I only own the characters I add in of my own accord. Everything else belongs to other people. ENJOY!
Drake's room was down the hall, out the exit door, turn to the right, and up the stairs to the second story hall of the strange apartment complex next to the orphanage. He answered the door with a surprised smile.
"Ms. Mary, and visitors. Uh... Hi. Common in." He stammered. Vincent was on alert. The boy was clearly hiding something. As soon as Vincent stepped through the door he could tell what was wrong, and it wasn't that this boy was a beast.
"So Drake, this is Vincent and Catherine. There looking to adopt an athletic teen!" The rounded woman clapped her hands together. "Now, you all have an hour to get to know each other," she turned to face Vincent and Cat, "I will be back in an hour, but feel free to come back to the main office when ever!" She giggled her way out the door.
"So can I get you guys anything? Water, soda?" He asked, still surprised by the sudden drop in. He was a decent boy. Short, dirty blond hair, tall, lean mussel, not overly bulky.
"I think were good for now. What kinds of sports are you into?" Catherine asked as she nodded at the trophies on the shelf.
"I play on the varsity teams for Basket ball and Track at my school. Outside of school I play water polo... but that's it really." The teen shrugged, becoming more comfortable with the two strangers.
"What kind of recreational activity's do you enjoy?" Vincent asked as Catherine's phone buzzed.
"Sorry, text from my partner." She lied, it was a text from Vincent, he knew.
"The kids got Marijuana growing in here. Its suffocating me. You smell that grassy smell? Its not just his cleats, I promise." The text read.
"I like to go to the Dragons Gate park in Chinatown to run on the weekends. You been there?" He asked them, genuinely curious.
"I have, you run there? That trail is steep." Catherine was impressed. "How about school? Whats your favorite subject? Other than PE." She faked a smile.
"Yeah, what are you into? I know I hated math and science when I was in high school. Especially biology, all that cells and DNA stuff was confusing." Vincent chimed in going along with Cat's fake front.
"I can see how it gets bad, I understand it to an extent. But its not really my passion." Drake sighed.
"Oh well if your into science you should check out that one organization... I forget what its called... Mur... something I think..." Vincent trailed off listing to Drake's heart.
"No never herd of them, are they a tutoring kind of thing?" Drake shrugged, his pulse not faltering, staying even.
"No there something else. Its ok just forget I mentioned them." Drake wasn't the beast. Vincent was positive. "Hey Catherine, we should probably hurry and visit the other one, Odessa. I still need to go pick up JT after this." Vincent lied to get them out of the room.
"Oh that's right. I completely forgot about that." Catherine complied. "We will get out of your hair Drake, it was nice meeting you." She shook his hand before heading for the door, Vincent did the same. When the door was shut, Vincent took a deep breath of the outside air.
"I never want to smell that again. Plain nasty." He complained.
"Well some people like it. You can tell Ms. Mary when we get back to her." Catherine suggested.
"I will probably do that. And he wasn't the beast. He didn't lye about not knowing about Murfield." Vincent nodded down to her.
"So if its not Odessa were back to square one?" Cat asked.
"Apparently. Ms. Mary? Were back!" Vincent called out to the woman.
" Ah splendid. So did you like Drake? Hes such a good boy." She cooed.
"Actually we have reason to believe that hes growing marijuana, and there's no way to put that lightly, I'm sorry." Cat piped up before Vincent could say anything. "I'm a cop, I know what it smells like." Catherine felt bad about the look on Mary's face. Disappointment and expectancy were mixed into an emphatic cocktail.
"Well he has been running with a bad crowd lately, I was worried that that would happen." she sighed. "I'll talk to him, if he doesn't get rid of it, then I will contact the authorities. Now please! Lets not end this on a sour note! Lets go meet Odessa!" Ms. Mary had bounced back to her old self in less time than it takes a jack rabbit to jump. She led them down more halls and to a blue door. " Now... one question. Do either of you have phobias? Of anything?" She asked genuinely concerned.
"I'm nervous around snakes. Why?" Catherine asked.
"Its because Odessa is an oddball. She has... Pets... that some would consider pests. All of her animals are rescues, that's the only reason shes allowed to keep them." Ms. Mary said cautiously.
"I'm sure its fine." Vincent reassured the women.
"Alright then." She turned and knocked at the door. When it cracked open, a wonderful smell hit there noses, and music filled there ears. A girl dressed in jeans, a tank top, and a beanie stood in front of them.
"Come on in. I'm making dinner. Have you eaten?" was the first thing out of her mouth.
"So then, same thing as with Drake, you have an hour until I come to get you. Enjoy tour time!" Ms. Mary left them again.
"So are you gonna come in or not?" Odessa laughed. The two were unsure as they stepped through the door.
"My names Vincent and this is Catherine." Vincent introduced the both of them.
"Well I'm Odessa, everyone just calls me Dess." She paused. "Drago didn't run to the door. Ware did that moron go..." she muttered. "Drago! Dinner!" she called.
"Drago?" Cat asked.
"You'll see in a moment. Here." she passed them both hard boiled eggs. Earning a confused look from the two. However there confusion quickly melted into shock as a five foot crocodile monitor stalked into the living area with them. Catherine's jaw dropped.
"Just hold your hands out in a bowl shape with the egg in the middle. He will take it from you." She showed them, the giant lizard gently picked the egg out of her hands and moved to take the other two from Vincent and Catherine. Making them both laugh with awe and excitement. Patting the reptile on the head before he lumbered off under the desk to lay down.
"So what do you both do?" Dess asked from the kitchen. She was straining the pasta and adding Alfredo.
"I'm a detective, and Vincent is a doctor, but hes between jobs right now." Catherine explained, Vincent shrugged.
"Your a detective? Do you think you could help me find my parents? I'm sorry I know its a lot to ask. But I have some info, not a lot but some." She asked in a defeated voice.
"I can try. What do you remember?" Cat asked.
"I never met my parents. My first memories of people were random people dressed in lab coats." She shivered at the memory, heart rate picking up. Vincent immediately took notice.
"These people, what did they do to you?" He asked more bluntly than he meant. Dess shot him a suspicious look. "Sorry, I know I can be blunt, just that even though I'm a doctor myself I've had... negative experiences with doctors in the past." He explained, trying to not scare her away if she was the beast.
"All I remember is that every day they would give me painful injections in the neck. I don't remember how I got out of there, or when I first turned up at the orphanage. I just know that I turned up with a few papers, with some strange information on them that made the orphanage think they were fakes."
"I'm sorry," Cat interrupted her. "Can I use your bathroom?"
"Yeah, just down the hall, room with the light on." Dess told her. Cat left in that direction. Moments later there was a crash, and the sound of Catherine panicking that only Vincent could hear. His eyes flashed golden amber. Witch did not go unnoticed by Odessa.
"Catherine?!" he rushed to her, when he saw what had scared her he back peddled, eyes returning to there chocolate brown. "Ahh... uhhh... I'll be... over here..." His eyes never left the critter until he was a good six feet away.
"Ha... sorry I forgot about Aragog. Normally Ms. Mary warns people about my pets." Dess admired shyly.
"She did warn us, but we weren't expecting that." Vincent said.
"That has a gender. And she has a name." Dess smiled a her Giant Golden Orb Weaver in her enclosure. "She cant get out. I promise." She smiled at Cat.
"If you say so..." Cat shut the door.
There was a pause when Vincent and Dess got back to the living room. "Your eyes turned gold... Does that mean your not a normal human either..?" Dess asked cautiously.
"Yes. I'm not normal. I was genetically altered by a group known ad Murfield." Dess's face scrunched in disgusted.
"Does your partner know? More impotently... can I even trust you..?" Dess rubbed her forehead.
"That's up to you. I trust Catherine with my life, and the other way around." He tried to convince her.
"Do you mind showing me? Your other form I mean." She asked.
"If it helps convince you I don't mind." He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let his rage boil over, bringing out his fangs and golden eyes. There was a loud hiss from the corner of the room. Drago was getting defensive. Dess looked to him, her brown eyes flaring to electric blue. He calmed down immediately. "Impressive." Vincent remarked now back to normal.
"Whats impressive?" Cat asked, now back in the same room.
"Shes the one, Murfield experimented on her as well." Vincent explained.
"Are you still open to helping me find my parents?" She asked sheepishly.
"Of coarse. Can we look at those papers?" Catherine responded calmly. Dess ran into a different room and returned with a few papers stapled together.
"Specimens parents (BK201 and Alex) are not to be informed of specimens existence. BK201 is positively predisposed, offspring as well. Alex was informed the specimen was still born. Specimen will be injected with 30mg of CpCa10 serum (Main: Crocodylus Porosus, Crotalus atrox) over 3 months once subject has matured 3 years. Predecessor BK201 injected with ClPo12 (Main: Canis lupus, Panthera onca), successful graft, samples from injected serum potentially corrupted."
It was all Vincent needed to see.
A/N: Hope you like it~ enjoy the little Easter eggs in this one! Chances are that on weekends I will be able to update more frequently and with longer chapters. I will list the Easter eggs in this one in the Authors note of the next chapter and so forth. So read, enjoy, review if you want me to continue! *~*