Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

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.

“Is this change permanent?”

“If you want,” said Edward. “Another dose of the potion will turn you back into your old self—but why would you want to be such a small and broken thing, when there is life to be lived and monsters to be slain?”

“When do I get to fight these monsters?” said Daniel.

“When you’re ready,” said Edward. “You’ve a way to go yet. You can make a start by choosing your new name.”

Daniel thought about it, and then smiled.

“Daniel Hyde. Because, basically, I’m still me.”

“Of course you are,” said Edward Hyde.

Chapter Four

AS FIRST DATES GO . . .

“If you’ve finished talking to yourself,” said Edward, “there’s work waiting to be done.”

Daniel looked at him, and then deliberately sat down in his chair again. “I have questions, before I agree to do anything.”

“Really?” said Edward.

He got up and came out from behind his desk again. He sauntered over to Daniel, and kicked the chair out from under him. Daniel fell sprawling to the floor, and then rolled quickly to one side to avoid Edward’s boot, as it went sweeping through the air where his head would have been.

Daniel scrambled back onto his feet, fists raised, and Edward smiled and nodded approvingly.

“That’s more like it. Hydes don’t take shit from anyone. But for now, you take my orders and you don’t argue, because I know what’s going on and you don’t.”

“Like what?” said Daniel, not lowering his hands.

“The Frankenstein Clan is holding its annual gathering right here in London, in just a few hours,” said Edward. “How would you like to go there, and kill every single one of them?”

“Kill them?” said Daniel.

“Does the thought honestly bother you? After everything you saw?”