by Jill Cooper
It was breaking down, falling apart, and oozing at the seams.
Jenna stared as Wendy contorted in pain on the bed. The girl that Jenna was supposed to save tried to sit up, to hide from the light, but the chains on her wrists kept her in place. Her nightgown rose up and her new tail whipped at the bed. Mouth open, Jenna saw mismatched fangs growing in many directions from parts of her body, which had no right having teeth to begin with.
And Jenna couldn’t stand anymore.
She crashed to her knees, unaware of any pain except for the one in front of her. Jenna’s hands shook as she stroked Wendy’s hair back. Her other hand cupped Wendy’s chin and she bellowed in pain. Saliva fell from Wendy’s mouth because she couldn’t close it tight. Her eyes were dry because she had no lids to keep them moist.
Jenna cried, she wailed to see someone tortured like this.
It was horrible and twisted. New Haven did this?
Humans did this. To another human.
Jenna shook her head and sobs vibrated in her chest. Wendy lifted a hand as far as she could and touched Jenna’s cheek.
“So perfect,” Wendy whispered through chapped lips.
Perfect? Nothing about her was perfect. Everything about Jenna was broken; flawed—a half-glistening human who embraced her human side. Had she been wrong? Had Jenna picked the wrong side of the fight?
Only now did Jenna see the truth. Only now did pain and regret claim her heart.
“I was supposed to save you. I’m sorry.” Jenna never spoke truer words from deep within her heart. Tears leaked from her eyes, even though she was supposed to be tough.
Unbreakable.
“You still can.” Wendy’s voice gasped in pain. “They can’t fix me, they’ve tried. The experiments . . . they’re relentless. Please.”
Jenna didn’t understand. She didn’t get it until she saw where Wendy’s one good eye was looking—straight at her gun.
Could she do it? Could she kill Travis’s daughter, when it had been up to Jenna and her crew so long ago to save her?
Could she end her suffering when no one else would? Because no one cared anymore that once, she had been just a human girl?
Jenna struggled to her feet, grabbing at the bed. She placed the butt of the gun against Wendy’s forehead and it sunk in against the soft tissue. The girl’s face was a mixture of pain and relief.
“I will tell your son one day, how brave you are and how much you loved him.”
Wendy nodded and tears streamed down her blood stained cheek. Jenna closed her eyes and couldn’t see; didn’t feel. Jenna pulled the trigger and stepped away from the bed. Wendy’s blood spilled off the bed and onto the floor.
Jenna raged. New Haven was supposed to protect humanity, not destroy it.
Innocence lost; the smell of blood—it all made Jenna rage. Her blood pressure was boiling and her skin was shimmering. It was now or never.
The door burst open. Jenna turned her head as the fangs thrust through her gums. The transformation was coming faster than before. It nearly knocked her off her feet as waves of dizziness pelted her vision.
“Now, listen, Jenna.” Briggs raised his hands as he entered the room. “What happened to Wendy was unfortunate. I never wanted this.”
Briggs paused and Jenna studied him, tilting her head to the side. Her big eyes blinked and the sway of her nubby tail came from underneath the nightgown.
“But,” Briggs licked his lips as he went on, “without her failed experiments we wouldn’t have a working serum. It’s going to save us, save all of us. Can you understand? We can heal the glistenings—you, and your daughter. After this, we all get to walk away happy.”
We get to walk away happy? How dare he say that? No one walked away from New Haven, and Wendy was proof of that.
Jenna glanced back at Wendy’s dead form on the bed. She glanced back at Briggs and raised her gun.
“Now wait a second, I’m offering you a chance at salvation!”
He was stalling her. Jenna saw it as plainly as the nose on his face. She fired once and it ripped through his forehead. Briggs slumped against the wall. Jenna meant to walk clear past him, but the smell of his warm blood by her feet was too much.
She sat back on her heels and stretched her arms out on the floor like a wild beast. It was time to give in. Time to protect her own.
Time to clean house.
Chapter Twenty-Two Jenna
New Haven 57
Red Alert
The hallways were littered with bodies and the walls were streaked red. Traces of blood led Jameson around the corner, but the guttural screams for help froze his steps. He had to do this, had to continue.
There was only one way out of here and it was through Jenna.
Jameson took a deep breath and cocked his gun. He had apprehended glistenings before, so why was this so different? Was it because he fell for the glistening act? He fell in love with someone who didn’t exist?
No choice but to push it out of his mind, Jameson slowly put one foot in front of the other. He steeled himself for what he might find, but in all of his wildest dreams, Jameson never thought this was what he would see.
It was like Jenna had made a nest at the end of the hall. Lights flickered, illuminating the four torn bodies surrounding her. She was sitting on her half-human, half-glistening hind legs and she was feasting.
Feasting on the horrors Jameson saw surrounding her.
Her claws ripped flesh from her victims and her long tongue lapped up the blood rather than chewing on it like a true glistening. She was feasting.
In a way, it made Jameson’s decision easier. Someone had to die and it sure as hell wasn’t going to be him.
Jameson raised his arms and they shook. He steadied himself with a deep breath. “Good-bye, Jenna,” he whispered. “It’s been swell.”
Her advanced hearing must have snapped into place because her head rocketed up. Jameson stared into her face, half-covered in scales. Her eyes were an unnatural yellow and Jenna snarled, a loud glistening growl in her throat, “Peachy Keen.”
She pushed off the floor and was in a full on run when Jameson fired, backing up into the hallway. Fear pumped, blood boiled, Jameson was sure he hit her in the arm, maybe a leg, but Jenna kept coming.
“Dammit, Jenna!” Jameson screamed as Jenna leaped, soaring through the air, colliding into him.
His arm fell to the side and his hand opened, his gun spinning free. Jenna’s mouth was on his throat, her head tossing back and forth like he was a piece of meat. Jameson’s hands grabbed her throat and he tried to get her off. God help him, he tried.
Nevertheless, her eyes widened and she just went for him repeatedly.
Jameson’s scream gurgled with blood as it trickled from his mouth. “Stupid, bitch,” Jameson, cried for the last time.
****
New Haven 57 Exteriors
“Fire! They’re circling!”
The glistenings attacked, diving in formation, sheets of fire spraying across the shields before flying high again. They circled above like a maelstrom. The shield was holding against their onslaught and some of the beasts grew impatient, even flinging their own bodies against the surging, blue fluctuation of power.
The electrical charge flung them wide and the humans manning the watchtowers took aim at the easy targets.
“Fire the cannons!”
Cannons that operated by dispersing gas canisters, usually in crowd-control incidents. Now, they were loaded with batches of the untested cure. The weapons were pointed into the sky, crews ready to fire on command.
“Fire high and as close to the glistening clusters as possible. We have to get that cure on ninety-five percent of their body for this to work!”
Other guards aimed and fired missiles into the flying swarms of dragons. The sound was deafening and humans plugged their ears as they rang so loud, they didn’t hear the coming onslaught.
Dragons swarmed and hit the shield. The shock shook the whole complex a
s it was hit again. The shield fluctuated and soon it would fail. Glistenings would be able to breech her walls, ready to break the others free. New Haven 57 would be at their mercy.
Looking up into the night sky, new glistenings had arrived—one of them carrying a human passenger.
****
Dirk gripped the reins as Jake made his descent through the clouds. He leaned his head in close to Jake as they picked up speed. Beneath them, Jake curled his claws in, wings close to his side, but still pointed up; they were rapidly approaching New Haven 57. From this far above it didn’t appear much different than other New Haven structures. A long road led to a clearing of trees. Protected by the blue electro-bubble, was a large stone, wall surrounding the New Haven community. Along the towers were cannons and guards with guns.
The bubble was just like the one at New Haven 56. The towers and cannons were new.
Jake crashed through a herd of glistening attacking the shields. Dirk held onto the reins for dear life as Jake banked and made a hard U-Turn toward Victor’s men. His wings flapped and Jake’s mouth opened wide, giving a burst of flames to ward off any attackers.
They circled again, but this time they had glistenings on their tail. Looking through the dragon wings, Dirk spied what New Haven was trying to do. Leaning in close, he prepared to whisper into Jake’s ear, but Jake was already answering.
The sky shook and pulsated with a vibrant light like it was speaking in Morse code. It was the deep voice of Jake Monroe, but not the one Dirk heard; neither glistening nor human, it was like he transcended into something else.
“I know; we must clear the way. Hold tight, you’re about to get your chance to get in there.”
Jake answered Dirk’s unanswered statement almost like he could read his mind. Dirk had questions that couldn’t be answered and right then; he didn’t even want to ask them. They needed to win and for now, Dirk was willing to let Jake have all the power he wanted.
In truth, Dirk wasn’t sure he could ever stop him.
Victor’s glistenings dove for Jake from all sides, trying to take the massive dragon down by the weight of their numbers. Jake snapped his jaws at them and growled as the cannon tracked their movements. Deafening booms disoriented both Jake and Victor’s men; the cure had finally arrived and it was being blasted into the sky immediately.
Glistenings huffed and sneezed, Dirk held his hand up and caught some of the magic, shimmering dust. It seemed to change shape and color in his hand. Even Jake shook his head, huffing and sneezing as he lost control. His wings shimmered and desperate to stay in flight, flapped with frequent urgency. He was losing altitude, no matter how hard he tried to sustain it. They were headed toward the earth fast. Dirk gritted his teeth; this was going to hurt.
When the land was close enough, he rolled off Jake and smacked hard into the pavement. As soon as his boots hit the ground, Dirk ran.
Glistening fire fell around him and Dirk ducked low. Everything in the night sky grew eerie with silence and the fire stopped almost as if time itself grew still. Up above, glistenings were being transformed into half-humans with wings and sailing to earth, almost as if heaven itself was losing its angels. By the time they hit the ground, their form turned completely human again and Dirk didn’t wait around to chat about it.
He headed straight for the entrance of New Haven 57. The electric bubble that surrounded the compound had weakened, flickering on and off. It couldn’t take many more hits from the remaining glistenings. Dirk just hoped he could get in in time.
He timed it just right and skidded through, only the cuff of his shirt being singed in the process. Taking a deep breath, Dirk leaned his back against the wall and drew his gun. The lights flickered around him as he glanced up and down the hall.
When the lights were on, they illuminated a horrific picture. Blood was on the walls and the smears left, by what could only be bodies, dragged through it on the floor. It was a scene straight out of a horror film.
Was Jenna here? Had she managed to escape all of this?
Dirk crept down the hall with his heart pounding, his adrenaline surging. He came to a room where bodies were circled together like someone—or something—had dined on them in some sort of feeding frenzy. It was one of the most horrible things Dirk had ever seen and in the center of all that, a groan.
Movement. A hand twitched in the air that was clearly male. Dirk hurried over and crouched near the victim. His chest had been torn open and blood was everywhere. The stench—Dirk turned his head when he recognized the victim.
It was the telltale blond hair, and pointed, bony nose. Dirk shook his head and his eyes narrowed, “seems you finally got yours, you son-of-a-bitch.”
Jameson moaned, but couldn’t get anything else out. Dirk grabbed his collar and gave him a shake. It elicited a painful screech from his old, dying friend. “Is she here? Is she alive?”
A nod. “The baby . . . she’s all right.”
The baby was born? Dirk’s eyes widened. He had to find her. He had to . . . he had a daughter? “Where is she? And Jenna?”
Jameson lifted a shaking hand and pointed down the hall. “We got the cure. We can end this all.”
At what expense, would ending this cost? It looked like whatever happened here, hell had broken loose. Dirk stood up and glanced down the hall when Jameson called to him.
“She’ll rip you apart just like she did me. Get the baby and run. Leave Jenna to this place. It’s what she deserves.”
Realization washed over Dirk, but he shook his head, he wouldn’t believe Jenna had done this. Wouldn’t believe she was a monster. It wasn’t just that she was his wife, but Dirk saw how she fought to save others—protect them. If Jenna was responsible for what happened here, she was pushed. She never would have chosen it. Forced into a corner, lied to, and manipulated, hell New Haven even took their baby.
Had to find her—had to reach her. Dirk just hoped he could find her first before anyone else did.
But the baby . . .
Dirk opened the door to a lab room. His eyes scanned the area. Work stations with equipment he didn’t recognize—test tubes, beakers, and a small fridge. He pulled the door open and looked at the syringes in there. Picking up one, he rolled it in his hand, looking for a label or some sort of marker on what it was.
“That’s the cure, but I wouldn’t bet on giving it to her. She’s lost now; a monster.”
Dirk turned and aimed his gun at whoever it was. “Who the hell are you?”
Sneaking out from a closet, a man in a white lab coat held his hands up with a callous smile. “I’m the one who’ll save the human race.”
So this was the man, who captured Jenna—hired Jameson, let New Haven manipulate and hold his wife against her will. Dirk narrowed his eyes and released the safety on his gun. He placed it against the man’s forehead, as he faltered and backed up.
“Now wait a second! Just a second! I can help you!”
Help him, help him do what? Dirk wouldn’t trust a thing out of the man’s mouth and his anger was so intense, he didn’t think he’d ever control it. Bubbling up, the anger made his arms tremble and all Dirk wanted was to lash out—destroy. Kill the man who took so much from him, stole it from Jenna.
Then behind him . . . behind him came the sweetest noise that ever reached Dirk’s ears. It was the smallest of baby noises, a grunt, or a stretch. Dirk didn’t know what it was, but it was like warmth of a light covered him and all Dirk wanted to do was see her, greet her.
He didn’t want his first act as a dad, to kill in cold blood in the very room where she slept.
So, Dirk put his gun away. He put it away and grabbed the handcuffs on his belt. Looped through a bar on the table, he handcuffed both of the doctor’s hands to it.
He slid them around, grunting and his eyebrows netted together. “You can’t do this to me! What right do you have to do this to me?”
Dirk thought of saying he was a New Haven Officer, but truth was, there wasn’t a New Haven anym
ore, not in the truest sense. It was gone, corrupted, destroyed. The organization he put his faith in? Dirk thought maybe it had been a lie from its inception.
So instead, he answered with a simple response. “A concerned citizen.”
Pocketing the syringe, Dirk went to the plastic bassinet in the corner of the room and gazed down. Wrapped in a pink blanket, the baby kicked. She was smaller than he thought she’d be, with a cute button nose and a powerful scowl on her face, Dirk thought she looked just like Jenna.
He didn’t know how to take care of a baby or hold one, but Dirk scooped her up into his arms without thinking. On autopilot, he cradled her close and the baby’s scowl faded away. Dirk stared into her eyes and a wave of love, an overabundance of it, grew in his heart. It grew bigger, opening, and enveloped his soul.
Dirk grinned at the baby. The blanket fell away from her head and he saw a faint set of red curls, thin and wispy. It must have been what Jenna looked like as a baby.
Jenna.
Cradling the baby in the crook of his arm, Dirk took off from the lab. He had to find Jenna and hope whatever condition she was in; the sight of her baby would be able to pull her back from the brink.
It was a stupid play, a stupid prayer—but it was all Dirk had.
****
She was there.
Jenna was in his sights. Her back to him, Jenna huddled against the corner of a wall. Her arms were wrapped around herself, as she sobbed. Her fingers clung to her middle and were claws, not human.
For six months, this was finally the moment; the one Dirk had strived for. He wanted to dash to her, but he knew he had to dial back. If he snuck up on her, he was afraid of what would happen.
“Jenna?” Dirk whispered and gingerly took a step toward her.
She started and scooted closer to the wall. Her head of curls leaning against it. Her feet were curled up and her legs covered in a thin coating of blood. Dirk prayed it wasn’t hers, prayed he could find a way to get her to see reason and stop everything she had started.