I tumbled forward, but the arms around me tightened. I never hit the ground, and when I regained consciousness, I was sat in a chair in a large metallic chamber. A camera was sitting on a stand before me, a red light blinking on it.
“What's your name?” a Northern Irish man's voice bellowed through the room, echoing around it.
I wasn't tied down, but still felt woozy, so I didn't get up.
“Name?” the voice repeated, harsher this time. “Or you will remain as Patient 359876. The choice is yours.”
“Firefly,” I bit out. I wasn't going to tell them my real name. And despite the fact Jameson had given me that nickname, it seemed useful now. I wasn't going to remain as an anonymous little guinea pig.
“Stand,” the voice instructed.
I'd been the Helsings' captive long enough to know complying with maniacs tended to be a good move. At least initially. I didn't fancy being forced to do anything. And so long as they didn't ask me to do something psychotic, I was going to go along with this for now.
I rose to my feet, feeling a little nauseous again. I held my stomach, expecting a wave of retching to grip me. But I staved off the feeling, straightening my spine.
“Are you experiencing any sickness, delirium, hot flushes, or over-sensitivity to light?” the man asked.
“Check to all of the above. Apart from the delirium. Unless I'm imagining this place? Which would be a dream come true, actually.”
The man didn't respond to my wit. Psychopaths never seemed to have a great sense of humour. “The discomfort will pass. Transformations tend to be uncomfortable, but you will adjust. We'd like to run a few tests. If you'd be so kind as to follow a few instructions?”
“As long as you don't make me kill anything,” I muttered.
“Agreed,” the man answered unexpectedly. “Now please shed your robe.”
I stiffened. “I'm not stripping for you.”
“If you are to transfigure, the robe will be destroyed anyway. We'd like the entire process recorded for scientific purposes.”
I double knotted the belt on my robe, folding my arms in answer.
The seconds ticked on and he finally spoke again, “Proceed as you are. Attempt to make the change please.”
I gazed down at my folded arms, stumped. “How?”
“It is innate. You will be able to transform into a wolf if you focus on doing so.”
I sighed, gazing up at the ceiling and trying to concentrate. I thought of what it was like to watch Jameson turn. It looked painful. And the more I thought about it, the more I hoped I couldn't do it. After a couple of minutes, a hatch opened in the wall opposite me. A small bottle sat inside it, twinkling beneath a small spotlight.
“Drink the fluid. It's a stimulant that will encourage the change.”
I reluctantly moved toward it, taking the small bottle from the metal hatch. I was starting to have serious reservations about playing along...
My hand trembled a little as I uncorked the stopper, breathing in the sharp scent. I dropped my arm in refusal. No way.
“If you do not drink it willingly, we will have you injected with it. This testing process can be very peaceful so long as you allow it to be.”
I shut my eyes, rage burning in my chest.
Words ran through my head from an action film I'd watched with Jameson so impossibly recently, it seemed like a dream now. One day soon, I will find you, and I will kill you.
“Drink,” the voice cut into me.
I shut my eyes and tipped the liquid into my mouth. I'd known it was going to taste foul, but I didn't expect the burning sensation that dove all the way to stomach. I gasped, clutching my tummy where it burned like an actual fire lived inside me.
I waited, my breathing growing ragged as I gazed down at my bare feet. I expected my muscles to pop, my bones to break and reform. Something. Anything.
But after several minutes, I relaxed, my shoulders slumping.
“Thank you, Firefly. You are evidently non-transformative.”
“Is that...good?” I asked, confused. It certainly seemed like a good thing to me.
“Very good. We were attempting to make you as human as possible.”
“Why?” I frowned. What the hell is this place?
I tried to recall what Selena's father had told us about it. IDAHO wanted to find the cure to Vampirism. But this was something else all together. What was the point of it?
“Irrelevant,” the man answered.
“Not to me. It's my body you're messing with,” I snapped at the camera.
After a beat, the man elaborated, surprising me again, “The more combinations of Immortal gifts we experiment with, the closer we get to perfecting Immortality. That is, creating an Immortal being without unwanted side effects.”
“Side effects?”
“The thirst for blood, for one. The obedience of Werewolves, for another. What Immortal would choose to live that way if they didn't have to?”
“So...you want to be Immortal? Without a downside?” I guessed.
He didn't answer, which gave me my answer. I laughed. Perhaps I was still a little doped up on whatever they'd given me, but the reality of what was happening suddenly hit me like a heart attack.
“You're crazy,” I laughed harder, gesturing at the camera.
“We'd like to run a few more tests,” the man said, ignoring me.
“You know the funniest part? I'd hand you my Immortality if I could. I'd give it up in a heartbeat.” I dropped back into my chair, shaking my head.
“We're going to open the roof, please tell us if you experience any discomfort.”
“The roof?” I gazed up, my amusement vanishing as a mechanical sound filled the air. Fear bled through me. I'd die. I couldn't be exposed to the sun.
“Stop!” I called out as the doors parted above me, revealing the sky. So blue. Azure and dazzling. And there it was: the sun.
I froze, gazing up at it and miraculously, it gazed back. Shining down on me like life itself. The heat washed over me, seeping into my cheeks.
I dragged down a breath, lifting my hands above my head to feel the heat on my fingers. I turned them over, gazing at them in awe. I wasn't burning. It didn't hurt, not even a little bit.
“Test complete,” the voice said and the doors started to close.
“No- wait!” I cried, running to the nearest wall. It was perfectly smooth, but I slammed my hand against it, denting it. I'd hit it hard enough to make a foothold, but the doors above me were already closed.
“Let me out there,” I pleaded. I hadn't felt the sun in weeks. I longed to soak it in.
“If you cooperate for the remainder of the day, I will ensure you get to spend time in the sun.”
I nodded, dropping my eyes to the camera, needing to know what else I was capable of. “What do you want me to do?”
*★*
Once I'd finished being tested, I was taken back to my hospital room. I'd learned I was now able to endure daylight without harm, eat food and drink water, but I would need blood as part of my diet too. I wasn't as strong as I used to be, but I was faster, my sense of smell was even better and my blood was now a fairly warm 24 degrees but rose to a scary 42 when I was angry. And I'd gotten angry a lot. And frustrated. And by the time I was escorted back to the hospital room, I was damn well pissed off. I wanted out. I didn't want to think about tomorrow or the day after, or the day after that. Were they going to keep me here forever? What were their plans for me?
And what was happening to everyone else from The Sanctuary? Were they all here, being prodded and poked, and experimented on like I was?
“Lie down,” Rakefield instructed, gesturing to the hospital bed. My beefy escorts didn't give me much choice in that, knocking me down and tying the buckles around my wrists.
Rakefield ushered them out of the door and turned the lights down. “We're going to do a scan. It's non-invasive, but you do need to keep nice and still for me.” She rolled my bed across the room, angl
ing me beneath a glass dome, large enough to encase the entire bed. She pulled it down and the world grew muffled beyond it. I could see Rakefield moving to the far end of it, starting up the scanner.
I tried to relax, gazing up at the glass ceiling, but my heart wouldn't rest.
A ribbon of blue light ignited by my feet and slowly travelled through the glass, lighting up my body as it did so.
After a few minutes, Rakefield opened the dome and I could breathe again. “Everything looks fine.” A knock came at the door and a male nurse stepped into the room with fair hair and golden eyes. His colouring reminded me of the Helsings, and that made me nervous. He passed Rakefield an iPad, pointing at something on the screen, not saying a word.
Her eyes widened as she took it in, then ushered him away.
“Oh my...” Rakefield gazed at the screen for several more seconds before glancing up at me. “We have your blood test results back.”
Her alarmed expression did not bode well. But what she said next, was the last thing I ever could have imagined her saying.
“Good Lord I'm not sure how this is possible...but, my dear, it seems you're pregnant.”
Cass
No no no no no no no no no no no no.
No.
I was not pregnant. I refused to accept it was happening. One: it wasn't possible. I'd been dead just yesterday, ovaries included. And two: I was not in any way capable of being a mother.
Worst of all, the only man in the entire world it could possibly belong to, was a Werewolf who'd dumped me the second he'd gotten me into bed.
Rakefield had untied me when I'd started crying. I was on the floor, legs tucked up to my chest, rocking back and forth like a toddler having a tantrum. Evidently, she was taking pity on me as she continually passed me tissues, trying to hush me.
“I was dead, you said so yourself, how is this possible?” I sobbed, gazing at Rakefield who was crouched before me. I prayed she had answers. Cause goddammit I needed answers. And I needed them now. “Could it be a mistake?” I crawled forward, gripping her shoulders, shaking her a little too hard. “Re-test me. I didn't pee on anything, how could you know for sure if I didn't pee on anything?”
“A blood test is more accurate, sweetie,” Rakefield said softly, passing me another tissue. “And we have highly advanced tests here. We can detect certain Immortal pregnancies even a day after inception.”
I gawped at her. “But I can't get pregnant. I'm a Vampire.” I started sobbing again.
She passed me my hundredth tissue. “Not anymore, dear. Your body has had human functions since your transformation surgery yesterday.”
An old memory floated to the forefront of my mind from a sex education class with my science teacher, Mr Caper. He'd had the kind of voice that was designed to send you to sleep, but apparently he'd managed to teach me this one, single, life-altering fact. Which might just be the most important thing I would ever learn in my life.
Sperm can live in a woman's body for up to five days after intercourse.
I clapped my hands to my mouth in horror, a strangled sob catching in my throat. Goddamn you Jameson Fairfax. Goddamn you and your sperm all to hell.
“Was the father at The Sanctuary?” Rakefield bit her lip.
“No, he left. Why do you look so nervous?” I breathed, rocking back and forth on my heels.
“A lot of Immortals died in the trials.”
I remembered to hate her again in that moment. She wasn't my friend. She was my captor. And holy crap, I was currently free. Her eyes widened as she realised it the moment I did. I launched at her, my hands clamping around her throat, choking, choking, choking. I locked my legs around her waist as she battled with me, but she was just a woman. A bloody human. I had the upper hand. And she was the idiot who'd released me.
Because she pitied you.
I loosened my grip as she passed out, just short of killing her. I had to remember myself. Rakefield had been kind to me, even if she had had a hand in putting me here.
I stood on shaky legs, moving to a trolley of implements, trying to pick out the sharpest, most lethal one there: a silver scalpel. Silver wasn't my enemy anymore. I clutched it in my palm, moving to the door, cat-like and silent. I gripped the handle. My escorts were probably waiting out there. Three oafs who weren't going to see my merciful side. They hadn't handed me tissues because I was crying.
Oh god, I'm pregnant!
I forced the thought away, jamming it to the back of my mind and stuffing it into a box. That was later's problem. I had a whole lot of 'now' problems that were more pressing.
I yanked the door open and flew toward the guards. I was as silent as a rush of wind. I slashed the first guy's throat, spun him around and threw him into the second. The third brought a fist toward my face. I dodged it so fast, I was practically flying. I slammed the scalpel into his eye, ripped it out and stabbed it in his other socket. Before I could throw-up over what I'd just done, I caught the back of his neck and threw him at the final guard. Their heads collided and a sickening crack signalled both of their deaths.
I stood, not even panting, completely still, blood dripping steadily from the scalpel in my fist. My heart thundered in my chest; my pulse was off the charts. My veins flooded with heat until I could feel it rushing up and down my spine.
I breathed in deeply, sensing fresh air and following it at speed through the corridors. I was a blur of movement, a flash of lightning. No one could catch me so long as I kept moving. I barged through a set of double doors, charging up a white stairwell, the sunlight growing brighter and brighter above me.
Almost there. I could taste the air. But more than that. Salt swept over my tongue, a cry of a gull. I threw the door open and gasped, crashing into a railing, gazing down at the churning sea far, far below.
The wind whipped around me, my dressing gown flapped around my legs. I was on a cruise ship. It was enormous, a floating bloody hotel. And I was in the middle of the goddamn ocean.
“No...no,” I breathed, sidling along the railing, hunting for a way off. A lifeboat. A raft of twigs. A bloody seagull. Just something.
Perhaps I could swim? But how far was it to shore? And was my body capable of that kind of torture now?
Freezing air surrounded me, so I knew the sea would be no more inviting.
My hand fell to my stomach and a lump lodged in my throat. Icy water like that wouldn't be good for...
No. Don't you dare think it, Cassandra Hollins.
If I accepted this baby was real. Then I had to make a decision about whether I cared for it.
It was too much to process all at once, so I made a half-way decision. I'd find a lifeboat and disembark that way.
I charged down the walkway that stretched out ahead of me, eventually meeting with a T-junction that offered passage to the other side of the ship. Men burst through doors all around me and I yelped, diving back toward the railing.
I hesitated for half a second before climbing over it, not knowing what other card I had to play. I held on one with one hand, keeping hold of the scalpel, the sea roaring below me.
God, that's a long way down...
I turned to face my attackers. Several of the approaching men wore balaclavas but the man in the middle wore a fine suit, his dark hair ruffling in the wind. He was disgustingly handsome. Rugged and perfect. Too perfect. He looked like a Vampire crossed with an unmasked Siren. When he spoke, I recognised his voice as the Irishman who'd run the tests on me. I guessed that meant he was the boss.
“Don't do anything stupid, Firefly,” he said, his voice as smooth as velvet as he strode toward me.
“Stop,” I growled and he complied, just a few feet away. “Let me off this ship,” I demanded, brandishing my scalpel at him. I could do some real damage to that pretty face.
He folded his arms, his eyebrows raised. “You'll die if you jump from this height, Hybrid or not.”
“Bullshit,” I hissed. “I'm immortal.”
“Immortals can stil
l die. And I'm telling you, you're not as hardy as a Vampire anymore.”
My throat tightened. I wasn't really planning on jumping. But stepping back over that railing felt like surrendering. And I couldn't be a captive to anyone ever again.
“We don't want to hurt you,” the guy said, resting a hand on his chest. “I'm Silas Madigan,” he said softly. “I think we can work together.”
“You killed my friends. You kidnapped me!” I snapped.
“A tragic loss,” he said. “All in the name of science, I assure you. We did everything we could to keep them alive.”
I spat a laugh. “And that makes it okay? We didn't sign up to your little science project!”
“Actually, most of the people in Brendan Grey's Sanctuary did sign up to IDAHO's projects in the past. My father was simply rounding up the people who broke their contracts with him.”
“Brendan Grey was kidnapped,” I hissed. “This isn't a voluntary position. He told me all about IDAHO.”
“And did he also tell you he worked with my father for many years? That he was a pioneer in developing the cure to Vampirism?”
The wind picked up and my hair streamed out behind me. I clung to the railing, my gut spiralling at the thought of losing my grip.
Keep it together.
“Here.” Silas held out his hand. “We don't want to have any accidents.”
I didn't move and Silas sighed, turning to one of the men in balaclavas. His crony removed his mask and his olive eyes met mine. I fell into them, my heart drawn to him so wholly that I wanted to throw myself at him. I loved him. I was somehow in love with this squinty-eyed man with white hair and overly thin lips. A word rolled up from the back of my mind. Siren.
“Come on darlin',” he said, reaching for my hand.
The scalpel dropped from my palm, spinning through the air toward the waves below. I took his palm without hesitation. He drew me over the edge and I clung onto him, gazing up at his perfectly imperfect face. “Hi,” I breathed, my brain foggy.
Some of the nearby men chuckled.
“Enough,” Silas muttered and my newfound love pulled his mask back on.
Wolf Games (The Vampire Games Book 4) Page 7