Part 37 (2/2)
”I didn't have to build it. It was already there. Researching the effect of radiation from the nuclear testing sites, or something like that. Another project that got defunded, and the buildings left there for me to find in another file. Temporary buildings just means they get left until someone remembers to take them down. I appropriated the place for my purpose.”
”But you didn't get enough?” Eric asked, letting his voice go deceptively soft. ”So you thought taking my sister and her newborn was a good idea?”
”Again, I'm surrounded by idiots,” Kellerman snapped. ”I have a nurse on staff at that clinic who supplies me with samples from time to time. She called my researchers. They decided they couldn't pa.s.s up the opportunity to study a s.h.i.+fter baby, especially one that was half-human. So she drugged them and had them sent here. And once more, they took too long. They should have had them back to you by now. Scientists are like children with ADD. They get fixed into their experiments and forget what time it is. They wouldn't change their socks if no one was there to tell them.”
As he finished, Eric took the magazine out of Kellerman's gun and crushed it in his strong, half-s.h.i.+fted hand. Bullets rained harmlessly to the floor, most of them bent. Eric then twisted the pistol in two in front of Kellerman's face.
Eric dropped the broken pieces of pistol. ”Well, my friend, you won't have to worry about your pet scientists anymore. We're closing you down.”
”You don't have that much power, Warden,” Kellerman said, still too confident. ”You'll be arrested for abducting me, probably executed. And everyone in this room with you. Except Ms. Duncan. She'll go to prison for aiding you, and her mother will likely lose her nice business.”
”I'm not a s.h.i.+fter,” Reid said quietly.
Kellerman jumped. The Fae had remained in the shadows, and now he leaned against the elevator's doorframe. ”I used to be a cop before I resigned,” Reid said. ”Believe it or not, abducting s.h.i.+fters is against the law, and experimenting on them is too.”
”I wasn't experimenting on them,” Kellerman said quickly.
”No, you were harvesting from them,” Eric said, anger in his voice. ”To make a new species of s.h.i.+fter. It didn't work before. Why did you think it would work now?”
”I told you. Technology has improved in the last forty years.”
”Doesn't matter,” Reid said. ”s.h.i.+fters were never bred by men in the first place. They were created by the Fae, in Faerie. The Fae used genetic engineering and technology, sure, but also a good dose of magic. That, you don't have, and you never will, thank the G.o.ddess. That kind of magic doesn't work outside Faerie anyway.”
”Fairies?” Kellerman laughed. ”What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?”
”Fae,” Reid corrected. ”Or hoch alfar, as my people called them. Evil b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. It's interesting to me that, no matter how bad you are, you'll never be as evil as the high Fae. You're too petty and full of yourself.”
”My backup should be here any minute,” Kellerman said angrily. ”You are the overconfident ones. You're going down. Fae, my a.s.s.”
”Why don't you demonstrate, Reid?” Graham suggested, sounding eager. ”Show him a little Fae magic.”
Reid shrugged. ”Nah. Waste of energy.”
”Aw,” Graham said. ”You're no fun.”
Kellerman looked Reid up and down, then back at Eric, his fear not as great as it should have been. ”The fact that you stand around without clothes and don't notice proves you're animals. No one cares what happens to you, in the long run. Remember that.”
And there were many s.h.i.+fters, Eric though silently, who didn't care what happened to humans. Humans walked a knife-edge, and they didn't even know it.
”What do you think?” Eric asked Graham. ”Burn the place to the ground before we go?”
”Sounds good to me. Lots of acetylene and gas around here. Make a nice little inferno.”
Kellerman looked at the faces surrounding him. Eric saw him realize that they weren't joking-Eric, for one, did not intend to let this building or anything in it remain.
”You f.u.c.king b.a.s.t.a.r.ds,” Kellerman said hotly. ”This is years of work. Science. And money. My money.”
”Can we stop talking?” Graham asked. ”And start torching?”
”Wait.” Iona stepped forward. ”What about Eric? What did your files on s.h.i.+fter research tell you was done to him?”
”I'm not a scientist,” Kellerman said testily. ”I don't have all the details. But he was part of this-he and some others. They were messing around with chemical c.o.c.ktails, bioengineering, trying to see if they could turn regular s.h.i.+fters into killing machines, but under their direct control. Those experiments didn't work.” He gave Eric a small smile. ”They said you were too old. Their notes said they were annoyed that they had to work on you, not your son.”
Eric went cold. Twenty years ago, Jace had been a true cub, a little over ten years old, and scared about the move to s.h.i.+ftertown and taking the Collar. And these people had wanted to change Jace into something like Tiger Man, who was standing motionlessly behind Kellerman, the rage in his eyes mirroring what Eric felt.
”And then they were ordered to cease,” Kellerman went on, oblivious of his danger.
He was counting too much on his backup, who were taking their time. Eric remembered Diego's grim enthusiasm about causing a diversion at the front gate if necessary, and he wondered if Diego was taking care of that.
”I imagined it p.i.s.sed them off,” Eric said. ”But not as much as it p.i.s.sed me off.”
Something in Eric's voice made Kellerman take a step back. Iona growled, with her panther's anger, and Kellerman's eyes widened suddenly. ”Son of a b.i.t.c.h. You're one of them! Ms. Duncan, you're a s.h.i.+fter.”
Instinctively, Eric stepped in front of Iona. ”A fact that you'll forget.”
”The h.e.l.l I will.” Kellerman looked both disgusted and gleeful. ”You're going down, woman. You've been Collarless all this time, which is against about fifteen laws. Your pretty little mom is going down too, for not reporting that a s.h.i.+fter got her pregnant-or is she a s.h.i.+fter too? What about your sister?”
Iona tried to get around Eric. ”You leave them the h.e.l.l alone.”
”Control her, a.s.shole,” Kellerman snarled.
His words were drowned by a long, low growl, one of terrible menace that rattled the broken gla.s.s all over the room.
Tiger Man had come to life, the big man's stance radiating that he did not like Kellerman threatening Iona. At all.
Kellerman blanched. He came out of his daze and tried to get to Graham, reaching for the tranq rifle Graham still held.
Graham back-stepped out of the way, but before he could bring the rifle around to shoot Kellerman with it, Tiger, with a roar that filled the room, slammed himself into Kellerman.
”Graham!” Eric shouted.
Graham aimed the rifle, but the tiger had Kellerman pinned beneath him, Kellerman screaming as they grappled. Tiger s.h.i.+fted to his cat, a Bengal twice the size of a regular tiger. He'd been bred to be stronger than other s.h.i.+fters-a killer, Kellerman had said.
Eric changed to his half beast and sprang into the fray-he saw Graham shove the tranq gun at Iona and s.h.i.+ft to half wolf.
He and Graham tried to pull the tiger off Kellerman, but the tiger was far gone in rage, taking out his long life of fear, pain, and loneliness on Kellerman. Tiger fought for himself, for his dead cub, and for Iona, the first person to try to give him his freedom.
Kellerman screamed as claws ripped into him, peeling flesh from his bones and b.l.o.o.d.ying the floor. The tiger slashed in hard, rapid strokes, then dove to latch his teeth around Kellerman's throat.
Eric heard the thunk of the tranq rifle, and Tiger Man shuddered. He let go of Kellerman, and Kellerman fell in a limp heap, his head b.l.o.o.d.y and lolling.
Iona stood over them, holding the tranq rifle ready. Eric and Graham together grabbed the tiger and hauled him off Kellerman. The tiger landed on his side, still awake, his black and orange sides heaving.
Kellerman was a mess. The smug face that Eric had often wanted to punch was now a b.l.o.o.d.y pulp, the man's breath coming in bubbling gasps.
”I can get him to an emergency room,” Reid said.
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