Jenny Plague-Bringer

Chapter Forty-One



Seth stood over the young man on the table. He was Hispanic, around Seth’s age, a veteran of the Iraq War. His name was Frederico, and his left leg was missing from the knee down. Seth couldn’t stop himself from thinking of the day he’d met Jenny. Everett Lawson had run over Jenny’s dog with his red truck that had the stupid flame decals on the sides. Seth had stopped to heal the dog, and in the process grown back the dog’s leg, which had been missing for months or years. That was how Jenny had discovered Seth’s power, and how Seth had really discovered Jenny. He smiled for a moment at the memory.

“Can you do it?” General Kilpatrick asked from the window above, looking down on Seth, Frederico, and the researchers and guards within the big concrete lab.

“I can do it, but I won’t be up for golf afterward,” Seth said. He’d resisted all of Mariella’s attempts to flip him and make him cooperate with Ward, laced with not-very-subtle hints that Seth might be welcomed into Mariella’s bed if he did. Today, though, Ward had played a dirty trick on him.

ASTRIA had brought in a pool of severely wounded war veterans, amputees and others with injuries that couldn’t be fixed by medical science. One of Ward’s assistants, a thuggish-looking guy named Buchanan, had brought a digital tablet down to Seth’s cell and held it up to the window, showing him all the wounded who’d been brought with the promise of a new, experimental kind of medicine that could fully heal them. The veterans, mostly young men and women his age, were waiting anxiously, their faces showing faint glimmers of hope under masks of grim resignation.

Seth knew he’d feel guilty if he sent them away without helping, so he’d agree to call a truce with Ward long enough to heal them. It had been a difficult decision for Seth, because he knew that his cooperation was exactly what Ward wanted, but he decided that he couldn’t turn down the chance to help these people. He still wore an orange jumpsuit, and he would still be returned to his cell afterward. It had been interesting to finally leave the cell, though, and see how much the base had changed since last time around. More computers, fewer swastikas, white tile instead of concrete. Some of the guards wore specially designed biohazard armor, complete with air filters and oxygen bottles, to protect them against those with a paranormal touch.

Now, Frederico looked up at Seth from the stretcher, looking confused.

“Nobody explained what you’re going to do. It’s not another surgery?” Frederico asked. “I don’t see any equipment.”

“I can’t really explain it myself,” Seth told him. “Everybody ready?” Without waiting for an answer, he took a deep breath and lay both hands on the young man’s leg stump. He closed his eyes and pushed the healing energy into him to speed things along.

Seth felt it draining out of him, weakening him. He opened his eyes to see Frederico gaping at the sight of his leg. Long, thin tentacles grew out from his knee. Two of them stiffened like wires, forming the framework of his tibia and fibula, finally meeting to form a sketchy framework, the little bones of Frederico’s new ankle. Others lashed around the bone, forming muscle and tendon.

Frederico crossed himself and whispered a rapid “Our Father” in Spanish.

Seth grew weaker and weaker as the bones and muscles thickened and the new foot formed itself from thin air. It wasn’t exactly thin air, Seth knew. All the fat on Seth’s body was already gone, leaving fine details of his own veins and muscles visible under his skin. His muscle tissue was starting to burn away, too, but he held on and kept healing.

Less than a minute later, the young man’s new leg was complete, and Seth collapsed onto the tiled floor. Two guards hurried over to lift him up.

“How?” Frederico spoke in an awed whisper, wiggling his toes. The new leg didn’t match the other one perfectly, because the new skin was baby-soft and hairless. Frederico stared at it, his eyes huge. “How is this possible? You didn’t do anything! Are you touched by God?” Frederico gaped at Seth.

“Urggh, food,” Seth mumbled, half-unconscious. “Take me to food.”

The guards and a lab tech helped him into a wheelchair. Seth’s head nodded forward as they rolled away. He heard Frederico’s voice, shouting his thanks again and again, somewhere behind him like a distant echo.


“I want to see Juliana,” Sebastian insisted. “Take me to her, right now!”

He stood in the hallway of the male dormitory, arms crossed, blocking Niklaus in his room as Niklaus was trying to get out.

“Move aside,” Niklaus said. “Or do you want me to move you?”

Sebastian just stared at him, his eyes burning. It had been two days since Alise separated him from Mia, and she hadn’t touched him since. The spell of her power had finally worn off, leaving him furious and worried sick about Juliana, whom he’d hadn’t seen in weeks. He’d been like a drug addict, thinking of nothing but his next dose. Looking back, he could see how Alise had manipulated him, doing her best to make him forget about Juliana, reassuring him that she was doing well whenever he remembered to ask, then dosing him hard so that his mind was full of empty bliss for hours.

Now he was awake. He was himself again, and he needed to find Juliana. He felt sick for the way he’d spent his time, the power that Alise wielded over him. Her ability had turned out to be far more dangerous than Sebastian had ever expected.

“Juliana,” Sebastian said. “Now, Niklaus.”

Niklaus stepped closer, until he was only inches from Sebastian. “Last warning.”

Sebastian didn’t move. “Now,” he said again.

Niklaus punched him in the face, sending him staggering back into the hall, drops of blood falling from his nose. Sebastian quickly healed and recovered, and he lunged at Niklaus, hitting him in the stomach. He knew better than to punch anyone in the face, or anywhere there was bare skin, because Sebastian’s fist was accompanied by a burst of healing energy that sort of made his punch pointless.

Niklaus doubled over with Sebastian’s fist in his solar plexus, but then lunged forward, slamming Sebastian against the far wall of the corridor. Sebastian tried to bring his elbow down on Niklaus’ head, but Niklaus twisted free and then began pummeling him. With each impact, Sebastian felt his courage wane and fear grow inside him. He fought back as best as he could, hitting Niklaus in the chest and stomach and sending him staggering back for a moment, then Niklaus came back with an uppercut to his jaw, filling Sebastian’s head with exploding stars.

Niklaus shoved him against the wall and clutched his throat, filling him with fear. Niklaus leaned in close again, his gray eyes burning, his teeth bared in a smile.

For a moment, Sebastian saw through the human mask of Niklaus to the monster behind it, a thing the size of a great mountain, made of rock and bone, a thousand horns on its massive dinosaur-skull head, dark fire burning deep inside its bony eye sockets. It made an ear-shattering inhuman screech, loud enough to tear worlds apart. The fear-giver.

Then he was trembling and useless, staring into Niklaus’ eyes.

“You made a mistake,” Niklaus whispered. “Let’s get you into a cell downstairs.”

Niklaus punched him again, then dragged him out of the hall, shouting for more guards.

Sebastian spent hours shivering alone in a dim concrete cell, terrified by every sound that echoed through the cellblock, paranoid that they were going to punish Juliana for his actions. Frightened that she might already be dead, and nobody had told him.

Niklaus’ spell gradually wore off, but he was still trembling when the panel outside his barred window opened. It was Alise, her usually bubbly smile gone, her face hard and cold and slathered in makeup.

“Here he is,” Alise said, to someone he couldn’t see. “Why did you have to mess it all up, Sebastian? Everything was going so well for you.”

“I just wanted to see Juliana.”

“That’s too bad. Now you’ll never get to see anyone, not for a long time. A shame, with your children on the way.”

“I don’t have any children.”

“Oh, no one’s told you?” Now Alise’s smile was back. “Juliana is pregnant with your child. So is Mia. The first two babies of our supernormal breeding project, true Aryans of the future.”

“What breeding project?”

“You’ll never see either of the children, of course,” Alise said. “They belong to the Reich. They will be raised and educated properly. One day, they might command armies. You’ll never know. You’ll be down here, wishing you had never caused us any trouble.”

Sebastian walked to the barred window, anger burning away the cobwebs of fear Niklaus had left in him. “They’re both pregnant?”

“One day, my child will command both of yours,” Alise said. “I intend to have a son, and raise him to lead the Reich.”

“You’re pregnant, too?”

Alise scowled at him. “You have a visitor. Someone who wants to say good-bye.” She stepped aside, and another face took the place of hers. Jonathan Barrett, of Fallen Oak, South Carolina. Sebastian immediately wanted to spit in his face.

“What are you doing here?” Sebastian asked. “Coming to see how you’ve destroyed our lives?”

“Are we not having a happy day today?” Barrett asked, grinning.

“You’d better get us out of here, Barrett. This place is a prison run by crazy people.”

“You got exactly what I promised,” Barrett said. “Scientific testing of your abilities. I heard you were doing well here until recently, Sebastian.”

“You’re a liar,” Sebastian said. “I’m warning you, Barrett. You get us out of here now, or I’ll make you pay for it.”

“And how are you going to do that? You look so cozy there in your cell.”

“I may not know how, but it will happen,” Sebastian said. “I never forget. If you leave us here, I will come back and I will destroy everything you care about. Your ridiculous idea of a legacy. Whatever you create, I will ruin. I’ll burn your house right to the ground. I’ll burn your name right out of history. Nothing you do will last, and everyone will forget you ever lived.”

Barrett chuckled and shook his head. “Sad. Truly sad, threats made from a cage.”

“Mr. Barrett,” Alise said, “We’d better get going. You don’t want to miss your train.”

Barrett nodded. “Nice visiting with you, Sebastian.”

“This is your last chance, Barrett. Get Juliana and me out of here now.”

Barrett smirked and walked down the hall with Alise.

“I mean it, Barrett!” Sebastian shouted after him. He banged his fist on the door. “I won’t forget. Even when I’m dead, I won’t forget.”

Barrett laughed without looking. “Destroy me from beyond the grave? You’re amusing, Sebastian.”

They walked out of his sight. Sebastian slammed his head against the door, furious with himself for ever getting tricked by such a man. His hatred for Barrett seethed all the way into his bones, right down into his soul.