The Altered (28 page)

“Telepathy?”
Daniel wasn’t sure he wanted that much of a connection to Jordan.
Ever.

But thankfully
Charlie shook his head. “No, but just like you did with Jordan, she
can sense where I am, and me her.”

Daniel was
still facing Charlie, so Matt’s sudden embrace caught him off
guard. Matt buried his face in the crook of Daniel’s neck and held
him tight. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Oh, that’s
perfect. Charlie gets a hug and a kiss, and I get a lecture,”
Daniel huffed, needing to make light of the situation even as his
chest constricted.

Matt pulled
back and smirked at him. “I think Jordan would kill me if I did any
of that.” He stepped over to Keira and Chris, and glanced back at
Charlie. “Look after him.”

“Same.”
Charlie replied, his gaze flicking over to Keira.

Daniel had the
sudden urge to roll his eyes, but Keira didn’t seem to be taking
offense at Charlie and Matt’s sudden display of protectiveness, so
he refrained.

“Let’s go,”
Daniel said instead and stood aside to let Charlie go first. He was
right behind him with Ash and Sam bringing up the rear.

Every hundred
feet or so, they spotted a camera mounted high up on the wall.
There was no telltale light underneath, and the cameras didn’t seem
to move, but they still assumed they were being watched.

The corridors
remained eerily quiet, though.

They had no
idea where they were going, or at least Daniel didn’t. Charlie and
Sam appeared to be following something since they never faltered in
their path. Daniel assumed Jordan’s scent must be everywhere, and
again he cursed the fact he had no enhanced senses.

Charlie
stopped halfway down a hallway with what looked like labs on either
side and held up his hand. Daniel glanced back at Ash, but Sam
looked just as surprised as they did, and Ash shrugged.

“I’m just
checking in with Keira. They’re in a room with a cage and shackles.
It’s empty, though, and they’re okay,” he added hastily.

They carried
on carefully between the labs. The air smelled of chemicals, strong
enough for even Daniel to detect.

“Smells like
my old chemistry room,” Ash grunted, wrinkling his nose.

Daniel hummed
in agreement.

The main
lights were off in all of them. Only a few desk lamps left on here
and there to cast shadows on the walls. It was more than enough for
the altereds to see by, and even Daniel could make out test tubes,
small fridges, and all sorts of weird and wonderful machines. He
shuddered as he pictured what went on in there.

They moved on
swiftly.

“Where is
everyone?” Ash whispered as they carefully rounded another corner
and found the corridor deserted.

Daniel glanced
back at him. Ash’s worried expression matched exactly how Daniel
felt. “Can you sense anything?” he asked, mainly to Charlie, since
he could answer, but Sam let out a low growl and stopped in the
middle of the corridor, cocking his head to one side.

Charlie
frowned and brought them to a stop again. They waited in silence,
and Daniel bit his lip to stop himself demanding to know what was
happening.

Finally
Charlie glanced back at them and said, “The walls must be heavily
insulated, but I can just about make out several heartbeats. It’s
hard to tell how many—I’d guess at least six, but possibly
more.”

“Jordan?”
Daniel asked, clenching his fists at his side, but Charlie shook
his head.

“I can’t tell,
I’m so—”

Sam whined
suddenly and nipped at Daniel’s fingers, tugging him forward.

Daniel smiled,
the tiny spark of hope already blossoming in his chest before he
could quash it. “I guess Sam can tell.”

Charlie
shrugged. He might be unable to separate Jordan’s heartbeat from
the others, but Sam’s reaction was clearly confirmation enough.
Charlie led the way, taking the next right turn and stopping as a
pair of huge double doors came into view.

“In there.”
Charlie nodded toward the doors. “I can hear Jordan now.”

Daniel
swallowed. They were so close, but there were bound to be guards
behind that door. Guards that could be watching them now, just
waiting for them to open it. “Do the others know?”

“Not yet.”
Charlie absently rubbed at his chest. Daniel sympathised, he’d been
feeling an ache ever since he tried to find Jordan using their
bond. “I have to wait for Keira to look for me.”

“Do we wait or
go inside?” Daniel eyed the doors again, torn between wanting to
wait for the others and wanting to rush inside to Jordan now.

“Go in. Keira
should be checking on me soon, and she’ll know for certain what’s
going on if we’re already in there. You know how the connection
works, right?”

Daniel shook
his head.

“Your ma—your
partner gets a snapshot of where you are, like a quick glimpse
through your eyes at that moment. That’s how it works for me and
Keira anyway. I think you had a glimpse into Jordan’s mind, maybe
the last few images he saw, I’m not sure. But as soon as Keira sees
where we are, she’ll bring the others.” Charlie tapped his head
again, a rueful smile tugging at his lips. “The guards might know
we’re coming, but they won’t know about
this
.”

Sam
immediately turned and pushed at Ash’s legs, forcing him to take a
couple of steps back. “Hey, no way.” Ash tried to step around him,
but Sam snapped his teeth. “You can’t stop me from going in
there.”

Daniel
watched, fascinated by their seemingly one-sided conversation.
“Ash?”

“Just a
minute.” Ash crouched down in front of Sam and stroked behind his
ears with both hands. “I’m not staying out here,
on my own
,
while you three march through those doors into God knows what.”

It seemed to
be the
on my own
that did it. Sam’s whole demeanour changed
as Ash said it. He poked his tongue out and licked at Ash’s
chin.

“Ugh, gross.”
Ash made a show of wiping at his skin, but Daniel caught the soft
smile underneath his hand.

“Ready?”
Charlie asked, and Ash blushed, standing up hurriedly and nodding.
He then looked over at Daniel and raised one eyebrow. “It’s you
they’re waiting for in there. Sure you want to go in?”

“Yeah. Let’s
go.” Daniel squared his shoulders and embraced the adrenaline
coursing through his body. He took two steps toward the door, and
then he felt it. A gentle tug, deep down inside.

Jordan.

“We discovered
this quite by accident.” Chambers smiled as he touched the ends of
the cattle prod to Jordan’s shoulder.

Jordan gritted
his teeth against the pain, willing his body not to react, but
powerless to stop it. As soon as the electricity touched his skin,
his limbs convulsed, and he shifted. The smell of burnt skin filled
the cage, and Jordan whimpered.

“That
particular batch of serum when combined with electricity forces
altereds to shift.” Chambers shocked him again, and Jordan cried
out when he shifted back.

They’d put a
collar around his neck this time even though he was shackled to the
floor, and each time Jordan changed forms, it bit painfully into
his skin.

Chambers
hummed, staring at Jordan as though he were the most interesting
thing he’d seen. Maybe he was. “We still haven’t figured out why it
triggers the shift, but I’m sure we’ll get there given enough
time.” He leaned in closer. “And we have plenty of that.” He gave
Jordan another jolt.

Jordan’s head
swam as he struggled to get his bearings. He felt disoriented. The
floor seemed closer this time, and when he glanced down he saw
paws. Each time it took him a little longer to work out what form
he’d taken, and his bones ached with the constant need to
realign.

Chambers only
let him stay in his wolf form for a minute or so before shocking
him again and forcing him to change back.

“Stop!” Carter
cried out from where he sat huddled in the corner of his cage.
“You’re going to kill him.”

“Eventually,
yes. But not yet.” Chambers switched his attention to Carter, and
Jordan collapsed onto the ground, unable to stop shaking.

His muscles
screamed in protest as he tried to roll over onto his side, every
part of him aching and sore. He had no idea what they’d injected
him with this time, but he was still unable to shift unless
Chambers hit him with that fucking cattle prod, or whatever it
was.

Jordan closed
his eyes. The darkness helped as he tried to block out the screams
coming from the cage next to him and the thoughts of whatever they
were doing to Carter.

He didn’t
notice it at first. It started low down in his belly—a faint but
insistent pull. Jordan blamed his state of mind for the fact it
took him an embarrassingly long time to figure out what it was. The
sensation grew stronger as he lay there, and he snapped open his
eyes when he realised what it meant.

Daniel was
close by.

God
.
Did that mean these bastards had captured Daniel and the others?
Chambers hadn’t mentioned anything, and Jordan was almost positive
he’d have gloated about it if they’d suddenly got their hands on a
seer.

The pull
seemed stronger by the moment. They weren’t in the same room, but
Jordan felt as though Daniel was close enough to touch.

The sounds
from Carter’s cage abruptly cut off, and Jordan tensed, bracing
himself for another poke with the cattle prod.

But nothing
happened.

He gritted his
teeth again and ever so carefully rolled onto his side so he had a
better view out into the room. It hurt, but he managed not to cry
out and bring attention to himself. The chain attached to his neck
limited his movement, but he shuffled around enough to see down the
length of the room toward the heavy double doors at the end.

Chambers was
talking with the two technicians. Jordan could pick out most of it
if he concentrated.

Chambers
gestured to the two unconscious bodies in the end cage. “Any
change?”

“No, sir,” one
of the technicians answered. “But they’re still alive, so that’s an
improvement on the last ones.”

Were they
experimenting on humans now?

“Is the new
batch ready?” Chambers glanced back over at Jordan and smiled. “I
want to see if Mr Cole’s blood has fixed our little problem.”

“Almost. We’re
just waiting for it to finish.”

“Good. Go and
check on it. I want to try it as soon as possible. And make sure
they send me two more
volunteers
.”

Even from his
position on the ground, Jordan caught the way the technician paled
as he glanced at his co-worker. “We don’t have any more.”

Chambers
pointed at them with the cattle prod, idly flicking it between
them. “We have Mr Shaw and Dr Adams locked up, do we not?”

“Yes, but they
aren’t—”

“You will have
them sent in here with the new batch of serum, or I’ll use you two
in their place.”

“Yes,
sir.”

The
technicians turned and hurried out of the room through a side door
Jordan hadn’t noticed before. That left Chambers and the two guards
stationed either side of the doors at the far end.

Jordan glanced
down at where he was shackled. With his current lack of strength
and whatever they’d used to reinforce the chains, he wasn’t going
anywhere. But Chambers hadn’t mentioned Daniel yet and didn’t seem
in any great hurry to leave. Maybe he didn’t know Daniel was close
by.

A flare of
hope surged in Jordan’s chest. Daniel wouldn’t be here on his
own—the others would definitely have come with him. Charlie, Keira,
and Sam could easily take the two guards and Chambers, whether the
guards were armed or not.

Chambers
watched the door close behind the technicians and then turned his
focus onto Jordan and Carter. “You’re going to like this next
bit.”

He ran the
cattle prod along the metal bars of the cage, and Jordan drew his
legs in tight, as far away from the charged metal as he could
get.

Chambers
laughed. “You think you’re so special, with your enhanced speed and
healing and your senses dialled way up.” He sneered at them both.
“But you’re a crime against nature—a horrible mistake, never meant
to be out in the general population.” He glanced up at the cameras,
and shrugged to himself, as though coming to a decision. “I led the
team that created Lycanaeris, you know. We were doing things our
competitors hadn’t dreamed about. And then one scientist developed
a conscience, complained to the wrong fucking people, and ruined
everything. We had buyers in place. We would have been rich!”

He closed his
eyes, his fists clenched tight around the cattle prod. “There’s
nothing documented as to what went into the pathogen—everything was
destroyed, so we had to start from scratch. We’d spent over a year
isolating the specific gene that reacted to the pathogen, and it
was all gone with the push of a button. Do you have any idea how
frustrating that was, when we were so close to creating the perfect
soldier? So close.”

He opened
Jordan’s cage and stepped inside, making sure to keep well out of
his reach. “This facility was originally set up to find a cure, did
you know that?” Jordan had guessed as much, but Chambers didn’t
pause for an answer, too busy with his monologue. “A way to fix the
poor children who’d been altered by the pathogen—which I admit had
been an unforeseen complication on our part. The government’s
methods had some
unfortunate
side effects, though, and the
public complained.”

“Unfortunate?”
Jordan spat, wincing at the pain throughout his body as he tried to
sit up. “They lost their memories, some suffered brain damage, and
God knows how many never returned at all.”

Chambers waved
his hand about as though dismissing him. “They were already ruined.
It wasn’t as though they were making things worse. But no,” he
carried on, ignoring Jordan’s snarl, “the government caved under
pressure from the public, claimed to have no knowledge of the
facilities’ actions. And that was that—shut down and disbanded. But
the research remained this time, and when we explained our
interest, they were only too happy to let us take it off their
hands. For the right price of course.”