Blood cleaning.That grabbed his attention, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
“Something wasn’t right with the cleaning.”She made air quotes.“Ava and I talked about it.They hooked us to something they called a dialysis machine right from the start.They said it would clean our kidneys from any impurities if we came in contact with the XD87867 virus, but it hadn’t manifested yet.We all got sick right after the first two times it was done.”
“How many times were you subjected to the process?”
“Four.After each time there were more and more tests.”Her eyes glazed over, as she rubbed her hands over the bend of her arms as if she could feel the needle pricks even now.
He caressed the top of her thigh, bringing her back to him.
The babies.How did you get pregnant, little angel?Amaros didn’t want to ask.Seeing her response to the tests and examinations, he was worried about what he would hear.Not really for his sake, he could not be more enraged than he already was at her government, but for her.Unfortunately, the council needed to know.
They all needed to know.
Michaela was not one of theirs, and Amaros did not doubt that his leaders were also categorizing murderous thoughts.
“They put them there.”
“The scientists?”Apparently, unable to restrain herself any longer, deep lines creased Kenia’s otherwise perfect, unmarred skin.
His mate glanced over at the only other female who had been a mother at the table.“Yes.Days before I escaped, one of the lab guards came to get me from my room in what I assume by the darkness and quiet of the corridors, it was the middle of the night.I was strapped down in a bed in the lab and wheeled to this room.One I had never been to before, but I couldn’t see much.Most of the room was shrouded in pitch black, except for the area where the scientist stood.The bed was set under a bright light, making it hard for me to see anything, but I saw a table with instruments, clamps, and a syringe filled with some colorless substance.But whatever plan they had for me they didn’t start right away.”
Michaela began to shake again, this time more violently.It amazed Amaros that she was able to keep her seat.When he started to reach for her and pull her into his arms, she held up a hand.
I’m okay.I need to get this out so it can stop living in my head.She pressed the fingers of one hand to her temple.
He nodded, but kept his hand on her leg.At first glance, because Michaela was a human, most of his kind would assume she was weak, but as he sat and listened to all the things she had gone through alone, even though there had been twelve others imprisoned with her, it was proof she was a fighter and strong.
“I knew something was wrong while I lay in that room.That something wasn’t right.There was a chill in the air, but it was always cold in the lab spaces.But...but I felt something.As if there was someone, or something in the dark corners watching me.”Michaela exhaled forcefully.“Then I saw it.”
“‘It’...not ‘him?’”Marceline asked, sitting forward in her seat, intrigued like all the others at Michaela’s recounting.
“It,” Michaela growled.“The first thing I heard was it snorting and grunting before I heard it moving, like it was dragging something.”Her wide, bright eyes looked at him.“It was wrong...broken and vile.Half man and dog...scales in all the wrong places and covered in thick patches of fur, had fangs thick and long like a walrus.This mangled beast moved into the arc of the light, and leaned toward me sniffing while the fucking scientists just stood there watching and panting like they were excited.
I screamed.Pleaded with them to get it away from me.I was sure it would devour me whole.When it lunged at me and tried to grab me, there was a loud buzzing sound, and a collar around the beast’s neck lit up.Then, it fell to the floor and crawled back into the darkness.”She shoved her short hair back away from her face, mussing it.“When I asked them to let me go and told them I didn’t want to be there anymore, they just said everything would be fine and covered my mouth and nose with a mask.I woke in my bed days later with a gnawing pain in my stomach.I knew they had put something in me.”
Right then, Amaros wanted to teleport inside the Wall, hunt down every scientist and rip every limb from their bodies one by one so they understood pain, before he carved out their miserable degenerate hearts.
Kenia launched to her feet.“That is heinous.They have the nerve to callusmonsters.”
“Humans do more vile things to each other than we ever could.”Ciaran picked up his goblet and slammed back the blood inside as if he needed to cleanse his palate after hearing the horrors that happened to Michaela.
“What is your plan, Amaros?We can’t let this type of behavior stand.”Marceline leaned back in her chair looking exhausted and vexed.
Amaros rose.He walked to the narrow, stained-glass window in the room.He needed space, not from Michaela but to contain his rage.“It is clear that the humans have decided to use the serum not only to mark some but to attempt to create some sort of super humans.”
“They are playing the Great Spirit, and failing at it, by Michaela’s description,” Velorina spoke from behind him.
The sun was shining bright on the lawn, and the sky's off-color hue was an example of humans affecting the natural order of things.
Now mutants.
“For now, " he said, facing the room.Others had gotten up and were pacing the office or standing and gripping the backs of their chairs.Only D’Arcy, Jezebel, and Amdis remained seated.
Michaela.She sat with her head leaned back in her chair, her eyes closed, as if the story's telling had drained her.
“It’s possible Michaela wasn’t the only one of the twelve they surgically implanted.”
“With three.The humans are impatient and overzealous,” Marceline snarked.
