by Eve Langlais
According to Adrian, Dr. Cerberus had gotten it in his head that he’d been maligned at the clinic. That he, not Dr. Chimera, should have the majority of the glory.
Could also be the treatment speaking. Adrian had shown Emma the television appearance that clearly showed the horns on Cerberus’s head. The mad glow in his eyes.
He looks like someone who’s given in to the dancing spots. He presented a prime example of what happened when the darker half of the cure won. Apparently, that was who Oliver had gotten his initial information from. The devil was the one who’d shaped his beliefs. It explained a lot about Oliver’s attitude.
What it didn’t explain was her fascination with him. She couldn’t help but stalk him. She kept a subtle eye on his every move, convinced he would betray them. Surprised when he didn’t. Certain it was just a matter of time.
He’s gathering evidence before blowing the whistle.
Over those first few days at the motel, Oliver got to meet the more successful stories that came out of the Chimaeram Clinic. Spying on him meant she saw him watching everything. What they ate, how they laughed, and, in the case of Margaret, even cried—because Luke went into town and brought her back a present for her birthday.
He spoke to some of them, his expression curious, even intent at times. His hand moved furiously as he wrote. But he didn’t approach Emma.
By day three, everyone had settled into a cautious routine. Oliver had now become a mainstay, which meant there was a bit of a more relaxed attitude around him. Lorcan, Luke’s son, took advantage of it.
His mother had set him down on the ground to toddle while she hung some clothes on a clothesline they’d strung up. The child, with stiff legs and wide-spread arms, headed toward Oliver, who sat in one of the chairs outside the rooms writing.
Emma happened to be close by—big surprise—and saw a worried Margaret move toward her child, only to have Adrian stop her.
They all watched to see what Oliver would do next. The baby—whose motor skills exceeded that of a normal six-month-old—not only managed to grab hold of the chair to climb it he perched in Oliver’s lap, snared his pen, and happily slobbered all over it. When Lorcan got bored of that—ten seconds later—he jabbed it at the paper. Probably ruined Oliver’s morning notes.
Emma held her breath. Especially since she remembered a similar incident when she was little. It involved her getting thrown to the floor and her bottom paddled by a man who didn’t stick around long enough to be called daddy.
Oliver smiled and said something soft to the baby, who chortled.
Everyone uttered a sigh of relief. That evening at dinner, Oliver didn’t bat an eye when Lorcan decided to eat off his plate—although he didn’t eat much from it after the baby spat out a mouthful of veggies in favor of the meat.
The following day, Oliver was sitting by the pool when Becky emerged from the motel with the twins. Less than a month old and petite, they snuggled in their mother’s arms, quiet and well behaved.
Until they saw the water. Then they wiggled and jiggled, their cries sharp and happy. Becky couldn’t toss them in the pool fast enough.
Which seemed horrifying the first time you saw it. After all, these were infants!
But they were also part mermaid. The twins dove into the water like pros, sluicing it and bouncing out of it, spitting the liquid at each other. They could breathe as easily in the water as out. While the girls hadn’t grown fins, their webbed fingers and toes helped them move through the water. Their skin, the only thing about them that changed when they got wet, shimmered, the fine scales iridescent and beautiful.
That day, under Jett’s watchful eye—and gun—Oliver put aside his pen and paper and stripped down to his boxers. He slid into the water, gasping, “It’s cold.” But he didn’t get out. He stood in the shallow end, shivering and waiting.
It didn’t take long before one of the twins came over to show off. Arrowing underwater for him then leaping from it at the last minute, twisting to land with a splash.
Emma stifled a giggle as Oliver’s face got soaked.
Jett didn’t feel a need to constrain himself. “That’s my girls.”
Once more, Oliver didn’t act as expected when confronted with the evidence of the side effects of Chimera’s treatment. Instead he was smiling and splashing along with the babies, doing his best to keep his gaze away from Becky, who hovered underwater in the deep end, a deadly siren who would act at any sign of a threat.
By the time their playtime was done, the baby girls were snuggling up to Oliver, who handed them out one by one to Jett, who wrapped them in a towel. No words were exchanged, but something passed between the men, a gaze of understanding, acknowledgement.
Could Adrian be right? Was convincing people as simple as reminding them that the so-called monsters were still human at heart?
Maybe the others were, but with Emma, there was no escaping the very visible horn on her head. Which was the excuse she used to avoid going near Oliver but not the real reason she wouldn’t talk to him.
There was something about Oliver that confused. For one thing, she was still attracted to him despite all he’d done, the things he’d said. He drew her. Made her feel a warm tingle between the legs.
A tingle she wouldn’t act on. She knew what happened when she let her libido do her thinking. It always started out okay. After a while, the name-calling started then the hitting.
But that was the old me. New Emma didn’t take abuse. She dished it.
The fact that she could handle herself meant she got put into the guard rotation. The motel belonged to Adrian, more or less, through several layers of shell companies. It meant they didn’t have to worry about other guests. Human guests. And they had a place to bring patients when they found them. Not that they found many alive.
Jayda and Luke were usually the pair sent out on retrieval, with Jett joining them on some occasions. At other times he alternated with Marcus, who usually provided tech support.
Most leads they followed ended up as dead ends. Literally. The ex-patients too far-gone and necessitating elimination. But they did manage a few rescues. Xiu, who’d been placed in an asylum for the blind and predicted her rescue so well, was standing by the exit door holding a bag filled with clothes.
They even found Jacob, that coward who’d left those who crashed with him in the helicopter behind in order to save himself. Apparently, being in human custody hadn’t changed him much. He was still an asshole, and the first thing he advocated for upon arriving was Oliver’s death.
“Let me take him somewhere. He’s a danger to the cause,” Jacob claimed.
“If he becomes a liability, we’ll handle it,” Adrian countered.
That should have been the end of it, but Emma saw the way Jacob watched Oliver. She didn’t trust Jacob one bit. Which was weird because she had more in common with him than Oliver.
However, Oliver wasn’t the same man she’d met in the ruins. On his fourth day at the motel, she mustered up the courage to approach him.
He was scribbling like a madman at one of the picnic tables. Adrian had given him notebooks, claiming if he was going to write a book he’d need to take lots of notes. No one yet trusted him near a computer.
“Hey, Ollie.” She’d adopted the nickname the others used.
He lifted his head, and she noticed the wariness in his gaze but also the pleasure. “Hey.”
She wondered if he’d ask why she’d been avoiding him. What would she say?
“It’s nice to see you,” he said instead.
She searched for a hint of mockery and found only sincerity in his gaze.
“Whatcha writing about today?” she asked, taking a seat beside him.
“Marcus’s story.”
“Really?” she said, interest piqued. “Did he tell you how he was barely coherent for a while but then got his mind back?”
“Yeah. He even showed me his file from after the accident. He almost died.”
“Yup.
You’ll notice that’s a trend with all of Adrian’s patients. Like me.”
“But you actually agreed to receive his treatment. Not all of them could give consent.” Oliver remained caught on that salient point.
“You’re right; some couldn’t. But let me ask you, if you were in a coma and dying, what would you want doctors to do?”
He put down his pen and laid it across the notebook in his lap. “Honestly? I don’t know. I mean, before learning about Chimera and all his secret remedies, I would have said pull the plug.”
“But?” she prodded.
“He actually found a way to pull the dying back from the edge. To give those who were missing limbs their legs and arms back. He cured Becky’s lung cancer. Breast cancer and more in you. His actions have kept people from dying.”
“They have.”
“But all of his cures have a price.”
“I guess the question is, how high is too high?” she asked. “For me, I get a lovely horn.” She raised her hand to it, intentionally drawing his attention.
“And Becky can swim like a fish, as can her twin daughters.” He glanced at the pool, where, once more, Jett kept watch while his girls frolicked.
“Are mermaids monsters?” she asked softly.
It took him a while to answer. “If I say no, then I have to ask myself why. Why would they be considered okay compared to a werewolf?”
“Luke prefers the term wolfman since he doesn’t actually become a wolf,” she said with a soft laugh.
“So he reminded me during our conversation. You know what else he told me? That he’s not bothered by it. Not now at any rate. I talked to him you know. Apologized for what I said about his kid, and he confessed something to me.” Oliver looked at her.
“What?”
“That there’d been a time he thought he was a monster. That he believed he should die. Do you know what changed his mind?”
“Margaret.” Love saved the beast.
Oliver nodded. “Having someone who saw him for who he was and not what he’d become.”
“Now that you’ve talked to him, you’re seeing him as a person, too, aren’t you?”
Again, he paused before answering. “When I was inside the clinic, it was easy to condemn the monsters as all evil. I mean that leeching black puddle and the tentacle thing in the lake, they only reinforced my ideas. But then…”
“You met real people.”
“I did. And now…” He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “Now I have to re-evaluate everything I thought. I also need to apologize to you.”
“Me? For what?”
“For being an asshole. For calling you a monster. You never asked to be different. You just wanted what we all do, a chance to live.”
“In your defense, it can’t be easy to meet a woman with a horn on her head.” She couldn’t afford to melt at his words, so she reminded him, and herself, of the distance between them.
“Don’t let me off the hook. I was a dick to you, yet you never did anything but help me. You saved me.” He met her gaze, an intense look that did something to her insides, brought a fluttery feeling to her heart. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She ducked her head.
“I don’t suppose I can ask you more about your experience.”
“Go ahead.”
Somewhat bemused, she began talking, answering questions about the treatment itself. Did it hurt? Was she awake during it? How did she feel when the horn appeared?
“The first time I saw it in a mirror, I cried.” The sight of the knob on her forehead made her feel like she was still being punished.
“Punished for what?” Oliver asked.
“Not lying down and dying like nature intended.”
“And now? What do you think?”
Her lips curved into a soft smile. “Now, I see it as a reminder that I was special enough to be given a second chance.”
“Did she tell you it’s also a deadly weapon?” Jacob arrived with a swagger, his expression smug. Or so it seemed. Her view of him would probably remain forever tainted by his selfishness after the crash.
“Have you harmed someone with it?” Oliver had a tiny crinkle between his eyes.
She wanted to gore Jacob for having taken their moment of understanding and ruining it.
“I’ve protected myself,” she said, not meeting Oliver’s gaze.
“Ha. I saw what you did to the doctor on the helicopter. Ventilated him right good.” Jacob guffawed.
Blood boiling, she blinked as spots danced in front of her eyes. “Dr. Sphinx wasn’t a nice doctor.”
“Then I’m sure he deserved whatever he got,” Oliver said, getting to his feet and taking her side. “Good thing she saved your ass.”
Jacob bristled. “I would have done something if I wasn’t all tied up.”
“Really? I doubt that. I remember how you acted after the crash,” she snapped.
“Nothing wrong with looking after oneself.”
“Nope, nothing wrong with being selfish at all.” She rose and stepped away from the picnic table. “I gotta go.” Somewhere she could calm down before the rage took over and she woke up with her horn a little longer—and covered in blood
Chapter Thirteen
Emma left Oliver with Jacob, whose sly face would look better with a fist in it.
“She’s a nice piece of ass,” Jacob declared, watching her leave.
“You shouldn’t talk about her like that. She’s been through a lot.”
“That’s priceless coming from you. I’m on to you, Ollie.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Those idiots”—Jacob jerked his head in the direction of the motel—“think they can change your mind about us. But we both know that’s bullshit. You still want to see us dead, don’t you, Ollie?”
“The murderous examples, yes. The monsters I saw in the clinic are too dangerous. But the people I’ve met here…they deserve a chance.”
“Pretty words. Pity I don’t believe it. You’re playing us. Trying to get us to trust you when we both know the first stab at freedom you get, you’ll turn on them.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Jacob sneered. “I know your kind. Which is why I’m going to give you a warning. Leave. Now. Because if you don’t…” The words trailed off ominously.
But Oliver wasn’t about to be intimidated by this asshole. “Or what? You’ll kill me? You don’t have the balls.”
“Who says it will be me? All it would take is one accusation. A hint in the right ear about the fact you’re planning to double cross us and they’ll eliminate you for me.”
“The people here aren’t stupid. They aren’t going to blindly swallow your lies.” Or would they? Jacob was one of them.
“You keep telling yourself that.” Jacob left with a sneer.
Which meant Oliver got to deal with doubt.
Would they kill him if they thought he wasn’t on their side? He knew Adrian Chimera kept him around in the hopes of changing his thoughts about the treatment and patients. And it worked.
It was hard to keep the mindset of killing the monsters when a child with a gap-toothed grin snuggled in his lap. How could he condone the murder or even imprisonment of the twins, who were fairy tale creatures come to life and adorable to boot?
Even the adults won him over, and not only with their words and actions. He could see the caring in them for each other. The love. The acceptance without judgment in spite of the fact they were all different.
The world with all its divisions could learn a lot from them.
And Oliver could be the one to spread the word. Problem was he’d gone from wanting to expose the Chimera Secrets to coming around to understanding them, realizing he could never tell anyone.
To tell about even one would be to put them all in danger.
He couldn’t be responsible for that, which was why Emma found him that evening burning his notes on a barbecue
by the picnic table.
“What are you doing?” she exclaimed.
“Burning my book.”
“What?” She gaped at him then at the crinkling edges of paper as he fed them, sheet by sheet, into the fire.
“I can’t publish it.”
“Because you still think we’re monsters.” Her statement held a hint of sadness.
He was quick to correct. “On the contrary, it’s because you’re not that I can’t ever let these words see the light of day. You’re right about the world not being ready for you yet.”
“But if you changed your mind, then surely—”
The shake of his head was more violent than he’d meant. “That’s just it. I did come to realize my belief was wrong, but only because I spent time with you. Those who will judge and hate, like I once did, won’t get that same opportunity. They’ll see the pictures and make assumptions.”
“Meaning I’ll never have a normal life.” Her lips turned down.
He didn’t lie. “No. Not a public one at any rate, but here, surrounded by those who understand and accept…” He swept a hand. “You can live outside of a cell or a cage.”
“Doomed to be alone. Because, in case you hadn’t noticed, everyone here is already hooked up, and I don’t think any of them are into sharing.” Her smile was lopsided.
“Not everyone. There is Xiu and Jacob.” The very mention of that man’s name brought a sour taste to his mouth.
“Ugh. Jacob.” She wrinkled her nose. “No thanks. I’d rather be alone.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m sure others will come.” Words he choked out because, looking at her by the light of the fire, he couldn’t help but wish circumstances were different. There was something special about Emma, and it had nothing to do with her horn.
Her soft-spoken manner. Her caring nature. The way she had of ducking when shy and, at the same time, her boldness. Her laughter had the ability to warm him. Her smile squeezed something inside.
Holy shit, I’m falling for her. A week ago, he would have said impossible. Yet the more time he spent with her, with all of the Chimera people, the more he found himself comfortable and even feeling for their plight. How difficult to live always looking over a shoulder. Wondering if the car that pulled into the lot might bring trouble. If a phone call might be traced.