Birth of the Forbidden

by Laurie Parten

  "I do not trespass. This land belongs to the mountains, not human hands."

  She rubbed her hand and considered going back. Instead, she took a step forward.

  "Should you see me, you may discover more than you wish. Perhaps returning to that which is familiar would be best."

  Sophia stopped. The speech patterns. Unusual. Her mind clicked and put the pieces

  together quickly. "You’re him, aren’t you? The one I’ve been looking for?"

  "You know not what you seek. What has been done must come to an end."

  He’s the one. Sophia’s heart began to race. Why had she never considered how dangerous he could be? "I can no longer stop it. It has been taken out of my hands," she whispered.

  The figure stepped out from the shadows. All her expectations and hopes of who he

  was fell short. The feline face and hands, the human stance, his eyes. Divine. She took a step closer, a scientific eye wandering over his features. Gray-yellow eyes round—nearly perfectly circular—with slit pupils. Nose flattened and elongated, narrow and attached to the thick upper lip. Fur on his hands, nails pointed like claws. Long, dusky hair tipped black. He was a wonder.

  "Am I all you hoped for?"

  "More," she replied, breathless. "So much more. How did you know I was looking for you?"

  "These mountains and forests have ears, have eyes. I had hoped curiosity would follow its course and end like a childhood dream. So many have been hurt in your quest."

  Sophia trembled, the fear pulsating through every vein. "Do you mean to hurt me then?"

  "I wish you no harm. My only wish is for you to end what you have begun and

  correct the destruction brought by your actions."

  "I only wish it were that simple. The government has moved in. I’m losing more control every day."

  "An answer always presents itself. You will find a resolution. I must go now."

  She reached out a hand without touching him. "Please, don’t. There are so many questions I have for you."

  He shook his head, wild hair moving in luscious waves. "No. Undo what has been done."

  Without another word, he disappeared into the cover of the trees.

  Undo what has been done. Five words that defined the impossibility of the universe.

  Yet he was real, and more than that, he was right. All the dreams and goals—reeled out control, hurting innocent lives.

  The creatures at the labs with needles lodged in their veins, surgical procedures she neither sanctioned nor understood the purpose behind, lack of feeding and clean cages.

  The times she felt followed or spied on.

  Fear didn’t direct or control the journey when she began Telov with Conrad. And,

  she thought as she hurried home, it wasn’t going to dictate what came next.

  Sophia marched to her office and closed the door. Charging through the labs and

  announcing closure wasn’t an option. Too many loose ends and that blasted contract. A course of action was required. A good look at the contract, the most humane means of putting the mutants down.

  A lump formed in her throat as she thought of Sventen and the cheetah girl. Perhaps there was a way to spare their lives. They were healthy, strong, appeared normal. So unlike all the others.

  A knock echoed on the door and Sophia looked up as Bishop walked in, closed the

  door behind him. A vile man the government brought in to do Sophia didn’t know what.

  She’d fired him in a second if she had any say in the matter. She no longer did.

  "I’m sorry, Bishop. I’m very busy."

  "I think I know what you’re busy doing and I’ve come to redirect you."

  Sophia shook her head. "I don’t have time for this right now. Whatever you think, I can assure you, you are way off."

  He sat on the edge of her desk and leaned forward, hands folded in his lap. "I’m not and I think you better start watching where you talk and how loudly. More than trees lurk in the forests."

  Sophia narrowed her eyes. "Are you telling me you had my office bugged? My

  home?" She leaned forward. "Or are you trying to say you’re following me?"

  He smiled, rotting teeth on full display. "You can read between whatever lines you like." He plucked a pencil from the pen holder, twirled it in his fingers then snapped it in two pieces. "You are dealing with the government now. You ought to be wiser. You would lose everything—the labs, your home … even your life."

  Chapter Six

  Sophia’s blood boiled as she glared at the man. A government man as best she could tell, but nowhere close to the suit and tie kind. In her estimation, he did the dirty, under-the-radar errands government officials wouldn’t own up to. Regardless, he didn’t scare her. She met him with cold eyes. "Are you threatening me?"

  He shrugged with a sloppy smile. "Don’t consider it a threat." With a shrug, he dropped the broken pencil on the desk. "Consider it a friendly reminder."

  Sophia jumped to her feet. "Get out of my office. Don’t forget who owns Telov and who you work for. Don’t ever come in here with threats disguised as friendly reminders or I will have you escorted out of the building so fast, your head with spin. Am I making myself clear?"

  "Yes, boss," he said, slowly dragging out the last word into a hiss as a hand knocked over the pencil holder.

  "Get out!"

  He stormed out and Sophia sunk into the chair. Eyes scanned the room. Bugs—was it

  a possibility? And who? The government? Sophia shook her head. So many mistakes.

  Signing that contract, creating the creatures. Not listening to a conscience screaming at her to stop. Sophia rubbed her hand, thoughts turning to the creatures in the lab. In the past month, the experiments have been amped up, by direction of the governmental

  contract. More were to come. Men and women giving up their lives to be faster, stronger, gifted at one skill or another. Sophia picked up a file, stared at the documents inside, laid it down and picked up a second file. Shook her head. She could scour over fifty files and most of them would look the same. Failure after failure.

  "Mixing the DNA doesn’t work," she whispered. A handful of successes didn’t balance out the failures. What kind of life was she sentencing these people to?

  She stood, walked towards the door and stopped. Sventen and the cheetah girl. They were successes. Beautiful creatures. There were a couple others. She must be missing something. A common denominator she missed on the others.

  Sophia shook her head and hurried out of the office to Lab Seventeen. Without

  turning the lights on, she stooped next to Sventen’s cage where the tiger boy lay in the corner. Only he didn’t look like a boy but a tiger cub. A cat. How was that possible?

  "Sventen? How is it…" She backed up, leaned to stare into the cheetah girl’s cage. A young cheetah stared back, hackles raised. The cheetah cub spit with a hiss.

  "You can hiss at me all you want." Sophia sighed. They weren’t successes after all.

  Only a different kind of failure. What had she sentenced these beings to? And what were they? Another sigh. "You know you’ll never escape this cage."

  The tiger growled, hissed.

  "That will do you no good. There is no way out but death."

  The tiger growled, body trembling as the animal let out a plaintiff cry. Sophia

  covered her mouth as the cub bent backwards, fur ripping open to reveal the skin beneath, raw and stretched. The cub’s mouth, caught somewhere between human and feline,

  opened to guttural sounds. A scream erupted from the creature’s throat as cracking bones echoed from the cage. Sophia scrambled back, hand over mouth.

  "H … h … help," the cub pleaded, screamed once more and twisted into a ball of bare skin.

  Sophia swallowed hard, rubbed a hand as pain shot down her arm, pulled in a

  steadying breath. "There is no help for you," she breathed.

  She turned away, struggled to her feet and walked o
ut of the office. Her wants no

  longer mattered. There was no way out for any of them.

  Chapter Seven

  Sophia crossed the yard and paused at the tree line then stepped into the forest. She walked for a few minutes before stopping and circling, searching.

  "Are you out here?" she called into the woods.

  Leaves rustled, wind twisted through the forest as the sole response. She held her breath, eyes scanning the trees and shadows cast by a boisterous sun high above the tallest, dense trees. She suspected he watched from somewhere in the distance, monitored her every move. The one single meeting between them—was that to be the only time she set eyes on such a brilliant, amazing creature? Was that to be her punishment for creating the creatures trapped in captivity in the hidden labs?

  Sophia shook her head and turned back towards the house. "It’s no use. He won’t allow me to see him."

  "You strike me not as a woman who easily turns away from that she which she

  wants. You came to search me out."

  Nerves bristled as she spun with a tight smile. He stood on a gentle slope to the left, crouched next to a tree. The feline quality of his stance captivated her—elegant and powerful even at rest. Beyond comprehension. A scientific mind couldn’t explain

  everything, she was learning, and it was time she stopped trying. "I wasn’t sure you’d be here."

  "Then why did you come?"

  Sophia hesitated. Still time to turn around, go back, preserve the labs. She rubbed her hand as thoughts of Sventen, that precious, gifted boy turned tiger, played in her mind.

  Visions of others trapped in useless tortured bodies. Sophia looked away for a passing moment and shook her head. "I need your help."

  He moved closer and leaned against the tree. "How can I be of assistance?"

  "I," she cleared her throat, "I want to free the creatures in the lab."

  The strength in those hands—she couldn’t look away as he rested one hand against

  the tree trunk, eyes dropping to his legs thick with muscle and slick with personified grace. All the years of waiting—worth every second.

  "I suspect the solution to be a simple one. Open the confines they are imprisoned in."

  Sophia shook her head. "It isn’t that simple, I’m afraid. My labs are no longer in my control. If I open the cages, I’ll be killed and the creatures alongside me before they even make it out of the compound."

  The leonine circled the back of the tree in fluid motion, leapt in front of her. Sophia stepped back, hand to chest as she struggled to slow a racing heart.

  "Some causes require steep sacrifice."

  "Are you suggesting I give my life?"

  He shook his head. "I would never suggest a loss of life. But do you not agree some situations require at least a willingness to give all?"

  Sophia tilted her head to one side in consideration. "What is your name?"

  The smile pulled an awkward front lip away from enlarged canines. "Leonardo."

  She nodded and smiled softly. "Leonardo. Of course. It’s a good name."

  He didn’t answer as he studied her and Sophia shifted her weight. Discomfort was a new feeling.

  "Leonardo, I know now what I did is wrong. Those creatures, even the ones I thought demonstrated what a success this project was, are tortured daily. The government treats them worse than lab rats and," she sighed. "What I’ve done … there are no words. I don’t know how else to make it right. I want the creatures to stage a revolt. Break themselves out of prison, as it were. But they don’t trust me, and won’t listen to a suggestion I make."

  "Perhaps their lack of trust is understandable."

  "I imagine it is." She smiled. "I need someone else to convince to them. Encourage them. Let them know they can survive outside the lab."

  "You suggest I am the someone to make these suggestions."

  "They will trust you."

  "Perhaps they will. Perhaps they will not. Are any of these creatures capable of reasoning?"

  "I believe so. A tiger man and a cheetah girl seem to have very high cognitive abilities. I mean, they can think and reason."

  "Yes, I understand the word cognitive."

  Sophia nodded. "I’m sorry. I, you’re … more than I could hope for."

  He nodded. "The tiger man and cheetah cub. Do they possess names?"

  "I call the tiger man Sventen for the cage number he is in."

  "I venture to guess he does not approve of the name."

  Her brows knitted. "Maybe not. I never considered if he liked it or not." Sophia shook her head. "I shouldn’t have done any of this. I never considered that before, but I have now and I want to fix it. Listen. You don’t owe me anything and have no reason to trust me. Everything I did, I did because I heard stories of you and wanted to understand you. Even a year ago, had we met, I would have captured you, locked you in a lab. Or at least I would have tried."

  "Why the change?"

  Sophia shook her head. "I can’t bear to see any more. I understand now how wrong I was. Leonardo, I want them to be free. Some of them won’t survive, they are greatly misshapen. But others might and they have a better chance than staying in those labs. You might be the only hope they have."

  "What will you do when they are freed?"

  Sophia rubbed one hand. "The probability is that I will be killed by … someone."

  Likely Bishop, she thought. He’d be the man the government would send after her.

  Sophia guessed it didn’t matter who or how.

  "They will hunt down those who survive the escape."

  "There is a high likelihood of that, yes. But there is hope."

  "This hope that you speak of—"

  "Is my daughter. Well, she’s not my daughter, but as close as I have ever come. She’s capable of more than anyone might suspect because I created her that way. Upon my

  death, should I die, she’ll be coming here to settle my estate. Watch out for her. Protect her. And should she decide to stay and fight, if there’s fight to be done, fight with her."

  "You presume much, and ask more."

  She nodded. "Yes."

  He jumped off the trunk and marched close to her. "I will assist you."

  "And you’ll protect her?"

  "I will protect her."

  Sophia nodded. "Thank you." She looked to the trees, eyes focused on limbs and the leaves even as she felt Leonardo move closer.

  "I have agreed to help you, yet you hide something from me."

  She shook her head. "Leonardo, you seem like a gentle soul."

  "I am what I am."

  She nodded with a smile. "I never meant to get attached to any of the creatures at Telov."

  "Yet you have."

  She nodded once more. "They are no longer just experiments. Save them, Leonardo.

  Save Sventen."

  Chapter Eight

  Sophia’s heart pounded in her chest as she shuffled together sensitive documents,

  grabbed the journal and opened the bottom drawer of her desk, pulled out the false bottom, and put the papers inside. Locked the drawer. She glanced at the wall clock and wondered where Leonardo might be. She told him of the service tunnel in the basement, and the hallways leading to the labs where no one knew how to find him. He would

  release Sventen and the cheetah girl, along with the rest of those healthy enough to escape. She hoped it would be a simple escape, no one would notice until after the creatures were concealed by the mountains. That Leonardo would make it out the

  building before anyone realized he existed.

  It was a lot to hope for.

  She stood and walked to the window. Her office was one of the only offices with a

  window to the outside world. A privacy measure which left the labs feeling confined. She wondered why she never felt that way before today. When did everything she had built with Conrad, everything they slaved over, come to represent all she had grown to hate and regret.

  Sophia rubbed
her hand, brows knitting together as her chest tightened and lightened.

  Refusing to give the momentary pain a second thought, she turned from the mountain view and glanced at the clock. Anytime now. It should be any time now.

  She rubbed her hand.

  The security alarm sounded and her heart nearly stopped. He was there and he’s been spotted. Sophia pulled in a deep breath. Leonardo had to get out. He would and take all the creatures with him. Then they would be free.

  Better yet, she would be.

  Sophia stepped out into the hallway. Her office was in the back of the complex, but the gunshots were loud and clear and stopped Sophia’s heart. "No. This can’t fail."

  She broke into a run, aged legs finding a speed she hadn’t used since childhood. The guards came into view and her heart plummeted. A full blown battle. This isn’t what she wanted.

  Leonardo spun, gorgeous hair matted in blood, teeth bared in a snarl as he swiped

  one mighty hand at one of the guards, ripping the man’s chest open, blood squirting everywhere.

  Sophia turned as a hand covered her mouth, dragged her to the nearest hall.

  "You did this to me," the man’s voice growled into her ear.

  Sophia wriggled free, turned to face her assailant. Her eyes grew wide. The military man from one of the most recent experiments. Bear DNA, if she remembered correctly.

  What was his name? Dereck something, she thought. A Marine. Now, blood poured from the side of his face, one ear torn and nearly missing altogether.

  He wrapped a strong arm around her waist and pulled her tight against his body. As she wrestled to free herself once more, something cold in her side became hot.

  Weakness swallowed the strength in her legs and she groaned as he released his grip and Sophia dropped the floor,

  She turned and looked up at the bear-man who had stabbed her side. His eyes narrowed with glee. "You destroyed me and now I destroy you."

  Somewhere behind her, Sophia heard the growl of a wild animal, a cat. She turned

  with a hand clasped against the wound to see Leonardo, poised to leap at the man who stabbed her. Sophia held up a hand. "No, Leonardo. This is my fault. Get them out before more government personnel arrive with bigger weapons and more men. Get them out of here before you are all destroyed."