Chapter 34 ONE: DELIGHTFUL PAIN

She felt something hard and smooth press against her chest. Suddenly, what felt like a thousand volts raced through her, forcing her back to reality. Gasping, she was back to the same room, lying prostrate on a table with her chest bathed in her blood. She met T-Rex’s gaze.

“You can’t die just yet, not until I’m fully satisfied.” he reminded her.

T-Rex dropped the defibrillators gently onto the table, turning to Kevin with a condescending smile. Searched his face for any sign of revulsion, but found none—just a blank stare.

T-Rex took a glove from his bag pack and put them on. Then he pushed his fingers through Natasha’s chest. Felt her heartbeat intensified. She uttered a shrill cry at the intense pain. Thereafter, her face remained frozen, and her eyes wide and wild. Felt his finger diving in deeper. More blood spilled on her chest.

Kevin sat on the chair, watching with bloodshot eyes, his cheek wet with tears. T-Rex shot a glance at him, smirked in triumph. “Do you know what your mother’s last words to me were?”

“… just give him a quick death.” A voice he hadn’t expected answered.

T-Rex jolted in surprise, taking his hand from her chest, turning around to see Alex and Derik holding up rifles at him.

“Damn it!” he cursed under his breath. “They figured it out.”

For several seconds, Alex and Derik remained at that position, pointing their rifles at him.

“It’s over, T-Rex!” Alex announced.

T-Rex gave a lopsided grin. “Oh, is it?”

“Get your hands away from the girl, move back three pace and put those hands in the air where I can see them.” Derik ordered.

T-Rex moved away from Natasha just as he was commanded, shuffling backward to the corner and looking over the knife at the edge of the table. Slowly raising his hands above his head, he scooped the knife from the table and threw it at them.

Gunshot echoed across the room.

Pains transformed Alex’s face as the knife sliced into his chest. He retracted backward, holding his chest, his eyes wild. He groaned and collapsed onto the floor. Blood pooled beneath him.

T-Rex stood still, a bullet to the head, eyes wide open, and blood streaming from his forehead. A thud sounded after he collapsed on the linoleum. He lay prostrate, his lifeless eyes staring up at the ceiling, chest heaving. Blood bobbled his face.

Derik rushed to where Alex lay. Raised his head and placed his hands underneath him. He fretted over the blood gushing from his chest. “You are going to be alright,” he assured. “Just hang in there. The ambulance will be here shortly.”

He gently rests his head on the wooden floor. “Try not to touch the blade. You will bleed to death if you take it out.”

Then he rushed to where Natasha lay. His brows furrowed at the gruesome sight of her body. She was covered all over with blood. The rods had disfigured her, altering her beauty. “What has this bastard done to you?” he turned to snarl at T-Rex.

Derik peered around the room, searching for anything he could use to cover her nakedness. Found the bag pack sitting at the corner of the table and took out a white linen from it. Spread it across her body to cover her. His expression is one of genuine concern.

His hand reached out and gripped hers, his fingers interlacing with hers as he studied the huge iron rods that pinned both her wrists and feet to the table. Tried to take them out, but she shrieked in pains. He quickly left it, seeing that he was only hurting her the more.

Natasha clutched his fingers. They felt warm. Derik looked over at her face. They were red and her cheek was wet with tears.

“Derik,” she called in a quivering voice. All she felt was the creases of his hand enveloped in hers, and the sweet press of his lips on her face.

“Please, take me home!” she sniffled.

“Your dad would be here soon, along with some medical team. Just hang on a little longer.” he glanced at T-Rex. Blood had pooled beneath his head. “He will not hurt you ever again, I promise.”

Then Derik walked over and stood beside Kevin. Took off the gag that covered his mouth. Even with the pains Kevin felt, he still smiled at Derik.

“Nice job, soldier.” Kevin swallowed hard. “You finally did it! You gave that bastard what he so deserves.”

A thud sounded after the door fell open. Derik turned to gaze at the entrance and he saw, sauntering into the room, troops of armed men. They made loud noises with their feet as they found their way into the room.

The armed men quickly moved to detain T-Rex. His body was cold and lifeless, eyes still open, staring at the ceiling. Some men gathered around Alex.

“Call in the medical team at once.” the commanding officer thundered.

A medical team quickly rushed in, William following them behind. They picked Alex, placed him on a roller, and wheeled him out of the room.

William dashed to where Natasha laid. He was terrified at what he saw. Trembled at the sight of the rods that pinned her to the table.

“Daddy,” she whimpered between her sobs, her body trembling.

“Baby!” he hugged her, fondling her messy hair. “I thought I’d lost you too.” he cried in her arms.

“Please, take me home.” she cried. “I want to go home.”

William moved away when some nurses gathered around her. He watched as they carefully pulled out the rods from both their bodies. Natasha couldn’t hold back her tears as they pulled the rods from her arms and feet.

Blood spilled over her feet as the rods were being pulled out, leaving behind a cavity. The nurses quickly dressed the cuts across their bodies and placed them on a roller. They were wheeled outside into an ambulance.

William turned to glare at T-Rex. He looked very cross. Suddenly, T-Rex’s body grew bigger. His face slowly transformed into someone else. His body structure grew larger and taller until he was fully transformed.

Everyone in the room stopped to stare with their mouths open.

Silence fell.

They all watched in disbelief as T-Rex transformed into Lawrence.

Derik couldn’t believe his eyes. His jaw went slack as he watched the event unfold. “No way.” he muttered in total disbelief, his eyes widening.

He walked forward. “The president of threat control unit is… T-Rex.” his eyes were shaking as he stared. “Who could have guessed?”

No one in the room was more shocked than William.

“You son of a…” he muttered, gnashing his teeth, trying to choke back his rage. But he just couldn’t; they were overwhelming. He needed to let it them out. Walked to where they had laid Lawrence and started bashing his face with an angry fist.

One of the men quickly held him back. “Sir, it’s no use. He’s already dead.”

Turning to sneer at T-Rex, William grunted.

The nurses covered the body in a plastic bag and wheeled him away.

William sat in the examination room outside the intensive care unit. He had been waiting for almost forty minutes—it never took this long. He fretted as he waited for the doctors. His legs were tapping rapidly against the floor. He stole a glance at his watch every five minutes.

Madelia and Dreda sat on a bench some distance away from where William sat. And just like him, they were also worried. Madelia sat with frightened eyes. Her palms were sweaty.

Please be okay. She kept reciting in her head.

Most of the workers from the taskforce were also present in the hospital.

Then the door fell open, and everyone turned to look. Derik walked into the waiting room and sat on the bench beside William without turning to glance at him. Stared blankly at the white wall opposite where he sat.

William turned to gaze at him, his eyes feeling heavy. And when Derik didn’t return his gaze, he shifted a little closer to him. An awkward silence fell between them.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in a tight voice.

“I am here to formally tender my resignation letter from the taskforce.” Derik spoke without a glance at him. “I want to also apologize for what’d happened to Natasha. I’d failed to protect her. I’m resigning from my duty as her bodyguard as well. I also want to send my apologies for what had happened to your wife. Maybe if you hadn’t met me, she would still be…”

William hugged him, chocking the words down his throat. Derik's eyes widened. It was the least response he had expected.

“You did nothing wrong.” William started off, smiling. “All this time, I’d been channelling my anger wrongly. Perhaps, it’s because of what you are, but I shouldn’t have done that. You are not to blame. Fate chose the wrong person to make a shifter.”

He gave him a friendly pat on the back. “You won’t be burning along with the rest of your kind. Seeing that you saved my daughter’s life, I think it’s only fair that I let you keep yours. You can keep your job too, both at the taskforce and as my daughter’s bodyguard. There is hardly anyone I can think of who’d be more suitable for that job than you. Please, don’t quit.”

Derik cracked a smile at him. In all his years working with William, he had never heard him speak so kindly to anyone. He wasn’t expecting a thank you from William. He knew that would never come out of him. But seeing him smile that way made him feel that was worth more than his appreciation.

“I won’t.” he finally said.

“Thank you!” he smiled calmly.

Derik’s eyes went round. Felt his heart melt as those words burned in his ear. Tears threatened to trickle down from eyes. He quickly cleaned them with his wrist.

William patted him on the back, his smile fading. “See you around.”

Derik walked away with a smile. Left the room, into the hot afternoon air. For him, that was possible, the happiest moment of his life.

Just then, the doctor walked in and they all rushed to him. Bombarded him with questions, causing the room to be noisy. He could barely make out a word from what they were saying.

“Let’s all stay calm. They are all going to be fine.” The doctor implored, trying to calm them. When he saw they were calm, he continued. “First off, the inspector suffered a minor heart injury from the blade, but he has been stabilized. The injury could have proven fatal if he hadn’t been rushed down here.”

William interrupted him. “What about my daughter, is she going to be ok? When do I get to see her?” he fretted.

“All in due time,” the doctor responded calmly, shifting his gaze to him. “Your daughter is fine. We have successfully stitched the cut on her chest. She suffered a severe bone fracture on both her wrists and feet. The rods that’d punctured her wrist and feet did quite a number on her, leaving her bones completely crushed and detached. Raptures this severe cannot heal with time. In other words, your daughter would lose control of both her hands and feet. She can no longer make use of them. I suggest amputation at the moment.”

The room was left in shear silence.

“There is no way I’m letting you amputate my daughter.” William snapped a reply at him. “There has to be another way.”

“If this is not done soon, it may impede her healing. For now, amputation is best for her, for both of them.” The doctor explained, his voice sounding low.

“There is another way!” a voice sounded from the entrance, and they all turned to look at the door.

In walked Frank. He held a couple of files. “We can speed up their healing rate and regenerate the damaged cells in both their body systems. In other to achieve this, we have to carry out a genetic transmutation on both their DNAs and induce shifter’s cells in their genes. This will accelerate their healing capacity.”

William turned to glare. “What you are saying in simple terms is that I should allow my daughter to be transformed into a shifter?”

“---exactly.”

He leered at Frank. “I will be throwing away everything I stand for if I let my daughter become one of those things.”

“Sir, it’s the health and wellbeing of your daughter that is at stake. If you don’t do this, your daughter will spend the rest of her life sitting in a wheelchair. Do you really want that for her?” he inquired with an arched eyebrow.

William was quiet, as if taking a moment to process everything he’d said. “You’ve said it already, transforming a human into a shifter is a risky gamble of the volunteer’s life. What if…”

“The experiment has succeeded twice. What could possibly go wrong this time?” Frank uttered.

A blot of silence.

Diagonal lines creased his forehead. “When do we begin?”

“As soon as you have them brought to the lab.”