“What did he do? Grow the two of you in test tubes?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
She tried to say something, but her mouth moved like a fish flapping around and gasping for water.
They grabbed onto her, one on either side of her body, hands under her armpits. How she wished she hadn’t shaved them, that very morning. Then they pushed her towards an open door, ignoring her pleas for mercy and leniency.
Not looking at her, they shoved her out of the cargo bay and down several sterile white hallways. The doors were shut and no one else seemed to be around. They came to a corridor with only one door dragging her in they stopped to address the doctor.
“Where do you want her?”
Dr. Young motioned with his head to a table in the center of the room. They lifted her and deposited her there before turning to leave the room.
“Lovely children,” Janis said. She’d rather deal with them any day, as long as she didn’t have to deal with their father.
“Yes they are. I’m very proud of them.”
She would’ve rolled her eyes and made a smart comment, but she still had dreams of getting out of there alive. One way or another.
“I guess you’re going to tell me why you abducted me. I get teary eyed and plead for my life, while you, the villain, get an unfamiliar ache in your chest and decide to let me live.”
“Well, you have one part right.” He finally lifted his head up from the computer screens he’d been studying when she was brought in.
“Welcome to my lab.”
She swung her head around.
It was a lab with lots of equipment; she noticed the test tubes were arranged in nice neat rows. He wasn’t a slob and his lab showed it. He was also dangerous and his lab showed that too. There were instruments of torture lying around.
Her heart, that she’d been trying to keep calm, went into overdrive as she saw a sharp curved knife on an instrument table, along with a pair of forceps that had sharp spikes on them. Dr. Young was more than dangerous, he was insane.
He walked over to a row of syringes and retrieved two before crossing the floor to her.
“I think we will start with blood samples.”
“Those syringes will hold a lot of blood.”
“I know.” He gave her a smile that made her stomach sour as he prepared her arm.
“You may want to hold still. The more you move, the more painful it will be.”
“Aren’t you sweet to try and save me from pain?”
“The mouse has found her tongue. Don’t worry. The pain will come later.” He jabbed the needle in and began to withdraw the blood.
After the first syringe was filled, he extracted enough to fill several more tubes. She began to feel woozy and drift to the side. He withdrew the needle and placed a bandage over her wound.
Her head spun from the lack of blood. She watched from half glazed over eyes as he started dropping blood into various test tubes and recording the results. What could he be looking for?
His sons walked back in. “Good timing, boys. Take her to a holding cell with the others.”
They grunted and pulled her off of the table, dragging her across the floor like yesterday’s trash. The holding cells were in the basement of the building, requiring them to take an elevator down. The sudden drop of the elevator combined with her woozy head and soured stomach had her throwing up on their shoes. The kicks she received to her body showed their anger.
She sighed in some sort of relief when they locked her into a cell that was in a room full of cells.
There was no sound, except the shuffling of their feet leaving, the banging of the door and the keys turning in the lock.
“They’re gone.” A voice came from her right.
She turned her head slowly, but her eyes refused to focus.
“It’ll be ok. They’ll come in a few hours and make you drink something with lots of sugar in it. Then your eyes will focus better and a little strength will come back.”
“When it does, you’ll wish it hadn’t.” This time a different voice from her left spoke.
“Who are you?” Her voice was weak and wobbly already. How would she survive days of this?
“I’m betting we’re like you. We have a rare medical condition; when we are touched by other humans, we burn. Do you have the same condition?”
“I did, until recently.”
“What do you mean, you did?” The voice on the right was a little stronger than before.
“I didn’t notice it until today. I was bumped into by someone I assume is human and his touch didn’t burn me. It’s still hard to believe.”
“How can that be?” The voice on the left asked excitedly. “If we could escape, then you could tell us what you did. We could all live free.”
Janis could hear the weak smile in her voice at the thought.
“You’re dreaming, Adele. We’re never leaving here. Not alive anyway.”
“I know.” The defeat in her voice broke Janis’s heart.
“We have a chance. My boyfriend will come for us.”
“He’ll never find us and if he does, he’s dead.”
Janis said nothing as she thought of Nicolas. She was in turmoil when it came to him. Some small part of her still believed she didn’t deserve him. The rest was ready to hold on with both hands.
Maybe she should call him her man, or what about poppy? She had a brief thought of him driving deep as she begged ‘Please, Poppy. I need it harder.’ Maybe she needed to get her mind out of the gutter and work on escaping, or the only thing going deeper would be her into the ground.
“Do either of you know where we are?”
“No. We were blindfolded before they brought us here.”
“I was in the back of a windowless van. How long have you been here?”
“Seven, maybe eight days. It’s hard to tell.”
“Hi, my name is Janis.”
“I’m Adele, Janis and on your other side is Nicole.”
“Nice to meet you both. Sorry it’s under this situation.”
“Nice to meet you too,” they both murmured.
“I guess the positive sign is that you’re both alive a week later.”
Neither said a word.
“That is a positive sign. Right?”
“There were others here when we came.” Adele spoke, lowering her voice even more. “Now they’re no longer here. I don’t believe they let them go, at least not alive.”
She sent out a mental cry to Nicholas, get here soon, I need you. She began to plan her own escape. It gave her something to do, other than to panic.
Janis tossed and turned on the concrete floor, before she heard the door open again and footsteps come down the corridor. She dragged herself to the back wall and huddled into the smallest ball she could twist her body into.
The sound of the footsteps against the hard concrete floor was drilled into her brain, until they finally stopped in front of the cell she was in.
“Looks like you’re not going to die anytime soon. Father wants to keep you around,” one of the twins said before he threw several bottles at her. His aim was true with each bottle finding its mark.
She listened as he stopped at each of the other two cages and threw bottles at them as well. There was a small whine when they were hit, but not enough to make the twins happy.
Those same footsteps finally retreated, shutting the door and locking it, leaving the occupants of the cell to breathe easy for a few minutes.
“Drink as much as you can, Janis. You’ll need your strength.” Nicole said, before she snagged her bottle.
“What do I need strength for?”
“For tomorrow,” Adele said.
“What happens tomorrow?”
“The testing starts tomorrow,” Nicole said into the silence.
Chapter Nineteen
Nicolas paced back and forth in his security room. Thoughts of Janis, sitting there watching him gave him a slight hitch in his b
reath. Then reality came crashing in on him again. She was gone, grabbed from the mall, and all he could do was pace in front of the doorway and wait.
He followed every clue he found. His brothers as well as Dante’s brothers joined in on the hunt. They tracked down every van and SUV that had been caught coming out of the mall for three hours after Janis’s abduction. It had taken them four days to track them all down. It was the discovery of a hidden dirt road from the rear of the mall that alerted them to the futility of their actions. He followed it until it intersected with a main artery of traffic.
Whoever pulled this off had to be affiliated with the government or the military. Aran and Sergey sent out feelers with their contacts. They were waiting for responses. He couldn’t wait any longer, he needed to find her now.
“It’s been a week, Hale!” Was that his voice? Dark and menacing. He never threatened his brothers, but now all he wanted to do was jump over the desk and tear the male apart.
Sure he would be the one who would have to put him back together, but the temporary satisfaction would be gratifying. His other side was in full agreement. He could feel his claws trying to emerge, as his body tried to bulk up. Hale didn’t understand; he tried to reason with himself.
Hale would know there was no life without your mate one day, just not today. Nicolas’s other side growled and overtook the male as if he never learned control.
Nicolas’s body grew as a savage growl came out. He sprang at Hale, knowing he was beyond reasoning with.
His body was snatched out of the air and slammed to the ground. Aran and Sergey stood over him. They were huge in their other forms. Without a word, he was carted outside like dead weight and tossed on the ground.
“You want to act like an animal?”
Nicolas jumped up and came at Aran. Nicolas’s beast went wild at the thought of Aran having his mate in the house protected, while Janis suffered at the hands of a madman. What if she was dead? He leapt at Aran, claws bared to rip him apart.
The tips of his claws caught Aran’s arm. Before he could growl in satisfaction, Aran turned and kicked him, knocking him backwards.
“This won’t get her back.”
No it wouldn’t, but it would make him feel a hell of a lot better. Nicolas threw a punch that landed squarely on Aran’s jaw, rocking him. He saw the minute the big brother slipped away and the leader took the forefront. Aran as the eldest was the leader of their family and their commander in war.
Good. He wanted a fight, not a wrestling match.
Aran came for him, catching him with a fist under his chin and knocking his head up.
Still the brother, Nicolas thought, as he rocked backwards. He could’ve used those deadly claws.
He ran at Aran, knocking him down and began taking swings at him, raining blows over his body until the fact he wasn’t fighting back sank into his mind.
He let his hands drop as his body slowly took on the form of the male. He let his head drop too. The sudden rush of shame was an added burden to what he was already dealing with.
“Aran.” He couldn’t lift his eyes.
“Nicolas, do you feel better?”
Better? Nothing other than Janis in his arms would make him feel better. He continued to hang his head as he waited for Aran to pass sentence on his recklessness.
“Nicolas!” He looked up, unable to ignore the demand in the voice.
Aran’s voice went through his limbs like butter, making him weak, yet reassuring him of who he was.
Aran pushed him off and stood, still in his other form. He reached down a hand and waited for Nicolas to take it.
Eight feet of pure alien looked down at Nicolas, making him wonder what was next. True Created didn’t fight each other. It was like an unwritten law.
Aran allowed his body to return to the form of the male. He reached out and clasped Nicolas in the way they devised as children. It meant not just brothers, but friends.
“Compose yourself and go let off some steam.”
Aran, and Sergey who watched the whole scene silently, walked away, leaving Nicolas with his mind swirling and his mouth open.
Shaking his head, Nicolas headed back to the house to talk to Hale.
“Hale.”
“Aran takes the fun out of everything.”
Nicolas laughed. He had to. He would never trade his family for any other.
“Yeah, he does.”
“You know, I think I can take you now.” Hale flashed fangs and muscles for a brief moment.
“I think you need more practice, little brother. Living on earth has made you soft,” Nicolas said with a sad smile on his face.
“We’ll find her, Nicolas. I’m close.”
“Have you added the human element?”
Rena walked into the room.
“What do you mean?”
“I was upstairs thinking about this. You’re trying to track alien technology, but would the signature change some, being against the skin of a human. Would Janis’s heat signature either interrupt or change the heat signature the bracelet is giving off.”
“Rena, that’s brilliant. I could kiss you.” A savage growl went through the house. “Or not.” Hale amended quickly.
Nicolas looked down to see Rena’s hand laid on his arm. “Go. As soon as we know something, we’ll call you.”
He nodded and walked out. Staying there wasn’t helping him and he didn’t want to lose it again. He took the steps three at a time going upstairs to wash and change clothes.
Dressed in a pair of jeans, sweatshirt and a baseball cap, he found himself wondering what Janis’s reaction would be. He gave a small smile that was more of a grimace, before sliding into his Charger.
He drove off without a real direction in mind. He simply needed to redirect his mind. Hoping that when he was done, he may be able to establish why Janis had been taken.
Without thought, he found himself pulling in front of SB’s. He’d been there enough times that he now thought of it as the family’s local coffee shop. He ordered a cup of coffee and a donut. According to Dee, you had to have both of those things together. Then he took a seat in the back.
With his baseball cap pulled down, coffee in one hand and a mouth full of donut, any male should be able to relax.
The familiar smell of men’s cologne hit his nose. He only knew one man who wore that scent, although he believed many must wear it. Slouching in his chair and looking up under his cap, he caught the sight of Vance walking in.
Vance worked for Dare Securities. At one time he was the head of the accounting department. The Created who was after them used Vance for information. In the end he almost killed Vance. Vance still worked for the company, he simply held a different position, one Aran deemed more suitable for who he was.
Vance passed the counter and made his way into the back section of the coffee shop and sat. He took a notebook and pens out, setting them around himself as if he’d been working and was now taking a break. Vance’s body language screamed scared.
Cheryl walked in several minutes behind Vance. She was the receptionist for the accounting department at Dare Securities and a friend of Dees. Nicolas looked at the woman next to her. She worked in the accounting department, but he didn’t know her name.
They also walked past the counter, coming back to sit in the section with Vance. None of them looked happy.
This time when the door opened, the smell of the tainted Created hit his nose. He looked up to see the male figure with a hoodie pulled over his head stop in the entrance. He caught Nicolas’s scent.
If Nicolas had been unsure of who he was looking at, the look of horror on the faces before him would have given it away. Standing quickly, he walked with long strides to the door. He started running when he hit the pavement. The scent of his prey filled his nostrils.
All of a sudden a light shower began to fall. It was the kind he hated. It was raining while the sun shined brightly down. The rain caused trees to lose their autumn leaves and the
strong scent he was following began to dissipate. He was several blocks away from SB’s before he lost the others trail.
All he had was a shadowy glimpse of his face. A face that looked familiar to him. He would figure it out. He just hoped it was before they ran out of time.
*********
Janis had been held captive for a week. She couldn’t be one hundred percent sure, but she’d tracked the food rations and how many times they came to check on them and why. It was seven or eight days. She was sure of that.
She’d walked every inch of her small cell, looking for an opening, a weapon, a cell phone, something. She’d found nothing. There was no indication of where they were and even why they had been taken.
She’d been poked and prodded by the doctor and manhandled by his sons, the freaks. They touched her everywhere. The doctor was delighted she no longer suffered from human touch. He was fascinated. How did she do it? Who treated her? Was it the alien animal?
She’d said nothing. That got her smacked around. She wasn’t surprised to learn they liked to hit women. She did her best not to show fear or pain. That worked when they just smacked her around some, but when the twins were having fun, there was no way she couldn’t scream in pain.
She couldn’t be sure, but she thought they had gotten off several times, listening to her beg and plead for mercy.
Funny, she’d thought she was strong. How could she be weak? When just the touch of another brought severe burns to your arms, and you lived your life in defense mode, you had to be strong. She wasn’t.
It had only been a week, but she saw her weakness displayed before her eyes in living color. The black and blue bruises on her skin made her weep because they were so painful mocking her strength.
Her ribs, that she was sure were broken made breathing hard. All she could do was hold on to the faint hope Nicolas was coming for her. When she wasn’t being observed, she would touch the invisible bracelet on her arm and whisper to it. Asking him to come soon and liberate her. Asking him to save her friends. The friends who were sure they were going to die soon. What scared her the most was that she was beginning to believe they were all going to die.
Nicolas: Love me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance Page 12
