Olivia ignored everything except the man on the table.
At first, nothing happened and she blew out a breath, sending out a silent plea that the test had failed. But in the next second, her eyes were drawn to the injection site, where his skin rippled down his arm and across his body in a wave that was unnatural and grotesque. For several silent seconds, both of them watched as the injection spread throughout his body, until his head snapped up and a pronounced animalistic growl ripped from his throat. In the next instant, the man broke the chains and cuffs from his arms and legs as if they were made of paper, and leapt toward the camera.
Olivia’s hand slammed down on the space bar to pause the video and slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent the scream that threatened to escape. Alerting anyone to this outrage would be the end of her career, and she would never let that happen. Even though she had a lab to herself, accessed by a code that she and her supervisor had, a scream would alert security to come running.
Her wide eyes scanned her sterile white lab filled with medical and diagnostic machines, microscopes, and computers to confirm that she was alone. The electric frosted glass security feature that surrounded her entire office blocked out any prying eyes, and although she was secure, fear of what remained on the recording had her hands shaking. The lone sound in the room was her stuttered, harsh breathing.
“Okay, it’ll be okay,” she said.
Without admitting her fear, even to herself, her gaze traveled back to the screen. She swallowed hard when she noticed that her hand shook, but ignored the movement and pressed play.
One of the scientists had run to the door and fumbled with the code in an effort to escape, all while his eyes were tracking his other colleagues with a haunted look that marred his face.
Olivia could hear the screams that soon turned into gurgling, and assumed that patient zero had attacked the others in the room.
Without the action on screen, she leaned forward so she could decipher what she heard in the background, but jumped back when two men ran for the door, pleading to the man who’d slipped out a split second before. A feral growl sounded extraordinarily loud in her isolated lab, but her eyes were glued to the screen as the feral man leapt into view and pinned both of the men near the door. They begged for their lives until the answering snarl silenced their pleas.
She had no idea what happened off-screen earlier in the video, but in the next moment, her curiosity was answered in the most horrific way possible.
“Oh, no, no, no,” she begged, knowing it was futile to try to change the outcome of an event that had already happened.
The patient leaned toward the first scientist’s throat, and bit down. With a few shakes of his head, she heard a tell-tale snap of the man’s neck breaking. She couldn’t stand to watch the other man die, so she lowered her eyes as he was dispatched in the same manner.
A loud roar broke up the audio, and when she glanced up, she noticed that the patient was left alone, the others around him dead. Without anyone else to attack, the patient proceeded to destroy anything he could get his hands on in the small examination room. With everything around him destroyed and no others to attack, he paused, his chest heaving and his eyes wild, searching.
Her body shook with the shock of what she’d witnessed, but the next moment chilled her to her core.
Unable to contain the rage that had been caused by the injection and seeing no way out, the patient started to tear off his own flesh. Each roar of pain shivered into her bones and left her shaking with the horror of a man who was slowly and painfully killing himself. With one last breath, he reached up and ripped his own throat out. He sank to the floor as blood poured out of his gaping wound, and within minutes, he was dead.
Tears streamed down her face at the senselessness of what she’d witnessed, and her heart ached for the man who lay dead on the screen.
Minutes passed as her mind worked through the points that had bothered her about the experiment, beside the obvious. The scientists in the room had created the scenario in which they sealed their own demise, and experimenting on anyone was, to her, deplorable and forbidden.
Her mind drifted to the patient, who hadn’t, she was certain, volunteered for their experiments. She remembered how his teeth had grown jagged, and how the pierce of a neck could explain the gurgling she heard in the background. His fingers and nails elongated into claws when he’d ripped away his own skin. They called him enhanced, and he clearly demonstrated that with his ability to break the chains and leap long distances, but she had no idea whether their experiments made him that way or…
“Enhanced, of course.”
Then she remembered. The same man for the past six months, hidden in the shadows as she walked toward the Blue Plate, and slipping inside minutes after she arrived. She never sensed that he might be dangerous to her, but he’d stayed hidden and had never spoken to her. As she traveled the same route night after night, she had tried to sense his movements and memorize his gait or the sound of his footfalls, but what greeted her was silence. Whenever she tried to turn and catch him following her, the street and sidewalk were empty. As a scientist, she should have come up with a probable explanation for his movements, but there had been no logical reasons she could deduce.
Her memory cataloged his height at well over six feet tall, wide shoulders, slim waist, and from what she could see, he hid a muscular physique underneath his clothes. Once, his eyes flashed to hers and she became fascinated at the color. The lightest silver, piercing and brilliant, with a defined black ring around his iris. He had a thin beard that was trimmed, and short cropped dark hair, and as she pieced together his features in her mind, she knew that was the most handsome man she’d ever observed. With instincts that had never failed her, she knew there was something different and dangerous about the man, and because of that, he might be able to help her.
When she was able to think clearly, she realized why her name was associated with the video.
She scrambled to the computer and clicked on the other icon. It was a folder that contained her work from close to a year ago, when she thought that she had made headway on her research. But superimposed over it, was the formula for the bio-weapon that had been injected into patient zero. According to the data, the experiment had only been conducted one time. They were trying to mutate the bio-weapon so it kept the aggression and rage, but they had yet to work out a plan to control the test subjects. The research was at a standstill, it was noted, because they hadn’t gleaned a solution from her own research since her experiments had failed. Once she found a way to manipulate cells into completing a task, such as killing cancerous cells, they would use her research to tweak the bio-weapon.
A vicious anger ripped through her at the thought of her work being misused in such a repugnant way, and she knew that she would have to destroy it.
How many more would have to die before they found the perfect formula?
There was no way she would allow that to happen.
With a few clicks, she was able to locate the computer where the research was being stored, retrieved the disk she needed, and exited her office at a jog.
The corridors were quiet, but the silence made her edgy. She increased her pace.
Although she expected to find the research protected with possibly an armed guard, when she arrived several minutes later, the area was silent. Her brows drew down when she reached for the door, and found it unlocked. Without questioning her luck, she slid inside and instead of finding a lab filled with equipment and several computers, she found one lone computer and a lab refrigerator that contained three of the same vials she had seen on the video, all milky white.
With a shake of her head, she logged in to the computer, using her last name as a password. She pulled a USB drive from her pocket and downloaded the video and their research onto the drive. When the download finished, she stored it safely in her pocket before she inserted the disk into the slot. She rebooted the system, and with a few keystrokes, starte
d the irretrievable deletion of the hard drive.
When the drive was close to being permanently deleted, she turned toward the samples. They were dangerous; she couldn’t throw them away or flush them, so she decided on the next best thing.
With a quick search of the supply closet in the hall, she found a large metal bucket and a bottle of bleach, and set them in the middle of the floor of the barren lab. She donned a protective suit, heavy duty gloves, and a mask before she dumped opaque liquid and then the vials into the bucket. Slowly, hoping that the drugs wouldn’t react to the chlorine, she poured the entire bottle of bleach over the vials. It was the only way to eradicate the drugs without endangering anyone.
With deliberate movements, she carried the bucket over to a fern and poured the bleach mixture into the soil, feeling a twinge of guilt for killing the plant.
With the samples destroyed, she turned back to the computer, and found the deletion of the drive completed. After she ejected the disk that she would need for her own computer, she ran back to her lab and locked herself in. There was close to five years of work on her secure server that she had to delete, relieved that she didn’t have to erase the entire network, and started the wipe. After she got rid of her work, they would have nothing to replicate, and she hoped that it would set them back permanently. She knew that her life may be in danger because of her actions, but if she saved another life, she could learn to deal with destroying her own research.
After the drives were deleted and making sure she packed anything of significance, she donned her jacket and slung her messenger bag over her shoulder. With one last look around, feeling oddly detached from the place she had called home for years, she headed toward the exit, planning her next steps.
Deep in thought, she walked the familiar route to the exit. When she rounded the last corner, she pulled up short as she spotted someone standing in her way.
“Excuse me,” she mumbled.
“Watch where you’re going,” the man sneered.
Without looking up, she jerked her head down once to acknowledge his words, and darted around him toward the exit.
“Stupid bitch.”
Her heart raced at the low, menacing words, but she ignored them, determined to get to the diner and talk to the mysterious man. If he couldn’t help her, she would find another way, but for now, her instincts were screaming at her to get to him.
As she walked the familiar route, her footsteps felt heavy and slowed her progress, while her eyes scanned the area to see whether she was being followed. When she arrived at the diner, she opened the door with more force than necessary, startling Stella.
“Sorry,” she mumbled.
A smile broke out on the other woman’s face. “Good to see you, honey.”
The weight in her chest relaxed at the other woman’s words, and she smiled before she walked toward the back booth, where she knew the mysterious man would sit.
After she sat, her eyes made another scan of the area without spotting anything. Her leg shook up and down without her commanding it to do so, and her hands fidgeted with the silverware and condiments on the table. Her body felt shaky, as if coming off a high, and she mumbled a word of thanks to Stella as she sat a burger and fries in front of her. Not wanting to be rude to one of her only friends in Snowfall, she ate her food as she wondered how far the knowledge of the experiment had gone.
It was obvious to her that she was the patsy—labeling the experiment and the drug with her name, tracing the research back to her—but with their research deleted and without being able to duplicate it, she had a small advantage. Whoever created the weapon wouldn’t stop until they perfected it, even if she set them back several years. And that meant her life was in danger. Well, shit.
Another thought had presented itself, and this was worse than her life being at stake. What if there were other enhanced, others that she put in danger, albeit unwittingly, because of her research?
Without total assurance that they couldn’t replicate their results, she needed to find a solution to the problem. She ripped open several packets of sugar and poured them onto the table, pushing aside the remnants of her dinner. Remembering the exact makeup of the bio-weapon, her hand flew over the table, tracing formulas into the sugar before swiping them away. This would be easier than curing cancer. This was a man-made formula, and although she didn’t know quite what they had thought it would ultimately do, she figured they would keep trying to perfect it until they had a way to create a super soldier.
Tracing formulas into the sugar and thinking of the symptoms of the injection given, she worked on creating something to combat whatever they might have come up with, until she narrowed it down to at least a dozen different ways they could go despite their destroyed research. She would have to come up with a preventative, in case she had missed something back at the lab.
While concentrating on the problem, she heard her name somewhere in the distance, but in the zone of trying to figure out a problem, she didn’t respond. As she pressed her finger on the pile, about to start another formula, a warm, male hand covered her smaller ones, startling her.
“Liv?” he asked.
Her eyes lifted until she met familiar silver ones, and she blew out a breath, relieved that he had finally arrived.
“It’s Olivia. Sorry I took your booth, but I need to talk to you. Something dangerous happened tonight, and I think that it might affect you. But the way you’re glaring at me means that you know what happened, and I’m in trouble because it was my name that they gave you, right?” she rambled.
He rose to his full height, and she knew that she had calculated incorrectly; he was closer to six and a half feet tall. She thought he was handsome before, but, holy hell, up close he was gorgeous. Before her eyes could travel down his body, his mouth turned down in a severe frown, and she snapped back to the present. “Sorry, what?”
“I need you to follow me.”
With a swipe of her hand, she deposited the sugar into a water glass before wiping the remnants away with a damp napkin. Turning toward the edge of the booth, she waited. He made no move to step back and give her room to exit the booth.
Instead of letting him intimidate her, she planted her feet on the floor and glanced up at him, giving him a chance to back up. His only answer was to lift an eyebrow, but otherwise didn’t move a muscle.
She rose to stand in front of him. Barely an inch separated them. She felt the heat radiating off of him, and without thinking it through, she reached out to steady her hands on his chest. His heat seeped into her chilled body, and she clenched her muscles to prevent her from stepping closer to him. Instead, she removed her hands and sidestepped him, reaching for her coat.
She smiled at Stella, who stood close with a worried look on her face, and slipped into her coat. She removed the scarf and gloves from the pockets of her coat and slid them on. When she was in control, she lifted her gaze to meet his unaffected one, and nodded, indicating that she was ready to go.
He reached for her forgotten messenger bag before he grasped her elbow and walked them outside.
He glanced around and her gaze followed his to see whether anyone from the lab had followed her, but at close to nine at night on a Wednesday, they found themselves alone on the sidewalk.
“No matter what happens, do not scream,” he said, his voice low and menacing.
Chapter Three
Kai
Although he could feel her confusion at his last statement, he refused to meet her eyes and explain what he’d meant. The woman intrigued him from a distance, but when she turned her honey gaze to him and touched him, albeit innocently, he struggled to shut down the pure desire that surged through him.
It was to better remember why he was there and ignore everything else.
Without explaining his actions, he wrapped his arm around her waist and gathered her close to his side. He walked them around the building until they were covered by the darkness of the alley behind the diner. As the silence s
tretched between them, he closed his eyes and listened for anyone who might be near, all the while aware of her body pressed close to his.
Her heart beat in a rhythm that soothed him, and although he knew that she should be afraid of him, he could sense that she trusted him. Before he could delve into the reason, he pressed her closer.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded without understanding. He slid his arms underneath her legs and back, and cradled her close to his chest. Without a word and ignoring her gasp of surprise, he dashed through the empty streets and up the mountain to his home.
Instead of paying strict attention to where he ran, he memorized the feel of her in his arms, her curves pressed against him. He tucked her closer to his chest to prevent the biting wind from reaching her inside the cocoon of his arms, and within minutes, they stood on his deck.
Reluctant to set her on her feet, he squeezed her, and waited for her to pierce him with her bright eyes. When she did, it knocked the breath out of him.
“Well, that was cold,” she murmured.
A small grin lifted his lips, taking him by surprise, as he gripped her tighter. When she made a sound that indicated he used too much force, he set her on her feet. His fingers interlaced with hers, as if it were the most natural action in the world, and he walked her into the living room and indicated that she should sit by the fireplace to warm up.
She smiled her thanks as he distanced himself from her.
His gaze found her several seconds later. He stood, mesmerized, as she slid her gloves off and waved her cold hands near the fire. He was silent for several minutes, watching each movement that she made with focused attention.
Several instincts warred inside him. He wanted to protect her, find the truth, and explore the heat that flared each time she was near. But according to the files he received, she could have created the ultimate way to kill him and others of his kind. Until he found out the truth, he would keep her at a distance.
Kai (A Dark Assassins Novel Book One) Page 2
