“Did Sebastian tell you about the shifters that came this afternoon?” July asked Knox, so she wouldn’t need to explain it to him all over again.
For a moment, July forgot about the small dispute between them before this; about the problem that they couldn’t find a solution to. She was too happy to have the little girl in her arms, since there were not any children her age around here.
“Yes, he told me.” Knox nodded. When July came closer and stopped right in front of him, only then could he see the color of the little girl’s eyes in her arms. They were deep blue in color and Knox had a bad feeling about it.
It was not a ground rule and not every person with deep blue eyes would be Chaos’ shattered soul, but every shattered soul of his would have this same physical characteristic.
“Look, she has your eyes,” July said, as she lifted the toddler in her arms to Knox’s face, so he could see her clearly.
This was one of the reasons why July felt so drawn to this child, because she had the same color of eyes as Knox, so July felt this was how it would feel to see her and Knox’s baby.
“Yes, we have similar colored eyes,” he admitted, which was not at all a good sign to say the least.
“Why don’t you give her to her parents and we can have our dinner?” Knox suggested. He indeed loved seeing how happy July was right now, because she had been very gloomy the past few days.
July was slightly disappointed, but she agreed and both of them walked back to the manor, with the little girl’s little arms tightly wrapped around July’s neck. She blinked her eyes, taking in her surroundings and occasionally glancing at Knox.
.....
She looked so calm and mature for a baby her age, but maybe this was because of Knox’s biased judgment...
Knox didn’t like July being too close to the baby.
======================
“I will inject the serum now, but you need to understand that the outcome may not meet your expectations.” Vanesha looked at Sol, who was standing next to her.
She had a long story with this man and a complicated one on top of it, yet she was sure about what she felt about him and what she wanted. She wanted him.
“Do it,” Sol said coldly. He didn’t even spare Vanesha a glance, as he tried to keep the distance between them. Unfortunately, what they had done together and all the deals that they had in these past two years didn’t allow him to keep the relationship between them professional and formal.
“I don’t know how you will get your way out of this if you mess up this experimentation.” Vanesha then clicked the button and watched how the girl, around the age of thirteen in front of her, woke up and started screaming in pain.
She was the precious experiment object that this facility had gotten five years ago and she was still a mystery to them as to how her powers worked and what kind of creature she was.
“That’s my problem to be worried about. You don’t need to care.” Sol fixed his eyes on the girl behind the thick glass in front of them, who was crying in pain.
It was a special room that was built to be able to hold back her powers and minimize the destruction of the fire that she created.
“Add more,” Sol instructed. He didn’t show any emotion when he watched Lise’s daughter screaming in pain. She had his father’s face and Sol hated her for that. If only she looked more like her mother, maybe he would have showed a little pity to her.
Vanesha frowned, but she followed the instruction.
“Add more,” Sol said again.
“You will kill her,” Vanesha protested. She wasn’t worried about the girl behind the glass, but she was worried about the punishment that Sol would get. He would get in big trouble for what he was doing right now.
“If she died, she is not worth our time.” Sol knew that their lost experimental subject, the lycan, was in that pack. They needed to find a way to retrieve him, the same way they had to think about how to get Jasmine back from there.
If only they lost this experimental subject. If only this girl died...
Those scientists had never tried to push her limits, since they were all afraid they would lose her. She would be less valuable if she died after all.
“Add more,” Sol instructed again.
“Sol,” Vanesha protested, she looked at the light on the indicator, it had reached the fourth stage, with the highest one being five, which meant, more than that special room wouldn’t be able to hold back such flames.
There was a lot of fire inside and they could no longer see the girl in that firestorm.
“I am your commander,” Sol warned her sternly, as he turned around to shoot Vanesha a dagger look. “Do what I said.”
Being left with no other choice, Vanesha pressed the button again and saw in horror how the light reached the last stage.
“We need to stop this,” Vanesha said in a hurry, as she stood up to press the button to stop this madness, but Sol grabbed her hand immediately to stop her from doing so.
“I didn’t give you the order to do that.” His voice was very aloof and the look in his eyes was very terrifying, until Vanesha was not even sure that she was ready to see this side of Sol.
The first time they met was three years ago, when she was trying to fend for herself without her brother, after he had been taken away by the government to be trained as a member of The Delta.
The two years before, without her brother, were the worst years ever that Vanesha had to go through, not to mention she knew nothing about this city or anyone here.
It was a blur of memories about how she lived past those two years before she met Sol and he took her in and was given the responsibility to look after this ‘girl’, trying to be ‘friends’ with her.
In Sol’s defense, they could get more information if that girl was willing to open up to someone or even talk like a normal human being, thus giving her a ‘friend’ was a wise idea.
At that point, they were willing to do anything to get a piece of information from this girl, therefore, Vanesha was the best choice that they had.
And for Vanesha, this life was better than the life that she had to endure out there.
It could be said that Sol was the reason she was still alive right now.
“Sol... the room will not be able to hold it back,” Vanesha said. She was almost begging him to stop, but Sol didn’t budge.
When Vanesha thought everything was over, that she had signed her own demise by following Sol’s instructions and this place would explode, the flames suddenly died out, leaving thick black smoke inside.
“What?” Vanesha was surprised to see that.
On the other hand, Sol freed Vanesha’s hand and then walked closer to the glass, his eyes filled with caution. He was trying to look beyond the glass and the thick, dark smoke, to see how the girl was, but it was hard to do that.
“The sprinklers,” Sol said and Vanesha pressed another button. In the next instant, the water from the sprinklers came out to clear their view.
It took almost fifteen minutes to clear the smoke and another fifteen minutes before it was safe enough for Sol to enter the room, which Vanesha hesitatingly facilitated by opening the door.
Sol walked straight to a girl, who was chained up to the wall, her head hung very low and her long hair was cascading down her face. She didn’t move, but the monitor that indicated her vitality showed that she was still alive.
Sol stretched out his hand and grabbed her hair to tilt her head, the girl had her eyes closed, she was exhausted after the outbreak.
“Do you want to see your mommy?” That was the first thing that Sol asked her.
Once she heard that question, the girl opened her eyes, which were brimming with tears.
“Mommy...” River whispered softly and painfully.
=======================
“Animals are not allowed on the train,” a man said, stopping Zuri from walking ahead.
They were in a busy station in the morning, since Chaos apparently wanted to take this journey as humanly as possible for reasons that Zuri didn’t know or understand.
Chaos could change their location in the matter of a blink of an eye, but this time, he seemed to want to save his energy and chose to be more human by taking public transportation.
“Miss, you are not allowed to bring an animal inside the train.” The man followed Zuri and was about to stop her by grabbing her hand when Chaos stopped him by swatting his hand away.
Zuri stopped and stood next to Chaos, while the other people stopped walking and started staring at them, trying to know what this commotion was about.
“The animal...” the man started, he looked a little bit irritated because Chaos stopped him, but when his eyes met with his, he stuttered and changed his words. “...have a safe journey.” And then left them alone, which left all the people there dumbfounded.