Chapter 10

My head throbbed at the crown. The lab tech had taken a dime-sized chunk of scalp to obtain a hair sample with roots.

Jackass! Now that spot will never grow back!

For the moment, all the agents and the lab tech had left me alone. I could hear them discussing amongst each other just on the other side of the door though, probably thinking up new ways to torture me.

Running my tongue along the inside of my cheek, I cursed again as I felt more of the butcher’s handy work.

That was the point when I realized that I probably wasn’t going to live through this. If they’d been so brutal just asking questions and taking samples, there was no way they were going to let me just walk out of here—wherever I was.

I missed Amy terribly. She’d be the only person that would even notice I was missing at this point. I had no idea if I was even going to see Keanu again, he didn’t really leave me any indication we were a serious item.

My grandmother wouldn’t notice for weeks—possibly months—that I was missing. I didn’t keep in touch very well. The only way we’d communicated over the last couple years was via letters through the mail.

I hadn’t paid my tuition yet or registered for classes, so they’d probably think that I wasn’t coming back. No one but Amy ever came to my room on a regular basis and my dorm fees were paid up for the next couple months. Amy might alert the authorities, but they’d probably just think that I couldn’t afford my tuition, returned to Arizona and not be too concerned.

Basically, it all added up to me being missing or dead for quite a while before anyone would notice.

They could’ve at least undone these ties before they left. I pulled against the straps but they were fastened so tight that my hands would only move about an inch. Spread eagle on the cot, I closed my eyes and prayed for this to be over.

A peal of laughter just outside the door startled me. My eyes focused on the door handle as it turned. My heart began thudding hard in my chest as I anticipated more inhumane treatment.

The five agents in black walked in—and Keanu.

“Keanu!” My voice bordered on a scream as his name reverberated within the small cell. “Why do you have him? I’ll tell you anything! Just let him go!”

Desperate, I began formulating lies, lies that might satisfy what these barbarians wanted to hear from me to keep them from hurting Keanu.

Agent Evan’s eyebrows rose accompanying a snide grin. Glancing back and forth between me and Keanu, he finally spoke.

“Miss Tiponi, I’d like to introduce you...” Agent Evans waved his arm toward Keanu. “to Agent Kai.”

“Agent?” I repeated, my tone hollow and lifeless. The night we spent together flooded back.

He used me!

An inexplicable feeling overcame me, a sensation of worthlessness. I didn’t know what was going on. My real life ebbed away from me like a child sitting on the edge of a pool reaching for a beach ball on the water, grazing it with anxious fingertips but never retrieving it. My real life became my past, never to be lived again.

I didn’t know what they wanted from me and now, I didn’t care.

“What can you tell us about her?” Agent Evans directed his question to Keanu…Agent Kai.

“I didn’t get any useful information about her past, but physically…” He blushed lightly as he continued. “She has a very strange birthmark.”

“Oh…where?” As though he had x-ray vision, Agent Evans narrowed his eyes and scanned my body.

“Umm…” Keanu paused then placed his pointer finger on the center of his chest.

A snicker from the other four agents elicited a swift and silencing glare from Agent Evans. “Show me.” He ordered Keanu.

Clearing his throat, Keanu approached me as I lay helpless on the cot. I turned my head sharply away from him as he tried to make eye contact. His eyes were filled with shame. If guilt had a smell, it was oozing from his pores.

Angry tears blurred my vision as he lifted up my shirt. Pushing my bra aside and uncovering my breasts, several of the agents gasped at the sight of my birthmark, or at least I hoped it was the mark they were gawking at.

A hot pain of embarrassment seared in my chest. I felt like a specimen, nothing more than animal ready to be dissected.

“I need to get a camera.” Agent Evans walked briskly from the cell.

With my breasts exposed, I could feel their eyes upon me. Keeping my face toward the far wall, I felt Keanu, who’d stayed by my side, pull my shirt down.

“Hey Kai.” The agent with blond hair heckled. “You fucked it didn’t you?”

It?!

My jaw dropped from the shock of his cruelty.

Keanu must have read my mind because he tensed and took a step closer to the cocky agent.

“Watch it Meyers!” His voice verged on anger.

“Enough!” Agent Evans snapped and glared at Agent Meyers as he walked back into the cell with camera in hand. “Everyone out…except you Kai.”

All four of the excused agents filed out the door while Keanu and Agents Evans proceeded to take pictures of my chest.

Keanu still attempted to catch my eye, but I would turn my face away in anger each time.

“Okay,” Agent Evans sighed after a few minutes of examining me, “Let’s go.”

“Sir?” Keanu’s voice cracked a little.

“Yes.”

“May I…untie her?”

My heart did an unwelcome skip with his request. Not turning to face Agent Evans, I held my breath as I waited for his answer.

“Yes, but be careful, she’s not likely to be very happy with you son.” Agent Evans shut the door behind him as he left us.

The mattress sunk beside me as Keanu sat down. His hip touched mine ever so slightly and I quashed the mild enjoyment of having gentle human contact again—especially his.

My entire body tensed as he leaned over me to untie my left hand. His warm breath tickled my neck as he slowly and carefully unraveled the strap. The Velcro released with a reluctant hiss as my hand was freed.

He paused for a moment as though anticipating my next move. I’m sure he was prepared for, and even expected, a punch or slap.

Ignoring my right hand for the moment, he moved to undo my feet. I hated that I loved the way his hands brushed up against the inside of my calves as he gently released me.

Remaining perfectly still, I refused to look at him. I’d forgotten up until now that my face was probably marred with dried blood from the sample session.

“Are you…okay?” His voice was hushed, laced with guilt and regret as he carefully untied my right hand.

My jaw clenched as I felt fresh tears well in my eyes. All the pain and persecution I’d endured over the last few days suddenly brimmed over.

“What the fuck do you think?!” Turning my head sharply in his direction, I yelled with more anger than I’d intended.

Flinching and moving away from my venomous glare, he stood and stared at me with sorrowful eyes.

“I’m sorry.” The sincerity in his voice was evident, but it did not deter my wrath.

“What the hell is going on?” Sitting up on the cot, I rubbed my wrists that had become raw from the Velcro straps. I pleaded with wide eyes as I looked at him.

“You really…don’t know?” Furrowing his brow, his eyes clouded with confusion.

“No! All I know is that I’ve been kidnapped, brutalized and treated like fucking lab rat!” Rubbing the top of my oozing head, I marched up to Keanu with my bloodied palm open and shoving it into his face, I waited for an explanation.

His handsome bronze face paled as he reluctantly observed the proof of my suffering. “I…thought you knew. We all…assumed…”

“What?! What did you assume?!” My voice was becoming shrill and I felt my knees get weak as days of exhaustion overwhelmed me. Catching me by the elbow before I fell, Keanu led me back to the cot.

After sitting down, I slapped his hand away. “Tell me!” I shrieked, my chest heaving with sobs.

“You mean to tell me that you really don’t know why you’re here? That you really don’t know?” Shock and disbelief consumed his voice as he rubbed his face with both his hands.

All energy had been sapped from my body, I hunched over, shaking my head from side to side. “No.” I whispered through the salty tears cascading onto my cracked lips.

Kneeling before me and placing his hands on both of my knees, Keanu sighed. His voice shook as he let the words that would change my life forever fall from his lips.

“Cassia…you’re not…human.”