14. Anomalous Cells
FOURTEEN
ANOMALOUS CELLS
Jack
“ W hat the—”
The room exploded into a blur of snarling, lunging hybrids.
I leaped to my feet, grabbed the girl … female … Seven, whatever the fuck she wanted to call herself, and tugged her behind me. One of them slashed at me. I brought an elbow up to fend him off. Claws raked me, tearing through fabric and skin.
I hissed in pain and punched the asshole in the face. He flew backward, bowling over another couple of the freaks who were gunning for us.
Why the fuck is this happening?
The girl snarled, trying to pull free of me, but I gripped her tighter as I backed us into a corner.
My claws sprouted, and I wrenched a metal table from where it was bolted to the floor, upending it to make it a shield between us as the first of them launched at me.
“What the fuck is going on?” I grunted, bracing myself against the table. The girl stared at where the freak had just gouged me. The hot slide of blood down my arm made my stomach turn. I refused to look, instead keeping my eyes firmly on Seven’s horrified expression.
“You were drinking my blood!” she hissed as the table shuddered under another of the hybrids.
I gaped at her, my body slackening enough that the next attack made the table shudder and groan. My shoulder popped, agony slicing through me.
“Jack, Seven, stay where you are!” Dean’s voice rang out amidst the roars and shrieks of berserk hybrids. The table buckled under the weight of another half-breed colliding with it. The metal shrieked with the horrendous sound of claws gouging the surface.
“I’m fucking sorry!” I grated, my voice sharp with pain. “It’s not like I got my pick of blood shakes!”
I maneuvered my body so my dislocated shoulder wasn’t taking the brunt of the attack. The girl … Seven … dug claws into my shoulder and arm and twisted.
“Aaaarrrgh!” I roared as the joint popped back into place, and she shoved me aside, bracing herself against the table.
“It’s strange that I was ordered to come here outside of my allotted lunchtime at the same time as you’re being fed my blood!” she snapped, wincing as the table shuddered under another onslaught and lurched to the side, creating a narrow gap.
A clawed hand snaked in. Seven swiped at it with long, curved feline claws. Blood sprayed, and the half-breed screamed, the arm disappearing.
“Is this really what we need to be worrying about right now?” I asked, incredulous, as the table buckled in the center, tossing her against me.
Jesus fucking Christ, black tea and springtime bloomed around her so strong I almost groaned. Her warm, lithe body pressed against mine.
Mine.
Bite. Fuck. Make her Mine , roared the monster.
Gritting my teeth against the monster’s urges, I shoved her back into the corner, putting space between our bodies. Finally, the agents out there in the melee seemed to be doing their fucking jobs. The buzz of those electric prods and the thump of body after body hitting the linoleum floor overtook the sounds of crazy half-breeds snarling and growling. The table didn’t lurch again.
“What the fuck set them off?” I hissed, not willing to release the table just in case there were still some of them on the loose.
Seven scowled. “I don’t think they like you,” she said.
I barked out a laugh. “Really? I would never have guessed.” I eyed her as she stared down at the blood of that other hybrid drying on her claws.
“Do they like you ?” I asked.
She shrugged. “It’s not safe to like anyone around here,” she muttered, her tone so dark that my stomach churned.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I asked, but before I could demand an answer, the table was hauled away, and Dean and a younger woman peered at us.
Dean looked weirdly pleased. She probably got off on electrocuting hybrids.
“You two worked well together … kept each other safe,” she remarked. A low rumble from Seven’s throat vibrated through my bones.
I hated how much she affected me.
“You call her spilling my drink and setting off those animals ‘working well’ together?” I asked with a harsh laugh.
Seven sucked in an angry breath. That sound shot straight into my chest, clawing at me. My head swam. My shoulders … shit, my shoulder blades … something was … growing there. I could feel it pressing against the fabric of my shirt.
“What the fuck?” I muttered, rolling my shoulders, which only made them feel worse. I glanced up and found Seven’s eyes on me. Her lips parted, and she rubbed at her arms, her claws leaving red scratch marks.
Don’t hurt that beautiful skin …
I reached out and wrapped my hands around hers, stilling them. She was so warm. My teeth sharpened, my jaw ached. She sucked in a tiny breath, eyelids fluttering.
You’ve tasted her blood now … but direct from the source, you’ll discover perfection, the monster whispered insidiously in the back of my mind. Do it. Pierce her shoulder … drink …
I wrenched my hands away from her, taking a step back and knocking the young agent to the floor.
“Shit,” I muttered, my shoulder blades rippling further.
You’ll be ready to fly soon.
What the fuck is that supposed to mean?
Dean’s eyes narrowed, and she reached for me, her fingers rough on my elbow.
“You were injured, Jack. You need to be checked over in the infirmary.”
My injuries had already healed, but I didn’t argue … didn’t fight her. I let her tug me away from the tangle of unconscious hybrids as more agents filed into the room with syringes and gurneys.
I let her drag me away from Seven, who frowned at me, her claws raking her arms again, as the younger agent spoke to her. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I should have been able to hear what they were saying.
But my brain was buzzing.
What had Farida said back when she was explaining the Join to Blaire? Something about needing to drink blood and have sex to complete the connection?
What if my drinking that cup of her blood had triggered that process? I had no idea about how it all worked, really. Blood and sex was all I could remember.
Even now, every pulse of blood through my veins was screaming to rip free of Dean, to run to her. To take her somewhere, anywhere, away from all of this … to take what was Mine.
I shoved those feelings down as deep as I could. I let Dean pull me through the doors, into the corridor, and through the confusing labyrinth of white hallways. The further she took me from that female, the better.
Blood calls … blood calls … The monster’s words were a terrifying promise.
I wanted nothing to do with any of this. But if they put me near her again … I wasn’t sure whether what was left of my human brain would be strong enough to resist.
Y ou wasted a perfect chance to take her!
Will you shut the ever-loving fuck up! I’m sick of having arguments with my own fucking brain! It’s bad enough that you keep sneaking out when she’s around.
It’s not a crime to want to talk to what’s Mine every now and then.
She’s not yours!
No … she’s ours …
“Why do you need another blood sample?” I asked roughly, hopefully shutting down the furious, horny beast inside my skull.
Agent Mercer, the nasty bitch who I’d met last time I came to the labs, smirked down at me as her young assistant—who weirdly looked a lot like the young agent who had been with Dean in the mess hall when Baxter’s bullshit experiment had gone to shit—tapped a vein with cool, gentle fingers, and I had to look away.
Mercer’s laugh was harsh. “Does the freak get a bit squeamish at the sight of blood? So, you can drink the stuff, but not look at it?” She snorted over at the girl, who removed the tourniquet from around my arm. I wondered what expression she was wearing, but I couldn’t bring myself to look because … blood. More specifically, my blood.
“It seems that raising a hybrid in the wild makes them too soft for our purposes,” Mercer continued, folding her arms over her chest. “Our facility variant is much colder and more bloodthirsty than this golden boy.” She looked me up and down with distaste.
Was it just me, or were they taking a lot more blood than they had last time? I wanted that needle out of my arm. I wanted to rip the fucking cannula out and sink my claws into Mercer’s stupid jowly throat. See how she liked the look of her blood dripping down my fists.
“I have no issue with other people’s blood,” I snapped, pressing my lips together as the young girl removed the cannula with surprising gentleness, pressing her thumb to the wound for only a second. Because that’s how fast my veins sealed over these days.
Fucking freak healing.
You’ll need that fucking freak healing when it comes time to run with her.
Great, I hadn’t even been able to shut up the stupid beast for very long.
“So in battle, you’ll be fine until someone gets their filthy freak claws in you, and then you’ll faint?” Mercer scoffed. “I don’t know why Baxter is so enamored with you, Jack Turner. From what I’ve seen of your mother, it’s no wonder you’re a pathetic waste of space.”
I lunged off the gurney, my fingers curled around Mercer’s neck, slamming her body against the wall. Her head cracked into the concrete, and she sucked in air, her eyes widening in fear.
My lips curled up, my teeth sharpening. The monster hovered so close to the surface, howling for her blood. I almost wanted to let him loose. I pressed my claws into her skin until blood welled.
“Like I said … I have no issue with other people’s blood,” I hissed in her face, reveling in the way her skin paled as red trickled from the sides of her neck. “You speak about my mother like that again, and I’ll sever your sour old bitch head straight off your body.”
Mercer’s lips trembled, then curved into a cruel smile.
“You might have the brawn, Jack … but I have the brains.”
The sharp pinch of a needle in my side, and the world immediately began to go fuzzy around the edges.
I swayed, my fingers going slack, releasing her neck. I took a step backward, staggering as my knees gave out.
“If it wasn’t for the truly fascinating anomaly of your blood, I’d be putting you down permanently,” she whispered, gripping my arm and shoving me onto the gurney. I blinked, struggling to keep her face in focus. “Without that, you’re nothing to me. Nothing to any of us. A useless, domesticated beast.”
I tried to open my mouth, but all that I managed was a warm trickle of drool out of the corner of my lips.
As the blurriness turned to darkness, I wished I’d had the strength to spit it in her face instead.
V oices. Echoing voices. From the darkness, I listened.
“That went sideways at a rate of knots.” That was Baxter. And he wasn’t happy.
“You were the one who demanded to trial them today when I told you they weren’t ready! I told you I hadn’t perfected the drug yet. They’re still too volatile. They can’t differentiate between their signal and other … stimuli.” Mercer ripped into him. I hated the bitch, but she had some balls.
If only I knew what the fuck they were talking about.
“They look too much like damn zombies, Meredith!” Baxter growled. “I need them to blend in if we’re going to use them the way we’ve planned.”
Meredith? Meredith Mercer? The name didn’t suit her at all.
Cruella DeVille. That was more like it. I would have chuckled if my body was more than a lead lump.
“You ask for a lot, Baxter, in a very small timeframe. If you don’t want to wait, you’re going to get inferior res—oh! Lovely to see you again, Agent Rodgers,” Mercer exclaimed suddenly, her voice tight.
“Can’t say I feel the same way,” a voice rasped. A woman’s voice.
Holy shit. Daphne. Not Harvey. I would have known that voice anywhere. She sounded hoarse like she hadn’t been using her voice much lately.
My heart thundered, but no matter how hard I tried to pry my eyes open, my eyelids wouldn’t cooperate. Whatever drug Mercer had given me was strong this time. Stronger than I’d ever been dosed with before.
Blaire’s mom was here, somewhere nearby.
“We’d like you to take a look at these blood samples, Daphne.” Baxter this time. His voice too pleasant. My skin prickled, but I was still stuck in the darkness.
“These first two are from Twelve and Nineteen. Taken after the … unfortunate miscarriage incident.”
“You know, it’s very hard to focus a microscope with my hands cuffed behind my back,” Daphne snarled.
I wanted to struggle, to rip myself out of this black fog, but my limp body refused to cooperate.
“Oh, don’t worry, you can sit there and watch the screen,” Mercer simpered. “I’ll do the hard work for you, just like I always have.”
Fuck, just her voice made me want to tear her smirking face off.
There was silence.
“Notice anything … anomalous here, Daphne?” Mercer prodded.
“That … those cells are new. I’ve never seen them in a hybrid sample before,” Daphne admitted.
“Hmmm, no, neither had we. They just seemed to … pop up out of nowhere. Interesting, though, how it coincided with our first successful impregnation.”
“Hmm,” was all Daphne said.
“It looks like the new cells have … merged, doesn’t it?” Mercer’s voice was thoughtful, but there was a smug undertone. She thought she knew exactly what she was looking at.
So why had they brought Daphne in? Why was she cuffed? What were they doing to her? Did Harvey know about any of this?
“It does,” Daphne conceded.
“Well,” Baxter interjected, suddenly businesslike. “We also discovered another anomalous blood result recently, after some unsanctioned shifting occurred. If you’ll direct your eyes to the screen again, Daphne.”
Silence again. Longer this time. My stomach cramped.
They know. They know.
I ignored the monster’s worried whispering because it made no sense. They knew what?
“It’s … the cells are anomalous, but … incomplete?” Daphne mumbled. She sounded confused by it, but I’d spent my entire life listening to her talk. She was worried, not confused.
“Indeed, my own deduction,” Mercer agreed. And then, this sample, taken from another hybrid on the same day. Notice how the cells seem to be the … yin to the yang of the previous sample?”
“What are you trying to say?” Daphne asked, her voice suddenly dark. I tried again to pry my eyes open, but again, nothing. My body was numb.
My brain … it was the opposite of numb.
“And when we took a sample of the previous hybrid and combined it with a sample from this one … look what happened.”
I hated the silence. I hated not knowing what they were looking at.
“They’ve … they’re trying to merge.” Daphne sounded sick to the stomach.
“It’s almost like these two samples are meant to be together,” Mercer said, and she sounded excited now. But about what?
“And it’s interesting that these samples are attempting to merge following us combining them in a lab environment … but Twelve and Nineteen’s successfully merged without us doing anything to combine their blood. It made me start questioning why? Why did Twelve and Nineteen’s cells behave this way when we’ve never had this happen before?”
They know, they know.
Shut up, I’m trying to listen!
“After all our unsuccessful attempts at in vitro fertilization using hybrid gametes. After all our unsuccessful attempts at conception the ‘old fashioned way’, why was it suddenly successful for Twelve and Nineteen, and why did it coincide with their cells mutating and merging like this?”
My ribs suddenly felt too small to hold my lungs. Everything felt too tight.
It’s just a side effect of whatever fucked up drug they pumped you with , I lied to myself.
“And why did these other two samples mutate on the same day … and why won’t they merge when we combine them, the way Twelve and Nineteen’s cells have merged?”
The silence stretched on for a fucking eternity as I lay there in my useless, limp, blind body.
“Do you expect me to put together a theory for you?” Daphne eventually asked, her words slow and careful.
Mercer giggled. If my body had been working, I would have shuddered at the sound.
“No … I just want to see the look on your face when I tell you my theory. Because I think you knew all of this … I think you’ve known for a long time … and you kept it from us. Kept it a secret to protect your daughter and your godson.”
The monster roared inside my skull. Heat flashed through me, burning enough of the drug from me that I could crack open my eyes. My heart hammered with the effort.
The white ceiling of the lab room. That’s all I could see. My body still wouldn’t respond. I couldn’t turn my head, couldn’t lift my arms.
“Agent Mercer,” Baxter interjected, a sharp warning in his tone. “We brought Daphne here for her professional opinion. Please, share your theory and nothing more.”
Mercer sniffed. “Originally, we were working under the assumption that the conception had created a bond between Twelve and Nineteen. A primitive evolutionary quirk to ensure both parents remained close to protect the baby. But when we saw these other samples … from two hybrids who have never attempted conception together …”
They know … they know …
And I realized, suddenly, what the monster was trying to tell me.
No …
Fuck …
“We theorized that the evolutionary quirk occurs to connect the two upon their first copulation. Whether conception occurs or not, the two merge … become a mated pair.”
I was going to hurl. I was going to throw up in my mouth, and my body couldn’t move to stop me from choking on it.
“But as we haven’t seen this occur in any of the dozens of other pairings that we’ve overseen in the last two years of trials, we have to assume that there must need to be some sort of preexisting connection between a pair for the mating bond to activate.”
Mercer giggled again. “And isn’t it fortunate that it appears we have stumbled across another such pairing right here in our midst … and quite by accident.”
She paused as the bile rose up my throat.
“How does it feel to know that when we send you back to that filthy little prison cell, your godson, your golden boy Jack, is going to be one half of the coupling that will help us prove my theory?”
I vomited. And choked.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Mercer snarled.
“Take Daphne back to her … accommodation,” Baxter commanded, and then Mercer and the young woman who reminded me of the agent I’d seen with Seven earlier were over me. I tried to cough, tried desperately to turn my head, to clear the vomit from my mouth and throat.
“Sort him out, Greta!” Mercer barked, and the young woman gently turned my body as if I wasn’t three hundred pounds of muscle, and scooped the blood-tinged vomit from my mouth, clearing my airway so I could breathe again.
“Pathetic,” Mercer muttered. “Take him back to his cell, get him cleaned up. He’s no use to me like this. I need him fully functioning.”
Her nasty face peered at me as Greta wheeled me from the room. “Can’t wait until the next time we see one another, Jack,” she said, her tone so salacious I thought I might hurl again. “I’m sure I’ll get front-row seats at quite a … performance.”
Her palm snaked up the inside of my thigh, and as the gurney moved past her, she reached between my legs, cupping my dick and squeezing.
I couldn’t stop her.
So I vomited again.