Inferno (Page 29)

He remained silent for a long while, Cassie continued to stare out the window, knowing that she should leave, but unable to bring herself to move. “How did you survive The Slaughter?” she asked softly.

He sighed, his feet shuffled slightly on the floor. “We were all taught to fight. We were all taught to survive and use our abilities to the best of our abilities.”

“And you’re a survivor?”

“Yes.”

“And my mother?”

“Was not.”

Cassie winced, unable to stop herself from shooting him a fierce look. “Did you even love her, or me?”

His dark blue eyes were fierce in the small amount of light penetrating the room. “Yes, it is why I have made it my quest to make sure that these monsters are eradicated forever.”

“By creating even worse monsters?”

He was silent as he stared back at her, his mouth quirked in that disgusted manner. “We were trying to help.”

“And you created things that are far worse than anything we could have ever imagined. You made these things and you destroyed this town. You destroyed hundreds of people only to have your own creations turn against you. Good job Dr. Frankenstein.”

He stared unblinkingly back at her, his hands tight on the arms of the chair. “And you’ve crawled into bed with a monster. I made a mistake, you made a choice.”

Cassie sighed softly, unraveling her legs. She wasn’t going to bother to deny his accusation, or defend herself. Not to him. She was beginning to realize that he was not entirely sane, or rational. There would be no changing his mind, and she didn’t particularly care to try. Whatever had happened to him over the years had completely changed him from the man that her grandmother had loved and admired greatly.

“What is your ability?’

He grinned at her, shaking his head at her. “That’s my secret.”

Cassie glared hard at him, but decided to let it go for now. They would find it out one way or another. Cassie folded her hands before her as she rested her elbows on her legs. “The ones down there aren’t the same as the other one that I encountered. They’re stronger, faster, and they seem even more blood thirsty. How and why did you make them?”

He was silent for a long time, his eyes on the window behind her. “We just wanted to do some different experimentation, to see what would go right, and give us the best results. Give us the best fighters. There were some failures along the way.”

Cassie winced at the word failures. They had been humans, people with families and loved ones. People that had lived and loved and laughed, until these lunatics had gotten a hold of them. And now they were monsters, with no rational thought, looking only to kill and mangle and destroy. “Why would you keep them alive?”

He finally turned his attention back to her. “To study them of course, to see if they could be controlled, and to see how they thought and reacted to things.”

Cassie swallowed back her disgust, fighting the urge to get up and flee the room, and this monster. Her father. She shuddered, her hands tightened painfully. “I thought they didn’t think.”

“Yes they do. They react to stimulation, to blood, to movement. And they think about death and violence, and blood. They do think and they do react.”

Cassie stared hard at him for a moment before nodding slowly. “Where are the children? Did you do this to them also?” His silence made her heart pump louder, her blood ran cold and her skin chilled as if an icy hand had grabbed hold of the back of her neck. “Did you?” she breathed, though she knew the answer.

“Some of them.”

It took all that Cassie had not to throw up, or not to fly across the room and attack him in a violent rage. She remained immobile, for to move would only instigate one of those two reactions. She shuddered, taking a deep breath as she tried hard to keep herself under control. She could not stand the thought of coming across children that were like the other monsters in this town. She could not stand the thought of having to kill one of those innocent beings.

“The children were even more unstable than the adults. We don’t know the reason why but they were not viable as further candidates in our experiments.”

Cassie gagged, bile rushed up her throat, but she was able to shove it back down. Her legs quivered as she climbed to her feet, her knees shook, but she could not sit any longer. She moved slowly away from him, using the wall to guide her and keep her trembling legs steady. She couldn’t look at him anymore; she knew she would kill him if she did. And she could not be the person that killed her own father, no matter how much she thought he deserved it.

“How many children are out there, running free now?” she choked out.

“The children were all destroyed, as I said they were even more volatile and uncontrollable than the adults. They could not be allowed to survive. The havoc they would have wreaked would have been unstoppable.”

Cassie shuddered again, disgusted with herself for the relief that filled her. She couldn’t have destroyed a child; no matter what kind of monster it was, she couldn’t have killed it. And she could not have allowed the others to kill it either. She hated herself for feeling grateful that none of them would have to do so. And she hated her father even more for putting her in this horrendous situation.

Tears shimmered in her eyes; she wiped them quickly away, bracing herself to face her father again. “And the other children?” she asked softly. “The ones that you didn’t put down there?”

He remained silent, and she knew that he was waiting for her to look at him again. Straightening her shoulders, Cassie turned slowly toward him, keeping her face as impassive as possible. Trying hard not to let him see how badly his words had shaken her. She instinctively knew that he would not approve of weakness, and would shut her out because of it.

“They were shipped off.”

“Where?”

His mouth quirked into a sneer as he studied her impassively. “Like I would tell you. I don’t want you anywhere near those children.”

Cassie snorted in disgust as she shook her head. “You don’t have to tell me anything,” she retorted. “I can just have Julian drag the memories forcefully from your mind. I am sure that you know very well what he is capable of. I’m also certain the experience can be very uncomfortable if he wants it to be.”

Her father paled slightly, and then nodded slowly. “Yes, I am well aware of what Julian is capable of, but I will not tell you.”