Page 54 of His Curse

Maybe I'll knock myself out on the way down.

"Kentworth Labs was formed in 1978 by Immanuel David Kentworth Jr." I set down my shake, pick up a fry, and start playing with it. "He started the lab under the guise of a medical facility dedicated to the research and development of cures and vaccines for human diseases like HIV and cancer. That's how he got the grant to fund building A, the main building of now five in Jackson, Wyoming. After those funds dried up, he used his inheritance from his mother to keep it going, and when his father died just a year after he built building B, Kentworth wound up with millions to keep his lab afloat."

Frankie frowns around her burger. "Wouldn't he have had to answer to someone if he received a grant? Those usually come with a ridiculous list of rules and regulations to follow, especially in medical facilities."

I nod. "He did for the first year but when he lost the grant, that stopped. Kentworth only had five of us in the beginning. Me, Henry, and three sirens. The last three. That made it way easier to hide his true intent."

"Sirens?" Havok's dark brows raise. "He had sirens?"

"Yeah. The five of us were kept in the basement under maximum security, totally secluded and unknown to anyone that came to the lab. When someone tried to inspect, he was able to just useongoing construction to the buildingas reasons it was unsafe for anyone to go down there."

Ronny huffs. "Seems kinda stupid not to check everything out."

"It was the seventies. No one really gave a shit as long as things seemed to be on the up and up."

"Which they were not.” Zan frowns. "How was he able to hide his true purpose if his medical research was just a front?"

"That's just it. Kentworth was twenty-two when he started the lab. He's a fucking genius—or he was, anyway. By the time he was ready to branch out on his own he'd already helped make improvements to multiple human vaccines, had a ton of published papers and patents to support his plan. While he worked under the grant, he actually got close to developing an HIV vaccine but since he hadn't produced any real results, funding was cut and he had to continue his research on his own."

"And that's when his experiments went beyond helping the human race.” Cora sighs and dips her burger in what smells like wasabi.

I pull a face but continue. "He never strayed from that, but had to keep up appearances with the university as well as the government. Kentworth has always been running tests on people like us, he just wound up with the opportunity to focus on nothing but that after the first year."

"Why, though?" Ronny asks with a ton of food stuffed in his mouth. "How did he even know shifters existed to experiment on them?"

"Not just shifters.” I push my food away and slump against the back of my stool. "Sirens, shifters, vampires. Harpies, nymphs, phoenixes, changelings, selkies. Right now he has a banshee and a sorceress."

Frankie leans toward me with wide eyes. "Those species all exist?"

"Not anymore.” My words are whispered; heavy, mournful. "Kentworth has successfully wiped out almost all creatures of mysticism. Being there as long as I was, I got to know them, learned about their people, where they came from and ninety-nine percent of them were the last of their kind seeking refuge away from their homelands."

"But wound up with a sick fuck like Kentworth,” Ronny growls. "Why, though?Whyis he killing people like us? How did he find out we exist?"

With a deep breath, I try to calm my racing heart.

This is one of the parts of the story that sickens me to my core while still managing to pull on my heartstrings just a bit. "Kentworth married his high school sweetheart, a woman, by all accounts, that he was madly in love with and she got pregnant right away, but according to him, something was wrong with the baby girl."

"Oh no..." Cora whispers as she grabs both Havok and Frankie's hands. “She was..."

I nod. "She was a shifter."

"How did he know if she was just a baby?" Ronny's brow furrows. "Most shifters don't show any signs until they're at least two or three. Older most of the time unless the genes are strong."

"In some cases…" Zan sighs, then takes a long pull from his milkshake. “The baby can be born as their other half. It is rare, maybe less than point one of the population experience it, but it has occurred and is usually a form of birth defect. The other half makes itself known while in the womb in order to protect the babe and give it a better chance of survival."

"How do you know that?" Because seriously, unless you've experienced it, that was basically a shifter myth. I only know because of Kentworth and I want to know how this guy has any idea.

He gives me a small smile. "I am over eleven hundred years old, Lark. I have seen many things that very few others ever have or ever will."

Okaythen.

Gonna have to spend some more time with Zan one day; the guy must have some amazing stories to share.

Stories we will definitely not be getting into now, because I've barely touched on anything I need to.

"Right.” I clear my throat. "Anyway, Kentworth's daughter was born premature at home as a wolf pup. His wife was clearly a wolf but hid it from him, which means they weren't fated mates, something confirmed by what he did to her and..." My stomach drops, then threatens to empty all over the island. “Let's just say they were his firsttest subjects."

All three males growl, Frankie cusses better than any warrior I've ever met, and Cora bursts into tears. My reaction was pretty much a combination of all three, so I get it, but if that's how they feel about that, they really aren't going to like the rest.

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