Redemption (Stand-Alone, Spin-Off to Reaper Series), page 14
Javan was watching her in silence, a sad look upon his face, though Davies was all but laughing as he clapped Javan on the back.
“Javan, you’re unbelievable!” he chortled. “I thought you were crazy at the benefit, but look at this! You did it! And you’re certain you can isolate her DNA ?”
“Of course,” Javan said, the sadness wiping away from his face as he turned to look at Davies. “We already have, which is how we were able to humanize her. With Eve’s continued help, my team can produce a serum that will allow humanity to become immortal. And we can use your company to administer the serum to the populace.”
Davies was grinning from ear to ear. “Amazing! This is gonna be worth a fortune! Not just a fortune, all the money in the goddamned world! You’re a smart man for coming to me with this. Davco Pharmaceuticals can handle global distribution of this drug, no problem. And think about it! We can charge whatever we want for this stuff! Ten-thousand, one-hundred-thousand, Hell, even a flat one-million! People will pay it! Seriously, what price do you put on immortality?”
“Just as soon as you sign those documents,” Javan pointed out. “Then my team will produce and yours can begin distribution.”
“No problem, buddy, no problem at all,” Davies grinned.
“And we become equal owners in Davco Pharmaceuticals,” Javan said, seemingly as a reminder.
Davies clapped Javan on the shoulder again. “Whatever you want! Even fifty percent of a fortune is a fortune! And for eternity, mind you! Just tell me where to sign.”
Javan gestured to the door. “If you go find Lilith, she has the contracts. Your lawyer already looked over them?”
“Sure did, and he’s as happy for me to sign as I am! I’ll do it right now, you wait right here, I’ll be back and we can celebrate!”
Davies turned and walked out of the room without giving Eve a second look, still grinning like he just won the lottery. Once he was gone, Javan sighed and crossed his arms, regarding Eve with sadness once more.
“I’m truly sorry, Eve,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be like this. I wanted you to be willing. I never wanted to do this to you.”
“My brother is going to kill you,” Eve whispered, still with her face turned away.
Javan shook his head. “He can’t. You said it yourself. Angels can’t interfere with human affairs. Regardless of the details you were willing bend the rules for, he won’t do anything to me.”
“Why?” Eve asked softly, finally turning to look Javan in the eyes. At the sight of her tears, Javan rose his hand, like he wanted to reach out and comfort her, but he stopped and slowly pulled his hand back, clearly thinking better of it. “Why?” Eve repeated. “Why did you do this to me?”
“It was the only way,” Javan sighed. “I needed Angel DNA to create a serum that could be administered to the human population. DNA from a live Angel. The dead one in the lab was producing poor results. But with your help, I can save humanity from itself.”
“And who’ll save it from you?” Eve demanded.
Javan shook his head. “I’m not a monster, Eve. I know it doesn’t seem like that now, but it’s true. I want to help humanity. Have you not been watching humanity for the last millennia, as I have? The world is full of tyrants. They all hunger for something. Money, power, they all want something and they are willing to destroy others for it. Brutes have risen to power, and not just dictators. All of them. Presidents, Kings, Queens, world leaders all over the globe. They buy their seats of power with lies and false promises, or ride their bloodline of tyranny, only to then sell their influence to the highest bidder. They start wars under the pretense of liberty and justice, while they truly seek only resources. Oil, uranium, gold, things that are only valuable because those in power say they are. The world no longer belongs to the people, it belongs to corporations. To greed. But when I make people immortal, only those who truly deserve it, then I will have made way for the world to begin anew. We can start over, Eve. All of humanity. We can start fresh. We were innocent, in the beginning. Until my influence. I know what I did, Eve. And I have lived with the guilt of it ever since, I wasn’t lying to you about that. I brought humanity the greed that now plagues it, all because I wanted what I didn’t have. I wanted power. I wanted control. I wanted everyone to follow me. To stand behind me as I showed them the way to the future. But I was wrong. I took the first step that brought us to this world as it currently stands. But… With your help, I can lead us back. I can get us back on the path that was originally set out before us. You gave me knowledge because you wanted to save my species. Well, now we can. You have to see that, Eve. I’m only trying to help.”
“You took my wings,” Eve said flatly, a tear silently rolling down her cheek and over her chin. “You took my identity. I’m not an Angel anymore.”
“You are!” Javan said emphatically, almost pleading. “Your Angel DNA is still alive inside you. The serum you were injected with only inhibits it. You remember me telling you that humans and Angels are alike? The chemical you were injected with only prevents those additional DNA functions from working, but keeps them intact. It acts as a barrier, stopping the Angelic side of you from being able to manifest. You’re an Angel on the inside. But now you can understand the human struggle from a perspective no Angel has ever experienced before. And you can see that what I do, I do for the good of humanity.”
At that moment, the door swung open again and Davies strolled into the room, still grinning widely.
“All signed away, my boy!” he announced, snatching Javan’s hand and pumping it up and down enthusiastically. “Congratulations! You’re now a fifty-percent owner of Davco Pharmaceuticals.”
“Excellent,” Javan said, a grim smile on his face.
Suddenly, with absolutely no warning, Javan grabbed hold of Davies’ head in both hands and twisted. There was a sickening crack and then Davies’ head was facing the wrong direction, Javan having spun it almost completely around. Eve cried out in shock the moment Javan had broken Davies’ neck, but it was already too late. Davies’ eyes bulged in their sockets, but he was dead instantly. The moment Javan let him go, Davies’ body dropped to the floor like a sack of well-dressed rice.
“Why did you do that!?” Eve cried, pulling against her restraints once more, but wincing in pain as they chafed her already raw wrists.
“Davies was a pawn,” Javan said simply. “He is one of the type of men I was just speaking about. You heard him before. Wanting to charge hundreds-of-thousands of dollars for immortality. Money is not what this is about! I have money, and I despise it. It serves no purpose but to drive people apart. Now, with Davies having signed the contracts before his… sudden death… I am the sole owner of Davco Pharmaceuticals. Mr Davies’ share automatically transfers into my name in the event of his death, according to the contract he just signed. His lawyer was surprisingly easy to pay off. Davies never had the patience for reading contracts, always having his lawyer do it for him. Giving the lawyer a little payout was all it took to make sure Davies didn’t know about that little detail. And now that he’s dead, I have full control over what happens with the immortality serum. And it will be available to everyone.”
“You mean everyone you decide deserves it, right?” Eve accused. “And everyone else dies?”
“It’s a means to an end, Eve,” Javan replied. “In only a hundred years, no one will care about what I did. Just like no one will care about Davies in far less time than that. People will regard me as the savior of humanity.”
“Savior?” Eve scoffed. “Good to see you haven’t lost your humility over the years.”
“Humility is just admitting how egotistical you are,” Javan said dismissively.
“What makes you even think people will want immortality?” Eve demanded. “People are smart enough to know that there’d be problems. What about overpopulation? Outliving your loved ones? Angels were ready for it. We naturally evolved to immortality over trillions of years! We knew how to handle it. Humans aren’t ready!”
“Humanity has always been capable of deciding for itself,” Javan said. “Isn’t that why the Angels left them alone? To choose?”
Eve blanched at Javan’s comment. “How do you know that?” she asked. “That happened a long time after I thought you had died. How do you know why the Angels stepped back?”
Javan turned his head and glanced out the open door. Without responding to Eve’s question, he gestured to someone just out of sight, inviting them to come inside. As Eve turned her attention to the door, she saw Jack Rice enter, leering at her, his too-blue eyes gleaming at her. They seemed to glow brightly, like two neon lights. Jack stood over Davies’ body, not even giving it a moment of consideration, just continuing to leer at Eve. As though her pain and suffering amused him.
“Can you get rid of this, please?” Javan asked him, indicating Davies’ corpse. “And make it look like an accident. No need to have anyone asking uncomfortable questions. If you have any problems, you know the cops and judges on our payroll.”
Jack Rice nodded once, then bent down and heaved Davies up onto his shoulder. Davies was easily twice as heavy as Jack Rice was, but Jack seemed able to hold him up with no problem, easily strolling from the room as though the body on his shoulder weighed nothing.
“What is he?” Eve demanded. “He’s not human. He was in the Garden. He told me you were still alive. So just what the Hell is he?”
“Angels aren’t the only beings that can freely travel between worlds,” Javan said flatly. “Eve, I really wish I could stay, but I have a lot of work to do. There is a lot to prepare for, and my team needs to take some samples from you.”
“Hey!” Eve shouted as Javan began heading towards the door. “You stay right here! What samples? Hey!”
“Just try not to resist,” Javan said, pausing at the door to look back at Eve. “It’ll hurt less. I’m… I’m sorry.”
“Shove your sorry up your ass!” Eve spat. “Get back here! This isn’t right! What happened to you? You monster! You scumbag! Don’t you see how wrong what you’re doing is? Can’t you see it’s evil?”
Javan placed his hand on the doorframe, as though to stop himself from leaving the room. Barely glancing over his shoulder, he said solemnly, “I made peace with my demons a long time ago.”
The he walked away, vanishing through the door. Once he was gone, several people dressed like surgeons, complete with scrubs, gloves, and surgical masks, all filed into the room, pushing a cart of medical instruments. One tool that Eve immediately noticed was a large needle with a syringe, which looked like it was designed to extract something much harder to retrieve than blood.
“What the Hell are you doing?” Eve demanded. “Get away from me! Get back! Hey!”
Eve began to struggle and scream in fury as the surgeons grabbed her and held her down. The third surgeon then picked up a small needle from the cart and began walking towards her.
“Get back!” Eve shrieked, shaking the bed from side to side as she fought to throw off the surgeons who were trying to hold her still. “Get off me! Hey! Get off!”
The surgeon with the needle quickly managed to inject Eve’s arm, despite her numerous protests. Only a moment later, Eve began to feel tired and limp, like all of her bones had been removed. A part of her groggy mind told her that they must have anesthetized her, but the drugged up part of her mind was too numb to care.
“Okay, she should be good to go,” one of the surgeons said from seemingly far away. “Turn her on her side. We can begin with the bone marrow biopsy.”
When Eve felt the large needle pierce the small of her back and enter her spine, she felt like there was no amount of drugs in the world that could properly numb the pain.
14
ISAIAH 59:3
H
ours later, Eve had regained some lucidity and was lying in silence, feeling traumatized and violated. The doctors had taken numerous samples from her, including bone marrow, hair, blood, saliva, everything they could think of that they decided might be of any remote use to them. All so that Javan could create a drug that would make humans immortal. At least, the ones he chose, anyway.
Eve was staring blankly at the wall, feeling tired and weak. She had no energy left to fight with, between all the drugs they had given her and just plain old physical and emotional exhaustion. The fight was gone from her. She had nothing left.
When the door opened to what she had come to now think of as her room, Eve almost didn’t even notice. Assuming it was yet another doctor coming to examine her, Eve ignored them and pretended she hadn’t noticed the door open. Until she heard them speak.
“Oh my God. Eve!”
Eve turned to look and saw Isaiah standing there, a look of pure horror on his face as he saw her tied to the bed, her bright red hair tangled and matted with sweat. Eve had never been so happy to see anyone in her life.
“Isaiah!” she nearly cried.
“What happened to you?” Isaiah asked, stepping into the room and up to the side of the bed Eve was lying in. “What’s going on?”
“Isaiah, please, you have to untie me,” Eve said quickly. “It’s Javan, he’s got some crazy plan and he’s using me!”
“Javan?” Isaiah repeated incredulously, beginning to struggle with the restraints as he spoke. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll explain later,” Eve whispered. “Just, please, get me out of here.”
“I’m trying,” Isaiah said through gritted teeth. “These straps are tied tight. Dammit!”
“How’d you know to find me here?” Eve asked.
“I overheard a couple of people in Javan’s office,” Isaiah explained. “They were talking about the redhead who got her wings clipped. I assumed they meant you. Eve, I had no idea…”
“I know, I know, it’s okay,” Eve said, almost smiling with relief. “Let’s just…”
Eve trailed off as she saw movement behind Isaiah. She saw a brief flash of bright blue moving through the door and toward Isaiah’s back. She was also certain she had seen a glint of steel.
“ISAIAH!” Eve screamed.
Isaiah looked up and turned to look behind him, in the direction Eve was staring in fear. He barely caught a glimpse of Jack Rice’s face before the knife slashed through the air and sliced open his throat.
Eve heard herself screaming, but she had no control over it. As Jack stepped back, grinning horribly, Isaiah turned to face Eve, clutching his throat, blood flowing steadily over his fingers as he choked and spluttered.
“Isaiah! Isaiah, no!” Eve cried over and over again.
Isaiah collapsed onto his knees beside the bed, clawing at the sheets, leaving smears of blood on the otherwise white linen. He was choking and spitting up blood, apparently trying to speak, his terrified eyes locked on Eve’s face. Eve tried to reach for him, but found it difficult to move her hand far enough within the restraint. Isaiah managed to grab her hand, though, and he squeezed tightly, his fear coming across in his grip.
“It’s okay,” Eve whispered, tears streaming down her face. “It’s okay, hold on. Just stay with me. Stay with me, you don’t need to go anywhere, just hold on.”
Her words seemed to be in vain, though, because as she spoke, Isaiah’s hand was slipping from hers. His eyes began to roll backwards in his head and he was beginning to slump down beneath the edge of the bed.
“No-no-no-no-no-no!” Eve cried. “No! Don’t die! Please! Don’t die!”
When Isaiah’s hand slipped from hers, though, she knew it was over. She couldn’t see him, but she heard his body hit the floor. And then there were no sounds at all, aside from Eve’s own heartbroken sobs. She couldn’t even bring herself to be angry at Jack Rice, who was leering at her from beside the door. She was far too devastated to think about him. Her thoughts were purely for Isaiah.
Eve collapsed back into the bed, her head hitting the pillow hard as she threw back her head and cried openly, not caring that Jack Rice was watching, not caring that she was a prisoner, not caring that she had lost her wings. She howled her heartbreak to the ceiling, letting the tears flow relentlessly.
Until she heard the laughter. She swallowed her tears and held back her despair, looking toward Jack Rice, wondering what kind of monster could laugh so hysterically while she was clearly in pain, who could laugh so hard just moments after murdering a good man in cold blood. Only when she looked at him, he wasn’t laughing. He was still grinning, but it wasn’t him who was laughing.
Just as Eve was beginning to feel confused, she saw a blood-stained hand rise from beside the bed and grab hold of the sheets.
Eve stared in stunned horror as the blood-soaked form of Isaiah rose from the floor, laughing hysterically, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his throat was cut wide open and blood had stained the entire front of his suit. Isaiah stood beside Eve’s bed, clapping his hands together as he cackled like a madman. He took a deep breath and then pointed at Eve as he still continued to laugh.
“You should have seen your face!” he crowed.
“Wha?” Eve stammered. “But, what?”
“Wha?” Isaiah repeated, mocking Eve’s tone of distress in a cruel manner. “But, what? Lighten up, Eve. Anyone would think you’d just seen someone die! Hahahahaha!”
“I don’t… I don’t understand,” Eve said.
“Aw,” Isaiah said in mock empathy. “Well, don’t you worry your little red head about it. I’ll dumb it all down for you. But, first! Come on in, gang!”
At this, two more people walked into the room and stood beside Jack Rice. The three of them then walked forward and stood around Isaiah, all of them staring down at Eve with cruel grins. Standing around Isaiah was now Jack Rice, the concierge called Lilith, and the doorman named Ian. And the four of them had bright blue eyes, far bluer than natural. Eve watched in shock as Isaiah’s regular blue eyes, which she had stared into while they danced together at the benefit, began to blaze brighter until they became the same ethereal and unnatural blue that Jack Rice’s eyes were. The four of them stood together, all with cruel grins and unnatural eyes.
