“You are venturing into dangerous territory,” said Edward. “We’re here to talk about your life, not mine.”
Deep inside, Daniel smiled slowly. He was getting close to something; he could feel it. He kept his voice carefully casual, as though they were just talking.
“How have you survived all these years?” he said. “A man so completely different from every other man? Walled up in your own private kingdom because you know people would drag you out into the street and beat you to death with their bare hands, if they found out who and what you really are? How have you endured being so alone, for all these years?”
Edward grinned suddenly. “I’m only alone when I choose to be. You’d be surprised how attractive pure evil can make a man, in some women’s eyes. But if you’re asking what I think you’re asking, then no, there has never been a single soul in my life that I was close to, who mattered to me at all. And I like it that way. I don’t need anybody.”
“There’s always the organization you founded,” said Daniel. “Jekyll & Hyde Inc. Do you see them as your family?”
“Hydes don’t do love, or sentiment,” Edward said calmly. “We don’t have any need, or any use, for friendship or loyalty. We stand alone, because we can. Once you’ve taken the Elixir, you’ll stop asking questions like these. Because the answers won’t matter to you anymore. You won’t give a damn for the state of the world, or the people in it. Because Hydes stand outside all of that—predators, in a world of prey.”
“You’re not exactly selling this new life to me,” said Daniel. “Why would I want to become someone like that?”
Edward leaned forward across his desk, his eyes holding Daniel’s as he went on the attack.
“I’ve read your file, policeman. You have no friends or family, because they all deserted you when your life changed. You keep trying to fathom me, but I have no trouble seeing right through you. Everything you care about has been taken from you, leaving you alone in the world. Nothing left to make your life worth living . . . apart from a raging need to make the monsters pay for what they did to you. I can make you strong enough to take the world by the throat and shake some personal justice out of it. And you do want that, don’t you?”
“To do the right thing? To make a difference? Yes,” said Daniel. It was the only thing he was still sure of.
Edward clasped his huge hands together. “There’s a war going on in the secret parts of London, between the organization I created and the organized crime of the monster Clans. And there’s a place in that war for you . . . if you want it.”
“What use can I be?” Daniel said harshly. “You must know what the Frankensteins did to me.”
“Jekyll & Hyde Inc. is finally getting ready to wipe out all the monster Clans,” said Edward. “It’s taken me a long time to reach this point, and now I need warriors. Not just soldiers who can follow orders, but someone who’s prepared to do whatever it takes to win. Because they hate monsters almost as much as I do.”
He pulled open a drawer in his desk, brought out a glass vial half full of liquid, and placed it on the desk between them. Daniel couldn’t keep from leaning forward, for a better look.
“Dr. Jekyll’s infamous Elixir,” said Edward. “The same potion that produced me from the depths of a lesser man’s mind. Never aging, and growing stronger with every year that passes . . . because I will never again turn back into the small man who first drank this potion.”
“You don’t trust him to approve of what you’re doing?” said Daniel.
“He always was weak,” said Edward. “Never daring to pursue any of the things he really wanted. And there’s always the chance I might turn back into a man who should have died long ago.” He sat back in his chair, and his smile widened. “This is what you’ve been seeking your whole life, Danieclass="underline" a chance to be strong enough to do what needs doing. Drink it . . . and release the real you.”
Daniel picked up the vial, and was surprised at how steady his hand was. “What’s in it?”
“Think of it as rocket fuel for the imagination,” said Edward. “Something that can rebuild your body according to your deepest desires.”
“How can a drug do that?”
“What do you care?”
“Will I become . . . like you?”
“It’s different for everyone,” said Edward. “The Elixir gives shape to all your deepest desires, makes them manifest in new flesh and blood and bone. Your hidden fires will produce a furnace to shape the new you.”
“A man with no conscience?” said Daniel.
“What use is a conscience to a man set on revenge? I’m offering you a chance to bring down the monsters who ruined your life. Who destroy the lives of everyone they touch. Why are you even hesitating?”
Daniel frowned. He wasn’t sure.
“Why did Paul send me here?”
“I have contacts inside all the Clans. Paul gave me your file. He knows I’m always looking for a few good men with monsters inside them. Now either drink the potion or get the hell out of my office. I have a war to fight.”
The Elixir didn’t look like anything special. It didn’t glow with a sinister light, or heave and roil inside the glass. It was only a thick colorless liquid . . . and just possibly a way out of hell. A chance to have a life again, and strength enough to force the world to make sense. In the end, that was all that mattered. Daniel unscrewed the cap, and then looked at Edward.
“Will it taste bad?”
Edward seemed a little taken aback, presented with the one question he hadn’t anticipated.
“It’s been so long I honestly don’t remember. Does it matter?”
“No,” said Daniel.
He gulped the oily stuff down and it exploded inside his head. Every color was suddenly overwhelmingly vivid, every sound full of depth and meaning. The whole world seemed to snap into a sharper focus. The change when it came wasn’t painful, it was orgasmic. Daniel cried out with joy as his flesh melted, surging this way and that over rapidly thickening bones. He half fell out of his chair, and then lurched back and forth across the office, growing taller and stronger in sudden bursts. He snatched up his walking stick from beside the chair, and broke it in two with no effort. He threw the pieces away and laughed out loud, and Edward laughed with him. Like two wolves howling in the night, just for the sheer savage pleasure of it.
Daniel looked down at himself. He’d grown large enough to burst open all the buttons on his shirt. His whole body buzzed with new strength. He felt like he could take on every monster in the world, and trample them underfoot. And then a voice called out to him—but it wasn’t Edward’s. Daniel turned slowly to look at a mirror hanging on the wall. His face filled the glass, grinning back at him.
“Welcome to the new you,” said his reflection. “What are you going to do now?”
“I haven’t decided yet,” said Daniel. He moved over to stand before the mirror. “What are you supposed to be—my conscience?”
“Hardly. I’m the voice in your head that tells you what you really want, instead of what society thinks you should want. I’m all the ideas that come to you in the small, slow hours of the morning. Think of all the appetites we can indulge, and the pleasures we can sink ourselves in. And then, we can punish everyone who ever hurt us. Not just the monsters, but all the bastards who refused to believe us. We can tear them apart with our bare hands and dance on the pieces. What do you say?”
“Not right now,” said Daniel. “I have things to do.”
“I’ll be waiting,” said his reflection.
Daniel turned away from the mirror to look at Edward. “Did you hear any of that?”
Edward shrugged. “What goes on inside your head is your business.”
Daniel glanced back at the wall, and wasn’t entirely surprised to find there was no mirror hanging there. He looked down at himself and smiled slowly.