A doctor.
“Who are you?”
“Dr. Amanda Becker. Lady Mandy on Iota Nine. I prefer Amanda now.”
“Where am I?”
“Don’t you remember? This is Xenia.”
Xenia? Why did that sound familiar? “Why am I here?”
“You collapsed. You said you needed your vitamins, but your B levels are already extremely high and you’re exhibiting symptoms of overdose. Confusion, nausea, vomiting, headaches, dizziness.”
“Yes, because I need more!” Alannah gripped Lady Mandy’s pale, white hand. “It’s not overdose. I’m used to the high counts. It’s withdrawal.”
“Why?”
“I don’t have a license for hair color change.”
“Why not? You’re wealthy. You’re from Iota Nine.” Of course, Lady Mandy’s face looked puzzled. Her own light brown hair was chunked with blond. She paid for her license.
“Because it’s a record. And no one can know.”
A hand—a different hand, smoothed the atrocious burgundy locks from her face. “It’s beautiful. Much prettier than the plain brown, though you looked elegant that way. It’s just different. It’ll take some getting used to. But it’ll be worth it to get your body healthy again.”
Another woman, but without the accent of Iota Nine. A woman with the coveted raven hair she wanted.
“I can’t be healthy,” she protested. “With the red comes…other things.”
“What?” The brunette asked. “What things?”
“She’s just confused,” Amanda, the first voice, said as the world faded to black.
She would let them think what they wanted. Because to admit to the problem meant to drive away anything she ever loved.
The usual crew of first-born Xeno Sapiens, nicknamed Esson Four, sat around the conference table, discussing what to do with the new arrival. Along with them sat a couple of men from the security team, and Robyn and Amanda.
“She’s never seen nor heard of Xeno Sapiens,” Jason said. “I think we have to tread lightly. Did her background turn up anything?”
“Father’s deceased. She grew up with her mother and two siblings. Sisters. Just three and four years older than her.”
“Is their relationship close?”
“It doesn’t appear to be, oddly. For instance, she was homeschooled while her sisters were private schooled until her last year. Then she was allowed to transfer in. It would seem that someone wanted all their daughters to graduate from the same school, but couldn’t see paying the expense for one more child. I wonder if her health had something to do with it? But why would they be making her sick with such exorbitant amounts of B-12?” Robyn asked.
“It has to do with her hair color,” Amanda said. “I don’t understand what experiments they must have conducted to determine changing pigments without chemicals but somehow it involved laser lights and utilized high levels of vitamin B to mask it. Why wouldn’t they have just gotten a license to color her hair legally? Why use such an extreme method that interferes with her health? Normally I’d say her father’s spectacular method of changing her looks would be highly suspicious, but nothing turns up in his background of any peculiar experiments or involvement in anything not on the up and up.”
“Do we think her boyfriend will attempt to go after her family?” Jason’s voice was grim. “If he put a hit on her?”
“We can’t risk that he won’t. But we also can’t risk that the world find out. Let’s get some spies in place to watch the family. I’m going to purchase the home across the way from their establishment and we’ll have a couple pretend to move in. Who can pass for human?”
“Jason and Lily. We cover her with a wig and keep her indoors. With Jason’s accent, he can inform everyone that she’s sickly and he purchased the estate for privacy. If we need more proof, Amanda can show up a couple of times as the doctor,” Steele said.
“That’ll work,” Amanda said. “We can have Jason and Lily leave in a Xeno Sapien hovercar to avoid the airport hub. They can transfer to a normal car from a neutral location, like a hotel. The Xeno Sapien vehicle will return home and no one will be the wiser that we averted DNA scans.”
“What about drones?”
“It’s Iota Nine, not Earth-Ground,” Amanda said. “Lily will be veiled and indoors. If one should happen to catch her, Robyn will be available to cut the transmission of the drone.”
“Lily won’t be able to visit with the neighbors unless they choose to come visit, unfortunately,” Robyn said. “As a doctor, you might be able to introduce yourself to the neighbors. See if anyone looks ill. Not that Alannah looked ill until the stress of seeing all of us terrified her.”
“I won’t be able to tell without scanning their levels. If I can introduce myself, I hope they’d volunteer for a quick check-up to make sure their health is optimal.”
“Who would do that?” Shawn asked.
“You’d be surprised. The Iota Nine people are comprised of two sorts. The ones who have a flair for the dramatic and want everyone to know they’re ‘ill’ and the ones who really are ill but are afraid their secrets will come out. We’ll hope they’re the first set, though I suspect they’re the second. I’m not sure how her hair color was changed and held with high doses of B vitamins. It would be interesting to find out.”
“As long as we’re nearby,” Robyn said. “Maybe Jason can glean something from a landscaper or a neighbor about the family. Personal information that I can’t find in reports.”
“It’s about all we have to go on,” Jason said. “But how will we keep the drones from reporting my identity?”
Robyn smiled. “File that one under my skills. You just become your uncle temporarily while I transpose your DNA files. Lord Jay Becker?”
“And what do we do when my uncle travels somewhere and a robot refers to him as Jason Becker? He’s going to be on the phone with me before I can blink.”
“Oh, we send your uncle to an all inclusive resort for a two week vacation to get him away from the public. The paid-for trip will be in his original DNA when he arrives and once he’s safely within the resort, we swap the identities with your own. Fortunately for us, Jason Becker will also have a stay on the island so the human wait staff will already be referring to your Uncle as Lord Jay. The door locks and other DNA scans wi
ll open for him because the house computer will think they’re unlocking for Jason Becker, another paid guest on the premises…but no human eyes have actually seen.”
“Clever,” he said. “Expensive, but clever.”
“Hope your uncle enjoys it.”
Chapter Three
Kieran:
THE PRINCESS IN THE fluffy gown was going to be his come hell or high water. He’d never seen such glorious perfection in his life. When she collapsed, he almost left his watching point but he didn’t want to call attention to her.
He didn’t want others to not only become curious over her—but become interested in her. Not until he could figure out how to approach her and tell her she was his mate. That she was to come with him and overlook the fact that whatever beauty he’d been given upon gene splicing had been stolen by the scientists of Crested Ute—their creators. They’d mixed enough concoctions into his sequence to wipe out conventional human looks.
But when she collapsed, several telepathic thoughts among his brethren shot out at once.
She’s afraid of us.
Robyn says we must leave her alone.
Thinks we’re monsters.
Horrified. We’re mutant freaks.
If she thought that of the more normal looking Xeno Sapiens, what would she think of him? Kieran had the name of royalty, Dr. Amanda assured him when she’d named him. He’d been under her primary care since his revival. She’d asked him his name and he shrugged. Such an unimportant detail. He’d answer to the only thing he was ever taunted with.
Boy.
Boy, fetch this. Come here, boy. Let me break your leg. Such a good boy.
Amanda had been horrified, but truly, a name didn’t matter to him and so he shrugged when she asked him. So she’d named him herself. Kieran. Such a human name for one who was…not.
His face was scarred. His body was ghastly but beyond the scarring and misplaced bones was his form. He was a creature caught between worlds. It appeared the geneticists were attempting to introduce more than just alien DNA to the human forms. He seemed to have some sort of dog or wolf genes interspersed. An elongated jaw. Sharp teeth and canines. It was hard to tell what exactly and he wasn’t up for visiting medbay to find out. No, he’d had enough testing in his life. Occasionally, Amanda would see him out in the woods where he spent most of his time running free, her shrewd eye making sure he looked healthy. Talking to him, forcing him to engage as if she checked his mental cognizance and language skills, but not saying so in so many words. He also appreciated that she’d given him purpose in this city—it was his job to patrol the fields where the prisoners worked.
The prisoners were terrified of him. There was no chance they’d ever attempt to escape, not with him on patrol. He’d never hurt them, to be fair. He wasn’t like them. Those who preyed on anyone weak. But the prisoners of Xenia were the dregs of society. Sociopaths beyond redemption. They’d broken into the city during the night one of their own, Lily Xeno Sapien, was stolen.
But more important than watching the prisoners—he had the job of reporting to Robyn as to whether a prisoner was redeemable with rehabilitation. Whether or not he would ever realize the error of his ways. He’d only found one in the dozen prisoners they now housed. The male was young and had gotten caught up in the hive mentality from the cult on the outside. Kieran began to slowly separate him from the others, making it appear as though he was a target for his displeasure. When he determined the male was indeed worthy to release, he’d returned to the fields without him—but covered in blood. Instead of appearing scared, the other lowlifes appeared fascinated with the loss of one of their own. He knew then the others would never be freed. Instead they would earn their keep by working as labor for Xenia. It was up to Robyn and Amanda to send the youth away from Xenia with a new identity. Hopefully, he’d take advantage of his new life opportunity.
Those first six or so prisoners had been from the break-in. The ones who’d come later were from a religious sect who’d burned Pax’s mate, and were captured later. One day, if he was lucky, the one who’d caused a threat to his mate might be remanded here.
To his care.
“Kieran? Renegade said you wanted to see me?”
Amanda, Renegade’s mate, had come to the woods. Instead of cowering behind bushes the way he normally would, Kieran attempted to stand on two legs. It had been a while; he felt awkward and rusty.
“A-maan-da,” he hissed through teeth that were meant to shred, not speak. “The new female. Ah-lah-nah. She iss for me.”
As expected, Amanda froze. “What do you mean? You feel an attraction to her?”
“It iss beyond that. She iss mine.” A clawed hand thumped his chest, near his heart, so she would understand the intense feeling there.
She sucked in a deep breath. “She has just been given to Vien and Potierre to sponsor—”
“Noo!” He stepped forward, an action that might have made many cower. But Amanda didn’t cower. She stood her ground.
“Stop. It’s for the best, Kieran. She needs a sponsor and she’s never been away from her home city. She’s scared of—”
Rage whipped through his body, making him howl out in well-deserved—even if he couldn’t remember why he deserved it—pain as he stopped listening to her. Alannah would fall for Vien and Potierre, he was sure. They were given the chance he should have had, all because he was stupid enough to wait instead of descending upon her immediately. His muscles rolled underneath his skin. Tightness began in his chest and radiated outward. How could fate be so cruel?
His skin burst with a ripping noise.
“Kieran? Kieran!” Amanda sank down to her knees, barking into her wrist communicator. “Robyn? Get out here. Bring my bag. Bring Beast. It’s Kieran.” Then she pushed the small button on her communicator that signaled her whereabouts.
Another howl rent through the air, deeper this time because something had happened to his voice box. His broken bones shifted, the pops sounding louder than they should. His back broke; instant waves of pain searing over him. His ribs rippled and cracked like lightning struck. Fingers, neck, legs, muscle, fur…everything reshaped and sprang forth with excruciating pain as something he didn’t remember but vaguely familiar ripped out of his body. When it was over, he lay panting and sweating, his fur wet.
The sound of footsteps pounding the ground came from behind Amanda. He lifted his head wearily. Her soft, human hands were all over his body, feeling his new form, his shape.
The pounding footsteps stopped abruptly.
“Kieran?” Robyn whispered.
“Whoa,” said Beast from behind her.
“He changed,” Amanda said. “Shifted.”
“A shapeshifter,” Robyn breathed. “Full moon is near. Would that have given him the extra energy to shift finally? Or did something else? We need to run some tests,” she said, kneeling next to Amanda.
Hell if he’d ever be tested upon again.
He whimpered, rising on shaky legs, backing away from their stroking hands.
“Kieran, it’s okay. Come here,” Amanda said softly. “We won’t hurt you.”
No. He would never be that dog again. He turned tail and ran—and realized he had a tail.
“Want me to go after him?” Beast growled.
“No,” Robyn said, her gaze in the distance where Kieran had disappeared. “But until he returns, I think we need to pull you off patrol and have you cover the prison fields instead.”
“Aww, hell,” Beast said. “I’m gonna beat his ass when I find him.”
Amanda smiled. “Hush. You will not. He’s going through a lot.”
“I won’t?” Beast growled at her. “Give me one reason why not.”
She spoke one word, still staring off in the distance. “Sunny.”
Beast quieted. Everyone knew his mate’s soft heart would keep him in line.
“We don’t have any information on Kieran’s DNA,” she said to Robyn, finally. “I didn’t have the heart to put h
im through any testing because of that. What would I match it to?”
“No, I understand,” Robyn sighed. “But Leo’s adapted a lot since he was given awareness from the Serena-bot.” Robyn’s house computer was now the beginning stages of successful artificial intelligence, having attained sentience. “We can have him run what little we know. Beast, wrap our hands. Leo will want to test whatever samples he can pull.”
Beast rolled his eyes as he reached for a clear wrap in the first aid kit they’d brought along. “I get all the shit jobs. Babysitting lazy prisoners. Bah.”
“It’s temporary. Poor Kieran has to watch the fields all the time.”
Beast might just find new respect for the poor Xeno Sapien after his first shift.
After their hands were swabbed and sampled, Robyn and Amanda sat in her office, waiting for the results. It didn’t take long for Leo to place the reports along the blank wall.
“DNA compatibility includes traits similar to chameleons and frogs, enabling the subject to change forms.”
“How long has he had this capability?”
“Since his creation. Records indicate he was kept in constant pain. It is surmised the pain levels taught him to avoid shifting. Eventually he forgot he was able.”
Robyn frowned. “The pain was probably inflicted by the guards. Tortured and tormented daily.”
“Agreed,” Amanda said. “They were given free rein to abuse him as long as they didn’t kill the test subject. His pain level was kept acute so he was weakened, only able to lie around and attempt to sleep to heal his injuries. Each time he thought about shifting, they would induce more pain. Today, his emotional level was so high he forgot about the lesson of physical pain and shifted spontaneously.”
“Why was he emotional?”
“He saw Lady Alannah and wants her.”
Robyn’s mouth dropped.
Amanda sighed. “I tried to tell him that she’s been assigned to Vien and Potierre to sponsor, but that she’s never been around Xeno Sapiens and he’ll have to wait until she’s comfortable enough with some to introduce himself, but instead he went into a rage and changed. Who knows what’s going on in his head?”
