You and Caroline continue to be held as prisoners – and laboratory rats – whilst Doctor Bright’s team carries on with their experiments.
The day after your mating, Caroline and yourself awake – in human form once more – and eat your delivered breakfast. Next thing, you are both taken into a lab, and strapped down into reclined, dentist-like chairs – before being conditioned with hypnotic commands. Later, the two of you are injected with tiny tracking bugs planted in your hips – then adjustable collars are fitted around your necks. Something inside them makes you feel fuzzy-headed, and your minds are conditioned so that you can’t take the collars off.
“What are you doing to us?” you ask.
“You are being prepared for your new role, as assassins!” Doctor Bright looks pleased with herself. “When moonrise comes, your post-hypnotic commands will kick in, and you will be released to carry out your mission. And you will return to us.”
“These collars are to ensure our obedience,” Caroline snorts.
Burke smiles. “Right. Any resistance against our orders, and a remote-controlled spike will shoot out from the collar – injecting you with silver nitrate!”
*****
That night, you, Caroline, and your captors are dropped off by a van, next to a wood close to town. The team watches as the pair of you are forced to transform in the light of the near-full moon. Guns are held ready to shoot the two fully-fledged wolves before them - and they are only lowered when the post-hypnotic commands kick in. You have prey to track down!
With a joint howl to the beloved moon, you and Caroline bolt off. After a few minutes in the woods, getting use to running around on all fours, the pair of you pad along to a specific location in your minds – a patch of wasteland, next to a burnt out old building. Hiding in the shadows, you both wait – and soon, your sharp ears detect cars arriving.
A pair of dodgy-looking characters exit one car, whilst a man with a familiar scent leaves his vehicle with a suitcase in his hand. They meet up.
Following the orders planted in your minds, you and Caroline snarl, then sprint towards the group – the thrill of the hunt ringing in your pounding blood. You are in your element! And you are sharing the moment with your companion of choice – your mate.
The couple from car number one – a man and a woman – shout out and draw pistols as they see two snarling wolves closing in. Their bullets show you both down – but being werewolves, you soon heal. Caroline dispatches the life of the gunwoman by taking out her throat – and you slam into the other thug, pinning him down, before breaking his neck.
Licking your lips, Caroline and you turn your attention to the other man present. However, the post-hypnotic commands inside you both prevent you from turning him into dog food. Besides, judging by the scent, he’s wearing silver-lined body armour…
‘It is Hare!’ Caroline thinks across to you.
Hare smiles at the sight of the werewolves holding his ground. Then he retrieves his suitcase, and leaves in his car.
Later on – again following earlier hypnotic orders – you and Caroline return to where you were dropped off. Doctor Bright’s team shoot tranquiliser darts at the pair of you – and you both pass out, awakening in human form, in the morning. Back in your cell, of course.
*****
You are sick, shortly after coming to – as the memory of last night, and your first human kill, kicks in. Caroline’s more hardened to this by now – but you hug each other, hating yourselves for being the pawns of destruction.
“At least those two we killed weren’t innocents,” you croak. “Somehow, I could smell the darkness in them.”
“That’s how it goes with me, too,” Caroline admits. “But I don’t want to kill anyone! I just want us to be free. Topaz as well!”
You glance at the watching video camera, and whisper to your mate. “The fact that they evidently don’t know about Topaz’s magic on us, is something we need to use in our favour! There’s a cliff overlooking the sea behind this manor. All three of us just need to reach the open water!”
Caroline nods. “We’ll reassume merfolk form and swim away, if we get to survive the jump. If only we can get out of this cell!”