by Jadyn Chase
He fumbled with everything. It took him nearly an hour to set up the same iron stand that Paige erected in a matter of seconds. He rummaged in a drawer for fifteen minutes until he found a pouch of liquid to hang above my arm.
I sat in a chair. Straps held me to it and locked my ankles to its legs, but I submitted to everything the way I would when Paige was here. She begged me to go along with these tests so the dragon wouldn’t hurt anybody.
Heaven knew I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but I found myself going along with it for her sake more than anything else. Now she wasn’t here and I was stuck with this muppet.
Tristan returned with one of those needles. He flicked it with his finger for no apparent reason. He made eye contact with me for a fraction of a second before he looked away. “Now I’m going to insert this into your arm. Try to keep still and calm.”
I sat motionless even when he made a mess of the procedure. He jabbed around inside my elbow for ten minutes trying to find the vein. The pain increased with every passing second, but I willed myself to hold my temper. “Where’s Paige this morning?”
He made a face and turned his back on me. “Doctor Kelly is at a department meeting. She couldn’t be here this morning so I’m taking over the tests.”
I tried to glare through his back, but he didn’t notice. “When will she be back?”
“I have no idea.” He floundered in a different drawer. God only knew what he was looking for. “I might get assigned to your case on a permanent basis. Then we’d be seeing quite a bit more of each other.”
I muttered under my breath. “Charming.”
He returned to my other side wheeling another tree and an identical bag. He held up another needle. “Now this side.”
“What is that for?” I asked. “I already have one on this side.”
“That one is the Depthamol. This one is the antidote. That machine there will calibrate the doses of each. We’ll start with the maximum safe dose of Depthamol that Dr. Kelly measured for you. Then the machine will slowly reduce your blood serum concentration of Depthamol while increasing the concentration of the antidote while I apply the stimulus. This way, we can determine the exact level needed to suppress your ability to shift, but I don’t expect you to understand all that. It’s quite complicated for a layman to understand.”
I locked my teeth. “I can understand it perfectly. I’m not a simpleton.”
He pretended not to hear me. Then again, maybe he didn’t hear me. Maybe, like some of his other colleagues, he really didn’t see me as human at all. I was a block of wood to him.
He stood back and admired his handiwork. “There. That’s all set. Now we can get started.”
He retreated a few feet and pawed through yet another drawer. “What are you going to do?” I asked. “What stimulus are you going to use to try to make me shift?”
He straightened up and held aloft what looked like a large black iron wand. “This. It’s a cattle prod. The computer will read out the levels and I’ll apply the stimulus. We’ll keep going until you shift.”
He advanced on me. I didn’t recognize the implement, but a strange sense of danger shot through me. I didn’t like this man and I didn’t fancy this experiment of his. I wished like anything Paige was here. I could trust her to conduct a test like this the right way. I didn’t trust this dolt as far as I could throw him.
He positioned himself in front of me and a beep went off behind him. He trembled brandishing his instrument. That alone made me question his competence. He didn’t trust himself to conduct this test, so how could I trust him?
His hand shook. I stared up at his face wrenched with anxiety and I braced myself for the worst. This test would make me shift. That much I could be certain of. It would end with me transforming into that dragon. Then what? Would I wind up killing more people against my best efforts to hold back my rage? Would some cannon shoot me down? This dimwit’s face would be the last human I ever laid eyes on in this life.
For a second, I thought of Paige. I wouldn’t mind dying if she was the one who did this to me. She wouldn’t do it to me. I understood that in the depths of my soul. She wouldn’t experiment on me like this. That must be why that mythical Sweeney cooked up Tristan to do it instead. Did Paige refuse to carry it out? Had they sacked her for trying to protect me?
At that moment, the machine pinged to the left. Tristan let out a broken yell and jammed his weapon into my chest. A powerful jolt of energy rocketed through me. The force knocked me almost out of my chair, but the straps held. I bounced up bellowing in rage before I crashed back down.
Tristan burst into maniacal giggles. I couldn’t understand him. I roared in pain and fury, but nothing happened. So this was the torment I could look forward to for the next however long.
I settled down to wait for the next blow, but the horror of my situation sank in. That weapon made my muscles spasm all over until I couldn’t tolerate it. My brain fried and I couldn’t think.
The machine pinged one more time and Tristan plunged. He stabbed me in the chest with that thing and the same crushing jolt hit me with the force of a thousand thunderclaps. I shot off the floor howling in agony. Tristan laughed when I crashed down heaving for breath. My fists clenched against my will. My arms twisted in the restraints. I couldn’t stop my body from contorting in desperation.
I had to get out of here. I sensed myself panicking. Any second now, the dragon would break loose and torch this goon to kingdom come. I could almost be glad of that. I would be delighted to send him where the bad scientists go if I could see him writhe in his death throes first. That would be a fitting end for the likes of him.
I panted for breath waiting for the next hit. I clamped my eyes shut anticipating the anguish and devastation of that terrible weapon. Whatever it was, it delivered more torturing pain than anything the Spanish Inquisition ever cooked up. Dear God, was this the England I loved so much? Was this the precious Crown for whom so many good men fought and died? Was this the depth of depravity to which my own sweet country sank? I didn’t want to believe it.
I counted down the unquiet seconds until the next strike. I could no longer escape the horror of what it would be like when it came. I knew only too well the horrible, devastating catastrophe that awaited me.
This Tristan character, on the other hand, didn’t seem to understand the aftermath that would ensue. He seemed too full of the lunatic mayhem of his own reckless power. He didn’t appear to remember that he was actively trying to unleash the dragon in all its wrath.
The eternal moments ticked away. Any second now, that machine would chime its innocent bell. Tristan would stab his cattle prod, as he called it, into my powerless flesh. I couldn’t imagine what would happen then. I didn’t want to imagine it.
The ding of the alarm sounded and my heart sank preparing for the inevitable. Tristan’s bicep tightened to thrust out his weapon, but before he could do anything, the door blasted open.
I almost died of relief when Paige barged in. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing, Tristan?” she demanded. “Just what in the actual fuck are you doing?”
He wilted before my eyes. Just gazing up at her angelic countenance made me want to weep. All the horrific fear and despair of a moment before came crashing down on my head.
Tristan shrank several inches. “I was… Sweeney ordered me to conduct the tests.”
“This is my goddamned subject, Tristan!” She snatched the cattle prod out of his hands and my world righted itself on its axis. Sanity returned to England at last, now that she took custody of that thing in her own delicate hands. “You have no right to experiment on him. I could get you sacked for this.”
Tristan’s eyes darted around the room at nothing. He looked a fraction of a man now—if he ever had been one to begin with. “Well, you wouldn’t do it. You’ve been putting off this test and the military is getting anxious. Sweeney had no choice but to assign me to….” He trailed off.
Paige narrowed her eyes a
t him. “Is that what Sweeney told you—that I’ve been putting it off? Is that what you two whisper behind my back?”
He waved toward me. I sagged against the restraints, too spent to raise my head. “Can you explain it any other way?”
Her shoulders stiffened and she went very cold and still inside herself. She frightened even me like that. She lowered her voice to a dangerous murmur. “If I ever see you near this subject again, Tristan, you’ll be sorry. Do you understand me? I might just use this on you.” She held up the prod and pointed it at him.
He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. His eyes popped and his jaw moved like a stranded fish.
“Get the fuck out of my lab, Tristan. Run along to Sweeney and tell him I’ll conduct my own tests in my own way and in my own time. If he has a problem with that, tell him to get up out of his goddamned chair and come down here and talk to me about it himself instead of hiding behind some pencil-necked toady like you.”
7
Paige
I waited until Tristan’s scuttling little foot taps retreated down the corridor. The door whoofed into place and the lab fell silent. Only then did I let myself fall on my knees in front of James.
Christ, he looked awful! Ugly purple welts discolored his chest where his shirt sagged open. Sweat stuck his hair to his forehead and his lips quivered. He gasped for breath and he doubled over the chest strap.
I touched his wrists on both sides. “I’m so sorry about this. Are you all right?”
He heaved several agonized breaths before he summoned the strength to speak. “Thank you, Paige. You saved me. I thought I was finished there for a moment.”
I ran my hand down his cheek. My heart bled seeing him like this. “I’m so sorry this happened. This is all my fault.”
“Your fault?” he rasped. “You didn’t do anything. You drove him off and stopped him from completing the test.”
I bent over the straps and concentrated on freeing him. “We have to get you out of here. Those burns need care, but we can’t risk taking you to the infirmary. I’m sorry, but I have to take you back to containment. I’ll get one of the doctors to come and examine you there.”
He opened his mouth, but when I released the chest strap, he pitched forward. He flopped into my arms. I caught his weight just in time to prevent him from slumping to the floor.
I braced my feet and heaved him up. I slung his arm over my shoulders and hitched him out of the lab. I dreaded seeing anyone on the way back to containment, but I got lucky.
I punched the button and eased him to the floor. I propped him against the wall. “Stay here. I’ll go get the doctor.”
He reared back panting out loud. He pawed the air. “Don’t leave, Paige. Please don’t leave. Stay.”
I grasped his hand and pressed it between mine, but his eyes registered nothing. They rolled every which way. “I need to get help, James. I can’t leave you like this. Just sit tight. I’ll be right back and I’ll get you some pain relief.”
I darted away to the infirmary and found Murray sitting at his desk. “I need you to come down to containment, Murry. I need you to examine a patient with electrical burns and I need you to bring some morphine with you.”
He bobbed his head sideways. “This isn’t the dragon, is it?”
I compressed my lips in annoyance. “He’s not a dragon, Murray. He’s a man and he’s injured. Now are you a doctor or are you another brainless sycophant who’s forgotten the meaning of the Hippocratic Oath?”
He pulled his head in quick. He grabbed his first aid kit and followed me back to containment. I put out my hand to open the window when he stopped me. “Are you sure it’s safe? What if he attacks?”
I rounded on him and waved toward James. “Does he look to you like he’s about to fly into a rage? Jesus Christ! What is wrong with everybody around here today? You can see as plain as the nose on your face that he’s in shock. Now will you shut the fuck up and get in there and give him some morphine already?”
He retreated a step. “How do I know morphine won’t trigger the transformation? I can’t chance it.”
I snarled another expletive and tore the first aid kit out of his hand. “Get the fuck out of here. I swear to God, Murray. I thought I respected you.” I turned my back on him and jammed down the button with all my might. I’d had it up to here with this fucking job and everyone in it.
He scurried away just like all the other vermin. I paid no more attention to him. I squatted next to James and took out the morphine ampules. I loaded a syringe and injected him with the drug. He sighed and his head thumped back against the steel wall.
He groaned under his breath. “Thank you, Paige. It feels better already.”
I dug out the burn cream and touched it to his chest. “I’m really sorry about this, James. I should have known something like this would happen.”
“Why should you have?” His eyes bleared open. “You keep saying this is your fault. How could it be?”
I glanced toward the door. If anyone entered right now, they would see me crouching next to a dangerous subject that was supposed to be contained.
Aw, what the hell. I already lost control of this case. If Sweeney bothered to assign Tristan to conduct my tests, that meant this thing already evolved way past the point of no return.
I folded my legs and sat down next to James. I busied myself applying the cream to his welts, but I kept glancing up at him. When I did, I found him staring back at me with that bright, clear countenance that suggested everything would be all right.
Everything wouldn’t be all right, though. Nothing would ever be all right again. If things went on this way, I knew James West Shelton would be the last subject I ever experimented on in this secret underground lab.
“Paige dear,” he whispered. “What’s bothering you? Why won’t you talk to me?”
I shook my head, but that did nothing to clear my thoughts. “I’m sorry because I knew this was going to happen. I tried to stop it, but I can’t. It’s out of my hands and now it’s all over.”
“How can it be? You sent Tristan packing. You were magnificent in there.”
“You don’t understand,” I told him. “Tristan will go tell Sweeney that I stopped the tests. The only reason Sweeney assigned Tristan to you was because I wouldn’t conduct the test myself.”
“Did you refuse to carry out the test? Good for you.”
“I didn’t have to refuse. He already knew I wouldn’t do it. If I was going to do it, I would have done it days ago. I didn’t do it because…..Well…..”
He blinked and almost whispered. “Did you avoid it for my sake? Did you do it to protect me?”
“I wish like anything I could say I did. The truth is I didn’t do it because I was afraid. I didn’t want to trigger the dragon.”
“I can’t believe that of you, Paige dear,” he murmured. “You didn’t do it because you’re a kind-hearted person. You could never be as cruel and capricious as that rotten Tristan.”
I gulped to get my throat working. “You’re the one who’s kind-hearted if you think that of me. I’m as bad as all the others. I would have done it. I’m a coward. I’m as cruel and capricious as he is. I’ve hurt a lot of people. I’m a monster.”
“You’re nothing of the kind,” he returned. “A coward and a monster wouldn’t have stood up to Tristan the way you did. You saved me. If you were a coward and a monster, you would be down in the lab right now finishing the test he started. Instead, you’re here helping me. You’re the only truly human person in this dungeon.”
“I wish that was true, but the truth is that I can’t save you. I can’t save anyone. It’s too late. They’re going to transfer you and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’ve tried, James. You have to believe me. I’ve searched everywhere. I’ve tried again and again to prove that you’re human, but it’s no good.”
“Why! What do you mean?”
I didn’t want to look into his eyes. It hurt just getting the words out
. “The military wants you. They want to transfer you to one of their own experimental labs. They want to test you and turn you into a weapon. They want to clone you and make a million copies of you to use as a mass weaponized army of dragon shifters. All they needed was that test to determine the necessary Depthamol dosage to subdue you. That was the last piece of the puzzle. They’ve been at Sweeney for days to get it done. That’s why I didn’t do it. I was putting it off in the hope that I could stop the transfer, but they’re too impatient. They want you now. They don’t care what they have to do to get you. Sweeney will tell them that the test failed. Then they’ll send a truck to pick you up and I’ll…..”
I broke off. My throat constricted and I couldn’t say those terrible words. Once the military took him, I would never see him again. I knew that now. I would give anything to make it untrue, but I couldn’t deny it any longer.
I couldn’t face tomorrow without James in it. I couldn’t come into this lab every morning and not see him. He would never cheer me up—far from it. Every time I entered it, I would think of him and remember how I failed him.
I failed them all. Here I kidded myself into thinking I was helping my subjects, that I was being humane to them and giving them something good by treating them well. I was no better than Tristan and all the other corrupt scientists in this foul den of Satan. I was a regular Dr. Mengele.
I blinked to find James studying me. I realized too late that I was sitting too close to him. I could clearly make out the whiskers growing through his skin. His lips twitched. Just for a second, I wanted to kiss him. I sensed my fingertips moving over his bare chest and a rush of heat hit me all over.
I lowered my gaze and found myself looking at his mouth. A strange, squirrely feeling stabbed me in the middle and I pulled away. He attracted me like no one else, but I couldn’t let myself start thinking of him that way.