Genetically Altered Complete Box Set

by Sarah Noffke

  Chapter Thirty

  “Many of the most influential people in history were Dream Travelers.”

  - Dream Traveler Codex

  Victory never felt so good. Maybe it was best that Mika had first failed before winning. This felt better. This tasted more delicious than if he’d originally captured the werewolves from the beginning.

  He wouldn’t have a Dream Traveler with an impossible gift in his possession if things had gone this way at first. He grinned to himself, enjoying the sound of her screams. When they waned then he’d do other things to her. Not feed her. Not allow her anything she’d enjoy. No, he’d deliver more stress to her. Mika had heard about this GAD-C and knew from the beginning that it would offer an escape to Rox or any of the other Lucidites that he captured. However, one can’t dream travel when under extreme stress. This was a common principle. So know one’s limitations and they will forever be trapped.

  He picked up one foot and then set it down softly, instead of loudly, like usually. The werewolves were asleep in their cages. His newest, Cole Cosgrove, hadn’t responded favorably to returning to a lab identical to the one where he’d been changed. He also hadn’t liked the cell he’d been assigned to or the fact that he’d be locked up until his training was complete. However, he’d gone with Derek and Malcolm willingly, so who he was really mad at was himself. Deception was the biggest power play of them all and the one Mika had mastered long ago. Everything is about perception.

  Now the werewolves were asleep and tomorrow Cole’s training would start. He’d be hard to train after being deceived, but it wouldn’t be impossible. Now what Mika needed was information on where to get the other werewolves. He needed more. He wanted them all. He couldn’t be stopped now.

  Turning, he focused on the man he had brought into the lab. The one with all white hair and blue eyes. “I need you to tell me what you see of Zephyr Flournoy,” he said to the man he paid to have clairvoyant abilities.

  “I’ll try and focus on him,” the man said, his eyes closing as he sat relaxed in the seat before him.

  “No,” Mika said in a hush. “I don’t need you to try. I need you to do it. I have to know what Zephyr is doing next. He’ll be acting. Trying to get his werewolves and his FBI agent. I have to be prepared. Is he coming after me? After Olento Research? You have to tell me.”

  This was the best clairvoyant they had presently. Soon the aneurysms would kill him but first he had to know what was happening. Mika was going to beat Zephyr and the Lucidites. All he needed was the advantage. He needed to know when and how they would strike. He’d wait and be on the defense. That was fine. He’d be ready.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Spending more than twelve hours in the dreamscape is inadvisable.”

  - Dream Traveler Codex

  Leaning in the doorway to the office, Adelaide found it hard to believe she couldn’t properly enter the space. And furthermore, she was surprised it had been so long since she visited this space. It now felt like the right time, whereas before it wasn’t.

  “Is there a particular reason you’re casually lingering in the hallway?” Connor asked at her back. She knew someone was approaching, but didn’t care to turn and look at the repugnant face of whoever it was. The Lucidites were always smiling. It was fake and a wasteful gesture. However, Connor’s face didn’t repulse her, and his smile was genuine enough when it happened that she didn’t mind it so much.

  Without turning to face him she said, “I never do anything casually. I’m the queen of terse behavior.”

  He laughed, coming around to stand on the other side of the doorway. Too close. His back pressed against the frame and a clever look flecked his green eyes. “That’s true. And I enjoy how you never let me get away with anything with my words.”

  “Well, words were invented for a reason. It’s irritating that Americans misuse them. Things that are mildly interesting aren’t hilarious. And when the elevator is slow it isn’t obnoxious. It might be inconvenient or annoying. I’m in the business of words and using them correctly. Call things what they are and describe people accurately,” Adelaide said.

  Crossing his arms and leaning back, Connor crossed one foot over the other. “How would you describe me?” he asked and then quickly added, “And don’t include drug addict in the description. I want you to really work at this depiction.”

  Without hesitation Adelaide walked straight into the office, her chest vibrating as she did. Her eyes roamed over the British flag that covered the stainless steel wall at the back. It was flanked by shelves of books. And a minimalist desk sat in the corner, a leather seat behind it and a metal folding chair on the other side.

  Connor, seeming to finally lay his eyes on the space, stood up properly, following Adelaide into the room. “Is this your office?”

  She shook her head, her eyes scanning over the shelves which were stuffed with first-edition books covering every subject imaginable.

  “Oh,” he said simply, his eyes widening.

  “I haven’t been here since he…” She trailed away, her eyes studying the things most people wouldn’t notice, the way the books were lined up straight and organized by subject and alphabetically.

  “Why would Ren’s office still be like this? I thought he took a demotion a few months before his death,” Connor said, also studying the space.

  “He did. Twice, actually. Ren became an agent after twenty years as the head strategist. That didn’t last long, but then he elected Trent for the position when he decided to kill himself. But Trent wouldn’t take the office. He keeps his office inside the strategic department. And Trey won’t get rid of anything in here,” she said.

  “I can see why,” Connor said, his eyes on the metal folding chair.

  “What does that mean?” she said, turning and looking at him directly.

  “The space feels like him, well, how I imagine being in his company would feel. Like for instance, he sat in a cozy leather chair but offered guests a metal folding chair. Seems like he wasn’t encouraging guests to feel real comfortable,” Connor said.

  “Or stay long,” Adelaide said with a laugh. It was strange how well Connor understood her father. He was perceptive too, in a way that most weren’t. Most people didn’t really see the world around them. They weren’t wearing blinders as much as seeing only that which they wanted to. But Connor looked at his environment for clues.

  “You’d make a good agent for the strategic department,” she said, because it was true and also because the silence wasn’t okay. It felt like if it wasn’t filled with words then it would be with uncomfortable stares.

  “You think so?” Connor said.

  “Doesn’t matter what I think. Trent is the one who handpicks agents,” she said with a shrug.

  “Well, maybe once this Olento Research business is over and we have Rox back then I’ll think about it,” Connor said, his face growing serious.

  “Yeah,” Adelaide said, her expression copying his.

  “I’m going through the werewolf integration process later today,” Connor said.

  “That’s a good idea. I want as many of you through the process before we storm into Olento,” Adelaide said, but she was actually glad that Connor would be the second. He needed to be in control of the change. She needed him to be in control of the change.

  “You seem different lately,” Connor said.

  “Every day we are different. Every day we are someone new,” Adelaide said.

  “There you go, holding me to my words. And although true, you seem more confident. More yourself,” Connor.

  “How was I not myself before? Wouldn’t that be impossible?” she asked.

  “You’d think, but you were more of an incarnation of Ren. For some reason now, you seem like a new person. Like the person I always saw underneath that needed to come out,” Connor said.

  “I think you were right. I was keeping Ren alive by trying to be him,” Adelaide said, hoping Connor wasn’t the gloating type. He only star
ed at her, seeming to wait for her to continue. “Ren visited me when I was stuck on how to teleport.”

  “What? No way,” Connor said.

  “I promise. I’m not making it up. He told me to go and see Trey,” Adelaide said in a rush.

  “Uh-huh,” Connor said, doubt heavy in his voice.

  “Anyway, Trey did help me, although I haven’t had a chance to practice. But when Ren visited me—well, he left me a strange clue—I realized he wasn’t really gone and therefore I was safe to be myself, which is similar to him, but it’s also different. Anyway, it’s not closure, but maybe it’s the beginning of it. Because how do you get over a man who isn’t gone? How do you grieve someone who lives?”

  “That is a conundrum,” Connor said, scratching his hair, which was extra chaotic today, sticking straight up. “But what if he really isn’t dead? What if you misread the clues?”

  “Well, I didn’t, but still, he told me to see Trey and I did,” Adelaide said. Of course no one would believe that she saw clues left by her father. Well, Trey and Pops… and Lucien.

  “And did that help?”

  “I don’t know. He told me that I had to believe I could teleport before it would work and that was the biggest obstacle,” Adelaide.

  “Do you believe you can?” Connor asked.

  “I know it’s possible. I’ve seen my father do it, but me doing it is a whole different story, so I guess I don’t,” Adelaide said.

  “You can’t believe in yourself, but you believe that Ren is visiting you from another realm, like a ghost?” Connor said, shaking his head.

  Adelaide shook her head also, but because he was being a skeptical asshole. “I don’t need you to believe me,” she said, turning and stalking off. She was right too. For once she needed to stop relying on others to give her permission. Adelaide could teleport. She would. And she didn’t care if Connor thought she was a nutter for thinking Ren was visiting her. He could fuck off, although she didn’t really want him to. But still, she didn’t need his approval. Or anyone else’s for once.

  “Hey, Addy,” Connor called at her back, taking a step in her direction. She turned, sharpening her eyes at him. He paused and then two feet in front of him a book slid out of the shelf all on its own. It continued to move until it spilled over the side of the shelf, like pulled by an invisible string.

  “Kris? Was that you?” Connor said, waving his hands in the area where the invisible woman would be standing if she were there. She wasn’t, though, and Adelaide knew that.

  She kneeled and picked up the book. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. She smiled at the book, knowing how her father worked. Handing it to Connor, she said, “Have you read this? It’s a classic ghost story, but you don’t believe in such things, do you?” Adelaide then turned, enjoying the look of awe she’d just witnessed in Connor’s eyes. Thanks, Dad, she said, in her mind, feeling victorious.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  “The body needs the mind and the mind needs the body. The two weren’t meant to exist without each other.”

  - Dream Traveler Codex

  The metal box vibrated before the top, above Rox’s head, unsealed. She sucked in the cool, fresh air that spilled into the compartment. Of course the box opens on the top. She’d been banging on the front the whole time. The girl clambered for the exit only to find her body slide forward on the bottom of the box. It was like the entire metal compartment had come apart and was transporting her…into another small space. Fuck! The metal of the bottom of the box slid her into an MRI machine. No! No! No! She couldn’t have an MRI scan. That experience would end her. She’d explode from the stress. Her heart couldn’t take it.

  “You didn’t think that we’d allow you out of the box, even for testing purposes, did you?” she heard the voice of Mika Lenna echo through a speaker.

  With fists that should be bruised she banged against the machine, the metal rattling all around her. Making her think she’d go deaf from the experience.

  “Now, that’s not going to work at all,” Mika said as the metal at her back slid back down, away. Rox almost made for the exit of the MRI machine when the lid of box fell back into place, blocking any way for her to get out of the tube. The space around her head was blocked too. Again she was trapped.

  “Let me out of here, you fucking sadistic motherfucker!” Rox screamed, rattling the machine around her.

  “I’ll make you a deal,” Mika said, his voice calm and full of his own brand of fucking narcissism. “If you are very still while we take a few scans then I’ll agree to lock you in a cell instead of the box. The cell will still be small and you won’t be offered any food or water, but you’ll still be out of the tiny box.”

  “How fucking kind of you,” Rox yelled.

  “I am known for my humanitarian acts,” he said.

  “What if I don’t remain still?” Rox said.

  “Then you’ll die in that machine,” Mika said. “The choice is entirely yours.”

  “The Lucidites are going to fuck you up in so many directions. You’ll rot in their prison and then I’ll visit you every fucking day, rubbing your nose in the fact that your long Dream Traveler life will be spent in a cell and with a fucking metal helmet on your psycho head,” Rox said, her throat cracking. She was dehydrated. Her head ached, but it wasn’t worse than the panic that crowded her chest every time she opened her eyes to find blackness and realize she was trapped in a tiny space.

  “My clairvoyants don’t see that as a possibility,” Mika said. “They see me winning.”

  “I didn’t know they saw that,” another voice said, one with a German accent.

  “Shut up,” Mika said, his voice quieter.

  “Fine,” Rox said. “I’ll be still, but I want bamboo sheets on the bed in my cell.”

  “Oh, that’s cute. You think we’re going to give you a bed,” Mika said.

  No, Rox didn’t want to be compliant, but a small cell was better than being locked in this MRI machine, or worse, in the metal box where air was limited. She pressed her hands to her sides as the machine started to fire, one loud noise after another. Aiden had asked to put her through an MRI for studying purposes and she’d refused, not thinking it possible that she could spend any amount of time in the machine, even to help the Lucidites. Now she was locked in this tube and giving Mika information he’d use for his own benefit. Fuck! She needed to get out of here! Not just out of Olento Research, but out of this machine. She’d die here soon. One doesn’t just get over childhood trauma. No, the mind is too strong for that. And every second spent in the small space was robbing Rox of the courage she’d carefully built up all her life. The panic would kill her. This was her end. If she didn’t get out soon then her heart would give out. She’d die from the fear. It would be her undoing. She sucked in a breath and let out a scream just as a strange gas filled the tube.

  “Breathe in the gas. It will give you brain damage, but I’m only using it to make you pass out for safe transporting. I’m a man of my word,” Mika said over the speaker.

  Rox slammed her mouth shut. She didn’t want to breathe in the gas. Not if it could cause damage. And if she could just pretend to pass out that would be the best option. Then she could fight her way out of Olento. But the lack of oxygen won her over and she opened her mouth, sucking in the noxious fumes.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  “The elements can be felt in the dreamscape, but they aren’t actually experienced. One cannot receive a sunburn from spending all day in the sun while dream traveling.”

  - Dream Traveler Codex

  “Kris, you have to sneak into Olento Research and fix the surveillance cameras,” Zephyr said, having taken the position at the front of the conference room that Adelaide usually occupied. She sat in the chair closest to him, noting how calm he appeared when she knew he was fighting to keep that look of composure. Rox being taken had shaken everyone, making them all realize how cruel Mika could be. That could have been her or Connor or any of them. And Mik
a had planned this, planting the net for Rox, probably knowing that she couldn’t be harmed otherwise.

  “No can do,” Kris said, flickering into her visible form. They all knew she was there before because she had announced her presence when entering the room. “I don’t know what duct work Rox meant, but I don’t know how to get into them.”

  “We need a way to fix the cameras, and the infrared will sense you immediately,” Zephyr said, now pacing.

  “I’ll do it,” Adelaide said, drawing out the words like she was being put out by assigning herself to the task. She felt Connor’s gaze swivel to her.

  “How?” Zephyr said. “Using mind control?”

  Adelaide shook her head, her face filled with a look that said, “No, dumbass.”

  “Well, hypnosis?” Zephyr guessed again.

  “None of those strategies would work on Mika and they also can’t be done on a mass of people. Remember, we want to go undetected until the other weres are caught,” Adelaide said.

  “You haven’t mastered that skill yet,” Connor said, leaning over and whispering loudly in Adelaide’s ear. He was a horrible whisperer obviously.

  “Mastered what?” Zephyr said.

  Yes, whisper in a room full of werewolves with super hearing, smart thinking, Connor.

  “Teleporting. And no, I haven’t mastered it, but I will,” Adelaide said. This was what she needed. She needed a reason that was supremely important. She needed to be who everyone depended on for this plan to work. Then she couldn’t fail.

  “What? Is that a skill of yours?” Zephyr said.

  “It will be. Then I’ll teleport into the security room when the guard is on break and fix the cameras,” Adelaide said.

  “What if it doesn’t work?” Zephyr questioned.

  “You know what, Negative Nancy, that’s not how I operate. I’m a woman who acts as if success is inevitable. You should try it because it is always the belief that we can that precedes anything actually happening,” Adelaide said, reciting the words she’d read from her father’s book that morning. She’d actually read his entire book now, or at least no new pages were revealing themselves to her anymore. And maybe one day they would, but she knew the secrets of this world and that was enough. Actually, Adelaide knew the meaning of life now and she smiled presently at the simplicity of it all.