by Natalie Grey
“Simply let me know how I can best assist you,” Gomez requested eagerly.
“Which floors are security locked with electronic doors with round handles?” Hsu asked him.
“I’m...” The administrator’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“Electronic doors will allow us to keep the doors locked even if keys are used,” Hsu explained, making sure to sound annoyed. “And round door handles are impossible for a wolf paw to manipulate. Do you intend to ask questions at every step of this process, Administrator Gomez?”
The administrator gulped. “N-no.”
“Chief Administrator Zhang is asking you to make sure that your personnel will be safe,” Stephen explained, in his deathly quiet voice. “While we have confidence in our abilities to extract the experiments, the fact remains that Wechselbalg are inherently dangerous and the experiment has been shut down for a reason.”
At this, the administrator puffed up his chest. “We had been making enormous strides at this facility. I believe that we would have fulfilled Mr. Marcari’s mandate, if—”
“You do?” Hsu swiveled the chair to stare at him. “And would you stake your reputation on that, Mr. Gomez?” She deliberately left out his title. “Or are you simply saying it because you know the program has been shut down and you will never be asked to prove it?”
Gomez gulped again.
Hsu stood up and gestured imperiously to the phone on the administrator’s desk. He hurried over and gave the order for everyone to withdraw to Floor Eight.
“Send me a confirmation as soon as you have the correct count of employees, and we will make sure the doors are sealed,” Hsu announced.
“Yes, ma’am.” The administrator bobbed his head nervously and hurried to the door.
There, he turned. “If I may—I know I shouldn’t ask questions, ma’am—but if—well, that is to say, what will happen to the Wechselbalg?”
Hsu’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. It was a moment of humanity she had not expected from the man. She decided to confirm, just to be sure.
“In your opinion, what should happen? You have worked with them for some time.”
“I simply don’t think it’s safe for them to be released,” the man replied reluctantly. “Obviously, it would be terrible to suggest execution, but...”
“But?” Stephen asked delicately. Hsu could see the rage beginning, deep below the surface.
“But I cannot think of any other option, save lifetime imprisonment. They would surely hunt down the staff of the facility—they are not, after all, without intelligence.”
“Thank you for your recommendation,” Hsu managed. She could feel her heart beating fast with anger. “We will take it into account. Please continue your evacuation.”
This was a good test, she decided. Insinuate that the shifters would be killed and give them a chance to protest.
In the administrator’s absence, they waited in silence. None of them wanted to take the chance that their words would be overheard.
Finally, the phone rang.
Hsu picked it up, “Yes?”
“We are all on Floor Eight,” Administrator Gomez told her. “We will remain here until we receive further instructions.”
“Good,” Hsu replied simply.
On the other side of the room, Stephen subvocalized, “ADAM? Lock them in.”
Sabina huddled in her cage.
There had been a sudden spate of activity a few minutes back, guards posted at the doors of the labs and the scientists looking tense and worried. But then they had all disappeared. All of them.
Her eyes went to the vents at the top of the room, and she swallowed hard.
They all knew the vents’ purpose. They emitted poison, to kill them if they ever got free. Once, Sabina had taken a grim pleasure in the fact that the poison would also kill the scientists. She sometimes saw the scientists look worriedly at the vents as well. They knew they were expendable.
Except, now they were all gone. Two days ago, the experiments had stopped, and today they had all disappeared.
Sabina was terrified.
The door opened, and a woman with a bouncy brown ponytail and perfectly tailored clothing slipped into the lab. She smiled at all of them.
“I am Jennifer,” she said in Slovenian. “Here, smell. I am also Wechselbalg.”
She held out her hand to one of the nearest cages, and Goron, one of the oldest shifters in the facility, padded forward on wolf paws to sniff her. He transformed immediately.
“She speaks the truth,” he agreed cautiously.
The woman named Jennifer pressed a button on the desk, and every cage clicked open.
“The staff of this facility have been apprehended and will be dealt with. However, first, we must get all of you to our headquarters for medical treatment. I work for an organization named TQB. We were the ones behind the message that stopped the experiments, and we will be releasing all of the facilities.”
“And the staff are where?” Goron asked. He stepped out of his cage and rotated his neck, taking a deep breath as he stood upright and unshackled for the first time in months.
“They are imprisoned now,” the woman replied firmly. “They will be judged—and not leniently.”
The man vibrated with anger; he clearly wanted nothing more than to go up the stairs and slaughter the staff.
“Are there any,” Jennifer asked softly, “who have been kind to you? Who you think have been sabotaging the experiments, or who have pretended to experiment on you but have not truly done so?”
All of them laughed, even Sabina.
“Of course not,” Goron spat, answering for all of them. “Why would you ask such a thing?”
“At some other facilities, scientists and guards helped the shifters and planned escapes with them.” Jennifer smiled sadly. “It sounds as if that is not the case here. Please, follow me. We will get you to our ship, the ArchAngel, where you will be treated for all injuries.”
Outside, Hsu watched as Wechselbalg hurried to the Pods. Like Irina, they had long since become inured to being naked, and they had no shame in it—they only shivered slightly in the wind.
Some, it seemed, had argued with the mandate that they should not harm the staff of the facilities. They wanted revenge, and the shifters in each lab had said the same thing: there was no one here who had tried to flout the rules or keep them safe. They had been treated with nothing but contempt.
Stephen spoke adamantly to those who wished to stay. The smiling, affable man had disappeared entirely. When he enforced his Queen’s justice, he did not bend, and he did not compromise. He would not allow them to stay here and endanger themselves for the sake of revenge.
They were not pleased, that was clear.
Hsu was afraid that they would rebel and take matters into their own hands, but the old habits seemed to run deep. They accepted Stephen’s declaration and were assured that once they were back on Earth, they would have the chance to join TQB if they wished.
When he told them about Irina’s choice, however, the mood changed.
Goron actually went to kneel before Irina.
“I grieve that your own alpha was so weak,” he told her. “I am here because I followed my lost pack members to try to free them. Your alpha failed to protect you, and you should not bear any guilt for leaving.” He stood and looked at Stephen. “It is a different world than the one I grew up in. Perhaps I do not know how best to lead any longer—not when every human carries a recording device and those across the globe can connect to share stories of shifters they have seen. It is becoming more dangerous for our kind.”
“Only you may decide what to do with that information,” Stephen replied courteously, “as long as you remain alpha of your pack. However, know that all who join us will be treated with respect. We will speak again on the ArchAngel. When you decide what to do, let me know.”
Hsu shoved her hands in her pockets and strode away.
She wasn’t angry
, not really. She was sad. Not since she was a child had she felt such loyalty as the Wechselbalg felt to one another. She did not wish to return to the forced loyalty of the Pack or the frightened obedience of the labs…but the truth was that she had never felt a part of TQB, either.
She was a woman without honor, and she had failed twice in her quest to reclaim it. Never had she seen any end for herself but death.
But now…now, every time she joked with Irina or Stoyan, every time she listened to one of Arisha’s stories or pretended to be an administrator with Stephen, she felt the fervent wish to be part of something more.
She wanted to belong somewhere.
She just wasn’t sure she had the right to.
She bent her head against the winter wind and blinked the tears out of her eyes. She was not going to break down and cry, she told herself firmly. She was going to be strong. She was going to stay with the group until they were done dismantling Hugo’s organization, and then she would speak privately to Stephen.
He would dispense the Queen’s justice without cruelty. It was, perhaps, more than she deserved, but she was weak. She would ask for it to be quick. She would disappear quietly, and Stephen could tell whatever story he chose.
She nodded to herself. It was a good plan.
She looked around. She’d made it halfway around the edge of the facility on her walk, and she could hear the others calling her name.
As she turned to go back, however, she heard the growl of a wolf. The next thing she knew, she was tumbling over and over into the dirt, hot breath in her face and yellow eyes boring into hers as the wolf crouched over her.
8
Postojna, Slovenia
The Wechselbalg growled deep in her throat.
This was clearly a shifter, not an ordinary wolf. A wolf, Hsu knew, would never have attacked unless she was starving, and when she attacked, she would attack quickly. This being wanted to terrify her.
“I am with the ones who are evacuating you,” she choked out.
The wolf tilted her head and growled again.
“If you come with me, you will be able to smell the other Wechselbalg to see that what I am saying is true,” Hsu told her. “You will not be hurt. We will give you medical treatment, and we will make those who did this to you pay.”
The wolf snarled at that and leaped free, and her claws gouged a hole in Hsu’s shoulder. She screamed at the sharp, unexpected pain and struggled to sit up, pressing a hand over the wound. It was the same shoulder Gerard had shot her in.
The shifter changed back. The woman was too thin, and though there were no bruises or scars on her skin, she had clearly been mistreated. There was no mistaking the haunted look in her eyes.
Hsu winced, trying to find the strength to breathe. Blood was welling up in her wound.
“I’m Hsu,” she said. “What’s your name?”
The woman gave a snort. “Like you care.”
“I do. This is the fourth facility I’ve helped release,” Hsu told her. “Well, the third. In the first one, I was…lucky. One of the Wechselbalg helped me escape with her.”
“Then she’s a fool,” the woman told her dismissively. “But since you asked, I’m Sidonie. And you can help by leaving the rest of the facilities the hell alone. Who do you think you are to take charge of this? You’re ruining everything.”
Hsu frowned at her, not understanding. She stood up and unbuttoned her lab coat, passing it over.
“Do you want something to wear?”
The woman crossed her arms. She tried to look unimpressed, but finally snatched the coat. She buttoned it angrily and pursed her lips at the blood on the shoulder.
Hsu refrained from mentioning the blood was her own fault.
“Look,” Hsu said finally. “I’m not in charge. Stephen is. He’s—”
“The vampire?”
Hsu blinked. “What? No, Stephen’s not a—vampires don’t—”
Sidonie rolled her eyes. “You really don’t know anything, do you? That’s what he is. He’s acting on behalf of the Matriarch.” Her voice was heavy with contempt.
“Bethany Anne?” Hsu asked.
“Whatever she calls herself. The woman who replaced Michael.” Sidonie lifted one shoulder, trying to look like she didn’t care, but her jaw was clenched. “And you shouldn’t help them.”
“Why not?” Hsu demanded. “They’re the ones who are freeing the facilities. No one else had a chance against Hugo, but they took him down, and they’re dismantling everything.”
“And robbing us of true justice!” the woman hissed.
There was a shout, and the rest of the team came bounding around the side of the building. At the sight of blood on Hsu’s shoulder, Jennifer looked sharply at the woman.
In Slovenian, she asked, “Are you from this facility?”
“I’m French,” the woman snapped contemptuously. “And no. And why don’t you all pack up and go home?”
The words were rude, and Hsu was sure that was intentional, but the woman looked almost frightened as she stared Stephen down.
“No,” Stephen answered calmly. “Not until the facilities are freed.”
“We will free them,” Sidonie told him. “We don’t need you for that.”
“You needed us to take Hugo down,” Jennifer replied tightly. “You needed us to send the fake message from him saying that the project was over. You needed someone to shut down the poison vents, didn’t you? Those wouldn’t have worked even if they’d tried to use them—that was us.”
Sidonie looked troubled at this, but she shook her head and forged on.
“Maybe you helped. But justice isn’t yours to give out, it’s ours. We were the ones who were imprisoned here.”
“So join us,” Irina exclaimed suddenly. In a way, she understood this woman’s furious resolve. She didn’t want to be saved. “I was in one of the facilities too, in Bulgaria. I joined Stephen and the others because my pack would not aid me in seeking justice.”
“Well, that’s your pack.” Sidonie looked unimpressed. “My pack is seeking justice.”
“If your Alpha is Jean-Marc Carre, you should know that he has asked me to do what I must to bring justice.” Stephen’s voice was even, but it had an unmistakable air of command. “As well as keep the peace.”
Sidonie flinched at the mention of Jean-Marc, but at Stephen’s closing words, her face hardened.
“Keep the peace,” she repeated bitterly. “Why? What did peace ever do for us? We lived in little hovels on the outskirts of town. We eked out an existence, we never had the freedom to go wherever we wanted—be what we were. We were always hiding. Peace never did anything but hurt us.”
“The peace,” Stephen shot back sharply, “kept you alive. If humans knew of shifters, there would be a witch hunt. Your line would have been ended five times over by now, and if you somehow managed to make it to here—you’d only wind up in a government lab. You’re lucky that everyone in the world thinks shifters are nothing more than fairy-tale stories.”
“All my life, I’ve heard that story,” Sidonie’s fists clenched. “And you know what it is? A lie. A lie meant to make the Wechselbalg accept someone else’s rule, make them slink around, and spend their time hiding—so they didn’t realize they were actually more powerful than the fucking Patriarch.”
Stephen’s jaw clenched.
Jennifer’s hand was on his chest, pressing him back before he realized he’d even taken a step forward.
“Listen,” Jennifer said tightly, “that isn’t how it works anymore. And it wasn’t why Michael did what he did, either. We lived outside the normal world, we couldn’t depend on them to protect us or dispense justice. We needed someone to do that. Every society needs that.”
“And why him, huh?” Sidonie threw a glance at Stephen, raking over him with her eyes. “Why did he get to make his little pets like this one and send them around to do his bidding? Why did we have to obey them? We didn’t choose that.”
“Ste
phen is Michael’s brother,” Jennifer argued heatedly. “And Michael was the first—of all of us. Do you know what we really are?”
“Jennifer.” Stephen managed the one word. He shook his head. No matter how angry he was, no matter how he wanted to see this woman hear the truth from Jennifer’s lips, now was not the time for this particular revelation.
It was Irina, surprisingly, who broke the silence.
“People were dying,” she explained quietly. “If Stephen and Bethany Anne had decided that you were right, that they should just step back and let people in the Unknown World choose their leaders, what would have happened? No one would have been strong enough to take Hugo down. TQB had resources no one else had. You can’t believe that they should have looked the other way and waited for you all to break out. I know what happens when you wait like that. People die. I’m the only one from my facility who survived.”
Sidonie shuddered. She looked away, hands clenched.
Finally, her voice low, she muttered, “I don’t care. You’re right. But it doesn’t change now. You’ve done what you needed to do. The facilities are waiting to be dismantled. We can handle this from here.”
“And then?” Stephen asked. His calm demeanor was back. He shook his head. “I am sure that Emeric will lead you and your new pack in battle just as capably as any of my fighters.” He shot Jennifer a warning look not to snort derisively. “But what will come after? Jean-Marc spoke to me of Emeric’s beliefs.”
“Emeric sees the truth!” Sidonie spat.
“Ah.” Stephen nodded. He hadn’t been sure that Emeric was in charge and had hoped to lure Sidonie into confirming that piece of information. “And no doubt he believes he is smarter than Gerard.”
Sidonie, however, only frowned at that. “Who?” She shook her head impatiently. “Look. You need to accept that you are not the ones who have been wronged by this. You need to leave this to us.”
“No,” Stephen answered simply. “I would be happy to have Emeric’s support, but the Queen I serve is the only one who has the resources to see this through. She will not abdicate responsibility, knowing that it would lead to deaths.”