Jekyll, an Urban Fantasy (10 page)

Eden stayed standing. “Why would you tell Justin he won’t always be like this? Why would you do that to him?” The questions came out in a crowd, tripping over themselves to be the first one spoken. “And what did Fields mean when he said something in me might be a cure? Is he delusional?”

“No, he’s hopeful. We’re
all
hopeful. We think there’s something different about you, something that makes you special. You’ve changed, and yet you haven’t. Your eye color is that of your Jekyll.”

“Chastity. Her name is Chastity.”

“Right,” she said tightly. “You have Chastity’s eyes, but the rest of your body is normal. Human. When you came in your heartbeat was hers.”

“Four beats and then a pause.”

Alex nodded. “Exactly, but then it reverted to normal. Until we run more tests, we can’t say for sure, but it seems as though everything about you is human. Except your eyes.”

“And my thoughts,” Eden mumbled.

She leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

“My thoughts. They’re mine—I mean, they
feel
like they’re mine, but my thinking is different. It’s clearer, more…strategic. And my body seems to react differently now. I never would’ve fought Fields and that other guard in the hallway. I would’ve run away. I
always
ran away.”

“Would you…Would you please sit down? You’re making me anxious.”

“That’s too bad.” After a momentary glaring contest, Eden sighed and plopped down in the chair. “Better?” If she gave Alex something inconsequential, some information the scientist in her would get excited about, maybe Alex would return the favor and let something slip that Eden could use.

“Much. Thank you. We need to understand how you’ve been able to integrate your two sides. If there’s something in your endocrine system that has been able to mesh the human side of you with the Jekyll side of you, then we might be able to reproduce it. Maybe.”

“Maybe,” Eden repeated. “And then you’ll find a cure? For Fields’s daughter? For Justin? For…Mitch?”

“We hope so.”

They all seemed so excited about it. But Eden couldn’t let go of the implausibility of it all. She was nothing special. Just another confused Abnormal who all of these people were setting their hopes on. But they were just that—
hopes
. And she needed to deal with the what-nows, not the what-ifs.

“Great,” she said, sarcasm being her only constant companion. Well,
that
and paranoia, distrust, whatever the hell Chastity was pulling, and a pretty bad headache. “It sounds an awful lot like another ‘maybe’.”

“Until you came here, we’d never even thought integration was possible. We’d hoped your DNA would bring us closer to a newer, better serum, but we weren’t sure. Now we have an entirely new thread to follow, and the possibility of developing something even more remarkable. Maybe even a way to integrate other Jekylls or”—she looked up, her hands in a prayer position—“find a way to control the Hydes.”

Eden cringed. Just the phrasing would’ve sent Mitch over the edge. “You mean, a way for the Hydes to control
themselves
, right?”

Alex looked at her blankly. “Isn’t that what I said?”

“I hope so.”
God, I hope so.
“And all of this can be done with my DNA? Like it’s some kind of miracle cure. How do you know?

“We did some
very
basic,
very
preliminary tests from some brain scans and a small blood sample we took when you first arrived,” Alex said. “But that’s
really
all we did. You haven’t been given any kind of drug.”

Her assurances were absurd—Eden wouldn’t believe it, no matter how many times Alex used words like, ‘really,’ ‘small,’ or ‘very’.

“And what did you
really
find out in these
very
small
tests that you told me you didn’t do?”

She rubbed her lips together. “Honestly, not a lot more than we’ve learned from other Abnormals. But once we conduct other genetic and endocrine tests and have a longer-term sample of your physiology and behavior, we hope to understand how you’ve been able to integrate. You have to understand that this science is in its infancy. There weren’t even any observations of the phenomenon until about twenty years ago.”

About twenty years ago, Eden was barely out of toddler-dom. About twenty years ago, her mom checked herself into a clinic. About twenty years ago, Eden had probably thought clinics helped people and gave them lollipops. But evidently, she would’ve been wrong. “You knew about my mom.”

She paused. “Not me personally, but yes, she came here.”

“And my father.”

Alex nodded. “The Clinic tried to help both of them.”

“But it didn’t. It didn’t help them.” Eden sagged in her chair, the weight of her life catching up with her.

“Not enough, no,” Alex said quietly. “Your mother never said anything about you. If she
had
, The Clinic would’ve tried to help. The facility was just being set up and everything was new and disorganized and…”

Parents dead. Childhood nonexistent. Love who doesn’t want her. And no one in the world to trust.

“It doesn’t matter.” Eden slid down and rested her head against the back of the chair, arching her neck and staring at the ceiling. All to make sure that the tears weren’t helped by gravity.

“Of
course
it matters.
You
matter. Even if you weren’t
special
, you’d be special. If that makes any sense at all.”

Eden felt it as Alex’s light chuckle and attempt at empathy broke through a section of the wall Eden had painstakingly put up between them.
No
. That was not going to happen. If she let these people in at
all
, she’d lose herself. Whatever was left.

“You’re right—it doesn’t make any sense,” she said, sitting up straight. “You may not have known about
me
, but what about Mitch and his father? Why didn’t you bring Mitch in and let him live here like Justin does? Or, at least, kept him away from his father?”

“I can’t explain something that happened before my time. It’s impossible to know my predecessors’ reasons. Justin lives here because he has nowhere else to go, no one who can offer the kind of care he needs. His mother would’ve kept him in an institution for the rest of his life. And without the care we provide, he would start to become more and more dangerous to himself and to others.”

“So why didn’t you
tell
me? Why keep it a secret and have someone who I trusted drug me?”

“We were trying to do the right thing. I realize we made mistakes.”

“Ya think?”

She took a deep breath. “Our intent was simply to keep you from transforming, so that you could have as normal a life as possible.”

“You think my life was
normal
?” Eden wanted to throw something at her. Instead she stood and started pacing, keeping the chair and desk between them. “I spent every waking moment afraid of who I might be, trying so hard to be perfect, good. Is
that
what you mean by ‘normal’?”

“Eden.” She waited until Eden was calm enough to look her in the eyes. “You’re a Jekyll. That is what made your human side…good. That’s who you are.” She flicked her head. “Or
were
.”

“Gee, thanks.” She didn’t ask what she was now because Alex would just tell her they needed to run some more of their stupid tests. As if tests could understand the war going on in her mind and body with every breath she took. Every word she said. Every move she made.

“What do the drugs do?” she asked finally.

“They regulate the transformations, and soften the inhuman side when it appears. When an Abnormal stops taking them, they revert to their natural selves and their inhuman side becomes more powerful. But, in
your
case, you don’t seem to need any regulation at all. You have some of the physical and physiological attributes of your Jekyll, but you’re still human. It’s never happened before, and we want to know why.”

“So you haven’t been spiking my soda or anything?”

Alex shook her head. “Absolutely not.”

It made sense—if they’d given her the serum, she wouldn’t be like this. Chastity would be dormant or whatever it was. Eden would probably be in grad school, being drugged by Carter, having never even
met
Mitch. Never…

When Eden thought of him, she shuddered. “Mitch has been off the drugs for a few weeks. Does that mean he’s changing more often?”

“Yes and no. But more yes than no. Since emotion is such a key component, we think it may be affecting him quite dramatically.”

Eden thought about what Mitch had theorized. The more he let his rage out as a man, the less power Hyde had over him. “Dramatically how?”

“From what we’ve been able to see—Turner not being one we want to approach too closely—he’s found…other ways of coping. But he
will
change. Like I told you, without the drugs, it’s inevitable. And each time he does, the man will have a harder and harder time reemerging. Until the man he is
now
will disappear completely.”

Disappear. After a moment of stunned silence, Eden’s brain started functioning again. And it moved fast.

There was a lot she didn’t know, and
one
thing she did. Even if there was a
shred
of truth to that, she couldn’t let it happen. She had to try to help him. If he needed the drugs, she’d get him the drugs. Period. But first she had to see him, talk to him, convince him that The Clinic was his only chance. And wouldn’t that be a delightful conversation to have
. Hey, Mitch. Remember those drugs you were on—the ones you didn’t know about. Yeah, well. You need to keep taking them so you don’t…
What was the word Alex had used?
Disappear
.

It was hopeless. She’d never be able to convince him. Would he do it if she begged him? Begged him to do it for
her
?

“But the serum is only a temporary solution,” Alex said. “We think, by studying
you
, we’ll be able to create a better serum. And eventually might be able to create a cure. For everyone, not just you and Tur— Mitch.
Everyone
. Isn’t that worth giving up a little of your blood for?”

She eyed Alex thoughtfully. Sure, it’d be worth it.
If
it were true. She’d give them whatever they needed if it would end all of this. Make it so that The Clinic could go study cancer or something, instead of spending all of their resources on some paranormal freaks of nature.

“How long would I have to stay here?” she asked.

“A little longer. A few months maybe. I’m not sure. We’d like to test your reflexes, senses, those kinds of things. Because they’ve changed as well, haven’t they?”

“Yes,” Eden said quietly. She’d give them a chance to play with her blood, do their tricks, think they’ve won. And maybe they’d be able to figure out what she hadn’t. But
only
if they gave her a chance to help Mitch along the way. She needed to know if Hyde was stronger, if what Alex was telling her was true. And while she was at it, she’d see just how ‘free to go’ she was.

“I want to see Mitch first. Make sure he’s alright.”

“I think something could be arranged, but you can’t get too close.”

Eden flinched. They were
really
going to let her go. “Okay,” she said in utter disbelief.

“I’m serious, Eden. He’s more dangerous than he’s ever been. It’s just not safe. You’ll be able to see at a distance that we’re not doing anything terrible to him. But I think any visiting should be planned out and in a public place. After we can develop another serum, a
better
one, then we’ll need your help to convince him to take it. But right now, there’s too much riding on you to put you at risk.”

“Okay,” she repeated, knowing how wrong Alex was.

Mitch might be dangerous to some, but not to
her
. He’d rescued her from Hyde, somehow stopping the bastard from killing her. Now she had the chance to return the favor. And
nothing
would stop her from trying.