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“It wasn’t an experiment,” he said. “I’d been given the gift of very special DNA samples from a donor. It was guaranteed to work, and I wanted my children to have it.”
“So you took an unknown chemical from someone and injected your kids with it?” Zoe asked.
“No.” His eyes glazed over and his expression became wild—almost reverent. “It wasn’t unknown, just so very rare. It hadn’t been seen on earth since the first psychics were created. Witches, too, for that matter. It’s where our kind came from. They explained everything. I knew it would work, and I wanted you to be blessed with the next stage of evolution.” He opened his arms like he expected us to jump in and give him a hug.
“Evolution is natural,” I said, hopping down from the table. “Whatever that was—it was foreign and dangerous.”
“No,” he insisted, veins pulsing. “I saw the origin. They showed me. They gave me their blessing to do their work without warping it to my own ends like the others had. I knew exactly what I had.”
“What the fuck was it?” Zoe asked, blue light sizzling at her fingertips.
“It was a dose of their DNA, altered to bond to your own.” He smiled again, too big, looking absolutely mad.
“Whose DNA?” I asked, sliding from the table.
“The gods,” he whispered conspiratorially, then laughed, sudden and loud.
Zoe and I stared, slack-jawed. “They came to earth to help evolve man so that we can be at their level. That’s what my work was always about. Our work, Charlie.”
The world spun as I clung to the edge of the table. He was certifiable. “What’s this machine?” I asked, nodding to the helmet. “It can’t be more top secret than gods that want to alter human DNA, so spill.”
He scratched his head then rubbed it, making it stick up all over again. Suddenly, it wasn’t endearing, it was delusional. “It’s what my benefactor was funding me for. A machine that will allow a psychic to retain their abilities when changed to a vampire. Take a look.” He pulled the helmet over and tilted it so I could see the long needles on the side. I gasped and jerked away, remembering the torture I’d gone through at the lab in Arizona. The way it had felt like something just like this had been put on my head. It had stimulated my psychic center and allowed me to use my abilities when asked. It was how I’d escaped, but that didn’t change the fact that it hurt like hell and frightened me more than I could admit.
“That looks like an ancient torture device,” Zoe said, grabbing my arm. “And who are you testing it on?”
Dad did a little excited dance as he hugged the offensive object. “I don’t know yet. I believe my benefactor has gone to find a volunteer. He’ll be back in a couple of days.”
The echo of something made me wince. I was going to meet Silas here the morning he returned. I looked forward to it.
“Are you okay?” Zoe asked, grabbing my hand that held my head.
People kept asking me that lately.
“Just disgusted. How about that thing?” I nodded at the corner.
“What thing?” he asked, perplexed.
There was literally nothing else I could have meant. “That chamber with the tubes running out of it,” I clarified anyway, grabbing his chin, and pointing him right at it.
“I have no idea what you mean. There’s just some junk over there. This helmet is my finest invention, Charlie. You should be here with me when I put it on the subject.”
I shook my head with repulsion and frustration, “I think we should go.”
“One more question.” Zoe took a step into Dad’s personal space. “Does Mama know what you did to us?” She was tough, but she couldn’t keep her voice from breaking on Mama’s name.
I held my breath. If she did, then everyone I loved and depended on had lied to me or left.
“No,” Dad said. “Well, she thinks it was an accident when you were visiting the lab. And she thinks it was my own creation.”
Zoe nodded sadly and reached for my hand. “Goodbye, Dad.” And I knew she meant forever.
She opened a portal, and we stepped through. The last thing I saw was Dad’s crazed yet hopeful face as it closed behind us.
Chapter Seventeen
Vampires Ruin Everything
“I’m shook, Char,” Zoe admitted as we prepped for our assault on the lab. We were alone in my room, and I knew she wasn’t talking about Greenland and the kids.
