Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02) (3 page)

“Yeah, well, I still say you’re cheating somehow.”

He chuckled. “Perhaps.” He stopped walking. “The majority of my time was spent at another CGE location, in Texas.”

“Oh. Um.” I bit my lip. “I don’t mean this to sound rude, but…”

“Why am I telling you?”

I nodded.

“Because my time away was largely in regards to you.” At my gaping, he added, “Or rather, what almost happened to you.”

“What? The vampire thing?” I knew that’d come back to bite me! “Am I dying again? Or turning into a vampire? I mean, it wouldn’t be
again
because I hadn’t really been dying in the first place, and I couldn’t have really turned into a vampire since I didn’t get bitten by two, but—”

“Miss Hall.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “I apologize. I wasn’t implying you were in any danger. You are not dying and you are not turning into a vampire. You were cleared, I assure you. We’ll continue keeping a close eye on your blood work as we discussed after your graduation; however, I don’t believe there will be any issues.”

“Oh. Okay.” I breathed a sigh. After a second, I narrowed my eyes. “Then what are you implying?”

“Do you remember when I mentioned you being the first child born from genetically enhanced parents?”

I nodded again. “Yeah.” That was the reason I was still alive and kicking. It’d been the same day he’d told me my mom—and dad—had been CGE agents. That wasn’t something I’d forget anytime soon, no matter how much I was trying to.

“Well, your survival from the vampire bite brought quite a bit of attention from those who support the CGE.”

“Why?”

“Because you were the first person to survive a vampire bite. You were immune, or at the very least, your body produced what it needed in order to fight off the infection. This was nothing short of miraculous, Miss Hall.”

I still wasn’t seeing the point to this conversation. Greene didn’t just offer information freely, not if it was important. He had a reason for it and I wished I knew what that reason was. Then again, knowing Greene, maybe I didn’t want to know. Whatever it was—and whatever he was leading up to—couldn’t be good. The odds weren’t in my favor, I knew that much.

“Miss Hall, we acquired the funding because of you. Our supporters know we’re one step closer to curing, and maybe even preventing, people from being turned into vampires, or dying because the process failed.”

I didn’t really know how much money his
supporters
had given him, but for the stuff he was talking about, I was guessing probably in the millions. A few thousand, or even a hundred thousand, would barely cover the costs of the new tablets—if that much. Mine had cost me a lot, and it wasn’t nearly as nice as the ones we had now.

“So they donated all that money just to stop vampires?” Not that it was ‘just’ anything. It just seemed like a lot of money to hand over for something that would only serve one real purpose.

“No, not entirely. This isn’t just about vampires. If we can find a cure for that, who knows what else we may discover. I know this may seem strange to you, but a fair amount of our medical breakthroughs are accidental—at least those that don’t help in the fight against demons. Scientists are always looking for, or trying to do, one particular thing at any given time, but often, they discover something completely different.”

“I’m still missing something, aren’t I? I mean, you wouldn’t be telling me this just because I survived.”

He gave a brief nod. “The majority of the money will be spent researching—”

“Me,” I whispered. Now I saw the point. “You want to research me.”

Greene bowed his head slightly. “In essence, yes. Our scientists want to study you.”

C
HAPTER 02

“Oh.”

That was…not great news.

Wasn’t the DNA harvesting enough? Now they really wanted to study me? Would they stick me in some white room somewhere, poke and prod at me, hoping to find answers?

Director Greene looked down at me. “We—the scientists, that is—believe you hold the key to solving something they, along with hundreds of others, have spent decades working on. Thousands of hours and billions of dollars have been spent since the discovery of demons. There have been great strides made since then, but we’ve never been close to a cure before.”

“And are you now? Close to a cure, I mean.”

“Sadly, no. Not exactly. But we are a lot closer now than we were two years ago, or even three months ago. Our scientists will find a way, I’m sure, and they believe research on your blood and DNA will help aid them.”

“So I have a choice?”

He didn’t seem offended by my question, or all that surprised. “Of course. However, please consider that the hard work lies with the scientists. Your exams would continue much in the same way they are now.”

“You’d just have Doc take more blood?” Didn’t Doc take enough already? I already felt like a blood bank.

“Miss Jones would be required to take more samples, yes, but only one of your weekly appointments for the month would be different. She would need to perform additional tests as well.”

“Like what?” Now I was really worried. He had to know I hated getting my blood drawn. It wasn’t as bad as before, but I still disliked it.

“Though it’s not specifically required, I’d like her to run some digital scans and physical tests. You mentioned your rapid healing before, and I don’t see how that isn’t due to the genetic treatments your parents received. Also, your incredible memory. I’d like to have a brain scan run as well.”

“But no more needles or…you know, brain surgery type stuff? Dissections or anything?” I doubted that’d be the case, but I really wasn’t sure. I mean, I had no idea how they did their research. Maybe they studied brains or corpses or something.

Greene laughed. “No. No extra needles. More blood, as I said, for one of your appointments, and a few time-consuming tests, but nothing else. I can schedule your tests to be during one of your class hours, if that’d help. Perhaps Demonology since it seems to be your best course.”

I didn’t gasp, but it was close. If Linc found out what I was about to say, he’d never let me live it down. “No, that’s okay,” I whispered, then I looked around to make sure Linc wasn’t in hearing distance. I didn’t add that I liked my classes. Linc knew it, because I said it enough, but if he knew I was declining being let out early… I was afraid his poor head might explode.

“I didn’t think that would sway you.” The sides of his lips twitched. “As I said, ultimately, it is your decision, but I’d appreciate if you’d at least consider it very carefully. You said you wanted to help people, and I believe this would be one of the best things you can do, something that would allow you to help people on a larger scale, though it would be a long-term goal without many immediate or visible results.”

I didn’t answer right away. It really shouldn’t have been that hard of a request. Did I or didn’t I want to do it? There were benefits and downsides. Obvious benefits being helping other people. Downsides were getting poked at more often and a harder time trying to avoid the whole I’m-part-demon thing. Both were big deals in their own right.

His get-out-class-free card hadn’t worked, but the not-quite guilt trip thing would do the trick. “Alright,” I heard myself saying. “I’ll do it.”

“Very well. Doc will be expecting you.”

I felt my eyes bug out. “Now?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem with now?”

The only problem I had with now was that it wasn’t
later
. Much, much later. “No, I guess not.”

His eyes stayed locked on mine while he seemed to mull over my answer. “I suppose it can wait until Tuesday. That might be better, in fact. A new scanner will be delivered tomorrow, so it should be set up and ready for use by the time your class is finished on Tuesday.”

“Are my weekly appointments changing?”

“No, just this once. They’ll continue to be on Fridays.”

I almost sighed. “Will it be a regular appointment or one of the longer ones you talked about?”

Greene tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips. “I know how much you hate these appointments, so how about a compromise? You go Tuesday, let Doc run her blood tests and complete a digital scan, and you won’t have to go again until the following Friday. The other tests can wait until the end of the month.”

I didn’t say anything for a minute. He had a habit of ruining the good stuff by throwing some other not-so-good stuff in. When the minute passed and he didn’t comment, I said, “That’ll work.”

“Waiting for the other shoe to drop?”

I should’ve been embarrassed that he knew where my thoughts were, but I wasn’t, and I wasn’t at all surprised that he did know. This was just more proof that he knew everything. “Pretty much.”

“There’s no catch, Miss Hall. You’re doing this to help, and as such, I’ll do what I can to make it…I won’t call it enjoyable knowing your aversion for bloodwork, but at least more convenient.”

I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Thanks.”

“Thank you.” He lifted his arm and glanced at his watch. “I’m afraid I really do need to go. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day and I have arrangements to see to. I hope your evening goes well, Miss Hall. Enjoy your classes.”

I waved as he walked away, then frowned. When I twisted back to go find Linc, I nearly ran into him.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said, though I had no idea if it was really the truth. Nothing bad had really happened. I had what the CGE scientists needed to, hopefully, find a way to stop vampires. That was a good thing, wasn’t it? So why did I feel like…I wasn’t even sure
what
I was feeling.

“What did Greene want?”

“To research me,” I said miserably. “Or, my blood and DNA rather.”

“Because of the bite?”

“Because I lived,” I told him, then relayed what Greene had said.

Linc said nothing for a minute, and then his face went serious. “Well, it beats them wanting to research you because you died. Now
that
would be awkward.”

I just stared at him for a minute. Then I laughed and shook my head. “Thanks for the perspective, Stone.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, grinned. “Anytime, Hall. Anytime.”

“You’re still kind of annoying.”

“True. But look at the bright side. This probably means you’ll get even more special treatment now. So if you’re gonna mess up, this would be the Phase to do it in.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What? They’re really going to have a soft spot for you now. They can’t kick you out if your DNA is the key to stopping vampires.”

Key or not, who knew not dying could be so inconvenient?

*~*~*

Linc and I hung out later that night in his room and basically shared our speculations on everything: the ‘new Phase’ the CGE was starting, my new role as lab-rat, and, most importantly, the funding the CGE had gotten. Actually, I mostly speculated about that stuff—Linc just talked about the new tablets we were supposed to get. The only other time he sounded or looked so happy was when he got to play with the big kid toys (i.e.: the weapons in Weapons class).

At about ten, he shooed me away and made me promise to get some rest. After I did my nightly research thing (looking for the demon that had killed my mom and brother), I finally went to sleep.

I woke at seven the next morning, and since I had two hours before class started, I grabbed a long shower, did more research, and made sure any notes I might’ve left on the soon-to-be-retired tablet were transferred to my personal tablet. Greene hadn’t mentioned what he was doing with the old ones or when they’d be taking them back, so I just wanted to make sure everything was good to go.

I glanced at the clock. I still had almost an hour before Linc and Tasha would expect me for breakfast, so I dug out my mom’s journal and read about her first day of the Phase. It was a pretty short entry I discovered after a quick read. She just talked (mostly complained) about her summer vacation, and how it hadn’t been that vacationy when they had to study for half their classes still. One thing she did mention that made my heart hurt and feel good at the same time, was my dad’s name. Well, I assumed it was my dad, though I had no way of really knowing for sure. Robert wasn’t exactly an uncommon name. She’d written that she was looking forward to seeing him. It wasn’t a lot, but it was the first mention of him.

I ran my fingers across the top of my journal. It wasn’t exactly like my mom’s—the colors were darker on mine, more crisp since it was barely a few months old and hers were well over fifteen—but they were similar.

Carefully, I set hers aside and grabbed a pen from my desk. I sprawled across my bed on my stomach and started to write.

Dear Journal,

Today is the first day of Phase Two. After a really weird Phase One, I’m not sure what to expect. Everything went by really fast—including my non-vacation-like vacation. Will classes be a lot harder? Or will they be easier when I’m not trying to finish them in under three months?

Felecia’s gone, so that’s one less problem to worry about, though I still feel kinda bad about it. I mean, I didn’t get her kicked out, but it was because of me, so in a way I am to blame. Can’t tell Linc—he’d just glare and yell at me.