A large hill slowed his travels. It wasn’t on the map. This wasn’t supposed to be here.
Kai edged around the outside of the hill, large enough to easily cover a double story house. The trees and bushes were thick at the base of it and looked like they’d been there a long, long time. Well established. Perfectly natural.
Yet, somehow completely unnatural.
Continuing around the circumference of the hill, Kai came across a road and an entrance large enough to take a truck. He grinned and punched the air.
Sari stared slack-jawed at Rex Zimmerman. Dressed in his sharp blue uniform, his posture strong and commanding, he almost seemed sincere. The sly light in his eyes took nothing away from the words he’d uttered.
“You can make me human again?” she repeated, her voice small and weak, giving him too much power over her. Anger her tore through her and fought with the hope his offer sparked. She could be normal once more, safe, no Hunters, no Failures, no Facility…she could be herself again.
Or was it all a ruse to cut her down? She wouldn’t put it past him. The man loved mind games. For the most part, he was good at it too. Damn near had her convinced of his fatherly love and devotion once upon a time. Drowsy from being drugged, she’d bought into his lullaby of sweet murmurs and pretty promises. But she wasn’t drugged this time, and she knew his promises were anything but pretty.
Rex turned to Waylon. “Friend, why don’t you go up to the kitchen? You must be starving.”
“I’d rather stay.”
Rex chuckled. “I’d rather you go. Let me spend some quality time with Sari.”
As she watched Waylon go, Sari wondered why Rex insisted he go away and leave them alone, but when it came down to it, all he wanted was the opportunity to rape her mind with more of his insanity.
Like he hadn’t done it before.
Rex stepped towards her and she suppressed the instinct to shift. Knowing she didn’t feel safe around him would stroke his ego. Sari refused to give him the satisfaction.
“That’s right, little one. I can take away all the hurt and frustration. I can reverse the procedure. I wouldn’t do it for just anyone though, only you.”
Sari didn’t flinch when he came closer. Her grip on the sheet covering her nakedness tightened and she held her breath, but she didn’t run. Rex expected one of two things from her. Either she’d run or she’d crumble at his news. Well, she wouldn’t give him either. Still, she swallowed at the honesty in his eyes and the comforting body language he displayed.
For the briefest of moments, she gave herself permission to wonder what it would be like to go back, to be human again. No extra sensory perception, no feline olfactory nerve to pick up every little scent, no super hearing to keep her awake in the middle of the night. She’d never again have to worry about shifting in the middle of sex or waking up with paws or claws or whiskers.
Purring would be a thing of the past and the instinct to hunt and stalk helpless prey would vanish. No longer would the smell of tuna send her stomach into a feeding frenzy, and she wouldn’t have to resist the crazy urge to rub up against the furniture in her apartment anymore.
The lure of being normal pulled at her heart, its grip fierce and unrelenting. It forced her eyes closed. Rex would love every moment of her struggle. He drew power from her weakness, but she couldn’t help herself. Never having to fight against the inner cat would make life so much easier, so much simpler. She could finally belong again.
She opened her eyes. “Why? Why would you make me human again?”
Zimmerman smiled sadly at her, as if the answer was obvious and she wasn’t intelligent enough to figure it all out.
“Why don’t you come on a little tour with me? Let me show you all the things I can do for you, Sari.”
In coming closer, he took her by the shoulders and led her to a waiting wheelchair. With her body weak and her mind reeling, he had her strapped down in no time. At least he let her keep the sheet and protect her dignity, even if she was tied in like a crazy patient. He squatted before her, his hand on her knee making her stomach lurch. If she had food in there, she’d be more than happy to vomit all over him.
“When you see all the things I’ve achieved, sweetheart, you’ll realize your destiny lies here, with me.”
With a light jerk, the wheelchair rolled forward. Tears burned her eyes but she refused to let them fall. If he saw a way to slither beyond her defenses and further into her mind, he’d expose it for all it was worth. She was stronger than that. Damn it, she was stronger than Rex. Physically, emotionally, mentally.
With her mind working to devise a strategy for escape, she settled on letting him think he was wearing her down. She hung her head, breathed slowly, kept her features looking tired. It wasn’t too hard when fatigue threatened to make her pass out. All the while, she logged every detail around her. The cold air. The hum from the ventilation tunnels. The lack of windows. When they were in the elevator, she noted they went down a long way. Several floors. The air got colder. The doors slid open to reveal a secured entrance. SL 10 was painted in large white blocks on the door.
Rex needed a security card to gain access.
He pushed her chair through the open door into a dimly lit corridor. It looked like a hospital ward, complete with nurse’s station. A tall woman with brown, curly hair stood in a white lab coat. She had a kickass figure and was pretty to boot. The smile, however, revealed something dark within her. Sari sensed that she wasn’t welcome down here at all and that smile was more for Rex’s benefit than hers.
“Hello, Sari. I’m Jessica. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m pleased to finally meet you.”
Sure.
Jessica’s eyes lifted and she pinned Rex with an annoyed stare. No, she really wasn’t pleased to meet Sari. Still, Sari kept her manner docile and defeated. Learning all she could about what Rex was doing here could come in handy later.
“I know you like being a jaguar,” Rex said, directing her wheelchair toward one of the doors. “It has its advantages, doesn’t it? The supersonic hearing, the extra sensitive sense of smell. Don’t tell me you don’t enjoy the benefits. That’s why you hunt most nights, why you risk the shift. Because it feels good and it gives you power. I know you put all of your special powers to good use, Sari. Hell, who wouldn’t?”
The door opened and she was wheeled into the entry. When she lifted her eyes, she found a woman lying on a bed, awake, smiling, happy. Her hands rested on her rounded belly, and she spoke but Sari didn’t hear a word. She only saw the pregnant bulge and her heart sank.
Mara hadn’t given him a head start on his breeding program at all. He’d already begun.
She turned to look up at Rex. The fatherly pride in his eyes disgusted her. “Don’t look so appalled, Sari. Let yourself imagine, just for a moment, what it would’ve been like to have been born with all your powers. By your age, you’d been in full control of every gift, unstoppable. You’d feel superior to everyone else, to the average person who walked the streets.”
“A superior race,” she murmured, Tom’s words floating back to her.
Rex set a hand on her shoulder. “Exactly. No more disease, no more weakness. Society’s medical bill dramatically reduced by the super immune system.”
Her stomach rolled, and she swallowed the bile stinging her throat. He was truly corrupted by his delusions of grandeur. Waylon may very well have begun as the mad scientist of the piece, but Rex had well and truly surpassed him in madness. Sari couldn’t see the method to it anymore. They’d lost their purpose, or adopted a new, less logical one.
What was the point in turning humans into hybrids? It was like he’d decided that the human species—his species—was no longer viable and needed to be eradicated. Forget ethnic cleansing, Rex wanted to cleanse the planet of homo sapiens. Replace them with hybrids of the big cats. What next in his grand scheme? Did she even want to know?
“What if they’re not perfect? What if you made a mistake, like you di
d with us?”
He looked horrified for the briefest of moments, revealing the one thing he feared. Failure. “I haven’t.”
“You won’t know that until they’re born.”
“But we do,” Jessica interrupted, sounding mightily pissed off. “I’ve been here the whole time, from the moment the embryos were created to now. With me in charge, nothing will go wrong.”
Sari lowered her head again. “You sound very confident.”
“Oh, I am, little one, I am.”
The chair shifted backwards, pulling her out of the doorway. She watched, helpless, as the door swung shut, cutting off her view. That woman looked calm and pleased to be pregnant. Score one for Rex. He’d found subjects willing to play a part in this nightmare. Most of all, she looked ready to pop. Eight months? Maybe more. Rex seemed to be on a roll.
“Come along, Sari,” Rex said, sounding as if she had a choice in the matter.
“You’re not taking her where I think you are.” Jessica sounded worried. “I don’t think that’s wise.”
The chair stopped. “Considering that Sari really only has two choices, join us or be killed, I really don’t think there’s a problem here.”
Behind her, the two fell silent. Smelling Jessica’s fear and Rex’s complacency, Sari envisioned a semi stand off between them. Having them at odds with each other gave her a chance. A very slim opening, but also very real. Sari smiled.
“Look, I won’t argue with you. I know better than that,” Jessica said. “But for the record, I’m voicing an objection. Don’t take her up to SL 9. You don’t need to show off to this little bitch. Two options she may have, Rex, but I know which one she’ll choose and it’s not you.”
“Jessica, sweetheart.” Rex’s voice softened until it became sickly sweet. Sari had heard that before. “The objection is noted. Now stay here while I continue the tour.”
His thinly veiled threat hung ominously in the air as Sari’s chair rolled forward. In the elevator, Rex stood silent, controlling his breathing. The argument rattled him, giving Sari a small sense of victory. Whether it had been staged or not didn’t matter.
“So where are we going?”
Up, the elevator went up this time.
“There’s someone very special I want you to meet. I think you two will get along famously. You have to understand, Sari, that things are a little different here now. You might think I’m a monster, but people are starting to believe in my work. They agree to undergo the surgery. They want to be like you.”
Bitter anger burned her throat. “I find that hard to believe.”
The elevator doors slid open. “Tom volunteered.”
“I know,” she conceded as Rex pushed the chair forward. Another set of security doors held them up for a moment. “But I bet he didn’t just waltz in the front door and offer himself up to science for the good of mankind. I know you had a hand in it.”
Behind her, Rex chuckled. “He chose, Sari. I had nothing to do with it.”
She bit her tongue and swallowed the smartass comments just kicking to let loose. God, he was full of himself, so high on his own sense of self-importance, he’d forgotten what it was like to be a human. How long had he been cooped up in this rat maze? Maybe the lack of sunlight filtering through normal windows had fried his last remaining link to humanity.
Another hospital ward stood before her. Sari frowned. Was that where they were? Some abandoned hospital out in the middle of nowhere? The fact that there were no windows bothered her. Abandoned or not, a hospital built by the government would have windows. Wherever she was, its builder hadn’t wanted anyone to see what was going on inside the place. Either that or having big planes of glass proved a problem.
Before she could follow that thought, Rex pushed her chair to another door. Another surprise. Another monster.
“What’s behind door number one, Bob?”
He laughed at her crass humor. “This is going to blow your mind, kid.”
He had her. No matter how much she protested, no matter what she said, he had her right where he wanted her. She was so close to breaking point he could hardly contain his excitement, and once she clapped eyes on Hawk, she would see the privilege Rex had bestowed upon her all those years ago.
So he considered her a Failure, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fix it for her. Now that he’d succeeded with Hawk and the Tigress, Rex could offer her many more options. He could completely transform her into something else, if her heart wished. He could give her wings should she want them and make her capable of flight.
When he pushed the door to Hawk’s room open, Rex stepped back to give her a clear view. The young man, wearing only pajama bottoms rose to his feet, his perfectly carved chest amazingly brown in the harsh florescent light. Hawk tilted his head to the side in curiosity, no doubt wondering what new puzzle Rex had brought him. Those sharp eyes with their razor vision honed in on Sari with an eagerness Rex never anticipated.
A glance down at the young woman in the wheelchair showed a similar puzzlement, though she appeared less keen than Rex would have liked. Did she think Hawk merely another feline hybrid? Or did she sense the momentous realization that Hawk represented? She always did take her sweet time to adjust to change and this was no different.
He thought to leave them alone to get acquainted, but it struck him that perhaps a cat and a bird might not get along so well to begin with.
“Sari, I’d like you to meet Devon Hawk.”
She sniffed the air. “He’s not a cat.”
Hawk’s wrinkled nose showed his distaste. “I am much more than a feline. Maybe not as graceful, but definitely as skilled.”
Sari’s eyes turned up to meet Rex’s gaze. “I always knew you were a crazy son of a bitch, but I never pegged you as an impatient man, Rex. You deviated from the program, didn’t you?” Her wicked smile sent a shiver of wariness through him. “That’s why you didn’t want Waylon to come on this tour. SL 10 shouldn’t exist. Neither should SL 9. He’s going to be so pissed at you.”
“Forget Waylon!” he snapped. “Just think of the possibilities, Sari. An entire new race, a new culture. Hybrids of any kind. We’d eradicate all the weaknesses that plague humans and build stronger, faster, smarter shifters.”
Far from being impressed, she shook her head. “So what are we talking about here? Hybrid snakes and rats? Insects?” Her body shuddered. “Don’t you see that recombining DNA from various species could cause more trouble than it’s worth? Take a look at Pitch and Mystery, for instance.”
How disappointing that she lacked the vision. “The technique has been refined, and now,” he gestured toward Hawk, “applied to another species. Hawk, show her your true self.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sari’s head spun to Hawk in a snap, and she watched as the man shifted into the hawk shape Rex admired so much. “Oh my—”
“I think you’d recognize that species,” he said in a soft voice. “Hawk, show her your new trick.”
From the large raptor perched on the bedside tray, he dropped to the floor to shift into a man with wings. Rex shook his head in awe at the transformation. He admired the strength it took to effect partial change and respected the control it required. Hawk would be the first of many, his DNA the seed of an entire new generation of hybrids. Rex absently wondered if the good detective would like to learn how to fly.
“Can you fly like that, half bird half man?”
Hawk’s cheeks colored crimson as he shook his head. “It is too soon to attempt to fly.”
Sari fell very quiet. While Hawk shifted back to full human, he frowned first at her and then at Rex. Confusion clouded his eyes, and Rex couldn’t deny he felt a similar emotion. Why could she not see the divinity in his creations? At the very least there was a scientific reason for them. It wasn’t as if he’d done it because he could. Did she think him so simple in his reasoning?
He had hoped that walking among the ordinary humans would help her understand that she was des
tined to be something special, more than just a being of average ability. Already she had proven to be so much more. Shifting aside, her human abilities were enhanced by the feline inside. The reverse of that was also true. In cat form, she was blessed with reason and logic, deduction and planning. One benefited the other making her more than either standing alone.
Couldn’t she see that?
“Take me back to my cage,” she directed. “I’ve seen enough.”
Rex frowned. Maybe if she met the Tigress she’d change her mind. “One more stop on this tour, Sari. Then I’ll give you some time to consider your options.”
She huffed as he pulled the chair out of the doorway. “You make it sound like I have a choice. You’re good at that, sweet talking your victims into thinking they want to join you, but you forget. I’m not someone you can convince with your pretty lies. I’ve seen the damage you can do.”
“I didn’t think you could be so narrow minded, little one.”
Wheeling her down the passage to the last door on the right, Rex mentally ticked off the occupants of the other rooms. More of his vision. Still, it saddened him to think Sari couldn’t—or wouldn’t—join them. What had turned her against him?
“Who’s been feeding you lies, Sari?”
She shook her head. A lock of her hair whispered over the back of his hand, sending a thrill up his spine. “No one needs to feed me anything. I have two perfectly good eyes and two working ears and a mind untainted by your subversions to think of its own free will. What you are doing is wrong. Morally, ethically, humanly wrong.”
He stepped around her chair to open the final door and paused to look down at her. He needed to see into her eyes to know if she told the truth. “So you’ll choose to have the feline DNA removed, then?”
Her eyelids closed, preventing him from seeing her decision. Whatever it was, shame paled her skin. Disappointed, Rex pushed the door open. He knew the Tigress would cement Sari’s decision, whatever it may be. “Sari, I’d like you to meet Rebecca Harrison. We call her the Tigress.”
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