Edyn (The Essence Project Book 1) Page 20

  "Come on," he said gruffly.

  I tried to stand, but I was sickeningly weak from not eating. My whole body was in self-inflicted agony because of it. I fell back onto the bed with an oof.

  "Get up!" he growled.

  Once more, I tried to get to my feet but couldn’t. Maybe I would die soon.

  Hopefully I would die soon.

  Please God, let me see Ryker soon.

  Dirk grabbed me roughly under one arm and hauled me to my feet. My legs buckled underneath me, and he half dragged me down the hallway. When we reached the lab, he threw me to the ground. The metal of the handcuffs dug painfully into my wrists when I tried to break the fall.

  Dirk pressed his hand to the scanner on the wall, then swiped his ID card.

  Beep.

  Click.

  He grabbed me around the waist and practically carried me underneath his arm. My feet couldn’t keep up with him as he half marched, half dragged me over to the chair again.

  Fumbling at his waist, he produced his key ring and unlocked my handcuffs. "I suppose you don’t really need these right now, since you don’t have any fight in you at the moment." He chuckled to himself as he restrained my wrists against the chair. "Jophiel will be with you in a moment." Turning, he headed back to the door we had come through, and went through it as soon as it opened.

  The door slid shut, and I was left alone in the bright white room, strapped down to a cold metal chair like a criminal. My only crime had been existing. I turned my head to look at what they had laid out on the table for me today. Yesterday they had a heart monitor and syringe full of adrenaline to see how my body would react to it. The thought crossed my mind that they were just playing with me. I couldn’t see how that would be relevant to my Essence. Two days ago I had gone for a CT scan of my brain, and that had taken an obscenely long time and more sedatives to accomplish. I wouldn’t stop moving inside of the machine, and it was messing up the images. Today, though, there was an IV stand with two saline bags hanging from it. On the table there were several syringes containing different colored liquids.

  Before I could figure out just what they were planning, the door at the back of the room opened and, Jophiel entered. "Good morning, Edyn. And how are we today?" he asked in the manner that any doctor would at a routine visit.

  I didn’t answer.

  "Since you have been on your little hunger strike, I’ve decided that we’re not going to waste our time bringing you food. Instead, you’ll come here every morning until you decide otherwise, and you’ll receive an IV and enough nutrients to keep your body going."

  I turned my head away from him in silence.

  "You may want to die, darling, but that’s not a luxury we can afford at the moment."

  Snapping my head back around, I said, "And why not? Why not just carve my Essence out of my arm and let me die?"

  He tsk tsked. "You wouldn’t really want that now, would you? You know how it works. If you die without an Essence you’ll just cease to be. There’s no going to Heaven. There’s no seeing your Ryker ever again." He let the words sink in for a moment, and one solitary tear found its way down the side of my face. "That’s what I thought. So, let’s begin, shall we?"

  He pulled out an alcohol wipe and began sterilizing the crease of my elbow. After a moment, he reached for the needle and shoved it through the skin. No blood. Readjusting the angle of the needle under my skin, he still didn’t find blood. A frown appeared on his face. "This will be easier tomorrow as well. You’re dehydrated." It took a few more minutes and a few more pokes with the needle before he finally hit a vein.

  The solution was cold as it ran through my arm. Jophiel picked up one of the colorful syringes from the table. It contained a vibrant yellow-green liquid that reminded me of the ink inside a highlighter. Taking the port on the IV line in one hand, he carefully injected the contents of the syringe, and I watched as they made their way down the tube and into my arm.

  "I thought perhaps you would like to take a walk with me today, once you have your strength back. I’m sure that room has gotten awfully dull by now."

  I don’t know what possessed me to say it, but I did. "Alright."

  "Wonderful!" He clapped his hands together. "I have something I’ve been dying to show you."

  Jophiel babbled on and on about the Project and how it was going to help millions of people, but I paid no attention to him. After a while, the IV bag had emptied itself into my arm, and he injected one other syringe, this one containing a dark amber solution.

  "That one will give you an energy burst," he said, as he removed the needle from my arm. "Now, I’ll give you a choice. We can be amicable and walk together with no restraints, and you can try not to escape. Or, I can put the handcuffs back on. But don’t think you can choose to go unrestrained and then run. We will be inside security doors so you won’t be able to escape anyway, and your bruises have already started healing so nicely. It would be a shame to replace them."

  I released a sigh of resignation, and he unlocked the restraints holding my wrists to the chair. Slowly I swung my legs up over the side and stood. I was a little wobbly but felt better than I had since I’d arrived. Whatever he had given me was obviously working.

  He began walking to the double doors, and they parted when he approached. I followed him through, and we walked for a few minutes in silence. We arrived at an elevator and he pressed the up button. When it came, there were two soldiers inside on each side of a teenage boy that was shaking and terrified. Jophiel hit the button for 2. I noted that we were on level U4.

  He saw me eyeing it and said, "This research facility is the largest in the country since it’s federally funded. There are several floors below ground for the more," he paused, "dangerous, experiments."

  The elevator surged upward.

  One, two, three, four, five floors.

  I stored that information away for later.

  The car dinged, and the doors parted. I followed him off and glanced back at the scared boy still in there. The doors closed and cut me off from him. Jophiel cleared his throat ahead of me, and I turned to catch up with him.

  This hallway was in lighter pastel colors, not quite as harsh as the extreme white on my level. Doors lined either side, but none had the ID card scanners like my level. I wondered if he had been lying about being inside security doors so that I would be complicit.

  As we travelled through the halls, I searched everywhere for the opportunity to escape. I wanted to make a mental map of the facility to use the layout to my advantage.

  If I could just find signs or something indicating where an exit might be.

  Passing a hallway on my left, I saw the welcome red glow of an exit sign. My steps faltered at the sight.

  Jophiel didn’t miss a beat. "I wouldn’t if I were you."

  What I wouldn't give for a weapon just then. "Well, you're definitely not me."

  Then I remembered.

  I am a weapon.

  Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and willed my power to me. I could knock him on his ass and hopefully be out of here moments later.

  "Edyn," he said.

  I dug deeper.

  There was a faint flicker of warmth, but it was incredibly weak.

  Giggling from up ahead jarred me from my concentration, and my eyes flew open.

  About twenty feet ahead at a junction in the hallway, a large window ran across the wall. A ball flew past from the inside. Curiosity, and probably insanity, got the best of me and I walked forward, temporarily forgetting what I’d been trying to do. The room inside was well lit as we approached. Inside the room were a number of young children, both boys and girls. They couldn’t have been more than five years old. All of them were playing with various toys. In one corner, a little boy yanked a doll out from a little girl’s hand, and she started to cry. As her crying grew louder, the boy seized up. He dropped the doll from his grasp and fell to the floor. She quickly snatched it back and held it close to her chest.


  "What—" I started.

  "These are some of the more gifted Quintessent children that we’ve come across. Their gifts are much more prominent than ninety-five percent of Quintessents, just like yours. They’re here so we can study them, just like we’re studying you."

  The little boy that had stolen the doll quickly moved to his feet and ran to the other side of the room. He was talking rapidly to two other boys and pointing at the girl with the doll. A woman in a white lab coat entered the room through a far door and walked straight over to the little girl. She reached her hand out, and the girl took it. The woman led her out of the room, the doll still held tightly in her grasp.

  "Where is she taking her?" I asked.

  "For a CT scan. That’s Laurel. She’s one of the more gifted of the bunch. Right now they’re studying these children, trying to figure out if their Essence is in play after they use their gifts, and for how long."

  "I don’t understand."

  "It’s like this," he began. "When your gifts manifest and you’re able to use them, you’re essentially tapping into your Essence. Think of it like a lightbulb. When you’ve had one of those spiral CFL lightbulbs on, the second you turn it off, you can still see it glowing for a moment in the dark. Using your gifts is like that. You’re still tapped into your soul for a limited time as that connection fades. We’re trying to establish time frames for that process to see if we can further develop and extend them, perhaps even turn them on or off for as long as an individual wants."

  It was definitely interesting. I’d had no idea that people's gifts were tied to their Essence, and for a moment I forgot all that had happened as my curiosity piqued. "Why are you showing me this?"

  He turned to me and took one of my hands in both of his. "Because this is to show you that we’re not monsters. We’re trying to help," he paused, "humanity."

  His pause struck a nerve with me, and I knew he was full of shit. I ripped my hand away from him and shot daggers with my eyes. "You’re not telling me everything."

  Jophiel laughed. "Of course not. The complexities of our research are far beyond your understanding. You wouldn’t be able to grasp them even if I told you." He placed his hands on my shoulders from behind me, and I tried to shrug him off but he tightened his grip until I cried out, causing my knees to buckle. "I will decide what is relevant for you to know, and you will hear nothing more than that. You are not here as a guest, although I have tried to extend many courtesies to make the remainder of your days more pleasant than what some of our other specimens here experience."

  His words hit me like a freight train. "You’re never going to let me go, are you?"

  He grabbed me by the elbow and steered me back towards the elevators with a laugh. "Oh, my dear, don’t you know? The majority of research experiments are terminal experiments. And remember what I said about your Essence when you told me to just take it and kill you. Often that is the final step. Once your usefulness runs out…" he trailed off, letting his words slowly soak into my brain.

  As soon as he no longer needed me, he was going to kill me, but not without taking my Essence first.

  I would never see Ryker again.

  16

  H is face was inches away from mine, and I could feel his arm across my back, his other hand on the side of my face. His eyes were burning with love for me. He kissed me lightly on the tip of my nose.

  "Edyn," he breathed.

  His dusty brown hair looked like he'd been running his hands through it. Stubble lined his chiseled jaw and was rough under my fingertips.

  I kissed him fiercely, not wanting it to ever end.

  I couldn’t let it end.

  Voices pulled me back, and I stared into his eyes. Instead of Ryker’s deep electric blue, I was staring back into Jophiel’s vibrant green ones. His grin took up the width of his face as I tried to struggle out of his grasp.

  "What’s the matter, Edyn? Don’t you love me?" he cackled.

  More voices behind me as I struggled. At last he released me, and my momentum from struggling knocked me back to the floor.

  When I hit the ground, I woke up. It took me a moment to realize I’d been dreaming, and wondered if I still was. I could hear the same voices somewhere close by. All the lights were off in my room, and I blinked to adjust my eyes to the darkness. Glancing at the mirror across the wall opposite my bed, I realized it was a two way mirror. The lights were on in the room behind it so I could see the faint images of people standing in there. One of them was Jophiel. The other was a man I hadn’t seen before.

  Jophiel’s hair was disheveled, and his shirt had come untucked. He was livid, gesturing wildly with his hands. I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying though, so I stood up and pressed my ear to the wall below the mirror, hoping he wouldn’t notice.

  "…until the end of this week to have something for them. I do not need them breathing down my neck claiming we’re not getting anywhere. Just figure out something, I don’t care what. They just need to know their money’s not going to waste. Especially Congressman Tate," Jophiel’s voice was strained.

  "Of course, Sir," the other man replied.

  "And one last thing," Jophiel continued. "Tate’s granddaughter is still very sick. They don’t expect her to survive much longer. I know we’re still a ways off, but he wants her to die with her very own soul, not a purchased one. Tomorrow, let’s prepare Lab Four for further testing of the subject’s healing properties. Maybe we can extract something useful to buy the poor child some more time while we keep working."

  "Of course, Sir," the other man repeated again.

  "Has Dirk returned yet with Evans’ collection?"

  My ears perked up at the mention of Ryker’s name.

  The other voice answered. "He is in route as we speak. Their estimated time of arrival is in an hour."

  "Perfect. You’re dismissed," Jophiel replied.

  The lights turned off after that, so I crept back to my bed. My heart was pounding. They’d managed to extract all of the souls that Ryker had won over the years. I still didn’t know how that worked precisely, but I supposed I could ask. It wouldn’t hurt to try.

  Just then, the lights in my room snapped on, blinding me. I threw my hand over my eyes to shield them.

  "Good morning, Edyn," Jophiel’s voice said from the doorway.

  I sat up and blinked. "What are you doing here so early?"

  "I thought perhaps you would like to eat breakfast with me this morning for a change of pace. Of course you can say no, and then you can either eat here or get another supplemented IV. It’s your choice."

  Thinking it over for a moment, I thought it might be an opportunity to further an escape plan. I sighed, swung my legs over the bed and slipped them into my boots. I noticed that he had tucked in his shirt and smoothed back his hair, trying to look as cool and collected as always.

  "Wonderful. Now, as before, I won’t restrain you so long as you behave yourself. Shall we?" he asked, gesturing towards the open door behind him.

  Maybe I can at least get some answers.

  Following him, I kept several feet between us. I couldn’t shake the creepy feeling that I had woken up with from my dream. Every night Ryker was there in some form or fashion, getting shot, turning into Jophiel, or falling into a dark abyss. Something bad always happened, and it always left me chilled for awhile after waking.

  We walked past the labs where I had spent most of my time. Several turns later, we reached a door with the same security access as the labs. When we gained entry, and the door swung open, I was taken aback by the stark contrast to everything else in the building. It was dark inside. Chocolate mahogany shelves and paneling stretched across floor to ceiling and wall to wall. The carpet was a rich green that reminded me of the surface of a pool table. A massive marble topped desk sat across the room and was surrounded by several leather chairs the color of Oklahoma clay.

  "Please, have a seat," he said, pointing to the chairs in front of the desk.

>   I obeyed and watched him as he walked around the other side. Papers were scattered all over the top of the desk. He rearranged a few to clear some space. I continued to take in my surroundings as he pressed a button on his desk, and a voice came over the intercom.

  "Yes, Sir?"

  "Bring in breakfast."

  "Right away, Sir."

  Jophiel folded his hands in his lap and leaned back in his chair. "I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve brought you here this morning."

  Silently, I nodded. I had no idea why I was sitting in his office instead of that cold chair in the lab.

  "I brought you here to tell you that we have procured Ryker Evans’ collection of souls. I just wanted to tell you how that will help our research immeasurably. Take comfort in that."

  I had stiffened at the mention of Ryker’s name, and something, disgust maybe, filled me at the thought of this man using a part of Ryker for anything. Then something occurred to me that nearly floored me. "Did he… did you get his soul too?" I asked quietly. My stomach clenched as apprehension reared its ugly head, and I feared what I already knew he was going to say. There was so much blood coming from that bullet wound…

  Jophiel stared at me thoughtfully for a moment, before he spoke, "In a sense."

  Dread hit me like a thousand knives, but I knew I had to ask. "So he didn’t…" I swallowed the hard lump in my throat, "he didn’t make it to Heaven."

  Jophiel shook his head. "No, he did not."

  I let out a small cry and bit down on my curled index finger. The pain kept me sane, but only just.

  "Take heart knowing that he’s helped our cause."

  If I could have willed my Essence to shoot out of my eyes and bore directly into his black heart right there and then, I would have. I hadn't tried again since we were in the hallway before, but it had been so weak then that I surmised my stupid hunger strike had depleted it.

  The tension filled silence was broken by the door opening and a man dressed all in white entering with a tray of food. Any hunger that I had felt this morning was long gone. The man set the tray down in front of me before making a quick exit.