by Eve Langlais
Rather than protest the nickname—I work with the living, not parts of the dead—Adrian took a scalpel to the taut skin, hoping his research didn’t lead him astray.
The blood was copious, gushing out of the opened uterus, along with the amniotic fluid that was left. A tidal wave that flooded the bed and dripped on the floor. To his credit, Luke remained standing, his expression pale but determined.
A fist found the hole and flailed free, the little fingers bearing sharp nails. Not claws, but still enough human-like enamel at the tips to have caused some damage.
“Impatient, fellow,” Adrian muttered.
Beep. Beep. Beep. The machine indicated an ever-weakening blood pressure in the mother. He had to move faster.
Adrian reached into the flesh, fingers moving past stomach muscle and skin to grip the squirming mass within. He pulled forth the baby, who emerged with a mighty yell.
Junior yodeled with a perfect set of lungs, but Adrian had no time to admire him. “Cut the cord.”
Snip. Luke quickly severed the umbilical, and Adrian thrust the baby at Luke, barking, “Wrap him.” Because he had to save Margaret.
Blood still pumped from her stomach, and while Adrian used one hand to apply pressure, the other scrabbled for something to staunch the flow. A sponge was slapped into his palm, and he looked quickly to see Becky had arrived.
“She’s bleeding out,” he said unnecessarily.
A good nurse, Becky knew what to do. “Stop the flood while I get a blood drip set up.”
Good thing he’d ordered a few pints.
While Becky got the IV going, Adrian dove into the uterus, which was the source of the problem. The baby had shredded it. In places it was almost ribbons. There was no time to ask.
It all came out. Once it was gone, it was a much easier task to stop the bleeding then stitch Margaret up, the scar larger and uglier than it should have been. But Adrian had something to fix that.
Only as he stepped back and uttered a sigh of relief at the stable beep of the monitor did he notice Jane had joined them. She stood watching as Luke handled the baby. The swaddling not exactly tight, which meant parts of the blanket flopped.
Becky bustled around, setting up more monitors for Margaret and another IV for fluids.
Luke eyed him, too afraid to ask.
“I think she’ll be fine, but unfortunately, she won’t be having more children.”
The statement made Luke’s eyes shimmer, the green fire rolling over them and disappearing. “But she’ll recover.”
“She should. The bleeding stopped once I removed her uterus. I’ve had Becky apply a balm that will aid in the healing.”
“You better not have given her one of your treatments,” Luke growled.
“This is perfectly safe, I assure you. Now”—Adrian held out his hands—“let me see him.”
For a moment, he thought Luke would refuse. But he ended up handing over the child, and Adrian felt a moment of awe as he stared down at the hastily wiped face.
Having been born via C-section, the baby didn’t have the strange cone-shaped head often present in vaginal births. It was round. Big. Probably too big to have come out naturally. The eyes were open wide and inquisitive.
“Hello, little man,” Adrian murmured.
The baby fish-mouthed him and kept watching.
Adrian stripped the blanket and gently placed the child on a scale.
“Thirteen pounds seven ounces,” he announced. He then measured the length. A very sizeable twenty-three inches. The baby didn’t cry as Adrian inspected him, rather regarded him with startling green eyes. None of the cloudy blue common in regular newborns.
“Is he okay?” Luke asked.
“So far he’s better than okay. Top percentile for his age, a score of ten on the Apgar. Congratulations on the birth of your son.”
Jane drew near as Adrian stepped aside to allow Becky—crooning softly—to place a diaper on the baby, one that she had to adjust due to the projecting tail, a few inches long and covered in a soft down. But it might have been the full set of teeth when the baby grinned that sent Jane fleeing from the room.
Chapter Seventeen
Running out of the room probably gave the wrong impression. Yet what else could Jane do?
When she saw Adrian holding that child, staring at it with such warmth, she felt a stabbing urge—
Need.
Want.
—for them to have a child of their own. Which was crazy.
Look at the pain and suffering Margaret went through. The child tried to rip its way out of the womb. So much blood. Damage.
If not for Adrian, the chances of the human woman surviving…
But Jane wasn’t human. She could handle a little roughness if it meant having a kid. What about Adrian, though? It was one thing to create monsters in others, but did he want one as his firstborn? Or would it be an experiment to him?
The expression on his face as he looked upon that child, though, wasn’t avarice or even scientific inquiry, but awe.
Which was exactly how a person should look when confronted with a fresh, new life.
You’re just seeing what you want to see. Adrian is evil.
The whisper in her mind surprised, mostly because she thought she’d come to terms with him. Might even be falling for him.
Foolish girl, falling in love with a monster.
If he was a monster, then what did that make her?
He needs to die. You should kill him, urged that insidious voice.
The very suggestion of it brought a frown. Why would she kill Adrian? She owed him her life. And after last night, she was more than ready to give him her body.
Whore. Stop thinking with your cunt. Go back there and kill him. Kill them all and take the baby.
Steal someone else’s child? The very idea was repugnant. And yet it whispered again.
Take the child. They don’t deserve it.
It was in that moment she realized the voice wasn’t her own. And hadn’t been for a while.
“Get out of my head,” she snarled aloud.
Go ahead and make me. I’ll bet you can’t. You’d first have to find me.
The taunt was inside her. She raised her face to the sky and yelled, “Leave me alone.”
Why, when you’re so much fun to play with?
Again, the words teased, but she wasn’t amused.
Who screwed with her head?
The last person you’d suspect.
How long had someone been messing with her mind?
And how could she stop it?
You can’t.
“I’m not killing Adrian, or anybody else,” she boldly declared.
Then you’re of no use to me.
Ominous words. But even more ominous was the prickling of her nape.
She whirled, hands rising and filling with fire, which did nothing to stop the darts that struck her.
She screamed in rage, “Who dares?”
I do. Shhh… Sleep.
The drugs in her system spread lethargy through her limbs, and her lashes fluttered. “No,” Jane managed to mumble before she sank to her knees and knew no more.
Chapter Eighteen
It took a while before Adrian was done in the basement. He monitored Margaret until she woke, dopey eyed but managing a smile when Luke presented their son.
She managed to drink down some reinforced broth—with a bit more of the military-grade healing agent he’d sold to the Russian government for a pretty penny.
He’d run every test imaginable on the baby. Junior passed them all with flying colors. Adrian didn’t say anything to Luke—worried he might freak—but he knew Becky noted the fact the child was much more advanced than a newborn should be. It would be interesting to see if the child aged more rapidly than an unmodified child. Just like he was waiting to see if any other traits would manifest.
Luke had at least calmed down, probably due to Jett bringing down a bottle of booze and insisting on a toa
st.
“To your son,” Jett declared with a glass held high.
“To another Chimera secret,” Luke added with a twist of his lips.
“He’ll have some friends soon enough.” Jett cast a glance at his wife’s belly.
Hopefully there would be many babies. Adrian knew better than to mention his concerns, yet he remained all too aware Becky’s pregnancy progressed nothing at all like Margaret’s. Their children would be vastly different. However, now that they’d managed one successful birth, he worried more than ever about those who’d escaped. Would they begin procreating in the wild? He wasn’t too concerned about them mating with the beasts. What if, though, one of his more volatile patients managed to impregnate a human woman?
The risk to the mother, as evidenced in this birth, was much higher than usual. But that wasn’t the biggest concern. They’d gotten lucky Junior was born with only a tail to differentiate him. The next new generation baby could be born with a fin or horns.
Worried that’s what your kid will look like? taunted his inner voice. Maybe some hooves for the son of the devil? The laughter didn’t help his state of mind.
When Margaret’s eyes drooped again, Luke declared she needed her rest. Before they all traipsed upstairs, Adrian had Becky set Margaret up with a breast pump, the suction pulling at her leaking nipples. With luck they’d fill a few containers with milk. Breastfeeding might be recommended by pediatricians; however, Margaret took one look at her son’s full set of teeth and shook her head. “Like hell is he coming at my boobs with those things.” The decision was made to bottle-feed but with breast milk, if she could supply any.
Peeling off his gloves and changing his bloody coat for a fresh one, Adrian took one last peek at the child.
Junior slept in the incubator, more a precaution than necessity given his temperature was perfect. Everything about the baby was perfect from his ten toes and fingers to his steady heart rate and excellent hearing. He even had the neck control to turn and watch when he heard a sound. Unlike most newborns, he didn’t have a glazed look in his eyes. He stared and focused. Recognized his mother and father and reached for them.
But being born was tiring work, and now Junior slept.
Becky stared down at him. “Will my babies be born this big do you think?”
Standing alongside her, Adrian shrugged. “Doubtful given it’s twins. You, of all people, should know each pregnancy progresses a little differently. What is true in one is not necessarily in another.”
“I’m worried,” she softly admitted.
“As am I,” he said, not able to lie to her. “But rest assured I will do my best to ensure everything goes smooth.”
“It’s kind of scary to know I’m going to be one of the first mothers to a new generation of humans.”
She had good reason to be afraid. Had Margaret not come to him when she had… Luke would be a devastated man right now.
But Adrian didn’t say any of this. Instead, he chose to reassure. “You’ll be fine. This birth, the first of many, is cause for celebration. You might be looking at the end of suffering for all of mankind.”
“Or the beginning of the end,” Jett remarked, coming close. He pointed at the baby. “What are you going to do about the tail?”
About four inches in length, and covered in a soft down, it emerged from the base of Junior’s spine, just above the buttocks.
“I’d say that’s up to Luke and Margaret.” But personally, Adrian thought the child should keep it. Change should be embraced.
Becky went quiet for a moment, most likely to gather her thoughts before saying, “What if my babies don’t come out looking human? Or they can’t live outside of water?”
“Then we will create a place for them to grow where they won’t come to harm.”
“What he means to say is cage them.” Jett glowered darkly.
“It doesn’t have to be cages,” Adrian corrected. “It all depends on how they behave. Which kinds of falls back on you. With the funds I’ve got in an offshore account, we can create a compound, a place where all those who are different can live in peace, protected from the outside world until they are ready.”
“Or they go nuts.” Jett remarked.
“You calling me crazy?” Becky retorted, slapping him in the arm.
“You’re the one dipping frogs in melted peanut butter before eating them.” Jett’s nose wrinkled.
“Says the man who eats powdered cheese puffs made of so much artificial stuff there’s no actual food in them.”
The banter, good natured and full of affection, showed how a couple should be. Could he ever get that with Jane?
As Jett wandered off, speaking in a low murmur to Luke, Becky sidled close and muttered, “Is it me, or are you steadier these days?”
“A bit.”
“Is it because of Jane?”
Becky knew of Adrian’s theory that mating helped ground those who were losing their grip. He shrugged. “Could be. Could also just be that I’ve remembered who I am. What I am.”
“Which is?”
“An imperfect being who loves medical science but still requires the companionship of others lest I forget the true reason a doctor should heal.”
Becky blinked at his strange statement. “In other words, a mad doctor with friends.”
“In essence.”
Becky smirked. “I’m going to tell Jett you like him.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Say what?” asked the man himself as he rejoined them, leaving Luke to clasp the hand of his sleeping wife.
“I was saying we should let the new father and mother get some rest. I have a feeling Junior will keep them busy.” Adrian grabbed hold of the incubator and rolled it closer to the medical bed.
Luke turned tired eyes on him, which brightened at the sight of his son. “Thank you.”
Sincerely said and possibly even finally forgiving.
Adrian’s throat tightened. “I’ll just be upstairs if you need me.” He left the basement with Jett and Becky, in dire need of the bar upstairs and a slug of something that burned on the way down.
Only after his glass was refilled did Adrian finally sigh and lean against the credenza. Jett sat on the couch, Becky snuggled at his side. Only Jane was missing. Probably gone back to bed.
As if she’d stick around for you, boyo. She probably ran far and fast.
So what if she did? He was done making choices for people.
You should care. She’s dangerous.
Yes. She was. One of the reasons she drew him. As to finding out if she was here or gone… Time enough to discover it. He had more pressing issues now that the baby had been delivered.
He broached the security system issue. “You could have warned me you were taking the security system down to let Luke in.”
Jett frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t you shut it off?” Adrian straightened. “I assumed you’d done it remotely since Luke called you first.”
“Done what exactly? I punched in like normal when I arrived.”
“You might have, but I didn’t get any notifications. Doesn’t appear as if any of the outdoor sensors are working. System was lit up in green lights, and yet Luke managed to make it up my driveway in a car and right to my door without a single alarm going off.”
“Impossible.” Jett sprang from the couch and headed for the laptop on the desk. After a few minutes of typing, he pointed at the screen. “According to this, everything is active and functioning.”
“Let’s test that, shall we? Check the log and see if it registered you arriving.” Adrian tossed back another shot of booze and then refilled, unable to halt a glance down the hall at the closed bedroom door. Was she snuggled in bed? Naked perhaps…
If yes, why the hell was he still out here?
He set the glass down. “I think I’m going—”
“Fuck. Shit. Mother humping piece of garbage.” His usually placid right-hand man cursed a
storm.
“Speak to me, Jett. What happened to my security?”
Jett’s lips turned down. “The system’s been hacked hard. From what I can tell, it’s just running green lights and empty video feeds of previous days. It’s a sophisticated scam.”
“In other words, not a glitch.” Adrenaline returned to push the fatigue away. “We should get ready.”
“For?”
“Attack. Obviously, someone wants us vulnerable.”
“Don’t you think they would have attacked before now?” was Jett’s dubious reply.
Adrian shook his head. “No, now makes the most sense. They know the baby’s been born, the mother stabilized. Everyone is tired and relaxing. It’s the perfect time to make their move.”
“Who, though?” Jett asked.
“Doesn’t matter. Something is coming. Grab what you need and get yourselves ready to leave.”
“Where are you going?” Jett asked as he Adrian moved toward that closed bedroom door.
Tick. Tock. He’d soon find out if she was behind it.
“I’m going to get dressed. Give me a second.” He entered his room and was glad no one was there to see the disappointment that surely marked his face.
The bed gaped emptily. The sheets still rumpled, the faint hint of sex still in the air. No Jane.
She’s gone, boyo. She hates you.
He wouldn’t believe that.
The bathroom door loomed wide open. The glass on the shower door showing it empty. Still no Jane.
You should have chained her up. Like a dog.
No.
Why not? You did it to everyone else. For their own good.
The words stung with their truth. I only ever wanted to help.
And yet he kept sending people running from him. Those that returned just wanted to kill him.
Not everyone. Luke was downstairs and had trusted him with his child. Jett and Becky had never left his side. Even Jayda had convinced Marcus that Adrian wasn’t too bad of a shit.
But those were only a handful of people who didn’t want him dead.
Your enemies are legend. The snide cackle only pressed his lips into a grim line.