Embers & Ice (Rouge) by Isabella Modra Page B

underwear and were almost see-through – from the chair
beside the door. “In the meantime, he’s instructed you put this on.”
    Hunter
fumbled with the flimsy set he threw at her. Jamison vanished and the door was
locked behind her.
    Using
the privacy of the surgery room, Hunter stripped off. Her eyes roamed the empty
space and caught site of a pin-up board on the far wall. Immediately and
without thinking, she went over to inspect them. Amidst pages of information,
there was a mix of children’s drawings that made Hunter frown. Dr. Wolfe didn’t
seem to be the type of man to care about a child’s messy pictures. Hunter
peered at the closed door and then started rifling through papers, even though
she was sure he wouldn’t be stupid enough to leave important information out on
display.
    Hunter
lifted up a graph and found a glossy image of Dr. Wolfe on a busy street in New
York. He was getting into a yellow cab. The photo was taken in the middle of
the day from a distance, like something a detective might snap for a case.
    And
as she gazed at the photo, it hit her. She had met Dr. Wolfe before;
they shared a cab on a windy night after she almost set Eli on fire. The man on
the other side was Dr. Wolfe. She recognized the smell in the lab and those
oyster-gray eyes.
    He
was watching me even before Eli knew. How long was he watching me, watching us?
    Feeling
sick, Hunter stepped back and ran to the door. It was locked, as she expected.
Hunter looked around for some means of escape, unable to rid herself of the
image of Dr. Wolfe in that dark coat sitting beside her in the cab. He saw
the fire in my veins, she thought as she recalled their conversation. What
did he say, that I had a blood deficiency? Then he said something about… being
different. Urgh, he knew!
    A
key turned in the lock. Hunter’s heart rate picked up speed. Dr. Wolfe strode
in, followed by an older woman with ratty brown hair and wrinkly skin. She
couldn’t have been more than forty.
    “Good
morning, Miss Harrison,” said Dr. Wolfe. He placed a tray of steel utensils on
a bench beside the surgery bed – laced with straps like the other – and turned
to face her. They both wore the standard white lab coat, hospital shoes and
mask around their necks. The woman had absolutely no emotion as she stood
beside the doctor, and in the light from the surgery table they looked like Dr.
Frankenstein and his robotic wife. “I trust you slept well.”
    Almost
in spite of herself, Hunter smiled. She pointed to the wall where the photo
still hung. “You were watching me, weren’t you?”
    The
doctor rested his cool, all-knowing gaze on hers. “I’ve been watching you for a
while now. Joshua did well to hide you away for most of your life, but not many
can escape my watchful eye. I know how to find people like you .”
    “But
you took your time, didn’t you? When I shared that taxi with you, it was months
before the Agents came. Why?”
    He
shrugged and crossed his legs, leaning back against his chair. “I was
interested in the way you lived your life. You had just recently discovered
what you could do, after all. I wanted to observe you from an outsider’s
perspective. To see how you reacted to your emotions, to see whether you acted
the hero or stood back as I’m sure Joshua instructed you to.”
    “I
don’t regret my actions.”
    “Oh
but I’m sure you waged a war with yourself about rescuing that girl locked in the
freezer, am I right?”
    Hunter
frowned at the doctor’s elated expression. How did he know that Kate was
locked in the freezer? Wait… Hunter recalled the moment she heard the young
girl’s screams and saw the padlocked freezer door, remembered the wonderful
heat and the adrenaline. She never questioned why Kate had been locked inside,
nor did anyone else. Not until now.
    “It
was a test,” she breathed, gazing in horror at the doctor. “You locked Kate in
and started the fire, didn’t you?”
    “I
may have initiated the