Meg’s eyes were wide with terror. “What are you talking about? What are you going to do to me?”
“Why, haven’t you been listening, my dear? I’m about to give you The Perfect Concussion. You’ll have no memories—a beautifully complete blank slate. And you will be mine for the molding.”
“Oh, God no!” Evan pleaded.
“Don’t do this!” Cole barked furiously.
“Meg, no!” Sloan sobbed.
“Meg, remember. Hold yourself back. Remember who you are, please!” Creed begged.
“I love you and I always will,” Meg whispered as she clinched her fist around Creed’s promise ring. She locked eyes with each of her family now screaming in fear for her.
“Now,” Arkdone called to Bjorn.
The machine let out a loud humming, filling the space and silencing the captives with terror.
Thump!
Silence enveloped the room.
Meg, who had given up on her promise not to cry, stared straight ahead, tears slipping down her now calm face. Her large dark eyes were void of emotion. She would almost look serene if it weren’t for the remnants of her salty tears that merged with the smeared dried blood around her nose, mouth and chin.
“Now, you’re absolutely beautiful,” Arkdone murmured nearly giddy with joy. “I’ve given you a new beginning and with that, a new name. From now on you will be known as Naya, meaning ‘renewal and fresh’.”
Meg continued to stare ahead, locked in a distant stare through Arkdone.
“Meg, please look at me,” Evan pleaded. His face was red with rage and terror. “MEG! I’m your brother! LOOK AT ME!”
“Oh, dear God. What did you do to her?” Cole looked to have awakened to a real nightmare.
“Please, come back to me,” Creed quietly begged the dark-eyed beauty. “I can’t do this without you.” Tears slipped hot and sore from his stinging eyes as he watched the girl whose entire identity had just been stolen from her.
“She’s gone. Meg is gone.” Sloan moaned miserably.
Ignoring the uproar behind him, Arkdone was busy unstrapping the girl from the wheelchair and carefully removing the helmet. Meg sat perfectly still the entire time.
“You are complete strangers to her now, so go on and keep screaming. She cares nothing for you. She’s mine now.”
With that, Creed pulled with everything he had at the iron shackles holding him down. Though they groaned at his efforts, they held tight. “Feel free to exert yourself, Mr. Young. Those shackles were designed to withstand the pull of an adult male elephant. However strong you think you are, you’re still just a metahuman.” Arkdone shrugged as though he were offering pity to a pathetic creature.
Evan’s eyes would not leave his sister. The honey gold in them dimmed with each passing moment that his sister wouldn’t even acknowledge him.
Sloan hung her head in defeat, tears splatting silently on her grimy jeans.
“We will get her back, Arkdone,” Cole blurted. “She might not be able to hear us, but you can. Know this: We will hunt you down and rip you apart with our bare hands. You will pay for what you’ve done to Meg. Do you hear me?” Cole was screaming, his huge biceps pulling tightly on the straps securing him to his wheelchair.
Ignoring the metahuman screaming across the room, Arkdone held out his hand to Meg as though she were royalty. “Naya, please stand and accompany me. It looks as though we have some more cleaning up to do and there is someone I’d like to introduce you to waiting in the parlor room.”
Without a word, Meg took Arkdone’s hand and stood gracefully. Her dark eyes stayed staring at a point far away, and she still had not spoken a word.
“Dr. Bjorn,” Arkdone thought to turn and speak to his new underling. “Evan Winter is next, if you would.”
Evan didn’t care what happened to him. All he worried about was his big sister holding the hand of the man who had erased her memories.
Cole and Creed fought against their restraints, screaming profanities at Arkdone’s back as he walked with Meg slowly from the room. It did them no good.
Meg never turned around.
She didn’t exchange any knowing look.
She didn’t utter one word.
She was gone before she left the room.
Meg was no more.
Chapter 61 The Suicide Mission
Farrow pulled to the side of the road, hiding the navy SUV from view behind a thicket. An old wrought-iron fence wrapped like sharpened spears around the entire thirty-acre compound where a gothic building stood stretched wide across the expanse. In the center of the building stood a tall, statuesque section acting as what was obviously the hub.
Farrow was in the back taking out her sniper rifle with its scope to get a better look. She handed a second rifle with scope to Alik who was standing, staring at the menacing structure. They moved to lie low to the ground in front of the SUV and opened their weapons’ tripods to get a steady look at what they were up against.
“I can see Williams himself stepping out of a limousine. He only has Dr. Chaunders and two guards with him.”