Chapter 19

NINETEEN

When I wake up, my whole body aches like one giant bruise. I trap a groan in my throat, just feeling out my situation. It wouldn’t be the first time my father has taken advantage of my passed-out state, and it feels a lot like that now. I’m lying on something cold and hard—a medical table perhaps. There’s that air-con noise that only happens in the lab and the whirring of machines. I’m not in the gym anymore, but I’m also not tied down.

That’s a plus, not that I’ll need to make a move yet. I need to play the long game.

I take stock of my body. Nothing is broken. There may be a few fractured ribs and some bruised bones, but nothing feels completely wrecked, which is good. I undoubtedly look like shit, but I don’t care about that.

I’m about to open my eyes and scan my surroundings when I hear booted feet entering the room. I relax my body despite the fact I want to stiffen, keeping my breathing nice and slow. It’s a moment when they might give things away unintentionally.

As expected, someone comes over and checks on me. I feel them hovering above me before they wander a little farther away. “Dr. Davis.” I almost snarl at the voice. It’s Joel. I guess I didn’t kick his ass hard enough if he’s awake.

“Feeling better?” my father responds, and there’s a thread of disappointment in his voice. I want to laugh.

“Much. I will not make the mistake of misjudging your daughter again. She is a lot stronger than she looks.”

“That she is. Watching you two spar, though, gave me the results I expected for you, and it also gave me some ideas,” Davis murmurs, and a horrible feeling starts to build inside me, like the moment before a car crash when you see the vehicle coming towards you. That’s how it feels. I want to knock myself out. I want to run. I know it’s going to be bad, but instead, I lie here and listen.

“An idea?” Joel queries.

“Hmm, yes. I always thought Nova would be the start and end of my research, the key to it all, but what if she is in a different way? She reached peak human potential, and she has begun to access her mind more than any other. It is changing not only her brain, but her physical abilities and structure. She is adapting, to put it mildly, but she started out like the rest of us, and that will give her some limitations. If we were to use that and create a being, a child, perhaps, born from two individuals already enhanced through experiments, then the possibilities would be endless.”

My heart freezes.

“Are you saying what I think you are?”

“Yes, you and Nova will breed. You will make me a child, which will be the future of us all. Just think how strong it would be with two almost perfectly enhanced parents.”

“I . . .” Joel hesitates, and for a moment, hope fills me that he won’t agree and he sees how wrong this is.

“You can do this, yes? She isn’t bad looking. If not, we can offer stimulants. She will, of course, have to be sedated, and although there are other ways to do it, this would be the fastest.”

No, no, no.

“I-I can do it. Of course.” He sounds unsure, but I know that won’t stop him. “The child, what will happen to the child?” I guess he’s not as big of a monster as I thought. My mind is numb to what I am hearing.

They want to impregnate me.

No, they want to rape me and implant a child in me, which they will use as a test-tube baby.

“It will become the next step of my research. The first one or two always have mistakes, but Nova is in her prime, as are you, so we have plenty of time to get it right.”

Annie, he’s talking about Annie. Calling her a mistake.

I’m almost sick at the implication of what he’s saying.

He’s going to force me to breed children for him to experiment on.

My eyes snap open, but the men are too focused on each other. My head is turned to face them, my cheek pressed to the metal table. A tray, as usual, is next to the metal table, ready for his next sick experiment.

I can tell by his face he means it. He’ll do it.

Oh, God, no.

I’m numb and cold as he turns and finds me awake. I can see his mouth moving, but his words don’t register. Other doctors join us, and my head turns to look up at the ceiling. Something cold touches my stomach, but I still don’t move or make a noise. I can’t or I’ll scream.

Or I’ll break.

Something sharp pierces my stomach and starts to drag, causing red-hot agony to shoot through me.

They are cutting me open.

It’s like everything snaps back into place, and the noise in the room comes rushing back with the agony. Air fills my lungs with a gasp. I lie here as he cuts me open, and when he turns back, I stare at the man I thought I couldn’t hate more but do.

Looking into his eyes, I know he’ll do it. He will force him to breed with me or worse. I can’t have that. I won’t. I will not become a vessel for his sick games. That child would be a pin cushion, tortured and ripped apart like me. I will not put another person through what I went through, but I cannot stop him. I’m weak, powerless . . .

Or so he thinks, but he doesn’t understand the lengths I will go to in order to stop this and make sure it never happens to another, even at the risk of my own body.

He will never get my womb or get a child from me.

I’ll make sure of it, even if it ruins me for life or kills me.

It’s better than the alternative.

There is a table next to me holding the hot sealing prong they use to cauterise my wounds. I don’t think, just act. Grabbing the red end of the prong when he looks away, I slam it into myself, into my open stomach wound, screaming in agony. My skin is on fire, and the pain courses through me, but I carry on. I fight them off when they try to pull me away. It’s only when I start to pass out that they manage to rip it from me, but I know the damage is already done.

I smile shakily as I begin to die.

That wasn’t my aim though. My womb is ruined. I smile at him. “Now you’ll never get what you want. Now you will never get my children.”

Then, once more, everything goes dark.

I welcome it like an old friend.