“Yeah, right,” Layla snorted so only we could hear. “Worried when you lost sight of your precious, obedient pets, more like.” Her lips twisted. “Wait, erase that. Forget I ever called us the dipshit’s pets.Yuck. I’d rather die than be his pet.”
“Well,” Brady said with a scowl directed at Fanny and the others as they continued advancing, “let’s hope that choice isn’t about to be on the table.”
Fanny plodded awkwardly across the uneven forest floor. “Joss, you should still be in bed.”
“Sure, and whose fault is that?” I asked.
Fanny pretended I hadn’t said anything against her perfectly twisted boss or about the person he’d wielded as a weapon.
“You need to be checked out before you have the all-clear to move about.”
“I’m fine,” I told her. She was now fifteen feet from us and closing in. “Just needed some fresh air.”
“It’s non-negotiable. Part of the agreement of you getting to live and study at this beautiful campus and in this beautiful house completely free is that you’re to show up for your check-ups when they’re required.”
“Uh, we didn’t make such an agreement,” Brady said. “Not quite like that, anyhow,” he mumbled.
Up close now, with half a dozen armed security guards surrounding her—none of whom I recognized—Fanny’s face was flushed, her eyes jumpy. “Joss, I need you to come with me right now. It’s urgent that I get you to the lab.”
Griffin, Hunt, and Brady silently shored up to stand in front of me. Layla rolled her eyes at our guys and leaned her head to whisper to me, “When will they ever learn we don’t need their protection? Jeez.”
“Maybe when I haven’t recently had the crap zapped out of me?” I muttered back as Brady told Fanny, “She’s not going anywhere right now.”
“She is.” With two fingers, Fanny waved a pair of soldiers forward. They drew their sidearms and pointed them at us. “Your only choice is: we do this the easy way, or we do this the hard way. Personally, I don’t care which you choose. I’ve had quite the day already, and I think I might just appreciate the opportunity to vent some of my frustration.”
“By killing a bunch of teenagers?” I hissed before I realized I was going to. “This pointing guns at us is gettingrealold, lady. You should be fucking ashamed of yourself. You told us you were some cool, fun aunt who just wanted to help us. Fuck you for thinking you have the right to treat us this way. Where’s your sense of human decency?”
Fanny stared back at me, her rising anger coloring her neck until it matched the pink of her cheeks. “I’m doing thisforhumanity, you entitled, selfish, narrow-minded brat! You could be offering yourself up for study to rid humanity of all its suffering and torment. Butnooooo, we need to threaten you to do the right thing, because if not, you can’t be bothered.” Her voice pitched to a mocking taunt, and I half wanted to punch her straight in the face. The other half understood that, if she actually believed that crap, Magnum had brainwashed the fuck out of her.
“You’re coming with me right now,” she snarled with a curl of her lip that made her appear feral, so unlike the façade of the professional, composed woman we’d first met.
Griffin wove his arm through mine. “She’s not going anywhere without us.”
Fanny glared at him until her eyes shone, revealing the crazed maniac I was starting to see she was. Then she jerked her hand in the air between us. “Fine. But you’ll all be getting checked too, then. We need all the data we can get to speed things up.”
“Speed what things up, exactly?” Hunt asked.
She whipped her head in his direction—just to better sneer at him, apparently. “And I was told you were the smart one.”
Hunt’s brows arched. “You weren’t well informed then. We’re all highly intelligent.”
Shetsked. “Not smart enough to see that the five of you have the power to fix every wrong in the world.” Without so much as glancing my way, she pointed at me. “Her especially.”
“Wait,” I said. “Why me especially?”
Fanny smiled and batted her lashes, taking her taunting—for whatever reason—to the next level. Now Ireallywanted to punch her.
“You’re somewhat different from the others,” she eventually answered. “Which is why you need to get to the lab immediately so we can figure out all the ways you are. Now, final warning. Move out or we’ll move you out.”
Layla grabbed my free hand and started leading me back toward the house, Griffin walking with us, his hold on my arm tighter than before.
“Damn, lady,” Layla called over her shoulder at Fanny, “you’re a real psycho bitch. You know that, right?”
Fanny didn’t bother to answer as Hunt and Brady fell into line behind us, the armed soldiers still pointing guns at our backs.
Apparently, just another Tuesday around here.
Though I still didn’t understand pretty much any of the nuttiness that was going on with Bobo, he seemed to comprehend my verbal commands. I’d stared at him across my thigh—yep, that wasn’t getting any less weird—told him there was “danger” and that he was to “hide.” Instantly, he’d run up my leg—still ever so strange, especially since I didn’t feel a thing—leapt over another of my tattoos, and then scrambled to hide under my shirt.
