Kat’s hands dug into my back. “Holy…”
“Shit,” I finished.
Dr. Roth was trying to push past the soldiers. “Micah, you can’t—”
“I don’t want to go back to that building,” the kid said in a voice that was oddly high and flat at the same time.
Washington the Tool moved in, holding a pistol. Dr. Roth shouted, and Micah’s head whipped around. The guard’s face paled, and Micah closed his fist. Washington hit the floor on his knees, grasping his head as he doubled over. Mouth open in a silent scream, blood poured from the guy’s eyes.
“Micah!” Dr. Roth shoved an officer out of the way. “That is bad! Bad, Micah!”
Bad—that was bad? I could come up with dozens of words better suited than bad.
“Holy smokes,” Kat whispered. “The kid’s like Damien from The Omen.”
I would’ve laughed, because with the bowl-cut brown hair and slight, mischievous grin, he did look like the little Antichrist. Except it wasn’t funny because Washington was face-first on the floor, and the freaky kid was now staring at me with those purple eyes.
Man, I did not like freaky kids.
“He was gonna hurt me,” said Micah, never taking his eyes off me. “And you all are going to make me go back to my room. I don’t wanna go back to my room.”
Several of the officers shuttled backward as Micah took a step forward, but Dr. Roth remained, hiding the syringe behind his back. “Why don’t you want to go back to your room, Micah?”
“A better question is why is he staring at you?” Kat whispered.
True.
Micah cautiously made his way around the officers, who were now giving him a wide berth. His steps were light and extremely catlike. “The other ones don’t want to play with me.”
There were more of him? Dear God…
The doctor turned, smiling at the boy. “Is it because you’re not sharing your toys?”
Kat choked on what sounded like a near-hysterical laugh.
Micah’s eyes slid to the doctor. “Sharing is not how you assert dominance.”
What. The. Holy. Hell.
“Sharing doesn’t always mean you’re giving up control, Micah. We’ve taught you that.”
The little boy shrugged as he turned his gaze back to me. “Will you play with me?”
“Uh…” I had no idea what to say.
Micah cocked his head to the side and smiled. Two dimples appeared in his round cheeks. “Can he play with me, Dr. Roth?”
If that doctor said yes, I was going to have a serious issue with this.
Dr. Roth nodded. “I’m sure he can later, Micah, but right now we need you to go back to your room.”
The little boy’s lower lip stuck out. “I don’t wanna go back to my room!”
I half expected the kid’s head to start spinning, and maybe it would have, but the doctor shot forward, syringe in hand.
Micah spun and shouted as he balled up his tiny hands. Dr. Roth dropped the syringe and went down on one knee. “Micah,” he gasped, pressing his hands to his temples. “You need to stop.”
Micah stomped a foot. “I don’t wanna—”
Out of freaking nowhere, a dart slammed into the kid’s neck. His eyes widened, and then his legs gave out. Before he fell face-first, I shot forward and caught the tyke in my arms. Kid was freaky as hell, but still, he was a kid.
I looked up and saw Sergeant Dasher standing to the right. “Good shot, Archer,” the sergeant said.
Archer slid the gun back into his holster with a curt nod.
I turned back to Micah. His eyes were open, and they locked onto mine. He wasn’t moving at all, but the kid was in there, fully functional. “What the hell?” I whispered.
“Someone get Washington to the med room and make sure his brains aren’t completely scrambled.” Dasher was giving out orders. “Roth, get the kid into an exam room immediately and find out how he was able to get out of building B, and where in the hell is his tracker?”
Roth stumbled to his feet, rubbing his temple. “Yes…yes, sir.”
Dasher stepped up to him, eyes glinting and his voice low. “If he does it again, he will be terminated. Do you understand?”
Terminated? Jesus. Someone appeared at my side and grabbed for the kid. I almost didn’t want to let him go, but that became a nonissue. Micah’s hand caught the front of my shirt and held on as the officer picked him up.
Those strange eyes were even more bizarre up close. The circle around the pupils was irregular, as if the black had bled at the edges.
They don’t know we exist.
Stunned, I jerked back, breaking the grip on my shirt. The kid’s voice was in my head. Impossible, but it had happened. I watched in disbelief as the officer had him now and was turning away. Stranger yet, it was the exact same thing Luc had said.
That kid wasn’t like Kat or me. That kid was something completely different.
…
Katy
Holy crap on a cracker…
A kid had just disarmed about fifteen men and probably would’ve done a hell of a lot more if Archer hadn’t tranq’d the kid. To be honest, I didn’t even know what I just saw or what the kid was, but Daemon looked substantially more freaked than I felt. Fear pinged inside me. Did the kid do something to him?
Pushing off the wall, I hurried to Daemon. “Are you okay?”
He ran a hand through his hair as he nodded.
“Someone needs to get these two back to their rooms,” Sergeant Dasher said, taking a deep breath and then barking out more orders. Archer moved toward us.