by Eve Langlais
“Don’t get too used to it. We can only stay here a few weeks before moving on.” Always moving. It was the only way to thwart their enemies.
“Moving on doesn’t mean we have to leave the Caribbean,” Jett remarked from his spot on the towel under the umbrella, hogging the shade. He kept watch on the waves, where his wife swam with the dolphins, her belly big and round.
“It’s too hot,” Luke complained, his nose smeared in a white blob of sunscreen. “And Maggie won’t let me put the air conditioning temperature down in our room because of the baby.”
“Good lungs on that boy,” Jett remarked, which caused Adrian to snicker. They’d all heard the yelling at three a.m.
“I was heating his bottle fast as I could.” In the interest of being an active parent, and helping Margaret recover, Luke had taken over the middle-of-the-night feedings. He was still adjusting to having a son who turned rabid when he got hangry.
“Maybe you should ask Chimera to create a treatment to give you a milk teat,” Jett laughed
The suggestion brought a glare from Luke and a snarled, “Keep giggling it up, big boy. You’ve got two of them coming.”
The reminder sobered Jett.
Adrian defused the situation before it got too tense. “Hey, good news. The babies finally turned human in the womb, eh?” He’d begun to wonder if Becky truly would birth a fish or frog. However, the last ultrasound showed two perfectly formed girls, causing no end of amusement in Becky when Jett started pacing and talking of expanding his gun collection.
From the direction of the villa they’d rented—cash—strode Jayda, who’d joined them not long after they fled Canada. She kept walking even as she shaded her eyes to take a peek at the surfing Marcus. The guy had excellent balance and the right kind of gold locks for beach bum. Whereas Adrian always looked uncomfortable—because the damned sand always ended up in his pants.
Turning from the ocean, Jayda made her way to them, her expression grim. As soon as she got close enough to speak without yelling, she announced, “My dad’s finally surfaced.”
“Yet your expression doesn’t seem happy,” Jane noted. “Is he injured?”
“Nope. Although he will be once I get a hold of him. He’s talking to the press and telling them all about Chimera’s secrets.”
Which wouldn’t end well…for any of them.
The following spring…
Grass had already begun to creep over the rubble left behind by the clinic. If Oliver had not known its location—received via an informant—he might have never found it. It certainly didn’t exist in any databases. No permits were issued for its construction. The land was technically owned by the crown.
Yet for years, a mad scientist had experimented on people in this spot. And not just Adrian Chimera—now missing, hopefully dead. He’d had an army of employees all sharing his vision. Some of them even sharing in the treatment like that Doctor Cerberus, who’d gone public with what they’d done.
Fucking monsters. Those involved not just genetically monstrous but depraved due to their actions, too. Taking innocent people, some without the ability to speak for themselves, and conducting medical tests that were inhumane. Changing them into something else. A few of those poor patients had been recovered. Caricatures of humanity—with a thirst for blood.
All because of one man. One sick, sick man.
But Chimera was out of business now. On the run. Possibly dead, depending on the rumor you listened to. His staff, those that remained, had scattered. Their names and locations unknown. The world ignorant of what they’d done.
Not for long. He planned to expose the evil. But for that, he needed proof. The notes and pictures he’d taken of actual patients had disappeared. Wiped clean off his computer as if he’d imagined it.
Which left only one option. The clinic itself.
It wasn’t easy to reach. He didn’t dare hire a helicopter. That would mean telling someone else before he was ready. He did it the hard way, driving as far as he could with an ATV then hiking. Hiking for days.
However, the grueling trek proved rewarding when he crested that last pass between the mountains and beheld the valley he’d been searching for.
The lake, the remnants of an oval track, a concrete pad used for helicopters. A pile of rubble where a building had once stood.
But the true prize was discovered later that night when he began going through the images he snapped at sunset.
He almost missed it, but something strange caught his eye as he scanned the pictures. He pinched his screen to zoom in. The enlarged image made even less sense.
In the shot, Oliver saw a girl, or so it seemed. Her features were delicate, eyes huge, peering at him from behind the hump of the old clinic.
He swiped to the next picture, too blurry. The next, there she was again, with her big elfin eyes.
And projecting from her forehead…a fucking horn.
Hell yeah, we’re going there. Are you ready for Capturing a Unicorn.
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