* * *
“I want to see Juliana,” Sebastian insisted. “Take me to her, right now!”
He stood in the hallway of the male dormitory, arms crossed, blocking Niklaus in his room as Niklaus was trying to get out.
“Move aside,” Niklaus said. “Or do you want me to move you?”
Sebastian just stared at him, his eyes burning. It had been two days since Alise separated him from Mia, and she hadn’t touched him since. The spell of her power had finally worn off, leaving him furious and worried sick about Juliana, whom he’d hadn’t seen in weeks. He’d been like a drug addict, thinking of nothing but his next dose. Looking back, he could see how Alise had manipulated him, doing her best to make him forget about Juliana, reassuring him that she was doing well whenever he remembered to ask, then dosing him hard so that his mind was full of empty bliss for hours.
Now he was awake. He was himself again, and he needed to find Juliana. He felt sick for the way he’d spent his time, the power that Alise wielded over him. Her ability had turned out to be far more dangerous than Sebastian had ever expected.
“Juliana,” Sebastian said. “Now, Niklaus.”
Niklaus stepped closer, until he was only inches from Sebastian. “Last warning.”
Sebastian didn’t move. “Now,” he said again.
Niklaus punched him in the face, sending him staggering back into the hall, drops of blood falling from his nose. Sebastian quickly healed and recovered, and he lunged at Niklaus, hitting him in the stomach. He knew better than to punch anyone in the face, or anywhere there was bare skin, because Sebastian’s fist was accompanied by a burst of healing energy that sort of made his punch pointless.
Niklaus doubled over with Sebastian’s fist in his solar plexus, but then lunged forward, slamming Sebastian against the far wall of the corridor. Sebastian tried to bring his elbow down on Niklaus’ head, but Niklaus twisted free and then began pummeling him. With each impact, Sebastian felt his courage wane and fear grow inside him. He fought back as best as he could, hitting Niklaus in the chest and stomach and sending him staggering back for a moment, then Niklaus came back with an uppercut to his jaw, filling Sebastian’s head with exploding stars.
Niklaus shoved him against the wall and clutched his throat, filling him with fear. Niklaus leaned in close again, his gray eyes burning, his teeth bared in a smile.
For a moment, Sebastian saw through the human mask of Niklaus to the monster behind it, a thing the size of a great mountain, made of rock and bone, a thousand horns on its massive dinosaur-skull head, dark fire burning deep inside its bony eye sockets. It made an ear-shattering inhuman screech, loud enough to tear worlds apart. The fear-giver.
Then he was trembling and useless, staring into Niklaus’ eyes.
“You made a mistake,” Niklaus whispered. “Let’s get you into a cell downstairs.”
Niklaus punched him again, then dragged him out of the hall, shouting for more guards.
Sebastian spent hours shivering alone in a dim concrete cell, terrified by every sound that echoed through the cellblock, paranoid that they were going to punish Juliana for his actions. Frightened that she might already be dead, and nobody had told him.
Niklaus’ spell gradually wore off, but he was still trembling when the panel outside his barred window opened. It was Alise, her usually bubbly smile gone, her face hard and cold and slathered in makeup.
“Here he is,” Alise said, to someone he couldn’t see. “Why did you have to mess it all up, Sebastian? Everything was going so well for you.”
“I just wanted to see Juliana.”
“That’s too bad. Now you’ll never get to see anyone, not for a long time. A shame, with your children on the way.”
“I don’t have any children.”
“Oh, no one’s told you?” Now Alise’s smile was back. “Juliana is pregnant with your child. So is Mia. The first two babies of our supernormal breeding project, true Aryans of the future.”
“What breeding project?”
“You’ll never see either of the children, of course,” Alise said. “They belong to the Reich. They will be raised and educated properly. One day, they might command armies. You’ll never know. You’ll be down here, wishing you had never caused us any trouble.”
Sebastian walked to the barred window, anger burning away the cobwebs of fear Niklaus had left in him. “They’re both pregnant?”
“One day, my child will command both of yours,” Alise said. “I intend to have a son, and raise him to lead the Reich.”
“You’re pregnant, too?”