Jules needed to get him out of there. He didn’t have a choice. His conscience wouldn’t let him ignore the problem, no matter how ashamed and unsettled he was by his reaction to the Xeus. Sometimes one had to suck it up and put aside one’s personal feelings, and this was one of those times.
Jules considered his options.
It seemed the Xeus’s rational thinking had been restored enough—in his current state, he was unlikely to be a danger to others if Jules set him free. But how was he supposed to do that?
He needed the key to the manacles.
Later that evening, Jules sneaked down to his uncle’s office. The house was quiet. The hour was late enough for everyone to be in bed. Or so he had thought.
He could hear faint voices coming from his uncle’s office.
Jules froze, looking at the door. Then he took off his shoes and padded over before pressing his ear against the door.
“—it’s been over a month!”
“That’s not enough, Mr. Blake,” an unfamiliar male voice said. “We’re doing all we can, and the progress we’ve made is frankly incredible! If I were allowed to publish the results of our research, it would be the greatest discovery of—”
“I don’t care,” Uncle Wayne growled. “I’m running out of time.”
“Sir, frankly speaking, I don’t understand why you wouldn’t allow us to administer kerosvarin now. You will not become a feral creature such as the one in the basement. You will simply be a normal Xeus alpha—”
“There’s nothing normal about those disgusting beasts,” Uncle Wayne bit out, his tone full of disdain. “I won’t agree to be turned into one unless I’m on my deathbed!”
A sigh. “We’re doing our best, Mr. Blake,” the man said, his voice almost pleading. “But you must understand that you’re asking us to do the impossible in a matter of weeks. Kerosvarin’s effects are normally irreversible! You can’t expect us—”
“I’m paying you a fortune to do the impossible, Navarra,” Uncle Wayne snapped. “Work faster. I refuse to become a filthy Xeus that turns into a mindless beast every full moon.”
“Very well,” Navarra said with a sigh. “We will keep trying. Our progress has been incredible. He can already speak and think somewhat rationally, but so far we’ve been unsuccessful at fixing his physical appearance and beastly instincts.”
“Try harder,” Uncle Wayne said bitingly. After a pause, he added, “Does he remember yet who he is?”
“No, sir.”
“Hmm, let me know if he does. I’m somewhat curious about it. If the Kadarian government bothered to use the NDA-tech for him, he could be someone important. Perhaps a Kadarian senator, even.”
“Sir, isn’t it… Isn’t it dangerous? If he’s really someone important?”
“It doesn’t signify.” Uncle Wayne’s voice was flat. “You know it doesn’t.”
The resulting silence made Jules’s stomach clench.
What…? Did his uncle mean that he intended to kill the Xeus?
“Besides,” Uncle Wayne said. “It could well be a different Xeus, not the one that caused a ruckus at the Opal House last month. We have no way of knowing.”
“Kerosvarin is a very obscure, forbidden drug,” Navarra said, sounding skeptical. “Even I was barely able to secure it on the black market after months of trying. The odds of another Xeus poisoned with that drug seem rather slim. It must be the same one.”
“It doesn’t signify,” Uncle Wayne repeated, his voice harder. “The important thing is, we’ve found a subject for your experiments. Now you must do your part.”
“I will! Of course I will.”
The voices sounded closer, and after grabbing his shoes, Jules hurriedly walked away, trying not to make any noise. His heart was still pounding when he got back to his room, his mind reeling from what he had overheard.
All right. Think. He might not be Eric, but he wasn’t stupid.
What had he learned?
Dr. Navarra wanted to use kerosvarin on Uncle Wayne. Kerosvarin was an illegal drug that amplified the person’s dormant designation genes, and it would turn Uncle Wayne into a Xeus alpha. It meant…
It seemed his uncle was sick. Seriously sick. With Uncle Wayne’s disgust toward Xeus alphas well documented, there was no way he would ever consider being turned into one unless he was on his deathbed. It wasn’t difficult to guess why Dr. Navarra would suggest it as a solution: Xeus alphas had heightened metabolisms and regeneration. Their bodies destroyed bad cells, which was why they never had cancer.
Could his uncle have cancer? There were several types of cancer that were incurable even with modern medicine. Theoretically, turning a sick non-shifter alpha into a Xeus alpha with heightened regeneration should probably help. Except Uncle Wayne clearly wasn’t happy with the solution and had no desire to remain a Xeus. Hence the experiments on the Xeus in the basement. They were trying to reverse kerosvarin’s effects.
And when they managed to do it, they were going to kill the Xeus. They would never let him go.