Brandi

by Donna McDonald

  “What’s your game? You’re not clinically insane like your brother, but you’re not on the up and up either. Your rapid heartbeat and adrenaline spike give you away. There is a shit ton of stuff your brother never got a chance to know about what he did to me. I’m not very interesting in terms of results. I’m just more dangerous now than I once was. And I’m getting tired of being played for a fool by people I allegedly work for. They don’t make money that green.”

  Brandi watched him smile as his gaze dropped to the floor. The more she said—the more pleased he looked. She narrowed her eyes and searched his body language for signs of his real intentions. Her wolf was too angry to help.

  “Did Lane mention I warned him you were in trouble up there? When Randall sent the photos of three nude women on gurneys, I had Fallon and Lars check face IDs. You popped first. Lane said he wasn’t sending anyone to help you because he wasn’t worried. He said you could handle the situation by yourself. Now I completely see why he made all those phone calls trying to stop your transfer to my department. Originally I thought it was because he wanted to resume your on-again off-again sexual relationship.”

  Brandi snorted. “Your news about that is way outdated. He’s been on the off-list for quite some time.”

  “Yes. So Fallon and Lars informed me. Now that we’ve met, I realize Lane just wanted to keep you in his agent corral. He told me you were nearly indestructible. I imagine Randall figured turning someone with your government sanctioned skill set into a sellable pet would be quite the accomplishment for his scientific dossier.”

  Brandi shook her head at the explanation. “And we’re back to discussing how I was used as a science experiment guinea pig.”

  “Randall was too arrogant and shortsighted to realize successful hybrids tend to develop more than the average amount of intelligence along with their animal skills. All those unused DNA strands in us are just waiting for the right catalyst, Agent Jenkins. It’s what make humans so fascinating… and people like you so dangerous to convert.”

  Brandi nodded once in reluctant agreement. “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said so far. I was starting to wonder how you got to be in charge here.”

  His full out laughter at her disrespect was a surprise. So was him turning to Gareth and shaking his head. When Gareth’s face turned completely red with embarrassment, it robbed her of speech. What the hell had she said?

  “She is nothing like Lily at all Gareth. You should cut her loose now before she makes the rest of your life a living hell.”

  “I can’t,” Gareth declared. “She’s mine. And we’re a package deal… just like I said.”

  Her gaze bounced between the two men as Shitty Sheldon nodded and smiled. Crane’s gaze returned to her before he answered.

  “Indeed. Well if that’s true, this is my lucky day.”

  Brandi turned a narrowed gaze on Gareth who wouldn’t meet her eyes now. She spoke slowly and clearly to make sure both men were hearing her.

  “Gareth and I are nothing to each other, Crane. And he doesn’t speak for me. Not now. Not ever. You’d be wise to remember that no matter what has been said.” She turned her glare to Gareth. “And so would you.”

  Crane’s deep belly laughter caught her off-guard again. “I may have to assign Fallon and Lars to referee.”

  Brandi crossed her arms. “Aren’t you done mind-fucking me yet, Sheldon? I’m getting bored here. Why don’t you get to the point and tell me what’s going on?”

  “You need to stop watching spy movies, Agent Jenkins. Our department doesn’t go after men like Ramirez. We go after animal-human hybrids who are being bred to become killers, or who are being tortured for nothing more than scientific gain. When a human with twenty times more strength than the average person is trying to kill you, you have to survive before you can ask them any questions. It’s not about cold-blooded killing, so much as it is not being the one in control of those who are.”

  Brandi said nothing. She met Sheldon Crane’s stare and held it. “Who’s doing the creating and breeding of what you guys keep calling hybrids?”

  “Sadly, my brother… just to name one.”

  “I assume you’ve been told Randall Crane won’t be doing any more creating.” Brandi wasn’t surprised to see him sigh and shrug at her news.

  “The goal was always money with Randall. He thought getting paid for his research justified whatever he was doing. I always knew one day one of his experiments would turn on him.”

  Brandi nodded. “That was exactly what happened—to him and his assistant. Your brother had no remorse for what he was doing… even at the end. I have no doubt he would have killed us with as little regard as he did all those wolves. I didn’t do the deed myself but I would have if given the chance.”

  As he sobered, she watched Sheldon Crane nod.

  “I do appreciate the confirmation, Agent Jenkins. You know how bureaucracy is—all the details were indeterminate. I don’t think they wanted me to know for sure.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Brandi said, shaking off her sympathy. “So now that we’re past the pleasantries of getting to know one another, are you going to tell me why I’m really here? You may have brought me to the party, but I’m not the kind of girl who jumps out of cakes.”

  She watched Sheldon Crane nod again.

  “Right. If you will take a walk with me, I think I can actually show you better than I could ever explain. I doubt you’d believe anyone’s words at this point. You seem like the kind of person who needs to experience something to fully accept it as reality.”

  ***

  Brandi followed Crane into his office. There was an elevator that took up half of one wall. They all loaded into it—her, Crane, Gareth, Fallon, and Lars. It only went down, and evidently it went much lower than they already were, which was beyond basement level deep in the building. She saw seven lower levels listed on the panel. Each level they travelled made her wolf more and more nervous.

  They rode to the bottom floor and walked out into a narrow hallway framing double doors simply marked BL7 Lab. Her senses sizzled as Fallon and Lars tightened up their bodies. She could tell they were nervous too. She would have loved to know why before she had to step inside. Seconds later she realized nothing could have ever prepared her for what she found there.

  The lab was enormous and went on farther than her eyes could see. After a sweeping glance at what was visible to her, she figured there must have been at least forty or fifty white coated scientists mulling about down there. Off the main area, full of microscopes, beakers, and mysterious vials of liquid, were an assortment of other, smaller labs. Many had people… or animals… or some mixture of the two inside them.

  “Quite a shop you have here, Dr. Moreau,” Brandi joked, hiding her disgust the only way she knew how. His snorting at her sarcasm made her want to punch him for being amused at what she had meant as a verbal slap. Surely the man couldn’t think any of this was a laughing matter.

  “Not my work, Agent Jenkins. These are rescued hybrids for the most part,” Crane explained.

  Brandi nodded as they walked, but she wasn’t buying the rescued part yet. She looked at Gareth and saw only sad recognition on his face as they traveled deeper into the labyrinth of experiments gone wrong. Telling herself not to get empathetic with someone so capable of deceiving her, she brought her attention back to the larger cage on the very end of a series of rooms. The amount of walking they did would have covered nearly two blocks worth of street if they had been above ground.

  Crane stopped and pointed to the one-way window. “Take a look in there, Agent Jenkins. These are some of Randall’s failures before his success with you. I can’t decide what to do about them, so I have them here.”

  Brandi walked stiffly to the window and glanced inside. Three young children played there. They were small, probably not even school age yet. One fully-armed, female agent stood guard over them. Her attention snapped back to the children when one of them jumped s
traight up from the floor to land on an overhead shelf. He smiled down at the other two who looked around frantically for higher spots for themselves.

  “They are not completely wolf hybrids,” Crane said, stepping up to her. “But they are not completely human now either. Randall plucked these three from a children’s home. He thought he was being kind because he made sure he took three who seemed to be the closest of friends. Turning them into wolf hybrids never caused a blip on his ethical radar, but to be fair, he was much kinder to these children than he probably was to you and your fellow subjects. The injections he gave them were administered during their nightly drug-induced sleep.”

  “I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but… why the hell would anyone do this?”

  Brandi watched the other two launch themselves at the one on the shelf. They didn’t quite make it up that far, but they did latch on to him enough that all three of them tumbled to the floor. The shelf king was the first to exit the pile of entangled bodies. The other two climbed to their feet more slowly and had to shake off their failure. Not a single tear was shed by any of them. It made her smile because she’d been a lot like that as a child.

  “Randall was motivated by a lot of things, like his need for enormous wealth and fame. His plan was to accomplish something fantastical, but beneath his enormous ego, he was a true patriot. He sincerely wanted our country to have the ability to make super soldiers before any other country figured out a way. He was just one more powerful individual who believed the end would eventually justify the means—whether through the children or you.”

  Brandi snorted. “The last thing I remember him saying is that he was going to go down in history as the man who finally learned how to create werewolves.”

  Beside her Sheldon Crane sighed and nodded. “I suppose that will be the case, unless we decide to keep what you are a secret. Frankly, our experiments have not netted the same results, not even using Travis Black Wolf. There was a special catalyst in your transmutation that we don’t seem to be able to replicate.”

  “Now Dr. Santiago’s comments make sense. He hopes in reverse engineering me, he’ll discover the catalyst. Why don’t you just recruit more of Gareth or Travis? Hell, why not abduct a whole pack and experiment on them?”

  Crane rubbed his nose. Brandi watched as he looked over his shoulder at Gareth who had crossed his arms.

  “Werewolf politics are very old school,” Crane said at last. “They limit interaction with humans as much as possible. They don’t care about humans warring with each other. The pack would pick up, get lost, and survive any human bloodbath. We got Gareth because his mate was captured… and experimented on. Gareth gave us several years of time in exchange for our help. We honored our arrangement with him. He honored his. Unfortunately, Lily had received so many untested drugs that eventually she died of complications from them. Gareth retired afterwards.”

  “Well, that explains Gareth. What are you holding over Travis’s head?” Brandi asked, but she’d already come up with the answer. Travis knew he was a DNA match. It kept them from taking Reed. It had been Reed in Randall Crane’s notes and Reed who had been the prime donor.

  “Sheldon, if you want to live, I would advise you not to go after Reed Black Wolf. If he doesn’t kill you, one of his pack will. You’ll start a war between werewolves and humans that would make a human war look civilized. It will not go well for our government. They will not get what they want.”

  “You’re awfully sure we would lose, Agent Jenkins,” Crane declared.

  “More sure than I am of walking out of here after I kill you,” Brandi replied. “I’ve only been a werewolf for a short time, but there are quite a few things I’ve learned since my conversion. We killed two members of Reed’s family in cold blood to help Reed protect his pack. An Alpha’s death is avenged swiftly. Imagine whole towns of people with their necks torn out while they sleep. Imagine the terror and mayhem that would be evoked by the media coverage of the event. This lab is a secret. Reed’s death would not stay one… I promise you.”

  “Can you absolutely guarantee me no more of you will be made?” Crane demanded.

  “No, of course I can’t. Why are you asking me such a stupid question? However, I’m currently inclined to attack and kill any person wearing a white lab coat who comes near me with a needle. I’ve already given considerable thought to how I can take this whole lab operation down… but that’s just me acting alone. You guys are the ones abducting test subjects and putting them in cages like animals. The parallels between you and your psycho brother haven’t escaped my notice.”

  “Most of these subjects are animals now… or at least part animal,” Crane said.

  Brandi shook her head. “No. That’s the scientist in you processing data. What they really are is a bunch of damaged humans leading a half-animal life. You should be teaching them to adapt their humanity to what they’ve become, not trying to get them to lose the rest of it by becoming soldiers. That would not bode well for your work in the long term. At some point, they’re either going to go rogue on your ass or escape permanently from your prison here.”

  “On what are you basing your psychological theories, Agent Jenkins?”

  Brandi lifted her chin and levelly met his gaze with her serious one. “Strap me to a gurney again and find out. I’m either going to die, or kill someone, or both. You are not going to get to study me long. And I will never be a soldier for any cause that includes involuntary abductions which you cloak by calling rescues. Just because you provide a nicer cage, it doesn’t absolve you of your zookeeper status.”

  “Sheldon is never going to try and do anything to you,” Gareth said quietly, but firmly. “He gave his word.”

  Brandi noticed Crane turned his head and nodded in agreement, before looking back at her.

  “If you won’t agree to let me study you, will you agree to work for me? The work will be contract based. Outside of it, you can live any life you choose… even if it is in God-forsaken Alaska with Gareth.”

  “You need to get over thinking Gareth is some kind of carrot on a stick where I’m concerned. Yes, I belong to a pack… two of them actually. Alaska is where they are and it’s the place I would go back to for now. But none of that will help you one bit. You need to give up your ideas about making a bunch of werewolves in the future. I have it on good authority that what your brother did to us is temporary. We’ve seen evidence supporting that conclusion when one of us was almost killed.”

  Her confident statement brought both Crane’s and Gareth’s full attention to her. Brandi realized then that Matt hadn’t told Gareth how close Ariel had come to dying.

  “What do you mean, Agent Jenkins?”

  Brandi lifted her chin at Sheldon Crane’s question, hoping she could explain it half as well as Ariel had.

  “The nano technology your brother used to help us endure the pain of our unnatural, but full transmutation has a recorded tendency over time to run amok doing its tasks. At some point I will either die during the transmutation process, or I’ll change into a wolf and not be able to change back. The other great future I might have is the nanotechnology might turn my insides to gray goo and destroy me like a cancer. There is no future scenario where I get to live out a happy, carefree organic werewolf life. I am an experiment pure and simple, Sheldon. I will always be one.”

  “Were these conclusions arrived at scientifically?”

  Brandi nodded. “Yes. And from what my scientist told me, only nature can make real werewolves. Randall failed as badly with me as he did with them.”

  She pointed to the room where the children huddled and whispered as they closely studied their personal zoo keeper.

  “By the way, you might want to warn your guard she’s about to be attacked and unmanned by those three. They’re already in wolf attack formation and circling her.”

  She heard Sheldon snort over her observation, but his eyes grew wide when the children started moving toward the guard, slowly and carefull
y keeping her in their sights.

  “Damn it,” he said sharply, opening the door and stepping inside.

  Brandi turned and stared at Gareth. “I should have just let it happen, but I didn’t want her accidentally shooting one of them. I’m sure the safety on her weapon is off. Mine would be too. This is a hell of a place to have to work.”

  Gareth nodded at her statement and smiled without humor. Fallon and Lars were exchanging long extended looks. Brandi suspected they were talking to each other without words, but she wasn’t going to ask.

  She turned back and looked inside the room where the children had gathered around the white-coated scientist, obviously excited to see him. Shitty Sheldon was like their grandfather or something… which was creepy. The scene was so surreal, it had her shaking her head as if she could somehow deny it.

  “Any other big secrets you’re hiding from me, Gareth?” Brandi asked, reluctantly turning back to face the man she had directed her question to.