Rivals and Retribution (25 page)

In a moment Wondermann was with us, utterly professional and businesslike and completely cold. He and I shared one desire that morning: the desire to skip the small talk. “I believe you are to blame for the loss of my experiment’s subject.”

“What have you lost? A rat, a monkey?”

“A werewolf.”

“Really? What would lead you to that conclusion?” I asked, keeping my tone far more even than my racing pulse.

“She was freed by two young people.”

“So you are taking the ‘birds of a feather flock together’ theory as your proof?”

“A little research shows the two who rescued my subject—”

“She is not a subject. She is a girl. She has rights.”

“
You
would believe that. Try proving her need for human rights in a courtroom once she’s changed.” He opened and closed his hands at his sides, the very picture of menace. “The two who rescued her have been spotted in Junction. Where the Rusakovas reside.”

“For a small American town, Junction is quite well populated. Geographic location is no proof of personal acquaintance and certainly not a measure of friendship. Is there something else about your missing girl that is bothering you?”

His nostrils flared. He was holding back.

He had been using Terra as bait for Wanda, as I’d suspected. He wanted her to pay for the damage she’d done to his facility in Junction.

I wanted her to pay for destroying the only family I’d ever known.

“You will return to your lab. You will resume work on the cure and you will not leave my facility until you have success.”

“
Nyet
. You see, I am nearly done packing my things. And unpacking is always such a headache. As you yourself once pointed out, you have waited decades for werewolves—what is a little more time?”

He twitched. There was more to this story.

The newspaper article.

What brilliant timing.

“I noticed your stocks have suddenly gone up because of a much anticipated military contract. But the details are all quite sketchy. The most in-depth report I could find mentioned ‘changing the face of war forever.’”

The vein near his temple rose.

“Do you envision the face of war as somewhat furrier, perhaps? You have promised them werewolves, have you not? And now you find yourself clearly without any werewolves to give or use so you can learn to make more—better wolves for a better tomorrow, perhaps? Everyone has failed you. Your hunters, Dmitri…”

“Do what I say or I’ll shoot her.”

“
Nyet,
” I said. “I do not think so. I think you will do what
I
say.”

“I mean it, Rusakova. You return to your lab and you give me what I want or I’ll renege on every one of my promises—
after
I shoot your mother.”

“I do not recall this being part of any previous plan,” Feldman griped, glaring at me.

I shrugged.

Wondermann changed tactics. “And you, Hazel, wouldn’t you like to live out the rest of your life in some beautiful place fit for a princess? Just for giving me the help I want?”

“I blew past my princess years long ago. And I only have a few years left at best. I’ve had a full life. If it ends here and now, it was still a grand adventure. And that, my dear, is a hell of a sight better than most people can claim.”

“Don’t think I won’t do it.”

“Go ahead,” I said. “Shoot her.”

Wondermann blinked, but tipped his head at the man with the gun.

The bullet grazed Feldman’s shoulder. “You son of a bitch!” she snapped at Wondermann. “Grow a pair of balls and order a kill shot. No wonder your father’s gone blind in his old age. He can’t stand to see the pansy you wound up being!” She sucked on her lower lip and glowered at her arm. “That stings,” she muttered before letting loose with another string of curses.

I did not even flinch.

Wondermann’s eyes flicked from Feldman to me and back again several times. “I could kill her.…”

“Oh, no
you
couldn’t,” she griped. “You had to hire some dumb ass just to graze me—you probably can’t even pull a trigger without wetting yourself. Men today! Why, in my day…”

I was starting to understand why Jessie liked the old woman. She had guts.

I looked at him and shrugged again. “All she does is complain.”

“She’s your
mother
.…”

“Are you really so naïve as to think biology ties into affection?” she retorted, looking him up and down. “Well, perhaps you would be. But he”—she pointed to me with a jab of her bony chin—“couldn’t give a rat’s ass if I lived or died. I may be his mother, but I gave him up—handed him over to live a series of lies. He’s screwed up. Damaged goods. He knows it. And he knows I’m the reason.”

Wondermann stood there staring at both of us, dumbfounded.

“I think it is time we discuss my terms. You want werewolves and need a good and proper cure to reverse engineer in order to make sure they are always werewolves. I want a good and proper cure for any member of my family—my pack—that desires it. But time is short.…” My mouth was about to outrun my brain. What did I want in order to get to the cure before losing Pietr to insanity or an absolute death? What did I need?

“In order to make everything work, we require the following things,” Feldman announced, stepping forward awkwardly, one hand pressed to her slowly bleeding arm.

Amazing.

“You will continue to uphold your previous agreement. Every supply we ask for hand delivered immediately as top priority. Two adjoining rooms, or a suite with separate bedrooms and baths at one of the four-star hotels on Times Square with a view of Times Square.”

I gawked at her.

“You will find it simply inspiring,” she assured me. “I’d suggest the Marriott—absolutely lovely. We require all the imagined amenities, including meals and laundry service as well as transport to and from the hotel by private car.”

I kept blinking at her. I would have never thought of any of those things, I realized.

“We require a daily stipend of two thousand dollars each for—let’s call it
incidentals
. Oh, don’t look so pained,” she said to Wondermann in her most soothing tone. “It is a small price to pay knowing you will be able to deliver on your military contract. I’m certain the price the United States military is willing to pay for a new breed of nearly indestructible soldiers is a pretty penny. If there’s one thing the U.S. enjoys investing in, it’s the tools of war.”

“Defense,” he whispered. “It is a defense contract.”

“Tomayto, tahmahto,” Feldman declared. She turned, bringing her hand down to cup the other on the top of her cane, peering at me like some wrinkled and wizened little witch from a child’s fairy tale. “And you, Alexi, is there anything else you want?”

“
Da,
” I whispered, realizing what it was. My entire life I had been trained to keep secrets, to trust no one with the family’s business or my grandfather’s knowledge. And listening to Feldman suggest things I would never have thought to ask for, seeing her push the envelope so many amazing ways, I knew it was time to make a break with old habits. If I was going to perfect the cure before losing my little brother, I needed as much help as I could get.

If two heads were better than one, how fast might we succeed if there were five or six of us working together to solve the problem?

“I want help. Your four finest scientists here by nine a.m. tomorrow. I do not care how they get here, but they simply must, for us to succeed.”

Wondermann pursed his lips. “No.”

“What?” Feldman and I asked in unison.

“You heard me. No. I will not answer to your terms.”

My vision grew hazy. We had been so close to getting everything we could possibly need and want.…

“Then we have reached an impasse,” Feldman said.

“
Nyet,
” I whispered. “There must be something…”

“There is only one other thing I want, beyond the werewolves,” Wondermann said, turning his back to us.

My head spun. Think, Sasha, think …

What was a man like Wondermann still lacking? What had eluded him? I wanted to pace and give my brain a chance to determine the right course of action. But I did not dare. It would be too easy for him to see he had me up against a wall. So I stood still, regulated my breathing, and thought as fast as I could. What did he want that he couldn’t have just by writing a check? Who—besides my family—had cost him something? Who had betrayed him?

“There was a woman in your employ. A woman who betrayed the company and allowed us to get inside the bunker with armed men and destroy all your precious research—all your files, computers … everything.”

“Wanda McGregor. Yes. I know of her.” He tapped his fingers on his desk. “Is she not a family friend?”

Feldman stood still as death, deliberating.

“She betrayed my mother. There is no friendship there to be had.”

“Interesting.”

“What if I told you I could give you her? What would you be willing to do then if I handed over your traitor?”

“I would not treat her kindly,” he clarified.

“I would not expect you to. She has not treated others kindly, either. What mercy does she deserve in return for granting none?”

He spun on his heel, the look on his face both criminal and angelic in its absolute joy. “I thought I might come to like you eventually. We have a deal then. Deliver me Wanda McGregor by the month’s end or you lose … everything.”

*   *   *

Back in the lab I grabbed Feldman’s purse, understanding now why she had wanted it.

“Thank you,” she muttered, unzipping it and pulling out an assortment of Band-Aids and gauze. “I’ll regret this momentarily, but do you have a little rubbing alcohol to swab it with?”

I dug through the supplies and found some and carefully rolled up her sleeve to wipe the graze clean.

She sucked her lips and said some truly uncomplimentary things about Wondermann’s heritage while I bandaged her wound and thought, all the time I did it, that she was actually quite remarkable for an old woman who had abandoned her only child.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Jessie

“So what are you going to do about them, Jessie?” Sophie asked me as I stood in Junction High’s hallway gawking at the milling members of Marlaena’s pack.

Only the adults and Gabriel were notably absent from the school hallway.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I thought I should be prepared for whatever game plan you have in mind.”

“I don’t—”

“Yes, you do. You always do. You’ll get involved somehow. No doubt about it.”

Wide-eyed, I looked at Cat, Max, Pietr, and Amy for support.

Max shrugged. “Sophia’s right.”

“Thanks ever so much,” I snapped. But I turned back to face the gaggle of pups. Here they were without Marlaena’s steady influence. Here they might be influenced by someone else.…

“So what’s the plan?” Max asked, unfurling his devilish grin.

“How many specialists do we still have in the boiler room?” I asked Sophie.

“It’s like they speak some freaky code,” Max grumbled to Amy. “Annoying.”

“Except I speak it, too,” she said with a grin of her own.

“We’re down to eleven since the food vendor changed and the additive disappeared.”

“So if we added maybe eight pups…”

“No. Absolutely not. Things are volatile as it is.…” Sophie crossed her arms and glared at me.

“Please?”

“No.”

“Imagine how awesome it’d be if we could turn them—I mean,
encourage
them to be better than what Marlaena is forcing them into. It’d be like rescuing kittens.…”

She rolled her eyes at me. “Those
kittens
are way more fiercely fanged than any kittens I’ve ever dealt with.”

“Aw, come on, Soph. You’ve made such a difference to the specialists already … why not add some other kids who need guidance into the mix?”

“Jessie has an interesting point. Why not give the pups a little love and kindness and see where it leads? They’ve been on the run awhile—maybe all they need are some roots,” Max suggested, leaning in.

Sophia looked flustered by being the focus of his attention. “I can’t believe I’m even considering this.”

Frankly, I couldn’t either.

Marlaena

“Shhh,” Gareth whispered, running the damp cloth along my fevered forehead to sop up my sweat and cool me. “It’ll be all right.”

Not long ago all I would have wanted from Gareth was his gentle touch and his focus and attention directed at me. But now? I grabbed his wrist and held his hand above my face. “Stop.” My eyes fluttered shut, and I tried to regain control of my breathing. “Just, stop…”

He rocked back on his heels, pulling away from the bedside. “Whatever you say, Princess.”

My eyes opened again, and I tried to focus on him—on the smoky-colored man with haunting eyes I’d wanted for so long.… But my brain took his every feature apart and lessened them by mathematical increments and threw Pietr’s design into the mix—showing just how short Gareth fell in comparison. I was going to be sick.

Again.

He had the trash can beside me before I even flopped over the bed’s edge, and as I emptied my guts into the can he stroked my hair and whispered kind and gentle things.

And I hated myself. I had wanted Gareth forever. I loved Gareth, well, as much as I could love anyone, but the fascination—no,
fixation
—with Pietr overwhelmed all that.

This strange chemical thing was crushing something beautiful.… maybe something I was simply not worthy of having. Did he know how his every touch only made me hungrier for Pietr’s imagined ministrations? Could he fathom how frequently my mind went from the real and beautiful existence of him to the fantasy of Pietr? A fantasy I was desperate to strike from my mind?

I spit out the last of the bile that burned in my mouth, and Gareth handed me a glass of water that I hadn’t even noticed him bring in.

Jessie

Pietr was quiet in school that morning, staying a few feet away from me most of the time. We attended classes together, spoke to each other at a distance, sat together at lunch, and that was where disaster once again struck.