Hidden Gem

by Lissa Kasey

  Shane could hear the sounds of the city that Paris passed on his way to them. Aki didn’t stir, but Shane got him cleaned, carefully dragged him off the bed and onto a clean pile of blankets, and arranged him on his stomach to ease the pressure of the wings.

  “So how many of these things worked?”

  “That’s just it. None of them. Misaki would be another sign that it didn’t work, and yet they did. His health shows that their main goal was achieved. Would he be impervious to the plague? Maybe. But the wings and talons mean it was a failure, because he wasn’t supposed to change. His psi eyes and ability are another mark of failure.”

  “So if they were transported to the ISS, where would they be now? Where were these tests done?” The linens were ruined. Shane piled them up and put them in a garbage bag to be trashed. He found Aki’s pretty red bikinis and slid them back on him. He removed the shoes and hose and pulled a pair of sleep pants on Aki, hoping to keep him comfortable. There was nothing he could do about a top. Not with those wings. At least Aki seemed to be resting peacefully. Shane knew about the pain from the change; he’d experienced it monthly for the last forty years. When he awoke his skin would ache and he’d be hungry. That sort of blood loss would need a lot of protein to replace it. But Shane could help Aki with his if that’s all this was.

  “A facility outside of City J. It’s not an active facility anymore. Just run on a skeleton crew of security.”

  And City J was really damn close to the Southern border. “Is there a way to check to see if all the AP experiments are still there?” It would explain a lot of things. Shane knew Aki wasn’t hurting anyone. But what if Aki wasn’t the only AP project that found his way to freedom? “How many were there? Five, ten? A hundred?” Those talons would certainly make claw marks like the ones at all the crime scenes. And if the wings actually worked….

  “I don’t have answers to any of those questions,” Paris said quietly.

  Shane stroked the white feathers. They were soft like a real bird, but beneath them was a hard core of muscle and bone. If Aki spread them out, he’d probably touch both walls of the huge master bedroom. They had to be heavy, but they twitched every once in a while. Maybe Aki was dreaming. Shane hoped it wasn’t anything bad.

  “I’m downstairs,” Paris finally said.

  “Miles, let Paris in and only Paris. Your guards stay outside.” Shane wasn’t going to take any chances. He hoped that having Paris’s familiar voice could pull Aki back if they needed. Who knew how Aki would respond when he woke up. Shane recalled his first change and how it still gave him nightmares. But he’d shifted and begun attacking the others like himself for the chance to feed on the dead. The memory still made him sick.

  Paris appeared in the doorway as Shane was moving Aki back to the bed. “Your computer system says his vitals are good. We just have to wait for him to wake up and hope he doesn’t panic.”

  “Stay close to the door in case you need a quick exit,” Shane said. “If he comes at you, just run.” Panic was the least of their worries. Shane didn’t mention that if Aki had truly turned A-M he’d be incredibly hungry and willing to kill others on sight after his first change. It took years for Shane to learn to control the beast, to have food ready, and to not destroy everything in his territory. He’d probably survive if Aki attacked him, but Paris wasn’t quite so unbreakable. “If he wakes up.”

  “This is Aki we’re talking about. If he truly is from the AP project, he’s virtually indestructible.”

  “Why wings?” Shane sat so he could have Aki’s head in his lap and a firm grip on his shoulders in case he happened to awake a bloodthirsty monster. “Is this a crossbreed of some eagle or something? I know only the predatory strains worked.”

  “When the psi strain is mixed with the A-M strains, it always manifests with wings, doesn’t matter which strain it originally was. No one knows why. Nature’s way of saying ‘Fuck you’ for messing with genetic codes, maybe. That’s why it was called the Angel Protocol. They looked like angels. Or at least that’s what I read.” Paris shrugged and leaned against the wall, looking a little irritated that there was so little furniture. “Love what you’ve done with the place. The blood is so slayer-flick chic.”

  Shane just glared at him. He stroked Aki’s hair and kept glancing at the vid screen in the corner that Miles was using to convey Aki’s vital signs. Everything looked solid: heart rate, blood pressure, brain activity. So why wasn’t the psi waking up?

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  AKI DREAMED of the meadow again. He ran along quietly, the beast that chased him before gone. Instead he jumped from tree to tree, gliding through the spaces like he had wings. He smiled at the warmth of the sun on his skin and the clean air surrounding him. He vaguely recalled his back hurting for some reason. It still ached slightly, but he couldn’t remember why.

  The sky above swirled with bright, angry colors. Clouds fierce and shifting. It reminded him of Candy.

  He leapt from another tree only to have the one in front of him vanish. Instead it became an all too familiar wasteland. The broken buildings and memories. That last day still haunted his nightmares. And just like that he was back there. He landed on a steel table. His head throbbed, and his back ached. The room was silent of human activity.

  All the lights were on, and even the machines beeped like they were still working. Had there been an alarm? Aki couldn’t hear anything from the camp above him. Usually there was the sound of footsteps or the scurrying of rats through the walls. Only everything was eerily silent.

  He slid off the table and cringed as his feet hit the cold floor. Where were the guards and the doctors? He tiptoed to the door and nudged it open. It only moved an inch or two. Aki put his weight against the door and shoved. Finally it moved, and as he stepped through the doorway, he saw the body of a guard who’d been beside the door. There was nothing left of his head. Two others by the door and beyond that a room of doctors were all the same. Aki stepped lightly through the pooling blood and gore, his heart in his throat.

  Was this a memory, or was he really reliving it all again? Why did everyone around him die?

  He made his way up a hidden stairwell to the main level and camp. The fire no longer burned. Strange, since it never went out. Bodies lay everywhere—doctors, guards, detainees, and rats. Aki thought of Hyeon and where he last saw him, then rushed to the crumbling hovel that had been his home for two years.

  Nothing moved inside. The faint light from the door proved they were all dead too. A heap of unmoving carcasses with vacant eyes glittered in the dark. Hundreds of bodies huddled together for warmth were now just piles of ragged corpses. But Aki had to know where Hyeon was. Had he escaped this horror somehow? Aki moved around the bodies, searching faces, until he finally found the one he dreaded.

  Hyeon lay beside the far door, less than five feet from freedom if only he’d survived whatever had attacked them. His dark eyes stared blankly up at the ceiling. Blood stained his ears, nose, and lips.

  Aki stumbled away, tripping over another body and landing heavily against the far door, which swung open. He slid to the ground, tired and defeated. Hyeon was dead. What did he have left?

  He lay on his back for a moment, staring at the swirling sky. It was so off. It’d never been that bright before, always black, no stars or sun. But overhead it churned with bright yellows, golds, and reds. Candy-colored clouds.

  Candy? How had he forgotten his friend so easily? It wasn’t over. He’d gotten out, created a new life. Made himself a new family. Aki reached for his friend like he could somehow stretch his hand through the clouds. He felt the weight of the necklace around his throat, a cool grip that carried him to his friend. And then he was dropped into a body, one that wasn’t his own, as it didn’t feel natural. He struggled to open his eyes. His brain was slow and body heavier than it should have been. Hyeon stood over him, knife in hand, look of contemplation on his face.

  Aki tried to struggle, but his limbs weighed a ton. They were i
n a small white room, and the stench of death covered everything. Across from him sat the remains of a dead boy. Probably a male, at least. There wasn’t much left intact to recognize as human, just bones, some rotting muscle. The shoulders were wider than a girl would normally have. Aki gagged.

  “Hyeon,” Aki whispered, but the voice was Candy’s, not his. Was Hyeon going to hurt his friend? He sought his friend’s mind for any trace of Candy, but found nothing but swirly clouds. How had he gotten there? Where was Claudius? “Don’t.”

  The man paused. “I never told you that name.”

  “It’s me, Hyeon. Aki. Whatever you’re doing, stop. Let Candy go. He’s my friend. My best friend. Don’t take him from me.”

  Hyeon smiled. “I don’t believe you. You’re very smart, Cameron. I’m surprised you’ve woken from the drugs already, but if you’d rather be awake while I cut, that’s fine. I already had practice with your clone. Thought he was you. Should have known you wouldn’t be that easy to catch.”

  Aki struggled, feeling the limbs yield a little control to him. He was tied down, ropes tight enough to cut off circulation. “Let him go, Hyeon!” Aki screamed at him. “Don’t you dare hurt him. I will find you, and you’ll regret it.” Aki would rip him apart with his bare hands if he had to. He would not lose his friend. He fought the sluggishness of whatever drugs Hyeon had pumped into Candy and struggled against the ropes. “What do you want from him anyway?”

  “A test, then.” Hyeon gave him a teasing smile. “The tumors make him forget often. If this is really you. You and I are linked, bound by unbreakable genetic ties. You could track me to the end of the earth. Sadly, I was not so fortunate. You always were superior as a test model. Things took with you that they couldn’t get to work in anyone else.” He patted Candy’s face. “My perfect angel. You have ten minutes to find me before I start cutting your friend. Please hurry. I’ve waited far too long for you.”

  “I’m right here!”

  He shook his head. “In the flesh. I’ve missed your lovely face. I heard you’re on a date with that detective tonight. That you will let him buy your contract. The boy, Royce, is a horrible gossip. But you’re mine, Aki. Not that policeman’s.”

  “You were dead, Hyeon. Was I not supposed to move on?”

  “Convenient that you know so much. I still don’t believe you’re Aki. Now hurry before I start cutting this one.” He tilted the knife close enough that Aki watched it come toward his eye. “I always take the eyes out first.”

  “Stop. Stop!”

  “I’m waiting!” He slid the edge of the knife down Candy’s arm. A thin stream of blood pooled up from the wound. “This is your last warning. Tick tock.”

  Aki screamed in frustration and let himself drop backward, falling from the sky and plummeting toward the earth. Wings spread wide just moments before hitting the ground, and he flew free of the past, the memories, and the waking dream straight into Shane’s bedroom. Only he didn’t have time to explain, console, or bargain. The second he returned to his body, he was flooded with anger. He tried to reason through it. He had to find Candy before it was too late. But rage, bloodlust, and a need to kill a certain old flame poured over him, drowning out everything else but the need to avenge.

  SHANE KNEW hell was about to break loose when Aki opened his eyes and the biohazard symbol decorated the pale pupils. He had a half second to brace himself as Aki smashed his way upward a flurry of wings and claws. Shane took a set of deep gashes to his left arm and a right hook to the chin that had him seeing stars.

  “Fuck. Paris, get in the bathroom and lock the door.”

  Paris darted across the room, but Aki caught his movement and swept toward him. Shane lunged at Aki, taking him around the waist to let Paris slip by. But Paris wasn’t moving fast enough, and Aki hovered like some avenging angel of fury. The thud of his wings hitting the walls made Shane’s chest ache with worry. He felt the fire of his change rising up, offering help as well as violence. He let it flow over him, accepting the pain as it warped and changed him, reeling it in before it was complete, to take the shape that so few A-Ms ever achieved: half-man, half-beast.

  “Go,” Shane snarled at Paris, his voice turning to a growl as the former companion finally disappeared behind the closed door of the bathroom.

  Aki shook Shane off, turned, and slammed into the window, which cracked but didn’t yet break. He didn’t stop, wings moving nearly too fast to see, smashing into the walls, knocking over furniture, and breaking everything they touched. It didn’t seem to matter that blood oozed from many wounds on his wings. Shane watched him ready himself for another assault on the glass. The pane was supposed to be bulletproof, but apparently not A-M-proof. Blood stained the glass. Aki kept pounding himself on it. Webs of splinters crossed the glass, warning that it would not take much more.

  “Aki, stop!” Paris called as though somehow his voice could reach through the madness. He peered out from the doorway. “Shane, stop him. Sweet Goddess. He’s going to kill himself.”

  Aki swooped around, wings an art of grace, claws extended toward Paris. Shane threw himself into Aki. The psi’s claws dug into him, but Shane kept pushing them away from the door. His momentum sent them careening into the big window, which held for another second before shattering.

  Shane had a moment of weightlessness. The trail of wind coming off Aki’s wings gave him hope that they wouldn’t both drop three stories. But as they sank, Aki relaxed his grip. Shane was too heavy. It was either let go or drag them down.

  He tumbled, watching as Aki hovered for a moment before his wings gave a heavy flap and he rose up above the building. Shane hit the ground a moment later, bones snapping and stars exploding around his sight. He lost the world in a white hot flash of pain.

  Paris appeared above him, shaking him. Shane blinked up at the sky. Had he lost time? Where was Aki? Oh fuck, he hurt. “Where’s Aki?” Shane demanded.

  “Flew away. I don’t know. We have to get you off the street. People will see.”

  “Fuck that,” Shane growled. He didn’t care anymore. All he could see was Aki throwing himself at the glass, attacking only when they called for him. He was after something else, not the normal hunger that controlled the beast. If he’d truly been A-M, both Paris and Shane would be dead. Damn the government for doing this to him. The government wanted to keep them safe with all their secrets and conspiracies. He was done with it all.

  Shane sucked in a deep breath. The smell of Aki’s blood filled his lungs. His beast roared forward with pain and fear. His mate was hurt. He had to find him. He just wanted Aki back. He rolled over and shifted the rest of the way, letting his body heal the damage from the fall as it changed him to the wolf. It took only a few seconds to shake off the pain, as he’d done it a thousand times before.

  The hard part about this form was keeping his head. The beast wanted basic things, food, shelter, and its mate. The feeling of having a mate echoed through the core of him. No longer alone, said his soul, both beast and man. He trailed Aki’s blood and took off following fallen white feathers.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  AKI DIDN’T know where he was going, just that he was pulled in a certain direction. He felt Candy, a vague swirl of clouds in his mind. Distant, weak, but alive. He followed Hyeon as though they’d been connected through a livewire of festering emotion. Anger and pain directed him in a rising lava pool of nasty sentiment.

  The closer he got, the more he lost focus. He ran into a tree, clipped a wing on a house, and even tumbled over a fence. His former lover reeled him in, and with each step it burned. Pain seared through his skull. Pressure built with memories begging to be released. He hovered over the house for a moment, puzzling as to why it looked familiar. It was a townhome like the eighty others surrounding it.

  He didn’t bother knocking on the door. Instead, he smashed through the patio glass and stepped inside, wings folding around him in a shield of downy feathers, strong muscles, and bone. He followed the smell, rage eating
at him as he descended into a basement, a white room with drains in the floors, thick concrete walls, steel tables, and shelves of nasty mementos, including several pairs of eyes staring back at him from liquid-filled jars. All with the eerie light-colored pupil. It was a bit like coming home to hell. Back to those rooms below the camp where he’d been tortured.

  Aki moved as though he walked with tunnel vision, edges of his sight marred by swirling lines. He should have been happy to find Hyeon alive. Only the man wanted to strip him of something very important. He’d hurt Candy. And something in his gut reminded him that you didn’t let people harm those you loved.

  Candy was strapped to a chair, unconscious, bleeding lightly from the cut on his arm, but otherwise unhurt. Aki scanned him, reading vitals, heart rate, blood pressure, brain activity. All came up as natural to him as breathing, like he was some sort of machine. He registered a half dozen drugs in Candy’s system, recognized them all as having experienced them before.

  Hyeon smiled, a sardonic twist of the lips that looked wrong on his handsome face. A tiny memory of that smile from long ago flitted through Aki’s head. Out of place, as he couldn’t recall ever seeing that smile while they were in the camp. No, it was before that. Further away. The memories blocked by something.

  “You really did come. In all your glory. I haven’t seen you so perfect since they took you away from me at the facility. That fire in your eyes. The rage. I’ve felt that a thousand times. Every time they separated me from you.” Hyeon stepped close and pulled Aki into his arms. His touch trickled memories over Aki, but nothing strong enough to grasp. “How I missed holding you while we slept. Touching you in the twilight hours before the guards came. Tell me you missed me, and we’ll leave together. We’ll find some place made for just you and me. No more governments, no more tests.”