by Sarah Noffke
“Why did you let him do this to you?” she said, through sobs.
Kaleb shook his head. Of course she’d think he signed up for this. That’s what a loser would do. He opened his mouth to say something when he was cut off.
“Let?!” Kris said, from the backseat. “Your son never had a choice. He was abducted and imprisoned and the last thing he needs is you convicting him of signing up for this experiment.”
Kaleb wanted to smile. Twice Kris had come to his defense that day. He’d have to thank her later.
“You—” Kaleb’s mother said to Kris, from the backseat, her tone stronger now. “You disappeared. What’s wrong with you all? Where are you taking me?”
Refraining from rolling his eyes, Kaleb directed his focus over his shoulder at his mother. “There’s nothing wrong with her, just like there’s nothing wrong with me. We’ve just been altered by an evil man. The exact same one that we just rescued you from. You didn’t believe me, Mother, and now you’re a member of the witness protection program. Congratulations,” Kaleb said, his tone as neutral as he could make it.
“What? But I have plans,” she shrieked, with fear. “I need to get back.”
“You should have thought about that before you went on your campaign,” Kaleb said, and then added, “Thanks for exposing me, Mom. So thoughtful of you.”
“Kaleb, I had to. I knew the devil had done something—”
“Stop!” Kaleb yelled. “Just stop.”
The vehicle went completely silent. All that could be heard was the click of the blinker as Rox turned down a road, slowing the SUV.
“Kaleb?” his mother said, in a small voice behind him.
“What?” He bit on the one word.
“Who are you now? Are you okay?” she said, almost sounding nice, but mostly seeming curious. She probably needed details so she could adequately pray for him.
“I’m fine. I’m an agent for the most powerful organization in the world,” he said, and once he’d properly completed training then that statement would really be true.
Chapter Seven
“The parietal lobe is the main area of the brain that is different in Dream Travelers, versus Middlings. The activity is significantly higher in this area, which increases beta frequencies, producing lucid dreaming.”
- Dream Traveler Codex
Without the comfort of his family, there were few thrills for Derek presently. He longed for Sunday lunches with his parents, long discussions with his cousins in front of the fire, or even the coziness that came from typing out the stories in his head.
Still, the changes he’d undergone hadn’t been entirely bad. Yes, he shifted into a werewolf every week and panted through the streets of Seattle. The other night he’d stalked a man on his way home carrying a bag of groceries. Derek told himself that it was the salami in the bag that had kept his attention. He could smell it from halfway down the block. However, Derek knew the truth. It was the man. His smell overwhelmed the salty Italian sausage. The guy inside the werewolf was never more grateful than when the stranger turned and entered a door that locked directly behind him. The werewolf could have knocked the door down. He could have scaled the building, but why do that when a hotdog vendor had stepped away from his cart, leaving a hundred dogs hot and ready to be eaten on the sidewalk. It only took the werewolf a minute and a half to tear though the meat, leaving a damaged cart behind for the vendor to find when he returned a moment later. However, the werewolf was long gone by then, and Derek was glad that he’d managed to satisfy the wolf again without hurting someone.
Derek combed over this memory in his mind as he passed the electronics section in the store where he’d been browsing. He wasn’t planning on buying anything because in truth he had no money. Everything he made went to pay for his room and food. However, browsing stores like this was his rare comfort nowadays. He passed the row of flat-screen televisions, making each flip to a different station as he passed. Once at the end of the row, he blinked and all of the televisions turned off. The clerk spun around at the cashier’s station.
“Oh, not again!” the guy said, rushing over to the rack of flat-screens.
Derek released a small smile and turned for the tablets, lined up on a counter where customers could test the devices. Yes, the best part of becoming a werewolf had been the gift that went along with it. Although it didn’t make sense that a beast that hungered for flesh could control electronics, that’s exactly what Derek had been able to do since escaping the lab. Technopath. That’s what the Internet had called it when he’d looked it up on the library computer.
Chapter Eight
“Dream Travelers can go to any place and time. However, they must know the location of the place. They can’t simply intend to go to a location of a person or a thing. They must know of this exact location, although the ley lines will deliver their consciousness without them knowing the specific coordinates.”
- Dream Traveler Codex
“How long until we see results?” Zephyr said, extending his arm and flexing it, bringing his veins into view.
Aiden flicked his finger at the syringe. “The results could be immediate, although I doubt that. Most likely it will take a few doses of the drug for us to see anything measurable, if there’s any results at all,” the scientist said.
“Right. Trial and error. I get it,” Zephyr said, watching as Aiden swabbed a cotton ball dipped in alcohol across his arm.
“This is probably going to burn. The formula in this compound has been known to have those effects,” Aiden said.
“I was mutated into a werewolf. I think I can take some burning,” Zephyr said, his memory filling with images of Olento Research, before he knew it was called that. He’d clenched down on his tongue, trying not to allow a noise from his mouth when they cut into him, doing unspeakable things to him as he fought the restraints. He knew then that showing his pain would do him no favors. Maybe in his drugged brain he thought that would give the scientists what they wanted. He’d been tortured and interrogated before. And Zephyr knew how to hold it in tight, not letting the enemy see that they’d gotten to him.
“Right. I can’t even imagine,” Aiden said, shaking his head, sympathy deeply written into his features. He was the opposite of the scientists whom Mika had turn him into a werewolf. Aiden could never do anything like that, change a person without their consent. One key difference between the Lucidites and Olento Research. “It’s just that this drug affects the nervous system, so I’m going to ask that you lie down directly after being injected.”
“Why?” Zephyr said, eyeing the clean, white cot he’d noticed in the corner. He’d wondered what that was for.
“Because you might lose control of your limbs. I think it would be safer if you’re already lying down when the drug takes over. New territory, so remember that I can’t make firm statements here. This is all guesswork, since you’re the first to go through this study,” Aiden said.
“Yeah, fine,” Zephyr said, nodding. As long as one of his men didn’t have to be the test rat, he’d go through whatever needed to be done to find a solution. However, he knew in the far recesses of his mind that this drug could kill him. Anything could happen. And that’s why he’d signed up for it after all.
“Are you ready?” Aiden said, holding the syringe.
Staring down at his forearm, Zephyr nodded. It was time to make a truce with the wolf. They could coexist, he firmly believed. “Yes, in the name of science, let’s do this,” he said, making a silent prayer.
Chapter Nine
“Time travel is possible during dream traveling; however, traveling into the future is prohibited by Lucidite law. Traveling into the past should be limited to only a decade or two, as it is incredibly taxing. It is illegal to time travel and interact with a past self. Doing this creates a schism in one’s consciousness.”
- Dream Traveler Codex
Haiku’s face was mashed into the white pillow, his eyes looking close to shutting. Mika had bee
n patient enough to wait until the doctors finished his surgery and announced him stable before questioning his director of security. The only positive that had come out of this was that Malcolm had proven to be loyal and completely controlled by the brainwashing. He’d been the one to call for backup after finding Haiku stabbed in the middle of the street.
Mika kept underestimating the Lucidites and it was causing him more problems. He hadn’t thought that abducting one woman would take more than a single werewolf and Haiku, which was why more security wasn’t assigned to the case. Next time he’d send an entire fleet.
“Now tell me, who stabbed you in the back?” Mika asked Haiku. He’d already questioned Malcolm, only to find out that Rox had withstood being knocked across the head with a shovel. The girl obviously had skin and pain resistance. However, that wasn’t going to help her based on what he had planned for the FBI agent.
“I don’t know. When I turned around, there was no one there,” Haiku said, his words slurring from the pain medicine they’d given him. Mika had told them to back off on the drugs, knowing he needed Haiku as lucid as possible, but they’d obviously not listened to him.
“What do you mean there was no one there?” Mika asked. “Malcolm said you were in the middle of an empty street.”
“There was no one there,” Haiku said, his words sounding strained from the act of breathing.
“Or she was invisible,” Mika said, pulling his fist to his chest before slamming it across the various objects lining the table next to Haiku’s bed. They spilled to the ground with a clatter, but the disturbance had no effect on Haiku, who looked close to falling asleep.
“The whole fight was confusing. I was running after Kaleb and then he was beside me,” Haiku said, entirely too slowly for Mika’s patience. “And then I charged him a second time and he was at my back. I didn’t understand—”
“He can stop time,” Drake said, interrupting Haiku. “I measured the hallway at Parantaa Research for remnants of relativity after a similar situation happened to me when I had Adelaide in custody. The space proved positive for elements left behind when time is altered.”
Mika pressed his head down, feeling the tense muscles stretch. He let out a long breath as his shoulder blades pinched together. “Kaleb can stop time,” he said, drawing out the last word. Mika had been successful. He’d created werewolves with incredible abilities, even more powerful than any Dream Travelers. However, to have these extremely powerful weapons stolen from him was the biggest injustice and someone would pay. They’d all pay.
“Drake, get back to work on creating a clairvoyant. That’s our best hope for getting ahead. They might be able to stop time, but if I can see the future, then it won’t matter,” Mika said, turning and marching out of the room.
Chapter Ten
“To dream travel, a person simply lies down and relaxes. They must stay aware, not allowing their mind to fall into dream-filled sleep. Instead, they need to direct their consciousness where they intend to travel. The mind will do the work, as long as they don’t change their mind or do anything that negates their prior intention. Self-doubt is the biggest obstacle in this for some individuals.”
- Dream Traveler Codex
Adelaide observed that Zephyr looked paler than usual. However, he was alive, so what did she care if he looked a bit pasty. Welcome to her world as a redhead and a permanent resident of an underwater facility. Aiden had said the first drug trial went as well as could be expected, although Zephyr had thrashed around while clenching his teeth. He was such a fucking drama queen.
She pulled her eyes over to Kaleb, who wore a dejected expression she had mastered. Adelaide was well acquainted with defeat. It was fair to say she had a graduate degree in the emotion, actually. However, if she’d been an optimist, which she wasn’t then, she’d say that defeat propelled a person on to better things. Pushed them toward their full potential. Kaleb was going to complete agent training and that was the only silver lining in his mistakes while out in the field. The problem wouldn’t have happened at all if Trent hadn’t thrown out her father’s protocol and allowed Kaleb to bypass required agent training.
Adelaide brought her gaze to her boss, who wasn’t much older than her. It had been Ren who hand-picked Trent to take over for him as head strategist. At night, when she should be sleeping, she dreamed about having his position. Wouldn’t that be the one thing that would have really made her father proud? For her to take over his old position, the one created for him that he held for over twenty years? However, when she allowed herself to dream, her nightmare involved her failing as an agent, and as head strategist.
“Okay, for those who don’t know, Mika has an alien,” Adelaide said, clicking the remote so that the image she’d sketched of the Arcturian popped up on the projector, displaying on the screen at the front of the conference room.
“Holy mother of shoes,” Rox said, slapping her hands on her bare thighs.
Pants. What the FBI hooker needed was a pair of pants, but instead she preferred to wear ass-hugging shorts and skirts. The one pair of jeans she wore was two sizes too small.
“Well, now I’ve seen everything,” Trent said, combing his hands through his appalling dreads. Scissors. What that guy needed was an hour with a pair of scissors. If everyone just took Adelaide’s advice then they’d all look way more tolerable and not make her throw up.
“That’s what you saw when you were at Parantaa Research?” Connor said, pulling a pair of glasses from a case he’d withdrawn from his jean pocket. Adelaide didn’t know he wore glasses, but once he’d put them on and squinted at the image, she kind of liked the way he looked in them. Like he was smart and bad. Visually flawed, but also strangely hip. Tossing the observation away, she pushed her hair behind her ear.
“Yes, he was keeping it in the storage room where you all ran into him,” Adelaide said. Yes, she’d held on to all of this information, waiting until this meeting to reveal it, knowing that surprising everyone with things they didn’t even know they didn’t know about all at once would be more fun. She remembered how thick her head felt when she learned aliens were real. Aiden helped her to pinpoint exactly what kind of alien this was that Mika had in possession, but someone else had been able to help her figure out exactly what this specimen was going to be used for.
“What could he possibly do with an alien?” Zephyr said, his voice sounding uncharacteristically tired.
Rio caught the change in Zephyr too, based on the concerned expression he gave him.
“That was the question I had too,” Adelaide said, picking up her leather-bound book, the one Ren had written.
“Has Aiden been consulted? He’s the resident alien expert,” Trent said.
Adelaide didn’t hide the scowl he deserved to receive. “I do know what I’m fucking doing,” she said, earning a horrified expression from both Zephyr and Rio. No, that’s not how most talked to their superior, but most weren’t Adelaide. What was Trent going to do, fire her? Then he’d roast and he knew it.
“I was only checking. Honestly, I’ve never seen an actual depiction of an alien. I’m just surprised,” Trent said, probably not as offended sounding as everyone in the room thought he should be.
“Aiden was able to help me identify this as an Arcturian. They have an incredibly long life span. Furthermore, they’re considered higher beings by the quack population on earth that follow the creatures. Apparently there’s a group that’s waiting for them to beam them up, since they can apparently transcend the fifth dimension.” Adelaide said all this in one long bored set of sentences.
“How did Mika catch a being like that?” Zephyr asked.
“Who knows. They are, according to what Aiden dug up, the guardians of the earth,” Adelaide said.
“I thought that’s what the Lucidites were,” Kaleb said, scoffing. “How dare they?”
He’d been more sullen since the whole thing with his mum, but it was probably what he needed for closure.
“If we
have anyone who is helping us to protect this planet, I’d think it would be an alien race like this,” Trent said.
“Anyway, Aiden was able to supply me with one bit that I was able to use. Besides from being incredibly powerful, the Arcturians apparently use a vibrant liquid to rejuvenate themselves,” Adelaide said, pausing and waiting for the dawning.
Blank faces stared back at her. Damn it, these people were a bunch of bloody gits.
“You all don’t get it?” she said.
“Get what?” Kaleb said. “That you think we’re all mind readers?”
Adelaide cleared her throat. Had she read all this into the situation and was actually far off base? She desperately hoped not. “We know that Mika has a sick obsession with creating things from horror movies. Kris said he manufactures different skills, such as super speed and heightened senses, as well as created a Neanderthal, werewolves, and other monsters. So if we use what we know about Mika, I think the dots are pretty easy to connect,” Adelaide said.
“You think he’s making a vampire?” And it was Connor who finally said the words that flooded Adelaide’s chest with warmth. Finally, someone was on her wavelength.
“I know he is,” she said, injecting confidence into her voice.
“A werewolf’s natural enemy,” Zephyr said, almost to himself.
“Yes, like cats and dogs,” Rox said.
“So he’s going to make a man who feasts on blood and is unstoppable?” Rio said, whistling through his teeth. “That guy just doesn’t stop.”
“Actually, that’s where Aiden’s information came up a bit incongruent. He’s not wrong that Arcturians need a liquid to revitalize, but that’s only when they are weak. And yes, we could think of that substance as blood, which I presume is what it translates to on our planet,” Adelaide, said, thumbing to her bookmark in her book. “However, I found other data that suggests something else.” She cleared her throat a second time and read. “The race of alien known as Arcturian might need the liquid form of replenishment when reserves are low or it’s damaged. Nevertheless, my investigations show that these creatures mostly feed off of pure energy. Positive energy fuels them. They are the leeches of the emotional world, feasting off humans’ good emotions.” She brought her eyes up to her team when she finished the passage she’d found that morning. It had astonished her probably more than it should have that she’d flipped the book open that morning to find that section on aliens. Ren really knew every-fucking-thing.