“We leave the mark to remind us,” said Turen.
Jason glanced back at Turen’s remark. “Of what?”
“The potential in each of us to fall from grace.”
Ah, yes. A sign of Salvatore’s actions. Jason’s hands tighten around Briet’s body as the images she’d shared of the Guardians’ last confrontation with Salvatore rippled through his thoughts. The eerie déjà vu from the images in his dream gave him an uneasy moment’s pause before he lowered her into a wooden armchair beside Mia.
Ansgar
folded
into view at the far end of the room, blankets in one hand, Annie’s pictures in his other and yet another stranger at his side. They joined Jason by the table.
Briet had mentioned there were approximately fifty or more Guardian children who had survived at the Sanctum. Most had left to seek signs of their lost families and their mates. Yet their world felt pretty small every time Jason met a new member of their tribe.
“Kaax, this is Briet’s mate, Jason.” Ansgar stepped aside to place Annie’s pictures on the thick wooden conference table in the center of the room.
Kaax lowered his head in greeting though his eyes never left Jason’s face.
Jason sized up the man. Not as tall as the rest of the Guardians, Kaax stood about six feet, and weighed maybe two hundred pounds. Like Grimm, Kaax held that subtle, lean quality. A sign that targeted him as fast, yet quiet, on his feet, given the fluid manner to his stride. His facial features were distinctive, with broad cheekbones and forehead, a wide, long flat nose, bronze skin and jet black hair and brows. Commanding features, no doubt, signifying an underlying strength and intelligence.
Jason offered a hand. The responding grip was firm, though not challenging as Ansgar’s had been several weeks before. At least he didn’t have to do battle with this man.
“Kaax can help with the pictures,” said Ansgar.
Jason must have looked confused because Kaax gave a slow smile. The effect could be construed as friendly or chilling, depending on how one took the gleam of his white teeth. He decided to accept the former.
Ansgar put the drawings on the conference table in the space available between the ever-growing piles of documents detailing the ongoing findings of Frank’s company.
Sensing Briet’s curiosity and restlessness, he shifted to move her seat for better visibility. Grimm stood on the other side of her chair. He mentioned nothing about Jason’s compliance with the letter of his law and helped lift her chair closer to the table. Then he left for the risers.
Jason settled on the arm of Briet’s chair, a hand over her shoulder, and looked around. The room wasn’t crowded, maybe a dozen people. He knew only about half of them, though everyone he’d met so far was there. Some people lingered around the table, others in the lower rises of the tiered seats. From a woman across the room beside Grimm, he felt an odd sense of déjà vu. Her long, wavy brown hair and high cheekbones marked her as attractive, but it was the golden, amber colored eyes that struck him with recognition—Briet’s playmate from her dream. The other target of Xavier’s roundup.
“You might as well go first,” said Turen to Kaax.
Jason’s gaze swept across the eight to ten pictures Ansgar had brought, and his hopes sank. Most were riddled with strong black marker, undecipherable and far less help than he’d hoped. Uncertain what ability Kaax brought to the table, Jason had difficulty seeing any way to get the information he needed on Annie’s situation.
Kaax sorted through the pictures, arranging them in sequence. The blackest of the pictures started the chain of drawings. The more colorful, normal depictions remained closest to where Jason sat beside Briet in a timeline of Annie’s nightmares or Briet’s help. Turen, Mia, Grimm, and the others moved into a tighter circle around the table and waited.
Kaax picked up the oldest drawing in one hand and with the fingers of his other, wove a pattern in the air over the drawing. As his fingers moved away, a two dimensional layer of black followed. His hand swung to his far right, his fingers flexed out and swept back to the picture, the black segment remained suspended in the air.
Jason watched, amazed, as Kaax proceeded to dissect the picture, layers floating in air until only the white of the fibers of the page remained, unheeded on the table.
With both hands, Kaax’s fingers framed the last image extracted. Presumably, Annie’s original drawing after her first nightmare. His hands turned, rotating the image with him, expanding the artwork like elastic clay, pulling, and shaping it. Finally, cupped in his palms, the picture started to move. Vibrating, taking life, it reflected a movie clip, not a child’s rendering. A tall, dark monster revealed in the room against a single window.
The detail deepened, shadows fell away as Annie’s monster absorbed form and depth. The fangs receded in the mouth of the monster. The horns diminished, melding into dark shadows along the wall in the picture. A clear delineation between the head and the shadows evolved. The outline of the body became more distinct—a man with a hooded sweatshirt, indistinguishable from any teenager, black and gray as the rest of the man’s outfit. Hands resembling claws reformed and shaped into long, white human hands.
Puzzlement reflected in the faces of the rest of the group. The face of the assailant still wasn’t visible and the stature had no frame of reference for size or girth in the picture. But Kaax’s anger and disgust was evident as he’d connected the same dots as Jason.
“Can you extract more?” Jason asked.
Kaax glanced at him and nodded.
“It’s him.” The words needed to be voiced. “Salvatore.”
Kaax nodded.
Jason felt everyone turn to him. Then, in a palpable reaction of horror, they all watched as Kaax wove the scene with his hands, the image of the monster/man gained motion. He walked backwards, retreating to the corner by the window. Quick bright white illuminated from his fingertips and for a split second, he turned and the moonlight reflected the silver slits of his eyes, visible from the depths of the hood.
Briet’s hand covered his and he realized he was squeezing her shoulder. He quickly let loose, but she gripped harder to his hand with her own.
“How do you do that?” Jason asked.
Kaax let his hand drop and the images disintegrated back into their original form on the paper. “The child’s emotions and memory are in these drawings, her impressions reside there. Her tale as well. I can weave tales into physical, graphical symbols. I can dissect the impressions and intent of others from their symbols and stories also.”
Jason blew out a breath. He’d never even expected such a unique ability, though he’d never conceived of a race of people such as these Guardians either. Ansgar had been right to bring this man. The exercise had solidified into proof, justifying the instinct in Jason’s gut. “Thank you.”
Kaax nodded.
“You’ve suspected him since we spoke in the lab based on what?” Ansgar looked curious.
Jason squeezed Briet’s hand gently. “Annie’s body had marks. I never got a chance to confirm what they were because her body was taken for cremation too quickly.” He glanced at Briet. “She was gone when I went back to the morgue later that day.”
He glanced back at Ansgar. “I suspected, given the heart attack and the marks, that she’d been electrocuted. But the location of the marks, their size and the juxtaposition to the injuries didn’t make sense. The damage to her internal organs was so severe I couldn’t figure out how a current would cause so much damage, without a direct path or huge exit wounds.”
With a glance at Grimm, he continued. “You mentioned he could control electricity. He could bend the current and regulate the capacity. He could do what the evidence said was impossible. I just couldn’t link him directly to Annie. I only had conjecture.”
Briet leaned back against him with a sound. He held her to his side, knowing he couldn’t really protect her. There wasn’t any way to soften the impact of what the child had been subjected to by Salvatore.
“Why?” Her strained voice vibrated with a slight tremble along his skin.
Jason ran a hand over her hair and took a deep breath. “If we go with the premise that Salvatore inserted the DNA splicing into the patients for his own purposes, it makes sense he would monitor all his subjects. Annie had trouble sleeping. I’m guessing she saw him, saw something he did. Whatever she witnessed was information he couldn't risk her exposing. Her death wasn’t part of his experiment. She was a casualty from his crime.”
“He couldn’t escape everyone’s notice.” Brittle with emotion, her voice rose with her stress level. Grimm moved behind her chair to touch her shoulder.
“He stayed on the fringes. There’s no reason he couldn’t
fold
in and out just like you do.”
She opened her mouth to disagree, but her brows drew up in distress, her whiskey brown eyes wide and pained. “I caused this. She would be alive if I hadn’t been there. Salvatore wouldn’t have targeted her if I hadn’t been involved in the project.” Her voice trailed off to a whisper.
“That’s bullshit.” He dropped to his knees beside her, blocking out the people behind him who had gone still. Jason gave her a gentle shake and jerked his head toward the table. “He’s running at least a dozen of these trials, maybe more. That’s easily over seven hundred people. He might have suspected you would eventually be involved on one of the projects, but his interaction with Annie solidified before you even had visibility into the genetic changes. Before you showed up on his radar. She had these nightmares from the beginning. You said as much yourself.”
Mia reached for Briet’s hand and Ansgar palmed the top of his sister’s head. All the people touched her like one big human octopus. Jason appreciated their efforts to keep her grounded, to try to absorb her pain.
“She was just a number in his plan. I think you working with her, with the pictures, actually bought her time. It took the focus off her dreams, let the limelight die down. He may have elongated his timetable, but he was coming after her one way or another. When her nightmares returned, he picked his time,” Jason concluded.
“I could have gotten her to tell me.” Her hand clutched Mia’s as her head bent, too overwhelmed to justify another resolution.
“She could not disseminate what she had seen,” said Kaax. “These pictures are from the child’s subconscious. She had no frame of reference to deliver her knowledge besides her fear and monsters. He must not have known she had no ability to pass on her information.”
Jason held Briet’s hands, letting her digest the information and come to the painful, logical conclusion. All of them would have done anything to save Annie. Short of stealing her away, they could have done little for her. To strip a dying child from all she knew and loved would have been equally harsh, because Annie was dying.
He had seen that in her samples. Briet must have as well. The child had not responded to the protocol. Despite Briet’s attention and care, Annie would have died from her disease within the year.
“You can’t save them all. I wish you could, but you know it isn’t possible. You made her life happier.” He brushed the hair back from her face. “He’s a monster, but her death would have been quick. Quicker than her cancer.” He whispered the last words.
Jason didn’t want to give Salvatore any credit but he needed Briet to see the options, to weigh the consequences. He needed her not to hold onto Annie's death with a personal sense of guilt. Sorrow, yes. Horror at Salvatore’s actions, definitely. But no doubts that she could have saved Annie.
Briet took a deep breath and Jason curled his fingers around her hand. With Grimm at her back, she had to be aware he was moments shy of sending her back to her room. Jason refused to have her treated like a child, sick or not.
With the incredible strength she’d always displayed, he watched her pull it all back, the doubts and the fear. She would fight her demons, but it seemed she’d decided not to do it publicly. He’d never been prouder of her.
“I’ll be okay.” She stroked his arm and looked at Turen. “Let’s move on.”
With Turen’s nod, everyone broke the tight circle of observation and concern elicited by Kaax’s revelation and moved to find their seats. The cluster of support around Briet moved back and Jason pressed a kiss to her forehead before resuming his spot beside her. Pulling her closer, he offered the comfort of his arm and side to provide an anchor for the volatility of her emotions. He could only hold off the fatigue he sensed gripping her body for so long.
“As you can see, Frank’s team is compiling more information by the minute,” said Turen, glancing at the reams of paper on the conference table. He turned to Tsu. “Any indication of the manufacturing site?”
Tsu shook his head. “I spoke with him several hours ago but no word yet. He’s confident they will locate the man Jason wanted tracked. He has some suspicions the individual may have the details we require. He’s targeting some answers within the next two days.”
“Why would he go to all this trouble?” asked the amber-eyed woman seated beside Grimm.
Jason scrutinized her as she waited on an answer. She’d spoken with strength and confidence. Similar qualities to Briet, though in his mate, they manifested in a total package he found much more sensual, certainly more compatible with his own desires. This woman’s bearing seemed more in line with that of the male warriors. He suspected she could hold her own in a fight, a good thing to note if she was a part of Turen’s team. Given her proximity to Grimm and her past link to Briet, he assumed it was likely.
“Sagari—” Turen looked to Jason for clarification. “I’ll let you field that.”
Jason handed a pile of papers to Mia, who forwarded them around the group. The last sheet he handed to Briet. “From what I’ve seen, these trials are small, each distinct with little significant crossover or apparent correlation in subjects or purpose. Not all the studies are disease-related and the groups themselves vary by age, level of health, genealogy, geography, and even lifestyle.”
“The majority are children, but not all.” Sagari glanced up from a cheat sheet Jason had constructed with a brief summary of each trial. “I still am having trouble with a connection.”