Consuming Fire

Chapter 7

Hunter was summoned to Dr. Wolfe's company again later that day. Will wasn't in his cell when she passed. Perhaps he was in the shower or being fed. He seemed to be better treated in the loneliness of the Death Caves than in the cells above where he was operated on almost every day. Dr. Wolfe must've lost interest in him after all the drama.

When the doctor beckoned her inside his office, she was pleased to see a long strap over the bridge of his bruised nose. Dried blood flaked around the edges of it. She couldn't hide her smile.

"If I'd have known you'd get cocky," he growled, "I wouldn't have showed you your father."

"I'm hope I'm here because you're going to tell me how you found him."

"Firstly-" He handed her a black key to unlock her bracelets. "Remove those broken restraints and attach this one please."

Hunter reached for the new cuff - noting how much heavier and more sophisticated it was - and stared at him expectantly.

"Are you going to make me?"

He rolled his eyes, tired of their banter, and summoned a guard who stood near the door. Nodding, the guard unlocked the faulty silver bracelets she was so accustomed to and clipped the new one around her wrist. A blue light blinked on an uncomfortable tightness wrapped itself around her skin, numbing it. The bracelet felt like a block of ice. As an added restraint, the guard pulled her hands behind her and strapped them together with a sharp piece of plastic.

"Happy now?" She raised an eyebrow.

Dr. Wolfe muttered under his breath about protecting his nose and then relaxed in his chair. "I must say, Hunter, I never expected us to be here. Isn't it funny how we have such strong dreams, and even though they don't go the way we hoped-" he indicated to her as if she were some twist he didn't see coming, "-we still end up where we're supposed to, with our dreams laid out before us like a newborn child, more wonderful than we ever imagined."

"You dreamed of an empty institution, no family or friends of any kind, a reputation as a whack-job psycho and a broken nose?" Hunter shook her head. "That's a pretty sad little dream, Doc, but I won't judge."

Dr. Wolfe didn't laugh at all. In fact, he was mildly shocked. She was cracking jokes. Her confidence and her overall chipper attitude was beginning to make him wonder whether he still had the upper hand. She could see uncertainty in his eyes.

"When you saw your father, how did it make you feel?"

"What is this, a psych evaluation?" Hunter leaned forward. "I think it's pretty damn obvious that I felt a little excited to see my father."

"Yes." He nodded to her arms where a fading orange glow could still be seen pumping in her veins. "I noticed. Even with my restraints, you were able to produce fire. You also managed to wake your father up from his deep, medication-induced sleep. It was quite a show, my guards told me, down in the caves. Even now, I can see you would have the ability to burn right through those cuffs and walk out of this institution without a second thought."

Hunter frowned at him, testing the fire beneath the new power restraint. Strangely, Dr. Wolfe had more faith in her power than she did.

Dr. Wolfe stood and buttoned his lab coat. "The reason I showed you that your father is alive is to persuade you to reveal the location of the substance that controls you. If Feucotetanus combined with this substance has given you powers stronger than all the others ... imagine what I can accomplish if I have them both."

His words began to sink into her mind like a poisonous drug. Was it possible that her ability was more powerful than the rest of them because Ravenadium and Feucotetanus flowed from her core? Dr. Wolfe had to know that, or he wouldn't waste so much effort containing her. He wouldn't resurrect her father. He wouldn't keep Will alive.