12. Chapter 12
The Peerage’s hospital was located in a sprawling underground complex, adjacent to the research wing of the institute.
The thick walls were sheathed in white tiles and the expensive Swedish modern furniture looked like it had never been touched.
The silence was deafening and the stark sterile odor nauseating and I needed to unleash the pent up rage that had accumulated during the six hour trip here.
Dr Serkis assured me that he would be able to help Nadia and that I’d done nothing wrong.
I knew he was right, but not being able to see her, to touch her, kept me on edge.
All I could do was wait.
Isla was there with me. She'd met us at the airport, ridden with us in the ambulance, but we hadn't had a chance to speak alone. Her copper hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail and the soft strands looked like fire against the cream turtleneck she was wearing. This wasn’t supposed to be happening.
I was supposed to go to Alaska, sniff around and report back, not find a mate — and definitely not find out that my family might be involved in whatever the hell was going on.
Isla fixed her green eyes on me. She wanted answers. So did I.
“I need you to tell me everything.”
“You first. Did you know about Gus?” I turned to her, hoping that she would finally come clean.
“No, maybe…” She was lying. I didn’t need to see her face to know that. What else had she lied about? “We had suspicions, but Albert didn't want me to say anything.”
“Jesus Christ. He's my brother. Why…” I exhaled, reminding myself that none of this was her fault. She was just following orders and even though I expected more from her, I shifted my anger to Albert where it belonged.
“Now you. Why didn’t you tell me the truth about Nadia?
” I focused on a plant in the corner, my thoughts drifting in and out of the events of the past few days.
I was hiding a lot, like the suspicion that I caused this.
The timing couldn't be a coincidence, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if she died.
“She wasn't born lycan. I knew that and I mated with her anyway and this” — I motioned towards the doors to the ICU — “happened.” Isla tried to touch me and I jerked away. There were some things I wasn’t ready to share.
“You think that fucking her put her into a coma? You’re good, Max, but you’re not that good.
” She was teasing, and I knew she was trying her best to make me feel better, but it didn’t help.
She packed away the sarcasm and her tone became serious.
“It was going to happen no matter what. This has nothing to do with you, but bringing her to DC was absolutely the right decision. Dr Serkis is the foremost expert on shifters, if there’s anything that can be done, he can do it. ”
She was right, and logically I knew it, but I still felt responsible.
We barely knew each other, but I couldn’t imagine my life without Nadia in it.
I paced fretfully, trying to feel her presence, but it was so faint that it was almost gone.
I was so distracted that I didn't notice Albert Mason had joined us. He was the head of the Peerage and oversaw the secretive workings of the extra-governmental organization. I’d met him a few times, but ours was little more than a passing acquaintance.
“Good to see you, Max.” He stuck out his hand and I shook it.
He then looked at Isla, shoving his hands into the pockets of his wool pants, the scent of Old Spice and mothballs wafting around him in an invisible cloud.
He was balding, less than five feet tall and wore a pair of round glasses and a wool cardigan that made him look like he’d stepped out of a faculty photo from Cambridge University circa 1952. “What the fuck happened?”
“An altered lycan is in the ICU. She arrived with Max earlier this evening” — Isla glanced at me, all business — “about an hour ago. We’re still waiting for more information.” I grimaced at the truncated timeline. She was more than just a lycan — she was my mate and she had to survive.
“What’s going on here, Max?” Albert turned to face me. “I’ve read your report and none of it is good. Two dead Peers, a destroyed truck, our only solid evidence gone; give me something we can work with.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about Gus?” I was through playing games.
Albert cleared his throat and crossed his arms, stared at the floor as he gathered his thoughts and returned his attention to me.
“He knows?” The question was directed at Isla.
“One of the demons…” I started, but Albert held up his hand, interrupting me. I wanted to wring his scrawny neck, but held back, needing to hear his justification before I acted.
“We’re not having this conversation here. Let’s go to my office.”
My anger simmered, threatening to erupt as I followed them into the maze of tunnels below ground.
Our footsteps were the only sound as we walked in silence, then emerged through a blastproof door into a magnificent but empty atrium.
I’d been here before, the first time I came with Isla, when she found me in that squatter house I was living in and basically saved my life.
I owed these people so much, but right now my world was falling apart and I deserved an explanation.
Albert scanned his keycard at the bank of elevators and pressed the button for the top floor.
It was late and the offices were abandoned with only a few cleaning staff lingering in the hallways.
“Coffee, anyone?” He asked as we passed by the kitchen.
I shook my head and he opened the door at the end of the long hallway and we entered his office.
It wasn’t as large as I expected, but had a magnificent view of the lights of the city and I walked towards the windows as he turned on his laptop and Isla sat down on the orange sofa against the far wall.
It was late, I was exhausted and the only thing I wanted from them was an apology.
Albert tossed his keys on the heavy wooden desk and leaned against it, crossing his arms and staring at me, waiting for the first volley.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me that my brother was involved?”
“I can’t get into the specifics of that decision right now…”
“That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“How, Max? You act like you’re barely interested in the assignments we give you, blatantly turn down any that don’t involve Isla and act like you’re doing us a favor when you deign to make an appearance. Remind me why I should share important information like this with you?”
My heart was pounding in my chest, but I unclenched my fists and took a deep breath. My wolf wanted me to act, to jump across the room and force him to answer my questions, to take revenge for everything that had happened, but that anger was misdirected.
Albert was an asshole, but he was right.
“This case involves significantly more than just your family issues.” Albert paused, making sure he had my attention.
“Humans are being killed and there’s a distinct possibility that forces more destructive than any we’ve encountered are involved.
I’m not going to apologize for doing my job, but maybe you should apologize to me, and Isla, for not doing yours. ”
I glanced at Isla. She looked away and I knew that everything he said was true. I was a shitty employee and had been coasting for far too long.
“I want to help now, Albert. This is something I can fix. I know the people, the communities. Let me take care of this.”
“No,” Albert said as he stood, then took a seat behind his desk, turning on his laptop. “I want you to stay here to be with the lycan when she wakes up. She’s our most important asset right now and you’re the only one who knows her well enough to get her to talk.”
Albert leaned back in his chair and stared at me. I wanted to be here for Nadia, but I had to go. I was being torn apart, but I knew I was the only one who could make this right. I had to convince him to let me handle it. I ran my hand through my hair and waited, pacing restlessly.
The city always did this to me, gave me a manic sense of being trapped, confined, unable to get away from myself.
Being in this building only intensified that sensation and even though I knew that Isla wanted to help me, I had a hard time keeping that in mind.
I stared at her as she leaned back and crossed her legs, her foot swinging idly as she stared back at me.
She knew I’d been with Nadia. Was she upset?
There had never been any issue before, but I couldn’t help but feel that her silence was accusatory.
“These photos are good,” Albert finally said, interrupting my thoughts.
“Maybe this trip wasn’t a total disaster.
The photos of the individuals are especially helpful.
I’ll send them out to get firm IDs.” He typed and I waited.
“I’ve seen most of this equipment before. You said you witnessed the procedure?”
“Yes, well, partially. By the time I arrived, she had already transformed.” A chill ran through me as I recalled the pathetic howl and the deformed body.
“They were working to stabilize her, but were unsuccessful. Nadia worked in this field and understood the processes. She’ll be able to tell us what they were trying to accomplish in detail once she wakes up. ”
“Nadia, yes…” Albert’s voice trailed off as he started typing, then scrolled through some information.
The text on the screen reflected off the lens of his glasses and I waited.
“Her full name is Nadia Popova and until recently, she worked at the largest government backed biological research facility in Russia. Her research was focused on spontaneous cellular mutations in otherwise healthy genetic material.”
“Okay, that’s basically what she told me.”
“Well, this is where things might differ. She was running tests on human related Peers — vampires and lycans — and was recently offered employment by an American company.” Albert paused, reading the screen in front of him.
”This is interesting. It’s a private venture that creates what it calls ‘custom cures’ for those afflicted with genetic deficiencies... ”
“Cures? For what?” I interrupted. How was any of this related to her becoming a lycan? “Why are they doing this?”
My questions went unanswered as Albert typed furiously.
“Hold on a sec…” he said. “This makes more sense now. My guess is that they figured out how to transform humans into Peers, but not the other way around. If this group is using that technology, then it's obvious that they haven't learned how to use it effectively. This still doesn’t answer the why and that’s what we need right now.”
“Christ,” I muttered as I sat down on the sofa next to Isla.
Why the fuck would someone want to subject themself to this?
It was a curse, one I’d actively tried to exorcise for so many years.
Even after coming to terms with what I was, it was still unbearable to be so different than almost everyone around me.
“So she did work with them? She said she woke up and was a lycan, that she had no clue what happened to her.”
“She’s not necessarily lying, Max. She may have considered it but didn’t like the direction the research was going.
Maybe there was another issue and they no longer needed her and left her to fend for herself.
” Isla’s voice was low, even, her words controlled and the suspicion that she had seen Nadia’s memories began to creep in, that she knew exactly what had happened to her.
“Why did she collapse?”
“We believe that she’s de-evolving, as it were,” Albert said and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Her DNA is reverting and the doctors are working to prevent complete cellular collapse.”
I rested my elbows on my knees and my head in my hands, leaning forward as their words sank in, the prospect of losing her worse than death.
“Will she survive?”
“It’s too early to know for sure. The woman they found on the beach died from a similar complication, but Nadia was able to tolerate shifting.” Albert adjusted a few items on his desk as he let that information slip.
“So what is she?” I asked and Albert shook his head, leaning back in his chair as he pushed up his glasses and cleared his throat.
“Honestly? We don’t know.”