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and said, hey, let s splice some life forms?
You gonna faint on me, kid? You re not looking so good
still.
Josh shook his head, not sure if he was or not.
Years ago, I was digging through stacks in one of those used
bookstores. You know, the kind where they don t sort anything and
everything s in goddamn boxes and piles?
You read?
Yeah, smart guy, but not the fairies and dragons stuff you ruin
your brain on. Mick let out a snort. I came across a journal, old,
faded, in that thin, slanted writing you see from late nineteenth
century stuff. It was a necromancer s journal&
Oh, hell, no. You messed with that shit?
Not all of it was about raising the dead. He d tried some
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interesting things with the undead. Transformed vamps into things
he hoped would serve him. His experiments didn t go so well. His
subjects disintegrated. But I started thinking, maybe with a little
modern science tossed in, it might work.
So you did this using black magic?
Mick waved his cigar. It s only black magic if you hurt
someone. A little magic, a little gene therapy. The first ones didn t
work, of course. It took years to get the incantations and the
combinations right.
The combos seem to work pretty good, but your training
sucks, man. Josh shivered as the bat creature cuffed the lynx one
for getting too close. They don t seem to have much problem
attacking humans.
Working on it. We re getting there. Mick turned to the
window and pointed to the bat thing. Una was the first successful
transformation. Bat and wolverine DNA spliced onto her vamp.
Sounded good at the time, but she turned out too aggressive, too
stubborn. Each one after that got better. And adding males to the
pack made Una more protective, more willing to do things for the
group. The shock collars have helped, too.
But she still attacked a woman, or one of them did.
Una s a clever thing. She figured out how to get the collars
off. Got away from her handlers one night with her favorite male.
They didn t have the collars on when they got into the McMahon
woman s house.
Maybe I m missing something here. They re still dangerous to
humans.
I told you, we re still working on it. New collars, new
training, and soon a new pack leader.
And that ll help, how? Mick, this is insane. You wanna fight
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monsters, so you make worse monsters?
Instead of answering, Mick pulled up a chair, leaning forward
so his hand rested on Josh s arm. I need you to give me a straight
answer, bud. That vamp we found you with, you were seeing him,
weren t you?
Josh searched his brain for a reason to lie, but it didn t make
sense anymore. They already had Richard. Maybe. Yeah.
And did you go over for him? Let him make that mind to
mind connection?
I m not Ren, Josh snapped. Though he had no idea what to
call the connection he and Richard shared.
I didn t think so. You re too clear-headed still. Not distracted
like all the Rens I ve seen. Good. That s good. Mick patted his
arm and sat back.
Why?
Because if you were Ren, we d have to wait until you
recovered. Two of the Enavs had Renfields. One died of a stroke
during the procedure. The other killed herself afterward.
Obviously, we kept them sedated during, but it s still hard on
them.
The last piece of the puzzle snapped into place. Holy fucking
hells. Nausea gripped him hard. You re planning on using
Richard. Making him into one of those things.
Right. He s the best candidate we ve ever had. Big guy,
natural Alpha, smart enough to keep some intelligence through the
change, not so aggressive he won t be trainable. He s what we
need to make the pack work, to keep Una in line.
Don t do this, Mick. Please. It s wrong. It s evil. He s not
what you think. Doesn t hurt people. Makes glass animals and shit
for a living.
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He s a vamp, Josh. Aren t you the one who told me the only
good vamp s a dead one? Maybe he s had a quiet couple of years,
but it never lasts, you know that. Mick patted his shoulder. If we
don t change him, make him useful, someone s going to have to
dust him. At least this way he gets to live, right?
Right, Josh choked out. A show of temper, of defiance, was
just going to get him locked up, which wouldn t help Richard. He
swallowed the rage and sorrow, though he wanted to scream, Then
let me do it! I d rather give him a clean death than watch him
turned into one of those things!
I m sorry, kiddo. Life just keeps tossing you under the wheels,
doesn t it? But you re back with us now, and we ll take care of
you, help you get back to normal. It ll be all right. Mick rose and
moved behind the wheelchair. I better get you back to bed.
Josh slumped in the chair, battling despair. He had to fight
against shutting down, had to keep thinking. There was always a
way out. He just had to find it.
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CHAPTER 11
THE PROCEDURE
The man with the cold eyes was back. Richard couldn t say he
liked any of his captors, but this one made the hairs on his arms
stand on end. Men in lab coats had been in and out periodically,
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