Page 64 of The Rabbit's Foot
“The bodies have been removed, and the people Damon let get out have all been tracked down and killed.”
What? “How? No way they could have gotten that all done so quickly.”
“You’ve been asleep three days,” Alp said. “Except to pee, I haven’t left your side at all.” He stroked a hand down Mal’s chest. “Well, Damon and Cece told me I had to stay here with you, because according to Gwyneth, my scent was helping you to heal. Cece has been bringing me food, but I haven’t been able to eat.”
“What about the shifters?”
Alp was quiet for a few moments. “There were so many dead,” Alp said, and Mal knew his heart was breaking. “According to his notes, Hyde would do his experiments and then kill and dissect his… his victims in order tolearneven more. Once he was done, he stored the bodies in a freezer in case he needed them again.” A snort. “They couldn’t even be buried properly. That fucker was a monster.”
He was, and Mal found he was unable to work up an iota of sympathy.
“Damon came in earlier and told me that there was an effort underway to get the shifters back to their families, but a lot of them are too young, and there was no real information about where they came from to get them home.”
The door opened, and Damon strode in.
“You’re awake. I’m glad. We were all worried about you, Malachi.”
Mal tried to sit up, and that still wasn’t happening. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m trying to get up, but my body is saying ‘no the fuck you ain’t.’”
That drew a chuckle. “If you won’t listen to your body, listen to your mate and me. No the fuck you ain’t getting out of bed. You died, Malachi. I knelt over you as you took your last breath. I watched as Alp fell apart. Gwyneth said if it wasn’t for you being a First and having such a strong mate bond, we would not be having this conversation. That toxin is lethal, and by all rights, you should still be… dead.”
Damon’s lip trembled, and there was a sheen of tears in his eyes. Mal had never seen Damon cry. Alp stood and went to him, taking Damon in his arms. As soon as Alp embraced him, Damon broke down.
“I kept thinking this was on me, because I wanted you to go out and find yourself. That maybe if I had done something different, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“You’d have taken away something precious to me,” Alp said, gazing back at Mal. “I agree this was hard, and I know you and I both feel guilt over it, but there’s nothing that can change it.”
“I have a question,” Mal said. “How is there even a bed in here?”
Alp and Damon both stared down at him as though he was nuts, then looked at each other, and Damon cracked a sad grin.
“Sorry, but he’s all yours now,” Damon said, patting Alp on the shoulder.
“There are a few beds down here,” Alp explained. “This place is enormous.”
“I had my guys research it. This used to be a military base fifty or so years ago. They did top-secret stuff here, which is why the townspeople didn’t know anything about it. They mothballed it in 1972, and it’s sat empty since then. Until Hyde. He wasn’t supposed to be here. There was never any record of him having permission to engage in any activity on this premises.”
“Which means what?” Mal asked.
“As far as we can determine, Hyde acted on his own. The people he worked with were other doctors and scientists who espoused crackpot theories. He met them online, and they all got to talking. Hyde came up with the idea and found this base in a list of decommissioned properties.”
“Where’d he get his money from?”
Damon sighed. “He had money. Before he went off the deep end, Hyde was a respected researcher. He had several patents, which pulled in decent residuals, and could have lived a happy and comfortable life. Then something went wrong. He started talking about people who were really animals. He claimed to have proof, but no one took him seriously. At least no reputable person.”
“So what happened?” Alp asked.
When Alp leaned into Damon’s space, Mal didn’t like it. His mate should only be concerned with him at the moment. Then he tamped down the anger, because this was Damon, who’d helped to save Mal’s life. That was a debt that could never be repaid.
“He found likeminded people on the internet. He ventured into some very dark cesspools, and the people there ate his claims up. Over time, Hyde fell in with a group there, each of them former academics who were fired for either unlawful experiments or for promoting antivax, antivirus… hell, antianything. Hyde told them he had plans and promised these others that if they joined him, they could do whatever they wanted, with no government oversight and no moral gray areas because, his emails said, the subjects weren’t human.”
This time Mal couldn’t hold back the growl, but Damon held up a hand to stop him.
“I know, believe me. The only saving grace was the fact that Hyde kept meticulous records. He truly believed this was going to get him back into the esteemed halls of academia—his words, not mine.”
“Wow,” Alp murmured.
Damon heaved out a sigh. “It gets worse.”
