All of the doctors kept a small emergency transmitter on their person. She pulled it out and showed it to him as if it were some form of holy talisman capable of warding him off. “Stop right there! I push this button and you’ll die. Stand down now or I’ll engage the kill switch.”

Kurst smiled. He put his fingers against his temple, and then he shoved. He willed the bone to soften and part as he reached deeper and deeper inside his brain. It was an odd sensation. Blood rolled freely down his face. The doctor screamed. Kurst found the tiny round object and pulled it free. Holding out his hand, he showed her the bloody device resting in his palm. “This one?”

Desperate, she pushed the button.

Signal received, the casing of the device began to melt. Kurst grabbed the doctor by her face and squeezed her cheeks until the pressure forced her jaw open, then he rammed the poison capsule down her throat. “Yes, Doctor. We have made some improvements on your design,” he explained as the hole in the side of his head closed up. She began to scream as the toxins unraveled her cells. Kurst left her to choke on it.

The autolocks had been disabled. Kurst entered the hall. The guard was surprised to see him. Protocol was for the doctor to contact them when the interview was over. The other guard was ten feet away, flirting with the nurse.

Status?

Several of his brethren reported back simultaneously. The facility is ours. No alarms have been sounded. All communications have been blocked. The growth vat is being loaded. Our transportation is on the way. The guard force is neutralized except for Stricken’s area. They are unaware. All entrances and exits are sealed.

As per his instructions, they’d left Stricken for Kurst to deal with personally. The albino’s empire had just been overthrown and he wasn’t even aware of it yet, and demons loved to gloat.

“Are you done already?” the guard asked him.

Kurst drove his hand through the guard’s armored vest, through his ribs, grabbed hold of his heart, and ripped it free. The guard stared at his still-beating heart in shocked disbelief before flopping over dead. The heart looked delicious, so Kurst took a large bite from it with his suddenly sharp teeth. It was chewy.

The others looked over at him, blinking stupidly with their big cow eyes, too surprised and dimwitted to process that their doom was suddenly upon them.

Twenty seconds later every human in the medical wing was dead.

The Gift was even better than expected.

Prepare to intercept Franks.

CHAPTER 17

CHAPTER 17

Virginia Colony, 1775