Wolf Song (Wolf Singer Prophecies Book 1)

my face this entire time?
Was this another fucking mind game from the people of this facility? I punched the glass. Smooth buttons emerged onto the surface itself. Already, the screams of the dying filled my ears, filling me with renewed urgency. I entered in my dad’s number as fast as I could. With a pneumatic whoosh, the cage opened for me and I hopped inside just as the panel snapped shut again.
Slaps of hands against the glass followed right behind me. I scooched farther back into the cage as a monstrous thing loomed behind the wave of people. I couldn’t capture the movements of the monster, nor could my brain figure out what my eyes were seeing, and soon it didn’t matter. All the people fell in a ruin of gore until there was nothing left.
"I would say you made the right choice."
I peered into the corner and the man in black was there again. "What the hell? Did you know that was going to happen?" I barely contained the terror in my voice.
"Did I know what? That there would be a larger-than-life lab-created monster who would cut down a whole host of rejected prisoners who’d exceeded their usefulness?" He shrugged. "I may have surmised it, but I didn't know it."
I blinked at his casual dismissal of life. What was with these psychopaths? That was what they were, too. Psychopaths. Heartless beings who only cared about their experiments.
And I was stuck in the cell with one of them. I started laughing, hysteria creeping in. “I’m gonna die. I’m surrounded by psychopaths and this is how I die.”
"You have nothing to worry about with me. If you didn't feel safe, you wouldn't have come inside this cage." He smiled in that sly and cunning way. "I wanted you to be here, really. It proved something to me. But I’m also sorry because it proved something to them."
"Them?"
"Yes. Them."
And as if on cue, torrents of water washed the blood and gore away, followed by high-powered jets of air. Silence descended once more.
The gleam in his eye was back. "Them."
The back of his cage opened, revealing a long white hallway and a team of waiting doctors, including Guerin. "That went swimmingly."
"What was that?" I asked.
"That was you passing the test. And you did so very well." He gestured to another researcher. "Take Project X up to the base for processing and follow-up procedures. Release him from the restraints, but keep a guard on him."
There was a little bit of shuffling. The man in black—Project X—seemed a little subdued, but he gave me a wink. Once the researcher pushed the button to release him, Project X’s body went slack.
The researcher paused, just for a moment. But that moment was all Project X needed. He sliced the nearest guard in the neck with his hand. The guard went down before Project X was restrained by the doctor. "Dammit, Doyle!"
Project X, or Doyle, it seemed, just laughed even as he was injected with something. As he passed out, he mumbled something that I couldn't understand.
Dr. Guerin rolled his eyes. "I told you to keep a guard on him." He looked at me. "It’s hard to find good help. I mean, really."
Then Guerin came closer to me and I really wished I could get away from him. Was it odd that I felt safer with Doyle the psychopath?
Guerin smiled, full and creepy. "It seems we're in a bit of luck. We've just produced a new batch of Alpha Skolls. It would be nice to introduce them to new blood."
I was strapped to a chair, not unlike what I'd seen and felt in my dad's memory. They were taking blood from me. And I really didn't want to know why they were so happy to do so. Nearby, the unconscious body of Doyle slumped in another cage.
I was alone.
As I gazed around, desperate for an escape, I realized that I was looking at a really clear night sky. Really clear. Like so vast.
Something was wrong. Like really wrong.
It wasn't the night sky, it was too…dense for it. Whatever I saw stole the words from my mouth, had me searching for a way to describe what I was seeing.
And then the view spun and an enormous blue planet filled the vista. Something I’d only read about in those old science textbooks and programs.
Earth.
I was looking at Earth. I was looking at Earth because I was no longer on Earth.
I was in space.
~Be calm, ramina.~
My eyes followed the voice to the prone body of Doyle. Was he talking to me while he was unconscious?
No, of course he wasn't unconscious.
He was playing possum.
~Your idioms are funny. And of course I'm conscious.~
How in the world was I able to hear him?
~Do you want me to explain these good people’s fucked up genetic testing, or would you prefer me to try to free us? Your choice.~
I swallowed my retort. Fat lot of good he could do anyway, considering he was stuck in the cage.
~As opposed to what? Being strapped to a chair like you?~ He opened his eyes, meeting my gaze. ~You may be on the other side of that cage, but in here, I'm the one with the free movement.~
"So what are you going to do about it?" I hissed at him.
He shifted positions, quiet and deadly. That was what this man was. Living night. Quiet. Deadly. ~Be ready, little girl.~
Well, that annoying phrasing was uncalled for. "Look, I know you're all big and bad and everything, but that doesn't mean that you get to call me a little girl, got it?"
~I’ve been around far longer, so until you see about a hundred years? I get to call you whatever I want.~ Before I could say anything, because oh my word did I want to, he quieted me.
~Wait.~
A medical tech came toward me to check my bloodwork. She took the needles out of my arms and then something strange happened. It was like she had stars in her eyes and