Darken (Siege #1) Read online

  Cora stared out up at the massive brick building before her. It looked more like an elderly rich man’s country estate. Flowers blooming in the wooden flower pots lining the window panes, and a rocking chair on the porch gave the illusion that someone inside liked to spend their days relaxing as they watched the bird feeder hanging from the eave.

  It was the building from her vision. Somewhere out there, Sinclair watched them. In the vision, she hadn’t realized what was hidden inside. It was a house of horrors.

  From the outside, no one would suspect five innocent children had spent years trapped in the lower levels undergoing experiments that ravaged their bodies.

  The night before, Gavin had told her more about what he’d been through, though she suspected he spared some of the more extreme details. Not once in his recounting did he mention how the marks on his back had been made.

  She turned to Gavin and thought of how hard it all must be for him.

  “You ready?” Gavin asked.

  A lump lodged in her throat, making it impossible to speak. She was nowhere near ready. How can anyone be ready for something like this? She’d spent all afternoon thinking of excuses as to why she couldn’t and shouldn’t come. Yet, delaying only meant extending the constant fear of what she might learn.

  She nodded and stepped up onto the porch then hesitated. Knock? Ring the bell? Or just walk in?

  Gavin solved the dilemma by pressing a button on a security keypad to the right of the door. A moment later, a buzz sounded followed by the click of the door unlocking. He opened the door, holding it wide for her to walk through.

  While the exterior had the appearance of a home, inside was as high-tech as any Silicone Valley corporation. Dark slate tiles offset the stark monotone walls and chrome railings. A few feet from the door stood a full body scanner with a security guard next to it.

  “This way,” the guard said and held out a bin for their belongings. “All electronic equipment is to be left here. No recording devices are permitted on the premises. If you are found to be in possession of any audio, video, or still frame recorders, SIEGE Corporation will pursue prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.”

  Cora pulled her cell phone from her purse and handed it to the guard then placed her bag in the bin next to Gavin’s wallet. She walked through the scanner and waited for Gavin on the other side. The guard pushed the container through a smaller scanner and then handed it to her once it came out.

  “Dr. Nielson left instructions that you meet her in the Level I conference room after you’ve seen the technician,” he said as he took the empty bin from her.

  “This way,” Gavin said.

  She followed him to the reception desk where he signed in for both of them and then up a set of stairs to the second floor.

  “How do you know where to go?”

  “Some things you don’t forget.” He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “After the Posthuman Project shut down, the government wasn’t quite sure what to do with us. Both the Defense Department and SIEGE needed things to look good in the public eye. That’s how Mark and Sarah were able to adopt us. But the board couldn’t just let us walk away.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Up until we turned eighteen, we were required to come in for check-ups. It was one of the conditions Mark and Sarah agreed to for the adoption to go through.”

  They reached another doorway, and Gavin pushed the button, waiting for the corresponding buzz. The room they entered could have been any other doctor’s office in the country. Behind the reception desk was a middle-aged woman whose gaze followed them as they sat down on the bench pressed against the opposite wall.

  “Should we check in with her?” Cora smiled at the receptionist.

  Gavin shook his head, and she could tell he wasn’t really listening to her. Instead, he glared at the woman as his thumb rubbed the back of his left hand.

  “Do you know her?”

  Gavin glanced down at her, and for a moment, she saw the scared little boy he must’ve been growing up there.

  “Donna was a level one assistant.” He held up his hand for Cora to see the small circular scar he’d been rubbing. “Lucky me, I got to be the first person she ever stuck a needle in. It only took her a dozen tries. Right, Donna?”

  The older woman had the good sense to look away.

  “I thought the Posthuman Project violated SIEGE’s policies? How could they keep someone on who was part of it?”

  “Well, Donna here had no clue the project was unauthorized. She was as much a victim of Dr. Sinclair as we were,” he explained with biting sarcasm.

  Cora suspected Donna overheard his remark because she abruptly rose from her seat and disappeared through a side door.

  “I’m sorry you had to come with me,” Cora said and slid her hand into his, linking their fingers.

  When he first brought up coming to the SIEGE labs, she’d been hesitant, and if she were honest, she still was. Even more so now that she understood the length the board went to in order to protect the company.

  “I couldn’t let you come alone.” He scanned the waiting room. “We’ve suspected for a long time that SIEGE hasn’t cut all ties to Sinclair.”

  “Then why are we here?”

  “Because they know what Sinclair was working on. They’ll understand what to look for.”

  “If they are still working with Sinclair then how can we be sure they’ll tell us the truth?”

  “We don’t—” his hand squeezed hers briefly, “—but it’s our only option.”

  A door opened across the room, and Donna appeared, a chart clutched to her chest.

  “Through here,” she ordered. She led them to an examination room and told Cora to sit on the exam table.

  Cora hopped up, and the cold steel instantly had her wishing she’d skipped the mini-skirt and worn pants instead. She squirmed, trying to get the thin sheet of paper covering the table under her thighs. Then she caught Gavin watching her with a knowing smile. She wrinkled her nose and he gave a soft chuckle.

  Donna moved efficiently through the process, gathering a handful of vials of Cora’s blood and then ushering them back out to the waiting room.

  “How long until we get the results?” Cora asked her.

  “Dr. Nielson will meet you in the Level 1 conference room.”

  Donna didn’t wait around for any more questions. She went back behind her desk, twisting slightly so her back was almost entirely to them.

  “Come on,” Gavin said and took her hand, leading her down to the conference room.

  With every step they took, the haunting sensation of needles pricking at the skin along his arms and his back assaulted Gavin. They got off the elevator and nausea-inducing memories rolled through him.

  Level I. Those halls defined his childhood with their sterile white walls and tiled floor that marked the few moments each day when he wasn’t confined to his room or the class. They were the passageways that led him from his small sanctuary to the hell on Earth where Sinclair and his team nearly destroyed him.

  When he turned eighteen, he swore he’d never come back, that he would never let SIEGE or Sinclair have control over him again. Yet, there he was and he felt even more powerless.

  “Gavin? Are you okay?” Cora asked.

  “Yeah,” he answered distractedly as he stared down the hall to the door marked with the number three.

  He walked along the hall and stopped in front of the door that had been his. The small window that once gave him a glimpse of the world around him was now a window into his past.

  Peering through the glass, Gavin saw the room as it was ten years before. A small cot with a pile of books near the head was next to a table and chair bolted to the floor. The sink and toilet in the corner were hidden by a thin sheet suspended from the ceiling.

  A suffocating weight fell on his chest. He took a slow, trembling breath and turned the knob. No longer locked to keep him in, the door swung open easily. The tiny space
had been converted into a storage room with wire shelves lining the walls, loaded with medical supplies.

  He walked into the room and knelt in front of the shelves facing the door. A sweep of his arm cleared the shelf and sent bottles tumbling to the floor. He ran his hand along the wall until he found what he was looking for—a series of grooves etched into the drywall made by digging his fingernails into it.

  Twenty-six. Twenty-six trials he went through, and that was only after he’d been old enough to start keeping track like Noah told him to.

  Taking his keys from his pocket, he reached back in and added one more line to his count.

  “What are you doing?” Cora asked from the doorway.

  He stood and turned to her, but she was busy checking to see if anyone was coming down the halls. She glanced back at him, her eyebrows raised.

  “I kept track,” he said. “We all did. One mark for every trial we went through. I needed to add one more.”

  “Why?”

  “When the police and the feds showed up, I was strapped to a table in the lab. If they’d shown up ten minutes earlier, it would’ve been twenty-six.” He looked at his keys and wiped away the powdered drywall. “From the time I was old enough to count until we were freed, I went through twenty-seven different trials.”

  Cora surged forward and wrapped her arms around his waist, burrowing her head into his chest. He encircled her in an embrace, and a feeling of peace settled over him.

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that happened to you,” she whispered.

  He smoothed her hand over her blond curls and then pressed a kiss to her forehead.

  “Let’s get this over with,” he said.

  He led her to the conference room and they went inside. He hadn’t expected Dr. Nielson to be there, so he was vaguely surprised to find her sitting at the head of a large oblong table.

  “Gavin, it’s a pleasure to see you again,” Nielson said with a sickeningly false smile. The severe bun she’d pulled her dark-brown hair into only emphasized the harsh angles of her heavily botoxed face. “Please, Cora, have a seat. I’m Dr. Yolanda Nielson and Chief Science Officer of SIEGE Corporation.”

  Cora sat down on one side of the table, but instead of sitting beside her, Gavin stood behind her, his hands resting on her shoulders.

  “Let’s skip the fake pleasantries,” he said. “What did he do to her?”

  “I must say when I was informed about your request to test Miss. Evans, I was a little confused,” She said. “You implied you thought Dr. Sinclair was still employed by SIEGE.”

  “Did I imply that? I’m pretty sure I flat out said it.”

  “It’s public knowledge SIEGE Corporation terminated their professional relationship with Dr. Sinclair upon the revelation of unauthorized violations to the ethical standards of SIEGE.”

  Gavin sneered. “Unauthorized? I remember you being rather enthusiastic about the project.”

  Dr. Nielson sighed, and her left eye twitched.

  “Prior to the discovery of Dr. Sinclair’s work on the Posthuman Project, I worked within the Agricultural Department of SIEGE,” she stated. “Dr. Sinclair acknowledged that he acted in direct contradiction to the orders of the Board, independently and of his own volition.”

  Such a well-rehearsed answer. He could’ve recited it word for word from all the times he’d heard her say it or read her quote in the papers. He might’ve believed it, too, if she hadn’t been the one to give him the final injection.

  His hands tightened around the edge of Cora’s chair until his knuckles turned white and his biceps quivered with barely-contained rage.

  “You know damn well I’m not buying your crap story. What the fuck did he do to Cora?”

  “We’ll get to that.” Dr. Nielson tapped her fingers on the table. She turned her icy gaze on Cora. “Have you noticed any changes? Fatigue? Blurry vision? Anything that seems even the slightest bit unusual?”

  “No, nothing,” Cora answered, her hand lifted, letting her fingers flutter over the small puckering of pink flesh along her hairline.

  “That looks like you took a nasty hit,” Dr. Nielson said and made a notation on the chart in front of her.

  “Thanks to Sinclair running her off the road,” Gavin bit off.

  “When did this injury occur?”

  “A week and a half ago.”

  “Really? It’s healing nicely. Quickly.” Another notation went on the chart. “So, physically you’re doing well. What about emotionally? Psychologically?”

  “You mean other than living in fear that I’m Sinclair’s guinea pig for his new science project?”

  “A reasonable concern, I suppose. However, I’m more interested in the inexplicable. Extreme anxiety, night terrors—” Nielson’s eyes flickered to Gavin and then back to Cora, “—hallucinations. Anything like those?”

  “No.”

  He might not have been touching her, but Gavin sensed the tension that stiffened Cora’s body.

  “It’s obvious you know exactly what Sinclair did,” Gavin said. “So why don’t you just give us the information we’re here for and then we can leave, or I can respond to one of the requests for an interview I’ve received.”

  “That would be a violation of the gag order,” she pointed out.

  Rather than argue, he stared her down until she pressed her lips tightly together. Her fingernails clicked rapidly against the table then suddenly stopped. From under the clipboard, she pulled out a folder and slid it across to them. “This arrived five days ago.”

  “Yet you didn’t contact anyone.”

  “The Board determined that since Sinclair was not acting on our behalf, it would be best to keep ourselves removed from the situation. When you contacted us, that was no longer an option.”

  Cora opened the file and found a photo of herself staring up at her. Subject 8 was scrawled along the bottom in red ink. With trembling fingers, she flipped it over, then the next page and the next.

  Gavin caught enough glimpses of the pages to realize Sinclair had been monitoring Cora for a lot longer than a week. The sliver of control he’d been desperately holding onto snapped.

  Tendons stretched and his skin rippled as adrenaline pumped through his body, triggering the unnatural enzymes in his body to kick in. His heart rate accelerated, increasing the supply of oxygen to his bulging muscles and the sleeves of his shirt tore along the seams. He surged forward, stalking toward Nielson. Fear drained her face of all color as she watched the monster break free.

  Nielson shoved her chair back, scrambling to raise the gun she’d hidden under the table. She pointed it, not at him, but at Cora. He suppressed the instinct to rush the doctor, knowing she wouldn’t hesitate to kill Cora. Assessing the situation, he realized with Cora present the chances of successfully disarming Nielson wasn’t worth the risk.

  “Move back,” she ordered, motioning with the gun and he craned his neck around to look at Cora.

  The sight of him changing wasn’t a pretty one. He’d seen his face in this state before. His brow and cheekbones protruded while the muscles along his jaw flexed then hardened, broadening his face.

  Cora’s eyes widened as she witnessed for the first time the monster SIEGE had turned him into. He saw the rapid fluttering of her pulse along the side of her neck, heard the slight catch in her breath. Her horrified expression pulled him back from the fury.

  He drew in a deep breath through his nose and curled his fingers into fists, letting the bite of his nails into his palms relieve some of his tension. He took another few breaths until his muscles relaxed and the tight stretching of his skin faded.

  “What did he do?” Gavin asked with enraged deliberation.

  “He injected her with the PH-9E serum,” Nielson replied.

  “What’s that?” Cora’s fear was audible. “What will it do to me?”

  “It’s one of the Posthuman Project serums. As for what it will do to you?” The doctor shrugged. “The data he sent suggests this serum is
a variation of the final one given to subjects one through six, however at this stage, the subject—”

  “She’s not a test subject. She has a name,” Gavin snapped.

  “At this stage, Miss. Evans should have been experiencing significant changes both physically and psychologically. Once the blood results are back, we’ll have a better idea as to the extent of any genetic modifications that she’s incurred.”

  Cora shoved back the chair, forcing Gavin to step to the side. She frantically closed the folder.

  “I want to leave,” she said. “Right now.”

  Gavin didn’t hesitate. He grasped her hand and led her back to the elevator, ignoring the call from Nielson to wait. He thought he was doing the right thing bringing Cora there, trying to get answers, but it was a mistake. A massive, fucked up mistake.

  SIEGE, Sinclair, Nielson: they were all the same. And now they all had samples of Cora's blood.

  Chapter Fifteen

  CORA HUDDLED IN THE passenger seat of the Jeep, hopelessly wanting to turn back the clock. But how far back to go? An hour and she’d never see what the experiments had done to Gavin. A week and no one would suspect Sinclair had done anything to her. Two years and Lela would still be alive. Six years and Cora would still believe it was only lust not love she felt when she looked at Gavin. Ten years and Cora could make the choice not to be friends with Lela, never giving herself the chance to interact with Gavin.

  If she could do that, maybe her life would be something other than this mess. A heavy sigh escaped her, and she rested her head against the door frame.

  “I didn’t want you to see me like that,” Gavin said.

  She rolled her head to the side to look at him. He held himself stiff, his face unreadable, and she realized he was worried about her reaction. She didn’t blame him. It had been scary to witness the transformation, yet underneath the unnaturally large muscles and the enraged focus, he was still Gavin.