Page 75

"Let's get you out of here, then we can figure out the rest," he said, pushing to his feet.

"Wait. Please." The stranger by the truck reached toward us, toward Typhon, but immediately pulled his hand back when a coyote growled at him. "Please, I just want to talk to Seth for a moment. I'm not going to hurt anyone."

"Damn right you're not," Ori muttered. They were on their phone, texting nonstop. Hopefully, they were calling in backup, because there was no way Typhon was walking out of here under his own power.

"Seth?" Lain tilted his head, then glanced down at the man in my arms. "Was that your name?"

"I don't remember," Typhon replied. He sounded exhausted, and I just wanted all of this to be over so I could take him home and coddle him. He deserved it.

Lain studied him for a moment, then shrugged. "I like Typhon better, even though it's kind of a mouthful."

When he didn't immediately follow that with an inappropriate joke, I knew just how worried he was about Typhon. Lain never missed an opportunity to make a bad sex joke.

"Before all this happened, you were Seth Ibarra," the stranger went on. His voice had an odd rasp to it, and it took me a moment to notice the faint bruises around his throat. "You don't remember me, do you?"

"I don't remember anything," Typhon mumbled. He'd closed his eyes, head still resting on my shoulder, so he didn't see the pain that flickered across the man's face before he could school his expression.

"I'm Wyatt Aberdeen. We were friends before Krenshaw got his hands on you."

"You said your name was David," Lain snapped, glaring at him.

"Krenshaw made us all use fake names. I wanted to tell you my real name, so maybe he might recognize me, but I never got a chance."

"If you're his friend, why were you here with people trying to hunt him down and capture him?" he countered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I came to help him. I warned him they were going after Quinn," Wyatt said. "I didn't realize how important you were to him until it was almost too late. I'm sorry." He didn't quite meet my eyes when he apologized, but his shame was written all over his face.

"Really not the time for this," Ori muttered under their breath, eyes still glued to their phone.

"Are you going to go back to wherever you all came from?" Lain pressed.

"I… I think I have to." Wyatt peeked over his shoulder, face blanching when he saw the body of one of the men he'd arrived with. I was trying very hard not to look at them. The coyotes had done an excellent job ensuring they were no longer a threat.

"Why?" I asked him, mostly to keep my mind from fixating on just how close I sat to three dead bodies. "Typhon ran, right? Why don't you?"

Wyatt shook his head. "If I don't go back, they'll send more people here to hunt Se—Typhon," he corrected. "I could go back and tell them he kept running right through here. I don't know what I can do about the deaths, but I have to try. And I have to take him back, too." He nodded toward the other chimera, still lying on its side on the ground.

"Like hell you do," Ori snapped, finally looking up, dark eyes blazing. "If that one is like Typhon, then he was once part of our community. I will not let it be subjected to more experimentation or whatever is happening."

Wyatt flinched, but this time he didn't look away or back down. "I don't like it, either. That's why I came here in the first place: to help my friend. But Ten isn't like him. After Typhon escaped, they put more security protocols in place. He has a tracker in him, but it's the collar that's the problem. It won't come off without the key, not even magically. If he doesn't return or deviates from the confines of the mission parameters, the collar can neutralize him until he can be extracted, like he is now. Worst-case scenario, they can use it to kill him."

Bile burned my throat, and I hugged Typhon a little closer, resting my head against his. "Who are these people?" I whispered.

"Rich, powerful assholes who want to control the world and are getting pretty damn close to doing it," Wyatt said quietly. "The chimeras are the key to their whole organization. They won't stop looking for either of them."

"But why? I don't understand anything."

"I think I do," Lain said, a trace of steel in his words. I'd never heard him sound like that before. "About the chimeras, at least." He locked eyes with Wyatt. "After I saw Typhon for the first time, I couldn't stop wondering why someone would do this to another person. Then I saw the collars and…" He shook his head, face paling like he was going to throw up.

"Custom built monsters," Wyatt breathed, looking just as sick as Lain.

"I can't even imagine how much wannabe dictators and despots would pay for even one chimera. If they had more?" Lain shook his head. "They'd be nearly unstoppable."

"Goddess preserve us," Ori hissed. "Where are they doing this?"

"I-I don't know. I've only seen one outpost, but I know there's at least one more. That's where they hide their secrets. I didn't even know what they were doing until I got pulled into this. I just wanted to find out what happened to my friend." Wyatt's eyes darted to Typhon, who still had his head on my shoulder.

"We need to get help," I interrupted before Ori could do more than part their lips to speak. Typhon's blood dripped thick and warm down my arms where I held him and it wasn't slowing down like it should.