by B N Miles
“Vampire, yes,” Nikki said. “And it’s the middle of the night, so you know what I can do.”
“Oh, fuck,” he old man said.
The woman struggled, trying to break the ice around her legs. She screamed and shouted, but nothing happened.
“She doesn’t have much air,” Jared said. “And she’s using it up fast. Take him to the other room, make sure he’s secure. I’ll bring her along.”
“Fine with me,” Nikki said. “Come on, darling. If you make a peep, I’ll take another taste of your rotten blood, but I promise I’ll enjoy it more than you will.”
“Oh, fuck,” he whispered, and when Nikki began to move, he went with her. She walked him past Jared, down the hall, and back into the poison refrigerator room.
Jared stepped into the monkey room, and more began to hoot. The red light was dim and disorienting, and he watched the woman scientist began to claw the hardened air around her head. He approached her, got close enough that she’d hear him through the bubble, and spoke.
“I’m going to drop it,” he said. “And let you breathe. If you make a noise, I’ll bring it up again, and I’ll wait for you to pass out before dropping it. You might die, but you might not. Either way, we have your friend to help us out. Do you understand?”
Her eyes were wide with fear and she nodded fast.
Jared dropped the air spell, releasing her.
She took a couple gasping breaths, her hands pressed to her chest. She opened her mouth like she wanted to scream, but she shut it again and glared at him instead.
“Who the hell are you?” she asked.
“We’ll get to that,” Jared said. “But first, you’re going to come with me. Make any sudden movements, make any loud noises, and that fishbowl will suffocate you nice and slow.”
She clenched her jaw and nodded once, her hair shaking with the movement.
He released the ice memgram. She took a step and leaned forward, hands on her knees, then straightened up into some measure of dignity. Her back was straight as she marched past him, back toward where Nikki had taken the older man.
Jared followed her down the hallway, and when she was inside the poison refrigerator room, he shut the door behind them.
42
“On the floor,” Jared said, pointing toward the back of the room, next to the refrigerators. “Hands where I can see them.”
“This is a waste of your time,” the older man said as Nikki shoved him to the ground.
The woman walked over and sat down next to the older man, curling her legs beneath her, leaving her hands out on her thighs. The man crossed his arms over his chest and glared up at Nikki.
Jared looked down at them. The older man glared back for just a moment before looking at Nikki then down at the ground. The woman looked placidly back at Jared, like she was in some kind of boring presentation and couldn’t wait to get out of it.
“Why do you think this is a waste of our time?” Jared asked.
“I just mean, there’s nothing useful for you here. There’s nothing valuable.”
Jared crouched in front of the man. “Do you think I’m here to rob this place?”
He looked up, a moment of confusion passing over his face. “Are you not?”
“No, I’m not.” Jared watched his expression shift from confusion to fear. “What’s your name?”
“It’s not important,” he said.
“Answer him,” Nikki said. “Or I’m going to open an artery and take a nice, long drink out of you. I bet that’ll make your pretty little friend here start talking instead.”
“Clarence,” he said. “Clarence Showers.”
“Okay, Clarence,” Jared said, “what do you do here?”
“I’m a scientist,” he said. “I’m a researcher. Who the hell are you people?”
“We’re looking for someone,” Jared said. “A woman, about my age, red hair, very pretty. She’s a Shifter.”
“I don’t know any redheads,” Clarence said.
Jared looked at the woman. “What about you?” he asked.
“What about me?”
“Have you seen them bring any new people into this facility within the last few days?”
“No,” she said. “We don’t have access to anything outside of these rooms.”
“Where did you two just come from?”
“The freaking break room,” Clarence said. “The damn break room, okay? We were taking a god damn break. We got the night shift and we’re both bored out of our skulls and exhausted. Now, who are you people?”
“Don’t ask that again,” Jared said and looked back at the woman. “What’s your name?”
“Penny,” she said.
“All right, Penny,” Jared said. “What do you do here?”
She made a face like she couldn’t believe he was asking. “We’re researchers,” she said.
“Thank you,” Jared said. “That much is clear. But what are you researching?”
She gestured with her hands, as though it was evident. When he didn’t stop staring at her, she let out an annoyed breath.
“Magic,” she said.
“You’re not a Magi?” He felt a little pang of surprise.
“No,” she said. “I’m not, and neither is Clarence here.”
“If I were, I’d be turning your brains to mush,” he said, his voice grumbling.
Penny rolled her eyes. “We don’t do the magic, we just study it,” she said. “The Medlar family hired me right out of my doctoral program, told me it was this super-secret study, flew me out here, drove me in on this dirty old Jeep, then proceeded to tell me that magic was real and I was going to study it.”
“How did that go for you?” Jared asked.
“Scared me shitless,” she said, her face straight. “But then I started studying it, and somehow all this insanity got a little easier to handle.”
“Why the hell are you asking about our work?” Clarence said. “What does it even matter?”
Jared held up a hand and didn’t look at him. “If you interrupt me again, I’m going to let Nikki feed from you. If you keep doing it after that, I’m going to let her drain you. And I promise, she’ll do it.”
“I’ll enjoy it, too,” Nikki said.
Clarence’s jaw snapped shut and he leaned back against the refrigerator with a scowl.
“Do you ever experiment on Metas here?” Jared asked Penny.
“No,” she said. “I’ve never actually seen one before until…” She trailed off and shot a glance at Nikki. For a moment, he saw her composure break, but she quickly gathered herself. “I’ve never actually seen one before,” she finished.
“But you know about them?” he asked.
“We were given certain information when they onboarded us,” she said. “The existence of magic and Metas was part of that process.”
“And the Accords?”
She hesitated then nodded. “The Accords were covered.”
“So then you’re aware that this research is in violation of them.”
She took a breath and shook her head slowly. “I don’t know anything about that.”
“You’re not supposed to know about Metas or magic. No Human outside of the Magi houses are supposed to know.”
“They found a loophole,” Clarence said.
Jared looked at him. “What kind of loophole?”
“They adopted us,” he said.
Jared blinked in surprise then looked at Penny. She nodded her head and put a hand on her chest.
“Made it official before breaking the news,” she said. “I thought it was kind of insane at the time, but the amount of money they were offering, and the quality of the facility sort of won me over.”
“So you’re both technically a part of the Medlar family.”
“Right,” she said. “Which I believe allows us a certain measure of leeway.”
Jared looked back at Lumi and she just shook her head. “Sounds fishy to me,” Lumi said. “But it must work if the
world hasn’t ended yet.”
Jared gave a bitter laugh and turned back to Penny. “You have no clue how insane this is,” he said.
“Says the guy that just threatened to smother me with magic,” she said.
“Fair enough.” He grinned at her and leaned close. “What do you do with the monkeys?”
She frowned and glanced in their direction.
“What the hell do you care about the monkeys?” Clarence said. “They’re shit flinging assholes.”
“I’m curious,” Jared said. “And that was an interruption.”
“Shit, wait, please—”
Jared held up a hand. “Just keep your mouth shut.”
Clarence snapped his jaw shut a second time.
“The monkeys are research subjects,” Penny said. “Tomorrow, we’re going to watch one of the Magi light them on fire.”
“You’re what?” Izzy asked, outrage in her voice.
Penny looked up and a little smile ghosted onto her lips. “Tomorrow, a Medlar woman is going to come down here and light them on fire, one by one. We’re going to measure how fast it takes, how hot it burns, how much fire she can produce. We’re going to catalogue how quickly she can kill the monkeys, how many of them she can kill at once, all that good stuff. And when they’re all gone, more monkeys will get shipped in, and we’ll probably freeze those.”
“Jesus,” Izzy said, her voice a harsh whisper. “That’s fucked up.”
“I know,” Penny said. “I try to be nice to them, unlike my colleague here.”
“They’re just fucking monkeys,” he said.
“But it’s what we do here,” she said. “We do fucked up little experiments, whatever the Medlar family can dream up. And honestly, I don’t love it, but I have the chance to study magic. Real, actual magic. I can’t turn that down.”
Jared nodded his head slowly. “What other fucked up things do they do here?”
“Experiments with poisons, with effecting air and gravity, with breaking down objects at a molecular level. Experiments of modifying Human bodies with magic, on modifying plants and animals. I’m trying to find a way to use magic to breed genetically enhanced corn that could feed the entire world.”
“Noble,” Jessalene said, her voice dripping with anger and sarcasm.
“I know it sounds horrible,” Penny said. “And in a lot of ways, I agree. But we’re doing good work here. We already found some treatments for cancer that weren’t possible before, all because of magic.”
“Nazis said the same sort of shit,” Jessalene said. “When they experimented on the Jews.”
Penny glared at her. “It’s always about the Nazis with people,” she said. “But we don’t experiment on Humans. I know it sounds awful, what we’re going to do to those monkeys, but it’s common scientific practice to use animals in dangerous tests.”
“Truth is, I don’t care about the monkeys,” Jared said. “I just want to understand what this place does and how far it’s willing to go. I want to know what might be happening to my friend.”
“Your friend isn’t here,” Penny said. “At least, if she is here, I have no idea where. But, again, we don’t do research on Human subjects.”
Jared looked at Clarence. “Is she telling the truth?”
“Gods, yes,” he said. “I’d never do that sort of thing to a person. I mean, I’m an asshole and I don’t care about the monkeys, but I’m not a killer.”
“We’re scientists,” Penny said. “That’s all. I just want to understand what magic is and find a way to harness it for the good of the world.”
“Real fucking noble,” Izzy said. “But you do realize you’re working for the bad guys, right? The Medlar family is about as corrupt and broken as it gets.”
“I don’t know much about my employers,” Penny said.
“We know plenty,” Izzy said. “And I promise, the Nazi metaphor wasn’t too far off.”
Jared let out a frustrated breath and stood up. “We don’t have time for this,” he said. “Penny, if I wanted to find someone the Medlar took, where would they keep her?”
“Like I said, we don’t deal with Human subjects,” she said.
“Humor me.”
She hesitated just a moment, her lips pressed into a tight seal.
“There are lower levels,” she said. “Places we’re not allowed to go. I don’t know what they do down there, but there are rumors about—”
“Stop it,” Clarence said, his voice sharp. “Stop it right now.”
Penny ignored him. “Rumors about people being taken down there and never coming back.”
“Sounds like Human experiments to me,” Jared said.
“They’re just rumors,” Clarence said. “I’ve never seen it myself.”
“I haven’t either,” Penny said. “But the rumors are persistent, and if you say they have your friend, and you think they brought her here—”
“Stop talking to them,” Clarence said. “We don’t know these people and they’re not going to do shit to us. They don’t have the stomach for it.” He leaned forward, staring at Jared. “You’re all fucking talk, all just a bunch of—”
Nikki moved before Jared could speak. She pounced on Clarence, shoved him back against the refrigerator and pinned him there. She took his hair, pulled it back, pushed his chin up with the other hand, exposing his neck.
Then sunk her fangs down into his pulsing throat.
“Fuck,” he said, his voice a gasping moan.
Nikki bit deep and sucked the blood from his wound. He struggled, tried to push her away, but she was as solid as a stone. Penny’s jaw dropped in horror as Nikki drank Clarence’s blood in deep, thick gulps. Nikki let out a little moan as she did it.
Jared stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. “Enough,” he said.
She didn’t stop, just kept drinking. Clarence’s struggles got weaker, but he kept trying to push her away, his eyes wide with terror and pain, small panicked squeaks and groans escaping from his lips.
“Nikki,” Jared said, his voice harder. “That’s enough. Let him go.”
Nikki pulled back with a gasp, her lips and chin covered in fresh blood. “Oh goddess, what a night,” she said.
“Enough,” Jared said again, softer this time.
Nikki released Clarence, who slumped backward, bleeding from the wounds, though not heavily. She walked away, dabbing at the blood on her mouth with her sleeve, almost dainty in her movements.
“Izzy,” Jared said. “Close that wound up. But leave the blood.”
She nodded, walked over, and crouched in front of Clarence. Her hands flared, glowed, and Jared watched as Penny leaned forward, her eyes wide and fascinated. Izzy’s magic pulsed around Clarence’s twin bite marks, closing them up and stopping the bleeding.
But he remained slumped and pale as she pulled back.
“He won’t be a problem anymore,” she said. “Lost a fair bit of blood.”
“I got carried away,” Nikki said, making a gesture with her wrist. “Oops.”
Jared shook his head, gave her a flat look, then turned back to Penny.
“We need your help,” he said.
“You need… what?” Penny asked. “Did that girl just use healing magic?”
“Yes, she did,” Jared said. “But she’s also perfectly capable of making you bleed out from every single orifice.”
“Right.” Penny’s back went rigid as she sat up straighter. “You want my help to get into the lower levels, right?”
“I do,” Jared said.
“Let’s make a deal then.”
Jared grinned at her, his eyebrows knit. “I don’t think you’re in a position to make deals, Penny,” he said.
She held up her hands. “Hear me out.”
“I’m listening.”
“Promise to let me study whatever she just did,” Penny said, gesturing at Izzy. “Let me talk to her about healing. Then I’ll help you.”
“I’m not a monkey,” Izzy said, vo
ice dripping scorn.
Penny looked at her with raised eyebrows. “You’re most certainly not.”
Jared rubbed his eyes. “We really don’t have time for this,” he said. “Even if we agree, I don’t know how you’re ever going to collect on this deal.”
“I’m going to leave with you,” Penny said, looking back at him. “I don’t know who you people are, but you’re clearly Magi, at least two of you. That one’s a Vampire, and I think the girl with the greenish skin is a Dryad, but I’m not totally sure. You’re not just a random band of thugs and thieves, that much is obvious. You have some home base and some means, otherwise you never would have gotten in here. So when this is over, you’re going to bring me out of here and let me study that healing magic.”
Jared rocked back on his heels and stared at her. She stared back, her face hard and determined, and he saw that she was absolutely serious. She was ready to give up her position here, her entire life in this place, if only she got a chance to study Izzy’s healing magic.
He didn’t know what good that would do. Magic was magic, and he had no clue how she thought she could take whatever Izzy was doing it and apply it through practical, scientific methods. But if this was the price he had to pay to get some inside help, he was willing to pay it.
“Izzy,” Jared said and looked back at her. “I can’t make you do this. Choice is all yours.”
She made a disgusted face. “I’m not letting her study me.”
“Then I’m not helping.” Penny crossed her arms.
“I bet she’d help if I drained her a bit,” Nikki said.
Penny blanched a bit at that, but Jared shook his head and stood up. “No, no more draining,” he said. “You almost lost control once.”
Nikki grunted and flipped her hair, but didn’t argue.
“How are you even considering this?” Izzy asked. “She’s probably lying. The second we leave this room, I bet she’ll call some guards.”
“I’m not lying,” Penny said. “I came here because I thought I might be able to do some good in the world. I never wanted to study how fast magic can burn a bunch of monkeys. But if I can study how magic heals the body, maybe I can find a way to use that process on more people, maybe I can save some real lives. I’m willing to burn this whole fucking place to the ground to get a chance at that.”