They won’t do anything to me, Zane continues. Just a couple of antagonizing comments from a soldier or Pelletier. Just leave me here. It’s the safest place for me. I won’t hurt anyone in here.
I close my eyes. Why does he have to be so convincing all the time? Why can’t I fight with him? Why is it so hard to be right about something, anything, with him around?
Open my eyes. “Fine. I’ll go. But I’m coming back for you. I promise you, Zane Rothstein, you’re getting out of here. Not today, but soon. Whether you like it or not, you’re getting out of here as soon as I find a way to break you out.”
Zane steps away, takes his fingers back. Until then.
And now I’m running again. Break out. I sprint down hallways, faster than before, shaking the walls with my speed. I swerve around corners, a race car streaking through the halls. I love it. Incredible, beautiful freedom.
Upstairs now. And I stop.
Glass floors, glass ceilings, glass walls. I’ve been beneath Glass Tech this whole time.
Yelling downstairs and I jump. Go. Run. Escape. I dart across glass hallways, heart a beating drum, head on fire. I have to get out, I have to get outside, I have to get outside this building, I have to, I have to, I have to. Because Zane is counting on me and I have to stop Richard Glass and I vowed to make him wish he’d never hurt me or my family.
Three armed men aim to take out my plans. I stop running, fall flat on the glass floor. And then one is grabbing me and I’ve failed, I’ve failed, I’ve failed.
No.
Something cracks four times. Against the ground, against one, two, three soldiers. Electricity in her grasp.
I stare. A girl. Younger than me. With hard eyes, dark hair with red tips. And dark bat-like wings sprouting out of her shoulder blades.
“Go.”
She nods and I nod too. Because she is an experiment and she just helped me and now she’s giving me a chance.
I take it and run.
The floor is shaking. I wonder if my speed will break it. And I wonder what that would mean for me. A fall, injuries, death. I don’t know.
Stop.
I skid, slowing down too fast, feet burning against glass. Men in black suits, Pelletier standing at their head. I grit my teeth. Anger, boiling fury in my blood.
“It looks like you’re out of places to run to.”
I make a sound, an angry hiss, cat-like, fierce so very angry.
“I told you an unwillingness to be an experiment would drive you insane. Look at you, hissing like a wild animal. What a disappointment.”
I glare at him. “I won’t stay here,” I growl. “I won’t rot away, I won’t let you break me like you broke Zane. I am leaving. Now.”
Pelletier smiles. “Are you, my dear?”
Yes.
I turn back, look at the one wall not blocked by soldiers. Either I’ve completely lost my mind, likely, possible, plausible, or I have just found my escape.
I reach the wall in seconds, longs before anyone can decide what to do. I ram my body against it, crashing through glass, landing on my side. Still in the building.
“Stop her!”
I scramble to my feet. Run. No intentions of stopping, of turning back. No matter how many walls appear. At least, not until I reach the last glass wall standing between me and my freedom.
I look back. Grin at a gaping Pelletier. “I warned you,” I say. “I told you I would become your greatest enemy, your worst nightmare. Don’t try to find me,” I whisper. “No matter how hard you look, you will never see Kate McCallister again. Not until she destroys everything you have worked for.”
I turn back to the glass. Ram my body through it. Crash into fresh Chicago air.
And I’m falling.
Twenty-Nine
I’m falling.
Dropping off the side of a skyscraper, curling into myself, holding my breath, everything is
slow.
And then it stops. I fall against hard metal, body slamming into the ground. I groan. Roll over. On my back. It was a short fall, too short to fall from a skyscraper as tall as Glass Tech. I should still be falling.
I look up. I only fell a few floors. Not enough to do any real damage. Especially since I have freakish healing abilities that should come with the Project but apparently I’ve had them my whole life. Right now, right in this moment, right after jumping out of a skyscraper, I’m grateful.
I stand, look at the shattered glass around me, listen to the frustrated yells in the building above me. I grin. Wiggle my fingers. Wink.
Goodbye, Pelletier.
I’m running again. Jumping off the building I landed on, a shorter skyscraper next to Glass Tech. Grabbing onto a tree branch, swinging down to the road. Running. Sprinting. Streaking down empty streets, beating daylight and dawn and the morning.
I want to stop. Breathe in the fresh air. Take in the city I haven’t seen for so long. Months of darkness in that cage.
I wish Zane could see it. Maybe he’d see it, something worth fighting for, worth risking everything for.
I shake my head. Don’t think about it, about him. Not now, not later, not ever.
Focus.
I don’t know where I’m going. I just run. Because I know what is behind me. Zane. The cage. Pelletier. Glass Tech. The experiment. Dangerous thoughts are behind me. And I only know I cannot go back that way.
Where will I go?
Not home. Not to my mother. Because she is safer without me there. They think we hated each other before. They will leave her alone out of ignorance, as long as I don’t show them that my mother means something to me. Even if she was safe, even if she could help me, they would find me at home. And I cannot let them catch me. Because I’ll be put back in that cage, left to waste away, fall apart, empty out. I can’t go home.
But I need to hide. Before the sun rises and Chicago awakes. Before the city sees me. Because no one, absolutely no one, can know who I am, what I have become.
From this day forward, Katherine McCallister is dead.
Thirty
I end up in a tree.
More specifically, my tree. The tree where I used to meet Dalton. In Lincoln Park. The last place I want to be. The first place I ran to.
I sit up in that tree for a thousand years. Staring at the slow rising sun. Biting my lip to stop excruciating sounds, agonized sobs, from escaping my lips. Ignoring the furious tears streaking down my cheeks.
I can feel it now. The agony of insanity, the pain of regret, the fear of my own thoughts and emotions and body. This is what it means to be Project Five.
My brain is on fire. Because the wild energy within me, the raw power of experimentation, is ripping its way out of the cage that is my skin. How long before it’s too much? How long before I lose myself? How long before I can’t think about anything but the pain? How long before my brain starts to pull me into insanity to save it from feeling the agony?
Keep yourself in check.
Zane told me to control myself. He told me to control this new insanity like I have controlled my fear for so long.
And I will do it. Because I have to be the experiment that is not controlled by abnormal abilities and new DNA. Because I have to be the Project to use her abilities to stop Richard Glass, not be stopped by her abilities.
I have to do this.
Close your eyes. Think of something else. Focus on something, anything, besides the pain. Think of something just as painful as experimentation. Think of something more painful.
I left Zane in the cage. I left him to waste away. I left him to his insanity and his misery.
Guilt sweeps through my body, my head, my heart, my bones. I should have taken him with me. I should have dragged him out of there, all protests set aside. I should done something.
But I couldn’t.
Everything happened so fast. One minute I was screaming because someone shot him, the next I was unconscious. One minute I was waking up on a gurney, next I was running. One minute I wa
s arguing with Zane, the next he was touching my lips. One minute I was standing speechless, the next I was jumping out a window.
I couldn’t save him. I had no way of breaking him out, no way of convincing him to leave that cage, no way of getting us both out the building. The only reason I escaped at all was luck, speed, a girl with bat wings. I never would have gotten out of there if there had been two of us.
But—
I stop. Because I can hear angry voices and frightened yells and gunshots.
Coming. For me. Coming to take me back. They’ve found me. They’ve caught up to me. It’s over.
No.
They couldn’t have found me. Because it all sounds too far away and they can’t see me up here in this tree and those gunshots aren’t hitting me. Or anywhere near me.
This has nothing to do with me.
Digging claws into the branches, I peer out of the tree. I was right and I was wrong. Not coming for me. Everything to do with.
Two Glass Tech soldiers. Black suits and sunglasses. Shooting at my best friend. Shooting at Alec Chancey.
Anger. Indignation. Fury.
Alec. They tricked me into treating him like a traitor. They isolated us. And now they’re trying to shoot him down. Because of me. Because I escaped.
He’s right under my tree, breathing heavy, heartbeat erratic, eyes fixed forward.
And that’s it for me.
I jump out of the tree, landing in front of Alec, crouched down, standing between him and the soldiers. They stop, surprised, shocked, and a sound rips its way out of throat. A full-throated, furious roar.
Both men are frozen. Guns lowered, eyes alert, faces set. “Project Five,” one says. “The escaped experiment.”
Bravo. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who I am.
“You’re coming back with us,” the other soldier says.
As if.
“You care to make me?” I ask, claws outstretched, crouched in front of Alec, ready for a fight, ready to protect my best friend, ready to get shot at. “I am a very angry, very unstable experiment,” I say. “Is it really worth it?”
One of the men steps forward, gun ready. He aims. I leap forward, kicking his hand, and he drops it with a yelp. The other moves forward and I run at him. He’s ready to shoot. Pathetic against my speed. I punch him squarely in the face and he stumbles back as I kick his feet out from under him. Behind me, the first one reaches for my throat. I spin, grabbing his hand, shoving him onto his back.
Both of them on the ground now, I hiss angrily. Because they didn’t realize what it means to fight Kate McCallister, they didn’t realize what it means to attack an experiment, they didn’t realize how truly dangerous I am.
I point back at Alec, eyes never turning from the two now unarmed men. “He is under my protection,” I growl, hiss, snarl, venomous words spilling out my lips. “You don’t touch him. You don’t even look at him.”
My eyes are a snow storm, cold and harsh. “You tell your boss if anyone touches Alec Chancey, I tell the world about his Project.”
“No one will believe you.”
I snort. “You sure? A girl with claws and a tail walks into the police station claiming Richard Glass is kidnapping and experimenting on people? Somehow, I think they’ll believe me. I’m walking evidence of Glass’s crimes.
“Tell Mr. Glass I will not reveal him unless he forces me to do so. No one touches Alec.” I pause. “No one touches my mother. The moment either of them get hurt, I will destroy his reputation, reveal his secrets, and kill him in the most brutal way I can think of.”
I step back. They’re staring. Because I’m threatening the most powerful man in Chicago. Because I am doing it to protect a couple of humans. Because I am bold enough to risk becoming an open freak to protect two people.
Oh, the games we play.
They both scramble to their feet, run down the street. And I watch them go, watch them run. And now I’m shaking my head. Cowards.
I turn to Alec, uncertain, concerned, nervous. Because I still don’t know what I look like, because I’m a monster now, because he may not even recognize me.
“Alec?”
Nothing. Silence. Confused and terrified and bewildered.
“Alec, it’s me.”
Still nothing. He doesn’t even recognize my voice.
I sigh. Sit down in the grass. “Just my luck,” I say, rambling, talking to myself. “Perfect. I manage to escape from a madman, save my best friend from a couple of psychopathic murderers and he doesn’t even know who I am. Awesome.”
Alec stops. Stares at me with new eyes. Like he’s seeing me for the first time tonight. Like he’s just now looking at me. He makes a sound, steps forward, his eyes fill with tears.
“Kate?”
Thirty-One
“Hi, Nerd.”
And now he’s hugging me. His arms are wrapped around me and he’s squeezing the air out of my lungs and I can’t be sure but I think he’s crying.
“Alec,” I whisper, not sure how to be comforting, not sure how to be soothing. “It’s okay. I’m fine. Look at me.”
He does. Alec looks me up and down, staring. And I wonder what I look like, how I could look so different that not even my best friend could recognize me. I wonder if my mother would.
“You have a tail!”
I stop. Stare at him. Glance down. Black fur twitching behind me.
“So I do.”
“You hadn’t noticed?”
I shoot a scowl his way. “Well, let’s see, since waking up, I’ve ran from about fifty soldiers, jumped out a building, and hid out in a tree all night while my body fought its own agony and insanity. I haven’t exactly hide time to look in a mirror or anything.”
“Insanity? Agony? You jumped out a building?” Questions with confusion on his brow and worry in his eyes. “What did they to you? And who are they? Why did they attack me?”
Millions of questions, millions of worries.
I sigh. “Don’t worry about the building jumping. Or the insanity or agony. I’m fine now.” I rub my forehead, thinking. “I assume they attacked you to break me, or to force me to return,” I explain. “They work for Richard Glass. And those men kidnapped me whenever I disappeared and experimented on me.”
He’s gaping. “Experimented how?”
I glance left and right. “This is not a safe place to talk, Alec. If anyone sees me, they’ll freak out.”
Alec nods to the nearest building. “Meet me on the roof?”
I nod and he heads down the street, reluctant frown on his face, worried about leaving me. Like he expects me to evaporate.
I run to the backside of the building and climb. On the roof, I wait, sit on its edge, close my eyes, breathing deeply, feeling the cold morning air. It’s been so long. So long since I was outside, so long since I saw the sun, so long since I saw anything but the cage.
Alec makes it to the roof. “So, experimented on?”
I run my fingers through my hair. Give him a wry smile. “You’d understand the science of it better than me. They combined my genes with that of an animal’s.”
“Is that why you have a…”
“Tail? Yes. They didn’t tell me what they did but I assume I have some kind of cat’s DNA.”
Alec sits down on the edge of the roof. “And Richard Glass did this?”
I sit down too, letting my legs hang off the building. “For what purpose, I don’t know. But he’s been kidnapping people for a long time turning them into monsters, all of which end up insane.”
A dry smile on his lips. “You’ve always been insane.”
I laugh. Punch his arm. “Be serious. There’s nothing human about what happens to us. Some of the experiments were more animal than human, at least in their mentalities. Some of the experiments have serious mental issues.” I pause, chew my lip. “One man was schizophrenic and almost uncontrollable when angry. All of us are very unstable.”
Alec pauses. “Kate? You said something a
bout your body fighting its own agony and insanity. Are you in pain?”
He looks so afraid for me.
I sigh. Lean my head against him. “Oh, Alec,” I whisper. “I am very afraid of what this will do to me. The experiments are crazy because being insane helps fight the pain. But it still hurts. I am afraid of what happens when it stops.”
Alec puts an arm around me. “Is it killing you? The pain?”
“No. But it will drive me crazy if it doesn’t go away. I can’t live like this forever. I’ll become delirious with it. But I don’t want to be crazy, I don’t want to be an animal.”
Alec is quiet for a minute. Not thinking about my insanity anymore. His thoughts look sad and relieved and very lonely. He’s frowning. Shaking his head. Looking at me. “I still can’t believe you’re here. Seeing you today, it’s like seeing a ghost. I didn’t ever think I was going to see you again.”
“Your faith in me is unbelievable.”
Cold face, tired eyes. “I thought you were dead,” he whispers. “We all did. There was a funeral and everything.”
Oh.
“That night,” he continues, “Your mother found blood and a body in your room. The body was so bruised and bloody that no one could even recognize it as you. But the fingerprints matched yours.”
He’s staring forward now. “I remember seeing it. I couldn’t bear to look until the funeral. And even then I was terrified. Your mom and I looked together. There was no way of telling if the body was yours or not. But you were gone and it had your DNA and I had that awful voicemail, of you screaming and getting shot.”
“I’m sorry, Alec.” I touch his shoulder. “I’m sorry you had to hear that.”
He’s wearing a stern expression now. “And then I thought you’d hated me before you died and I didn’t know why. You’d just stopped talking to me.”
Guilt. Awful, terrible guilt. “I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. Tell me why.”
I sigh, lean back, study his face. “Mr. Glass wanted to isolate me, make sure there was no one for me to trust, no one left to help me. He has a lot of experiments, including one that can imitate voices. They spied on you, and this experiment copied your voice while on the phone with me. It made it seem as if you’d betrayed my trust. I was wildly angry and didn’t want to talk to you.” I shake my head. “But I was just arguing with an insane woman with tiger genes.”
The Invincibles (Book 1): Trapped: A girl. A monster. A hero. Page 13
