by Wild (lit)
I was shocked to hear she had planned this to draw me out of hiding so she could get me to give her the real serum, the one she didn’t know didn’t exist. She and her husband had willingly endangered innocent people just to get to me so she could get the true fountain of youth. I blamed myself for not having guessed something sinister was going on. I should have known better. But the depth of evil some people were capable of still surprised me sometimes.
“So your husband is having you do his dirty work?”
“Don’t worry, I enjoy this part,” she sniped.
“What made you think I was still alive?”
I tried to keep her talking so I could think of what to do to save Annette. She could barely stand now and I could see her eyelids flutter.
“My father never believed you’d kill yourself. You were too ambitious and selfish.”
She looked at Annette, who she still had in her grip.
“But I keep chatting away here, while your girlfriend is getting worse and worse,” she said sarcastically. Her tone suddenly became icy. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll keep your precious little girlfriend here and you’ll go get the real serum. No tricks. And to make sure you don’t palm some useless liquid off on me, we’re going to try it out on her. Don’t even think about involving the police. She’ll be dead before they can break down the door. Don’t worry about me. I have another way out.”
She winked at me.
I had no choice but to leave Annette with her, but I wanted to make sure she knew what would happen if she harmed her.
“If she dies, I’ll destroy the serum and you’ll never get your hands on it. And then I’ll hunt you down and kill you with my bare hands, and I’ll make sure I’ll take my time with it. It’ll be a long and painful death.” I meant it. I turned my attention to Annette. She was semi-conscious.
“Angel, I know you can hear me. Trust me. I’ll be back for you.”
“How cute,” she bristled sarcastically.
I wanted to snap her neck, but I knew she would shoot me first and then there would be nobody to save Annette. I couldn’t risk it.
I love you, Annette. Hold on, please hold on.
I was full of fury when I ran to my car and jumped in. I could feel my body transform, but I fought it back, just like I had fought it back in the lab when she had confronted me. The thought, that Annette was with her made my blood boil.
I raced through the streets, weaving in and out of traffic without much regard for anything. I knew people would be cursing me. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered to me but Annette. She didn’t have much time. I raced into the garage and ran into the lab. I jerked open the fridge and pulled out a tray of vials.
I took two of them and started mixing them like I had previously with the help of a syringe, then pushed the liquid back into one of the vials. I repeated the process with the next two vials, so they both would have the identical compound in them.
I looked at the clock. Time was ticking away. I knew she wouldn’t want me to bring in my instrument bag thinking I would try to smuggle in a weapon, so I didn’t bother. I stuffed a fresh syringe and the two vials into my coat together with a tourniquet and band aids.
There was one more thing I needed to do. I logged into the computer. Using one of my many stolen logons I logged into UCSF’s system and pulled up floor plans on facility management’s server. I needed to familiarize myself with the layout of Entwhistle’s lab. I knew that a few years earlier the University had undertaken some renovations in the area. Mrs. Entwhistle had mentioned she knew of another exit and I was sure she wasn’t lying. Frantically I searched through the blueprints. Once I had found what I was looking for I sprinted back to the car and drove off.
I hit Market Street and instantly knew I should have avoided it. A bus had broken down and was blocking the lane. I didn’t care that the police were stopping everybody. I honked and drove onto the pavement, narrowly avoiding a few pedestrians. I raced along to get around the bus.
I could hear a police siren behind me and sped up. My rear view window showed me that the police car was a couple of blocks behind me. The needle of my speedometer reached sixty and passed it. I turned into the next street using my hand brake to make the tight turn. I could smell the rubber burn. I had full confidence in German engineering and knew the car could take the tight corners without flipping over.
A few turns further and I had lost the police car and raced up the hill approaching UCSF’s Parnassus campus. I stopped the car outside a side entrance and ran out. I didn’t bother locking it.
She was waiting for me in the lab. I saw immediately that Annette was worse. She lay on the floor, unconscious. I ran to her while she watched me like a hawk, and kept the gun pointed at me. She stood several yards from me, so I wouldn’t be able to lunge at her without giving her a chance to fire at me first.
“Welcome back,” she greeted me.
I didn’t say anything, but touched Annette’s face. She was burning up.
I pulled out the first vial and prepared the syringe, then applied the tourniquet to find a vein in Annette’s arm, pulling it tight around her biceps.
I steadied my hand when I inserted the needle into her arm, then released the tourniquet and pushed the liquid into her. I pulled the needle out and prepared for what was to come.
I kneeled on the floor, taking her into my arms. Then the spasms started and she screamed. From the corner of my eye I could see how Mrs. Entwhistle stared at us in shock, but she didn’t move and kept pointing the gun at me.
I pressed Annette close to my body to absorb some of her pain, but the spasms which ripped through her body were violent, and it nearly tore my heart out to know the pain she had to go through.
“This better be working,” I heard her snipe behind me. “Or you’re both dead.”
I glared at her while I kept my angel in my arms, hoping it would be over soon. It seemed like an eternity until she finally fell still. I checked her pulse immediately. It was coming down and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Rebecca had watched me and seen my relief and knew Annette would be fine.
“The serum.” She demanded.
I had the vials in the palm of my hand.
“Put them on the floor and push them over here.”
I did as she said. She picked them up without lowering the gun before making her way to the door. She stopped and turned a handle to a pipe near the door. I heard a whooshing sound like some air escaping.
Before I knew it, she had snapped off the handle.
“Thanks and enjoy the last few minutes together.”
She went out the door and slammed it shut behind her. I heard the sound of a bolt, and knew she had locked us in.
I looked at the door and knew instantly it couldn’t be opened anymore. I could immediately smell it: she was releasing gas into the lab. She wasn’t going to let us live. I had expected as much.
Annette was still unconscious. I scanned the room. There was only one window. I checked it. It backed up to another building and there wasn’t even enough space for a cat to squeeze through the gap.
I smashed it nevertheless to give us a few extra seconds of air. There were pilot lights in several of the instruments in the lab which would make the gas ignite eventually even if we didn’t suffocate before. One way or another, we would die.
I recalled the floor plans I had been so familiar with and had refreshed my mind with just minutes earlier when I had been back at my lab. I knew there had been an elevator before they had remodeled the place.
I opened the closets. I looked at the awkward layout of the lab and tried to superimpose the floor plan in my mind. I knew UC always did things the easy and cheap way. Instead of spending the money to remove an old elevator they would just build a closet around it. There was a corner which shouldn’t have been there, so I opened all the closets around it, ripped out the shelves and pushed behind it. There it was: the old elevator. I pressed the button to call the elevator an
d prayed UCSF hadn’t spent the money to disconnect the systems. My prayer was answered. Immediately I heard the sound of the elevator moving. Unbelievable!
I picked up Annette and held her tightly in my arms before squeezing through the space I had created to get to the elevator door.
“We’ll make it, I promise you,” I whispered to her.
The elevator doors didn’t opened even though I could hear that the cab stop at our floor. I propped Annette against the closet wall to have my hands free. With all the strength I had I tried to pry the doors open, but they didn’t move. Panic shot through me. I couldn’t do it. The University had obviously disabled the floor so that nobody would accidentally try to get out where there was no exit.
I could feel my anger rising and I suddenly knew what I had to do. In my mind I recalled the terrible things Entwhistle and his wife had done, the danger they had put Annette and Carmela in. It made my blood boil, and suddenly I could feel my transformation coming.
As soon as my claws appeared I tried the doors again and with the added strength my power animal provided me with I was able to pull them open. I quickly picked up Annette and jumped inside, pulling the doors closed behind me. I was on the ninth floor. I pressed the button for the first floor, hoping an exit would still exist somewhere down there.
The elevator moved. We passed the sixth floor, the fifth, then the forth, when I suddenly heard a loud bang. I knew what it was. The lab above us had exploded. I pressed the third and second floor buttons instantly hoping the elevator would stop at either one.
When the shockwave hit us a second later, I could feel the elevator shake. It stopped suddenly. Slowly one door opened partially. We were almost at floor level. There was enough space for me to squeeze myself holding Annette tightly to my chest.
I jumped and landed on my feet. Annette was still unconscious. I was glad about that.
As soon as I had touched down, I heard a ripping sound behind me. I turned and saw the elevator come loose and fall.
I oriented myself. I was on the second floor. I ran through the corridor looking for the exit. When I found it, I pushed the doors open, triggering a fire alarm in the process. I sprinted to the car, put Annette on the back seat and sped off. As I drove I felt my body relax and transform back.
I knew I couldn’t speed through the street with her on the back seat so I drove toward Twin Peaks and pulled off behind the reservoir, where I brought the car to a stop and switched off all lights.
I jumped into the back seat and picked her up to cradle her. I kissed her face. I felt her ice cold hands and knew I needed to warm her.
I pulled out a blanket from under the seat and spread it over us. I rubbed her back with my hands and could feel the warmth starting to come back into her body.
“Stay with me, angel. Don’t leave me.”
I kissed her face again, and held her body close to mine, so she could soak up the warmth coming from my chest. I knew she needed to get warmer. I briefly pulled her away from my chest, opened my coat and undid the buttons of my shirt. Then I placed her against my naked chest and wrapped the blanket over her.
Her hands and her face were like ice against my warm chest, but it didn’t bother me. I needed her to soak up my heat. I continued rubbing her back, until finally, finally she stirred.
“I love you, angel, I love you,” I whispered to her. I looked down at her and saw her eyelids flutter. She was gaining consciousness. My angel was back.
I continued to let her rest against my chest. Her eyes opened.
“Vince,” was all she said, before I felt her lips pressed against my skin. Nothing had ever felt better in my life than those lips against my naked chest.
I held her. That was all I wanted to do.
She lifted her head and looked at me. “I’m so sorry.”
I put my hand underneath her chin. “You have nothing to be sorry about. It was my fault. I should have been more careful. Please forgive me.”
“There’s nothing to forgive.” She pulled herself up to move her head closer to mine. “Please kiss me,” she whispered.
I was gentle when I lowered my mouth onto her lips. She felt so breakable. I didn’t want to hurt her. Her body was still aching, I was sure. She surprised me with the fierceness with which she kissed me, and I realized then that she had also been scared, scared she would lose me, just like I had been scared to lose her. I understood the hunger in her kiss all too well. She didn’t want me to hold back. She needed to feel that I was with her, that I was still hers.
I felt her hands stoke my naked chest and didn’t stop her. She had the right to touch me whenever she wanted to. I would never stop her again. Her heart was beating fast, but for once I knew I didn’t need to worry about it. Her heart was beating for me.
She wanted to be touched. I could feel it by the way she moved in my arms. I slipped my hand underneath her sweater and found her breasts. She moaned softly as soon as my hand started caressing them. I loved touching her. It was the most natural thing I had ever done. Her body responded to every touch, every motion. It made me dizzy to kiss her and caress her breasts and feel her touch my chest, but I didn’t dare let go of her. I didn’t want her to think I wanted to stop. I wanted it to be her choice when to stop, or not, if she didn’t want to stop. I didn’t care. I just wanted her to be happy.
21. Annette’s Plot
I felt like a high school girl smooching in the back seat of his car with him. I wondered whether he felt like being back in high school too.
I welcomed his hands touching my skin and I didn’t want him to stop kissing me. Quite unexpectedly his hand which had caressed my breasts moved to my pants, opened the button and pulled the zipper down.
“Relax, my angel, I’m going to take your pain away,” he whispered to me in between kisses.
He started taken my pants down and I helped him. I couldn’t believe what he was doing, since he had always been the one to hold back and show caution, but when he had started kissing me I had felt something else. I had felt he didn’t want to stop, he wanted to give me anything I wanted, he was grateful I was alive. His kisses had been filled with such desperation, such pain I knew he didn’t want to let go of me ever again.
When he slipped his hand inside my panties and pulled them off me, I knew I was already wet long before his hand even touched me. I gasped when I felt his fingers explore me. I could feel him slowly probing until he slid one finger inside of me while he continued to stroke my clit with his thumb. He rhythmically moved back and forth, responding to every movement of my body.
“I love touching you,” I heard him say and his voice sounded almost as if he was drunk.
I was breathless from his kisses and his touch. I couldn’t respond. He didn’t expect me to, because he didn’t let go of my lips.
Under his expert hand I could feel the excitement build in me. His passionate kisses only intensified the emotions he awakened in me.
I sensed how my body became flushed, how the blood rushed through me while he continued touching me in all the right ways, as if he knew my body better than I did.
I couldn’t hold back the overwhelming feelings I had for him, the warmth and pleasure I felt under his caress, the thirst and hunger he satisfied with his kiss and touch. He was everything I wanted and needed, and he knew it. I couldn’t hold back anymore and felt how he drove me to the edge until my body exploded in an orgasm of epic proportions.
He looked into my eyes and smiled.
“There’s nothing better than an orgasm to forget pain,” he stated.
I knew I blushed. But he was right. I had completely forgotten the pain from earlier.
He chuckled. “Get used to it, because I’m going to make love to you until you beg me to stop.”
Now I chuckled. “I won’t beg.”
I didn’t want to stop kissing him, so I didn’t. His lips were gentle and warm and I soaked him up. His hand went back to my breasts caressing them softly almost as if he was playing with t
hem.
When he finally stopped kissing me, I rested my head on his chest. “Can we go home?”
“I’ll need to check on something first.”
“What is it?” I looked up at him.
“Mrs. Entwhistle is going to be really pissed when she finds out what I gave her.”
“But didn’t you give her your antidote? You gave it to me.”
“Do you remember I mixed two different vials when I first gave you the antidote, and then when I gave it to Carmela?”
“Sure.”
“Well, this time I brought the vials with me premixed. What Mrs. Entwhistle doesn’t know is that once the two components are mixed they are only effective for about two hours, before they break down. All she’ll have is some useless saline solution.”
I smiled and gave him a hug. “I’m so glad you didn’t have to give up your antidote for me.”
He made me look at him. “You know I would have given it up for you, had it been necessary, don’t you?”
I nodded. I knew he would have given up anything for me. “I love you.”
He kissed me. “Let’s see whether we can go home.”
He opened a compartment behind one of the back seats and pulled out a laptop. Once he had booted it up and checked for an internet connection he logged into his server and pulled up his home security system. I was fascinated.
“You can see your security cameras from here?”
“Yes.” He turned the laptop so I could see it better. “I can see everything that’s going on. I’ll just run through the last couple of hours to see if our hiding place has been compromised. I wouldn’t want us to run into another trap.”
He scanned the footage.
“Vince, once she realizes the serum is useless, she’ll try to find us again. We will have to stop her.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“I have an idea.”
“Uh, oh.”