Lawe's Justice - Lora Leigh [115]
Not that they had found answers after cutting him open. There was nothing there. No reason for the anomalies showing up in his body until he’d begun experiencing brief episodes of full-blown feral fever.
The thought of death had been wiped away. The pain that clawed at his insides didn’t mean he couldn’t extract vengeance, though. That was something he had never wanted. He hadn’t wanted to live, to develop a fever so agonizing the animal inside him had been forced free to pull him back from the brink of insanity.
As the man huddled in blessed silence within his body, the animal had raged and roared; it had clawed at the walls and snarled at the guards. It had stared at the scientists, remembered the girl, the blood the scientists had used as they laughed at him and he had sworn vengeance.
Her blood had destroyed him. And she was gone. He hadn’t been able to find her in ten years, and several times, he’d actually searched for her and Judd, then for Honor once he’d learned of her disappearance.
It was as though they had simply ceased to exist.
When he had returned to the wilderness where he had left the night he’d awakened after that first transfusion, there had been no sign of them. He had brief memories of the termination facility. A small metal building, a cremation vault and the bloodied bodies he’d thrown inside it. There were flashes of images of guards, looks of horror on their faces, the taste of blood overriding his senses.
The animal had raged inside him, for how long, Gideon had never been certain.
When he’d finally come to himself and made his way back to the scene of their escape, it was to find it all gone. The wrecked vehicle, the two guards, Judd and Fawn.
It was only later he’d begun to suspect the lie of it. Only later that the animal inside him had begun to dream of dark eyes in an adult’s face. But the features of that face he never saw in the animal’s dreams.
She would pay for that demand that he live. For whatever her blood had done that had changed him, that had stolen the time he needed to ensure she was never found. She would pay for the additional agony. And when he was finished with her, maybe, just maybe, he would put them both out of their misery.
•CHAPTER 15•
Amber was changing.
Diane stood next to her sister at the end of the crib and stared at the sleeping child. In just a few brief days, even she could see the changes. Tiny, so very tiny, for her age.
Her dark brown hair was longer, hanging down her neck in little ringlets. Her lashes had always been long, feathering her rosy cheeks. Soft baby lips were slightly parted as she lay on her back, her breathing slow and easy.
She looked picture perfect. A babe, innocent in her slumber, dreaming whatever bright, happy dreams happy babies had. But there were changes.
Her face was thinner, the features altered almost imperceptibly and appearing almost feline. Her hair was lighter, with soft black and reddened streaks showing themselves amid the golden brown.
There was the faintest point to a tiny ear and every so often a very distinct purr.
“She’s running a fever,” Rachel whispered, her voice husky with tears. “She’s been running one for the past two days. It’s spiked on us twice, going over a hundred, and Dr. Morrey has tried everything to bring it down. Nothing works. Then it will just go away on its own.”
“Should she be here?” Diane wanted nothing more than to reach out and pick her niece up, to cuddle her, to hold her closely and keep whatever was tormenting her from ever hurting her again.
“Dr. Morrey is in the next room,” she answered. “With Callan and Merinus traveling here as well, they decided it best to bring Amber. That way,