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Behind him, Simon strode into the room with his hand up, looking down his nose in distaste. He must have cast some sort of spell on the vampire.
“Very unfortunate, Trevor,” Simon muttered. “I thought you knew how to follow orders. Perhaps when you wake up, you’ll have better manners.”
The vampire let out a bloodcurdling scream. His left eyeball burst, sending a spray of blood across the room. It spattered my stomach before he went slack and tumbled off the stool onto the floor.
“Holy shit!” I shouted, staring at the lifeless form on the ground.
Simon lowered his hand, ending the fucked-up spell. “No worries. He’ll reawaken in five to ten minutes good as new. And, hopefully, with a new respect for his superiors.”
The scientist stepped over the body of the dead vampire. Across the room, the female hurried to the door, sending terrified glances at Simon over her clipboard as she left.
Simon hovered over me with that mad gleam in his eye. He clapped his hands once like a giddy child. “I am excited you’re still awake. I knew you were strong, but this is beyond my best expectations. I truly have created something formidable in you. How are we doing here?” The question seemed to be addressed to himself rather than me as he leaned down to inspect the device on my arm. Within a few seconds, he grinned. “Good. All the preparatory serum has been infused.”
Simon unhooked the IV from the device and then began working on undoing the straps on my wrists. “I have so many fun things to show you. The serum will need time to begin working, but while that happens, I’d love to show you what has come of our meeting all those years ago.”
He slid the wolfsbane-saturated leather strap off my arm. A red welt had formed across my wrist. Once the strap was off, I raised my arm experimentally, and all thought of attack vanished. My muscles were sluggish and slow. The wolfsbane and whatever the hell he’d pumped into me had weakened me to the point that my training would do me no good. Plus, after seeing what he’d done to the vampire, it was pointless to try and overpower him in my current state. I’d have to stick to the plan and do my best to be obedient.
Simon undid the other straps, finishing with the one across my chest. When I sat up, the room spun for a moment, the back of my head throbbing from suddenly being upright.
Though mad, Simon wasn’t dumb. Before I’d even managed to get my bearings, he helped me off the table, put my hands behind my back, and tied them with more leather straps, also soaked in wolfsbane.
“Come, let me show you the facility.” He winked at me. “I’m sure you’ll be very impressed.”
I shuffled after him. The lethargy wasn’t as bad as before, but the weakness was still enough to make walking exhausting. That didn’t stop me from analyzing everything, logging it away for later. Any ounce of information would come in handy when I finally managed to escape. I also wanted to see if I could lay eyes on Leif.
Simon led me down a long corridor lined with LED lights embedded in the stone. At the end, a large and brutally thick steel door stood sentinel. It almost looked like a bank vault. Placing his hand on a glass panel, Simon waited until a thick band of laser light scanned his palm print. A heavychunksounded from the entryway as it unlocked and swung outward.
My jaw dropped in horror at what lay beyond. A hallway lined with glass walls looked in on holding cells. Each cell held one of the monstrous creations we’d encountered on theisland. Combinations of various species melded together in a disgusting tableau, each one as awful—or worse—than the things I’d already fought.
“Come, come. See the wonders I’ve created,” Simon said, ushering me into the hall of horrors.
There was nothing for me to do but gape in terror at the things Simon had brought into the world. Some looked like they shouldn’t have been able to survive. One creature swung its head around to glare at me, and a shiver thundered up my spine. It had a human head and face but the teeth of a gator shifter and the slit-pupiled eyes of a lion. Its body was a crisscross of lion fur, plate-like scales, and small patches of pink human flesh.
“Ah, yes,” Simon murmured with a smile. “This was one of the first. I think the human face gives it a, uh, I don’t know how to say it… a poetry? An immediacy, perhaps. It speaks to the soul. I truly view them as individual works of art. This is my newest.” He gestured to the next holding cell.
This one had been totally sealed and filled with water. Inside, a being swam and thrashed in the water. It had the body and tail of a merperson, but from the chest up, it had the bulbous head of a great white shark. Serpentine legs moved in time with the tail, propelling it around the small enclosure. As we neared, the thing pressed itself against the glass, pushing its webbed merperson hands on the wall, and gazed out at us with lifeless black shark eyes.
“Mother of gods,” I whispered.
“I know,” Simon whispered enthusiastically. “Very exciting, isn’t it? It took a long time to get the spell right, but this one can survive in waterandon land. Very difficult.”
“Why?” I asked, the word leaving my lips before I could stop them.
Simon turned and stared at me, a quizzical look on his face. “What do you meanwhy, my lovely?”
Huffing out a breath of exasperation, I pulled my eyes from the horror in the tank. “Why would you create these things?”
Simon let out a slight chuckle. “Money, of course. Money, and to find out if Icoulddo it. It’s like they say, when you see a mountain, why not challenge yourself to climb it?”
What? I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Money? How?
“You… sell these?” I asked, incredulous. “To whom?”
“Whoever pays the most.Lotsof people interested in killing machines these days, what with the war raging on the mainland. It’s still in the early days, with small skirmishes here and there, but soon? It will take off like a wildfire. When it does, the sides that have my beauties will have a marked advantage, and the money these bring in will help fund more of my experiments. Preorders have been rolling in. Many of these have already been sold. Once they are ready, they’ll be shipped to the mainland. That’s when the real fun will begin.”
Before I could ask more questions, a roar erupted behind us. I spun around to face another cell. Inside were three beasts of varying combinations. The thick glass muffled the noises, but the sounds of battle still came through. Snarling mouths, snapping teeth, ripping claws. A spray of blood spattered the glass as the three beings waged their own war.
“Oh,” Simon said, a disappointed look on his face. “This is not what I’d planned. They’re supposed to try to mate with each other, not kill each other. Hold on a moment.”
