Gifted

Interlude

Present Day

Charles Du-Ponte walked to the bottom of the stone stairs. "Wait here." He instructed his only son, who nodded at his father's request without question, never daring to speak unless requested to do so.

Walking along the darkened corridor. The smell hit him first, a rancid odor, musty, pungent. He took his next breath through his mouth limiting the damage to his nose. The buzzing from the small fluorescent lighting above irritated his already aggravated mood.

Continuing onwards, he was forced to stop as a howling-scream came rushing towards him, assaulting his eardrums, echoing all around him before fading into the foul-smelling air.

Charles's heart rate quickened, a coldness brushed against his hardened cheeks as he turned the corner, walking the last few steps he stood before a huge two-way glass panel set into the wall. He was rewarded with a sight that warmed his blackened heart. Inside the darkened room was a future he had dreamt of for many years, he was on the cusp of a breakthrough, he could almost taste it.

Before him was a converted workroom or as it was now known his biological science laboratory. One might describe it as archaic, like something out of the 1960s, but the equipment dotted around the sterile room was state-of-the-art, with stainless steel centrifuges and PCR machines, no expense had been spared.

Charles watched the man he had come to see stood in front of an opened walk-in refrigerator, where a water bath also resided. He stood well over six feet and weighed two hundred and four pounds. His massive shoulders and heavy shock of unruly black hair combined, gave him the appearance of a prize fighter rather than a doctor with more PHD's to his name than personality.

Charles glanced around the rest of the room. His attention was drawn to the corner where a man lay—or rather a beast, or perhaps both. Huge in size, part man, part wolf.

Strapped down, its matted head of hair was tilted towards the glass, its eyes open but unseeing, dry and dull. Its mouth cracked open - a heavy purple tongue bulging behind its blackened lips. Death was close, of that he was sure. Charles clenched his jaw, the only emotion he felt was the rush of disappointment, no sympathy existed for the dying creature.

He thought back to his daughter, Hannah and his own stupidity ordering her execution - letting his pride rule his emotions without testing her first. She had been his first, the key to the future he craved. He clenched and unclenched his fists at the memory, time on this occasion had not been a healer.

His inadequate son had proved a vast disappointment and his offspring no better. Yes, he had Sage, but her gift had unexpected side effects—she wasn't what he had sought from his genetic experiments, although a useful tool and he wasn't done with her yet. She would keep the new keeper of Wolfe industries under control until he was ready to take the reins.

He heard the door open to see the hulking Dr Calder exit the room.

Charles let out a heavy sigh already steeling himself the disappointing news he was about to receive. "I'm guessing you will tell me it failed—again."  He was becoming impatient with him, this doctor. A genius as he had been told, had shown such promise four years earlier, even removing his cancer and slowing his ageing process.

Dr Harrison Calder, a genius in genetic engineering stared at Charles head on. He wasn't afraid of the man or perhaps more a beast than the one that lay dying in his laboratory. He eyeballed him with his usual unreadable expression. "I have made progress." His tone low, mumbled with disinterest, he detested interruptions. "You cannot keep delivering me this diluted gene pool to work with. I need a pure-bred line."

Charles's smile hardened on his face. "Don't worry my dear Dr Calder, tonight we have guests from an old family line, one of the oldest." The Stone family.

He looked back inside the room towards the creature, its face paler than moments ago. "And this time doctor— not only do you have a pure blood line that stretches back many generations, you will have two excellent specimens to experiment on."

Looking back towards Dr Calder, the smile on his face alarmed the doctor somewhat, but he cared little for him. Only his work was of importance and if Du-Ponte could get him what he required; he was sure the results he desired would be within his grasp.

Charles once again turned his attention to the room, a shudder passed through him, but it wasn't coldness that was upon him, it was the sense of change was in reach—finally.

Tonight, everything would shift in his favour.