He turned to stare at her. “Does it look like I have a gene sequencer here? Some way to map your DNA in minute detail? I don’t even have an autosampler anymore.”
“So you just injected me on the hope that it will work?”
He grinned at her, showing crooked teeth that were blindingly white. Freaky. “I injected you because I need more data. And because your only hope of survival is helping me.”
The man wasn’t making any sense. “I thought you said it probably wouldn’t work on me.”
“The first injection probably won’t. Maybe it’ll take three or seven. Or a hundred. I don’t know, but I’m going to keep shoving it into your arm until I find a solution or you die. Either way I learn something.”
Nausea choked her, but she held it back mostly because she wasn’t sure where she was going hurl. There wasn’t even a bucket nearby.
“By the way, he only took three injections to become this.”
This was not good.
“Starting to see things my way yet?” he taunted.
Yes. No. Hell, she didn’t know anything except she hated him. “What do you want me to do?”
“You and your father have been researching bonding rituals. You’re a bit behind the ball on that. Elisabeth already told me about them, and she was able to stabilize the others. But this one is being stubborn.” He kicked the other cage with a vicious curse. “So you’re going to drink the potion, perform the ritual, and I’m going to see if it works.”
“Why don’t you perform it?” Not that she was averse to helping the sick bear-person next to her. At this point, her sympathy was all with him. But she had to delay as much as possible and hope that Mark found her. And any information was helpful, so she’d just keep him talking.
“Because he won’t bond with me. I’m a guy, for one. And I’ve been experimenting on him.”
Okay, so he had a good point.
“You, on the other hand, might just be what the grizzly needs. Plus, you’ll be on your way to shifting anyway, so we’ll hope that helps. Elisabeth says it does, so we’ll go with that.”
“You don’t actually believe in magic potions, do you?”
He snorted as he leaned down into a small refrigerator she hadn’t even noticed before. It was beneath the large table and he pulled up a familiar bottle. “Experiment 7” was written in bold letters in her father’s hand.
“Of course not,” he snapped as he held it out for her. “But there’s science in the potions. And given what I’ve just done to your DNA, this just might work.”
God, he was insane. “Exactly how much of this stuff have you shoved up your veins?” Was she going to go loony toons, too?
“None!” he said stiffly. “No point in activating myself until I have a way to survive it.” Then his expression took on a wistfulness that was entirely too creepy. “I’ve got the bear DNA,” he said. “Once I’ve perfected this process, I’ll be able to shift. Finally.”
This guy as a grizzly was not a good idea. But short of clocking him on the head, she had to survive anyway she could. Which meant she was going to bond with the poor bear captive because, at the moment, she didn’t see any other choices. But then, she didn’t have all the details yet.
“Exactly how do I do this?”
That’s when freaky Einstein crossed to directly in front of her cage. He squatted down before her, his eyes narrowed, and his breath fouled the air between them with garlic.
“You don’t know?” he asked.
“How the hell would I know?”
He looked to the side and the stack of books and things. A second glance now told her it was the material she and Mark had been studying. And those were her father’s notebooks and probably his tablet. “You left the cabin. You went out to celebrate.”
“We took a break,” she said, her voice cold.
“You celebrated something. You were gone all night!”
They celebrated each other. They celebrated life. They celebrated falling in love, not that she’d thought to tell Mark that. “We didn’t figure anything out. Ask Elizabeth for your answers.”
“Her name’s Elisssssabeth,” he said, lengthening the S. “She’s very particular about that.”
