“Or it could be another failure like the last.”
Dr Hill’s jaw clenched. She tapped on her keyboard, and a circular hole appeared on her desk. Frost wisped through the air as she retrieved a small tube containing a silver liquid. A glint sparkled in her eyes as she admired it. Dr Elsher fidgeted, made uneasy by her fascination.
They should have left it alone.
“Then we will try again with Mother’s tear.”
His eyes narrowed. “If we keep exploiting magik, are we not as bad as the vegodians who wield it? What are wefighting for? We want anyone who can use magik gone, but we create creatures with it to do so? It makes little sense to me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Go to your station, Dr Elsher. We can talk about the reason you hate…” Her words trailed off, lost in thickened air, then her eyes widened at something behind him.
He spun around, and his stomach dropped as he saw Dr Ledger at the computer beside the cloning tank. There was a pale look in blue eyes that once held the sea, and he stared at the creature as if it were his lover.
“No, don’t!” Dr Elsher raced towards Dr Ledger, whose hands were moving absently over a control panel, initialising the deactivation protocol. Cold lighting suddenly flushed red, and voices around them rose in panic. Dr Elsher tackled his colleague to the ground, pinning him down. “What the fuck is wrong with you!?”
Distant eyes gazed at the tank in awe. No words. Only a longing stare.
“Shit,” he spat, and hurried to the computer, only for the deep red eyes of the creature to capture him. Paralysed, a shiver ran down his sweaty back as a clawed hand pressed to the glass.
Let me out,the creature purred, the words pulling at his body.Let me out.
Dr Elsher’s hand hovered over the OPEN command on the touch screen, then his fingers pressed down. The creature’s red eyes crinkled as he smiled, and the slashes on either side of his mouth split open, stretching from ear to ear. Sharp, jagged teeth glistened in the bubbled liquid.
Whatever spell had enthralled Dr Elsher shattered, andhe staggered away. He took in Dr Hill as she rushed to the doors while those not yet in thrall were working to put the creature into hypersleep.
We are fucked.
“Keep the door open!” he begged Dr Hill, starting for the doors as she stepped through the exit. She spun to face him but did not demand that he hurry. In her hand, she hugged Mother’s silver tear while her other hand tapped her keycard to the scanner. “Hill!”
The door shut, and Dr Elsher slammed into it. Panicking, he scanned his keycard as a waft of decay hit, a barely tangible touch brushing against his neck. Cold air escaped from his mouth, and he turned, only to be pressed back against the doors.
The experiment stood before him. Black smoke billowed from his translucent skin, thickened, then flooded from his back in streams. Behind the creature, torn bodies were strewn everywhere, blood splattered across the walls and floors, while the streams of inky smoke feasted on their skins.
The creature smiled.Let me out, please. Free me, Dr Elsher.
This was no saviour. They had created a villain.
Heshouldn’t exist.
This monster could bring destruction far worse than humans had already wrought.
“Okay,” Dr Elsher said in a shaky voice. “Okay.”
The creature smiled warmly at him, his fingernails growing and forming vicious claws, while shadows snaked from his back, and he watched while Dr Elsher worked.
Dr Elsher punched in the code, and another screenappeared. As clever as the creature was, he did not know what the doctor was doing. The creature cocked its head to the side, red eyes dilating. He believed his thrall was working, just as it had on the other doctor. Dr Elsher punched in another code, and a red screen appeared.
Dr Elsher closed his eyes, and as his fingers hovered over the command DESTROY, he thought,Gwen, I’m sorry I won’t be making it home for your tenth birthday.
He pressed the button, and the entire room exploded.
PREFACE
Her scent drew me to her
A decadent sweet to savour
A light not blighted
