by Patti Larsen
Reid takes a seat at the table the rest of the pack just vacated, helping himself to the boxed pizza. It’s bland and cold, but he doesn’t care. Liquid brown eyes look up at him with longing.
“My children,” Dr. Lund’s voice oozes love and kindness, “our goals have been achieved at last. You are free. We are free. And no one can stop us from moving ahead with our plans.”
The pack cheers while Reid gives Minnie her own slice. She happily swallows four chunks whole before he offers her some water from a chilled bottle. She gulps half the contents before settling beside him with a deep sigh, chin on his foot as though she needs to touch him to make sure he is real.
All the while, Dr. Lund goes on. “This is an epic day, one I’ve been dreaming about for a very long time. I’ve always known I was destined for great things. Little did I understand how great, or that I would be creating such an amazing testament to the powers of my science.”
Reid almost laughs around his pizza while the others try to find the compliment to them in those words. Wow. Her ego is just getting bigger along with her insanity.
“I love you all, my children, my creations. You are the fruit of my labors, the final success of my years of hard work. You too have a destiny, tightly tied to mine. Together, we will create a new world order. One where the hunters rule.”
New world order. No one with those intentions ever meant well. Not really. Reid forces down the food in his mouth around the sudden pinch of tension in his belly.
“Now that I have freed you from the oppression of the military, it’s time to begin our mission.” She smiles down on them, a kind and gentle mistress façade hiding the merciless killer underneath. The rest of the pack exchange looks, smiles, even start to get excited. Even Emme and Nathan. Seems all’s forgiven now that they are out of the compound.
Which makes no sense to Reid. They’ve just traded one prison for another. Literally.
Still, he feels his own excitement growing as he understands what she is saying. Not at the prospect of hunting and killing for Dr. Lund, but because being on a mission means going outside the barricades she has them trapped behind.
It means freedom. And he plans to take advantage of that the moment she lets him out.
“You are Godlings,” she says, eyes welling with tears that trickle down her smooth, pale face as she hugs herself. “Your reward shall be more power than you ever dreamed possible. And immortality.” She snuffles delicately, wipes at her wet cheeks with her white sleeve. “Nothing can stop us now.”
She sounds so much like a super villain in a bad movie Reid has to pinch himself to keep from snickering out loud. And yet, the sense she is more dangerous than ever is still there, so the need to laugh fades fast.
Dr. Lund steps away from the podium. Reid isn’t sure who starts the applause but he’s pretty sure it’s Joel. Reid adds ass kisser to the bully’s list of failings.
He turns to leave, stomach full and mind spinning with possibilities when he sees them. They are lined up at the back of the room, flanked by guards of their own, looking lost and more than a little afraid.
Reid’s breath catches as he rushes forward to his friends.
Milo meets him with a giant hug, his fuzzy hair tickling Reid’s cheek.
“Reid.” The boy holds him tight another moment before letting him go. When he looks up, his chocolate eyes brim with tears, hastily dashed aside as he grins, white teeth glittering against his dusky skin. “Hey, Reid.”
Reid is smiling and can’t seem to stop. Cole is next, the slim blonde looking even more angelic than ever, now that he’s polished up and gleamingly clean in his white T-shirt and gray pants, a match to everyone else’s prison uniform. He looks so fragile and delicate Reid handles him with care, shocked as he always is at the strength of the boy’s hug.
Kieran is smiling too, a goofy thing that makes him look younger than he is. He clasps Reid’s hand, bumps shoulders with him. Sarah grabs his face and kisses him soundly while Nishka gives him a shy hug and whispers, “I’m so happy to see you’re okay,” in his ear.
Marcus just nods. Reid nods back. That pulls a twisted smirk to Marcus’s lips. Reid takes it as a compliment.
The others knot together, smiling up at him. All faces he’s learned to love even while he still has yet to know all of their names. Like it matters. They’ve been through hell together, and are still in hell. But they are alive and he is very, very glad.
And then, sad. “I thought you might have escaped.” His joy at having them with him argues with his need for them to be safe and far away from here.
“No such luck.” Marcus’s shoulders roll forward, dark eyes fixed on Reid’s. “We were rounded up as soon as the reinforcement troops arrived. But she must have been ready for that.”
Milo nods up and down so fast his shining teeth are a blur against the backdrop of his dark skin. “We were shoved in this truck,” he hurries over his words, “we didn’t know what was happening.”
“Then there was this explosion.” Cole interrupts, earning him a jab from Milo.
“The truck stopped and we heard shouting,” Milo goes on. “There was gunfire, more shouting.”
“Then it got kind of quiet.” Cole dodges another hit from his friend.
“And the back of the truck barged open. It was Dr. Lund.” Milo shudders. “She’s crazy, right? Anyway, she told us she was saving us or something then slams the door shut again and the truck takes off.”
“We had no idea what was going on,” Cole says.
“Then we get here.” Milo exhales deeply, his story at an end. “That’s how it happened.”
Reid grins at Marcus who winks back.
“Thanks,” Reid says.
“You’re welcome,” the boys say together before starting to squabble over who was the most helpful.
Drew grins at Reid. “Just like old times.”
Except old times meant the dark and the forest and death. But Reid just nods back.
“Sorry I didn’t join you up there,” Drew says, taking his turn jabbing Milo in the arm. “Family reunion. And the pizza here sucks.”
“Says you,” Milo says. “Pizza never sucks.”
Reid feels eyes on him, has been putting off this meeting. But he can’t any longer. He is already turning away from the others, drawn like a magnet toward the last of his friends.
Finally, she is standing before him and he lets himself look at her and fall into how he feels about her. Her pale eyes won’t let him go, though he wants to see all of her at once, her beautiful face, shining white-blonde hair. She is as much an angel as Cole, so much Reid is surprised she hasn’t sprouted wings.
He wants to hug her, to hold her, but he is afraid he won’t be able to let go. Her hands reach out, one taking his while the other settles on his bare arm. Her smile of greeting is so radiant his heart reaches for her while his guilt surges forward and forces him to speak.
“I’m sorry,” he whispers to her. “I failed you.”
Her smile freezes, fades a little. “Reid,” she says. “You saved us.”
But he can’t let it go, that last image he has of her, standing there, looking at him like he was dead already, mourning him for the monster he became.
“I didn’t,” Reid says. “I’m one of them.”
Leila starts to cry, giant tears sliding from her crystal eyes, dripping from her jaw to touch his skin in hot, fat drops. She shakes her head, teeth gripping her lower lip so tight all the pink leaves it, her gaze falling away from his. She chokes on a sob, her grip tightening on him.
That’s when he feels her. The connection between them. And understands.
He may be a hunter now, but he’s not the only one. Dr. Lund’s words make total sense now. Of course. She’s made them in her own image, these survivors of her terror. The ultimate punishment in the guise of a reward. His rage is rapid and violent but he holds it in even as it fades and lets go, replaced by something far more terrible.
Relief. Reid isn
’t alone. And he hates himself for needing it.
Dr. Lund is next to him before he knows she is there, he’s so wrapped up in Leila. He sees the doctor’s gaze drift from the pale girl to him and back again, can practically hear the gears turning. And knows showing Leila this much affection could be his downfall.
He lets Leila go, but it’s far too late. Still, Dr. Lund says nothing about it. Instead, she beams at them all, clapping her little hands together in happiness. “You’ve all proven your worth to the program,” she says. “Surviving like you did, defeating even your siblings. I’m so thrilled to have you as my children.” No one says anything. Not like it matters.
Even if they could think of something to say, there’s nothing they can do to change the truth of it.
She’s made sure that no matter what happens, they belong to her.
***
Chapter Ten
She leaves them to talk. As much as Reid knows he needs to take back control of all the hunters if they are going to survive this, he wants some time with just his friends.
But not to get reacquainted. The topic is much more serious.
“We have to get out of here,” Drew says before Reid can. So, he nods.
“How?” Nishka stares at the pack of hunters on the other side of the room. “With the soldiers watching us, Dr. Lund? Not to mention them.”
They all know who she means. Reid has no doubt Joel and company will happily turn them in if they can and kill them if they can’t.
“Besides, where will we go if we do get out?” Milo is back to his old complaining habit. “We’ll be broke and hunted by the military and the crazy lady. And you know the army will shoot on sight. At least here we have a chance to survive.”
Reid nods even while Drew sputters a denial. “No,” Reid says, “Milo is right. He’s absolutely right. Unless we have help on the outside, this escape talk is getting us nowhere.” Again the image of Syracuse invades Reid’s mind. And as much as he despises the thought of asking for help from the very man who put him here in the first place, Reid knows how to create enough leverage to get what he wants.
“I have an idea,” he says. “But it’s risky.”
Sarah laughs. Reid realizes then how much he missed his friends. “Hilarious, Reid. Really. Like our whole lives aren’t risky.” She winks at him. “I think we can handle it.”
He grins at her. “Okay, fine. I get it.” The smile drops away. “When I was in custody the first time, when I met Brackett,” Reid sees Marcus flinch from his dead father’s name, “Syracuse was there. He brought me in, used my sister Lucy as bait.” Reid still owes her for that. Aches to repay her. He shoves it aside and goes on. “He seemed really curious about us, how we were made. I know he heard Dr. Lund talking about the dust. I’m sure I could convince him to help us if we offered him some.”
No one speaks. They understand the weight and significance of this. They all know who Syracuse is, what he means to each of them. Reid is suggesting they give the man who betrayed them all the means to make his own pack. A sample of the dust should make it easy for a chemist to recreate.
Still, they have no other choices and everyone knows it.
Reid feels them slide from horror and anger into acceptance. “From now on, we need to be model little subjects,” he says. “Good boys and girls who do what we’re told. We need her to trust us enough to get us out there.”
“What about Joel and the others?” Leila leans toward him, her hands sliding over Minnie’s soft, black ears.
“We can’t worry about them,” Reid says. “The first one of us to go out on a mission has only one job--break free and get to Syracuse any way possible. I know it won’t be easy. I have no idea where the man is right now. But there has to be a way. I know he’ll be looking for us.”
“Are you sure?” Drew chews the skin on the side of his thumb. “There are so many things that could go wrong with this, Reid.”
“I know,” he says. “But I am sure. Syracuse is too much of an opportunist not to try to get his hands on some dust.” At least, he hopes so. “There’s a road house, a couple of miles from the enclosure. That’s my best guess. I know it’s thin, but we have no other options.”
“We could just go to the police,” Cole says. “Can’t we?”
Reid wants to hug his young friend, to shelter his continued naïveté, still present even after everything he’s been through. But instead he just shakes his head gently.
“Would you believe you?”
Cole sighs. “No. No, I wouldn’t.”
“All right,” Reid says. “Agreed then. And when the crap hits the shredder and the fighting starts, Drew, you’re in charge of gathering enough dust when we kill the others to give to Syracuse for payment.”
They know what that means but no one protests or even looks shocked. Reid realizes after he says it how cold and calculating it is and worse, that not one of them flinches from it.
He refuses to feel bad. Reid is what the doctor has made him.
The others huddle together, talking. Reid watches them with a small smile, though it fades quickly. He stares at them, their faces, so dear to him now after such a short time. They have been through so much together, and apart.
Emotion wells inside him at last, grief for those he lost, fear for the rest. He steps out of the group, feeling Minnie follow, needing a moment to get himself together.
Leila doesn’t give him that moment. She stops him with a hand on his arm.
“Reid,” she whispers very softly, for his ears only. “Please, don’t go.”
He hesitates, needs to run away from her most of all, but the want in her eyes holds him still.
She drops her hand, clasping both of them together in front of her chest, breathing shallow and rapid. Her cheeks bloom red, lips flushed and full as fresh moisture rises in her eyes.
He won’t survive her tears again. They will destroy him, force him to show more emotion in front of those who can’t see how much he cares for her.
She gets herself together enough to speak, to break the spell between them so he can hold himself back.
“I thought you were dead.” Her whisper stutters and trembles but he can make her out. “I saw you die. We were hiding nearby. Kieran had to hold Marcus down so he wouldn’t be killed himself. We knew it was too late.” She sighs out a breath. “And then you killed that hunter. I saw you change, rise. You were one of them but you weren’t, not completely. You looked right at me and I… you could have killed me in that moment and I would have died happy.” She drops her hands. “Just because I knew you were alive.”
He can’t breathe, there is too much pressure on his chest, too much drawn tight around them.
“I was so afraid for you,” she says. “I thought I’d never see you again, never get the chance to tell you what I’ve wanted to tell you. For so long, it seems. But it hasn’t been, has it?” Her laugh is humorless. “It feels like forever since the cave in the mountain when I saw you for the first time.”
Something warm and wet swipes over Reid’s hand. He looks down into Minnie’s sad brown eyes and it’s enough to break the awful tension, snapping it and allowing him to smile at Leila.
“I know,” he says. “How you feel. It’s okay. But we have to wait, you know that, right? To say it.” He wishes it were different. That he could tell her everything he is feeling.
She nods once. “I know. When we are safe. When the world makes sense again.” Leila leans close, hugs him hard. He feels her hand slide into his pocket. “Make them count,” she whispers.
Leila pulls away and smiles at him, this one genuine and free of guilt or pain. Reid smiles back while his fingers explore her gift.
Two thin plastic tubes. The poison. His breath catches as she winks and nods.
He has no idea how she did it but she’s handed him the means to kill Dr. Lund.
***
Chapter Eleven
Reid doesn’t get a chance to ask her how she smuggled the tubes in.
They are interrupted.
“Aw,” Joel has snuck up on them while Reid has been wrapped up in Leila. “How sweet. Love birds reconnected.”
Reid kicks himself for his mistake, while slowly turning to glare at the bully. Joel ignores him, winking at Leila while giving her the once over, slowly licking his lips. The gesture is so obscene it fires up Reid’s fury all over again.
“What do you want?” There is nothing soft or fake in Reid’s tone. He’s all business.
Joel spins on him, his own face a flat mask of rage. “You and I have an appointment,” he says. “We were interrupted last time. Thinking it’s a good chance to figure out who’s the real alpha around here.”
Reid shrugs casually though his body is tense with the need to strike. He sees Marcus move to intercept, rage in every move the guy makes, but gestures for him to stay where he is. This is Reid’s fight. He has enough to worry about without Marcus going off like a bomb. Reid needs to know his friends are safe while still keeping part of his focus on the heavily armed guards around them. The last thing he needs is to get shot over Joel’s misplaced need for vengeance. Reid’s all for the battle itself. But there is a time and a place and this very public venue isn’t it.
Joel doesn’t give him much of a choice, making Reid think perhaps he knows something Reid doesn’t. When he catches a glimpse of Dr. Lund watching them from the second floor catwalk, he understands.
She doesn’t care if they kill each other. Survival of the fittest. She’ll take the winner and consider it destiny.
