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Alive.
Chapter 7
Croygen
Alive.
My eyes locked on the misshapen creature, half scorpion, half man.
“Zander.” His name grated off my tongue in repulsion. Fury started to clear my mind, my chest pumping up and down, my blood boiling under my skin.
His brother Zeke had been the one to kill Lexie during our battle with the Stone and Stavros.
Swallowing back the vomit, my gaze stumbled over more of the unnatural beings around me, my brain struggling to connect the dots and to understand how they were here in China.
“It’s Z.” He lifted his scaley lip. “And I’m flattered you remembered me.” A grotesque smile carved his face. Zander had thick armor plating down his back like an arachnidan going into his thick, poisonous tail. The rest of him was man-like, but it was disproportionate, disturbing, and wrong.
They all were.
They went against nature, forced at the hands of a mad scientist whose ego made him think he was a god. He wanted to make an army of soldiers even stronger than the fae. He’d tried to turn Lexie and Annabeth into one of his monster creations. He had been successful with Sprig, but how many sprites were killed before or after? Sprig was the only one. And now he could no longer go back to his family, his home, or ever have a mate.
“I-I thought you were destroyed.” They were supposed to be dead. Ryker told me he had their hideout bombed after the battle.
“Most were. But some of us knew we would be hunted down. So we escaped after Zeke was killed.” His scratchy voice shredded my nerves.
Zoey had cut Zeke’s head off after he stabbed Lexie, which I guess made Z next in line.
“Speaking of… how is dear ol’ mom?” Z sneered, his tail curling, ready to sting. “Love to catch up with her again.”
A chill ran down my spine, hating these disgusting things had any part of Zoey. That when she was unconscious, Rapava harvested her eggs and created these abominations.
“They had to go on the run.” The old man nodded to the creatures. “Leave the US where they wouldn’t be tracked down and slaughtered. They found me, hoping I would protect them from extermination.”
“They need to be fucking annihilated,” Cooper seethed. “They shouldn’t exist… and I look forward to dissecting every single one.”
“You should know not to underestimate them. Like cockroaches that will live far past anything else on this earth, they are not so easily eradicated.” The old man clasped his hands. “Thoughyourkind have been decimated over the centuries, haven’t they? There are only a handful of Dark Dwellers left. How easily your entire species could be wiped off the earth for good.” The threat was subtle, but I felt it, knowing this human wasn’t all he seemed.
It was suddenly so very clear.
“You’re…” I swallowed. More acid gurgled up my throat. “Dr. Jansug Novikov.”
A smile arched the old man’s mouth. “About time you figured that out.”
I probably should have seen it, connected the dots faster, heard the Kartvelian accent hiding under his school-learned English. But the man before me was not who I had in my head as Rapava’s villainous co-scientist. This heavyset, nonthreatening, friendly man.
“Dr. Novikov?” Annabeth whispered. “Isn’t he…?”
“Dr. Rapava’s old partner,” I replied and saw Rapava’s name had AB flinching back, her lungs stuttering over each intake. “I guess when you said you were trying to preserve the species, you weren’t talking about dragons,” I spat.
Both men had been experimenting with how to advance the human species and make them more fae-like. Their studies had them parting ways. Dr. Rapava went to the United States, sinking deeper into his madness, building an army with spare body parts, while Dr. Novikov had gone after an ancient, more organic source, what the old fae called nectar.
And he found it.
“Boris was always impatient. Wanted results immediately. He didn’t want to waste his time going after something he didn’t know for certain existed. It eventually got him killed.” Novikov’s looks and attitude were vastly different from Rapava’s. It made him seem more sympathetic, kinder, saner. But I had no illusions this was true. “We had our significant differences, but evenIcan’t deny Boris’s results, though they were never long term or sustainable. His little experiments were never going to alter mankind forever.” He smiled. “I am.” This was where I saw the resemblance, the egos of men who thought themselves above the fray. Their intelligence so advanced that they lost their grip on reality.
Novikov might be a lot more dangerous than Rapava ever was. Because he was right. If this nectar could do what he said, it would change everything.
“And how nice you have built-in guards to hide the nectar.” I swallowed, the guns digging into the back of my spine. I tried to see through the thick shadows. The large cavern could fit several dragons. The nests were long gone, but I saw the places still carved out for them, pits where they would hide their treasure under their beds. Symbols engraved on the walls of two large dragon shapes with smaller ones flying between them. Baby dragons.
