by Piper Dow
The girl watched him with concern. "Do you need help?"
He started to shake his head, but stopped when the slight movement caused his head to spin. "Doesn't smell right." His words were thick, hard to push out. "Not safe."
She started, glancing down at the cup she held, now half empty. She lifted it to her nose and sniffed hesitantly. "Oh my word. You're right!" She covered her mouth with her other hand.
Matt tried to make sense of the scene before him. The floor around him was streaked with vomit, though it looked like the girl might have tried to use a blanket to clean up the worst of it. She had taken off her coat and shoved it under his head to use as a pillow. A tray with food and drink had been slid through a little door on the front wall of the kennel.
"Do you want to sit up? Or, maybe do you want to lay down on the bunk?" She had put the cups back on the tray and pushed it back toward the front of the cage. Now she wrapped her arms around her middle and hugged herself, glancing behind him at the bunk. Matt guessed that was where she had slept, if she had.
"I'll sit," he said. He made himself push further away from the floor and scoot backward to use the back wall to lean against. His energy depleted, he closed his eyes and tried to soothe the mob of angry villagers using their pitchforks on his brain.
"HE NEEDS TO SEE A DOCTOR. He needs medicine for his head—I'm pretty sure your henchman gave him a concussion."
The girl's angry voice wasn't trying to be quiet. Matt really wished she would. It felt like cymbals against his head.
"I told you, I am a doctor. I'll take a look at him in a minute, and we'll take it from there." The voice belonged to a different man than the one who had dropped off the breakfast tray. Matt squinted one eye open. This man did wear a white lab coat.
"You are not a doctor. Not a medical doctor, anyway. Not a chance." She stood at the front of the kennel with her hands braced against her hips.
The man had turned to go back to the other end of the room, where the equipment all seemed to be. At her words, he paused and gave her a quizzical look. "Why would you say that?"
The girl gestured at the kennel surround in disgust. "What kind of doctor would do this to another person, Roger? None."
His face shuttered, and he shrugged one shoulder. "Interesting," was all he said before moving on.
Chapter twenty-seven
Kelly put her hand on her belly, feeling the rumble. She was starving, and she needed to use the bathroom. After Matt had told her that the juice smelled funny, she had been afraid to eat anything else they had given her. Mike had come to collect the dishes and smirked at the full tray, but hadn't said anything. He hadn't bothered with conversation with Joe, the wiry man in the next cage, either, not that Joe hadn't tried.
"C'mon, Mike. Just tell me where you took her! I know she's probably dead, I just want to know where to look."
Mike pretended not to hear him.
Kelly shifted positions on the bunk, growing desperate. She had to pee. She hadn't gone to the bathroom since yesterday afternoon, before she left school. If she didn't get a chance soon, she was going to wet her pants.
Kelly hadn't paid any attention to Fred, the animal in the last cage, even when Mike brought him a second tray of food. She'd stayed alert for when this guy Roger would show up, so she could get him to look at Matt. She was really worried about the fact she couldn't get Matt to stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time. Then, when Roger finally had shown up, she lost her temper with him.
Mike came back up the room with the empty dishes from Fred's cage.
"Hey! I need to use a bathroom. Please," she called.
She thought he was just going to continue to ignore her when he grunted and kept walking, but he put the tray down on a table and came back toward the cage, pulling a ring of keys out of his pocket. He took a collar off a hook on the wall opposite the door of the cage and handed it through the bars to her.
"Put this on."
She examined the leather collar. It had what looked like a battery pack attached and a series of metal prongs on the inside—thick enough so they probably wouldn't stab her, but Kelly hesitated. She lifted her eyes, expecting to see Mike's bored face, but instead his eyes seemed lit with anticipation.
"It's the only way you're getting out of that cage. Your choice, though."
Kelly tried to think of a way out, but her bladder felt like it was going to burst. She couldn't wait anymore. Fingers trembling, she slid the collar around her neck and fastened the buckle. Mike chuckled as he glanced at Matt, still weakly supporting himself against the back wall with his eyes closed, then unlocked the door. Kelly stepped through the opening and it clanged shut behind her. Mike slid a small padlock through the loop in the collar that would prevent it from being unbuckled, then stepped back and pointed to a door on the opposite wall.
"Bathroom is in there. I'll give you three minutes. Any longer, and you'll find out what those prongs are for."
Kelly rushed to close the door, trying to unbutton her jeans even before the door was latched. There wasn't a lock. She couldn't let herself think about it right now. She hovered over the surprisingly clean toilet and closed her eyes with relief.
After washing her hands she quickly splashed water on her face and cupped her hands beneath the faucet, bringing a handful to her mouth. It was cool and clean. She wished there was a cup so she could bring some to Matt.
Opening the door, she saw Mike standing with his eyes on his watch. He glanced up as she stepped out, pouting.
"You sure you don't want to take 15 seconds longer? It'll be fun!" he taunted.
Kelly glared and stalked over to the door of the cage. Mike already had the key in the cage door. She crossed her arms and waited while he pulled another set of keys from his pocket. He dawdled, leering as he slowly unlocked the little padlock and undid the collar from her neck. Kelly clenched her jaw, refusing to look higher than his chin. He pushed her into the cage and shut the door behind her with a clang.
She glanced at Matt and found him awake. He still leaned against the back wall, but his eyes met hers. They didn't seem any more focused than they had been.
"He needs something to drink. Something that hasn't been messed with," she said. "Can I please just get him some water from the sink?"
"You're awful pushy for someone with no power," he said.
Kelly turned to face him. She hesitated, biting her lip. She didn't know if it would help or not, but she had to try. "I know what you are. I know about the Shadows, and I know you're a Shade. I know you could tear me apart if you wanted to, so I'm not going to try anything stupid," she said quietly. "Please, just let me get Matt some water to drink."
He paused, one hand rubbing his neck. Kelly could see that he hadn't expected her confession. He studied her face briefly, and Kelly met his eyes directly. With a quick shake of his head, he huffed and strode to the table where he had stored the trays. He picked up a cup and strode quickly to the bathroom, jerking the door open. Kelly could hear water splashing and the cup being filled, then he returned. He knelt down and opened the little door, then slid the cup just inside and closed the door again.
"Thank you."
He met her gaze again without speaking before stalking back to the table. He punched the button for the elevator and disappeared with the trays.
Kelly grabbed the cup and brought it to her nose, sniffing to be sure. Relieved, she hurried over to Matt and sat next to him.
"Here. Try to drink this."
Matt took the cup listlessly. He lifted it to his nose and sniffed, then took a hesitant sip. Kelly held her breath. When he took a long drink, she heaved a sigh of relief. Her relief was tempered by the fact that he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall again, but it was a start.
Joe crawled over to the closest side of his cage and peered in at Kelly, motioning her to come closer before he asked in a low voice, "What was all that you said to him?"
Kelly studied him before answering. "You
said, earlier, that nothing in here is what it seems. You meant them, right? That they can shift into animals?"
Joe stared at her, his mouth gaping. "How do you know that? You one of them, too?"
Kelly shook her head quickly. "No, I'm not, but I've met some like that, before." She didn't think now was the time or place to launch into her experiences. "Joe, what are they doing here? What do they want with us? What have they done to you?"
He glanced around the room, peering past the cages to see if anyone was in the end with the lab equipment. Gesturing over his shoulder, he pointed his thumb at the last cage. "They're trying to turn us into beasts, like them. Fred, here, he used to be a vet, was in the Gulf war. Now, he's some kind of cat or something. But I don't think they done it right, 'cuz he's stuck like that. They been talking about how to get him to turn back but they ain't figured it out, yet." He glanced back at Fred and shook his head. "They had a woman in your cage, before. I think they couldn't get her to change. They gave her something, at the end, made her go stark raving mad. She got real quiet before they took her out. I can't get them to tell me what they did with her."
Kelly watched Matt lift his hand and take another swallow of water. He was probably dying of thirst, she had been, but he was pacing himself. The thought gave her some comfort—he might not be as injured as she had feared, if he was able to think about things like not making himself sick again by drinking too much, too fast.
Joe scratched one arm. Kelly's eyes followed his fingers absently. It was a moment before the bruises on his arm kicked her brain into gear again.
"Wait—what do you mean, that they are trying to turn us into beasts? How? What are they doing?"
In response, Joe pulled his sleeve up to expose his whole arm. It was a mass of bruising; large dark purple and deep red circles layered on top of faded green and yellow splotches, like after a stay at a hospital with an inexperienced nurse.
"They keep taking blood and running tests on it, then they inject us with something, then they take more blood for more tests. I heard that Roger, the one running the lab, talking about DNA and mutations and other stuff." He shrugged, glancing back at Fred again. "He came in a couple of days after me. The woman, she was only here a couple of weeks or so. Roger said something about her being too damaged. She was a junkie, though, so that might've been why. She was detoxing pretty rough when they first brought her in."
Kelly stared at him, cold dread filling her stomach. The woman had been here a few weeks, and she'd been brought in after him? How long had he been here? How long would they keep Kelly here?
Chapter twenty-eight
Kenzy wrapped the bath sheet under her arms and secured it. She shook her hair out of the shower cap and opened the bathroom door, dispelling the steam the heat of the shower had created. She padded through to the bedroom, humming to herself, and flicked on the lights. She had decided, she wouldn't shift for three days. Just the thought of taking a whole three days in human form thrilled her from the inside out. She felt marvelous.
Carl lifted his face from the pillow, squinting at her, then dropped his head again and tugged the pillow over his eyes.
"Kenz, it's too early."
She ignored him. She slid her hands through the arms of a cute little skater dress and pulled it down over her head. She lifted her hair from under the collar and let it flow freely down her back. She was going out shopping this morning. He could sleep when she was gone.
She pulled a drawer open, not concerned about the noise. She withdrew the cropped sweater she had bought to go with the dress and turned to the closet to get her boots out. She'd finish dressing in the living room, just to be nice. She flipped the light switch off on her way out of the room, but didn't bother closing the door behind her.
She hit the button to turn the tv on before tossing the remote onto the coffee table, then sat on the couch to slide her feet into the knee-high boots.
"Again, police are asking anyone with information on the whereabouts of Kelly Griffin or this man to call the tip line."
Kenzy glanced at the screen and froze. Photos of the homeless guy she'd made Carl pick up and the girl who had been with him were on the monitor behind the reporter, with a phone number superimposed on a news-tape running across the bottom of the screen. She stared, an icy sensation spreading through her limbs. Her eyes flicked to the open bedroom door before she fumbled for the remote and managed to turn the volume down.
She quickly found another news channel to see if she could catch more of the story. There it was—the girl was a college student that had run out of gas on her way home last night. Someone at the gas station had seen her talking with the homeless guy, and now neither one could be found. The girl's family was frantic, yada, yada.
Kenzy cursed under her breath and pressed her fingertips to the sides of her forehead, trying to marshal her thoughts. It didn't matter that she had nothing to do with the girl being there, or the fact that Carl was the one who'd grabbed her with the bum, he was going to say this was her fault. Somehow, he always spun things so she was to blame.
Should she wake him, try to get in front of this? Or just shut the TV off and pretend she hadn't heard anything? She groaned, chewing on a nail. Neither of those options was good. If Carl thought she had heard and was hiding it, or didn't know it was important, that was probably worse. Realizing she was chewing her nail, she pulled her hand away from her mouth.
This was Carl's fault. He should have waited for the girl's ride to show up. But no, Carl had to stick to Roger's stupid schedule, so he couldn't wait the ten or fifteen minutes it might have taken to get the guy alone. Well, Kenzy was not going to be blamed for this. He was always telling her how she didn't want to get on the wrong side of the Morganzers, but this one wasn't on her.
She was ready to go wake his lazy head up and tell him so, but a sudden germ of an idea made her pause. She narrowed her eyes, thinking it through. If she went to the estate, now, while Carl was still sleeping, she could get in front of this. Maria had been in the van, and Mike and Maria were both there when Kenzy had asked Carl where the girl had come from. They would know it hadn't been her idea.
Inhaling deeply, Kenzy pressed her lips firmly together and stood up. She needed to make sure she made it to the estate before Carl woke up and watched the news. It would be like him to call while she was on her way and throw her under the bus. She moved lightly to the bedroom door and pulled it closed, careful not to let the latch click as she released the knob. Walking on her toes to keep her boots from tapping too loudly on the floor, she grabbed her cell phone from the bathroom where she had used it to play music while she showered. She opened an app to call for a ride, grabbed her coat, then eased out the door.
She directed the ride to pick her up at the corner. She didn't want to wake Carl up, which she might have if she had stayed inside. She needed to burn off some of this energy, and staying inside, waiting, would have had her pacing like a mad woman. Kenzy snorted. She supposed she could have shifted and flown to the estate, but she hadn't wanted to take her clothes off. She hardly ever got to dress up anymore.
The car glided to a stop at the curb and Kenzy opened the back door. A quick glance at the driver assured her it was the car she was waiting for and she gave him a tight smile as she slid in.
"Pretty day today," he said, pulling away from the curb and back into traffic.
"Yeah." She kept her response flat, then pointedly pulled out her phone and started scrolling. She had no desire to make small talk with this guy. She crossed her ankles but quickly uncrossed them when her top foot started bouncing. The car eased to a stop behind a line of cars at a traffic light, and Kenzy closed her eyes. She did not have time for this.
What if Carl woke up and watched the news before she got there? Would Maria remember that Kenzy had only ever talked about the guy, had never said anything about him being with a girl? Would Mike remember he was surprised to see two people, instead of just the one? Or would they remember things the wa
y Carl told them to remember them? Mentally she cursed the day she had met Carl. If she had known what was good for her, she would have flown off the other direction and never looked back. Unfortunately, her mother was right—Kenzy had never known what was good for her.
Chapter twenty-nine
The chime alerted that the elevator had arrived. Kelly turned to see Roger, Mike, and a young black woman walk through the door. Roger moved toward the lab, while the other two came to the front of Kelly's cage.
"Come on." Mike gestured for Kelly to come to the door. When she didn't immediately move, he said, "if you want Roger to check your friend out, you need to come out of the cage. Let's go."
Kelly squeezed Matt's hand before standing and moving to the door. The woman handed the collar through the bars without saying anything. Kelly lifted her chin and stared at the other woman as she took the collar from her and slid it around her own neck. She fastened it loosely, but the metal prongs still made contact with her skin. The woman's lips twisted, but she didn't say anything. Mike motioned for Kelly to step back so that he could open the door, then reached in to grasp her arm and guide her out.
"Go with Maria," Mike said. He closed the door behind her.
"You said Roger would look at Matt." Kelly didn't move.
She heard the faintest click before her neck seized and twitched, feeling like a dozen bees stinging her all at once. She tried to scream, but her voice wouldn't come out through her tortured throat muscles. She tore at the buckle to rip the collar off, tears streaming down her face, when the stinging stopped.
Maria knocked her hands away from the collar and slid the padlock into the loop. "You don't want to be giving me attitude," she drawled, holding up the remote for the collar. Her eyes weren't sadistic, as Mike's had been, but Kelly had no doubts about whether she would press that button again. Maria didn't bother to grab her arm or even make her go ahead. She turned and walked to the other end of the room, expecting Kelly to follow her.