I swallowed hard. “I’m not going to kill myself.” I stared at the next question and was fully stumped, so I left it blank.
Oberfall raised his eyebrows. “Good to know.”
I pushed the sheets back at him. “That’s everything I know.”
He glanced over the papers, shuffling through them. “You didn’t fill this out. What is your designation? What species are you?”
I didn’t hesitate. “I don’t know.”
He snorted. “You can’t not know. What are you?”
I shrugged and leaned back in my chair. “I really don’t know. Merlin said I was a special snowflake.”
Oberfall growled, low and deep, and as he leaned forward I got a whiff of pine forest and deep snow.
Gray fur, howling at the moon, pack family.
Wolf.
The image flickered through my mind, and I swallowed hard. “Maybe a psychic?”
“That’s not a supernatural designation,” he snapped. “And a maybe psychic? No more games. What. Are. You?”
“I’m not playing games. This isn’t tiddlywinks, you know. My brother is a naga. That’s what he said I was going to be.” I pushed back from the table and stood up. He leapt to his feet, his hand going to a gun at his waist.
“I have every right to shoot you where you stand if you don’t give me the answers I want. You aren’t a naga. You don’t smell like one.”
Oh dear, this was not going well at all. Not that I’d really expected it to.
I lifted my hands slowly above my head, fear cascading down my spine. A funny tingle started in my toes and crept up my legs. “I really don’t know what I am, then. I told Merlin I didn’t want to be a vampire, werewolf, or witch. I wanted to be something else. Something different and as human as possible.” The words poured out of me, and his trigger finger eased.
“Something special. But you aren’t a naga.”
I nodded.
A loud thump reverberated through the room, stopping the conversation in its tracks. Oberfall ran for the door. It opened and he leapt out, shouting, “Get the UV guns.”
UV guns? Did he mean ultraviolet? I stood and stared at the now-open door. I should stay put. That was the good-girl thing to do, to conform and do what I was told.
And get a tracking device shoved in my liver. Maybe not.
I hurried to the door and peeked out. The Supe Squad dressed themselves in hard black body armor with red slashes on the arms, but they weren’t the only ones wearing armor in the hall anymore. They had been joined by an influx of new additions. The new guys, or girls, it was hard to tell, had their own kind of covering. Four of them ran by me, chasing two SDMP members. I jerked back with a gasp. The ones swarming the station wore full-on coverage, from the top of their heads down to their toes, a strange shimmering black material that looked like it would hold out every stitch of light. Even their faces were covered, giving them an eerie ghostlike quality. All of which could only mean one thing.
Vampires.
Two ran by me, barely sparing me a glance. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew I could use it to my advantage. With my back to the wall I slid down the hallway to the next interrogation door. I opened it and peered in. Tad sat in a chair, strapped down to it, his head resting on his chest. Stepping into the room, I shut the door behind me, then groaned. I was an idiot. One quick twist of the doorknob told me all I needed to know.
I’d just locked us in. But at least we were together.
“Tad. Wake up.” I hurried to his side and crouched next to him.
He groaned and lifted his face. In the short time we’d been there he’d been roughed up bad. His face was swollen. He had cuts and growing bruises on both cheeks. I gasped and put my hands on his face. “Why would they do this to you?”
“They didn’t like my answers. Can you untie me?”
I slid a hand over the zap straps. Pulling on them would only cut up his wrists, or maybe even cut his hands off. The chair was wooden, though.
I put a hand on either side of the chair and pushed with all I had in me.
It exploded out from under Tad, who tumbled to the floor. “Shit, sis. Ease up.”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to push so hard.”
“No, it’s all good.” He rolled to the side and slid his feet back through the loop his hands made. He brought the zap strap to his mouth and on one fang cut through it. “They really should invest in handcuffs.”
“I’m glad they didn’t,” I said.
He took the lead and I let him. “The door?”
“Locked. Sorry.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Sorry,” I whispered.
The sound of gunfire rippled through the air, and I backed away from the door.
Tad looked at the door and then to the window. “New plan. Break the mirror.”
“You mean window,” I corrected.
“No, I mean the two-way mirror.”
How had I been able to see through a two-way mirror? Only another question that made me wonder just what I was.
Merlin, what did you do to me?
Tad picked up the biggest piece of the chair, which happened to be the seat, and walked to the mirror. With a yell, he slammed it into the big surface, shattering it. The glass exploded, sending shards everywhere in a spray. The ones that landed at my feet blinked up at me as perfect mirrors. Dang, it had been a mirror. But I’d been able to see right through it. I frowned, trying to figure it out.