Page 193 of Interion

I unzipped it and tossed it to him. Ambrose stopped in the middle of the square, stunned for a moment, holding the lab coat in his hands. Then he shouted after me:

“If you need to talk, I’ll be here.”

“I don’t want to talk. I want to punch someone.”

And that someone was very specific in my mind.

Chapter 49

Zion chased Kiara all over the hospital. Well, he followed the trail of destruction she left in her wake. The chimera was probably just having fun, but people didn’t see it that way. A three-foot-tall animal with a lion’s face could be terrifying to anyone who wasn’t used to it. When the corridor ended, he sighed, realizing she’d gone down the stairs, and tugged on the psychic leash.

“Kiara? Enough of this chaos—you know you can’t run around scaring people.”

He waited, but she didn’t respond. The scent was still fresh on the stairs, so he headed down, grunting in frustration at having to hunt her down. He could track her by the collar, but opening the app would probably take longer than just finding her himself. He ran down the steps until they ended at the emergency exit in the basement. Her scent led toward the corridor, and Zion threw open the door with a bang.

“Bringing you here was a terrible idea. Where are you? This isn’t a game, Kiara.”

He looked down the basement corridor. This was the place Kyller refused to come to, swearing she’d seen something moving in the darkness. The corridor was empty except for people working in the rooms, absorbed in their tasks. Zion spotted the chimera sitting in front of the last door; the archemic globe above her flickered like it had a bad connection. He frowned and called to her through the leash, but she ignored him as if he weren’t even there. The general dematerialized and reappeared behind her. The globe kept flickering on and off. Slowly, Zion drew a dagger from his belt and looked at what she was staring at. It was the room of the man he’d brought from outside the walls.

“Kiara?” Zion called, but she seemed hypnotized, staring at the bed where the ventilation machines clicked and hummed, keeping the man alive. Gently, he touched the chimera’s white mane, and she immediately jumped, snapping out of the trance and looking at him, startled. The light finally stabilized.

“What are you doing here?”

She blinked a few times, looking around in confusion.

“I don’t know. I thought someone was calling me.”

“Down here? In this room?” Zion asked, surprised. Besides Ambrose, no one else knew Kiara.

“I think so. The voice was familiar.” She stared at the bed, uncomfortable with the man lying there.

“Do you think you know him?” Zion asked, pointing to the dying man. She shook her head, then got up and walked into the room. Zion followed close behind. When she reached the bed, she studied the feeric’s face inch by inch.

“I don’t recognize the body, but the voice was familiar.”

Zion stared at the man a moment longer. He wasn’t a psychic, and he was in a coma. There was no way it could be him. He scratched Kiara’s head.

“The voice... Do you think it could hurt you?” he asked, looking Kiara in the eyes.

She shook her head, then sniffed, poking the man’s hand with her cold snout.

“It’s not dangerous to me. It didn’t want to hurt me, it just... called me. Or I think it called me—I don’t know. I’m hungry. Can we go home now?”

“I can take you home right after you visit the vet. Kyller scheduled a routine checkup.”

The chimera snorted in irritation.

“This again?”

“You know it’s not every day, and today especially is not a good day to irritate Kyller.”

“Irritate the female? You make the mess and I’m the one who pays?”

Zion rolled his eyes and didn’t bother responding to Kiara, just transported them both to the doctor.

An hour later, he was still thinking about what had happened in the hospital basement when, after the appointment, he transported them both to the garden at home. He would call Serguei again to discuss it. This was already the second time something abnormal had occurred in the basement, and he feared something might happen to Kyller.

He climbed the steps with his head full of problems and no solutions. He felt like there was a web of interconnected mysteries unfolding right under his nose, but he couldn’t see what it was, couldn’t understand where any of it was heading.