by Raven Steele
Unleashed
A Rouen Chronicles Origin Story
Raven Steele
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
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Chapter 1
Claire often preferred the dark. It saved her from seeing things that scarred the mind like a bad tattoo. The way the security guard’s gaze slid over her like oil would definitely leave some kind of mark. She wouldn’t soon forget the way his bony fingers swirled across his desk, or the way his tongue flicked at his chapped lips. Fortunately, or unfortunately, she knew how to deal with men like him, but that didn’t make her any less uncomfortable.
“Can you just sign the form?” she asked again.
His gaze slowly rose from the desk, paused on her breasts, then met her eyes. “Tell me again. Why are you here?”
“I’m going to Northwestern in the fall. They said if I get this form signed and take it into their science department, then I can volunteer here in one of your labs for credit. I already spoke to Lucy in your human resources department, and she said that was fine. So will you sign this please?” She shoved the form toward his hand, hoping to give him a paper cut.
“I’ve got a job you can volunteer for,” he said, his fingers curling into his palm.
A foot below the unkempt mustache smeared beneath his nose was a name tag.
“Listen, Gary, if you won’t help me, then call someone who will.” She nodded toward the closed doors behind him. “I don’t have all day.”
Nor did she have the stomach to stay in this place any longer then she had to. She hated Bodian Dynamics, but she really needed the extra college credits if she was going to make it into Northwestern’s nursing program in a year.
“Why don’t you plant yourself right over there?” He pointed a long finger toward a waiting room. Its walls were the same pasty, gray color as his face. “I can’t sign your form, but I’ll see if Lucy’s back from lunch.”
Claire turned around and walked toward one of four wooden chairs. Before she sat down, she removed a letter from her back pocket. If there was one thing that could get her mind off Gary’s stare, which she still felt on her, it was this letter. It came in the mail this morning. Her band had received an invitation to the Fire and Ice Festival in Portland. This could be her chance to finally put the past behind her and leave this place forever. Maybe she could even transfer to a real university instead of a community college.
She looked up, not realizing she wore a smile until it disappeared. Across from her was a mirror. It reflected Gary, his gray eyes, cold and calculated, fixed in her direction. Why couldn’t he just say what was on his mind instead of swallowing her with his eyes? She could deal with the upfront truth, no matter how disgusting; it was his hidden thoughts that upset her.
She inhaled deeply and smoothed back her long hair. Time for another approach. Claire turned sideways in the chair and stared right back at him. Maybe he would feel as uncomfortable as she had and look elsewhere.
Gary’s bald, greasy head didn’t move, nor did his stiff expression change. However, she did notice his eyes widen ever so slightly, like a recovering alcoholic inhaling a glass of passing wine.
If he wasn’t going to say something, she would. She didn’t care if he was older. “Is there a problem?”
His thin lips twisted upward, wrinkling his weathered skin. “I know you.”
“Doubt that.”
“Yeah, I do. You’re Claire.” He wiped sweat from his brow. “I saw your picture with all that pretty black hair.”
“Where?” She pulled her jacket tighter around her chest. Why was he sweating?
“Your mother. She had it on her key chain at the bar the other night.”
Good job, Mom. Claire sucked in and looked around. Time to get away from this pervert, even if only for a few minutes. She tucked the letter back into her pocket. “Do you have any vending machines ‘round here? I’m starving.”
“Craving anything special?”
“Do you, or don’t you?”
He smiled and motioned toward a side door. “There’s a couple through there and down the hall, but you can’t go without an escort, and I can’t leave my post.”
She walked to the door and peered through an elongated window. “They’re just right there. Can’t you watch me from here?”
He frowned, but she persisted. “Come on. Please? I’ll be right back.”
Gary knocked his hairy knuckles against the desk. “Fine, but only because you’re Ellen’s daughter.”
He reached over to some kind of electronic board and pressed a button. At the buzz, Claire pushed the door open and walked through. The second it closed and she was no longer being battered by his dirty thoughts, she relaxed and rolled her shoulders back as if to shake off any remaining filth.
The place looked different from what she remembered. The walls were light green instead of bone white, but the place still smelled the same: lemons doused in rubbing alcohol. She’d come here once on a field trip when she was in high school and had accidentally walked into the wrong room, some lab with two scientists. One of them had yelled at her so badly she thought he was going to hit her.
The vending machines were just up ahead. She went to them and scanned the items, taking her time. After settling on a chocolate bar, she leaned away and glanced toward the lobby. Gary stood in the window. He held up a bony wrist and tapped his watch.
Yeah, yeah, I’m hurrying. She reached into her pocket to pull out a handful of change. She was about to feed it into the machine when a door creaked open just around the corner.
“—must tell someone,” a woman’s shaky voice said, her fear unmistakable.
“Now hold on a minute,” a man's voice whispered. The footsteps stopped. “I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation. If someone finds out, those vials won’t be the only thing lost.”
Claire held her breath and continued to listen.
“We have an obligation to tell,” the woman said. “This is a huge security breach!”
“Do you want us all to lose our jobs? Go to jail?”
“How can you think about that?” she said. “You saw what it did to those monkeys.”
Silence followed.
Claire’s pulse raced. Could she somehow sneak back without being heard?
The woman spoke again. “But even worse was what those infected monkeys did to each other. It’s like they enjoyed hurting the normal ones. You saw how they stalked them, searchin
g for weaknesses until they finally attacked and killed them. Could you imagine if a human ingested that same liquid? They could be transformed into—”
Claire’s head bumped into the Plexiglas of the vending machine. The loud thunk jutted through the tension in the air. She must’ve been leaning forward to hear better, but now all she heard were two suddenly silent scientists.
“Wait here,” the male voice said. Footsteps clomped hurriedly toward her.
Claire didn’t stick around to see what the mad scientist looked like. She ran. As soon as she reached the door, she knocked on it like a crazed woodpecker.
Behind her someone called, “Stop!” but just then Gary buzzed the door open, and she bolted.
“Stop her!” the scientist shouted again.
By now, Claire had exited the front doors and was racing toward the parking lot. When the glass doors flew open behind her, she quickly ducked behind a blue sports car, her legs shaking.
“Where’d she go?” the scientist asked.
Claire didn’t hear an answer, but she imagined Gary shrugging.
“Go find her,” he said.
“What did she do?”
“Heard something she shouldn’t have, and I want to find out how much. Just find her and bring her back. I’ll look over here.” Footsteps scraped around the side of the building.
It was several seconds before Gary’s footfalls descended the concrete steps. When he reached the pavement, he slowed, his feet dragging, as if they were dead. She pressed up against the wheel well of the car until the metal rim poked her in the back. She elbowed it and cursed it for being solid.
“I know you’re out here, pretty little girl,” he called. “I saw you from the window.”
She bent down and peered beneath the car. The sole of his black boots shuffled one row over.
“Don’t worry,” he continued. “That crazy scientist is on the other side of the building. It’s just you and me now. Alone.”
Claire flinched as if burned and quickly scurried to the next car over.
“Your mama won’t be happy with you,” he said, clicking his tongue. “I’ll bet you get a spanking for sneaking around. Hearing things you shouldn’t.” He chuckled. “Your life is about to get so messed up.”
A familiar terror, one she hadn’t felt in years, wrapped its cold self around her. She frantically looked around for anyone who might help her out of this predicament, but the parking lot was empty.
“Claire! Oh Claire!” Gary sang. When she didn’t answer, his tone changed, and his next words seemed to freeze the air around her. “You better keep your mouth shut about what you heard, or those you care about might get hurt.”
Claire almost coughed from the sudden tightening in her chest. Who was this asshole?
She was about to steal another look when a bird flew overhead, catching her attention. A raven, black as night, flapped beneath a gray sky. Instinctively, she reached for her necklace. The cool metal of the raven pendant her sister Valerie had given her made Claire remember her dying sister’s last words: “You have to fight, Claire.”
She smiled, tension draining out of her like an unclogged sink. Even years later, Valerie was still taking care of her.
Claire inhaled a deep breath. She could do this. This freak had no power over her.
Very quietly, she moved to the rear of the vehicle to determine the guard’s location. Peeking through the windows, she saw him walking six lanes over. She looked over to the open parking lot gates. If she was fast, she could make it out and then cut through the forest to Deer Creek trail. From there it was only a couple of miles to her house. She could come back for her mother’s car later.
Hunched over, Claire darted across the parking lot, but when she heard Gary yell, “Stop!” she ran harder.
She was almost to the gates when he called after her, “I’ll be seeing you, Claire!”
Just before disappearing from his view, she turned around and flipped him off.
Chapter 2
Albert felt inside his pocket. It was still there, tucked deep inside. He rolled the small, glass vial between his fingers as if it were a gold coin. Just touching it made him feel better, not so trapped.
Hiding between the school and an old shed, he waited until he saw her. He tugged on the branch of a nearby pine tree, pulling off needles one at a time. When the branch was bare, he began on the limb above it until his thumb and forefinger stung.
At exactly eight o’clock, she opened the school’s gym door. Light spilled onto the darkened sidewalk as if it were rolled-out carpet. She flipped her hair back and strutted down the golden runway.
He admired her confidence. That’s why he’d chosen her. One of the reasons anyway. The other was she didn’t know him, not really. To her, he was just a college kid who had picked her up at the movies a few days ago. Technically he wouldn’t be a real college student for another two months, but she didn’t need to know that.
Albert watched her for a moment, standing on the sidewalk talking to her plastic friends. Her jeans were cut low, exposing several inches of white, smooth skin just below her tank top. He inhaled deeply and thought he could smell her hair, strawberries and cream, laced in the wind of the cool night air. His heart pounded and his mouth went dry.
He took a deep breath and pushed his nerves aside. He could do this.
For one week. That’s all the time he’d allow himself. One week to be someone else, someone free from rules and expectations. When the days ended, he’d focus on the concoction’s real application, which he didn’t really understand yet. He’d only overheard a few bits of conversation about it while at Bodian. But he wasn’t worried. There was time to figure it out.
Removing the vial from his pocket, he jerked off the top and downed the liquid in one gulp. Before it hit the bottom of his stomach, his body began to absorb the genetically altering chemicals, sending a searing heat through his blood and into his spine. He collapsed to the ground, his spine arching backwards until he thought it would snap. Pain, more than he thought he could bear, rocked his entire frame. It was so much more intense from when he first tried the serum that he wondered if he’d made a huge mistake. To stop himself from screaming, he covered his mouth with his forearm.
It was almost a full minute before the intense pain finally passed. In its wake came a warm calm, settling upon him like an early morning sunrise. He was free.
He inhaled deeply before he stood up, feeling better than he had in a long time. All his fears and insecurities had faded with the darkness, and he no longer cared about anything: college, family—hell, even his life.
He moved to the side of the school and peeked around the corner. She was by herself now, leaning against a tree, appearing to wait for a ride. Little did she know her plans were about to change.
“Mindy?” he said, coming out of the shadows. His eyes moved away from her naked belly and up to her face. The streetlight above her seemed to hold her in a bright cocoon, protecting her from the encroaching darkness.
She studied him for a minute before saying, “Gage?”
He almost didn’t respond. That name he’d made up when they’d first met still sounded off to him. Maybe he should have given her his first name, but only his parents called him Albert. Instead, he always went by his middle name, which was way cooler sounding. “Yeah, it’s me.”
She grinned and gave him a hug. “How’s it going?”
Her touch ignited every nerve ending in his body. “Much better now that I’m with you.”
“I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
He licked his lips. “How could I resist?”
Some part of him, smothered beneath layers of a foggy conscious, expressed shock at how he was acting. It was so unlike him. But the rest of him reveled in his newfound confidence.
“Whatever.” She nudged him with her hand. “So what are you doing here?”
He forced his eyes up. “My little sister begged me to pick up her friend, but she must’ve go
tten a ride with someone else, cuz she’s not here now.”
“Who’s her friend?”
He thought of the most common name he could think of. “Jennifer.”
“Jennifer who? I bet I know her.”
“I don’t remember.” He trailed his fingers down her bare arm and took hold of her hand. “What are you doing right now?”
She let him hold it. “My boyfriend’s picking me up any minute.”
“That’s too bad,” he said, pulling her close.
“Why’s that?” Her eyes met his, challenging him.
“I wanted to take you for a ride. My bike’s just around the corner.”
“Bike, huh? I don’t think my boyfriend would like that.”
“Then we better hurry.” He pulled her forward and, just like he knew she would, Mindy followed.
“Just over here,” he said. He led her toward a motorcycle parked against the curb and handed her a helmet. “You better put this on.”
She didn’t reach for it.
“You look different,” she said, eyes narrowing.
“Do I?”
“Yeah. Your hair. Did you darken it?”
He ran his fingers through it. “No.”
“Weird. Maybe it’s the light.” She took the helmet and pulled it over her long, blond hair.
“Hop on,” he said, swinging his leg over the seat. She did as he said and buried her head into his back. His muscles quivered when her hands slipped beneath his shirt against his bare skin.
