22. Pet Project
22
Pet Project
Theron
Time.
It was the only villain I could not conquer, only force I could not decipher. It knelt to no master, and even death had to conduct itself in accordance to time’s omnipotent rules. There was nothing I could do to speed along the time it would take for Ever to look me in the eyes again and not see the dead ones of her attacker.
She’d killed him.
I hadn’t thought to allow her the final blow to Matty, knowing that the final breath of any living thing weighed heavy on anyone — so much so that you found yourself waiting for it to eventually drag you under. Every death you caused was a white-capped wave of darkness that pulled on your clothes and yanked down your limbs with unimaginable force.
No, I’d never intended to let her kill him but I should have never have allowed her to see the preamble to his death unless I was prepared for her reaction to swing this way. That was a mistake I would bear alone, and time without her would be my punishment.
I didn’t believe letting Ever return back home was for the best, begging her to allow me to book her a hotel room since she was adamant that she not return to my home, but she denied every option. She’d told me I could text her, but that she couldn’t stand being touched. Couldn’t stand having me close to her. That’s what fucking hurt.
It had been six days since Tabitha cleaned Ever’s apartment, erasing any evidence of the attack. Once Tabitha had left, Ever locked herself behind the door and hasn’t emerged since. I’d become obsessed with checking her location while between surgeries, and spending my nights parked down the street from her apartment just so I could be near. When I allowed myself any sleep, it was usually plagued by terrible nightmares that left my chest gripped in an icy vice for hours after.
“I’d rather die than be with you,” she’d always declare in my nightmares. “You’re a monster, and you’ll ruin me.”
I buried my face in my hands, trying to wipe away the restlessness when I was distracted by my work phone beginning to ring. It was well past midnight, the streets of south Boston empty as the buzzing street lamps illuminated a damp and dark road ahead.
“Hawthorne,” I spat, staring down at the watch she’d handed back to me.
“Hello, son. You’ve been avoiding my calls.”
My jaw tightened. “I thought you would have interpreted that for an answer, but using my work number must mean you’re truly desperate. I do hope this is business related, or you’re wasting both of our time.”
“Tabitha says you haven’t hunted in weeks, and usually I’d assume that’s because you’ve been busy or your activities have slowed due to weather, but then I got a call from Faust.”
Fuck. The New York organ facilities were all cross-generational, set up by a team of doctors after World War Two as a way to lure and punish escaped Nazis and sympathizers in South America. After a few years of hunting, many retired back to the States where they used their talents for tracking down monsters to free those who were still being harmed. My grandfather went into the neuroscience field, and identified hundreds of pieces of shit who, if they weren’t abusing their domestic partners, were instead trying to drop their battered and forgotten wives off in nut houses.
Faust’s family was even more prolific, and his father had him at the ripe old age of seventy with a girl of barely nineteen who didn’t understand the world outside of bank accounts and the hope of a soon-to-be departed husband. Unfortunately Atlas Faust’s father lived another ten years and his mother never became a widow.
“Oh yeah,” I grit out with barely concealed rage. “And what did he have to say?”
“He says there’s been a match made, but there’s complications. This doesn’t happen to be for your little pet project, does it?”
A match! My heart skipped a beat, fingers tightening around the phone as a fantasy quickly played through my mind of being able to give Ever what she needed. What she had earned by allowing me so close to her.
“What complications?” I asked, ignoring jab at Ever. Faust had never called when there’d been an issue, but simply moved on until he found a solution. Why would he call my father?
Orlo scoffed. “I trust you to keep trades between facilities to a minimum, Theron, not make requests on behalf of a woman who’s file claims she’s a suicide risk as it is. You know Dr. Warren called me yesterday and said you’d turned down two experimental surgeries that were being observed by Baylor. This girl is clearly a distraction, son. One that is not worth your time.”
I could strangle Warren with my bare hands, and maybe I’d let Ever watch — I know how much she despises that bag of bones. Yes, I’d denied two surgeries but they were elective and risky. I could have just as easily tarnished my reputation as enhanced it if Baylor’s Board later discerned that I was distracted. Which truthfully, I was.
“What did Faust have to say,” I demanded with no expectation of receiving an answer.
“He has a target, but he’s unwilling to delegate the hunt to his own team. New York will provide the dossier, but you would have to harvest and make the collection.”
“Fine,” I said with a spark of hope. It was strange that Faust wouldn’t collect himself, seeing as he had a team of nearly five harvesters, including himself, but the New York division was not my business and his men were not mine to wield. “The target is in the city, then?”
My father grunted a confirmation as I put the car into drive, heading towards the facility to start my preparations. I’d go a few hours south, hunt and be back tomorrow morning with a a new heart for Ever.
“Faust emailed me the details. I’ve forwarded them to Tabitha — take her with you.”
“No,” I said quickly. “She has responsibilities in Boston and this won’t take long.”
“There are rules, Theron. Never. Hunt. Alone.”
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel. In truth, he was right, but I needed someone in the city who could keep an eye on Ever. I still didn’t trust her to not do something stupid, and she hadn’t left her apartment in almost a week. I’d rather risk myself than leave her alone.
“There’s still work to be done on a few cases, and I’ll be back by morning — ”
“I’ll complete the desk work, but please son, take your assistant. New York is of a different scale to Boston, and you’ve never hunted there before. It will be much more difficult to find your target alone.” I was quiet, so he drove the point home with an ultimatum. “If you refuse to take Tabitha, I won’t share the dossier. Faust seemed to want it off his hands so there’s a chance you could lose it if you don’t act now. This is your one shot to get your hands on this target.”
“Fuck,” I growled, dropping the phone into my lap. My father would not bend on this, and we both knew it. If I wanted that file, I’d have to leave Ever alone in Boston.
She’ll be okay for a day, I assured myself. I’ll keep watch on her phone, and be sure to make this quick. I needed this heart for her, and the last few weeks had come up fruitless. Ever’s blood type is O negative, and though plasmapheresis has helped minimize risk of combining with a non-matching donor, it was too big of a risk to take a small facility like my own, especially with Ever.
“Fine,” I spat down the line. “I’ll take Tabitha, but after this, you and I will have words.” I through the phone into the passenger footwell as I grit my teeth, speeding towards the facility.