The Lionman Kidnapping Page 6

  A display of easy strength. And he liked it. Liked it a hell of a lot.

  She kept his gaze for a moment before she dropped and turned a crooked smile his way. “Hey, lionman. I’m back. Did you miss me, kitty?”

  Yes. Pleasure infused him at the sight of her, which was why he chose to focus instead on the stupid nicknames meant to provoke him.

  It worked. He glared. “Go.” The sound more bark than purr had the effect of making her laugh.

  “No can do, lionman. You are my new assignment.”

  Meaning? What exactly was Jayda? He knew her as Cerberus’s daughter only. Thus far, a wily female who shouldn’t be underestimated.

  A danger to him. “Go,” he repeated, keeping it simple unlike the tumultuous thoughts running in his head.

  She tilted her head, lips still partially upturned. “Go? But we haven’t even got started. And I had such fun things planned.” She winked.

  In some ways he was still a man. Marcus thanked the fact a sheet pinned him tight. A man shouldn’t get hard when a woman verbally tortured him.

  He blamed the fact he’d been without for too long. Why else would he be attracted to the one who’d brought him back to the lab? He should hate her for returning him to where his troubles began.

  “Go away.” He bit out the words, short and sharp, while knowing they wouldn’t do a damned thing.

  A part of him was glad she shook her head. “Don’t be a pussy. You are stuck with me. Because, apparently, you’re a bit of a snob and have been giving everyone else the silent treatment.”

  Dammit. Someone had observed him with Jayda and now thought to use her against him.

  Fight her allure. He glared.

  She smiled wider. “Poor kitty. Did we get off on the wrong foot? What do you say we start over? Hi. I’m Jayda Cerberus. My dad is your doctor.”

  “I know.” She stood before him as a reminder he was weak when it came to revenge.

  “This is where you tell me your name,” she prodded.

  “You know who I am.”

  “A whiny-ass bitch apparently.” She rolled her eyes.

  That stung. “I haven’t complained.”

  “No, you haven’t,” she agreed. “You’ve just been letting yourself die, bit by bit. Why?” The bluntness of the question took him by surprise.

  “Why not?”

  “Because it makes no sense. Look at you.” She waved in his direction. “You’re a big, strong man in his prime. Seems like a reason to live to me.”

  “Not a man.”

  She smirked. “Why? Because your eyes glow in the dark? Because your hair is thick and lush?”

  How to explain it was more than the physical. How he felt, how he saw things had changed.

  “I’m different inside.”

  “Feeling as if there’s something inside you trying to get out? A wild beast that, if allowed free rein, will steal who you are, never letting you back in the driver seat again?”

  He glanced at her sharply. How had she explained it so well? Then again, no surprise. Look at her father. “How do you know?”

  “You are not the first. Nor the last. Do you know how many other people have come through here? Been a recipient of the treatment?”

  “Too many.”

  “According to who? You?” She arched a brow. “You and all the other patients were given the chance of a lifetime. The cure of all cures.”

  “It’s only a cure if the side effects aren’t worse.”

  “Seriously?” She ogled him. “You’re going to tell me that lying in a hospital bed in a permanent coma and vegetative state is better than what you are now? Come on, kitty, why don’t you lie to my face and say you’d rather still be pissing in a bag, stuck in your own head?”

  He struggled because she was right. In so many respects he was better off. He could move and talk and feel. While, at the same time, he was a prisoner with limited abilities to communicate who felt despair and loneliness.

  “I’m still a prisoner, just with different bars holding me.”

  “It doesn’t have to be like this.” She placed a hand on the restraint over his chest. Not touching, and yet so close.

  “I just need to be a good, obedient patient.” He sighed. “Do you have any idea how hard it is to have someone controlling your freedom?”

  “Only because you don’t control yourself.”

  “Is that all it takes? In that case, scout’s honor, I’ll behave. Now untie me.” He gave only a slight tug at the restraints. No point in taxing himself when he only wanted to prove a point.

  She glanced at the cuffs then him. “Here’s the thing. I already know what would happen. I let you go, and you’ll do something stupid, like attack me, which wouldn’t end well. For you. Or you’ll attack someone else, which again, results in a bad end for you.”

  “And?” he asked.

  “I think that would be a shame, Marcus Bouvier.” Gripping the handrails, she hauled herself close. Close enough to his ear that, when she whispered, it tickled the lobe. “You have a lot to offer. And I have so much to give.”

  Cryptic words that followed her out.

  Leaving him alone. Aware. Awake. He might never sleep again.

  When the door hummed as someone new entered, he found himself eager to see Jayda again. Eager for something.

  Only to be vastly disappointed as Dr. Chimera himself strode into view, hands tucked behind his back. Smug smile on his face.

  “Marcus, delighted to see you’re doing better,” he declared.

  Damn the doctors and their spying. The rage proved quick, and the beast within rose with a fiercely grumbled, “Grghdgdge.” Which, in monster language, stood for “I hate you and want to suck the marrow out of your bones.”

  The suave Dr. Chimera didn’t react and kept a cautious distance in spite of the restraints.

  “What want?” He purposely stilted the words. Confused by the ins and outs of his mental acuity. Why had he gone from monosyllables to full thoughts and sentences again? The reason—the person, he should say—made no sense.

  “Given the sudden change in your status, I thought I’d come for a visit.”

  “Go.”

  “I can’t leave yet, Marcus. We haven’t discussed the new treatment you’re about to try.”

  “No medicine.”

  “Oh, we’re well past that point. I don’t think I have a serum to fix your issues. You’ll have to fix them on your own. I’d hoped your time in the woods would help clear your mind. That obviously didn’t work out.”

  “Escape again.” Perhaps that was the answer, to remove himself once more from the clinic and let nature take its course.

  “Your optimism is noted and misplaced. I won’t be letting you go again.” Chimera arched a brow. “Haven’t you realized yet that your escape was orchestrated?”

  Marcus shook his head and bared his teeth as he snarled, “No.” Because there was nothing easy about it. Desperate, he’d killed to get out of the clinic. He and the other monsters shed blood on their path to freedom. Even Chimera wasn’t so cold as to condone that.

  “I have to commend you on not taking the expected route out of the building. Shame those guards didn’t stand down as ordered.” Oddly enough, there was a hint of remorse in those words.

  “You let me go?” The very idea seemed ludicrous.

  “Why not? It occurred to me that you weren’t thriving in captivity. Which made me wonder, perhaps the cage was the problem. But I couldn’t just release you. You had to want to run away. To leave and live in the mountains. Or if you actually managed to make it out of the range, fit in with society or die. Instead, you came back.” Chimera fixed him with a stare. “Why?”

  A question he still struggled with. “Not an animal.” Even if he’d burrowed like one for months in the wilderness. Struggling because he’d escaped as winter left the land. Growing fat all summer on the plenteousness of nature, only to dread the coming chill that would sleep the land.

  “No,
you’re not an animal. You’re still smart. I can see that mind of yours working in there. What I don’t understand is why you play dumb.”

  “Not dumb,” he spat.

  “Really?” Chimera stood closer and stared at him, not having to tilt too much being a tall man himself. “Not dumb, yet you returned to be caught. Not dumb, yet you didn’t take the chance to escape.”

  “I got rid of the tracker.” Pride lit his words. Bet that fucker didn’t expect that.

  “Indeed, you did. Seems we didn’t hide them as well as we thought. Luke also rid himself of his. Here’s to hoping he doesn’t regret it.” Chimera shook his head. “But he and the cub his woman carry aren’t your concern. You’re my priority right now. I want to know why it is when Jayda is in the room you become more coherent.”

  Marcus denied it. “Not.”

  “I’ve watched the video. Each time she’s around, you become yourself again. More man, less beast.”

  Was it that noticeable? What did it mean?

  “I wonder if it’s something in the pheromones she exudes. Tell me, Marcus”—Adrian leaned forward, his expression conspiratorial—“do you want to fuck her?”

  The suggestion painted an erotic image and caused an instant erection.

  Ruined as Adrian said, “I wouldn’t blame you. She has a smoking body.”

  A body he could picture oh so well.

  “Rumor has it she’s popular with the guards.”

  “Good for her.” He wanted to clamp his lips tight as the words emerged more growly than expected.

  “I’m surprised you think so.” Adrian’s tone turned sly. “I thought you were attracted to her.”

  “Nope.” He lied. Lied hard.

  “So you’re not bothered at all by the thought of her getting naked for another man? Perhaps getting on her knees. Begging him—"

  The roar erupted suddenly as the meat sack dared to go too far.

  Adrian arched a brow but didn’t flinch. “Well. That was interesting.”

  No, it wasn’t. It meant nothing. She meant nothing.

  But it was too late to say anything. Chimera left, leaving him alone. With his thoughts.

  Fantasies.

  Desires.

  Chapter Eleven

  “Well. That was interesting,” she heard Adrian say for the third time. The video she kept replaying had sound, action, and just missed popcorn. As to why she kept replaying the meeting between Adrian and Marcus? Jayda found kitty’s reactions interesting.

  For one, he remained more or less coherent, speaking in full sentences and making sense.

  She discovered he was smart. Not only had he managed to survive in the wild, he’d figured out the tracker the clinic fitted all its projects with. Staff, too.

  Just one of those things the brochure didn’t mention and that the contract didn’t cover. It was administered during a round of vaccinations, the tiny chip floating around the body. Only one technician got unlucky enough to have it lodge in the brain.

  Marcus, the lionman who escaped to the woods, apparently knew he had to disable it. And how. Made her wonder what he’d done exactly.

  Re-watching him, Jayda remembered his reactions with her. His words and emotions clearly portrayed his resentment. Marcus suffered from a bitterness steeped in his belief that he could never have a normal life.

  He was right, to a certain extent. So long as he behaved like an animal, he’d be treated like one, kept confined and out of harm’s way.

  That was only one possibility. Should he achieve control, the possibilities opened up. Jayda wasn’t the only person with genetic modifications who travelled the world, as free as a person could be. Look at Adrian, the very first project of all, still running the clinic with an iron fist and steely resolve.

  A person with the will could learn. She could teach him. Show him how to harness the beast instead of existing as a dichotomy, opposing sides constantly in battle.

  The only problem with that plan was Marcus himself. He claimed he didn’t want anything. He asked for freedom and yet didn’t really push the issue.

  The only time he truly perked up was when she engaged him. And the only time he truly got upset was when Adrian talked dirty about her.

  Jealousy. An interest in Jayda that she might be able to exploit.

  She rewound and watched for a fourth time. Her father paused by her side, silently taking it in before frowning and saying, “That was disturbing. I’ll have to speak to Adrian. His lack of respect for my daughter won’t be tolerated.”

  “Please, we both know he was only baiting Marcus.”

  “That doesn’t make it right.”

  “It did teach us something interesting. Marcus showed jealousy.”

  “Over you?” Her father laughed. “I highly doubt the prisoner desires his jailor, no matter what Adrian says.”

  “He responds to me.” Something that still had the ability to warm her inside.

  “He also responded to Adrian.”

  True. “You were right. He’s still redeemable.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. Did you see how his face changed when he got upset?” Her father leaned in and played with the mouse, rewinding the video to the moment when Marcus roared, his eyes blazing with green fire, his mouth open wide over pronounced incisors. His nose flattened, and his hair poofed into a golden halo. A veritable mane.

  “And? We both know intense emotions bring out physical characteristics, but that isn’t an indication of mental acuity.”

  “His blood test shows the DNA strand took too well to the grafts. He’s truly more animal than man.”

  “So am I, and you let me off the leash.”

  “Sometimes I wonder if that was a mistake,” he muttered.

  “Love you too, Daddy,” she mocked.

  “When do you leave?” he asked, changing the subject.

  “Trying to get rid of me?” She leaned back in the chair and arched a brow. “But I was just getting started with Marcus.”

  “That ends now. After what Adrian said…” Her father shook his head. “Him putting dirty ideas like that in Marcus’s head. That was wrong.”

  “I don’t think you can exactly be stating what’s right or wrong.” Loving him dearly didn’t make her blind to his faults.

  “Family should be off-limits.”

  “Since when?” He’d never hesitated in the past to use family to advance his goals. It didn’t work so well with Mommy.

  He shot her a look. “That was different.” He’d used Jayda as a test subject to save her life. It didn’t make it more legal. But it had kept her alive.

  However, curing her didn’t make her more likely to just swallow his bullshit.

  “Different only because you say so. Problem is, I’m not a kid anymore, Daddy. You don’t get to tell me what to do. Wasn’t it you that said sometimes the rules must be bent if science is to advance?”

  “Offering you up as some kind of tasty bait isn’t advancement.”

  She propped her booted feet onto the desk and leaned farther back. “You didn’t have a problem with it when you called me in and asked me to dangle myself in front of him to get him out of the woods.”

  “Because it should have been a controlled situation. You were to draw him out and tranq him. Instead, you let him catch you off guard and allowed yourself to be kidnapped.”

  So he’d noticed she’d let the lionman take her. “I was curious to see what he’d do. You and Adrian seemed at odds over whether or not he can be saved. He’s not a savage killer.” The guard who’d gone missing during his capture was found, sporting a goose egg and dehydrated, but alive.

  “The fact he didn’t immediately begin gnawing on your limbs doesn’t mean he wouldn’t have killed you.”

  “Would you have missed me, Daddy?” She batted her lashes. She was sure in his own way, her father cared about her. It just wasn’t the warm and huggy kind of love that other families shared.

  He pressed his lips into a flat line. “Yo
u are impossible to talk to. While you might not believe me, I don’t want you to get hurt. I’m not a monster.”

  “Are you sure? Because you are the maker of them.” Daddy had also been partaking of some of the special juice. The signs of his age reversing were too much to ignore.

  “I create miracles.” The lie that helped him sleep at night.

  Jayda rolled her eyes. “Save that line for your money-bag donors. You’re a Dr. Moreau. And Marcus is your lionman. Emphasis on man. I think we can save him still.” Why she even wanted to was not something she understood. Why did she keep fighting? Was this just her stubbornness in the face of her father’s refusal? Or was something more at play?

  “Moments of lucidity don’t mean Marcus can recover. He wavers in and out of acuity.”

  “Which we need to work on. He seems to do better when directly engaged I’ve noticed.”

  “With you and Adrian. Everyone else gets the silent treatment.” Said with clear disgruntlement.

  Daddy let Marcus get under his skin. Usually that was her specialty.

  “Which again is a conscious choice on his part. Showing command. I think we can expand that control.”

  “How? What’s your plan? Go in each day to talk with him?” Heavy on the sarcasm.

  “I don’t have a plan. I was going to wing it.” She wasn’t a doctor or therapist, just a person who’d dealt with her own monster.

  “Ten years of medical school, double that in the lab, and you think you can accomplish with Marcus what I haven’t?” he sneered. “Go right ahead.”

  She would. Because she had to. Having seen Marcus again, she couldn’t stop thinking about him. Wondering at her strange fascination. Her desire.

  An arousal satisfied in the shower that did nothing to sate her hunger. Only one person could do that.

  She waited until the next day, late morning, before striding into his room. But she didn’t raise his bed.

  “Hey, kitty, how did you sleep?” she asked, noting the craggy lines of his face. The change in him physically was remarkable. She’d seen the before photos. A scrawny man, myopic, his skin pitted with scars.