Page 297 of Awakened

“He wanted me to wake them up.”

“Wake them up,” Vae repeats flatly.

“By the time I realized what I really had in front of me, I was in too deep. He funded all my research without a single complaint. He paid off my house, my car, my debts—even built me my own lab. I should have seen that something was wrong, but my findings,” he bites down on the inside of his cheek and looks away, face heating in obvious shame. “I was too excited about what I found.”

“At some point in the decade between Idril’s birth and then, Jonathan had concluded that he’d had it all wrong before—that it wasn’t the bloodline that mattered, but the blood itself. Unbeknownst to me, he began negotiating with the Severed around that time. Now, I’m fairly sure he was already working with others, but to this day I haven’t figured out who. And as for the Severed, I don’t think they actually met face to face until a year ago, but when they did, they quickly came to an agreement.”

Gav's expression is tight. “What agreement?”

“Varenthrall wants an army,” he admits bitterly. “The Severed want a weapon strong enough to wipe out vampires for good. He promised them both in the form of dozens of children born with supernatural abilities and raised from infancy to obey only Jonathan. They would be loyal only to him. Fight for only him. The Severed, from what I understand, funded Jonathan to continue his research, and they both worked to find and kidnap more Omegas. They even went so far as to wipe them completely from the Omega Registry. Those Omegas were injected with a serum made by modifying the DNA from Annalise, force-Bonded and bred, and their children would be raised as super-soldiers.”

“Which Varenthrall would essentially rent out to the Severed in their war against vampires,” Dax mutters, piecing it together easily. “Fates, that’s sick.”

“There was only one problem,” Albertson whispers. His scent shifts, turning burnt and bitter with fear. “It wouldn’t work. I couldn’t get the dormant genes in Annalise’s blood to ‘wake up.’ When it became clear that nothing I did would produce the results he wanted, I was honestly relieved. I didn’t want to be a part of this anymore. I hadn’t for a very long time. I spent years and years working on this project… and while the scientist in me was awed by my findings, I prayed every time I attempted to dose an Omega that it would fail.”

“It should have,” Dax replies. “So what the fuck happened?”

The Beta doesn’t speak for long moments. The silence goes on for so long that I wonder if he has any plans to answer at all. The fear and shame radiating off of him is so thick it’s starting to make me nauseous.

Gav had already sent the box away to be ID'd, but the smell still lingers. Combined with the Doctor’s scent, it’s a struggle to take a deep enough breath without gagging.

“I fucked up.” Alberton’s words immediately put me on edge.

“Explain,” I demand through gritted teeth, ignoring the way he seems to shrink in shame.

“I was curious about Idril’s blood. I took a sample during one of her visits and ran it, just to sate my curiosity. No one knew. No one but me.” He leans in, bracing his elbows on the table and slumping forward, dejected. Never before have I seen a man so obviously regret a terrible choice.

And he doesn’t even know that whatever choice he made, it’s not the only one he’ll come to regret. If he’s why my Mate’s being targeted by her psychotic father after finally escaping him, I’ll break the rules of Sanctuary and laugh while I do it.

“You can’t even imagine what I found,” he whispers, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes like the coward he is.

“I have a pretty fucking good idea,” Dax replies sharply. “Blood that doesn’t decay and shimmers in the light. That smells like ozone and lavender and amber when it hits the air.” He leans forward slowly, menacingly. “Or are you referring to the way things grow when her blood is placed in soil? Or maybe the way it reacts to fire?”

“It—what?” All the color drains from his face, and he starts to shake his head in furious denial. “No! No—I—I never thought to test it with outside stimuli. All the rest, yes, I saw that as well, but… gods,” he exhales a shocked breath. “Things grow out of soil? What grows? You have to tell me, this is⁠—”

“I don’t have to tell you shit,” Dax snaps. “I’m starting to see where this is going. You ran Idril’s DNA. Her father found out that her markers were active, and you’re the reason he wants her back. Does that about sum it up?”

Fates… it all makes so much sense now. Annalise’s blood wouldn’t respond or do anything because she was never the carrier. Idril is. She always has been.

How many generations of women, going back how many thousands of years, have carried these dormant genes? And what in the Fates caused Idril’s to be the first to activate?

The Beta falls back into his chair with a soft thud. He stares at the ceiling like it might hold answers, then shakes his head.

“You’re right, but you’re also wrong.” His words crack with emotion. “He started threatening my ex-wife. My children. He said if I didn’t start giving him results, he would make sure there were no more distractions so I could concentrate on what I was being paid to do. So I swapped out Idril’s blood for Annalise’s. I never told him. I swear to you, I never told him.” He scans the room, pleading with each of us wordlessly to believe him.

“I just needed some time,” he explains. “Time to get my family somewhere safe, where Jonathan couldn’t find them. Time to figure out how to escape. As soon as Annalise died, I knew it was only a matter of time before Jonathan came for Idril. She was only ever a backup copy of the key to him. He was always so sure her blood was less important than Annalise’s.”

“But he knows now, I’m assuming?” Gavran’s heavy amber eyes narrow on the Beta. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

Albertson shrugs. “If he doesn’t know yet, he will soon. He was having me draw blood for a while to keep as a backup. Idril was always so small, though. I needed enough blood to keep running my experiments and to swap out her blood with Annalise’s, but I also couldn’t draw too much because her body couldn’t take it.”

“What do you mean her body couldn’t take it?” Vae’s question comes out as a whisper, and his hands grip his glass so tightly I’m shocked it hasn’t shattered. The look of horror on his face is gut-wrenching.

“I mean, he would punish her for whatever slight he could come up with, lad.” He tries to throw his hands up in exasperation, but the cuffs keep them still. With a huff, he lets his hands fall into his lap.

“He spent years physically starving her for the smallest infractions—leaving her room without his permission, walking too loudly, humming under her breath when she was meant to be quiet. Whatever bullshit he could think up. I heard his guards discussing it on multiple occasions. The girl was in a constant state of starvation, but that wasn’t anything compared to the punishments I found out about much later. Those… they were barbaric.”

“And yet you chose to keep silent,” Soren’s voice is soft, but each word is an accusation. “Which makes you just as culpable as her father.”