Read Online Needing by Sarah Masters - Free Book Online Page B

from about four through to eight. “Oh my God. I wasn’t expecting… I didn’t know… Shit!” He walked towards them, smiling to put them at ease, but they continued squawking, their pitch rising, as did their volume. “It’s all right. Everything’s going to be all right.”
    Langham fussed with a padlock, trying unsuccessfully to get it open. The children had retreated to the backs of their cages, looking stunned and frightened to death. What the hell were they doing here? Had Alex been hiding them for PrivoLabs? What kind of outfit were they, to not have them at least kept secure in a proper environment? Not that keeping them locked up like this was right, but fuck, in a basement? In cages?
    A rapid-fire shift of movement caught Oliver’s eye, and he saw the kid inside the cage Langham was working on dart forward. “Langham! Watch it!”
    Fuck, that child’s eyes glowed, the pupils black slits in a circle of lurid yellow. Langham jumped back just before the kid crashed against the cage door, mouth open, teeth gnashing where the detective’s hands had so recently been on the padlock.
    Langham stepped back, eyes wide. “He was…he was going to bite me!”
    Oliver’s heart hammered, and his legs went weak. They needed to get the hell out of here—and now. Something else was about to go down if they didn’t leave this place. Them being down here had clearly upset the kids. Who knew, if they were angry enough, whether they could break out of those cages and attack. He wasn’t sure what urged him to grab Langham and propel them up the stairs, but he wasn’t about to hang around down there to analyse it.
    Out on the street, breaths shunting from them in staccato bursts, Langham called for back-up. Despite there being kids in that basement, leaving them there didn’t make Oliver feel guilty. They weren’t kids anymore. They were something…else. Something feral, all humanity stripped out of them by experiments he didn’t want to know the ins and outs of. It was all too fucked up to contemplate. The sooner they found Alex, the better, then they could get a warrant to search PrivoLabs and put this hateful case to bed.

Chapter Seven
    Shields and other cops had shown up within minutes of Langham making the call. The big, greasy bastard strolled towards them, a smug smile filling his fleshy face as though he thought them a pair of wimps for not remaining in the basement—faggot wimps at that. Yeah, Oliver saw that on his face, too, and he wanted to kick the shit out of the hateful motherfucker for it.
    “So there are kids down there, then?” Shields asked.
    Stupid of him, really, when Oliver had heard Langham tell him over the phone, but that was just the kind of guy Shields was. Arsehole extraordinaire.
    “Kids with glowing eyes,” Shields said, not bothering to hide the disbelief in his voice. He raised his hands and waggled his fingers. “Oooh, glowy-eyed kids that fly at you with intent to bite. Nasty business, that. I’ll have to go down there and give them a good telling off.”
    “Be my fucking guest,” Langham snarled, striding towards his car. He shouted back, “And if they chew your damn fingers off, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
    He got in his car, and Oliver moved to join him.
    “Uh, you stay right there, freak.” Shields gripped Oliver’s wrist. “You two fucking each other’s arses?”
    Oliver clenched his teeth, cursing the blush of anger that swarmed over his face. Shields would take it as a sign of embarrassment, of Oliver cowering down to the big man. He wasn’t having any of that. “Why? D’you fancy a cock up your arse? You asking just in case I’m free with my favours, is that it?”
    Shields released Oliver’s wrist as though he’d been tainted by the touch. “Fucking dirty little pervert. Get the fuck away from me.”
    “Be damn glad to, you nasty bastard. Oh, and watch those kids down there. They’re poised to attack.”
    “Yeah, right. They probably sensed