The floor was moving beneath me. No, I was moving. Someone had me by the arms, their fingers pinching my skin, bruising me. My heels were dragging on the floor, and my head felt heavy, my eyes kept fluttering open and closed.
All I could see was the floor, and even that blurred in and out as fatigue weighed down my every limb.
Don't sleep. Don't sleep.
I shook my head, biting my tongue hard to try to stay awake. When I tilted my head I was able to peer through my hair enough to see that Eli was being dragged beside me. He was completely limp, and in the glance I got it looked like there was blood dripping down his face.
Voices floated somewhere above me, jerking me out of my terrified stupor.
"Put her on the far table. Not him. Just keep him out of the way."
The room lurched suddenly around me, and then my back hit the surface of something hard and cold, and my head snapped back. Something struck my temple and sent the room spinning again. I grimaced, but the drugs were obviously strong, since I barely felt it.
"Careful, you imbecile." Cain's voice, hard and angry, and there was a shuffling noise after, and something eased underneath my head. A flat cushion, maybe a bunched up sweater or jacket, I wasn't sure. His arm moved in my peripheral vision and I wanted to lean over and bite him. To hurt him somehow. But I couldn't move, and the hand withdrew.
"It doesn't matter anyways." The gravelly voice was the grandfather, and I tried to shake off the drugs and sit up. My head spun, I couldn't even lift it.
"What's that mean?" Cain's voice was low now, laced with something I couldn't place.
There was a metallic ping and then his grandfather said, "She's been altogether too much trouble. We can figure out what we did right later, with an autopsy."
"You said we'd take her with us." Now Cain's voice held a definite note of anger.
"I didn't say alive or dead," Cain's grandfather grunted. "She'll be easier to transport this way."
"As a deadweight? I hardly think so."
A sharp crack followed, right next to my ear. My adrenaline spiked, and I would have jumped if I could move. "Cain!"
Silence followed, and then...
"I can't help thinking that you're protesting for another reason."
"I'm not. I already told you." His voice was low and tight with anger. I could hear him moving behind me, shuffling back, as if he were trying to put space between him and his grandfather. "I hate it when you assume that about me. That I'm weak, like him."
Eli, he meant Eli.
Fire flickered to life in my belly, an anger so hot that it felt like it might consume me. Eli was worth a thousand Cain's. He was braver than his brother would ever be. Cain was the coward, the one too afraid to disobey his monstrous grandfather.
And I didn't even know where they'd put Eli. They weren't even looking at him, or talking about him. For all I knew he could be slumped over in the corner, bleeding to death.
Another surge of adrenaline shot through me, driven on a wave of rage. Pins and needles swept through my feet and up my legs, crept over my fingers and up my hands. I could feel my body again. Slowly, but surely.
But maybe too slowly.
"I'm not like him," Cain was saying. "I just think it's foolish to throw away our star test subject. You're letting your temper get the best of you here."
"She's nothing but a problem."
"You're proving my point, grandfather. You're a scientist, you should act like one."
There was another crash, this time near my feet, and it shook the table I was lying on. "How dare you!"
Another wave of tingling swept up my legs. Good. If Cain kept his grandfather talking long enough I might be able to regain the use of my body.
Desperate, I tried to grasp the power again, stretching out with my senses. This time there was something in response, though it was too faint to grasp. I could sense Cain at least, but it felt like he was a hundred miles away instead of a few feet. His grandfather I couldn't sense at all.
That wasn't what I wanted.
As much as I wanted to rip the water out of Cain's body he was the only thing keeping me alive right now. It was very likely that if I took him down his grandfather would kill me immediately.
There was a low groan from somewhere behind me.
This time when I tried to turn my head I managed, just a slight movement, and managed to catch a glimpse of Eli slumped between two guards. To my alarm, I could see thick, sticky drops of blood pooling underneath him. His head wound was still bleeding.
Those idiots were going to let him bleed to death if I didn't stop them.
"Don't interrupt my work, Cain. You know better than that. This has always been my battle. I decide how this facility runs."
"You won't have a facility for much longer," Cain hissed back. "Or can't you see how vastly outnumbered we are?"
"It makes no difference—"
A muffled explosion cut him off, and beneath me, the table vibrated, shaking my body. Somewhere overhead the low wail of an alarm started up. It reminded me of the night I'd fled this place and I grimaced, blinking frantically to clear my vision the rest of the way. What the hell was happening?
"And there it is," Cain snapped. "They've got to be inside now. See? We take her and run."
"This isn't up for debate, boy!" Cain's grandfather turned. I tried not to move too much, not wanting to attract their attention, but I saw him wave a hand at the group of soldiers surrounding Eli. "Prop him up somewhere and start a barricade."
"You're going to block us in here? Are you senile?" Cain's voice was verging on panic suddenly, and he drew back from his grandfather.
"I'm going to do what I have to do. If I die, so be it. My research is saved in the vaults below. Someone will find it eventually."
"You're insane."
"This is how it has to happen."
Behind me the old man shifted, and Cain yelled, "No!"
Something gripped my neck, making my heart jump into my throat, stopping my breath in my lungs.
There was the metallic ping of the needle and then,
"Sorry, boy. Look away if you have to."
This was it. He was going to actually do it.
I tried to force my hand to move, pictured it snapping up off the table, my fingers grasping the old man's wrist, yanking that deadly needle away from my neck.
My fingers twitched. My arm jumped.
Still not enough.
There was a shout then and I jerked my head up to see Cain barrel into his grandfather, catching him off guard, slamming him into the operating table behind them. The old man struck his head on the table, but he was back up in seconds, swinging his fists and roaring in fury, like some ancient titan awakened from the depths.
There was no doubt in my mind that he was about to kill his grandson.
Movement from the back of the room caught my eye, Eli had hauled himself up somehow, crawled several feet from where he'd been laying. His eyes were fixed on his grandfather and his brother, and the blood was still running in trails down his face.
The needle, he was making his way straight for the needle, which had rolled under the counter a few feet away from him.
It took forever for him to reach it, it felt like forever. In the space of that time Cain and his grandfather beat one another bloody. The old man was ruthless, swinging for his grandson's face, sending Cain flying back against the table this time. Cain's grandfather leapt forward as soon as he saw his opponent was down, kicking at his ribs. An audible cracking sound reached me all the way from across the room, and Cain screamed, a harsh, terrible sound that must have come from the pit of his stomach.
Then Eli was in between them, somehow standing, though he swayed like a laurel tree in a strong wind, grasping his grandfather's shirt. He struck out with his other hand and the needle glittered under the light, plunging into the old man's neck.
Eli's grandfather collapsed, first to his knees, slowly, and stayed there almost like he was praying. He looked up at his grandson, his wrinkled face slack with shock. His jaw worked, and spittle flew from his lips, but no words.
Cain and Eli stood side by side, twins, both so dark and solemn. Both so different. They stared as their grandfather gasped for air, their faces white and bloody. Cain's nose had ended up crooked, broken by his grandfather's fist.
Then the old man rocked forward and hit the ground with a muffled thud. He hadn't even got any words out. I shut my eyes, glad of it.