Denied - 90. Chapter 90

The miniature Sparkles turned when her croon cut off. She rose from the water and nudged me with her nose. She chirped and I looked from her to the egg still in the water. The babies clawed their way up her snout to perch in small circles on her head.

“Sparkles?” She hadn’t gone away from the water, still hovering beside me, but she wasn’t making the same sound she had for the other eggs. She wasn’t hovering over it or bathing it with water. “Is it okay?”

I glanced at her, but she was looking at one of the babies who’d perched on her eyebrow ridges.

“Aparoe!” I called. “Aparoe, come help!” I’d wanted to share this moment with just Sparkles, but now I needed someone who knew more than I did.

Captain and Deke were on their feet instantly. Deke faced out, a weapon in his hand while he scanned the lightening sky. Captain rushed to my side, crouching next to me.

“Why didn’t you wake me? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. It’s not me.” I didn’t talk about why I didn’t wake him up. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but this was bigger than me. We needed help. The egg needed help.

“Is it the large egg?” Aparoe asked. They slid in next to me on the other side away from Sparkles.

“I don’t know. I didn’t see how big they all were or anything.” Aparoe had spent more time around the eggs and knew a lot more about Sparkles than I did. “It’s not moving. Sparkles stopped humming and left the water.” I shot up. “You said you didn’t experiment on the eggs. Were you lying?” I opened and shut my hands into tight fists. “If you hurt it….” I hissed.

“Calm down, Koehn. Do you think Sparkles would let me harm her babies?” Aparoe activated a scanner. Sparkles was right next to the egg as soon as the scanner neared it. “Yes, it’s okay, we did this before.”

Seconds passed, but they felt like ages before the scanner beeped. Aparoe frowned. “This egg has always been on the bottom of the others. I could tell it was bigger, because it protruded beyond the edges of them, but it was below them and under the water so I could never get a clear scan of it.”

That told me nothing. “Is it… dead?” It didn’t have quite the same opacity as the others either.

“No. But it isn’t moving either. I’m not sure why. The scan shows a mix of your DNA and Sparkles, but it’s not the same either.” Aparoe looked up and bit their lip. “I’d like to scan one of the babies. Do you think she’d let me?”

“Getting between a new mama and her babies is a bad idea,” Deke threw over his shoulder. “Good way to get mauled or burned.”

Captain was near my side, but even he didn’t get too close to Sparkles. For all that Aparoe helped take care of her when she was little, I sensed Sparkles scared the doctor in her full-grown form. Then again, multiple limbs with sharp claws, impenetrable scales, fangs, and the ability to breathe fire would intimidate anyone.

Just not me.

“Sparkles? Can I hold one of the babies?” I asked. I was desperate to help the egg, and I’d held the babies before. “I won’t let anything happen to them.”

Sparkles blinked and chirped, then lowered her head. I wasn’t sure how I knew which was the oldest, but I picked up one coiled baby, crooning to it when the baby quivered on my palm. “Shh, you’re okay. You know me, remember.” I brought the tiny face up to mine, breathing my scent out and receiving a tiny lick on my nose.

I turned, tucking the baby next to my chest as I encouraged it to stretch out along my arm. “Be careful, move slow. Don’t scare it.”

Aparoe grumbled under their breath, but moved gingerly, the machine held sideways instead of over the baby. Aparoe scanned with glacial slowness from its head to tail. Data was already streaming before they finished. “Hmm.”

“Hmm… what?” Captain said. He leaned in but didn’t touch, just examined it with a small smile on his face. Oh, the beautiful baby was charming him as it yawned and curled back up.

“The baby is a genetic match for Sparkles, perfectly. As near a replica as nature can come up with.”

“So she produced them asexually?” Captain said. “Clones?”

“This one and probably those two since they look identical? Yes. But that egg, that one is different. It has more of Kohen’s DNA.”

I carefully placed the baby back on Sparkles’ head. “What does that mean?” What was in that egg? Some sort of half-human freak? A doomed mix of human body parts and scales and wings? A monster? I shuddered, disgusted, knowing it was the doctor’s experiments on my body that let this happen. That would have twisted that baby into whatever poor creature it had become. “Is it even… viable?”

Aparoe opened their mouth, closed it, then sighed. “I don’t know.”

“What do you know?” I hissed in frustration.

“Sparkles wants you here to do something. It wasn’t the other babies. They were born just fine, though they liked climbing on you, they could have gone on her. It has to be this, this is why you’re here.” Aparoe had been watching.

I frowned. “But what can I do? I’ll do anything to save it, but I don’t know how to help the egg.”

As if that was all Sparkles was waiting for, she nudged me. Pushing on my body, then my arms, she guided me to the pool and the egg. Her razor sharp claws swished the water, but she pulled them back from the egg and out. Then she nudged my hands.

“Do… do you want me to take it out of the water?”