Chapter 17

"This isn't totally ominous." Kirk muttered.

"Ssh!" Felicia hissed. "Just make sure that you've got everything ready." She handed Kirk the flashlight before she slowly walked forward, crouching down a bit. "Hey there, buddy."

Felicia was trying to have a friendly, non-violent demeanour and stance, but to Kirk, she looked more like a predator getting ready to pounce on their prey.

Peaches got ready to attack, but Felicia moved first. She leaped onto the dog, and they rolled around on the floor, each of them trying to get the upper hand.

Felicia knew that a bite from an animal as large as a Rottweiler could mean death, which just made the battle that much more harrowing. She finally got Peaches pinned to the ground, and she pushed her hands down on Peaches' head, the rest of her body trying to lay on Peaches so that he couldn't claw either herself or Kirk.

"Kirk, now!"

Kirk ran forward, but he tripped over his feet and dropped the syringe. "Shit!"

"Kirk!" Felicia was struggling to keep a hold on Peaches.

"Hang on!" Kirk dove towards the syringe.

"Kirk, I can't keep a hold on him much longer!"

Kirk grabbed the syringe before jumping back up onto his feet.

Felicia was starting to lose her grip on Peaches, who had managed to get his head out of her grip, and Felicia let out a scream as she felt the dog bite down on her wrist.

Kirk plunged the syringe into Peaches, and Felicia summoned all of her strength to keep Peaches down long enough so that Kirk could get the blood that they needed.

"Done!" He shouted, and they both crawled away from Peaches, who slunk back into a corner of the room.

~

Felicia and Kirk wasted no time in running up the stairs, and John slammed the door shut behind them, using a chair to temporarily barricade the door.

"You're bleeding!" Winifred cried out. "Here, I'll go and get the first aid kit, you just sit down."

Felicia sat down on one of the chairs, wincing as she cradled her wrist. "Well, this just sped things up quite a bit.Kirk, please tell me that you brought up the sample, and that you didn't leave it downstairs."

"I've got it right here." Kirk showed her the small vial of blood.

"Let's get it to the lab and process it. John and Winifred, I'll call you as soon as I find out anything."

Once Winifred had patched up Felicia, she and Kirk made their way out to the car, where Felicia called Eddie to let him know that they had been able to get the blood and were on their way to the lab.

"Please be careful." Eddie said. "If you think that you're being followed, I want you to come straight back to the hospital. By the way, Sabine's still out, the doctor said that she's lost a bit of blood, but she should pull through, and he thinks that she might wake up soon."

"Thank God." Felicia said, her whole body visibly relaxing.

"Do you want me to video chat you when we get to the lab?" Kirk asked his boyfriend. "That way you can be assured that we're okay, and you and Hank can be in on everything while we're working."

"I think that's a good idea." Eddie replied.

"The signal might be spotty in some areas." Felicia added. "But my lab is on one of the main levels, instead of lower down, like where Kirk's lab is, so we should be okay."

They pulled up to the service entrance of the lab, and Kirk let out a groan. "That's Lenny's truck."

The truck in question was in terrible condition. It looked like it had been white at one point, but it was kind of hard to tell because of how much rust covered the vehicle.

"Great." Felicia said with a resigned sigh. "Running for our lives and now having to deal with a pervert on top of it all."

"Hey…before we go inside, can I talk to you about something?"

Felicia nodded her head. "Sure."

Kirk shut off the car, making sure that all of the doors were locked so that they wouldn't have any unwanted visitors. "Earlier today, when you were fighting Peaches, it was like, well, like you weren't fully human."

Felicia's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

"You had crouched down at one point, and when you did, you were like a lion or a tiger getting ready to pounce on its prey. And you were able to pin Peaches down, do you have any idea how strong a person has to be to be able to pin down a Rottweiler? You're not strong enough to do that, you're always joking about how you can hardly lift a ten-pound weight on the rare occasion that you go to the gym."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that whatever's coursing through your bloodstream, it's affecting you in more ways then any of us had initially realized. It's not just affecting your brain, it's affecting your body as well."

"Shit…" Felicia nibbled at her lip. "Let's get inside and try to get this damn thing figured out."

Kirk got Eddie on the phone before they got out of the car.

"Only possible danger right now is Lenny." Felicia said, making Eddie swear. "Of course he's working tonight, as if we don't have enough shit on our plates."

"Don't worry, we're both ready to start swinging as soon as we lay eyes on him."

The door was locked via keycard, but thankfully Kirk had his on him, so he swiped it and they were granted entrance to the building.

They quickly made their way to Felicia's lab, and she made sure that all of the blinds to the windows were closed. Getting her microscope ready, she poured a few droplets of the blood onto a slide before slipping it under the microscope lens. "Kirk, watch the door, okay? If you see Lenny, feel free to hit him over the head with that stool."

"Hell yeah."

Felicia adjusted some of the settings on her microscope. "The DNA is being changed."

"What do you mean?"

"I have a book on that shelf over there, it's called 'How Genetics Have Evolved'. Get it for me, please."

When Kirk handed her the book, she opened it to the index before flipping through the pages. "Peaches' DNA is changing. I would say that it's starting to resemble a wolf's, but there's some things that aren't adding up. From what I'm seeing in this book, his DNA is changing to resemble a Miacidae."

"A what?"

"Think like a prehistoric wolf."

"Jesus Christ-"

Felicia's phone rang loudly, causing the both of them to jump.

"You should have listened to the note." The voice on the other end said before hanging up.

"Kirk, we need to get out of here, right now." Felicia ran to the door, but it was locked. "Shit!"

"What's that smell?!" Kirk asked in a panic. "It almost smells like smoke!"

"Because it is smoke…" Felicia took a step back as black smoke began to seep in through the cracks of the door. "He's trying to burn us alive."