Breed of Havoc (The Breed Chronicles #3) (7 page)

The layout was a complete one-eighty from the CGE buildings. Unlike the North Tower with its maze of hallways, multiple staircases and elevators, this building only had one corridor, with rooms on either side, that seemed to go on forever.

The security room door opened. Two guards and the people in lab coats stepped out. The guards walked up to Adam and Peter and shook hands. Adam and Peter handed over their weapons and were each given a tranq gun. (I only knew they were tranq guns because they had blue clips instead of black clips with real ammo.)

The man wearing the lab coat walked over to the main group of P3s. Briskly, the woman came over to Linc and I. Her hair was dark red, styled in a short mohawk on the top of her head, and her eyes were a dark blue. “You must be Jade Hall,” she said, smiling at me. She looked at Linc. “And you must be Lincoln Stone.” At my blank stare, she laughed. “Director Greene sent over everyone’s files to be looked over and your files included your pictures.” She smiled again, this time at Linc. “I hear you prefer to go by Linc?”

He nodded. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

The smile stayed in place. “You two will be working with me today. I’m Dr. Cherry. My colleague, Dr. Bates, will be working with your classmates.”

“Nice to meet you,” Linc and I both said.

“And you. If you’ll give me just a moment, please.”

Linc and I exchanged looks. “Sure,” I said.

She walked a few feet away and said something to her colleague, who waved and started down the hall with the other P3s. Eric glanced over his shoulder and glared, then Tasha and Chris did the same thing, only their glares (I hoped) were meant for Eric and not me. Tasha gave us a sad little wave bye.

“We’re going this way, so if you two will follow me,” Dr. Cherry said, leading us in the opposite direction as everyone else. “I’m one of the lead scientists who’s studying your DNA, Jade, which is another reason I’m familiar with who you are. I’ve been looking over your tests results from Adria Jones—Doc?—and Dr. Hamilton. I’ve taken over the research on your DNA.”

“Good,” I said, and then I winced. “That sounded rude, but I didn’t mean it like that. I just don’t like Dr. Hamilton.” I cringed this time, thinking back on Greene’s words about being on our best behavior. “What I mean is—”

While Linc tried—and failed—to hide his chuckle, Dr. Cherry laughed. “It’s fine. I’m aware of your distaste for Dr. Hamilton.”

I made a face. “Is that in my file, too?”

Another laugh. “Not exactly. I tend to...need to know everything about what—or who, as the case may be—I’m researching. In other words, I’m very nosy. I apologize.”

Amused now, I said, “It’s fine.”

She stopped walking and turned to face me. Her head tilted to the side. “To be perfectly honest, I’ve worked with Dr. Hamilton before, so I admit I’m not at all surprised by your reaction to him, neither can I say that I blame you for it. He is a great doctor, even if his social skills tend to be on the low side. I am, however, selfishly glad that I’ve been given the opportunity to work with you.”

“Thanks. I think.”

With a nod, she started walking again. She chatted easily about this or that, and though I tried paying attention to her words, my focus wandered and I found myself glancing at rooms as we passed them. Most were closed off so I couldn’t see inside, but some, like the security room, had windows, though they appeared empty.

We continued down the hallway for another few minutes before Dr. Cherry finally stopped outside a room. This one had windows, but I didn’t see any demons roaming around inside. “This is where we’ll work,” she said, using her ID on the card reader, then doing the whole eye-scan thing like Mr. Connor had done.

“Lots of security,” I mumbled.

“It is, yes. But we can never be too safe when we’re dealing with demons or research. What we do here is very important and we can’t afford escapes or break-ins.”

“Have there been any of either?” I asked, curious.

“I don’t believe so. But, I’ve been here only three years, so there very well may have been issues before I joined. That’s not exactly something that’s brought up very often, as I’m sure you can imagine. Still, better safe than sorry, right?”

I nodded as the door opened and she gestured us inside. The room was longer than it was wide, though it was probably fifteen or twenty feet across. It was sectioned off with some kind of plastic or glass, so it was actually three rooms in one. The room we walked into was the smallest and bare. To the left, a slightly bigger room with a desk and folding chairs. On our right, the largest section. The floor-to-ceiling partition separating it from the main room had quarter-sized holes spread evenly apart. There wasn’t an entrance to that room, but it had four doors on that side of the partition.

Turning back in a slow circle, I wiped my hands across my jeans. They were sweaty again. This is what I’d asked for, wasn’t it? A way to figure out which demons I needed to avoid so I could still go on hunts. Why did it make me so nervous? I didn’t have a good answer (or a bad one), so I ignored the sick feeling in my stomach and faced Dr. Cherry. “What are we going to be doing?”

“A few basic tests for now that will actually require very little on your part. This will likely be quite boring for you both, I’m afraid. What I plan to do is have a few different species of demon brought in, gauge their reaction to Linc here first, and then their reaction to you. Director Greene explained what we’re hoping to accomplish, didn’t he?”

“Not really. He mentioned you wanted Linc, so I’m guessing you’re going to try to see which demons hate me for being human, and which hate me for being, well, me.”

The doctor laughed. “Bluntly put, but yes, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing. This will, we hope, help you when it comes time for you to actually hunt, and help us as well.”

“How does it help you?” Linc asked, looking from me then to the doctor.

“She’s having issues we never anticipated, issues that, honestly, shouldn’t even be present. Since they are—due to the vampire bite we assume—we have to find a way to work around it. For her and future hunters, as well. Certain demon species reacting positively to her is a good thing—for her, the demons, the researchers. But…”

“Them reacting negatively is bad,” Linc finished for her.

“Yes, exactly. A vampire immunity is a great thing. If we can reproduce those results, it’d be even better. But we need to do it safely. Having a kind of immunity toward them would be excellent, and it’s something I hoping to figure out, but not if the cost is having other demons react so negatively. In essence, we need to make more of you, only without the bad side-effects.”

She smiled and laughed, so I tried to do the same, even though that sick feeling in my stomach turned into a pit of nausea. Why did they want more of me? Beside the vampire-immunity thing—which was admittedly good since it kept me alive—what else could they want to duplicate? Sure, I was stronger and faster than the other Prospects, but the agents, the ones who’d had the treatments, were still stronger and faster than me, weren’t they?

“If you’re ready, I’m going to have the first demon brought in. Jade and I will be in that room,” she said, pointing to the room on the left, the office-like one with the desk and chairs. “All I need you to do, Linc, is stand in front of the partition, about five feet away. Just let the demon get your scent.”

“Stand there and look pretty, Flyboy.”

He flashed me a quick grin. “I can do that.”

Dr. Cherry chuckled and led me away. “I take it you two are involved?” she whispered.

“Oh. Er…”

“It’s fine.” She opened the door to the room and I followed her inside. She looked down at me and winked. “It doesn’t take a scientist to figure it out. It’s very telling, the way you two look at each other.”

I tried not to blush, which, naturally, only made me blush even more. “Oh. Well.” I scratched my head. “Yeah. Yeah, we’re together.” Saying the words felt...weird, because I’d never said them out loud before. But it felt good, too.

Dr. Cherry smiled again, then sat down in one of the folding chairs. I sat in one of the others and continued to rub my palms over my jeans.

Picking up a tablet from the desk, she set it on her lap and turned it on. On the wall, she pressed a button on an intercom system. “You ready, Linc?”

Linc looked over his shoulder and nodded. “Ready.”

“Okay.” She typed something on the tablet. Her finger hovered over a button that said Release. “Ready, Jade?”

“He’s safe, right?” All that would be standing between Linc and a demon was a partition—a partition that didn’t seem that thick.

“He’ll be perfectly safe. The glass is made of a special material—it’s nearly indestructible.”

I let out a breath. “Okay.”

She pressed the button. A second later, the far left door in the other room opened. For a minute, nothing happened, but then I saw movement. When the demon came out, I frowned. “Is that a Sharphynx? Maybe you should’ve told him to cover his ears.”

“There’s no need,” she said easily. She pointed to the demon. “See its neck? There’s a device wrapped around it that prevents it from making any sound over a certain decibel. If it does, it will give the demon a slight shock. It’s not exactly fun for the demon, but neither is it all that painful. Trust me,” she added, her tone wry, “I know. It’s just a quick, low voltage zap.”

I didn’t mean to laugh, but it just came up. “You’ve been shocked with one?”

“Once, when I was new. On accident.”

I grinned at her, then looked back to Linc. The grin slid away as the demon stepped completely out of its room and stalked (there was no other word for it) toward Linc. Linc, with his hands in his pockets, stood less than ten feet from it, looking as relaxed as ever. The demon stepped closer and closer, until it looked like it was only inches from him. It raised its hand to the glass, looked around like it expected something to happen, then banged its fist on the partition.

Linc didn’t flinch. I, on the other hand, bolted out of my chair.

Dr. Cherry put her hand on my arm. “He’s perfectly safe, Jade. I assure you. Neither of you would be here if it wasn’t safe.”

“Sorry.” I didn’t retake my seat. Instead, I stood, staring out as my boyfriend stared down a demon.

The Sharphynx banged on the glass a few more times, then it just paced a short line in front of Linc, never taking its eyes from him.

After two more minutes, Dr. Cherry called Linc back. “You okay?” he whispered in my ear.

“I’m good.” Well, I was better than I’d been minutes before, seeing him being stalked by a demon.

Dr. Cherry smiled. “When you’re ready, Jade.”

I nodded and started out. My steps were slow. I wasn’t afraid of the demon, but I couldn’t help but be a little wary. I’d seen one of its kind break out of a van, a secured room, and then come after me.

When I was closer to the partition, the demon stopped pacing and watched me intently. Its head moved side to side and I could see its nostrils flaring, and then it slapped its hands on the glass.

I looked into its eyes. It stared back at me, its own eyes narrowing.

My stomach lurched. It wasn’t just
a
Sharphynx, I realized a second later, seeing the recognition in the demon’s eyes. It was
the same one
.

“Yeah, you remember me, don’t you?” I whispered. “I remember you, too. You killed Celina.”

C
HAPTER 04

I took another step forward, my fingers instinctively curling.

The Sharphynx—
this
Sharphynx—had attacked Celina the day Greene recruited me. It’d been the first demon I’d seen since my family’s murder. I tried not to think of Celina very often, because it still made me mad, and sad, that I hadn’t been able to do more to help, that I hadn’t been able to save her and she’d died. But here, now, standing only feet from the demon that killed her, I had no choice but remember her. To see her face in my head, covered in so much blood I didn’t even know what color her hair had been. To see the gaping hole in her shoulder.

To see the pain in her eyes. The fear.

I tried not seeing my family that way, but I couldn’t stop those images from forming in my head anymore than I could stop the ones of Celina. Was that expression—the pain, the fear—the same one my mom and brother had worn when they’d been attacked?

“Jade!”

I blinked, just now realizing the Sharphynx was pounding away on the glass in a futile effort to get to me.

I wiped my face before clearing my throat and turning around. “Yeah?”

Linc and Dr. Cherry were on their feet, both wearing similar expressions of worry. Dr. Cherry leaned closer to the intercom. “Are you okay?”

“Sorry.” I took a steadying breath. “This isn’t just another Sharphynx. It’s the same one from my first Phase.”

“Yes, it is,” she said, motioning me back into the room.

Linc shot her a quick glance, his face paling slightly.

I cast one last glare over my shoulder at the demon. When it saw me walking away, it started scratching and beating on the glass again. It started to make that screeching sound but stopped after a few seconds with a strangled sound and growled instead.