“Yeah.” The man leaned back on the couch. He ripped his other arm free and then stretched his arms behind him and rested them on the couch’s frame. The ropes continued to dangle from his wrists like a hangman’s noose gone wrong. His arms were so long, they extended the length of the sofa. His gaze flickered between us again, that predatory gleam still there, although his body seemed entirely relaxed.
The twins’ features had returned to normal. Both had crossed their arms. Their faces twitched. It was obvious they were no longer manipulating the man’s emotions, although they appeared to be discussing him telepathically.
I breathed a sigh of relief. At least the man wasn’t violent. Of all the ways I thought this guy would act upon waking in a strange house, out of a lab, over a thousand miles from the facility he grew up in, especially after how violent he’d been initially – this was not it.
“But don’t you have questions or something?” Mica blurted. “I mean, seriously, dude. We just broke you out of a subterranean research facility that you spent your entire life in. Isn’t this the first time you’ve seen daylight?” She waved toward the floor to ceiling windows and the beautiful mountain desert.
The man glanced at the view. “No.”
“So you weren’t always kept in that cell?” I asked.
The man shook his head. “They let us out sometimes, on experimental excursions. I spent several months a year outside running.”
“Running?” Mica raised her eyebrows.
“With the wolves,” the man replied.
Wolves? Um sure, why not. “You’re saying they let you go free?” I said.
The man’s gaze hardened. “Not really. They tracked me so they could watch and study me.”
“Why did they want to watch you with wolves?” Amber asked.
“I can turn into one.”
For a moment, everyone was speechless. Then Mica said incredulously. “You’re a werewolf?”
“No, there’s no such thing as werewolves.”
“But you said you can turn into one,” Mica persisted.
The man shrugged. “You can call me a werewolf if you want, but that’s not technically what I am.”
None of us said anything for at least ten seconds. The silence was so thick it felt like solidified pudding. Father was the first to speak.
“Your drug was manufactured with lupus DNA.” Father’s eyes widened as recognition filled his face. “You’re Luke!”
The man nodded. “So they say.”
Amazement filled Father’s face. “You were around eight years old the last time I saw you.”
Luke’s head cocked. He studied Father and then all of us. “So you really did take your entire group when you escaped?”
Father nodded. His cloud once again grew heavy with guilt. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t take all of you. There were too many.”
Luke took a deep breath. “I thought about you all for a long time after we heard some escaped. I wondered where you went and what happened to you.”
“If I could have come back for you, I would have,” Father said.
“I know you would have,” Luke replied. “You were the nice one.”
Everyone grew quiet again. It wasn’t until Amber spoke that the silence broke. “How did you know I could smell things?”
Luke shook himself, his sad expression disappearing. “I told you. It’s up here.” He tapped his head again.
Amber let out an exasperated sigh. “But what does that mean?”
“I can read into people, see things about them. I can see that you’re all different, like me.”
“Like mind reading or something?” Jasper asked.
“Kind of like that,” Luke replied.
I shifted my vision. Luke’s brightly colorful cloud appeared. I wondered which color represented the drug that gave him his psychic abilities. Perhaps several of them did. I snapped my gaze back to normal.
Jet crossed his arms. “But what does that have to do with you being a wolf?”
“It doesn’t. It’s another alteration they made on me when I got older. The others they gave that drug to died.”
Uneasy expressions sprouted on everyone’s faces. Once again, I was reminded of how horribly cruel Project Renatus was.
“If you could see into us, why did you fight us when we tried to get you out of O’Brien?” Jasper asked. “Couldn’t you see we were there to help you?” Jasper held up his arm, displaying the ugly bruise that had formed from where Luke grabbed him.
“You woke me out of a sound sleep. Haven’t you heard that saying, Never poke a sleeping wolf?”
“I think that’s a sleeping bear,” Mica replied tartly.
Luke shrugged. “Same thing.”
I nodded toward the other two who were still sleeping. “Do you know them?”
“Yeah. We’re all that’s left.”
Di crossed her arms. “What are their names?”
“Edgar and Susannah.”
“Can you tell us anything about them, so we can help them when they wake up?” Di asked.
“That one,” Luke pointed at the Brit, “he’s part otter, and she’s part eagle.”
Jet’s head snapped back. “Eagle?”
The woman sleeping on the couch was so waifish and benign looking. If I hadn’t seen her in action, I’d have assumed she was completely docile.
“Yeah,” Luke said. “Don’t piss her off. Her fingers can turn into talons and she knows how to use them.”
I cocked my head. “Then why didn’t she claw us when we tried to take her from the warehouse?”
“Drugs. They drugged all of us every day so we couldn’t Change, but those drugs are wearing off now.” Luke grinned. “See?”
We all turned. The woman’s eyes were open. Cobalt blue irises blazed from her thin face. She bolted upright. A sharp scream emitted from her mouth. It was ear piercing, like the scream of an eagle. She lunged from the couch, her hands up, fingers growing into talons as I jumped back.
I tripped over the coffee table, falling to the ground.
She leaped right at me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I blasted her with an energy ball before she landed on me. I didn’t think about it. The ball formed the second I knew I needed one. That had never happened before.
The woman shot across the room and smacked into the wall before crumpling into a heap on the floor.
My mouth dropped. What have I done?
In a flash, Flint stood in front of me, blocking me from the woman. Protecting me. Always protecting me.
Energy poured off Flint. It was so hot, I could almost taste it. It was crazy how in tuned I was becoming to the energy fields around everyone. Lately, I didn’t need to switch my vision to harness the fields. I could feel them. When we first met in August, it was no wonder nobody had ever noticed the energy off Flint. I hadn’t known at the time that it was my ability that allowed me to feel it.
“Are you okay?” Flint asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I got to my feet.
The woman still lay on the floor. I cringed. I hoped I hadn’t hurt her.
“That was impressive.” Luke no longer sat on the couch but stood over me.
I had to crane my head up to see him. He was taller than Flint. Huge shoulders lifted when he put his hands on his hips. I could only imagine how big of a wolf he made.
“Thanks for the warning,” I muttered.
“No problem.”
Luke walked over to Susannah and picked her up. She was small and emaciated, reminding me of how I’d looked during my homeless days. She didn’t appear healthy and apparently didn’t weigh much either, or perhaps it was simply Luke’s immense strength. Luke looped an arm around her waist and carried her back to the couch.
Father hurried to her side. He checked her head and back. She didn’t appear to be bleeding.
“Is she okay?” I asked.
Luke shrugged. “Probably. She gets knocked out a lot. She’s used to it.”
Father frowned at Luke’s words. “I can’t find any obvious injuries. We’ll have to see how she feels when she wakes.”
Di crossed her arms. “Any suggestions to keep her calm when she wakes again?”
“Nope,” Luke replied. “You’ll probably have to restrain her. That’s what they did in the lab.”
He spoke of everything at O’Brien so candidly and calmly. I couldn’t tell if it was a coping mechanism or if the way they’d grown up wasn’t as traumatic as we’d all feared. He did say he ran in the wild several months a year. Granted, he was monitored the entire time, but still, he’d been outside and free. Surely, that helped, at least a little.
“Do we need to worry about him?” Jet pointed at the other guy.
Edgar was the smallest male in the house, which didn’t mean he was small, by any means, since the twins were built like wrestlers and Flint and Luke like Mack trucks, but he was the shortest. His ebony skin was clean and smooth, however. He seemed much healthier than Susannah.
“No, he’s usually pretty calm,” Luke replied. “Especially if you get him in water. That settles him right down if he’s riled up.”
We all sat back down, everyone on the edge of their seats, bodies tensed. Jacinda kept eyeing Luke. She’d been strangely quiet since he woke.
A little while later, Edgar and Susannah roused again. This time, however, we had the woman restrained. Edgar merely glanced around warily, pushing back into the sofa as he groggily opened his eyes. His gaze grew narrow and confused as he scanned the room. When he saw Luke, his tense shoulders relaxed, at least a little. He cleared his throat.
“Are you gonna hurt me?” he asked warily, his words lilted in a strange accent.
Di’s face softened. “No. We’re here to help.”
FIVE WHOLE DAYS passed with all of us living together. Since Father didn’t want us leaving the house, it gave the twelve of us plenty of time to get to know one another.
Each day we scanned the Chicago news for details on O’Brien. Since nothing was reported on Marcus on any channel, we knew that he lived. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. While I didn’t want murder on my conscience, I also knew that Marcus would never let us live in peace.
The official report hadn’t been released on the explosion. It would probably be months before that happened, but so far, there was no mention of our names or pictures of us. I could only hope it stayed that way.
As for us adjusting to Luke, Susannah and Edgar – in a way, it was like living in a different country. Some of the behaviors and customs of our newest family members were completely foreign. Regardless, we slowly adjusted to the addition of them. It was strange, living with people who were part animal.
I’d often watch Susannah. She seemed to like spending her time on the balcony, perched on the railing. Literally. She’d hop onto it, her toes lengthening into talons as they curled around the railing to keep her in place. She’d sit like that for hours, smelling the breeze, cocking her head at unnatural speed when she seemed to detect movement below. Even though she’d sit like that with only her toes transformed, her behavior was clearly anything but human.
A few times she transitioned into a bald eagle. I never saw the actual transformation, but she was hard to miss once she was flying. For one, she was huge. Her wingspan had to be at least twelve feet. She dominated the skies. Smaller birds and vultures disappeared when she soared above. She was breathtaking to watch.
Luckily, her aggressive anger when she’d woken initially in the living room was short lived. Once Luke explained to her what happened and who we were, she calmed right down. She wasn’t exactly loquacious, however. For the most part, she kept to herself and would spend hours outside listening to sounds and smelling the fresh desert air. Sometimes I’d catch a smile on her face. She seemed content, like all she ever wanted was to be free.
It made me wonder how much human was left in her and how she would ever live in society. Given how she acted right now, it didn’t seem likely she would ever fit into the normal world. But that was a problem we would have to solve another day.
Edgar on the other hand, seemed more human than otter. Luke was right about the water. Edgar took baths a couple times a day, spending hours at a time in the tub. Apparently, he wasn’t allowed to do that in the warehouse, but since he could do as he pleased now, that was where he chose to spend a lot of his time. He said it made him feel calm and happy.
“Like a ‘lil kid a’ a candy store,” he said with a smile.
Another strange thing about him? He spoke with a cockney accent. None of us knew why. Luke would shrug, saying Edgar had always been a bit peculiar. Apparently, being British was the nationality Edgar decided he identified with after watching Mary Poppins as a little kid.
As for Luke, he had asserted himself into our group like he had been with us from the beginning. Of the three we had rescued, he seemed the most normal and our only hope of learning anything about O’Brien. Neither Susannah nor Edgar would talk about Marcus, Albert or the pharmaceutical company. The few times we tried to talk to them about it, they had shut down like virus infected computers, their faces blank and quiet. Father instructed us to not ask them again. He felt their psyches were fragile. I had to agree. Too much added pressure and one of them could crack.
Thankfully, Luke was not fragile. When we asked him about Marcus, he got growly and his eyes flickered, but he still answered all of our questions. From what he told us, Marcus was still actively involved in Project Renatus. However, there was no talk of kidnapping new children. Apparently, the new CEO of O’Brien Pharmaceuticals didn’t share the beliefs of his father, the man who’d been CEO when Father, Marcus and Albert began the project. The current CEO forbid any further progression of Project Renatus. It was the only reason Marcus and Albert hadn’t continued kidnapping and experimenting on more children over the years.
“So it was just Marcus visiting you for the past few years?” Di asked one night.
It was dark out. I craned my head to look out the dining room window. Susannah was on the balcony again while Edgar was down the hall with Amber watching a movie. The rest of us sat around the dining table, getting more info out of the werewolf. Even though he wasn’t a werewolf, that’s what all of us had taken to calling him since he didn’t seem to mind. It was certainly easier than calling him a genetically enhanced lupine male or whatever Father had said Luke’s file was labeled.
Luke nodded. “The other ones, three guys and a woman, stopped coming to the lab years ago.”
Father rattled off who those people were. “They were all in Marcus’ group. They were his assistants. So as Project Renatus became dormant, fewer and fewer researchers were allowed into the warehouse?” Father asked Luke.
“Yeah, at least from what I could gather. For the past few months, there were only two guards with us. There used to be more. It seemed with each passing week, fewer people came in.”
“What about Albert Darlington?” Father asked.
“Albert who?”
“The man in charge of the elemental group?”
“Oh, that guy. He disappeared years ago after his entire group died. Those kids were given more drugs than any of us. None of them could hold up to them.”
Father paled. With shaky fingers, he pinched the bridge of his nose.
Since I barely remembered anyone from the other groups, I didn’t actually know who had died. Father, however, did. For all I knew, he had helped find those ten kids that Albert had experimented on.
“When…” Father cleared his throat. “When did the last…child die in that group?”
Luke scratched his chin. A few days’ worth of stubble coated it. It sounded like scratching sandpaper as he rubbed his cheeks. “Hmm…had to have been at least ten years by now. Weren’t there only seven or eight kids left in Albert’s group when you disappeared w
ith your group?”
Father nodded. “Two died in one month after Albert gave them all the same drug. That’s when I knew I needed to get everyone out.”
Luke’s eyes flickered. “The rest died within a year or two after you left. Albert kept drugging them.”
For a brief moment, a memory came crashing back. It was of Flint and me watching Breaking Bad in the barn behind our cabin in the Forbidden Hills. It was a recent memory. I’d been nineteen, Flint twenty-three. Father had bought all five seasons of the show for us to watch. Scratchy hay rubbed against our limbs on a warm summer night as we cuddled in front of the laptop. We had been on season two, and the episode was about the little redhead boy, living with his drug addicted parents in their filthy home. His parents would leave him for days at a time as they combed the streets for their next hit.
Images of that filthy boy swirled through my mind. Perhaps that was how we lived before Father kidnapped us from our neglectful, abusive parents.
I hated the word, kidnapped. It made what Father did sound so vile and evil. Father was anything but that, although Marcus and Albert seemed to represent those words quite well. But still, who knew how any of us would have ended up – living in circumstances like the ones we were born into. I often thought about it. What kind of adults would we have been? Drug addicts too? Inflicted with horrible mental illness from all of the horrific abuse we’d have suffered? Perhaps brain damaged or heavily scarred from the physical blows our parents had dealt us?
It didn’t justify what Father, Marcus and Albert had done. They had stolen us and drugged us. There was nothing noble about that. In a way, it was simply exchanging one form of abuse for another. I shivered as I remembered those cold underground rooms in the subterranean level. Our deplorable homes above ground had only been exchanged for cold ones underneath.
However, it had been Father’s hope that we would all have better lives. All thirty of us. Not just those of us in his experimental group. If Marcus and Albert had not been so bent on forming the perfect drug, if they had been more interested in helping the children under their care flourish into healthy, capable adults with enhanced abilities, it could have turned out so much better.
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