The loud soul crushing scream was disconcerting.The painful jerking and twitches was nauseating.
When my guinea pig for the t.i.tan change experiment sudden went still his eyes wide open filled with fright and pain I felt sick. I didn"t know the guy but I wasn"t so heartless that I was willing to see him die. That wasn"t the point of the experiment.
I went to kneel down beside him and help as much as I could. I was disappointed that the experiment was such a resounding failure.
Unfortunately it seemed I hesitated for too long. The man let out a long breath then went completely limp. There was still a look of fear and pain on his face but he looked dead.
I felt truly disgusted with myself. I was happy I had used a random stranger for this experiment rather than my wife or family. Yet I had hesitated to try and help when it seemed like he needed it. Now it was probably too late.
Megan grabbed my shoulder caressing it gently. "He"s fine." Megan told me making me frown up at her.
Megan smiled at me mischievously. "Its true, check him." she told me.
I reached out and touched the man"s shoulder I knew she was right the moment I made contact. Mana was still swirling around inside him like a tempest.
"That was exactly how you looked when you started your second transformation." Karen told me.
No wonder they had all looked so sad and depressed when we came downstairs. It also explained why they greeted me so enthusiastically the second time when I had only been asleep for a week the first time.
"Probably only going to take a few hours." Kayda said though she looked as uncomfortable as I felt.
I nodded, I still had no idea why my first transformation took so long, but it didn"t seem like that would be the case for this one.
"We should move him." I commented unsure what else to do. It was a waiting game now, my least favorite thing to do.
Before I could try and figure out something else to do Heather was in front of me tears in her eyes then she was hugging me tightly.
I smiled down at her and hugged her back. I knew how much this had affected her, trying to find someone to agree to marrying her sister with no guarantee it would work had been really hard on her. Despite the uneven gender ratio, which wasn"t nearly as bad as it used to be, no one wanted to be bonded to a monster.
Monica followed behind Heather tears streaming down her face. I hugged her too. Being a twisted had been very hard on her. She had her mind back, but that didn"t change the way everyone looked at her. No one had dared to do anything against her, but the fact that her kid wouldn"t even hug her must have been tearing her apart. I personally didn"t care about how her ex viewed her as long as he didn"t try to harm her, physically or mentally. Thankfully, unlike Rebecca, Monica"s split had been on better terms.
I had met them briefly, her ex was another doctor who had his own practice and other doctors to help with the burden. Ca.s.sy, their daughter was a pretty little four year old with black hair and bright green eyes. I could only console Monica each time she tried to visit them but was unable to get her own daughter to look at her let alone hug her.
Now there was hope for each of them, and it seemed to be exactly what they needed.
Knowing that the two of them needed me there as support I dealt with the boredom of waiting. If this failed I did want to be here to help the man, but I would also need to console my wives.
We shifted him into our house and laid him on a couch to be more comfortable. Megan had left for a bit arranging somewhere for him to stay when he recovered. Quoting it as positive thinking.
I smiled at her when she returned then continued to wait.
After three hours the man finally began to move again, small twitches was all but his skin changed from green back into a normal skin tone, he had a dark tan but looked far more human now than he had a moment ago. Several long minutes later and he opened his eyes which had returned to a normal hazel.
With a shudder he sat up and looked around. I remembered a bit late that I hadn"t placed a servant bond on him yet. Once Annitte had mentioned it I knew how, but my excitement had been to much to remember. I stepped forward as he started to look around curiously. "Welcome back." I said with a smile holding my hand out. Daryl Wallous."
The man hesitated for a moment then shook my hand. I took the opportunity to set the bond on him. Thankfully it set with no problem and his grogginess helped it go unnoticed. I also peeked into his inners.p.a.ce and confirmed the changes. He didn"t have the same abilities as I did, instead he had four elements, and body along with his t.i.tan core. Floating around on its own was the twisted core. I had no idea what that would do or what he could use it for. However it made me wonder if he would be like me and have some sway on the twisted. Yet as I thought that the twisted core broke apart becoming mana that was absorbed into his new core and the other abilities. Apparently not. I would have to figure out how to control the twisted once Monica had changed. There was our backup haven Megan had created. We could put them there away from the humans until we have enough time to change them all.
"Matthew." he said drawing back my attention then frowned for a moment. "What happened?"
"Hey Matty." Heather said moving around me so she could be seen.
I gave Heather a look, seems he wasn"t so random after all.
"Heather?" Matthew asked.
Heather nodded.
"Where"s Melody?" he asked looking around frantically.
I let out a breath I didn"t realize I was holding and relaxed a bit. She knew him through her sister.
Heather gave me a smirk leaning into my side her arm wrapping around my waist. "She is still a twisted." Heather replied. "Though that won"t be for much longer." she added cheerfully.
We talked with Matthew for a few more minutes catching him up on what was going on and what he was now. When we let him leave I warned him to control himself. He didn"t know his new abilities and if he wasn"t careful he could end up hurting or killing someone without meaning too.
That had caused the man to pause then nod before following Megan and Karen away to his new residence. As a t.i.tan we were giving him some special privileges for now. Besides I found out Matthew was Melody"s most frequent boyfriend, he wasn"t Bryan"s father, but he was close to the boy.
Once Matthew had been dealt with I looked to Heather and Monica. Both looked excited.
"Are you sure?" I asked Monica.
She nodded determinedly.
I gave her a kiss then had her lay down on one of the beds upstairs. I took a deep breath reminding myself that Matthew had come through it fine then started the process for Monica. I injected Mana from my t.i.tan core directly into her twisted core. I noted that the mana that was specific to my t.i.tan core had completely regenerated. I hadn"t thought to time out how long it took to fill back up. With the number of twisted we had in holding it would take us a while to change them all. I was certain it was a good idea, but I was a bit hesitant to do it.
Heather had helped by keeping it close to the family. Matthew was likely to become a brother in law, but I also knew that once news got out that we could fix the twisted there would be many who begged us to help their family members who were twisted. I wasn"t sure of the numbers but at least a quarter of the twisted we had, were related to someone else in the haven. Some were even the only living relatives of the children we had rescued. Keeping it to ourselves would be difficult. Though the servant bond would go a long way to helping me sleep at night.
Monica screamed in pain as the transformation began. I cringed hearing her in so much pain but it was even worse with Monica as I could feel her pain through our bond. After a while she shifted to that dead appearance that had freaked me out earlier. Thankfully I could feel her through our bond so I didn"t panic. With her like that I left her with Kayda and walked with Heather to the twisted area to get her sister.
When we neared the cage I could see that the twisted had gotten restless. They could already feel the loss of Monica and her control over them. With a thought I reached out to them and pressed my own domination down onto them. The restlessness disappeared as as they submitted to my higher tier. I left them with thoughts to not attack anyone then ignored them. Heather had been keeping her sister separate from the others so she had an easier time visiting even if it was pointless. Again Emy opened the cage for us so we could bring Melody out. Rather than repeating the same scenario as we did with Matthew I directed Melody to follow us back to the house.
We received some nervous glances from the few we ran into and I found Matthew returned and waiting for us at the door. He saw Melody and seemed relieved.
"You are going to change her like you did me?" Matthew asked.
I nodded. "Heather wants her sister back." I replied.
Matthew nodded, "And after?" he asked.
"After?" I asked.
"I heard about you and your harem." Matthew said.
That was fast.
"No, she will not be joining my harem." I replied then led Melody into the house. Matthew tried to follow but I stopped him.
"I just want to sit with her." Matthew told me.
I glanced over at Heather who nodded.
I groaned but let him follow us in. I decided to put her on the same couch Matthew had been on rather than one of the beds like I initially intended. Probably for the best, those beds were for me and my wives. Melody wasn"t going to become my wife. We could have brought her mind back as soon as I awakened if we made her one of mine, but Heather had never even suggested it. While Melody was obviously pretty even with her twisted coloring, she wasn"t so pretty to cause me any distraction, several of my wives were much prettier than she was. Besides I remembered the fact that Heather had been the fat sister. So as much as she loved her sister, they weren"t like Jamie and Jessica.
Once I had her settled onto the couch I began. The mana I had used from Monica hadn"t regenerated yet and with the lose for changing Melody I was down to under half. That made me a bit uncomfortable but there was nothing I could do now.
Matthew nearly attacked me as he watched Melody"s transformation but we were able to calm him down.
Once she had stopped moving I left them. Heather decided to stay and watch over her sister as I returned to watch over my wife. It was going to be a long couple hours. Kayda gave me a grin when I returned, Megan and Karen with her. At least I wouldn"t be alone.