The Catalyst: (Book One)

by Devi Mara

“Can I talk to you? Just for a minute?”

  “Sorry, I’m in the middle of something.”

  She was not in the middle of anything. Robin waited to hear his footsteps move away from her, but instead she felt warmth against her back as he leaned in close.

  “I miss you.”

  Robin stiffened. She slowly turned her head to peer at him over the rim of her reading glasses.

  “Is this work related?”

  Ken’s eyes widened, then quickly narrowed. “It can be.”

  She stared at him for a long moment. “Fine.”

  She followed Ken from the room, feeling the curious stares of the team on her back. Once they were down the hall in Ken’s office, he shut the door and leaned against it. Robin put her hands on her hips.

  “You wanted to speak with me, Dr. Vine?”

  Ken’s lips flattened at the formality, before he adopted a causal stance with his hands in his pockets.

  “Why don’t you talk to me?”

  “I’m not for idle chit chat.”

  His lips curved into a smile she used to love kissing. She found it just made her angry.

  “Yes, I remember.” He licked his lips.

  Robin sighed quietly and reached up to take off her reading glasses. She should have left them in the lab.

  “I know you’re angry with me for what I did.”

  She jerked her head up to stare at him.

  “What?”

  “What I did. The paper. The job.” He waved his hand vaguely. “Everything.”

  He had the nerve to give her a condescending smile.

  “You’re apologizing?” she whispered.

  “No. What I did, I did for us.”

  Robin blinked. The fury stuck in her throat, blocked by confusion.

  “What?”

  Ken took another step toward her. “For you. For us.”

  She glared at him. “For me?”

  He nodded, moving forward until he was within reach of her.

  “This work. It’s your life. It takes up every moment of every day. There wasn’t time for us.”

  Robin fought to still her shaking. “So you took my work?”

  “You barely had time for me, for us, when you were just a professor. With the promotion and Renon…” he trailed off with a sad smile.

  She had never wanted to hit someone before, but she wanted to hit him.

  “I can’t believe I considered marrying you,” she said instead.

  Ken’s eyes widened in shock. “What?”

  “I said, I can’t believe I ever once considered marrying someone like you. The depth of your selfishness—” she broke off, clamping her mouth shut to hold back the emotion.

  She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

  “If that is all you wanted to speak about, I will return to my work.”

  Ken stared at her in silence. He nodded.

  Robin stalked past him and barely restrained herself from slamming the door behind her. She stalked down the hall to the lab and paused outside the door. For a brief moment, she closed her eyes and focused on breathing. When the tightness in her chest passed, Robin pulled open the door and stepped into the large room.

  The rest of the team hovered around the organism. As she took her place at her station on the other side of the room, she frowned at them. The interns appeared to be nearly asleep at their posts beside the equipment. The visiting biologist did not look much better. Robin settled on her stool and let her eyes wander over them.

  The interns had two cups of coffee over the lunch break. She remembered mentally calculating the caffeine intake, as she watched them chat. With over one hundred and forty milligrams of caffeine in their system, sleep should be the furthest thing from their minds. Robin glanced at the clock. The full effects of the coffee should have hit them already.

  One of the interns, Tina, slumped fully in her seat and sprawled her top half across the desk. Robin grit her teeth in irritation. She should have brought Amber with her. Her assistant would certainly not fall asleep during the work day. Robin stood from the stool and started across the room. Dr. Bonhomme raised his head to look at her and his eyes appeared almost sunken in his face.

  When Robin reached the end of the long table where the three of them sat, a full body chill went down her spine. She paused and took another step. And stumbled into a chair. The air felt thick, as if she were walking through a viscous liquid. Robin grabbed the edge of the table to stay upright.

  “Tina?”

  Robin’s eyes widened at how weak she sounded. She tried again, a bit louder.

  “Dr. Bonhomme, Tina,” she called.

  Slowly, they turned their eyes toward her. Robin raised her hand to gesture for them to follow her, and it left her breathless with exertion. She braced herself on the table until the biologist and the two interns reached their feet and managed to stumble toward her.

  “What’s going on in here?” Ken spoke up from behind her.

  Robin held up a shaky hand. “Stay back.”

  He scowled, but kept his distance.

  When the four of them broke free of the oppressive atmosphere, Robin sank down onto a chair that faced the windows. She took deep breaths to clear her head, listening to the two interns frantically speaking with Ken somewhere behind her. As she struggled to push the fuzziness from her mind, her gaze wandered to the equipment on the table. And the organism inside.

  …

  Addar let himself out of Robin’s apartment and wandered away from the building. The doorman gave him a polite nod as he went, asking if he needed a taxi. He did not. Addar wandered down the street, bypassing the other upscale apartment buildings, until the scenery began to change. The buildings were replaced by rundown houses and narrow alleys filled with garbage.

  He strolled down the sidewalk until he heard shouting from one of the alleys he passed. Addar paused and glanced toward the ruckus. The sound of two men shouting was joined by the screams of several women. A moment later, the sharp pop of gunfire split the air. Addar cocked his head to the side. Interesting.

  Another female scream came from down the alley. It was followed by a deep voice yelling obscenities and more gunfire. Addar drifted toward the noise with one eyebrow raised. The humans were having a battle of some kind. He caught a faint trace of blood in the air, as he rounded a dilapidated section of the privacy fence and caught sight of the altercation.

  A dark-skinned male lay in the lawn near the back door of a ramshackle house. At the back corner of the dwelling, two women attacked another man. The man, wielding a handgun of some kind, swung his arms at the screaming women. As Addar watched, the man aimed at the abdomen of the older female and pulled the trigger. She fell like a bird with a broken wing.

  Addar frowned. It seemed dishonorable to injure an unarmed opponent. He watched the man shove the remaining woman away from him and aim at her. Addar was behind him before he made the conscious decision to move. He grabbed the man’s arm and twisted it away from the woman. The snap of the man’s bones was audible above the gunshot.

  He glanced at the woman to insure she had not been struck by the bullet, before he turned his full attention to the man. Like shedding a heavy coat, he unwrapped his power and set it free. The dark tendrils of energy lashed around the man. A single sharp scream escaped him, before he was consumed.

  Addar stepped back and the let the man drop to the ground. The body had a dry, husk-like appearance and sounded hollow when it hit the hard-packed soil. He was so focused on the feel of the newly-gained energy flowing through him, the soft click escaped his notice. A moment later, a gunshot went off just behind his head.

  He whipped around to see the woman, the one he had saved, pointing a gun at him. Her hands shook violently, as her finger twitched to pull the trigger again. He looked down the barrel of the gun and realized she would not miss a second time. She pulled the trigger. He had a split second to feel irritation at her actions, before his power exploded out of him to enfold her.

/>   The bullet deflected to smash an upstairs window of the house, as he drained the woman of her life energy. He felt no pleasure at having killed her, only annoyance that she had attacked him. Addar gently laid her body on the ground and turned to leave. He had taken only a few steps when he heard a soft whimper. Then, he remembered the other woman.

  He looked over his shoulder where the female had fallen. She lay in the same position, but her eyes were open and fixed on him. He should kill her. She saw what he did, knew he was not human. He took a few steps toward her and paused at the hand she raised toward him. She did not appear frightened of him. He moved closer to her, until he was kneeling at her side.

  She stared up at him with a small smile.

  “I’ve never seen one of you before. Been to church all my life.”

  Addar frowned. “Would you like me to locate medical assistance?”

  She shook her head. “It won’t be long.”

  With a growing sense of confusion, Addar let her take his large hand into her wrinkled one.

  “Wasn’t sure God would send someone for me. Henry, but not me.”

  Addar watched her slowly roll her head to the side to look at the fallen man by the back door of the house.

  “Married forty years. Didn’t have much.” She sighed. “Doesn’t matter now.”

  “Are you certain I shouldn’t call someone?”

  Her smile was weak but sincere. “Take special care of Henry.”

  Brows furrowed in confusion, he watched the woman’s face go lax. Her fingers released his and he caught her hand before it could fall to the ground. With an unfamiliar feeling gnawing at him, he lay the hand across her chest, joining it with the other. He sat on his heels and stared at her still form for almost ten minutes, before the sound of approaching sirens roused him.

  The walk back to Robin’s apartment took nearly an hour. By the time he reached the lobby of the building, it was past sunset. Robin would be in her apartment. He spared a thought to her reaction at finding him gone, but he still felt oddly numb. He rode the elevator alone to Robin’s floor and knocked on the door.

  She pulled open the door before his hand had even returned to his side.

  “Where have you been?” she demanded the moment the door closed behind him.

  He glanced at her, but did not answer.

  “You can’t leave unaccompanied,” she continued. “It’s dangerous.”

  Dangerous. The word snapped him out of the fog he was in and he narrowed his eyes at her.

  “You mean, I am dangerous?”

  She set her jaw.

  “That is what you mean, isn’t it?”

  The confrontation rattled something free in him and he took a threatening step toward her. She was close enough to touch and he found himself reaching toward her. Robin took a step back.

  “Maybe, it is,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “Perhaps, you should lock me up like your other specimens. That is what I am, after all.”

  Robin’s eyes flashed. “I am not having this conversation with you.”

  She made to turn away and he grabbed her elbow. Robin tossed a glare over her shoulder at him.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  The two of them glared at each other, until he released her. As he watched her with narrowed eyes, he noticed something odd. Her usual grace was absent. She walked to the kitchen as if she were exhausted. Trudging where she would usually glide. He followed her.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She jumped at the sound of his voice, something she only did very late at night. Robin paused beside the refrigerator and slowly turned to face him.

  “Nothing. I’m just tired.”

  He looked her over. Yes, she was. Her dark eyes were dull and her face was pale. As she raised a hand to brush a tendril of hair back from her face, he noticed her hands were shaking.

  “Why?” he asked, moving closer to her when she gripped the refrigerator door to steady herself.

  Robin’s gaze dropped to the floor.

  “What happened?” he demanded.

  When she did not immediately answer, he scented her. The stench of her ex-fiancé struck his nose first and he had to bite back a growl. Beneath Dr. Vine’s scent was the scent of his own kind. Addar took a step closer to Robin and felt for it, the signature of the one who had fed from his human. His entire body went rigid as he recognized it. Ilan.

  “Nothing,” Robin answered sharply.

  He refocused on her face to see her frowning at him. It was certainly not nothing. From the amount of trace energy Ilan had left on her, he was surprised Robin was still standing. Assuming there were at least four people on her team, there was no reason Ilan could not be fully matured in a matter of days. He turned away from Robin to hide his bared teeth.

  “Where did you go today?” she asked, in a calmer tone.

  He glared at the wall in front of him. He would have to contact Ilan, stake his claim on Robin.

  “Addar? I asked you a question and I would appreciate—”

  “Nowhere,” he cut her off. “I did not go anywhere.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  She watched him closely. He was hiding something from her. His prerogative, she allowed. After all, she certainly had no reason to trust him and he had no reason to believe he could trust her. After watching his back for a moment, she turned back to the refrigerator. She tried to stop the shaking in her hand, but it would not fade.

  It was the organism. She was not foolish enough to think it was not. No matter what Ken tried to make her believe. A drop in blood sugar, fumes from the lab on the floor below. He sounded so condescending when he told her she was being hysterical. As if she had ever been hysterical in her life. Robin scoffed.

  The faint rustle of cloth marked the return of Addar’s attention. When she took a bottle of juice from the top shelf and turned, he was watching her. As she knew he would be. He was always watching. Waiting for her to make a mistake. Just like all the others. She gave him a short glare and moved to her chair at the kitchen table.

  He mirrored her movements, sitting without an invitation. She bit back her irritation. He had given her no reason to be angry at him. Maybe Ken was right. She was hysterical. Robin dropped her gaze from Addar’s cool gray eyes to the table top. She removed the lid from her juice after fumbling with it.

  Movement across the table drew her gaze. Addar’s hand was halfway across the table. As if he had intended to help her. She lifted the bottle to her lips and took a sip of the bitter cranberry juice. Addar’s eyes watched the movement, dropping to her throat when she swallowed. He licked his lips.

  She should ask him about the organism. It was him. A clone, but him on a genetic level. He would know about the weakness, the draining energy she had felt in the lab. It could kill her. When it washed over her that afternoon, she had felt the malice. She set the bottle on the table top with a click and met his gaze.

  “Do you want me dead?”

  Addar blinked at the question.

  “Would you rather live somewhere else? With someone else?”

  His eyes narrowed further at each question she proposed. As she opened her mouth to ask another, he leaned forward abruptly.

  “No.”

  Robin frowned. “No? To which question.”

  “All of them,” he said in what she could only call a growl.

  It should have scared her, but it did not.

  “I don’t want you dead.” He paused and his hands curled into claws on the table top. “I am…fond of you.”

  She stared at him. He had to be lying. Sure, there were times when she thought she saw attraction in his gaze. Sometimes, he even gave her what passed as a smile on him. But fondness? No.

  “There is no need to lie. I take my responsibilities seriously.”

  His face lost all trace of emotion. “And I am a responsibility.”

  Robin nodded.

  “Because you created me, you must provide for me.”
r />   She shook her head. “Technically, I did not create you but—”

  He rose to his feet, a look in his eyes she had never seen before. Robin watched him slowly lean over the table until they were eye to eye.

  “I do not need you to take care of me.”

  She frowned. “Well, actually—”

  The table slid across the floor and hit the wall on the other side of the kitchen. Robin blinked at it in confusion for a second, before Addar knelt on the floor in front of her. She turned her wide-eyed gaze to his.

  “You are the most frustrating human,” he muttered, even as his hand gently settled on her knee.

  “Why did you…? What are you doing?” Robin asked, as his closeness permeated the shock of his outburst.

  “Tell me the truth,” he said. “Do you think of me as your experiment?”

  She opened to mouth to say ‘yes’. “No.”

  He gave her a small smile as a reward.

  “Have you documented the results of my blood test?”

  The change in topic made her frown. No, she had not. Mainly, because she was not sure what to make of them. His mitochondria were extremely underdeveloped. Barely producing any power for his cells. His hormones were foreign and without a control, it was impossible to know if he was healthy. Some of the levels seemed overly high or low.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  His tone was casual, but there was something hidden beneath it.

  “By the standards of Earth, you should not exist. Let alone be alive. Your cells are incapable of producing enough energy for life, some of your hormones are dangerously high, and—”

  He kissed her. It was just a light press of his lips on hers, but it started a full body shiver. After a moment of the gentle pressure, he pulled back. She stared at him.

  “Why did you do that?” she asked, still staring at him.

  He gave her another of his barely-there smiles. “Wanted to.”

  Robin frowned. She should tell him off. Tell him to back away, take his warm hand off her knee, and stay well out of her space. She did not. Instead, she leaned in and kissed him. There was more to it the second time. Her bottom lip slotted between his and he made a rumbling sound in his chest. A moment later, his sharp teeth lightly nipped her.