From Burning Ashes (Collector Series #4) (44 page)

All you have is to say yes, Zoey. And all
this could be over now
, the stone whispered into my head.
Just say the word and I am yours. Just give me the power to end
this
.

I will
. I swallowed.
You have my
word
.

I felt it vibrating against my thigh, sensing
the genuineness in my statement. The magic emanating from my hip
could flatten this place in seconds.

But not yet. Not until the people I cared
about were out.

The double doors beeped, one sliding behind
the other. Rapava escorted us through, keeping his gun on me.

This level had been set up differently. Where
the upper floor was a maze of corridors and rooms, this was void of
either. A huge main room gave way to one hallway on the far back
wall, leading to who knew where.

My attention locked on the hundreds of
cylinders circling the large room, each full of a clear liquid. The
cases looked to be made of glass and metal, about seven feet tall
and three feet wide. Each and every one of them contained a
figure.

A person.

I wanted to throw up, horror binding around
my throat like weeds.

“Most were dying of some disease or
addiction.” Rapava pushed me to walk forward. “Their lives won’t
end fruitlessly. They are doing something for their country, for
the greater good.”

Did he think if he kept saying it out loud I
would start to believe it too? All I saw were unwilling victims.
The nearer I got, the more details became clear. Faces looked back
at me. Some with no arms, others with no legs. Every one of them
missing a body part.

My eyes stopped on one, and like a nightmare,
I felt my feet move, unable to stop my forward progress.

“No.” My chest heaved in and out, taking in
the girl behind the glass. Her long brown hair flowed freely around
in the liquid, her eyes were closed as if she were sleeping, but I
knew better.

A flash of her wearing a red cape came into
my head. A cape that I had seen in a closet down the hall. It was
the girl I fought when I had jumped back to Seattle and been caught
by Maria. The girl who no longer wanted to fight. I had seen it in
her eyes. She had lost hope. Given up.

The shock at seeing her wasn’t what pulled my
shoulders down. It was the truth I had known a long time ago but
didn’t want to admit when I saw the super girl tattoo on an
ankle.

She had no legs. Because those legs were
attached to my kid sister.

My neck turned, saliva gathered in my mouth
when I caught a glance of a familiar dark-skinned woman across the
way. She was missing an arm and leg. Tears burned behind my lids.
Jada.

Girls are disappearing
. Annabeth’s
voice came into my head. Vadik was selling them to Rapava when they
grew too sickly and were no longer useful.

Sprig tucked tighter into me, hiding his face
against my neck. It had to be tearing his soul into pieces, just
like when we saw the monkey parts. I touched him softly, wishing I
had forced him to stay back. He shouldn’t see this, be a part of
this truth. His heart was too big. He couldn’t handle the darkness
like I could.

Rapava had been dissecting what he claimed he
wanted to protect. This was not about protecting human life or even
revenge. It was all about proving his supremacy over everyone—fae
and human alike. He wanted to be the smartest, the cleverest, the
one who surpassed everyone.

I tried to swallow. “Where’s Annabeth?” Fear
chilled me to the bone.

Rapava tilted his head toward the hallway.
“See for yourself.”

I wished I could go back to being ignorant
and retreat to the bliss of not knowing what true horrors awaited
me in the dark recess of the building—deep in the tarred hole of
Dr. Boris Rapava’s soul.

Because if I knew how far he would truly go,
I would never have followed him.

####

We walked down the short corridor to another
room. This area appeared to be smaller but filled with even more
tanks and cylinders.

Sprig squeaked softly in my ear and dug into
my neck. My knees hit the ground with a bang, but I felt
nothing.

“Oh my god,” I whispered. Acid rose up my
throat, sizzling holes in my esophagus. My eyes locked on the
chambers.

A hundred or more incubators filled with what
appeared to be a thick syrup lined every free space on the walls,
some ten high like cages in a pet store. Only a dozen were in use;
the others looked to be waiting for occupancy. A dozen too
many.

Inside the jelly-filled containers were
babies. But these weren’t normal human babies. They were of various
sizes, from a few inches to a few feet. Air tubes went into each
tiny body, keeping them alive as they grew, a horrifying version of
a womb. My fist knotted against my abdomen.

At long last I gazed at my “mother.” This was
how they created me, how I was brought into this world.

“Let me introduce you to Project D.” Rapava
walked to my side, motioning to the containers. He no longer
pointed the gun at me, but he kept it firm in his grip, watching me
carefully. “Sadly, Project C did not do well. But thanks to you and
Sera, this bunch is thriving.”

I slowly rose, and my chest heaved in and out
as my feet took me closer to the fetuses.

“
Bhean
…” Sprig whined, clearly seeing
what I saw.

They were all horribly deformed.

“What is wrong with them?” A voice spoke, and
it took me a moment to realize it was from me.

“Nothing. They are perfect. No faults in
their DNA, unlike your group.” Rapava stepped up to me, touching
the glass to one of the experiments. “With your group, I thought
too small, creating top-of-the-line seers. But being a seer alone
will not help win the fight against fae. This group has extra
abilities like fae.”

My head jerked to him. “What?”

“They are hybrids like you.”

My stomach somersaulted. This seemed all
wrong. Not natural. Half-human, half-fae babies were common enough,
but this was something else altogether.

The one in front of me had a tail. It curled
up, and triangle-shaped ridges grew out of it like shark’s teeth.
Its face looked twisted and distorted.

This was more chilling than I could have ever
imagined.

Another one of the experiments stirred in a
larger vessel close to me. It appeared to be the size of a toddler.
A dark-haired boy on the outside, but it opened its mouth enough
for me to see the razor-sharp teeth. Hundreds of them filled its
mouth like needles.

“That one is combined with a strighoul,”
Rapava replied proudly. “The first human-strighoul hybrid ever. But
this one will be on our side.”

I had hunted strighoul before. They were the
lowest, most evil scum in the fae world. They actually preferred to
attack their own. There was no bottom they wouldn’t sink to. People
liked to associate them with vampires, but they didn’t just suck
your blood, they ate you. Like, for dinner. They consumed every
part of you, taking your energy and essence that way. They took on
the powers or traits of whomever they ingested until it passed
through their digestion.

“What’s wrong, Zoey?” Rapava’s voice sounded
even, his eyes watching me expectedly. “Are you not proud of your
own children?”

My head whipped to him. “Wh-what?”

“These are yours. Yours and Sera’s. They are
your children, Ms. Daniels, your offspring.”

The world tipped on its axis, and I grabbed
on to the wall to keep myself upright.

“What are you talking about?”

“During those two weeks you were out, you
were ovulating, a perfect time to harvest your eggs. Sera as well.
I wanted them all to have the seer gene. You and Sera were some of
the strongest seers out there.” He pointed to the lower group of
mutant fetuses. “These are yours. I wanted to see if you having fae
genetic material now would influence them. How would it affect
them? Would they live longer? Be more powerful? As you can see,
yours are growing at a more rapid rate. They have double the magic
and strength.”

My hand unconsciously went to my abdomen,
which suddenly ached as if he had shredded my gut with a razor. I
couldn’t speak as I gazed at the handful of organisms along the
wall that were supposedly
mine
. Now I could see some of the
experiments had Asian characteristics like Sera. Some had green
eyes and brown hair like me.

My head spun, my muscles locking to keep me
upright. I didn’t feel suddenly connected to them or instinctively
protective. I felt disgusted. Angry. Violated. He took a piece of
me when I was unconscious and vulnerable, and created monsters,
things meant to kill and destroy. Only revulsion and hatred burned
in my chest.

I could feel Sprig rubbing my neck softly,
and it was then I realized my breath was hitching and twisting
around in my chest.
I can’t breathe.

I could no longer look at the grotesque
figures and whirled around, trying to gain footing. I bent over my
knees and tried to suck in deep breaths. Yet there appeared to be
nowhere safe in the room to look. On the other wall, each tank
contained one living adult human inside, men and women, ranging in
ages, air tubes up their noses. This wasn’t the worst of it: beside
them, attached by electrodes to the human subject’s brain, was a
sub-fae.

“You gave me this idea, Zoey. Remember?”
Rapava gestured toward them. “Once again, all this is because of
you and the underling there.” He pointed to Sprig on my
shoulder.

Our conversation rushed into my memory.

He knows me, sir. He grew an attachment to
me. He listens to me, follows me. At first it bothered me, but now
I see it could be useful,
I’d said.

Rapava had replied,
I had not thought of
that. Both animal and sub-fae seek a master, someone to command
them…

I gave him this idea. The horrors in this
whole room existed because of me. My eggs, my ideas.

“I am trying to link their brains, connect
them. The human will dominate and control the other with just a
thought.” Rapava nodded toward the farthest tank in the corner.
“That is my newest. She is our first experiment with one of my
fae-primates.”

I stepped closer, getting a better look. My
eyes locked first on the monkey. It looked to be the one I saw with
Croygen down the hall. One of the experiments made of the bits and
pieces of different types of primates.

My eyes followed the wires linking its brain
to the girl’s. The earth’s axis tilted, smashing my world into
thousands of tiny shards. A cry shattered from my lips. I moved
without thought, running for the chamber. I hit the glass, crying
out for the fragile blonde girl floating weightlessly in the tank.
My hands flailed against the glass.

“Annabeth!” A sob broke from my lips. Tears
stung my eyes. I should have never left her that night at the
warehouse. No matter what, I should have fought and gotten her
out.

Annabeth was technically alive, but would she
be herself or some monster Rapava created? The burden of so many
deaths lay on my shoulders, but Annabeth’s felt like a mountain,
one that would bury me, especially if Lexie would soon follow.

I pressed my head against the window. “I am
so sorry.”

Her eyes popped open. I yelped and jumped
back from the glass. “What the hell?”

“She has not taken to the drug like the
others. She fights it and keeps waking up,” Rapava said evenly
behind me as if he were talking about the weather.

Annabeth blinked a few times. Her hand lifted
and pressed against the glass. I put my hand against hers. Her eyes
squinted and bubbles came out of her mouth. She was crying, but her
expression looked relieved.

My heart broke. I could not let her down
again. I couldn’t. My muscles shook, and I had trouble keeping my
feet under me. I wanted to curl into a ball and weep, but I would
stay standing for the girl on the other side of the glass. I would
not quit till she was safe.

The time had come. This had to end. All of
it. This lab would be Rapava’s tomb.

I gulped and pressed my hand harder into the
window and stared deep into her eyes, willing her to understand.
I will get you out of there
.

Terror filled her eyes as she watched me step
back, her head shaking. My soul felt skinned and quartered. Turning
away from her was unbearable. The sheer panic and fear showed on
her face as she thought I was walking away. Giving up on her.

I just wanted Sprig and Annabeth to get out
of here safely. I hoped Ryker wouldn’t leave them. He and Croygen
could take care of the girls and Sprig. They would do it for
me.

“Let her go.” I strode up to Rapava, my neck
straining as I set my chin high. He drew his gun back up to my
forehead. “You have me. You have all the experiments you need. Let
her go.”