Angel’s eyes were clear, defiant. “What will you be experimenting for if you don’t know what I am?”
Another shot rang out, the sound hurting my ears, a powerful ringing noise echoing in the stone prison again.
The interns standing behind Angel flinched.
I had shouted at the same time as Angel as her other thigh began to bleed through her jeans. She twisted against her bonds, the metal making grating sounds against the chair as she struggled.
“I can’t let him do this to you.” My voice went deadly low. I relaxed my hands before clenching them into fists again and causing my palms to sting more. “He won’t live through this, anyway.”
A light flashed in Angel’s eyes. The same determination I felt inside me was reflected on her features now.
Johnson aimed the gun at me. “If you threaten me one more time, I will start putting bullets into you.”
“She’s a Doppler.” I saw death in Angel’s eyes, death for Johnson. “Dopplers are paranorms who take different animal forms,” I continued, “unlike Werewolves, who always change into wolf form.”
“Not to be mistaken with Shifters.” Angel surprised me by volunteering information. “Shifters can choose whatever animal they want to transform into. Dopplers are born with one predetermined animal form.”
A confused light was in Johnson’s eyes for the first time and he didn’t speak, as if trying to digest a fantastical story. He looked like he was attempting to gather himself as he cut his gaze to the pair of techs who were now carrying Lawson’s corpse toward the stone door.
“Take the body to cold storage for now.” Johnson made a motion to the camera. “After you bag it.”
The door opened, scrubbing the floor with a loud grating sound that made my skin crawl. The outer door scraped open next.
Johnson turned back to me. “How many of you paranorms are there?” He said paranorms like the word itself was a virus.
“We’re everywhere.” I took one step closer to him as the stone door shut with a thunderous sound behind the two techs. “We hide in plain sight. Humans don’t know how many species of paranorms there are. You can’t eradicate us all.”
I didn’t take another step as an insane expression crossed what I could see of Johnson’s face behind his mask. A smile. He was smiling? Yes, and it was maniacal.
“Upon studying the blood samples from both of you, we discovered you beasts and the Werewolves have a single matching mutated gene.” As he spoke I felt sudden tension ride my shoulders. “This gene gives you one common vulnerability that humans do not share.”
The tension I’d been feeling in my shoulders spread throughout the rest of me so fast that every part of me ached. Angel stiffened in her chair, her bruised features still.
Johnson’s smile grew. He paused as if savoring what he had to say next. “The mutated gene has a predisposition to be susceptible to virus. My team of junior scientists and I simply have to find the right virus that will exterminate every one of you abominations.”
He looked so pleased as he added words that sent chills through me. “I believe we are close enough that we can soon begin the eradication.”
“That’s impossible. You’re lying.” The words slipped out heavy with horror, showing weakness I hadn’t planned or wanted him to see. I mentally cursed myself because I couldn’t take back the words or the fear in my voice.
His arm was probably tired but Johnson still looked alert as he slowly lowered the gun. A breath of relief escaped me.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?” he said.
My fingers twitched, aching to grip Lightning and Thunder tight in my palms. I would slice him to shreds with my dragon-claw daggers with no remorse.
Maybe I’d even feel pleasure. Satisfaction at killing the man who had murdered so many Werewolves, a man seeking a way to destroy what he considered abominations. If every paranorm shared that one gene, not just Angel and me, he could erase us all.
I wanted to rub the growing chill from my arms but I wasn’t going to show any more signs of weakness.
Johnson shifted on the heels of his rubber-soled boots and they squeaked on the stone floor. “What other disgusting beasts exist that I am unaware of?”
“There are no disgusting beasts.” My words came out like a whip as I thought about his plan. Well, Metamorphs could qualify as disgusting, but their race didn’t deserve to be extinguished. I could live without Zombies. I ignored those thoughts and continued. “We all are beings who have just as much a right to exist as humans do. Most paranorms were here long before humans.”
Johnson’s face went red behind his mask. “God created man. You abominations are a result of Eve’s unfaithfulness to Adam. That is why you possess the weak gene—so that one such as I can punish Eve’s ill-begotten children. Children who are the spawn of Satan.”
My head almost snapped back in shock at what he’d said and the fervor in his tone, the fanaticism, and the disgust that accompanied it. We were dealing with a crazy man. Worse yet, a crazy scientist.
“Tell me,” Johnson all but screamed as he pointed the gun at Angel again. Spittle splattered across the inside of his face shield, but I don’t think he noticed.
“Okay.” I held up my hands, my palms facing him in a gesture meant to tell him I didn’t want him to hurt Angel again and would comply. “Whatever you want.”
“You know what I want.” He lowered the gun again. Good, his arm was becoming weaker from training the weapon on us for such a long time.
“Yes.” I gave a slow nod. Maybe I could shock him into thinking there was no way his plan would work on all of us. “There are so many paranorms it’s hard to know where to start.” My list ought to give him nightmares. I almost shuddered myself at the thought of Zombies again.
I started ticking off the various beings on my fingers. “You know there are Light Elves and Dark Elves as well as Dopplers, Shifters, and Werewolves.”
“Hurry up,” he said in a snarl.
“This is going to take a while,” I said, but I did rush to continue my list. “Vampires, Necromancers, Incubae, Succubae…Zombies.” I took a breath before I went on and had to start counting on my first, then other hands again. “Metamorphs, Magi, Demons, Gargoyles, Shadow Shifters, Witches and Sorcerers.”
The scientist’s eyes looked like they were going to cross behind his mask. I didn’t give him a chance to speak—I was on a roll.
“Then Fae—almost too many to count.” I was tempted to use my bare toes as well as my fingers. “Pixies, Abatwa, Brownies, Dryads, Faeries, Gnomes, Nymphs, Sânziene, Sirens, Tuatha, Sidhe, Goblins, Dwarves, Undines, and Sprites.” I cocked my head, trying to look deep in thought. “I may have forgotten something, but that’s pretty close.”
Johnson shook his head like he was in a dream. “You are fabricating this story.”
It was my turn to shrug. “You asked.”
He swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing. It was easy to tell he was working to control his reaction. “God has given me this task, to destroy what does not belong in this world.” He tipped his chin up and straightened as if sucking up his courage. “I am most certainly up to this challenge.”
Johnson couldn’t have looked more distracted than he did at that moment.
I wasn’t close enough to lunge at him. I bunched my muscles, took one step, and forward-flipped toward him.
Anger fueled my motion. As I came down, I landed on my left foot while hitting his gun arm hard with my right. I’d break his wrist.
He reacted faster than I expected and jerked the gun toward me. I missed his wrist, but my leg came down hard on his forearm. Enough power and fury was in my motion to knock the gun out of his hand despite his tight grip.
A shot rang out at the same time my leg hit his arm. Pain exploded in my knee. My leg almost collapsed under me but I shifted my balance to my other leg in time.
The weapon clattered to the stone floor and spun away.
Pain magnified my rage. With a kn
ife-hand strike I hit his neck. Too low. My shot knee had me off-balance and I nicked his collarbone.
Johnson shouted, a loud sound of pain, but strange and distorted through his microphone. The blow would have snapped his neck if I had hit him correctly or had been in my Drow form.
Unable to bear weight on my right knee, I had to rely on my fists. The scientist lunged to punch me. I blocked it with my left arm. I jabbed him in the solar plexus with my right, then left fists before sending a third punch to a sensitive spot between his jaw and skull, below his ear. His suit cushioned most of my blows, but the last one got him enough to knock him out.
A muted cry, then he was facedown on the floor.
It was over in seconds.
Angel shouted, “Behind you!”
I had been ready for the two interns. Of course they would come after me to help Johnson. They hadn’t had any visible weapons, but I had been prepared for anything—except getting shot in the knee.
Jenkins had a bottle of the knock-out spray aimed at me. I clasped my hands into one fist and swung at the intern’s arm. My blow was so hard that the bottle flew from his hand, sailed across the room, and hit the far wall.
Sounds of shattering glass and Angel’s cry of “Oh, damn” seemed distant, as if from another place.
I ignored the pain in my knee and concentrated on taking out the man in front of me. Damn the mask because it kept me from ramming the heel of my palm into his nose or my fist into his eye.
The fury inside me came from everything these people were doing to paranorms and the horror of what they planned to do next.
The intern shrieked when I punched him hard enough to crack two of his ribs with one fist, then another rib with the next punch.
Continuing to balance on my left foot, I grabbed the tech’s shoulders, jerked him to me, and head-butted him just above his protective facemask. He sucked in his breath in a deep gasp. I released his shoulders and he hit the floor.
I hated head-butting when I was in human form. Stars sparked behind my eyes. It didn’t matter, though—I was still completely alert, on guard.
Now for the other intern. I started to go after the female—but she was passed out on the floor. What?
I jerked my attention to Angel. She was still cuffed in the chair but she was out cold, too.
The powdery feel of the spray used on me when I was first kidnapped touched my skin.
The broken spray bottle. The fumes had traveled from the wall to where we were.
I was out before my body hit the floor.
THIRTEEN
I didn’t think Superman had ever been stupid. At least he had that going for him.
Apparently, I didn’t.
My head ached this time when I woke and opened my eyes. Being very careful not to move my shot knee too much, I pushed myself to a sitting position. Pain still made me grind my teeth. I felt dizzy, too, as if I’d been kicked in the head.
Same room as before. I really hated this room.
I eased up and leaned against the wall. I was so glad for its support because I probably would have fallen onto my side without it. Even the back of my head hurt when it touched the wall.
My brows narrowed—which caused my whole head to hurt more—and I frowned. I reached up, touched my temples and my cheek, and winced. I’d been hit or kicked in the face.
I ran my fingers all over, wincing every time I touched something painful—which was just about everywhere on my face. Judging by how swollen and bruised it felt, and by my split lip, my head had been somebody’s soccer ball.
It was a little late in coming, but I realized my eyes hurt and it was hard to see. Johnson or his techs or his interns, or all, had even kicked me in my eyes.
I wasn’t surprised he’d stoop so low. And what did he care if I was seriously hurt? If I was blind, deaf, and dumb, it wouldn’t matter to him. As long as I was alive for him to test and abuse.
More pain started to shout for attention. My whole body had been used as a kicking target. And my knee…blood coated my leather fighting pants around where my knee had taken the bullet. Neither Johnson nor his techs had bothered to bandage or disinfect the wound. My kneecap was shattered. I was screwed until I shifted.
And then I felt the first tingle.
Olivia’s favorite phrase seemed to be perfect for every bad situation, and this was definitely not good.
Oh, shit.
My internal clock told me the sun was going down aboveground and I was about to shift into my Drow form.
Well, that ought to freak Johnson out.
I’d heal during the shift, but the last thing I wanted was to be recorded as I changed forms.
A sick sensation filled my belly and I held my arm to that part of me that ached, too. I looked up at the camera and then gazed around the sterile white room. It was the only camera I could see. Didn’t mean I wasn’t missing something, but I could hope. Without my elemental magic, I didn’t have the full ability to discover what secrets, if any, that room held.
The more my body tingled, the more my heart raced and the more urgency filled me to get out of the camera’s range of sight. Like a peeping Tom it stared at me, taking away my privacy.
Even though I tried to keep my weight off my bad knee, pain made me lightheaded as I pushed myself up. I wavered, trying to balance myself as I stood. The tingles ran along my skin and the roots of my hair prickled with sensation.
I limped toward the same corner as the camera, biting the inside of my cheek as I hurried the best I could. Goddess, I hoped the camera had a blind spot at the back side of it. When I reached that corner, I settled where the two walls met, closed my eyes, and touched my collar as if it would give me strength. Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t, but I couldn’t tell with such wrenching pain.
Not only did the change hurt because I wasn’t doing my usual stretches, but the healing process had me doubling over. My bruised and battered face and body felt like I was being punched all over again. I hadn’t realized my wrist was fractured and a rib was broken until the bones started knitting themselves back together.
It was my body’s idea of healing my shattered kneecap that had me biting back cries and shouting out prayers. Who knew that healing could bring someone so close to passing out? It occurred to me that I’d always taken my elements for granted when I shifted after being injured. When I normally stretched and moved during the shift, I used air along with the transformation to heal.
I clenched my teeth as my muscles strengthened and became more toned. Blood filled my mouth as my incisors pierced my lip because I had my teeth welded so tightly together.
When I knew the change was complete, I opened my eyes. For the first time ever after a change, I was breathing in harsh gasps. Even though I was now healed and the pain had vanished, I felt like I was hyperventilating just like the first time I’d discovered myself in this awful room.
I took deep, steadying breaths as I raised my arm and looked at my more defined muscles and my amethyst skin. Strands of my cobalt blue hair lay over my shoulder.
A screaming noise filled the room.
It pierced my head like a Drow blade.
Pain screeched through me. I grasped the sides of my head. Bent double as the scream went on and on. So like the one from the forest.
Only ten times louder.
My head was going to explode.
Everything wavered and I felt like I’d been beaten again.
Through the sudden haze behind my eyes I saw the stone door open. The shrieking was so loud I couldn’t hear the door scraping the floor.
Twelve techs and interns wearing green suits with red or blue armbands came into the room. They had earphones on and were pushing a steel gurney.
I’d taken on as many Demons as the number of techs entering the room. Demons that had been evil beings with a weakness so difficult to get to that saying it was a challenge to kill them was a joke.
Yet here I was facing mere humans and I could barely stay on my feet, t
he screeching so intense that my body wanted to collapse in on itself.
But no way was I getting on that gurney. No mere humans were going to get the best of me.
It was so loud I couldn’t hear the rattle of the gurney’s wheels across the stone floor. My vision was even foggy. So foggy that I didn’t see the spray bottles until the interns and techs were within fighting range.
My muscles were already bunched, prepared to fight on autopilot. I deflated the moment I saw those bottles. My head hurt too much and my vision was too bad to tell for certain, but I think every one of the techs was carrying a bottle. Yay for me that I merited twelve bottles of spray.
The techs surrounded me. Gloved hands grasped my wrists and cuffed them in front of me. I felt rubber from their gloves on my bare arms and bare midriff when they picked me up and settled me on the gurney. Dropped onto the gurney was more like it.
My breasts were smashed down as they strapped me in with so many thick nylon straps that it was overkill—or would have been if I wasn’t Drow. I’d wait for the right moment…when I’d be in touch with my elements again.
I wanted to beg them to make the screeching stop, but I bit the inside of my cheek to keep myself from saying anything.
Twelve pairs of eyes stared at me for a moment after they had me completely strapped down. I could imagine what they thought as they saw an amethyst woman with unblemished skin and blue hair. A woman who only minutes ago had been fair with black hair, and had bruises and cuts all over her swollen face along with a shattered knee.
The screeching noise stopped. My body went limp with relief. My ears still rang.
“Let’s go.” Harkins—I recognized the intern’s voice, which sounded loud now that the noise had stopped. “Dr. Johnson wants it in the examination room now.”
It. Like I was nothing. Maybe a bug on the floor for her to smash under her rubber soles. If I could figure out a way to get out of this mess, I might choke her before I took care of the other eleven techs. That was after I killed Johnson, of course.
I clenched my fists and tested my restraints. Could I get out without my elements? Maybe I would have access to them wherever they moved me.
No Werewolves Allowed Page 13
