As June turned the corner, Dr. Chase stood in the entryway to the building. When he saw her, he waved and casually walked forward with his hands in his pockets, still dressed like a human Sharpie marker. But other things were different about him now. He seemed to walk taller, his shoulders straighter. He retained the face of a goblin however, and right now that goblin-like face wore a broad, smug smile.
“Oh, hello June,” he called down the hallway. His accent sounded different—no longer British, but something that June couldn’t place. South African? New Zealand, maybe?
June heard several sets of feet approaching behind her and grimaced. Brendan stood at her elbow, while Cordelia and Aunt Violet stopped a few feet behind her. They should have fled.
“Well, it looks like everyone is here, together,” Dr. Chase said. “One big, happy family. A tad surprising, but we can make that work.” He did a little scoot and hip thrust, almost like he was dancing. What a weirdo. He entered the hallway from the atrium and paused.
“Hartford? What are you doing here?” Cordelia called back.
“This may be our fault,” Brendan replied. “He helped us, sort of. And he knows about June. Plus she ate all his meat.”
“It’s him,” June said over her shoulder.
“Him what?” Brendan asked.
“I see only you have figured me out, June,” Dr. Chase called, grinning wickedly. “I always knew you were clever. Oh well. The rest of you still don’t know what to make of me, do you?” He slipped into his familiar British accent and stuttered, “Oh dear, dear me, June, whatever shall we do? Oh, you ate all my meat! Oh, you’re a monster!” He chuckled to himself.
Never taking her eyes off Dr. Chase, June said, “He’s the demon!”
Brendan exhaled sharply.
“There you go again with the outlandish statements, June. I told you at Violet’s house that word is entirely uncalled for. Such a harsh term, isn’t it?
“My house?” Aunt Violet said from behind June. “Why were you at my house, Hartford?”
“I wouldn’t worry your pretty little head about that, Violet, you see, you’re—”
“Give me Mr. Moseley!” June roared. Dr. Chase seemed entirely too unconcerned about her despite having seen what she could do to Dolph and Rudolph. Well, not everything that she could do to them, but still. Giant snake or not, he could underestimate her at his own risk.
Dr. Chase strode to his office door and put a hand on his chest in a gesture of forgetfulness. “Of course, you were so concerned about finding him. Where are my manners. You tell me where the research on the serum is located, and I’ll tell you where to find Mr. Moseley.”
“No,” June snarled, “you tell me where to find Mr. Moseley or I''ll kill you slowly.” She narrowed her eyes and smiled. “I already killed your henchmen.”
Dr. Chase gaped at her and then clutched his stomach with both hands, doubling over in laughter. When he raised his head again, his eyes glistened with moisture. “Good heavens, I bet that made for a humorous sight. How I would have loved to be a fly on the wall. Those two muppets couldn’t have found their own way out of a sack. Tell me, June, did you eat them?” He grinned devilishly.
June hit the brick wall to her right with a fist; brick dust puffed into the air and the impact even vibrated through the tile floor.
“Now, now, no temper tantrums. Fine, Mr. Moseley is right here, at the lab, with us. As is the serum, in fact.” He straightened an arm palm up and wiggled his fingers in a give it to me gesture. “And the research?”
June paused and listened, straining her ears in every direction and hearing no one beyond the hallway. There couldn’t be anyone else in the building.
“Liar!” she said.
“June, my goodness, why would you ever doubt my veracity?”
June growled and took a step forward, then felt Cordelia grab her from behind.
“He’s not lying, June,” Cordelia said. “We need to run, right now.”
“Cordelia, look at you sticking up for me,” Dr. Chase said. “It almost makes me regret what I have to do tonight. Almost. But even with, oh, seven meals in the last week, I still have plenty of room in the old belly to fit everybody if need be, and after that, I’ll require quite the nap to aid digestion.”
June had a sickening realization at the number seven, and nausea returned to her with a vengeance. Earlier that morning, the detective had listed six people who went missing. But another person had disappeared today. “You ate Mr. Moseley,” she said and waited, hoping he would deny it.
“The police arrived so quickly, and I couldn’t take my time to savor the meal—I had to really gulp him down. Hurried eating is not just terrible manners; it also leads to a spot of gastrointestinal distress. I did tell you this morning that the day’s events had my stomach in a bit of a twist, now didn’t I? I spent most of the morning burping up the fellow.”
June slouched and sucked in quick, shallow breaths. The hallway threatened to turn into a dark pit and pull her down. All this time, she’d thought Mr. Moseley would be okay, that she could find him and rescue him. And Cordelia had been right from the very start.
“The research?” Dr. Chase prodded.
“I destroyed it,” June answered, still fighting against despair.
Dr. Chase scowled.
“Choke on that, demon!” Brendan yelled.
If June’s eyes didn’t deceive her, Dr. Chase’s cheeks turned an angry red.
“Ah yes, the little lovesick sidekick,” he said with his eyes on Brendan. “I’ll be eating you first, though you look about as satisfying as iceberg lettuce.”
“You’re the only one dying tonight, old chap!” Brendan called back. “And I’m going to rub all the buttons in your precious car with my feet!”
Dr. Chase snorted angrily, while his comment about eating Brendan echoed through June’s head. She had lost Mr. Moseley, but nothing on earth would take Brendan from her. Anger, red and frothing, coursed through her veins, overwhelming her grief.
June stepped forward, extending her claws. “Now you pay for what you did, Dr. Chase. I’m going to—”
“Now, June,” Dr. Chase interrupted, “there is no need for that.” He held his hands up defensively. “Mr. Moseley didn’t suffer, if it’s any consolation. I didn’t mind the chap, as far as things went. And I truly meant it when I said you are exceptional. You’re unlike any Shifter I’ve encountered, and do you know why that is?”
June angled her head, so Dr. Chase opened his mouth to continue.
“Stop it, Hartford,” Cordelia interrupted in a shrill voice.
“Cordelia, do yourself a favor and sit quietly for once. Let June hear for herself and decide what she wants to do with her life and her gift.”
June perked up when he said “gift.”
Dr. Chase focused back on her. “We’re not so different, you and me. A Shifter transforms into a single species; they are never a conglomeration of different things. What species do you Shift into, exactly?”
June glared at him. She still didn’t know exactly what she was.
“Precisely. And another thing—would you mind holding up a claw for me?”
“With pleasure,” June answered, putting her paws in a position to strike, claws extended, and crouching so she could bound down the hallway at him.
Dr. Chase sighed. “June, I urge you to reconsider this misplaced hostility and let me finish. It would be a shame if I had to kill you. I really don’t want to. I think the Grandfather would be extremely interested in you.”This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
June paused. Who or what was the Grandfather?
“Simply put, your claws and teeth are too long for any feline species. Things about you are grotesque, June—no offense meant, of course—and I bet you have quite a struggle not killing everything you—”
“Hartford!” Cordelia screamed. “Stop!”
“This is the last time I will warn you not to interrupt me, Cordelia,” Dr. Chase hissed. “June, I suspect that mother dearest has not really told you the truth about my kind. We’ve been given many names and titles of honor throughout history, but it seems you’ve only heard us described as demons. Such a hateful term, and I do not acknowledge it.”
“If the shoe fits,” June replied.
“Tsk, tsk, let’s follow the logic about you to its conclusion, shall we? You are not a single animal species, your claws and teeth are horribly, unnaturally long, and you struggle with bloodlust, do you not? Therefore, you are not a Shifter, but you can transform. Hmm. You must be—”
“No!” Cordelia wailed. “No!”
Dr. Chase smiled. He seemed to genuinely enjoy the sound. “I hypothesize”—he winked at June—“that this serum you have been diligently searching for must have had some unintended effects. The answer to my question, why you are unlike any Shifter I’ve encountered, is because dear old mum made you one of us, June. Welcome to the club.”
June stood upright. Surely he couldn’t be right. She did struggle to control her claws, but still. She didn’t crave human flesh; she had never eaten a person. She wasn’t hideous, like some kind of nightmare, was she?
“Oh yes, my dear,” Dr. Chase went on. “You are one of us, June, as surely as if you’d been granted some of Grandfather’s blood and eaten your weight in school children. The puzzling thing to me in all this is why you’ve been so panicked all week, Cordelia, searching for a mistake. I fail to see any errors here.”
June didn’t answer—she was looking at her claws as if seeing just how long they were for the first time. Cordelia whimpered behind her.
“How did an idiot like you find out about the serum in the first place?” Brendan yelled.
“Such impudence. I’ll answer that question, for your sake, June, not for the boy’s cheek. We’ve had our eye on your mum since she was a girl. She comes from noble stock, after all, and we can’t afford to ignore them. As she grew, you can imagine our curiosity at seeing her flee from The Flood”—he made a throat-clearing noise—“Honestly, I can’t hardly say that name with a straight face. Quite ridiculous. Anyway, our curiosity was piqued at seeing mother dearest surface again as a geneticist. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to deduce she had a bit of hereditary remorse and had set out to do something about it.”
Cordelia made a strangled groan, and June glanced back at her just as Dr. Chase laughed; it sounded very much like a “Mwuahaha.” Brendan, eyes nearly popping out of his head at the sound, whispered to June, “I told you bad guys laugh like that!”
Leaning nonchalantly against the glass wall opposite his closed office door, Dr. Chase continued. “Eventually, I decided to come here for a spell to see what exactly your mother was up to, since I am quite the brilliant mind in my own right—I’ve been studying the sciences for almost a thousand years, after all!” He waved a hand at her as if refusing a compliment. “I know, I know, you don’t even need to say it, I hardly look a day over thirty-five. But flattery aside, being here seemed quite a waste of my valuable time. All of Cordelia’s research was perfectly ordinary.
“But then, just under a week ago, your mother came in like a haunted woman, talking to herself about eyes changing color, and she and Dr. Langley began to collaborate feverishly on something that very day. Imagine my great surprise at discovering that something was a serum she had given to you, and my great delight learning what it had done to you. My precious time had not been wasted here in Seven Falls after all, and once I had this serum and her research, I would gain something of infinite value—the ability to make more of my kind, at my own whim.”
June raised her eyebrows. That’s what this was all about? The murdered people, the robbery of the lab—all so Dr. Chase could make more demons? Not if I kill him first, she thought, and compressed her lips in grim resolve.
Dr. Chase misunderstood her facial expression for some kind of interest. “You see, I’ve been trying for hundreds of years to figure out how to create other demons without the Grandfather’s involvement—he’s far too slow and discriminating for my own tastes. But my progress was uneven at best, and you’ve done me the favor of eliminating my last two embarrassing failures.
“Do you know, until this week, I had to travel to other towns, at a woefully inadequate rate, to get a good meal. But once it became apparent what your mum had done, the end of my mission was in sight, and I was free to begin feeding without restraint. This town has delicious residents, I must say, especially the children.” He paused, and June felt a wave of sorrow—in a way, her eyes changing color had been the catalyst that resulted in at least seven people being murdered. “Of courssse,” he continued in a mock-hissing voice, “I had sssome help in making my dissscovery.”
“The snakes,” June growled.
“Yes, yes, the snakes! Very useful spies, and handy in a pinch to open locked doors from the inside.”
Aunt Violet gasped, which elicited another smile from Dr. Chase.
“They’re quite resourceful when given proper instructions,” he said. “I might be biased, but I find snakes to be a truly superior species, don’t you, Violet?”
June stood as broadly as she could to cover the people behind her from Dr. Chase’s view. His pulse beat steady—he really didn’t fear her. It struck her that a day ago Michael Lark had underestimated her, to his detriment. That fight had seemed like such a monumental event, but now she’d killed two demons and was preparing to fight a third. What a difference twenty-four hours could make. The thought of vengeance lifted one side of her mouth.
“What happens now?” June asked, to keep Dr. Chase talking. Behind her back, she motioned toward the door to the lab, hoping one of the three would take the hint and start moving to safety behind the shatterproof glass.
Dr. Chase, presumably seeing her faint smile, beamed at her. “I’m glad you asked, June. I knew you would be sensible. With that research gone, I think the most expedient path forward is to take your mum to a lab that I control so she can reproduce the serum under watchful eyes. As such, she’ll be around as long as she remains useful. And as I said before, you have nothing to fear. I’ll show you the ropes, take you under my protection. In time, I’ll introduce you to the Grandfather, as I’m sure he will take great interest in you—”
“Who?” June cut in.
“The Grandfather.”
June looked at him blankly.
“Haven’t you been listening? Did your mother teach you nothing?” Dr. Chase put a hand to his forehead in exasperation. “Really, I would expect more from you, Cordelia. Where to even start? He is the precursor to our race, a literal grandfather. He is as ancient as time itself. He fought wars before mankind formed from dust. Although he can be a bit prickly, that one, and you really have to watch your tongue with him.” He cupped his chin and examined Aunt Violet. “As for Dr. Langley here, she might be useful in assisting your mother. She does love snakes, too, which is definitely a point of favor in my book. And having human familiars isn’t unheard of.” Dr. Chase nodded briskly. “Yes, I think I’ll keep her around as my familiar.”
June heard Aunt Violet’s heart hammering inside her chest. “And Brendan?” she asked, motioning and pointing to the lab behind her back again. She continued to make herself as large as possible to obscure them from Dr. Chase’s view.
“Do you think I don’t know what you’re trying to do over there, June? How conveniently you’ve blocked everyone from my view? How your shoulder and arm twitch periodically while your hand is behind your back? That door won’t keep me out.”
June turned to face Brendan, Aunt Violet, and Cordelia. “Get inside now! Lock and barricade the door—”
“You can’t fight him,” Cordelia pleaded. “None of us can. We have to run.”
“She’s quite right,” Dr. Chase called down the hallway.
“You can’t fight him here,” June said. “It’s too confined. But I can. I’m made for close range, and whatever snake-thing he is, I’m faster. And we can’t escape now—he’d catch us before we could get everyone out. I have to fight—it’s our only chance of surviving.”
Aunt Violet just stared at her. Brendan gave June a firm nod and his eyes sparkled. “She’s right, Ms. Robinson. June can do it. Trust her.”
He gently took Aunt Violet by the elbow and steered her toward the lab door.
Cordelia opened her mouth to protest, looked at June, and something changed in her expression. “I can’t stop you, can I?”
“No.”
“Go for his heart, June,” she said, her eyes filling with tears. “I’ll protect Violet and Brendan.” Though the lab was just a dozen feet away, it felt like they moved at a snail’s pace. June whipped back to face Dr. Chase.
“How very touching that all was,” he said, wiping at his eye as if he was crying. “But June, fighting me means you are refusing my generous terms. I strongly urge you to reconsider.”
“What happens to Brendan?” June asked.
“He has to die, of course. We can’t leave him alive to go yammering on about shapeshifting and such. But honestly, my dear, why do you even keep him around?”
June fought back a snarl. He thought he could just kill Brendan and she’d allow it? The fire inside her burned hotter. But she needed to keep him talking until everyone was inside the lab. “He can be my familiar.”
“What? Oh my, that’s rich,” Dr. Chase said and broke into a deep chuckle. “No, it doesn’t work that way, June.”
The lab door clicked shut behind her. June exhaled. Now she could attack. Now she could kill.
“You see,” Dr. Chase droned on, “I carry the title of the Fifth, June, which is quite an accomplishment considering how young I am. You, however, don’t have any rank. Only the Elevated have the freedom to take a familiar.”
June, in the process of dropping back down to all fours—better for closing the distance between them—paused. Cordelia hadn’t mentioned any kind of demon organizational structure. “Did you say the elevator?”
Dr. Chase’s shoulders sagged, and he rubbed his temples like he had a headache. “What in the eight levels of torment—you are the daughter of a Flood and you don’t know? What has this woman been teaching, or rather not teaching, you? The Elevated, my dear, are the six most powerful of our kind.”
“Then if I killed you, would I become one of the Elated?”
The jovial air left Dr. Chase and his eyebrows bent downward at a dangerous angle. “You are talking disrespectfully about things that you do not understand, June, and you cannot possibly kill me. If you try, I will cripple you and make you watch while I eat the boy. His death will be slow and painful. Then I will dine on you.”
June studied the hallway. Dr. Chase stood next to his door, and she was just past Cordelia’s. Only a few hundred feet separated them. She could be at his throat in an instant. But then she heard the lab door open behind her. Why was someone coming back out?
Dr. Chase shrugged. “I see you are dead set on a poor choice. This is terribly unsatisfactory. I suppose you should really see what you’re up against—”
“Behind you! The police are here!” Brendan yelled at the top of his lungs, followed by quick footsteps, and then the door to the lab shut again.
Dr. Chase didn’t turn to look, and he didn’t even move, except to leer at her. His eyes burned. “Does that boy take me for a fool? Honestly. Now, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, it’s time you see what you are up against, June.”
And with that, he exploded.