L.L. Foster - The Awakening

The girl whined and sniveled, drawing forth a modicum of sympathy—but not nearly enough to thwart plans already in the works. The doctor tightened latex-covered fingers in her hair. Surgical gloves came in handy for hiding fingerprints, and adding extra traction to a grip.

"Don't you understand? Gaby Cody has to go before she ruins everything. And you're going to help me. Crying about it won't change anything."

Between meager, gasping breaths, the girl pleaded, " Please …"

The laugh came without humor. "You're beseeching me for pity?" The fist tightened, snapping off hairs, pulling at the scalp so that whimpers turned to hysterical squeals.

But here, deep in the woods, no one would know.

No one would come.

No one would care.

"Stupid child. Your wishes mean nothing to me. There are grander purposes at play here beyond your pathetic life."

"Oh God—"

A harsh slap cut off the prayer. "Enough."

As a red-welted handprint rose, the girl gulped down her noisy pathos.

Uncaring if she understood or not, the doctor verbalized concerns. "Attempts to get rid of the cop haven't worked—because of Gaby, Instead of the officer keeping Gaby safe, it was the other way around."

The doctor paced—and dragged the girl along with each step.

"I need you to ensure that neither Gaby nor the cop will breach my dedicated plans. They can't trespass where I work. They can't hinder my sacred experiments." Stopping, the doctor drew the girl up. "They absolutely cannot meddle with scientific medicine."

After Gaby had damn near blundered onto a disposal in the woods, further experiments had been halted. It didn't matter that the disposal had been necessary and right. Anyone could see that the cancer had run amok and decimated all functioning brain cells.

But a woman like Gaby Cody wouldn't see it that way.

She wouldn't understand that the host body had become too unpredictable, too loud and unstable.

Someone like Gaby, a simple woman instead of a brilliant doctor, would never accept that it was best—even humane—to remove all life from the skeletal remains that had once been a person.

Remembering infuriated the doctor to a dangerous degree. Both fists tangled in the girl's hair, wrenching her head back, sending hot salty tears to leak down her bloodless cheeks.

" No more interference can be tolerated ."

Wracking tremors coursed through the girl. "Okay," she whispered. "Please. I'll do whatcha want. I swear I will."

"Of course. I believe you." The grip softened. Fingers brushed the girl's pallid skin, moved over her quivering lips, swollen and damp. She was plump and round, with so much lush flesh to feed, to breed… In other circumstances, she'd have made a great addition to the experiments. "Hush now. Hush."

Sobbing, she didn't fight the doctor's embrace, and obediently put her head atop a comforting shoulder when guided to do so. "You're destined for great things, child. You'll be assisting in an exalted scientific breakthrough against diseases, a puissant force in the scheme of future life and death."

But first, Gaby Cody had to go.

"Now, listen carefully to what I want you to do. If you do everything exactly right, I might let you live."

The girl collapsed to her knees, nodding, sniveling.

"If you falter, if you in any way break from my instruction, I'll make you regret it more than you can even imagine."

Gaby watched the byplay in the car with interest. The guy had his eyes closed and his head back—and his slacks around his knees.

Huh. So this was what that rapist had hoped to do to the girl? Only the girl hadn't been willing, and this whore, given her squirming and enthusiastic slurping, categorically was. Her head bobbed and Gaby heard the most obnoxious sounds.

Her stomach lurched.

Then her muscles tightened.

Suddenly the driver opened his eyes and saw her. At first, he went still in shock, and then in a flurry of motion he shoved the whore away and tried to readjust his pants.

Gaby barely saw him. Drawn inward, she focused on an increasing, familiar pain.

A calling .

Finally.

Just as the last few had, this summons came on her with the force of a tsunami. She needed privacy. She needed time to accept and welcome the anguish that would guide her.

Through the recesses of her mind, she heard the man shouting. "What the fuck is wrong with you, lady?"

Everything.

Gaby shook her head and managed to move her legs enough to back away. She could see, but only in tunnel vision, directly ahead of her, and what she saw was a very angry male who'd had his pleasure interrupted.

Tough. If he didn't back off, and quick, she'd lay him low by habit, and then the poor schmuck would know real agony. When Gaby put a man down, he tended to stay down for a while.

"Get lost," Gaby tried to tell him.

"You interrupted me, bitch. If you wanted to join, you should have asked. Otherwise—"

Gaby took one more step away from the fuming man, ready to brace for an attack.

She bumped into something hard.

Something familiar.

Strong arms went around her. Oh shit .

"Luther?"

"Shhh. I've got you."

He really did. He had her hook, line, and sinker and she might as well quit fighting it. Even now, with Luther close, the pain became manageable. His effect on her was such that even in the grip of a calling, her vision expanded, her senses opened to her surroundings instead of her inward torment.

Somehow, some way, Luther clarified things.

Into the line of Gaby's vision came Luther's arm, muscles bunched, knuckles white. "You." He pointed at the man in front of Gaby. "Back off right now."

The man didn't. "Just who the hell are you?"

"Detective Luther Cross."

"Oh." The man backpedaled. "Hey, I didn't know. I was minding my own business when—"

His voice a mean snarl, Luther shoved him farther back and said, "Get in your car, and drive ."

"Right. Sure." The man hesitated, eyeing Gaby with the same fascination he might give a strange animal in the zoo. "Is she fucked up in the head or something?"

Gaby would have flattened the man for that, but Luther reached for him first. Using only his left arm—because his right still held her—he hauled the man up to his tiptoes and rattled his brains.

Poor Luther. He seemed as much in the grip of an overpowering force as Gaby herself. Not wanting him to suffer the same lack of control, Gaby collected herself enough to stop him. "He's not worth it, Luther. You know that."

Luther paused. She heard his deeply indrawn breath, then watched as he shoved the idiot away, sending him to sprawl backward on the sidewalk.

Gaby smirked as the man scuttled up and into his car with prodigious haste. "Jerk."

Luther's hands cupped her face and he looked at her. "You're okay?"

Oddly enough, the pain blanched, then neutralized as if faded away. Never had that happened before. "I don't know. I don't understand."

Grim with rage, Luther caught her arm. "Come on."

"No." Gaby meant to shout it, but the word emerged as a breathless whisper. She couldn't just go. Something was happening—or had happened. Why else would she have had the call, only to have the summons ripped away?

Damn it, she wanted to fight. She wanted to be sent after the evil.

Regaining more strength by the moment, she wrenched her arm away from Luther.

He crowded into her and pushed her up against a parked truck. "Do you want to go at it right here, Gaby? Right now? With everyone watching to see? You want to kick my ass? Fine. Let's go, lady."

"What are you talking about?" Gaby didn't give a shit who watched, but surely Luther did. For crying out loud, he was an officer of the law. He couldn't go slugging it out with women in the street.