| |
Gregory wasn’t stupid by any means. However, when the pressure was on and the noose being tightened around his neck, he was careless.
As he scurried through his lab, sweeping all of his samples into his large black leather briefcase, he didn’t expect someone to clear their throat behind him. He whirled around, almost tripping over his own feet as he did so.
“Mum?” he said, his voice almost a whisper. “What are you...doing here?”
Lenore stood a few feet away from her son and painted a small smile onto her face. “You didn’t think you could let Malaceia take the fall for all of this, did you?”
Gregory opened his mouth, but no words came out. When Jacques padded up the stairs and appeared at Lenore’s side, Gregory narrowed his eyes at the white wolf. “What are you doing here? I should have known you meddled somewhere in all of this.”
Jacques calmly walked up to his torturer, and as the man backed up a couple of steps, lunged at him and clamped his powerful jaws around Gregory’s genitals.
Gregory squealed and dropped his bag, sending vials of valuable samples rolling across the floor. “Let go, please. Ohmygod, please.”
Jacques growled and bit down a little harder.
Lenore gave a genuine smile this time and folded her arms across her chest. “Do I have your attention now, Gregory?”
Gregory nodded.
“Excellent. See, I may have traded my magick for immortality, but I’m still gifted with some natural abilities. One of those is making alliances. Do you know who I made alliances with Gregory?”
Gregory shook his head.
“I believe you’re quite familiar with him. He goes by the name of Lazarus.”
Gregory’s face paled to a shade of white never yet seen. “No, no, no, no, no, no. Please, tell me you’re joking?”
“My dear child, when have I ever joked about something as serious as this?”
The staircase creaked and groaned underneath the floor. As the sounds filtered through the square hole next to Lenore’s feet, Gregory started trembling.
A head of dark hair appeared, followed by the familiar face of Malaceia—except for a scar that extended across one cheek to the tip of his earlobe.
“Arald?” Gregory said, almost squeaking.
“You didn’t think I’d miss this did you?”
“Before our dear friend, Lazarus arrives, there’s something you can do,” Lenore said.
“If it keeps him away, anything.”
“Tell us how to fix the shifters.”
Gregory took just a second too long to answer. Jacques bit down until his teeth scraped against each other.
The mad scientist screamed in agony. “Ok, ok, ok, ok. Just make him let go, please.”
“Jacques?” Lenore said.
Jacques held on for a few more seconds then released his captive. He didn’t back away.
Gregory pointed a shaking finger to a fridge in the far corner of the lab. “There’s a tray of bottles on the top shelf. Red liquid. They’re individually named.”
“Named?” Jacques said. “Why are they named?”
Gregory swallowed the lump of fear lodged in his throat. “I took a sample of your DNA before I altered it. What’s in the fridge is a virus. If you inject it, you’re essentially re-injecting yourself with your original DNA.”
Lenore narrowed her eyes. “Nothing is ever that simple and easy with you. What’s the catch?”
“No catch. It’s a simple flu-like virus that will override the one currently keeping them from turning back into a human. That’s it, I swear.”
“So I’ll go back to being a normal shifter?” Jacques said, hope raising his voice.
“Yes,” Gregory said. “Every one of you that is still alive and serving has their own bottle in that fridge.”
Jacques narrowed his eyes and snapped at Gregory’s genitals. “Why did you keep it—our original DNA?”
“Because with changing times there has to be changing methods. There’s no telling when we’d need the original DNA again to work as a base from for something else. It may have even worked to have you back as shifters in the future, who knows?”
Arald marched over to the fridge and pulled out a tray of small clear bottles with red liquid filling half of each bottle. He set it on the work surface next to him and started looking for Jacques’ bottle.
A cold chill blew through the open staircase and whistled around the lab. Gregory paled. He looked at Lenore. “Please, Mum. You can’t hand me over to a demon. I’m your son.”
“You stopped being my son when you started killing children for your own selfish demise. You have magick, Gregory. You could have simply traded it for immortality like I did.”
“And what use is that?” he shouted. “What’s the point in being immortal but with no powers? You’re just the equivalent of a dumb human except you can’t die.”
“If you want something to better your life, it’s only right that you sacrifice something from your life. That’s how it works, Gregory.”
“And how have you bettered your life by being powerless?”
“It’s taught me patience, dear child, and now I have my reward.”
Gregory frowned. “What reward?”
A blast of icy wind whipped around the room. The overhead lights flickered. A dark shadow skimmed over the far wall.
“What reward?” asked Gregory, his voice quivering in panic.
The room fell into darkness for several seconds. The temperature dropped to such a degree, each breath exhaled left a cloud of mist in the air.
When the lights blinked back into life, a dark shadow stood next to Lenore. Around six feet tall but lacking defining features, the demon was a fuzzy edged being. Two red glowing eyes settled on Gregory. A bright white line of teeth then showed as the demon smiled.
“Gregory Kempe,” the demon said, his deep commanding voice booming around the large room. “You have failed to pay the price demanded for our deal. The soul you marked for me to claim is no longer of interest to me.”
“Katana Kempe? But she’s...she’s what you wanted.”
The demon rushed forwards, gliding over the smooth floor. “She was yes, until around fourteen hours ago.”
A strangled cry left Gregory. “But I was so close...isn’t there something else we can deal on?”
Lazarus grinned, the points of his teeth gleaming under the bright lab lights. “I’m afraid I have a new deal. One of much greater interest to me.”
Gregory looked at Lenore. She stood behind the demon, grinning like the cat who’d got the cream. “What reward were you talking about?” he said to his mother.
“Your magick,” she replied. “You know demons can’t have souls with magick. It has to be the soul or the magick.”
Gregory’s eyes widened. “So you’re going to have my magick?”
Lenore smiled. “Yes.”
Lazarus reached for Gregory. Two thick dark lengths similarly shaped to arms grabbed a hold of the scientist’s body. With no warning whatsoever, Lazarus plunged a roughly shaped hand into Gregory’s chest. The crunch of his ribs being shattered reminded Jacques of twigs being stepped on. Blood spurted out from the man’s chest.
“Come here,” Lazarus said, looking at Lenore. “Give me your hand.”
Lenore went to the dark shadow and held her hand out towards him. He touched her palm, and a few seconds later, a bright blue energy fizzled through the demon and into Lenore.
As the last of it trickled into her, the demon squeezed Gregory’s heart until it exploded like a balloon. A pale-yellow wisp of energy floated through the air. Lazarus grabbed it, swallowed it, and then vanished in a black whirling circle.
Lights flickered again and the temperature in the room rose back to normal.
Jacques looked at Lenore, dumbfounded. “I never would have thought a demon looked like that.”
She laughed. “They’re dark energy, Jacques. There’s so much of it, no physical form can contain it. As a result, they are just...that—a moving mass of black energy that can vaguely resemble an object.”
“Does your magick work?” Arald asked, running over to her carrying a needle and a small bottle.
Lenore stretched her fingers out and pointed her hand at the wall. The entire brick mass exploded outwards, revealing a bright summers day outside. “I’d say so.”
“Excellent. Now, let’s give our friend here a quick injection and then see how things are going in court.”