by Mikayla Lane
Lying bastards, Quinn thought.
For her, it was another indication that something intelligent was living inside of her and trying to help her.
“We promised not to add anything to your food again, and we haven’t,” the voice assured her.
Quinn would never believe anything they said again.
“If you would just cooperate with us, there would be no need to isolate you,” the voice cajoled, still hiding from the small window in the door as if afraid she’d see him.
Quinn laughed bitterly.
“Would it make me any less a prisoner if I was in here or out there?” She wasn’t about to let them dope her up in order to get out of the room, which was one of their conditions of cooperation.
Quinn heard the irritated intake of breath from behind the door and knew she’d nailed it.
“At some point, you will require help delivering that child. I would suggest you put your pride aside and cooperate. There can be no good outcome in this for you otherwise,” the voice replied coldly.
“You and I both know that you have no outcome planned for me at all! You’re only hoping I can keep the baby from killing you all before you get a chance to try and imprison him next. Go to hell,” Quinn spat, her anger and fear causing her blood to boil. As crazy as it sounded, she knew she was right. She could feel the truth of it.
“Suit yourself. I have the time to wait,” the voice replied before Quinn heard footsteps retreating down the long hallway back to the other side of the compound.
She sat back down in the chair, leaving the food on a table as she fought the memories of how she got there.
Quinn had initially been terrified into silence when the limousine driver had taken her to a private airfield and pulled a gun on her. She’d handed over her purse when they asked and watched in horror as they threw it in a trashcan before telling her to get on a jet not far from the car.
No one would tell her where they were going or why they even wanted her. It wasn’t until they landed in Europe when she finally learned what her fate would be.
A tall, dark-haired man was standing beside a sleek, black luxury car, and he met her as she was forced to descend the stairs of the plane.
“I am Francois Du Monde. Please, get in the car,” he’d said as he gestured to the open back door of the car.
Quinn had looked around in terror, trying to see if there was anyone that could help her or close enough to hear her if she screamed. She never saw his hand snake out and was stunned speechless when he slapped her hard across the face.
“I do not have time for your games, now get in the car,” Francois said with a nasty sneer.
Quinn had stopped feeling the cold of the air around her and she stared at the cruel face of the man who had slapped her. She could feel her cheek pulsing with pain, the skin on fire, and suddenly she grew warm on the inside.
With one hand covering her stomach protectively and the other holding her burning cheek, Quinn took another quick look around for help as she stepped back from Francois.
Francois had gleefully raised his hand again when Quinn saw a flash of light from her left and watched in stunned horror as a bolt of thin, blue light arced from the engine of the plane she’d just departed and struck Francois in the chest.
His body jerked violently for a full minute before he dropped lifelessly to the ground in a charred heap. Quinn screamed in fear and horror as the people around the plane began shouting orders and chaos erupted. Someone had sneaked up behind her and she’d felt a sharp jab in her shoulder before her vision faded and she began to fall.
He was number one, Quinn thought with a small smile as she rubbed her belly.
Her stomach growled and the baby kicked and moved around restlessly until Quinn stood up and grabbed the breakfast tray. She lifted the flat lid and didn’t even mind much that the food was cold; it still smelled wonderful.
It was the food that told her where she was, that and the fact that they brought tea and snacks to her every afternoon.
This isn’t how I pictured visiting England, Quinn thought as she dug into the fluffy eggs on the plate.
Quinn wished they hadn’t shot her up with drugs after Francois fried because she would have loved to have seen the countryside and the outside of the place she was in. Instead, she hadn’t come to until they had already arrived.
She’d awakened in a really pretty room in a more modern part of the building. It hadn’t mattered how pretty the room was, she knew she was still a prisoner when she went to the door and it was locked.
It was hours before someone had finally come to the room. The man only spoke to her in sharp, one word commands while he held a taser on her. He’d ordered her down several long hallways covered in the most beautiful tapestries she’d ever seen. Before Quinn could think much about the incredible antiques and art she’d passed, she was ordered into a huge room with an equally large fireplace.
It was the cold, heartless eyes of the mature woman who’d grabbed her attention immediately. She was dressed in a dark blue suit, her hands behind her back as she stood next to the roaring fire.
As Quinn moved further into the room, the woman’s cold, grey eyes scrutinized her before she rolled her eyes in impatience.
“Get in here already!”
Quinn looked around the room and saw two men and another woman, each standing in different places as if guarding the woman by the fire. She stopped several feet from the woman and stared at her, trying to figure out what was going on.
“The rules here are simple,” the woman began as she moved closer to Quinn. “You will do whatever we ask of you without complaint, and you may live.”
Quinn had sucked in her breath, her body trembling when she realized that she was going to die, that they would never let her live. She wrapped her arms around her stomach and began to panic for her baby when the woman grabbed her chin in a bruising grip.
“Don’t worry; the little bastard will be kept alive—if you behave,” the woman sneered as Quinn jerked her face away from her grip.
Quinn had looked at the others in the room, wondering how so many people could so coldly stand by while this woman talked about killing her when she heard a scream. She looked back at the woman in time to see the computer, phone, and lamp on the desk turn into a bright blue net of light before an arc shot out and impaled the woman through the back of her head and burst from her right eye, a single drop of blood rolling down her cheek before she fell to the floor.
Quinn had gasped, taking several steps back from the body as the arc of light jumped out of the woman’s eye and zipped across the room heading towards the other woman. She screamed in fear as she ran for the door. She managed to get it open when the bolt slammed into the back of her head, dropping her to the carpet in the doorway.
Quinn watched in stunned horror as all of the electronic devices in the room—lamps, tablets, phones, even the wiring in the walls—began to glow a brilliant blue, casting the remaining two men and Quinn in an eerie light.
She stepped further into the room when the blue bolt of light turned around and reentered the room heading towards the two men who stared at it blankly, as if not seeing it. Just as Quinn noted that the men seemed completely emotionless, the bolt of light slammed into the chest of the first man while the other calmly stood by.
Quinn ran for the door, stepping quickly over the woman’s dead body as she blindly ran down a long corridor looking for anything that would lead outside. She’d barely gone down a flight of stairs before she was easily cornered and drugged.
“That was two, three, four, and five,” Quinn said aloud with a grin as she patted her stomach again and finished her breakfast.
When she was done, she re-covered the tray and slid it back under the door, grinning when she heard it slam against the opposite wall in the hallway. It wasn’t much by way of protest, but it was all she had to vent at the moment.
She moved into the adjoining bathroom, grateful that the plumbing worked even
if there was no electricity. She quickly took a shower and redressed herself before beginning her daily habit of pacing a path from the bathroom through the bedroom.
Quinn’s mind ran through every possible avenue of escape, trying desperately to think of any way to get herself and her baby out. She cradled her stomach tenderly as she mentally ran through potential weapons to use and routes to take. It was the exact same list every day, but each time she went through it, she hoped she’d think of something new to try.
Quinn refused to give up the hope that she and her baby would get out and find their way back home. She stopped by the window and sighed as she looked out at the beautiful English countryside.
There’s no way the baby will ever be safe from these people unless I can get to Chris and convince him to test the baby’s DNA, she thought sadly, knowing he’d already washed his hands of them.
Wait, she thought, he has family. Brothers and a sister.
Quinn squeezed her eyes shut and tried to remember the name of the brother that Chris always spoke of more than the others. Chris had always been really tight lipped about his family; now Quinn knew why.
He was probably trying to protect their identities, and if this place, she thought as she looked around her stone prison, is what they’re hiding from, I can understand why he was so private about his past.
Mikal! She thought with a grin of happiness. His name is Mikal.
Her smile faded as she realized that she had no idea what his last name was or where he lived. In the 10 years she’d known Chris, she had seen him use no less than a dozen different last names. Even she had no idea what his last name really was.
When she had met Chris, he’d told her that he was in a military unit that required them to remain anonymous. With his rugged looks, muscular build, weapons, and martial arts skills, she’d never had a reason to doubt him.
Now she knew it was because he was an alien. Half alien, she mentally corrected. So her odds of finding Mikal, when she couldn’t even get hold of Chris, were slim to none.
Oh, baby, she said in her mind. I don’t know what we’re going to do.
There was an aggressive fluttering and kicking in her stomach before she felt a warmth envelope her. Quinn smiled and rubbed her stomach as she studied the landscape, noting the large open areas surrounding them.
Quinn knew that the only way she was going to get them out of there was if she could get someone to open the door again. Sadly, they hadn’t been inclined to do that since number six had been killed in her last escape attempt.
The arrogant sneer on the woman’s face when she opened the door had immediately put Quinn on the defensive, and she’d backed herself against the opposite wall in the room. The woman’s blue eyes with odd brown swirls stared at her in open hostility, and Quinn grabbed the fork from her dinner tray and hid it behind her back as the woman stalked towards her.
Quinn was getting ready to try lunging at the woman when she felt a rush of heat suffuse her body and she felt paralyzed. She watched as if from a distance as an odd voice came from her mouth and echoed around the room.
“Castani retarninian sobleki bosarn captavi, sonotangi eventi!” she’d said, unaware that she’d used the Dranovian command to expel an anomalous beast.
Quinn watched as the woman’s eyes began to glow in an eerie golden light, and her body shook violently. The woman fell to the floor as a blue arc of light flew from Quinn’s abdomen and struck the woman in the face. The woman began to scream as the light emanating from her eyes became blinding, and Quinn shielded her own eyes from it.
The screaming stopped moments later, and when Quinn turned back around, the woman was panting and shaking on the floor. She looked up at Quinn with sad blue eyes, the brown swirls now gone.
“I’m so sorry . . . I can’t live with this. . . I’m so sorry,” the woman said, seconds before pulling a gun from her waistband, placing it in her mouth, and pulling the trigger.
Quinn had looked on in horror before she was shot with a tranquilizer by the men and women who’d converged in the doorway when they heard the screaming.
That had been number six, Quinn thought.
They hadn’t opened the door since.
Chapter Four
The nine in the basement looked at each other for a moment to make sure they were all willing to do whatever it took to help Chris get his family back. No one needed to mention that they weren’t going to tell Grai or even the rest of the siblings if they didn’t have to; that was a given.
Siggy cleared his throat.
“OK, then . . . if this is all that’s going to pop in, we’ll get started,” he said as he began pulling up more information on the table in front of everyone.
“There are 27 clinics that he’s operating around the world,” Dante added as he touched one of the documents on the table and made it large enough for everyone to read. “It’s classed as a charitable organization that they reap huge tax breaks from.”
“We started pulling satellite data on each of the locations,” Siggy interrupted as he put images on the wall behind them. “They are all real damn private and in the middle of nowhere. You know that’s not a coincidence.”
“What are they doing? What’s this about?” Chris asked, wanting to know why they would take a pregnant woman.
Siggy sighed heavily.
“We hacked into the clinic Quinn went to,” he began. “A few years back they had some serious money problems and were on the verge of closing when Satalis’ company swooped in to help. We found a contract where the clinic is required to notify a place called . . .”
Siggy searched for the paper with the name of the company on it, but Dante found it first and grinned as he brought it up on the table top.
“Enigmetics. Where they claim they will ‘unravel the enigma of genetics’ for the world,” Dante said with a sarcastic tone.
“Near as we can figure,” Siggy began, “this is the company he’s using to test the hybrids he’s found and manipulated. We’re still trying to break into their systems, but he’s got some damn good security there.”
“We’ll get it; no doubt there,” Dante added quickly as he checked to make sure Chris was still calm.
Lara leaned back in her chair and narrowed her eyes at the information on the table.
“So he’s using these clinics to find hybrid mothers and children,” she said, thinking aloud.
“But why? And where is he taking them?” Trick asked.
“Because it’s taking too much of his energy to keep his adult victims under control,” Lara said, beginning to understand Satalis’ motivation. “Think about the energy it took him to build those illusions to keep the real Devon and the others under his control.”
Lara looked at Trick and saw him nod in agreement.
“What he’d done would have taken an enormous amount of energy, and once the illusions were dismantled, the Dranovians could easily destroy the anomalous beast. So he’s expelling all that energy for unpredictable benefits,” Trick agreed.
“So what’s he doing then?” Dread asked. “Stealing the kids and growing his own army?”
“It makes sense,” Lara agreed. “But I think it’s more complicated than that. Children are much more susceptible than adults to manipulation, more so if they are groomed from birth into a particular environment. He could be working with the genetics company to find a way to chemically or biologically control the children.”
“He wouldn’t have to use any of his own energy then,” Trick realized, hoping it wasn’t what the evil bastard was doing to children.
“We need in those systems,” Chris growled as he slammed his fists on the table. His fear for his mate and unborn child poured from his energy.
“Calm yourself,” Lara said softly as she sent him calming waves of energy.
“We’re on it, bro,” Dante said as his fingers flew across his comm.
“OK, so where the hell do we think Quinn is being held?” Dread asked as he stood to look at
the satellite images of the 27 locations that were on the wall.
Siggy stole a glance at Chris.
“We don’t know yet. We’re pulling the surveillance and traffic feeds from the area to see where the limo went,” he hated to admit.
“We could really use a few more hands on this,” Dante admitted, stealing a glance at his brothers.
“It’s a good damn thing we came then, isn’t it?” Dree said as she waddled down the basement stairs.
She was followed by a heavily pregnant Angel and what appeared to be the rest of their family.
Chris groaned and put his head on the table.
“Who told them?” he asked through gritted teeth, not looking forward to the lectures from his pregnant sisters.
“Oh please! Like we wouldn’t look for you when you disappeared?” Angel chastised softly as she sat heavily in one of the chairs.
Dree glared at Trick as Liam helped her into a chair as well.
“And this idiot,” Dree said, gesturing to Trick, “can’t sneak around for shit.”
“You’re going to need all hands on deck for this one,” Gun added as he crossed his arms over his chest.
Dusty and Reign sat between Dante and Siggy.
“Show us where to start helping,” Reign said as he pulled out his comm.
“We need a bigger place for all of us,” Cole added.
“Let’s go back to the compound, and we’ll work there. It’s more comfortable, and Mikal got us more maple ice cream,” Dree said as she struggled to stand. Liam helped her to her feet and everyone began piling back up the basement stairs.
When it was just Mikal, Chris, and Declan remaining, Mikal placed a hand on Chris’s shoulder.
“We need to go; it’s time to find your mate and child,” Mikal said as he stood.
Chris sighed and stood. He was relieved his family knew and they were postponing the lectures. He headed up the stairs and wasn’t surprised to see his siblings waiting for him on the lawn. The moment he headed towards one of the SUVs, everyone got in their own vehicles and began heading back to their compound on the other side of town.
