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“Are you sure?”
She didn’t know if she was or not. Her stomach churned, and her hands and feet were cold while her cheeks burned. But she couldn’t just sit here like a crybaby. She needed to know why she was being hunted.
“I’m sure,” she said.
She stared at the screen as Wes hit the play button again.
“What I need from you is easy but important,” her father said. “Take the bus locker key I’ve given you and put it in a safe place. Do you understand, Eleanor? You need to keep it hidden and don’t tell anyone I sent it to you.”
Her cheeks burned brighter as the loss and the sorrow slowly dissipated. Here was the father she remembered, the guy who always acted like she was no brighter than a burnt-out light bulb. The guy who could never seem to speak to her without that look on his face - the one that practically screamed, why are you so stupid?
“Don’t forget where you put it,” he said sharply as he rubbed at his chest. “This is too important to be another victim of your forgetful mind.”
She sighed and glanced at Wes. “Once when I was seven, I put my new crayons in a safe place to keep the dog from eating them and then forgot where they were. Dad wouldn’t buy me new ones and never let me forget what an airhead I was.”
Wes growled deep in his throat as her father leaned forward and adjusted the view on the camera. “I need to disappear for a few months, but I’ll contact you when I get back so you can deliver the key to me. This is incredibly important, Eleanor. My life’s work depends on you keeping it safe. Do you understand?”
He paused for a moment, rubbing absently at his chest again as indecision crossed his face. “Shit, I need to tell you what it is in case… in case something happens.”
He glanced to the right and then the left before clearing his throat. “I’ve worked tirelessly for the last decade to create a serum that enhances shifter’s abilities.”
“Oh fuck,” Eleanor said.
“The company who funded my research is Dynasty Labs. They found me twelve test subjects. Six lions, four tigers, two cougars. The serum made all of them stronger and faster. Not just that… it helps them heal faster too. The possibilities for what this means are endless. We can use the enhanced to help us win wars and make sure the good guys are in charge. I did that, Eleanor. I made that possible. You’re looking at a future Nobel prize winner.”
She glanced at Wes. He stared at her father with a combination of disgust and disbelief. Her father had always been arrogant. She wasn’t surprised that he believed what he was doing was for the greater good.
“But there’s an issue,” her father said. “The formula isn’t just making them stronger and faster. It’s also affecting their emotions. It’s upping their anger and urge to dominate while reducing their capacity to feel love or empathy. I warned the Board this could happen, but they wouldn’t listen to me.”
His face paled, the arrogance fading away to leave a look of sick regret. “They sent them on missions, even after it was obvious they were getting worse. The last mission, it… it went bad, Eleanor. Horribly bad. They killed innocent people, innocent humans, and they didn’t even care. Rourke is the worst of them, but all twelve of them are affected to some degree.”
He reached off camera for a glass of water, drinking half of it and then wiping his mouth with his handkerchief. “That’s when I knew I had to do something. The formula will work. It just needs some tweaking. But the Board, they don’t care. The aggression doesn’t bother them, and they don’t see the danger. But I do. I needed more time to fix it, but they refused. They were about to start mass-producing it, Eleanor. There were plans to start distributing it to the military as is.”
He wiped his face again, staring blankly at the handkerchief. “I couldn’t let that happen. So, I destroyed the serum at the lab, and I took the formula before they could send it out of the lab. I put it on a flash drive, and it’s safe in a bus locker. The enhanced require a dose of the serum every twelve hours. Without regular dosing, they lose their abilities, go through withdrawal like an addict.”
He sucked in a harsh breath. “I destroyed all of the serum. At least, I think I did. That bastard Chad might have some squirreled away. But even if he did… it wouldn’t be enough for all twelve. I have to believe that they’re no longer a threat.”
He sighed and stared into the camera again. “I have to disappear for a while. I’ve destroyed my phone. It’s bugged, and they can track me with it. They’ll be looking for me and if they find me… I’m dead.”
His face twisted. “Honestly, the probability that they find me is rather high. I’m a biochemist, not some sort of spy. It’s too much of a risk to keep the formula with me, the people I work for are incredibly dangerous, but they don’t know about you, Eleanor. I’ve never mentioned a daughter. I’ve cut you out of every part of my life so they wouldn’t find out about you.”
He winced and rubbed at his upper arm. “You’ll keep the formula safe until I’ve found others who will protect me and allow me to continue my work until it’s perfect. But, if something happens to me, if they… find me, destroy it. Do you hear me, Eleanor? Destroy the flash drive. We can’t risk the formula falling back into their hands, or worse, into the hands of someone who doesn’t understand how extraordinary my creation is.”
He reached for the camera before pausing. “Goodbye, Eleanor. I’ll be in touch soon.” He fumbled for the button, and she had one last glimpse of his sweaty face before the recording ended.
Wes shut off the television and the camcorder before sitting back on the couch and staring at her. “You okay, Butterfly?”
“Yes, why?” She gave him a puzzled look.
“I don’t know… maybe because your father deliberately put you in danger without even thinking twice about it. Or because he’s a shit dad who couldn’t even say he loved you in what turned out to be his last message to you?”
“He doesn’t love me,” she said. “Why would he say it?”
He grimaced and reached for her hand. “He’s an idiot.”
“He was quite brilliant. Brilliant enough to create a formula that enhances shifters, but stupid enough to think it was a good idea.” Eleanor sat back on the couch, staring blankly at the television. “So, there are potentially another eleven shifters like that insane lion this morning. Fantastic.”
“Maybe not,” Wes said. “You heard your dad. He destroyed the serum.”
