Sixty-Five

“Alex, what have you been hiding from me? Please, think right, because I want a straight answer.” He called me Alex. I tensed against Vlad. I was still conveniently sitting on his lap, and whatever I was chewing got stuck in my throat, and I had to gulp on my coffee to help it down as I raised my eyes to his Stoic face.
“What do you mean?” I tried to sound as sheepish as possible. He was onto something, and to my doom, he hinted nothing to me. I didn’t even know what to say or where to start. “I’m not hiding anything. Why the question?” I let myself out of Vlad’s grasp and looked at him. His face was exactly like dad’s, and at that moment I felt like a bad kid caught red-handed.
“Let me illuminate yourself, pumpkin!” The sarcastic tone he used to say pumpkin triggered a shiver across my spine, up to my neck, raising all the hairs there. “Maier Pharms, ring any bell?” He crossed his arms over his broad chest as my eyes widened and I leaned on the sink counter to hold myself up, looking from him to Vlad, both staring at me like vultures. And I was the dead meat.
“Have you forgotten to share a secret with me, dragă? You’ve just got my curiosity. I’m listening.” I hated those calm and composed tones they were speaking to me when it was clear they were waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They knew they had me cornered and savored my guilt and discomfort. “Anton? What’s this place Liz forgot to tell us about?” I’m gonna kill him!
“It’s a lab, not big. They have a poor reputation, for their unethical ways of experimenting, old friend. And as it seems, our girl here infiltrated herself there, forgetting to even tell her boss. How interesting is that?” He leaned back in the chair, his eyes piercing me like a dagger. Man, he knew how to get under someone’s skin. He knew my breaking point as I felt the air surrounding me charging. “Alex, watch it!” It was his only warning.
“But… how? How do you know?” My voice trembled, and I averted my gaze from them. There was no escape for me now.
“You of all people should know. Didn’t you think I’d have my rats working for me on MY domain, Alex?” He narrowed his eyes on me even more, and I had to meet his furious gaze. “Did you think I’m that stupid? And before you think to keep lying to us, maybe this will change your mind.” My father reached for his waistband and put my dagger on the table. My heart didn’t beat in my chest anymore. It sped like a car in a rally from hell.
“Ok, ok! Enough with this torture!” I gritted out. “After years of unfruitful research, I got fed up and concluded my hacking skills weren’t good enough, so for a few months I dove deep into the hacking field, absorbing everything I could like a sponge. It was only then I managed to come across my file inside the agency, not my regular file though, another in a secret compartment of their computers.” I let go at once, breathing hard. I held to the border of the sink counter until I felt my knuckles hurt, and once more I averted their gazes. They made me feel like a nasty microbe under a microscope.
“Keep going…” both said at once, unnerving.
“My name was there Alexandra Stela Brož/Alexandra Blake. There were all kinds of reports about me, but the most important, under my family information there was a name, and it wasn’t yours.” I delivered without facing them.
They got me. It didn’t matter if I told them or not, Anton knew something and I didn’t know to what extent, so it’d be better I tell at once and see what info he had on the case. Patrick Blake was the doctor and scientist who took care of all the agents, and I liked him until six months ago when I put my eyes on the truth. He was a nice man, always treated me differently from the others with an extra touch of kindness and care. Now I knew the reason. That piece of shit was my biological father! He knew it all along since the first day I set foot in that place! That traitor didn’t know who he messed with!
“Alex, this is serious. You should have told me, we had a deal. You get into the program, but you hide nothing from me!” He raked his fingers through his short, reddish brown hair. “I trusted you!” With time, he got efficient at sending people to the guilty lane.
“Sorry, I didn’t think it would come to this!” I yelled, going pale. I hated lying to him. “I didn’t want you to get hurt and think I was betraying you because I was looking for that asshole.” Things in the kitchen started vibrating, and that wasn’t a good sign.
“Calm down, you need to breathe.” Dad’s voice came from afar.
I inhaled lungs full of air, but it did nothing to help me ease. I got so pissed at everyone over the agency and lab that I hacked the place from ground to roof, making a clean sweep to their systems and files. Nothing was left unchecked. It was then I came across a program, and Blake was in charge of it. They recruited people like me and enhanced our talents with some freak’s blood. My biological father injected me with that crap five years ago without thinking twice. But the project always got nowhere. The blood alone did nothing to us. They had samples of the blood and I needed to get my hands on it.
I had to get in the lab and, to my luck, a nursing position open for only a week. It was my chance, and I didn’t waste it. Nurse Bailey was born. A day before they released me from the job, I left the window of the research office unlocked. That night I went back, breaking into security, messing with their cameras and sneaking in the lab through the fences. I glided to the location so the alarms wouldn’t go off. Then, I called the little vial to me once I was outside the window. Not to raise suspicion, I worked on my last day. My father and Vlad stared at me, their faces a grimace, and I told them everything since there was no hiding anymore.
“Give me his name, Alex. The freak with the blood.” Anton filled me in when I looked at him, confused. The humorless tone didn’t give me space to argue with him.
“Lucard Udar, some weird name, maybe foreign… but somehow it sounds familiar to me. I found nothing on this creep, it’s as if he doesn’t exist.” They exchange a severe look. “I’m not the only one hiding shit around here.” I growled between my teeth.
“You’re the one under scrutiny, you don’t get a say.” He glared at me.
“I said sorry already. I was trying to spare you!” Control was slipping from me, not because of them, but the anger I was feeling toward the ones who betrayed me in such a pitiful way.
“I don’t need saving, Alex. I know how to protect myself, I’ve been doing it for centuries.”
“How would I know you were like him? You lied to me!” I yelled with contempt, signaling to Vlad. Who to that point only observed my father roasting me.
“Dragă, watch it! We just need to know what we are up against. What else do you know?”
I turned to the sink, my stomach in knots. I felt my body charging and I could do nothing to stop it. On the last day of my job, I bumped into someone and I didn’t recall who he was, but he did recognize me. He thought I didn’t notice. That same week, they sent me to a far place for a month on a case, and when I came back, the guy who would help me run some tests on the blood had vanished.
“Did you bump into Jack? That other punk?”
“Yes, he was so different from when I met him for the first time. He was the one frying my ass in that cabin, and the one who made the sweep in my house. I only recognized him because of the scar. I’m gonna kill him!” The scream resounded through the walls. My eyes glowed, and there was static everywhere. Vlad ran to me, but I didn’t mean to send him flying across the kitchen when he touched me. By that point, I had no control over my powers anymore.
Before I exploded everything, dad got to me, bringing me to him in a tight embrace. When I thought I would also send him flying, a bright light enveloped us as he took the brunt and absorbed my energy, leaving me depleted. Last I saw, Vlad stared at Anton, appalled from the floor, and I fell limp on his chest.
“I’m sorry, dad. Sorry I broke our deal. I didn’t mean it in a bad way.” Sobs shook me.
“It’s okay, Alex.” He comforted me, holding me tight to him, because if he let go, I’d fall. My knees would give out under my body.
“I have a guess why their experiments didn’t work, they injected me with the shit, and I’ve never felt different, but I think they missed the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde element.” I mumbled to him.
“And what’s that, pumpkin?” He whispered to me, taking my sweaty hair out of my cold and ashen face.
“My talents have been growing since they fried me!”
“I think it’s more to the Frankenstein element, then.” He chuckled, and I tried to laugh, but it hurt. “Are you okay, Vlad?” he asked when he walked to us, massaging his head.
“I’m fine, Anton. Let me take her to her room, I’ll care for her now.” He got me in his arms and that was the last I saw. Darkness swallowed me.