Chapter 5 - THE DYNASTY OF BLOOD"Put the gun down, Sarah," Charles said softly, taking another slow sip of his scotch as if we were discussing the weather. "You don't know how to use it, and even if you did, shooting me seals Sophie's death warrant."
"Where is the antidote?!" I demanded, my hands shaking so violently the sight of the gun trembled against his chest. "She's seizing! Her organs are failing! Give it to me!"
"What she is experiencing is not organ failure, Sarah. It is metamorphosis," Charles said, standing up smoothly and walking toward a glass containment unit in the center of the room. "Twenty years ago, I discovered a genetic defect in our family line. A rare, hereditary cellular degeneration that kills every Vance before their fiftieth birthday. It’s what killed your mother. It’s what is slowly killing you right now."
I blinked, my mind reeling. "What... what are you talking about?"
"Have you not noticed the dark spots on your lower back? The sudden dizzy spells? The metallic taste in your mouth every morning?" Charles tilted his head, his cold eyes studying me with clinical detachment. "You have less than two years to live, Sarah. I couldn't save your mother in time. But I swore I would save my daughter—and my granddaughter."
"By poisoning her?!" I screamed. "By handing her over to Mark like an animal in a cage?!"
"Mark was a mercenary," Charles sneered with disdain. "A dull, greedy little man who thought he was working for a dark web syndicate. He didn't understand the science. The 'bath games' were necessary. The serum I engineered—the Aegis Protocol—cannot be injected. It must be slowly absorbed through the epidermis in a heated saline solution over hundreds of hours to alter the cellular structure without causing fatal anaphylaxis."
He stepped closer to the glass wall, gesturing to a silver mechanical case sitting on the laboratory table. Inside lay three gleaming syringes filled with a clear, golden fluid.
"That is the stabilization agent," Charles continued. "It locks the genetic rewiring in place. It eliminates the hereditary disease entirely and halts cellular aging. Sophie will never suffer from cancer, never age past her prime, never drown in her own genetic decay like your mother did."
"She is five years old!" I sobbed. "She was terrified! She was crying for me every night while you and Mark treated her like a laboratory rat!"
"A minor price to pay for immortality," Charles said coldly.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the heavy steel doors at the top of the laboratory stairs. The digital locks sputtered, and the doors burst open.
Mark stepped into the laboratory, covered in mud and blood, holding a heavy submachine gun. His eyes were wild, bloodshot, and frantic.
"Charles!" Mark roared, raising his weapon. "You betrayed me! You told your cleanup crew to take me out in the alley behind the precinct!"
Charles didn't even flinch. He slowly set his scotch glass down on the table. "You were compromised, Mark. You let Sarah see the timer. You got careless."
"I did everything you asked for five years!" Mark shrieked, pointing the barrel straight at Charles' head. "I put up with this fake marriage, I carried out your insane bath schedule, I kept your sick dark-web investors happy to fund your research! Now pay me my fifty million dollars, or I blow your brains across this glass!"
Mark swung his weapon toward me, a twisted grin breaking across his face. "Or maybe I'll kill your precious daughter's mother first."
Before Mark could pull the trigger, a harsh, mechanical sound echoed through the lab ceiling.
CLICK.
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A hidden ceiling turret swung down from the darkness, auto-targeting Mark's chest. Red laser sight dots danced across Mark's body.
Charles smiled faintly. "Did you really think you were the only one playing games in this house, Mark?"
