Mixed Blood

Chapter 16

"What... is that thing?" Rhia whispered.

After saving the entity from the facility in Australia, Nekros and Lysander had brought the creature back to Los Angeles for Atticus's team to interview and begin its rehabilitation. Ares had gone further north to Canada to speak with Quin, though for the life of her, Rhia couldn't figure out why he bothered. Upon hearing about the moderate success, Rhia, Dáithí, and Bastian had rushed back to see the entity themselves and regroup.

As a part of her advanced paramedic training, Rhia had learned about a lot of different Ancient breeds, but none of them looked like... that. It sat at the table, perfectly calm and content... as far as she could tell. Its body was made up entirely of black, slithering snakes in a shape that generally resembled humanoid. If humans could grow to be ten feet tall, that is. The snakes or tentacles shimmered slightly, giving the creature an uncomfortably moist appearance. There were no facial features, not even eyes, to determine where it was looking.

"It's called a mimic," Nekros said slowly. "They are extremely rare creatures. I've only ever seen a handful in my lifetime."

"Okay, but...?" Rhia's stomach twisted uncomfortably as she looked through the one-way mirror at the creature. "What is it?"

"It doesn't fall into any of the Counsel's categories," Atticus explained next. "At first, they wanted to classify it as a type of ghoul, but it's not a nightstalker as it doesn't react negatively to UV light, and it hunts live prey instead of scavenges on corpses. It's not a shapeshifter as it doesn't meet our species requirements, it's not a demon, because it doesn't come from the veil, and there isn't enough of a population to give it its own species name. So, it falls under miscellaneous."

"Okay... none of that tells me what it actually is."

Lysander burst out laughing as Nekros and Atticus stared at her in bewilderment. "Think of it like a physical embodiment of a glamour spell," he finally answered the question she'd been asking the whole time, his strangely colored eyes twinkling in amusement. "They passively absorb the magic of the people around them. From that magic, they read the emotions of the strongest bearer, and take the identical form of the person they care most about."

"Thank you," Rhia sighed and turned back to the window. "Is it on the list we got from Kate?"

"Entity Sierra," Atticus read off his tablet. "Mimic, successful phase one, pending phase two. The name is Priya, designation to Nilsson. Given what we found in Tahoe and how they were found in Australia, I think we were right. They are purging the program."

"So, they might be the last surviving entity that isn't completely brainwashed," Bastian said thoughtfully.

"No," Rhia snapped. "There's still another facility we haven't checked yet. The one in Angola. There can still be others. There's still a chance."

No one answered that, but she could feel them all exchanging looks. None of them wanted to be the one to say it, and she certainly didn't want to hear it. "Rhia," Nova began gently.

"I want to talk to them."

She turned sharply for the door, but Nekros caught her arm. "I don't think that's a good idea, Rhia," he warned. "If you go in there, either alone or with anyone else, they will take Nolan's shape and voice. We don't know how deep the Organization has affected them, and they will be able to use your emotions against you."

"Good. Let it feel my emotions. I'm the only one here who's been through the entity program, I'm the only one who knows what it's like to learn that everything we know is a lie. I know it's not Nolan, I can handle this."

"Wait a second, this is my building," Atticus joined in. "I'm in charge, here, I should be the one to talk to them."

"Oh, yeah," Nova snorted a laugh at her boss, which was very unusual for her. "And watch you go all googly eyed over Zesstra?"