Page 36 of Klaus

14

Ainsley

Don’t worry, dear. This won’t hurt a bit.

I opened my eyes to find the doctor standing over me, his image blurred, the bright overhead lights directly behind his head nearly blinding me whenever he moved. They cast his face in shadow, but I would know him anywhere.

That voice of his. A voice which had haunted my dreams ever since we’d first met, I hadn’t known it until that very moment, but I’d seen and heard him every night in dreams I’d all but forgotten once they’d ended.

Just think. What you and your clan are doing here will make history. You’ll make it possible for us to cure disease, to end human suffering.

I had known it was all a lie, hadn’t I? They didn’t want to help anyone, not really. They’d create a cure, certainly, but not out of generosity. Whoever they were, they’d sell it to the highest bidder. And that bidder would either make it next to impossible for the public to afford it.

I knew enough of the world to know that much.

“What are you doing to me?” I whispered, my voice little more than the croak of a wounded animal. Why were they injecting me with some nameless liquid? What purpose did that serve?

I heard a snort from the blurry, shadowy figure above me.

“She’s waking up.”

They moved, and when they did, the light they’d been standing in front of shone straight into my eyes.

I winced, squeezing my lids tightly shut to block out as much as possible.

It wasn’t an overhead fluorescent light. It was the sun. I was outdoors. There was dirt and grass and leaves beneath me, I could smell them, even though taking a deep breath made my head hurt worse than ever.

It was starting to come back. The pain. I was no longer in the lab, that was far behind me. I’d been looking for Klaus, hadn’t I? Yes, and he wasn’t there. And someone had hurt me.

The man who’d spoken, the man who’d been standing over me.

Sleep would be lovely. I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. To let myself drift off to where pain no longer existed, utter darkness.

It simply wasn’t an option. Dragon or no, I had to summon my strength. I wouldn’t allow them to harm me while I slept through the ordeal.

A mental check told me my arms and legs were in working order. I could wiggle my fingers and toes with ease. While the simple act of breathing caused fresh pain in my head, it caused no pain in my ribs. My body was in decent shape. They hadn’t caused any further harm.

Not that the blow to my head wasn’t a problem. I was simply relieved that they hadn’t abused me while I was unconscious.

I eased my eyes open, careful of the sun’s presence. It had moved somewhat since my last memory of it, telling me an hour or two had passed. No more than that. I ran my hands along my sides, feeling the terrycloth robe beneath them. It was cold in the woods, and already a chill day, and I was barely clothed.

“Sit up.”

The command was like the bark of a dog, sudden, sharp, threatening. I jerked in surprise at the sound but did not obey.

“Are you hard of hearing, girl?”

Something hard dug into my ribs. From the corner of my eye, I caught the gleam of metal as it reflected the sun. A rifle? Sweat immediately began beading on my forehead, along the back of my neck.

That day came back to me again at the sight of the weapon, so like the ones my friends and family had fallen before. Why again? It wasn’t supposed to happen again.

“Girl?” the other one asked, his voice gritty and gruff. “Please. This ain’t no girl. She’s nothing but an animal.”

“Which reminds me.” Just like that, a set of shackles closed over my wrists, another over my ankles. They’d slipped up. They should’ve shackled me when I was unconscious. It was a terrible chance they took, leaving me free to shift when I awoke.

To shift.

The joke was on them, wasn’t it?

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