“Are you seriously trying to blame that on Lucien? You were the ones who hurt them. You tortured—”
“Not all,” he cut in with a snarl. “Some were rather happy when offered money. The ones we could trust lived a life outside a cage—going about their chosen lives—”
“And what about those poor people in China?” I spat. “All those people trapped in that cave and imprisoned by a frequency net?”
“Those?” He laughed quietly. “Those were rejects. They couldn’t handle the changes, even with the smallest amounts. We allowed them to live on the off chance they might breed something stronger, but...they were worthless.”
“You’re a monster.”
“Now, now.” He grinned. “We were getting along so well. No need to ruin it. After all, we’ll be working together for a very long time to come.”
“I willneverwork with you.”
“You’re wrong, little girl.” Stopping his pacing, his face turned cold. “Up until now, Lucien has been the sole key in creating watered down versions of himself.” Lifting up his arm, he splayed his fingers. The smallest shadow pooled in his palm, dancing around his hand like a black ribbon. “For decades, we didn’t knowhow to extract the power that was inside him. We merely had to make do with earning a fortune off his company, but then we figured out how to extract the R gene from his harvested blood and inject it into others. A lot of them died but those who survived gradually grew stronger with each transfusion. Strong enough to grantuspowers in return.”
Walking around me, he trailed his shadowy fingers over my hair. “We had a good little supply going on down in the basement. Enough for all of us to fight aging and grant us some fun littlegifts.”
He sent the shadow looping around my neck, slithering like a slimy snake. “Every board member benefited.” He chuckled. “Call it a perk of the job but we’ve gotten used to being just a little more than human, and when our supplies started dying, well...” He came back to face me, his eyes narrowing into slits. “You can imagine we got a little angry.”
“And once again, you’re blaming torturing and imprisoning people on us.”
“I am.” He nodded. “You were selfish. The moment you helped Lucien escape from Cinderkeep, we had nothing left to give the R carriers. They got sick instantly which meant we couldn’t draw enough from them to keep our own gifts stable. Every single one of them died, and now...our abilities are drying up too.”
“Why are you telling me all of this?”
“Simple.” He shrugged. “Because you’ll never see the light of day again and you’re going to spend the rest of your immortality being the elixir of youth for all of us.”
“We’re not immortal.”
“That’s not what I was told.” He licked his lips as if I was a meal he really, really wanted to eat. “Marcus told us that Lucien was the only successful experiment for immortality. We’ve tried to get the formula from Snowflake Corp, but alas...it seems as though your company is notoriously hard to break into or steal information from.” He laughed out loud. “Which is why I’m in a very good mood because...you’re ours now. You can give us everything we need to become like you—to become aspowerfulas you—and in the meantime, we have another blood source.”
Five men filed into the room, looking at me like carnivores. One of them snickered. “Having two of you will make life very interesting. Who knows? Perhaps your blood is stronger than his.”
Another man chuckled. “I can’t wait to try and find out.”
I hid my shiver. “So Lucien was right. You weren’t just usinghis blood to start the reactors. You’ve beendrinkingit.”
“Wasn’t that what I was just saying?” Roy Swift rolled his eyes. “And not much, don’t worry. We just require a small shot glass worth every three days. It’s all we need to stay stable. The tiniest dose really. Any more and we get no extra benefits. Any less and...”
“You die?”
I didn’t think he’d tell me, but he flicked his fingers, sending his pet shadow around the room before it snuffed out mid-loop. “Quite possibly if that is any indication.” He scowled and lowered his hand. “See? It’s almost gone. A fortnight ago, I could smother the entire room in darkness, but now I’m running on dregs.” Rubbing his fingertips together, his voice dropped. “We’re all feeling a little sick, but...we have you now.”
His head came up, his eyes locking onto mine. “That’s why we can’t wait. In an ideal world, we would allow him to get his strength back. Seeing him so injured is a little worrisome. We don’t want to run the risk of killing him. Then again, we can’t, can we? No matter how many bones are broken, he’s immortal and will survive.”
“I told you.” I tugged at the straps. “We’renotimmortal.”
“Sure you’re not.” He tapped his nose as if we shared the same secret. “Don’t worry, once the extraction is over, you’ll both be given food and a place to rest for a few days. I promise you won’t be mistreated as long as you submit to the regular blood draws and are amenable to making more Requiem stock to replace what we lost. As a gesture of our goodwill, we won’t insert a frequency emitter into you like we did with the vitalsync core. However...” He came to my side, ducking to whisper in my ear, “I do expect you to access whatever mainframe you have in that little company of yours and give us all the data on the immortality experiments. Don’t you find it sweet that your parents made their precious daughter live forever? However, I’m curious why the trials were stopped after such success.”
I cringed away and bared my teeth. “They were stopped because my parentsdied, you fool. They thought they’d achieved the impossible and paid the ultimate price.”
“But theydidachieve the impossible.” He spread his arms and looked me up and down as if I was a brilliant piece of art. “You exist. He exists. You have power beyond our wildest dreams which means...if it worked for you, then it will work for us.”
“It will kill you. Not that I’m opposed to that.”
“No one likes a liar.” He sighed and crossed his arms. “While we wait for your lover to wake up, tell me...what exactly happened in those labs? Tell me the truth, and perhaps I’ll untie you. We can be friends. What do you say?”
“I say you’re dead either way. No matter what you do to us.”
