Rather me than you. What are we going to do?
Working on it.
“Ah. Alex, she’s lovely. And delightfully spirited. She’l do wel .” In spite of
the sweltering wet heat, Lexi went cold. “Do w—”
“Do wel at
what,
Mason?”
“It’s been quite inconvenient and complicated obtaining the fluids of
suitable wizards and Halfs, my boy. Due to your diligence, and that of
Lucas and Simon, you’ve gifted me with three lovely, healthy young
women as breeding stock.”
Bile rose in the back of Lexi’s throat.
“Unacceptable.”
Yeah. That,
she thought, tamping down unproductive terror and a good
dose of hysteria. Neither of which was going to solve the problem of
besting Knight and getting Alex as far away from him as humanly
possible. Emotions had no place in any of this. She had to keep a cool,
logical
head.
Knight laughed with genuine amusement. “You think not?”
“Teleport Lexi outside, and we can talk about this project of yours.”
“I’d like to give you a little tour before we begin. An
overview,
if you wil .”
“Screw you, you sick fuck! Not until Lexi leav—Aargh!” With a cry of
agony, Alex dropped to his knees, his face contorted as he doubled over.
Whatever Knight was doing to him, Alex’s body shook. The muscles in his
back and arms bulged and contorted as he fought the pain.
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Night Shadow
“Stop it!” Lexi dropped to her knees beside Alex. She couldn’t help him to
his feet because his entire body was wracked and contorted by the agony
Knight was inflicting on him. She spread her fingers on his sweat-
drenched back.
I’m here. I’m not going to leave you. Ride the pain.
His
skin felt like ice despite being washed in sweat. She lifted her head,
furious because her eyes swam with tears. “Dammit, stop it, you’re killing
him!”
“Don’t be tiresome, gentlemen,” Knight muttered as though Lexi hadn’t
yel ed at him like a madwoman. “No talking. Come along, ladies, the boys
can catch up when they decide to behave themselves.”
Alex shot to his feet as though he were a puppet on a string. His sudden
movement knocked her on her ass, and she shot him a terrified look as
she scrambled to her feet. He seemed oblivious. Oh God, oh God.
“Come along, girls. Let’s start here,” Knight suggested, leading Lexi
between the tall boxes. She turned her head, reluctant to leave Alex, and
dreading following Knight. Divide and conquer?
Alex’s arms hung to his sides, his chest heaved with every breath as
though he were under unbearable torment. He seemed to be almost in a
trance. Lexi’s heart was beating so hard she was afraid she was literally
going to have a heart attack right there. No heart attack, don’t be
dramatic, she told herself fiercely.
Forget everything but staying cool and
calm and using your God-given smarts.
“Alexis? Come along, my dear. I think you’l quite enjoy this.”
As much as she didn’t want to leave Alex’s side, she considered the
possibility that if she went with Knight, Alex might figure out a way to
break free. But—Lord. Was he changing into one of these . . .
machines
right before her very eyes? She didn’t know what to do . . .
“The Alex version 2002,” Knight paused. “A
very
good year, and one I like
to call the beginning. The Lucas model peaked in 2004, the Simon model
later that same year. As with anything, practice made perfect. And here
they are.” He opened his arms expansively. “My creations. Like the three
boys,
creations.
”
Alex? Snap the hell out of it. We have to get out of here.
No response. Sweat oiled his body, his eyes were glazed and unfocused.
The muscles across his chest looked carved from stone. This was bad.
Really, really bad.
She had to fol ow Knight as he strol ed between the black glass-fronted
boxes, display cases, whatever the hell they were.
“Of course this started almost forty years ago,” Knight said amicably as
they walked. “But I’m sure you don’t want me going
that
far back.”
Alex. Talk to me.
Knight kept talking, and Lexi dared to take her attention away from Alex
for a second to see what Knight was showing her.
The Vitros.
Naked, blank-eyed duplicates of a twenty-year-old Alex.
Alex times a thousand.
Their glass-fronted containers went on to what looked like infinity. Lexi
couldn’t breathe.
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Night Shadow
“How—” Her mouth was so dry she could barely push the words out.
“How do I do it?” Knight asked, clearly pleased with the question. “Oh,
now that I’ve almost perfected their production, I do it very wel indeed,
my dear.” He laughed at his own little joke. “Very wel indeed.” His
American accent had a slight British undertone, Lexi presumed from living
there for many years. His
teeth
had been done in England. They were too
big, and too white under a sinister black mustache and surrounded by a
gray beard that matched his hair.
He looked exactly what he was. The villain.
Forget the man’s teeth, Stone. Think.
“The infants are created in a test tube,” he told her with not a little pride.
“The gestation period for my Vitros is twelve months. Birth to death. One
year. That was part of their wrist marking, of course. Longitude and
latitude of where they were hatched, then their expiration date one year
later.”
She was going to keep the son of a bitch talking until she could figure out
how to get Alex and herself out of here. Or die trying. “Where are the
babies?”
“Ah, the maternal instinct. Yes, let me show you the fourteen-day-olds.
You boys wait here. This way,” he said to Lexi.
There were no
boys.
There was Alex. Alone. Where were the others? Lexi
had no idea. And she couldn’t worry about them. If she didn’t keep on
task, and think fast and smart, Alex would be lost to her forever.
And she’d be a broodmare for Vitros. Bile rose up the back of her throat as
they turned down a corridor made up of staring Vitros. The completely
nude drones were in various stages of development. In one long row of
gestation cases, they looked about six, another early teen, in another
their late teens. Tubes and electrical cables ran in and out of their bodies
while the bank of various colored lights behind them flashed and flickered,
indicating . . . something.
They emerged from between the tal boxes to an open area. Thousands of
square feet fil ed with the same isolettes she’d observed in New Mexico.
This time they were occupied by what looked like newborns. Her heart
twisted. Hal . . .
Every infant was the same length and weight. None of them moved about
like normal babies. They stared at her blankly, with identical green eyes in
identical little faces. Babies. But not.
Wires, bundled neatly, hung from a dropped ceiling, attached to each—not
child, Lexi thought, repulsed. Each clone.
“The twenty-nine-day-olds are automatically transferred by this conveyer
to the larger incubators. Ah, there’s a batch being moved now. Would you
like to watch the transfer?”
No.
It was the very last thing she wanted to do. She fol owed him anyway.
Lexi was ready to kill this monster with her bare hands. If she had the
physical strength to do it, she would. Every step of the way she’d looked
for something—anything—she could possibly use as a weapon.
“Sure.”
Any time you want to freaking chime in, Stone, feel free.
Nothing from Alex.
Lucas? Simon? Anybody?!
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Night Shadow
Knight talked as though everyone was together. But there was no
indication that Simon and Lucas were anywhere near. She and Alex were
it. And Alex . . .
She was it.
Beyond the thousand isolettes, smal er open bassinets took up a quarter
of the vast warehouse. There was no such nicety as a blanket, or anything
else soft one expected around an infant.
Not babies,
she told herself.
These are not human babies. Get that out of your head.
These Vitros were bigger than the “newborns.” They had the same blank
stare, the same rigid limbs. Yet their eyes tracked her movement, and
their small lungs rose and fel .
God, it’s hot in here. Hot and close, and terrifying.
Right. It is. Now get over that and figure out what you’re going to do to
get out of here.
It helped—
slightly
—knowing Edge and the Council and a hundred powerful
wizards were practically outside the door trying to do exactly what she
was trying to do. Save Alex and the others.
The sound of moving machinery snagged her attention, and she watched
transfixed as large, rubber-tipped tongs passed over each bassinet. A
slight creak as the metal opened, and they dipped inside, picking up each
clone by the head.
Not babies. Not babies. Oh, God. Not babies.
The tiny
naked forms rose in synchronized batches to the continuous belt
crisscrossing the ceiling like laundry on a moving clothesline.
This is a replica of Alex.
God, I can’t think like that.
Not. Babies. Clones. Not Alex. Clones.
There’s a special place in hel for you, you sick bastard.
“Then what
happens?”
“Then they’re inserted into these development tanks. Watch.”
She could tel he was very pleased with himself. Lexi’s fingers flexed at
her sides. Sweat glued her hair to her face and neck. She shoved her
bangs out of her eyes. If she could find something to use as a weapon.
Something heavy. Something hard. Something sharp . . . Anything could
be made into a weapon.
Knight was a powerful wizard. But he was also an old man. His steps
faltered slightly as he walked as if his joints and bones ached.
“This stage always gives me a thrill,” he said with a little smile. With
small, repetitive clicks, the glass doors on the large boxes opened. A baby
clone was released inside. Arm and leg bands snapped around their limbs
holding them upright, tubes snaked around their small pale bodies and
were then inserted. Presumably delivering nutrients.
The doors closed. Click-click times a thousand.
Lexi did a quick scan of her surroundings and saw she was stil alone. Her
tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. “How long?”
“Until they resemble a twenty-year-old? Al told, twenty-two days. Then
they’re ready to go to work.”
“Interesting. But hardly genius.”
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Night Shadow
Mason turned to her, his pale blue eyes glittering and hard, and a little bit
crazy. “You think not?”
“Anybody can biologically produce a child. It takes more than that to be a
parent.” And given her own experience, and that of her baby brother, she
should know.
He was, of course, delusional. How could that help them?
“Ah yes, parenting. I think I did a splendid job mentoring the boys, didn’t
I? Encouraging their latent talents to develop without getting in their
way.”
He hadn’t had a loving relationship with the three young boys he’d
mentored. At least
he
hadn’t loved
them.
It was the boys who’d
worshipped Knight . . . Lexi started systematically filing all the information
she had on Mason Knight in her brain, just as she’d do a research project
on her computer in Montana.
There was something—something she’d seen or heard that was going to
trip up this bastard and be his downfall. She just had to access the
information.
Fast.
Twenty
Aswirl of white indicated Alex was teleporting.
No.
Being
teleported.
Against his wil
was a given.
Lexi i ?!
he yel ed into the ether.
Would his being ripped from her side save her? Or would his removal
expose her to more of Knight’s evil machinations? He fought the temporal
power pul ing at him.
Knight.
His efforts were puny against the force. Wherever he was being taken was
completely out of his control.
Lexi i ?!
She was a smart and resourceful woman, an operative in her own right.
But he knew that wasn’t going to be enough to best Knight with his
formidable powers and the wiles of a soul ess predator. He’d never felt
more helpless, more powerless in his life.
He materialized on a dark street.
Christ. What now?
The pain Knight had inflicted, while no longer debilitating, stil echoed like