by Eve Langlais
No recognition lit his gaze. Rather the hybrid formally known as Christopher opened his mouth wide and honked. Not exactly the noise expected. Possibly why the man lost the battle. The more animals added to the mix, the more a host had to fight to remain on top.
It could be done. He had pets who’d gone on to do well. Like Luke, the bastard who’d escaped.
But he’ll be back. They always came back.
“Are you alone, Christopher?” Adrian didn’t dare move his gaze from the threat. Because he didn’t for one minute harbor any foolish thoughts about what Christopher wanted to do.
The returning patients only ever seemed to want one thing.
“Care to join me?” He gestured to the water.
Blargh. The thing advanced, a strangely jolting walk on two legs that wobbled almost spaghetti-like.
“You never did say if you came alone.” Because Christopher was one of those who’d recently escaped. “Was it you that figured out how to open the locks?” An impressive feat, given the patients were placed in glass-like cubes with holes only for ventilation. Nothing big enough for a limb. Yet they’d all escaped.
Christopher gripped onto the hot tub and finally went to all fours, clinging to the edge, wary of the bubbling water.
“You should have run away,” Adrian said sadly with a shake of his head. He didn’t understand why only some of those who escaped succeeded. Why, oh why was he a lodestone for their return?
Christopher leaped. In a smooth motion, Adrian pulled himself from the water, drew the gun hidden under the towel folded by the side, and shot the hybrid.
The body hit the water, which immediately foamed red. So much for further soaking. The tub would need to be drained. Adrian poured another glass of whiskey before he dialed.
When the other end answered he said, “I require a cleanup.”
“Another one?” the voice replied.
Second one this week. And still seventeen projects on the run.
Chapter Three
“I think you better check the news,” Jett declared the moment Adrian opened the door for him the next day. He’d first checked his cameras, his paranoia starting to get the best of him. The slightest sound made him twitch.
“Why would I watch the news?” Adrian asked with a roll of his eyes. He’d lost interest in politics when it became a party-line-split fight on every issue. As for the weather, a finger stuck outside was more accurate than those imbeciles.
“You need to watch, because I think the media found someone.”
“If one of my missing patients is making waves and getting caught on camera then they won’t be loose for long.” The men in the black suits would be along to subdue them in short order.
“Yeah, I know that, but I think when you see who it is, you’ll want to catch this one yourself.” Jett knew where the television was. His right-hand man—and only friend—visited almost daily to check on him. Funny how Adrian used to want someone around to protect him at all times and now relied on himself. Killing quieted the voices for a little bit.
“Do you know who it is?” Adrian asked, sinking onto the couch.
“Yup. But you’re not going to believe it.”
Jett changed the channel and found the local news station playing a commercial of course.
While a car zipped in the background showing someone fancy driving in a way contrary to laws and regulations, Jett grabbed a water from the fridge.
“How is your wife?” Adrian asked. Jett and Becky hadn’t known each other long; however, they’d bonded. Deeply. Especially after she became a hybrid mermaid. The marriage came after she got pregnant and the hormones kicked in. Who knew having tadpoles in her belly would make her so emotional?
Poor Jett had a preacher flown out the same day he caught her crying by the lake about being an unwed mother and their children being born bastards.
Adrian got to be the best man, which was a shocker. And Cerberus gave Becky away.
It had to be the strangest wedding in history, especially since Becky spent it with her feet submerged in a tub of water.
The commercial flipped and screamed about how insurance was screwing him out of his money.
Jett ignored it. “Becky’s good. But she’s getting some weird fucking cravings.”
“It’s normal. All pregnant women get them.”
“Chocolate-covered flies or grasshoppers would be normal. Live frogs are not.”
Adrian blinked at the news. “I thought she liked her meat well done.”
“Not anymore.” Said grimly.
Interesting. He’d have to check and see what aquatic strain she carried in her DNA. Appetite regression was uncommon in those maintaining their human façade.
The news logo flashed on screen, and Jett turned, raising the sound as the announcer came on.
“A blazing inferno on Main Street was thought to have a casualty today when a woman was seen walking into the burning building.”
The image on screen changed to a shaky video of a burning brownstone, the flames billowing from the windows. The smoke pouring into the sky. From the crowd a woman appeared.
Stark naked.
Even without the nudity, she was striking. Her hair long was auburn with a hint of curl. Her flesh like fine porcelain and laid bare to everyone’s view. The shapely woman paid no one any mind as she walked straight into the burning building.
The announcer returned. “That woman never exited, and moments later, there was an explosion.” The view changed once more to the building. Kaboom. “Jesus. Bleep. Bleep. It blew up!” The frantic yelling went with the shaky video displaying a building broken, the top of it shooting flames into the sky, a wider pan showing debris on the ground.
But Adrian didn’t focus on the destruction. Instead he forced a whisper. “Is that…” He couldn’t say it.
“Jane?” Jett shrugged. “Sure as fuck looks like her. But that’s impossible. You said she was in the condo when it blew.”
“She was.” Adrian flung himself from the couch. “That can’t be her. Did they find that woman’s body?” Because they never did find Jane’s when all the sifting was done.
“Nope. But—and here’s where you might want to jump onto the internet—turns out this is the second time someone’s seen a redhead around fires in the last week.”
“It can’t be her,” muttered more to convince himself than Jett. Adrian fetched his laptop and began searching. The videos proved easy to find. Three in total it turned out. Three videos of a woman going into a burning structure, an explosion, no woman coming out.
Could it be her?
He studied the grainy images from every possible angle but never got a clear one of her face.
Jane or not, he had to get his hands on that woman.
Which was why he packed a bag later that day and, along with Jett, embarked on the long drive back to the city he’d just abandoned. Calgary, Alberta.
The scene and start of so many of his crimes. Accomplishments, too.
Back when he was still in a wheelchair, growing more and more dependent on aid every day, he used to study at a small college. A private facility that had long since shut its doors due to unethical practices.
Not his practices, he should add. Although, had they known what he and Cerberus did in their lab… It wasn’t just the ethics boards that would have gotten involved.
But they never even suspected. That tiny college was where he first met Aloysius Cerberus. A South African scholar who’d fled his country’s turmoil for a new life. A new chance.
With Aloysius’s steady hands and quick grasp of biology and using Adrian’s brain, they created the first remedy.
An utter failure. The mouse they gave it to died in minutes. As did the next dozen after that, despite all the tweaks. And yet, they didn’t get discouraged.
Well, Aloysius didn’t. Adrian, though, was desperate.
“I don’t understand why it’s not working.” Adrian couldn’t pace. Hell, he could barely hold a d
amn spoon anymore. His time was ticking.
“Their bodies keep rejecting the tweaks on the chromosome strings. We need a better delivery system.” It was Aloysius that gave Adrian his light bulb moment.
Rather than try and modify existing broken genes, Adrian chose another route. Introducing new genes, already existing animal ones. The delivery system a secret he’d concocted. Aloysius was his hands.
And they finally had their first success. Kind of. The mouse with paralysis regained the use of its limbs.
Meanwhile Adrian lost the ability to move his arms.
“Give it to me,” Adrian begged Aloysius.
“I can’t. It’s still in the testing phase. We haven’t yet studied any possible side effects.”
Adrian didn’t give a fuck. He was degrading fast now. “Please. Help me.”
A good thing Cerberus was as in love with the science as he was. He injected Adrian. The pain proved incredible.
Aloysius catalogued it all, especially the fact Adrian not only regained control of his hands but his legs, too. Adrian kept on taking small doses, then larger ones, getting more confident with each injection.
He became living proof that the cure worked.
But, like many medications on the market, there were side effects.
Chapter Four
“The boss is fucking nuts,” Jett confided to his wife when he called her that night from his room adjoining the luxury suite Chimera had booked for their stay.
“That nut job is the only person that might be able to help me when our babies come, so don’t let him get killed.”
Legend might claim mermaids were also sirens, luring men with their beautiful voices. In Becky’s case, it was a deadly promise. His gentle Red had turned fiery.
And he liked it.
“You’ll be fine.” Something Jett prayed for every day. He just hoped someone actually listened, because in the case of the people he killed… Yeah…they never got rescued.
“I heard from Jayda today.” Cerberus’s daughter had formed a bond with Becky and kept in touch.
“Any news about her father?”
“Still missing. But some idiot tried to go after her again. Marcus apparently ate him.”
“Jeezus.” Jett rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Hope he didn’t get indigestion.”
Becky giggled. The only sound in the world he lived for. “I think I didn’t chew a frog good enough the other day, and it wiggled going down.”
“It’s a good thing I love you, Red.” Because anyone else he’d have shot for being weird. “Other than your desire for Kermit, how you feeling?”
“Good. But I spent most of last night in the pool.”
Which had to be cold. The heater had died last week, and he was waiting for a part.
“Have you seen anyone loitering?” He’d left her guarded by a pair of guys he trusted, but given the recent kidnapping of Cerberus and his daughter, he worried. He wouldn’t have come with Adrian if she hadn’t insisted. Someone had to keep an eye on the one guy who could handle the babies in his wife’s belly.
“I’m fine. My friends are watching out for me.” Friends that refused to come near Jett because they were different, like his wife. Chimera didn’t know about them. Jett thought of them as his secret leverage should things get difficult.
“I should only be gone for a few days.” Long enough for Adrian to track down the chick who looked like Jane. Once upon a time, Jett would have said it was impossible for a girl in a coma to walk away from a condo that blew up. Then he met Adrian Chimera.
“What do you think Adrian will do if he finds her?”
What would any man do if he found the woman he’d crushed on for decades? “Hopefully get laid.” Because the boss could stand to relax a bit.
“Jett!”
“What? It’s the truth. He is seriously uptight these days. Ever since he lost the lab and all his patients, he’s been acting weird.”
“He’s always been weird.”
“How about weirder? I don’t know if he’s as in control as he likes to claim.”
“It’s a daily struggle.” He could almost see Becky’s shrug through the phone. “You still getting that coffee with your old friend later?”
“Might as well. We’re both in town for once.”
“Be careful.”
“Never!” he exclaimed with a chuckle. “Call you later.”
He hung up and checked on Dr. Chimera, who—no surprise—wasn’t sleeping after all but on his phone. Jett pointed to his mouth, then his watch, and flashed ten fingers three times.
The boss nodded.
Half-hour would be all he needed.
The coffee shop was only two blocks away, and when he walked in, Jett saw the person he was meeting right away. Sitting out in the open, brazen as could be.
Jett shook his head as he made his way toward him. “You know, if Chimera hears you’re in town, he’ll send out a team to take you in.”
“I’d like to see him try.” Luke didn’t look bothered at all. The escaped patient appeared better than Jett had ever seen him. Tanned, healthy looking, with a full head of hair and a beard. Then again, what would you expect from an ex-patient the guards had nicknamed the wolfman?
“So why did you want to meet?” Jett asked. He still wasn’t entirely sure how Luke got a hold of his number.
“I hear your wife’s pregnant.”
The words might have chilled Jett’s blood, but he still slid into the chair opposite the man. “Twins. Twice the fun.” Twice the guns if they were girls. Wasn’t no boy going to be laying a hand on his princesses.
“Margaret is due any day now. I think.” The mask slipped for a moment, and Jett saw the worry and fatigue pulling at Luke’s features.
“How is that possible?” Margaret shouldn’t have been more than five months or so along.
“Fucked if I know.” Luke shrugged. “Needless to say, it puts us in a bit of a pickle.”
Jett didn’t believe in beating around the bush. He trampled it. “You want Chimera to help with the birth.”
“I don’t. At least I didn’t, but…” Luke sighed and drummed his fingers. “She can’t have the baby in a regular hospital. Heck, even having a midwife attend is too dangerous.”
Because the child might not be human.
“You’re too late. Maybe you didn’t hear. Boss man doesn’t have a clinic anymore.”
“I know.” Luke frowned. “I didn’t expect them to attack.”
Jett cast him a sharp glance. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You behind the shit that happened at the clinic?”
“Kind of.”
“Explain.” Jett leaned back and crossed his arms as he glared at the fucker who’d caused so much trouble. He’d told Adrian to shoot Luke back when he first started his shit. Boss should have listened.
“About two months after we escaped, Margaret got really sick.”
“This is when you were living in the jungle?”
Luke’s lips twisted. “Yeah. You were probably still monitoring us then.”
“Boss was. But then he lost you.”
That brought a smirk. “I never even knew he’d chipped me.”
“How did you get rid of the tracker?”
“I didn’t. I had help. See, Margaret caught a fever. I thought it was some weird tropical thing. But she began losing weight. I got worried and brought her to a doctor I found living in a remote part of jungle. Sven something or other. He was a biologist doing some kind of study. He had a full lab in his house.”
Jett could see where this story was going. “You let a human doctor examine her.”
“I didn’t have a choice. Margaret was so sick.” Luke’s expression turned haunted, the memory clearly still bothering him. “I killed Sven once we figured out it was a vitamin problem. Not enough iron in her diet. What I didn’t know was he apparently sent details about Margaret and me to someone else.”
“Shit, you got captured.”
; Something akin to embarrassment flitted across his face. “I thought we’d be safe for a few days. There was food. A bed. Running water. All the comforts she’d been lacking. I just wanted her to get better. They arrived before we cleared out.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know. A bunch of guys with guns. Because of Margaret, I couldn’t fight. They took us prisoner.”
“And you told them everything.”
“Not at first.” Luke stared at the tabletop, a man torn about something. “But they were good. The guy they sent in, he was so fucking nice and normal. He treated me and Maggie like gold. Like we were important. He was the one who told me about the trackers in our bodies. He used some kind of EMP pulse to deactivate them.”
“You thought you could trust them.” Jett’s lip curled.
“No. I wasn’t that stupid, but they used my worry about Maggie and the baby against me. They said something wasn’t normal. But they couldn’t help without knowing more. They said she needed a special doctor. Someone who understood what was happening in her body.”
“You told them about the clinic.”
Luke’s gaze met his. Sharp and cold. “I didn’t say shit about Chimera’s fucking lab. Hell, I didn’t say shit about what was done to me, but they knew. And they knew how to get me to talk. They stuck us in cages. They made Maggie cry.”
Given how Jett felt when Becky sobbed, he could understand why Luke spilled his secrets. “How much did you reveal?”
“Not everything if that’s what you’re wondering. They already knew about us, though. Had Cerberus’s name. Knew he was a doctor there.”
“They kidnapped him when they attacked the clinic. We lost a lot of good men.”
“Good is debatable. They were part of the secret.”
“They were innocent.”
“Cerberus and the other doctors aren’t.”
Jett canted his head. “Maybe not, but now he’s gone. The clinic has been destroyed. Every single fucking patient is either dead or in hiding. And here you are. Why?”
“I told you why. I need Chimera.”
“And I’m supposed to believe that?” Jett arched a brow. “You’re a traitor. For all I know you called me here as part of a trap.”