He squinted at me with the least objective look imaginable. “You’re looking great for someone who was pulled out of a fiery wreckage.”
“No one pulled me out of anything. Did you see the feed?”
He didn’t answer me right away, but there was something in his dark blue eyes that had me leaning forward. He knew something about the serums, had seen something that made him look at me like that.
“Do you know my cousin?” I asked since he wasn’t answering me about the serum.
“Not personally, no.”
“But you know who he is, or you wouldn’t have answered so easily.” I stood up and hesitated before I folded the throw and put it carefully over the arm. If he knew Philippe, he was either his ally or his enemy, and either one would be impossible to trust.
“I keep this work separate from every other part of my life,” he said, still watching me like he was looking for my tells.
“That’s very comforting.”
“I saw you pick up Trixie’s truck.”
I froze and then sank slowly into the chair, studying him with the same intensity he gave me. “You saw me do that? How do you think I did something that impossible?”
He waved a hand dismissively. “Once upon a time, in a land far away, the world was at war. To win that war, we developed certain serums that endowed the taker with skills. Unfortunately, that first batch had very few survivors, but one of them was your great- great-grandfather. You have one of the oldest strains of the serum from the First World War. Side-affects may include paranoia, narcissism, psychopathy, hypersensitivity, and a variety of other neurosis including megalomania. You can call it Pandora’s bottle. Congratulations, you inherited a strain of the rarest serum.” He flashed me a broad smile that sent a shudder of horror through me. No, that was the easy way he announced the side effects of a super serum. He made it sound so normal. Philippe was not normal.
I gripped the arms of the chair while my heart beat faster. There really was a super serum. “How could a serum be passed down through generations?”
He shrugged. “It changed people on a molecular level, including DNA.”
“And you know about it because…”
His smile was so disturbing, like he was talking about his dog. “My family was part of the second generation of serum users. It was tested during the interim between the First and Second World War on a variety of captured criminals, some of whom escaped, so you have their descendants running around as well as those who were in that second batch. It’s a mess.” That last was added as an aside. Not a big deal, this mess that sounded absolutely devastating.
I needed to focus. My cousin had this super serum stuff in his DNA. He was the enemy I needed to take down. I wasn’t goingto worry about the whole world. “What super abilities does my cousin have?”
He shrugged. “Increased mental acuity, speed, strength, and perfect recall, like you, but he seems to have suffered from more negative side-effects than you, perhaps because both of his parents were mutated by the serum while your father was only a genius musician.”
I nodded, but my heart was pounding faster and faster. “And Jezebel? She’s also from these families of the second generation?”
He pursed his lips. “I don’t know. I would guess that she’s a descendant from one of the criminals that the serum was tested on between the first and second main batches. I find that terrifying, but she seems to control her natural sadistic streak better than most.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Why are you telling me this?”
He leaned forward and lost some of his gloss of faux cheer. “It’s Dirk. He’s a descendant from the second generation, but has recently been exposed to another enhancer, and I’m not sure if the effects will produce a healthy member of society or leave him more twisted and broken than your cousin.”
I yanked the throw over me and pulled up my knees, wrapping it around myself. “Recently exposed to another enhancer? Why?”
He raised a brow. “Why? Probably because he realized he needed to level up when faced with your cousin. The first time they fought wasn’t pretty. If your Dirk didn’t have some of the serum, he’d already be dead.”
I swallowed hard. What did Dirk do to himself? The tech genius billionaire had unimaginable resources at his disposal. “What can I do?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Then why tell me?” I stood up and started to pace, glancing at the cello sitting gleaming in the center that I couldn’t play until my arm healed. “You’re saying that Dirk will start with destroying my cousin and then keep going, growing in power and insanity until he’s just another evil monster?” I whirled around to face him. “What business is it of yours? Do you take it upon yourself to put down anyone who gets out of control from the serum? Why didn’t you stop my cousin before now? If you ever think of hurting Dirk, even for a moment, whatever kind of monster he becomes, I will end you!”
He grinned at me and flopped down on the chaise. “Solidarity? I suppose it’s just fine if you’re evil monsters together. Sit down, Daniela. I’m not interested in ending Dirk. I just thought that you should know the demons your husband faces, and your own origin story. So, are you really here for therapy, or did you just want to know what I knew about the serum?”
I took a shaky breath and sat back down. “You really are a therapist? What part of the super serum makes you do that?”
“It’s my method of increasing my humanity instead of listening to the whispers of vice and madness. Giving others therapy is my therapy.”
I shot him a suspicious look, but he’d told me more than I would have ever expected him to. “All right. What do I do now? I’ve been letting myself do what I want.”
