Chapter 5

Carol is given a strange and possibly illegal punishment by her father. Opal and Giovanni, meanwhile, break into her house in an attempt to gather clues as to her disappearance.

Graham looked up.

While he couldn’t see it, he knew his eyes would be glowing a dark red with how hungry the scientists kept him. They kept him like this on purpose, he knew; in this weakened state, unable to fight back.

The thing that had made him look up was the sound of footsteps approaching his cell door. The sound of someone dragging along someone else, who sounded like they were struggling. Graham knew that sound. It meant he was about to be fed. He perked up, knowing if he pretended to be asleep, they’d just drop his meal off at the next cell over. His claws tapped impatiently at the cold tile as he waited for the door to open.

The lock clicked, and the door cast a bright gray light into the darker grey of the room. The light turned on, and he hissed; another measure against him, he supposed. Artificial light like this wasn’t as dangerous as the sun outside, but it still burned when one’s eyes were used to the dark.

He glared at the droopy-eyed, bespectacled man who’d entered. He was middle-aged, but his hair was already silver from long nights spent sleepless. His face had been unshaven for what seemed like years now, and his eyes--which were, from what Graham could tell, a mid-gray.

“Dr. Grant,” he hissed through his sharp teeth. “You should get some rest. Your visage is looking a tad bit ashen. I can assist you in getting to sleep, if you desire.”

Dr. Grant scoffed without humor. “Told you a million times, you’re just seeing gray.” He shoved Graham’s meal at him--a young girl with skin a slightly darker shade of gray than the scientist. She looked at him with eyes full of betrayal.

“Dad, what are you doing?” she asked.

Graham cocked a brow. “Dad?” He looked between the girl and the man, curiosity piqued. “Why, Dr. Grant, I hardly thought you could even attract another human, let alone one of the opposite sex. How you people live long enough to breed both confuses and terrifies me.”

“Save it, E-2,” the man grunted. “Carol, you know what you’ve done. Now I can’t trust you outside of this lab, and I can’t very well keep you here and expect you not to break out.”

“You had no right keeping that boy here!”

“He was the most important experiment here. And now I have to devote valuable manpower into finding and retrieving him.” The man sighed. “Do you have any idea what you did to him? It’s been years since he’s been outside. If the culture shock hasn’t killed him yet, something else in that forest will, and you’re going to have a lot more to make up for if we can’t save him in time.”

Graham kept his expression carefully devoid of emotion. So...all that commotion the other day was caused by this girl trying to rescue one of the specimens.

And, judging by what Graham was feeling, even now, she’d succeeded. No wonder he was feeling so much love for the color green. He couldn’t even see green.

“E-2, I want you to enthrall Carol here,” the scientist was saying. “And then, I want you to tell me where Subject A-7 is. You can manage that, right?”

“How would I know where the runt is?” Graham said, rolling his eyes.

“You bit him,” the man said, a little smugly. “I read it in the report from the day the categories E and A were stored in the same area. It said you fed on him. I am not an idiot, E-2--”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” Graham mumbled. Carol looked like she was trying not to giggle.

“You know where he is,” Dr. Grant said harshly, shooting a glare at his daughter. “Now, I know how hungry you are. I’ve had a lot of time to figure out how far I can push you. Either you bite her, now, when you still have the presence of mind not to drain her dry, or she comes back in two weeks when you’ve had enough time to stew a bit.”

Graham cocked a brow. “And what will you offer me in return for finding your...ah, ‘most important experiment’? You can’t tell me you’ll be using your daughter as a bribe on both counts. That’s hardly a fair exchange.”

Dr. Grant’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t forget how thin the ice is beneath your sharp little claws,” he told the dracopire. “Your prize will be your continued existence. Fail me, and I can’t promise it will continue. How would your thralls feel if you died a gruesome death? Would you be able to hide that from them?”

Graham’s brows knitted, but beneath his otherwise collected composure, he was seething.

“I warn you,” he said in a dangerous tone, “once my brother hears of what you’ve done to me, you shan’t get off lightly.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Grant said, gesturing at his daughter. He smirked as Graham’s stomach gurgled audibly. “Don’t be shy. This is her punishment for defying her father.”

Graham sighed as he took Carol’s wrist, pulling her close enough to sink his fangs into her neck. “I truly am sorry for this,” he murmured into her ear before he bit down.

The public library was surprisingly good for books on the darker side of magic--even if it did have a few Silver Ravenwolf titles. Opal walked toward home, a stack of these books in her arms. She was already envisioning the mug of tea she’d enjoy these books with, before she could remind herself that this wasn’t about enjoying tea. Not at the moment. A few of these books contained tracking spells--how to make dowsing rods, find missing people, things like that. Jaelyn and Ruby were doing their part; it was only fair Opal use her own skills.

On her way home, she paused by the Grants’ house. She shifted all the books into one arm as she walked up the porch steps, and opened  the screen door to knock.

The house was dark, so she wasn’t expecting an answer. She waited a few moments, knocked again, and sighed as the door remained closed.

She was about to back up and leave, but then the door swung open. Opal’s hopes were raised for a moment, until she saw that neither Everest nor Carol had answered.

Instead, the person who stood in the door was Giovanni del Cielo, the new kid in school.

He looked faintly surprised to see her there, but she was immensely surprised that he was here. So much so that she dropped her books and remained speechless, staring at him.

They stood like that, staring quietly at each other, before she cleared her throat.

“You don’t live here,” she said. “Why did you answer the door?”

“Because you knocked,” Giovanni answered matter-of-factly.

There followed another moment of silence before she thought to ask, “What are you doing here?”

Giovanni blinked, pushing up his glasses. She could have laughed--those were so ill-fitting, she was surprised they hadn’t fallen off entirely.

“I am looking for clues,” he replied.

She pursed her lips.

“I am not breaking the law,” he added.

She raised a brow. “You’re not? You’re trespassing on private property,” she said.

He sighed. “I am not a human.”

“The laws apply to demons, too.”

He shook his head. “I am not demonic, either. I am a spiritual entity, only able to function in a bipedal form that is manufactured to house my being. I’m essentially one of your...mecha animes.”

Opal was about ready to turn around and pretend this encounter had never happened.

“Okay, so ignoring all that...what are you collecting clues for?” she asked.

Giovanni blinked. Knowing what he was now, that was an odd thing for him to do. In fact, he looked really human for what he claimed to be.

“It is one of my tasks to uncover what happened to Carol Grant,” he replied. “The father is not here, so I thought I could look around for a minute. Carol’s missing, you know.”

“I know that,” Opal huffed, pushing past him into the house. It felt almost wrong to be in Carol’s house when she wasn’t there--of course, technically, it was wrong. She was afraid that Dr. Grant would return while they were in here, but of course she could always claim that she was dropping off some homework.

With that thought, she went back out to grab the books she’d dropped in case she needed to leave them with her father.

“Where have you been looking?” she asked.

“I just got here,” he answered. “I’ve only managed to look through the kitchen.”

“So you came through the back door,” she said. “It’s the one that opens into the kitchen.”

He nodded.

“Okay, well, maybe we can check the doctor’s study,” she said. “Come on.”

“Weren’t you concerned about the legality of my being here?” he pointed out.

She turned back to fix him with a stern look. “Yes, but I’m more concerned whether your intentions are going to be harmful to my friend or not,” she explained. “Plus, you’ll be out quicker if I show you where everything is. Come on.”

He nodded and followed her to the study. She looked around the room; bookshelves lined one wall; a big, curtained window set in another wall opened out into the backyard. The rusty-brown curtains were closed. An antique landline phone sat on the desk that stood against the last wall, next to what looked like a placemat--probably where he kept his computer.

For some reason, that amused her. He used an antique phone and a “newfangled” laptop. It was sort of ironic.

Also on the desk were a sticky note and a framed family photo. The photo looked a few years old; Carol looked about six, and an older woman, short and darker-skinned, that Opal knew as Maria Desviado. Carol’s mother, now deceased.

The sticky note had a phone number written on it. Opal saved it in her smartphone, but didn’t touch the note.

“Don’t touch anything that looks important,” she told Giovanni. “Dr. Grant is pretty meticulous about details.”

That looks important,” the “automaton” said, pointing at the rug. The corner had been flipped up, and Opal noticed it was a slightly grayer shade of yellow than the rest of the rug.

She frowned. It almost looked as though he’d been in a hurry to leave, but that corner of the rug was closest to the desk, which was farther away from the door.

Before she could speak, a scraping sound came from the table. Opal knew enough about the situation to quickly nudge Giovanni toward the door, but before they exited, she caught a glimpse of the desk moving slowly away from the wall.

She pointed to a room down the hall, and Giovanni followed her wordlessly. They entered Carol’s room, Opal making sure to leave the door ajar. She took a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled a note that said, “Homework for criminology class. - Opal”. Her heart pounding in her chest, she took out one of the books and laid it on Carol’s pillow.

“Footsteps,” Giovanni warned, and Opal nodded as she placed the note on the book. Straightening, she turned toward the door just as it opened.

Her eyes widened.

“Opal?” Carol asked, glancing from her to Giovanni, and then to the book on her pillow. Her father, Everest Grant, stepped up behind her, a suspicious look on his face.

“I’m just dropping off a book you’ll need for school,” she answered. “I thought you’d be back soon, so I brought your homework. I’m sorry for intruding, Dr. Grant, but I didn’t want to leave a library book on the porch where it could get stolen.”

For a second, Opal didn’t think he’d buy it. She wasn’t worried about Carol--well, she was, but she and Carol had a lot of secrets together; the other girl would play along regardless. She was confused, too. Carol had been missing for weeks. She burned with questions, but she’d save them for the following day.

Dr. Grant eventually sighed as if world-weary. “Next time, please wait until I get back before you barge in,” he said. “And who’s this?”

“Oh.” Giovanni surprised Opal by giving the doctor a winning smile and holding his hand out. “Giovanni del Cielo, sir. It is nice to meet you.”

“I was having him escort me from the library,” she said. “So I could tell him about PITF. He seemed really interested in it when I said I was bringing Carol her homework. We’d better go, though, my moron of a brother might come after me if I get home too late. See you at school tomorrow, Carol?”

Dr. Grant shook Giovanni’s hand, raising a brow as he pulled his hand back. “We’ll have to see how she feels. She’s only just got home from a long visit to her mother’s parents.”

Opal nodded. She couldn’t believe she was getting away with this. “I understand. See you later, Carol,” she said, gesturing for Giovanni to follow her out.

Carol looked distant as she nodded. Opal frowned, but reasoned that if Carol had just gotten home from Mexico, where her grandparents were, she must be jetlagged or something.

Once out of the house, the demon girl sighed in relief, clutching her remaining books to her chest. Giovanni gave her an odd look.

“I suppose we don’t have to worry about where your friend went,” he said, holding out a hand.

Opal took it to steady herself, pursing her lips. She shook her head.

“No...I think there’s a lot to worry about there,” she said. “I’m not sure what that was, but...it didn’t seem right.”

“So what do we do?”

Opal raised a brow. “You’re not exactly part of the team. Why is this a ‘we’ now?”

Giovanni smiled at her. “I had more than one task to accomplish here. I have come a long way to meet you and your ‘team’. So why not tell me more of this PITF I am supposedly so interested in?”

She stared at him quizzically. He seemed so bent on whatever “tasks” he’d been given. He was an object of their suspicion from day one. And yet he was acting so buddy-buddy with her now...It just didn’t make sense.

But, she supposed, this might be a good way to get the “intel” on him that Jaelyn had been so adamant about.

“Sure,” she said. “I’ll walk you home and answer any questions you have that aren’t prodding at classified information.”

He smiled. She wondered what his teeth were made of; they looked almost human.

“We have a deal,” he answered.