Winter's Storm: Retribution (Winter's Saga #2) (14 page)

“
Nothing I can think of,” Evan said returning to his microscope.

“
I can’t think of any change in her behavior either,” Margo added.

“
She was typical Meg until the family meeting this morning,” Cole answered thoughtfully.

“
Yeah this morning was rough on everyone,” Dr. Andrews said even as he swabbed a Petri dish with a blood sample.

“
Hum,” Alik mused. “I wonder if that was the ‘trigger’.”

“
What do you mean?” Cole asked.

“
Well, Meg is an emotional superconductor, right? She can sense the feeling of those around her. In a word, her skill is her empathy,” Alik continued.

“
So maybe she overloaded?” Cole concluded.

“
Something like that. What do you think, Mom?” Alik looked to his mother who was carefully checking the I.V. bag and adjusting the pace at which the fluids were dripping.

“
I think it is a possibility. She must have been experiencing so much of her own worries and sadness, but then to be bombarded with the emotions all the rest of us were feeling…” her voice trailed off.

“
Yes, I agree,” Evan’s face was tight with worry. “It would be a logical conclusion.”

“
Maybe this doesn’t have anything to do with the countdown. Maybe this is something else entirely,” Dr. Paulie offered. “The possibilities are innumerable.”

25 Choosing Sides

The next morning, the family was exhausted with both mental and physical fatigue. No one had slept. Though they tried to set up shifts to monitor Meg’s condition to allow everyone time to rest, no one was willing to leave the lab for longer than it took to grab some food and use the restroom. Everyone was keeping vigil.

Even Maze howled his distress though he couldn’t understand exactly what was going on. He didn’t know why he was wasn’t allowed to see his Meg, and he wanted the world to understand how scared and furious he was about it.

Maze announced Creed’s arrival. Alik was taking his break when he heard Maze’s growling change to alarmed barking. “What’s going on boy?” he said to the coyote as he walked to the kitchen window. He saw the same guy who had found his sister yesterday walking up the path, just as he had promised he would. Alik grabbed Maze by the collar and walked him to Meg’s room.

“
You’re gonna scare the crap out of him, Maze. Stay here for now, and I’ll come back to let you out in a while. Try to calm down, okay?” he lectured the coyote.

Alik hurried to the front door and had it pulled open even before the stranger had a chance to knock.

“
Hey, man,” Alik said with relief in his voice. “Thanks for coming by this morning. We were wondering if we could ask you some questions about yesterday.”

“
How’s the girl?” the stranger asked seeming genuinely worried.

“
Not good,” Alik opened the door wider and motioned for the guest to come into the house. “She’s really sick.”

Creed stepped into the house and walked toward the living room. A mournful howling came from down the hall that stopped him in his tracks.

“
Oh, don’t worry about him. Maze isn’t too happy with me for shutting him in Meg’s room,” Alik waved dismissively toward the sound. “We’ve got to tell everyone you’re here.”

“
Sure. I’ll wait here,” Creed said.

“
No, you won’t. You have to come with me. No one’s going to want to leave Meg, and they’ll all want to hear what you have to say. We’ll just get you scrubbed in,” Alik spoke while leading the way down the corridor toward the lab.

“
Scrubbed in? Like at a hospital?” Creed asked, pretending he had no idea there was a lab onsite.

“
Well, yeah. We’re pretty well set up back here in the lab. And to be sure no containments are brought into the sterile room, you’ll have to get scrubbed in,” Alik said matter-of-factly, as though it were completely normal to have a hospital-like clean room in an estate on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

“
If you say so,” was all Creed could think to say. He was trying to brace himself for what was about to happen.

Creed stood to the side and watched as Alik slipped a blue gown over his clothing and tied the paper-like belt to secure it. Then he ripped open a package, and took out a premoistened, blue, plastic scrubbing brush. He began working vigorously on his hands, focusing especially under his fingernails and continuing up his forearms. Creed mimicked everything Alik did. Finally, they put on light blue masks that covered their noses and mouths and were held in place by wrapping small elastic loops around their ears.

Creed was feeling queasier now than ever before, which was saying a lot considering how many times he had been put in situations of extreme stress.

But this was different.

He was about to see the sweet-faced girl who made his heart leap inside his chest. He was about to meet her family, and he was about to confess who he was. Nothing about the next hour was going to be easy.

The first of the double doors to the lab slid open automatically, and closed behind Alik and Creed. Then the second set of doors opened.

The room was large and immaculate. All the equipment looked shiny, new and expertly maintained. Half a dozen people were in the room, all dressed in the same sterile surgical gowns he wore himself. Even though each person in the room was completely covered in blue, including their faces, Creed could tell immediately who was who. His eyes stopped scanning the moment he found Meg.

She looked so much worse than she did last he saw her. Alik was right; she wasn’t doing well at all. Though he could only see the eyes of those who spoke, he could read them clearly. Everyone in this room was terrified and exhausted, but they all looked at Creed with a glint of hope as though he would have some magic answer to their questions. Creed knew he wasn’t going to be able to be their solution. At least, not the way they were hoping he would be.

“
Everyone, this is the guy who found Meg yesterday,” Alik announced to the room.

The room murmured “welcomes” and “thanks for coming backs.”

“
You’ll have to forgive us if we seem rude, but we’re desperately trying to determine what is wrong with our Meg. So, we’re going to skip introductions and jump right in with some questions, okay?” Margo began.

“
Yes, ma’am,” Creed responded formally.

“
Tell us what you saw when you found Meg,” Dr. Paulie began.

“
She was jogging. She stopped, looking like she was dizzy, and held on to a tree to steady herself. Then I saw her slump to the ground holding her head. By the time I reached her, she was completely out,” Creed replayed the scene in his mind trying to stick as close to the truth as possible.

“
Wait a minute,” Alik said. “Yesterday you said you just ‘found her’ on the ground. Now you’re telling us you saw her before she passed out?”

“
Yesterday, you looked like you were about to rip my head off for touching her. I was trying to save my own skin!” Creed said, only half lying.

“
Regardless. So you say she collapsed holding her head,” Dr. Paulie redirected the conversation.

“
Yes, sir. Like she had a migraine that came on fast,” Creed answered.

“
Did she say anything to you when you approached her?” Margo asked.

“
No, ma’am. She was completely out,” Creed responded.

“
How long from the time you saw her jogging until she was on the ground unconscious?” Dr. Andrews asked.

“
Seconds, sir. It all happened fast. I’d say maybe fifteen seconds,” Creed estimated.

“
Was anyone else around to see what you saw?” Margo asked.

“
Not that I know of, ma’am,” Creed lied. These people were not to know about Farrow. That wasn’t part of the plan.

“
What were you doing on the path when you saw her?” Evan asked.

“
Excuse me?” Creed asked, stalling.

“
You were on the path where Meg was jogging. How did you happen to be there?” Evan pressed.

“
I…well, I was….” Creed stammered, unable to meet the intense gaze of those in the room. And just like that, Creed lost all pretenses.

“
It’s not a difficult question,” Evan was walking toward the stranger. Alik, completely aware of the change in the temperature of the conversation positioned himself beside his brother facing the interloper.

“
Who are you?” Alik asked the stranger point blank.

“
I’m...um,” the stranger hesitated, “I’m not sure now’s the time to get into that.” Worry lines etched across his tanned face.

Alik and Evan exchanged glances and without saying a word they moved themselves between the stranger and their family. “Maybe you’d better start talking right now,” Alik warned.

“
Listen, if I wanted to hurt her, I could have done it out there on the path when I first saw her collapse and neither of you could have stopped me.” His unfamiliar eyes were both pleading and heated at the brothers’ mistrust. “I know who you are and where you come from, but I don’t know why she’s sick,” the stranger said and anxiously ran his fingers through is hair.

“
What do you mean you know who we are?” Alik’s eyes formed into angry slits. From behind the brothers, Margo eased her way to her daughter and put one hand protectively on her feverish arm. Her other hand was clinched into a fist.

“
You’re metahumans, like me,” he said simply.

The words felt like ice down Alik’s back. He was stunned into momentary silence. Evan felt punched in the stomach, so he wasn’t talking much either.

The stranger continued speaking. “Ten years ago, you were involved in the research conducted by Dr. Kenneth Williams and were stolen by a woman who worked for his company, Dr. Margo Pullman, now going by the name Dr. Margo Winter…”

Dr. Andrews was at Margo’s side in an instant, ready to lay down his life to protect her.

“
Stop right there. You obviously work for Williams. Did he send you to kill my mother?” Alik’s face could not have been redder, seething with fury. He could barely contain himself. But the logical part of him was forcing restraint knowing he needed to gather more information before he broke this guy’s neck.

“
Yes,” the man said simply. “That was my original objective, but things have—changed.”

“
If you came to hurt anyone in my family, you will not walk out of this room alive. Clear?” Alik’s vein in his forehead was pulsing deep purple with absolute ferocity.

“
Crystal.” The stranger met Alik’s glare unflinching.

“
We obviously have a lot to talk about. Are you willing?” Margo asked the outsider.

Evan couldn’t stop staring at the stranger as though through new eyes. Of course, he was a meta. His physique was perfect. He looked like he may even be stronger than Alik. Here was the man who had been sent by their enemy to hunt them down. Instead, he just brought Meg to them, ill, but alive. Now he stood in front of them confessing his plot. This was all too surreal.

“
So let me get this straight,” Cole spoke up. “This is the guy who found Meg and brought her home yesterday, unconscious, but he works for that whack-job Williams who is bent on killing pretty much everyone in this room just so he can have their blood,” he was so horrified at Creed’s presence in the lab, his outburst left him breathless. He forced a gasp before he continued his angry tirade, “And now we’re welcoming him into the house and sharing a heart-to-heart talk about good versus evil over a cup of coffee?” Cole’s voice teetered on frantic. “And no one else sees this as a bad idea?” Cole blurted looking around the room at the faces of the people he cared for so deeply.

“
If he wanted to do us harm, he would have started with Meg,” Evan responded rationally.

“
Well, if you haven’t noticed, she’s not doing so great,” Cole quipped.

Margo walked to the stranger and watched his eyes as she responded to Cole. “There was no tactical advantage for him to expose himself as he has, Cole. He gave up his anonymity and blown his own cover. He’s completely aware of how outnumbered he is with all of us and especially outmatched between Alik and Evan. He had no reason to do any of this, yet he did. He’s trusted us enough to offer his vulnerability. We will trust him enough to listen,” Margo’s voice was steady and assured. Creed appreciated her ability to quickly piece together the gravity of the situation and act in a calm, rational manner. He liked her instantly.

She looked deep into his strangely familiar eyes and asked simply, “What is your name?”

“
Creed, ma’am.” He stood at attention the moment Margo spoke to him. “My name is Creed Young,” he responded to her questioning as a soldier would a commanding officer.

“
Well, Mr. Young, it looks as though we have a lot to talk about,” Margo smiled graciously. “Please wait for us back in the living room. Okay?”

“
Ma’am, yes, ma’am,” Creed nearly saluted. He turned and walked out the lab’s double doors with Alik and Evan on his heels. They removed their surgical scrubs and masks and continued walking toward the living room.

Margo turned to the others who were left standing still and stunned in the room. “I don’t know if we can trust him, but I’m going to have to go with my gut feeling this time. Meg needs help, desperately. This meta soldier could be an unexpected answer to our prayers.”