* * * * *
“Merinus. I’m a friend of Callan’s. Can I come in?” The female voice was soft, incredibly gentle. Merinus jerked into a sitting position, pulling the sleeping bag to her br**sts as she stared at the zippered door.
“Where is that dirty bastard?” she cursed angrily, reaching out and pulling the tab down furiously. “I’m going to kill him.”
The two women framed in the opening moved in purposely. The door was re-zipped and they regarded her curiously.
“Merinus, we need to get you dressed and to Callan’s home. Our doctor is waiting there.”
“There’s a cure?” She narrowed her eyes on them.
“Sort of.” The blonde grimaced. “If you’ll get dressed we’ll explain everything on the way out of here.”
“I don’t know if I can walk out of here,” Merinus bit out, anger unfolding in her again. “I don’t know what he did to me, but it’s not pleasant.”
“Callan is in little better shape at this time. Now, my name is Sherra and this is my sister, Dawn. We’ll
help you get dressed. My jeep got pretty close, so you shouldn’t have to walk far.”
As Sherra spoke, Dawn jerked a pair of light sweat shorts from a backpack and a loose, sleeveless top.
“Good, loose clothing should be better.” Sherra took the items and held them out to Merinus. “Do you need help dressing?”
“No.” Merinus clenched the material in her hand. She had removed her clothes for a reason, didn’t they know that?
Heaving an irritated sigh, she clenched her teeth together and dressed herself quickly. Moving wasn’t comfortable. But then again, breathing wasn’t comfortable. It didn’t hurt, exactly. The pleasure was just so intense that it was damned impossible to contain her moan when the light cotton material fell over her br**sts, stroking her ni**les.
“Oh God, I’m going to kill him,” she mumbled, flushing with embarrassment.
“You have my permission.” Sherra unzipped the door and moved out of the tent. “Can you make it? We brought a friend in case you couldn’t walk.”
Merinus shook her head, embarrassment flaming her body now.
“I can walk. Let’s just hurry up and get there.”
Thankfully, Sherra was right. The jeep was much closer to the tent than Merinus had been able to bring her Blazer. It was still running and the air conditioner was blasting.
“Hang on and we’ll hurry,” Sherra promised her as she bounced out of the parking spot. Oh, now that wasn’t fair. Merinus felt ecstasy shimmer up her spine as they bounced over rocks and ruts. She closed her eyes, holding tight to the steel bar beside her and the edge of the seat. Each jarring of her body only incited the fever raging through her.
“Definitely need to write a story on this. What does he call it anyway?” Merinus asked. “I feel like I’m in damned heat.”
“Close.” Sherra shot her a concerned look. “It’s called a ‘mating frenzy’. We didn’t even know it existed until tonight. We don’t have much research into it. It’s only happened once, before we were born.”
The statement didn’t take long to hit Merinus’ brain.
“We?” She turned to her in shock. “There are more like Callan?”
Sherra nodded, watching the rough track she was driving over carefully. “There are five of us. Three males, Dawn and myself. The evidence towards us was destroyed in the lab. Only the files on Callan remained. Thankfully, the scientists were trying to double-cross their masters and didn’t tell them about their little side experiments with the rest of us.”
There was bitterness and rage in the woman’s voice, not that Merinus blamed her. She could only imagine the horrors two young women would have endured there.
“So, you have your own doctor then?” Merinus panted as they bounced over a succession of ruts. Oh, glory. She closed her eyes. If she didn’t cl**ax soon, she was going to burn alive.
“The only scientist left. He helped us in the labs, then helped us escape. He watches over us, makes sure everything is okay physically. Sometimes mentally.” Sherra shrugged. “He’s a good man. Kinda old now, but a good man.”
“Oh hell, Sherra, please watch those bumps,” Merinus sighed dismally as the woman accelerated over a washboard road. “Oh, God. I’m dying here.”
“I’m sorry, Merinus, we really need to hurry.” The Blazer shot forward. Despite the narrowness of the dirt track, the sheer drop from the side of the cliff, the woman pushed the jeep at an incredible speed, steadily climbing up the nearly impassable road.
“We’re not far now,” Sherra promised her as they hit the top, then curved around and headed down another cliff. “Just a few more minutes.”
A sharp turn again and they were running straight up the middle of the wide creek that ran through two mountains. Several miles up the creek, they turned again to a graveled road that led to a rustic, large log cabin. No damned wonder she couldn’t find the road, she thought. There was no road.
“Just pull into the garage,” Dawn said from the back. “We need to take her downstairs.”
“Doc has a little lab below the cabin, in a cavern we found when we first came here. The dry, cool conditions there are perfect for his work.”
The vehicle bounced into a wide garage off the side, then came to a jarring stop.
“Come on. Callan will be here in a minute, and I want you safely out of sight when he shows up.” Sherra led her to a door that opened to a cool stairwell.
“I thought the point would be to get very close to Callan,” Merinus sighed. “I don’t like this, Sherra.”
“Well, give Callan time and you’ll like it even less,” Sherra chuckled. “He’s bossy and arrogant. We love him, but he’s hell on the nerves.”
“What about the bed?” Merinus followed the dimly lit stairs, close on Sherra’s heels as they curved and led into a large open cavern.
The stone room was brightly lit, with assorted tables, computers, bright lights and complicated machines.
“Where’s Frankenstein?” she sighed, coming to a halt and staring around in amazement.
“I told you, he’s on his way.” Laughter echoed in Sherra’s voice. “Come on, meet Doc and we’ll get those samples we need.”