Twisted World Series Box Set | Books 1-3 & Novella

by Mary, Kate L.

  The first two zombies were freed, but Donaghy had them down in no time. Jackson leaned forward even more when the third creature’s chains fell away. It didn’t charge, though, and it studied the fighter like it was searching for a weakness. Like it was alive. Donaghy stepped back, shaking his head as it hit him that this was no normal zombie, and Jackson felt a surge of glee move through his body.

  When the creature finally charged, the fighter was ready. It happened faster than Jackson would have thought possible, Donaghy taking the upper hand in no time, then pinning the thing down so he could get a good look at it. Jackson saw the exact moment when the fighter realized that the creature’s heart was still beating. He watched as understanding crossed Donaghy’s face, then saw the confusion and questions in his eyes. The horror at what he was facing.

  By the time the fight ended, the convict was out of breath, and even though none of it had played out the way he’d want it to, Jackson was so excited that he could hardly sit still.

  The fighter, standing in the middle of the ring, lifted his eyes to meet his gaze, and a smile spread across Jackson’s face. The smell of blood and violence always had that affect on him, but he couldn’t stop the disappointment he felt from swimming to the surface.

  He’d had high hopes for the killing machine he’d created, but the fighter had still taken it down. The creature was too fragile. It was strong, but with the way it was, the thing was susceptible to the same weaknesses that humans were.

  That was something Jackson would have to fix.

  The fight hadn’t gone as planned, but Jackson couldn’t count it as a total loss. After all, he’d learned quite a bit about the creature they’d created and now knew what needed to be changed. Plus, the night wasn’t over and he still had quite a bit to look forward to.

  After leaving the bar, he’d parted ways with everyone in his group but one. Max wasn’t the son of a council member, but he was a one of the secret guards who worked at the CDC. Of all the people Jackson had ever known, Max was the closest thing he had to a friend. They’d bonded over their mutual love of pain. Jackson had watched the guards as they brought subjects in, and he had seen the way Max asserted himself, always being the first to throw a punch or use force, and it hadn’t taken Jackson long to realize that he and the guard had something in common. Since then Jackson had called on Max whenever he’d needed someone to get their hands dirty, knowing that the guard would take pleasure in the act, as well as see to it that the job was complete. Like tonight with Meg.

  Jackson was hidden in the shadows when Max stepped out and grabbed her. He’d been told he could do whatever he wanted with her just as long as there was no permanent damage, and Max had taken it to heart. When Meg’s body slammed against the pavement, a surge of excitement shot through Jackson. She couldn’t scream, could barely crawl away, and couldn’t put up a fight at all. It was thrilling, finally seeing her at the mercy of another person. So thrilling that Jackson found himself wishing he’d done the job himself. But that would have been too risky. If he’d gotten caught it would have put Jackson and his father at risk of being exposed for what they were.

  So, Jackson stayed off to the side, watching as Max freed Meg of her knife, then pushed her dress up to expose her firm little body. She was so out of it she could hardly react, and Jackson knew there was nothing she could do to get away.

  But then everything went horribly wrong. A man came out of nowhere; a blur in the dark night as he pulled Max off Meg, tossing the man aside with a growl that went straight to Jackson’s core. The sound was so familiar. He’d heard it somewhere before, he knew it for sure, only he couldn’t place it and it was too dark to see the man’s face. Max and the man fought, rolling around on the ground while Jackson tried to get a look at the newcomer. They knocked over trashcans as they threw punches, and then there was a knife and Max was holding his stomach as blood seeped from a cut the size of Jackson’s fist. But one cut apparently wasn’t enough for the other man, who stepped forward and slammed his blade into Max’s skull like he was nothing more than one of the walking dead.

  Max dropped to the ground and the man stepped back, panting. His gray hair was wild and an equally wild and gray beard covered his face, but Jackson still couldn’t get a good look at his face and he knew he couldn’t move unless he wanted to risk being spotted. So he stayed still, watching as the man with the gray hair turned to face Meg, who was just sitting up. She looked dazed. Confused. But she didn’t look that surprised to see the man.

  “You saved me,” she said.

  The man knelt at her side, looking her over slowly before saying, “You alright?”

  Meg nodded. “I-I think so.” She touched her head before saying, “Who are you?”

  “Just an old friend,” the man replied. “You sure you ain’t hurt?”

  It was him.

  The realization slammed into Jackson, freezing his blood in his veins. No. It couldn’t be. Angus James was dead. Jackson had seen the body himself, had checked for a pulse. Angus had been cold. So cold that his skin had felt like ice. Jackson’s father had checked as well, unable to believe that they’d lost their test subject with no warning.

  “It can’t be,” Jackson found himself whispering to the dark alley.

  The man let out a low chuckle as he stood, and the next words out of his mouth confirmed Jackson’s suspicions. “You’re just like your mamma. She was tough as nails, too.”

  It was Angus James. Somehow, Jackson wasn’t sure how, he was alive and he was helping Meg. Even worse, he could be tipping her off to what was going on in the CDC. This man knew so much. The experiments they’d done, the creatures they’d made, and who knew what other secrets. It wasn’t like anyone had worked at keeping things from him, and even though his cell had been sound proof, he could have picked up on a hundred different things over the years just by watching. He was an ignorant prick with a short fuse, but Angus James wasn’t dumb.

  This was a turn of events Jackson never could have seen coming.

  Chapter Eight

  His head was spinning by the time he got home, but before he could sit and try to figure out what to do about Angus James, he had something else to take care of. One phone call to Dayton was all it took and the plan was set into motion. It was easy to get in touch with the JO’s son, and the man was more than happy to grant Jackson’s request.

  While he waited for confirmation from Dayton, he thought about Angus and how he should proceed. Telling his father was obviously his first priority. Garret needed to know that Angus James had somehow made it out of the CDC alive. Where he’d been and what he was doing was a mystery, but it was obvious that he’d had some kind of contact with Meg, even if she didn’t know who the man was.

  The citizens of New Atlanta couldn’t discover Angus was alive or the Star’s would lose everything. The prophecy that Angus would one day return to save the masses a second time was a common teaching of The Church. It was preposterous because Angus had never died to begin with, not to mention the fact that he’d never saved anyone. Garret Star had developed the vaccine. Angus James been nothing more than a pawn from the very beginning, just like everyone else in the city who wasn’t in Star’s inner circle, and Jackson knew that if his father had been able to foresee the ridiculous religion that now centered around Angus, he never would have revealed the man’s existence in the first place.

  But who could have predicted it? The very idea of the religion was insane. Angus was just a man, after all. An ignorant, uneducated man who just happened to be immune. He was nobody.

  Too bad the general masses were just as uneducated and ignorant as Angus had been—was.

  It had been close to nineteen years since the religion had popped up. It had been founded by a woman whose daughter had gotten bitten on their way into Atlanta, and at first the following at been small. At the time, the release of the vaccine was brand new, and only available at the CDC since they were claiming to still be in the test phase, and if the woman hadn�
�t made it to the city as quickly as she had, there would have been no hope. But she’d been so close to the wall and had made it inside less than an hour after the attack, and when the doctors had told her about the experimental drug, she’d jumped at the chance. They’d injected her daughter less than two hours after the bite had occurred, then had all crowded around the girl’s bed and waited to find out if it would work.

  The initial vaccine had been unpredictable, saving some of the infected but not others. Jackson’s father knew the unpredictability had to do with the mutated virus he’d created, but since most of the doctors working at the CDC were unaware of that second strain, they were still hard at work trying to figure out why the drug worked sometimes, but not others.

  To make a long story short, the woman’s daughter recovered and a fanatic was born. The mother became obsessed with Angus James, running her mouth off about the man, stalking his family to learn more about him, and eventually erecting a shrine to him outside her home. Whether or not she had set out to start a religion was a long-debated issue in the settlement, but she did, attracting more and more people who had been saved by the vaccine or had a family member survive thanks to the drug.

  Garret Star had been tempted to squash the whole thing early on, hoping to stop its spread, but it hadn’t taken him long to realize that he might be able to use the religion to his advantage. He had watched with growing amusement the reverence Angus’s followers held not only for his memory, but also for the family he had left behind. The last name James became synonymous with savior, and The Church held Axl, his wife, and their two daughters in such high esteem that they became an almost god-like presence in the settlement.

  From that, Garret Star’s plan to have his own son marry Megan James was born.

  The fact that this plan was now futile nagged at Jackson as he headed for his father’s office. Things had begun to unravel and he was starting to worry that they wouldn’t be able to stop them from crumbling to pieces. Jackson knew his father could use force if necessary, but keeping everyone in line with a carefully planned virus and the last name James had more advantages. Less manpower was needed this way, leaving them more time to focus on their work in the CDC. Once they had managed to manipulate the virus the way they wanted to, making the masses do as they wished would be no problem. They had an entire settlement of convicts just waiting to be turned into mindless drones who would carry out Garret Star’s order. Until then, though, they had to be sure that nothing major happened to derail their plans. And Angus James showing up after all these years would definitely be major.

  Jackson found his father in his office, as usual, looking over the most recent reports on Axl’s blood work.

  “We need to talk,” Jackson said, pushing the door open without an invitation.

  Garret Star looked up, his face expressionless as he studied his son. “Did our zombie win?”

  “No, which is another thing we need to discuss, but not now. I have something to tell you.”

  His father lifted an eyebrow as he set his papers down, giving Jackson the signal to go ahead.

  “I saw Angus James.”

  Garret Star let out a scornful laugh that made the hair on Jackson’s neck prickle.

  “I’m serious,” he said more firmly. “I set up a little ambush for Meg, and Angus showed up. He saved her, and based on their interaction, I’d say it isn’t he first time she’s seen him. She doesn’t seem to know who he is, and he wasn’t offering her any details, but he’s obviously been around.”

  “Angus James is dead,” Garret said, drawing the words out as if he thought his son was slow and wouldn’t be able to understand their meaning if he spoke too fast. “You and I both saw his body.”

  “I know, and I can’t explain how he’s alive now, but it was him. I know it.”

  His father shook his head slowly, but Jackson could tell he was thinking it through. “How?” he said, almost to himself. “How could he have done it?”

  “I don’t know. Someone must have been in on it. Helped him.”

  They lapsed into silence at that thought.

  Jackson knew that his father trusted his inner circle implicitly, even after the betrayal that had come years ago with Test Subject 06. He had blamed that little incident on the sentimentalities of women. It had been his fault, he’d said. He should have never let things play out the way they had. They wouldn’t repeat the mistake by breeding Angus James a second time. Instead they would take Margot. It had not only been the prefect solution to their problem, but had also helped put Garret’s plan with Meg into place.

  “What do we do about Angus?” Jackson asked when his father said nothing.

  “We keep an eye out.” Garret picked his papers up and went back to scanning the numbers. “I’m not completely convinced it was him. You’ve been under a lot of stress. You could have been imagining things. Worrying about problems that might pop up. If it is Angus James, he’ll resurface and we’ll take care of him when the time comes. There’s no use worrying about it now.”

  Jackson knew without a shadow of a doubt that Angus James had been the one to save Meg from Max, but he also knew there was no point in trying to convince his father of the fact. Garret was firm in his beliefs, and if he didn’t think Angus was still alive, there would be no way to convince him.

  Instead of arguing, Jackson cleared his throat to get his father’s attention and said, “And the family? What if he is still out there and we do nothing? He’ll warn them. We need to end this soon.”

  Garret didn’t look away from his papers, but he did purse his lips like he was thinking it through. “If you think it needs to be done, then take care of it.”

  That was that, but Jackson wasn’t done and he needed his father’s full attention for the next part of the plan.

  “We still need to discuss the newest strain,” he said.

  Once again, Garret lowered the papers so he could give his son his full attention.

  Jackson launched into a recap of the night before, laying out the weaknesses in the creature they’d created. His father listened without responding until he was done, and then they spent the next thirty minutes discussing how they could fix the problem. The intricacies of genetic manipulation meant they had to jump through a few hoops to mold the virus into what they wanted, but it wasn’t impossible. They were so close. After all these years, they had almost reached their goal.

  “I want the fighter,” Jackson said when they were done planning out their next step. “I want him for the next strain. He’s strong and he hates me, which makes him the perfect subject to test it on. Once he’s turned we’ll be able to tell whether or not his prejudices will affect his ability to take orders.”

  “Good.” Garret nodded thoughtfully. “Bring him in then. The sooner the better. The flu has taken its toll, but there’s always the risk that it will do one more sweep through the population. If he’s in here we can treat him and keep him alive.”

  “I’ll bring him in today or tomorrow, and the rest of the family too. It depends on how the next part of my plan plays out.” Jackson stood.

  “Good. Well done.” Garret picked his papers up again, barely glancing at his son as he nodded. “Now let me get back to work.”

  Jackson smiled to himself as he left his father’s office and headed back to his own. Everything was falling into place nicely, and he couldn’t wait for the end results.

  The call he’d been waiting for came early in the morning, but it didn’t matter. Jackson hadn’t slept a wink. Now that he’d had time to reflect on it, he was happy that Donaghy had survived the fight. Not only had it helped him see the flaws in their most recent design, but it would give Jackson the chance to play with the convict a bit. He did, after all, want to see the asshole suffer. Especially after witnessing that kiss. Yes, this plan, the one that would rip Donaghy’s heart to pieces, was a much better idea.

  He was practically skipping on his way to Dragon’s Lair. The guards that were with him for backup, wh
ich Jackson desperately hoped he’d need, kept their distance, their discomfort obvious in their expressions. People who knew Jackson well didn’t know how to take it when he was happy. His smile didn’t seem natural to them, or the sinister light in his eyes was too blatant. Jackson wasn’t sure, but he also knew he didn’t care. There was something very thrilling about being able to make people squirm with just a tilt of the lips.

  He and his guards entered Dragon’s Lair without knocking, throwing the door open so hard that it banged against the wall. The convict and Dragon were at the bar and they both turned when the trio entered.

  Jackson stood in the center, his back straight and a mockingly sympathetic smile lighting up his face. “Sorry to interrupt,” he said, unable to keep the glee out of his voice. “But we just got some unfortunate news from Dayton.” He paused for dramatic effect and fixed his gaze on Donaghy, allowing the darkness inside him to penetrate the air so the fighter would know for certain that Jackson had been behind the whole thing. “I thought it should come straight from me.”

  He savored the last words, knowing the damage they would do to the fighter. Seeing the exact moment when Donaghy’s heart and hope shattered into oblivion. Feeling the misery that permeated from the convict deep in his own bones and loving it.

  Donaghy’s back stiffened but he didn’t stand. “Say it,” he growled.

  “Your sister was killed sometime last night. Someone broke into her apartment and she had no one to protect her. If only you had been there.” Jackson had to force his lips to turn down in the corners as he shook his head. It was perhaps the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. “A tragedy. She was so young. Had so much ahead of her. The Judicial Officer called me personally to let me know. If only you had been there to save her the way you saved Meg. Not that you can save Meg from everything…”