Crimson (The Silver Series Book 3) (23 page)

“
Reassuring,” I said with a
hint of sarcasm. A smile touched his lips, but he didn’t look
up.

I reached for the door.

“
Wait,” Jet said. He
slipped off his black shirt and handed it to me. “Better to hide
weakness than to give them an easy target.”

I glanced down at the blood stain on the
front of my shirt I had already forgotten about. I pulled it off
with a bit of effort and handed it to him. He gave me a quizzical
look and tossed it on the seat beside him while I pulled his over
my head. I paused, then lifted the shirt and removed the bandage on
my chest. “Better to pretend like it doesn’t bother me, right?”

Jet nodded, a hint of approval in his
eyes.

I tossed the bandage on top of the shirt and
opened the door. “Time to get the mad scientist,” I said with
forced nonchalance.

Dr. Tannin limped beside me back to the SUV
and climbed in with an air of his normal confidence. He gave Mouse
an address and the werewolf started to drive. The tension in the
vehicle was so thick no one spoke, and I could feel the dislike my
friends held for Tannin tangling with my own.

“
We're here,” Mouse said
quietly after a half hour. He pulled into a dark parking lot next
to a grocery store that had closed for the evening. Two black cars
waited at the other end of the lot, their lights off and occupants
waiting motionless.

I took a steeling breath and opened the
door, then waited for Dr. Tannin to climb out. The walk across the
parking lot with the doctor in tow felt like one of those dreams
where the destination kept getting further away; my heart thundered
in my ears by the time I reached the dark-suited men who stepped
out to meet us.

Chapter 22

They helped Dr. Tannin into the car and I
slid in after him. It turned out to be a short limo with the seats
facing each other. “Colleen will be glad to see you,” Tannin said
with a sickly sweet smile.

He was telling the truth; it was obvious by
the glee in his eyes. I fought back the urge to bare my teeth. “Why
Colleen? Why did you have to choose her?”

His eyebrows rose. “I thought you would be
happy to see your sister. You two did part on such,” he paused with
a small smile, “unfortunate circumstances. Surely you want to make
up for what happened.”

His words twisted my stomach and I wondered
how much he really knew about that night. I watched Mouse drive
away and traced the faint burn marks on the back of my left
hand.

“
Also, there’s the
exasperating fact that your DNA, and consequently your sister’s,
happens to be the only DNA capable of handling coupling with a
werewolf's. We haven’t figured out just why that is, so in the
meantime, we had to get creative.”

The hair on the back of my neck rose at his
tone. I met his gaze levelly. “Give me your promise that you won’t
involve any more of my family members in your sick
experiments.”

His pale eyebrows lifted again. “What will
you do if I don’t agree?”

My voice came out at just above a growl.
“I’ll rip off this door and throw you under the next car before you
or your buddies can do more than lift a finger.”

His eyes widened slightly and I knew he knew
I was capable of doing just that. He let out a nervous laugh and
nodded. “Of course. Why would I have any reason to involve other
members of your family? I have what I need with you.”

“
Give me your word,” I
growled.

His lips pressed into a tight smile. “You
have my word that I won’t involve anyone else in your family in my
experiments as long as I have you.”

I turned and glared out the window in an
effort to not tear him apart, but reasoned that I needed to reach
the lab before I did anything rash.

“
But could you imagine an
entire family of genetically created werewolves?” he said softly,
his tone wistful. I turned the full force of my glare on him and he
held up his hands. “Kidding, only kidding.” He put his hands in his
lap and regarded me steadily. “Those eyes. I don’t know what it is
that makes the eyes change color, but they are magnificent. I’d bet
they’d stop a bull in his tracks. Of course, they say red makes
bulls angry, so perhaps we shouldn't try it.” I looked away from
him, but he continued, “Colleen’s eyes are purple. I’ve never seen
anything so beautiful or haunting.”

I kept my gaze firmly on the dark landscape
outside the window, but he knew I was a captive audience.

He sighed. “We have just one tiny problem
with her.” I clenched my teeth to keep from giving any reaction.
“She can’t maintain her human form.” He paused a minute to give me
a second to speak. When I didn’t, he pretended as if he hadn’t
waited. “She keeps phasing from her human to wolf form and even the
other werewolves can’t seem to help her learn how to control
it.”

I turned back to him. “You have other
werewolves?” It made me sick to think of them going through what
Grace had.

He nodded. “Of course. Thanks to your
endeavors, we were forced to leave the old Development Center to
escape prying eyes.” He frowned and pursed his lips. “Your friend
Jaze seems to have some very powerful contacts with the Hunters.”
He realized he was off subject and ran both hands through his thin,
pale hair. “But it gave us the opportunity to make some necessary
changes, which included more holding facilities and more space for
development and experimentation. Thank you.”

My muscles shook with the effort to keep
from phasing and tearing out his throat to end the grating, gleeful
tone that scratched my eardrums. I glanced at the man sitting
beside me and the gun he kept trained on my head. A growl ripped
from my throat. I turned and punched the window next to me with all
the pent-up frustration in my chest. The window shattered outward.
The sound stilled my soul as a flash of fire, the scent of
gasoline, and Colleen calling my name flashed through my mind. The
glass had cut across my knuckles and they bled freely. I focused on
the blood and made no effort to staunch the flow.

Dr. Tannin fell silent, his gaze
disapproving like a father whose child had stepped in mud. I turned
my face to the window and took a deep breath of the fresh air that
rushed past. I wanted more than anything to jump out after it, to
be going anywhere but the Development Center no doubt filled with
werewolves in various stages of torture and pain; but I couldn’t
help the images of Colleen that stayed in my mind. If there was a
way, any possible way, that Dr. Tannin had brought her back, I had
to get her out of that place.

I glanced surreptitiously behind us, but
didn’t see any headlights. After the third check, Dr. Tannin caught
me. “Looking for your friends?” I didn’t answer and he smiled. “My
vehicles come fully equipped with jammers. Whatever chip you may be
carrying on your person is blocked. My driver lost your pack a ways
back and I doubt they’ll ever find us again.” He paused. “You do
get props, though, for actually getting a pack in your short time
away from the Center. I’ll have to admit that I didn’t see you as
the social type.”

I looked away from his triumphant grin
before I succumbed to the impulse to shatter his skull the way I
had the window. I stuck my bleeding hand out to feel the rush of
the air, and fought back a small smile as the droplets of blood
fell away. Jet was the best tracker in the group. If they couldn’t
follow the chip, they could follow my blood.

***

Two heavily armed guards flanked me as Dr.
Tannin limped slowly down the hall, a brace on his ankle and a
crutch under one arm. The scent of werewolves and pain hung thick
in the air and I couldn’t shut out the moans and cries for help
that came from several of the rooms we passed. Dr. Tannin led the
way down a long hallway, turned up an identical one, then pushed a
series of buttons on a keypad next to a door.

The door slid open to reveal an observation
room with a thick pane of glass separating us from the room below.
“We had to sedate her,” Dr. Tannin said. “She couldn’t control the
phasing and I’ve had to send too many of my staff to the medical
center thanks to her survival instincts. She also doesn't sleep,
which really doesn't help with her temper.” He lowered his voice
conspiratorially. “Maybe you can reassure her that we mean her no
harm.”

“
Do you?” I asked, but I
was distracted by the scent that colored the air. A smell I could
only describe as honey and fresh green clover warmed by the noonday
sun grabbed my heart in such a tight grip I could barely breathe. I
had never associated the scent with Colleen, but now that I smelled
it, there was no doubt in my mind who was in the bed in the center
of the room below us. Thick leather straps held her down while
computer monitors beeped and tubes ran from her arms to bags and
pumps hanging on IV poles. As I watched, a doctor inserted
something into the shunt in her wrist. I gripped the edge of the
bench near the observation window until the wood began to splinter
under my fingers.

“
Happy now?” Dr. Tannin
asked.

I glared at him. “Happy to see my sister
drugged and kept a prisoner?”

“
She was drugged for her
own safety. She couldn’t control the phasing and cried with the
pain and humiliation. Also, the lack of sleep was definitely taking
its toll. I felt this was better for her. Let her sleep,” the
doctor ordered. “We have work to do.”

His tone set my teeth on edge. “What
work?”

He smiled grimly. “You don’t think I’m
keeping her here for free, do you?” He shook his head. “We’re going
to figure out why I can’t turn other humans, and you both have the
key. Either I experiment on her, or you. You decide.”

I took a step forward and Dr. Tannin’s voice
faded to an annoying buzz in the background. The neon lights that
hummed above fell over Colleen’s face in a gentle caress,
accentuating the graceful cheekbone curves and soft lips that I
hardly ever saw without a smile. I knew the shape of her nose and
the line of her forehead better than I did the back of my own hand,
I had watched over her my entire life, and had been there for her,
if no one else, up to the day that we died.

Colleen’s hair before the accident had been
dark blond like my mother’s. It had grown in wild ringlets when she
was little, but had lost most of the curl until it was a soft wave
most girls would die for even though she was always trying to
straighten it or curl it on any given day. But her hair was now
dark black with purple highlights like mine had turned black with
red. The effect was beautiful, but looked so unlike her that I
worried she was no longer my sister, that the changes outside
reflected something wrong inside.

“
Colleen,” I
whispered.

“
She can’t hear you,” Dr.
Tannin said in a chiding tone. “We had to use bulletproof glass to
keep her in. She can’t break it no matter how hard she’s tried.
Also, because of your immunity to silver, we have to use horse
tranquilizers to keep her under. They’re very powerful-“

The rage that built in my chest burned to a
swift inferno. Anger flowed through my body and fueled the
adrenaline that rushed into my limbs. I slid a hand to my wrist and
unlocked Mouse’s knife, then turned and my body fell swiftly into
the neck, stomach, kidneys routine Jet had taught me. The two armed
guards slumped to the floor in a pool of blood.

I grabbed Dr. Tannin and threw him into the
glass that separated me from Colleen. The thick panes shattered
around Dr. Tannin’s body. Pieces flew everywhere as he fell to the
ground and slid face-first under Colleen’s bed. Nurses screamed and
a doctor yelled out the door for help. I jumped down into the small
room and dropped to my knees heedless of the glass and the screams
of the doctors and nurses as they fled. I broke the leather straps
that held her down, then took Colleen’s hand in mine, alarmed at
how cold her skin was. “I’m here, Colleen. I’m here. It’s your
brother.”

Her eyes opened and even though the doctor
had warned me, I wasn’t prepared for the dark purple irises that
stared back at me instead of Colleen’s light blue eyes. But the
recognition and relief that swept through them chased away any fear
of her differences. “Kaynan, I’m cold.” The sound of her voice, so
frail compared to the happy little sister I knew, drove what she
had gone through home.

Something moved out of the corner of my eye
and I turned to see a doctor with a tranquilizer needle similar to
the one he had used on Colleen. He jabbed it down toward my neck,
but I backhanded his wrist with enough force to snap the bones and
send the syringe flying to shatter against the wall. I then slammed
a left hook against his jaw and he slumped motionless to the
ground.

“
I’m taking you out of
here,” I promised Colleen, the hatred and anger I felt at her
situation thick in my voice. I slid the I.V. gently from her wrist.
“I’ll keep you safe.” A smile touched her lips and she closed her
eyes again.

“
They’ll kill you,” Dr.
Tannin gasped where he lay partially underneath Colleen’s bed,
broken like the glass around him. One arm twisted at an awkward
angle behind his back while a bone jutted through the skin of his
other elbow. His legs were a mess of tattered cloth and blood, and
by the angle of his back, I didn’t doubt that his spine was broken.
Still he grinned in weak, painful triumph as his words came out in
halted gasps, “My men . . . orders to kill you . . . outside this
room without me.”

A growl rose in my throat and the urge to
phase thrummed under my skin. I grabbed him and pulled him out from
under the bed. “You underestimate me,” I said. I stabbed Dr. Tannin
in the throat with my knife, then held my hand over the wound so
fast he barely had time to blink in surprise. I pulled him close,
the blood oozing from between my fingers. “If I let go, you die. If
you do what I say, I’ll leave you in the medical center where you
can pray that your staff is competent enough to save your life. Do
you understand?”