by Lanie Jordan
“So, basically, the nice demons are nicer and the bad demons are worse?” I asked.
“Simplified, yes.”
“But is it only with demons I share DNA with? Does that include the hybrids?”
“Still working on that one. I do, however, have an idea that might help with testing. I may even have another lab rat I can use instead of you.”
“Cool.” It wasn’t a lot of information to go on, but anything that made me less of a lab rat was good in my book. “So, what’s on the agenda for today?”
Dr. Cherry rose from her seat. “I’ll show you.”
As she walked out of the room, I glanced at Linc. He looked as confused as me and shrugged.
She came back a few minutes later, carrying a small cage with a white rat inside. Catching my what-the-hell look, she smiled. “Jade, meet what I hope will be your replacement.”
“It’s a rat,” I said, pointing out the obvious.
Dr. Cherry nodded happily. “It is. It’s a lab rat.”
“When you said you had an idea for another lab rat, I thought you meant…I don’t know. Blood stuff or another person.” The rat looked at me and blinked its beady eyes at me. Part of me was happy with the idea of not being a, well, lab rat anymore, but… “Okay, I’m not exactly a rat advocate or anything, but I’m not sure how I feel about it being used in my place.”
“Don’t worry. The rat, if I’m able to use it how I’m hoping I’ll be able to, will be just as safe as you were.”
I eyed the rat, then Dr. Cherry. “I don’t want to know what you did with the blood samples you’ve taken, do I?” Unfortunately, I had a good idea.
“I do,” Linc said. “Cover your ears if you don’t want to hear it.”
“Hell. Just tell me.”
Dr. Cherry reminded me of Doc when she’d gotten to ‘play’ with the TT for the first time. She looked ridiculously, scarily happy. “I modified the rats DNA.”
“A Jade rat?” Linc grinned. “Cool.”
I slapped his arm. “That is not cool. That’s disturbing. And…more disturbing.”
Linc knelt down in front of the cage. “I think it has your eyes.” He looked up at me, winked. “And maybe your nose.”
“I think I’m annoyed.” I nodded. “Yes, what I’m feeling is definitely annoyance at being compared to a rat. A rat, Linc.”
Dr. Cherry laughed. “I hate to interrupt the spat—and I do mean that as I find watching you two interact fascinating and quite amusing—I want to see if my idea will work.”
I hit Linc once more, just for good measure. “Okay.”
Linc, rubbing his shoulder, glared at me and said, “How’s this going to help Jade?”
Still chuckling, Dr. Cherry sat the rat cage on the desk. “I’m going to have the demons brought out like we did with you and Jade. I want to compare their reactions toward her to their reactions toward the rat. I’m going to record each of these sessions, the same as I have with you two.”
“So you want to see if the ones that hate Jade also hate Jade 2.0?”
I groaned. Linc and Dr. Cherry both grinned.
“Yes. I’m hoping they react to the rat the same way.” She indicated the other room. “Whenever you’re ready, Jade.”
I stepped out to the outer room and walked up to the partition. Half a minute later, one of the doors opened and out came the Octogator again. The reaction was the same—bad. A minute or two later, Dr. Cherry called me back.
“And now for this little gal.” She carried the rat out and put it at the corner of the room, away from where I’d stood. “Cross your fingers,” she said as she retook her seat.
When the demon was released, everyone’s eyes were glued on it. It came out, sniffing around. It spotted—or scented—the rat and walked over to it. For thirty seconds, it stared at the rat. And then with one last sniff, it walked away and just paced back and forth until someone got it back into its room.
She tried the experiment with half a dozen demons and got the same results every time. The demons didn’t react to it abnormally at all. Some sniffed at it while others ignored it entirely.
After the last test of the day, Dr. Cherry’s fist came down on the table hard, making her tablet flip over on the desk. Linc and I jumped. Her eyes were narrowed, mouth set in a thin, angry line. She hung her head down. “Damnit!”
We both shot her uncertain looks. We’d never seen her upset before “Sorry it didn’t work,” I said, feeling like I should say something.
“Don’t be. I’m sorry for getting upset, but I was positive it would work. It should have and I don’t know why it didn’t. You’re turning out to be a species of your own,” she said with a quiet laugh.
I didn’t laugh and I had to force myself not to frown, but she wouldn’t have seen me anyway.
Her eyes lowered to her tablet and she pressed a few buttons. She stared at it for a full minute before she said anything else. “What is it about your DNA that defies everything we know? What is it about you that is so different?”
The questions weren’t directed at me—at least I didn’t think so—so I didn’t answer. I wouldn’t have known how to, anyway. My DNA was more baffling to me than it was to her or anyone else, and if she didn’t have the answers or couldn’t find them, who could? “Um, this is going to come out wrong, but why are you so upset?”
She turned to look at me, but for a split second, it didn’t seem like she saw me. “If it had worked,” she said, speaking slowly, “it would have put us one step—one big step—closer to figuring out what it is about your DNA that is so different. It would have told us what’s so unique and unlike anything we’ve seen before. That could have led us to the reason you’re immune to vampire bites. It could have told us why these demons react to you so differently. That discovery…” She shook her head. “That discovery would have been very good for all of us.”
Greene told me before that he—he and the scientists—were hoping to find a cure or some kind of immunity. But when he’d said it, he’d made it sound like it could take a long time. He hadn’t made it sound so…urgent, maybe. Finding a cure or an immunity would be great and save lives, and the sooner the better. I understood that. But it felt more pressing now, like it had to happen this second and any delay would be my fault.
Dr. Cherry looked down at me with a small smile, like she read my thoughts and knew what I must be thinking. “I’m sorry, Jade. I realize this must put a lot of pressure on you, too. We’ll figure it out—I’m sure of it.”
Her words, while reassuring, didn’t really help with the pressure relieving, but I nodded anyway. “So, um, what about the rat? What happens to him?”
“Her. I’ll run some scans and see if I can’t find the issue. I’m not giving up on her just yet,” she added with a wink. “In fact, I might just keep her once our experiments are done.”
Linc laughed. “You’ll have your own Jade rat.”
I accidentally on purpose stepped on his foot. Hard. “Jade is taken.”
Dr. Cherry kept smiling. “I’ll think of a name.” She gazed at me with intense eyes. “Because of you, Jade, we’re going to change the world. I know we are.”
*~*~*
The appointment with Dr. Cherry had, for the most part, been okay, but I couldn’t get her words out of my head. Because of you, Jade, we’re going to change the world. I didn’t want to change the world. I didn’t want the weight of that on my shoulders, and that’s exactly where she’d put it.
I paced back and forth in my room. “Stupid DNA. Stupid rat.” Because it was the rat’s fault, too. If the stupid treatment Dr. Cherry had given it had worked, then the weight would be on its shoulders and not mine. When I neared my dresser, I pictured it as the rat and gave it a solid kick. It wobbled and the holo-tree toppled over, falling behind the dresser. “Son of a bit—”
“You okay?”
I spun around at the sound of Linc’s voice and glared. “How’d you get in?”
“You left the door ope
n.”
“Oh.” I kicked the dresser again, just because it was handy. It bounced off the wall this time.
“Impressive,” he said with a slight nod. “Are you trying to see how much paint you can chip off? More importantly, do I get a turn?”
I managed to keep glaring for another few seconds, and then I swore again and laughed. “Stop doing that. I’m trying to be angry here!”
He leaned against the door jamb. “Sorry. If it’s that easy to make you smile, then I don’t think your mad was that good to begin with.” He shrugged carelessly. “Just saving you time, Hall.”
“Stop being affable. I’m mad.”
“I can see that.” He pushed away from the door and walked over to me. “Want to talk about it?”
“No, I don’t want to talk about it. I want to kick things. Like Dr. Cherry, the stupid rat—”
“Jade 2.0.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Did you want to be on my kick-list? It has room for another person.”
He cleared his throat with a dry cough. “Tell me what’s going on, babe.”
“Nothing. I’m just—”
“Mad. We covered that. Looking for the reason here, Hall.”
“I don’t know.” I raised my arms up and let them fall. “I knew this testing stuff was important, and I know Greene hopes to figure out the whole vampire-immunity thing, but I didn’t realize—”
“There’d be this much pressure on you?”
“Stop knowing the answer before I can answer the question. It’s annoying.”
“Sorry, comes with the territory. I think people call it being ‘attentive’.”
“Close enough. But yes, Mr. Knows-It-All-But-Still-Asks.”
“Come here,” he said and patted the seat beside him.
Sighing, I sat next to him and rested my head on his shoulder when he pulled me close. “You’re still annoying.”
“Of course I am.” He wrapped his arm around me. “Keep going.”
“I knew there’d be some pressure, but it wasn’t like this last Phase.”
“It wasn’t?”
“No. Doc ran the tests she was told to run and that was it. She never brought it up, so I never thought much about it. Show up, get poked with needles, leave, and forget about it for the next week. Sometimes, she talked about stuff that affected me, but otherwise, she didn’t get into the details of anything unless I asked her for them. If she said anything, she talked to me about me and not the rest.”
“And now that Dr. Cherry is talking to you about it, you’re feeling guilty. Is that why you’ve been quiet since we got back?”
I lifted my head. “Yeah, I guess. Everything is riding on my DNA. If her idea with the rat doesn’t work, doesn’t that make me the cause, either directly or indirectly?”
“Do you really believe that?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed again. “I can’t control my DNA, but I can’t help feeling the rest either.”
“The rest?” He brushed my hair from my face. “What else are you thinking about?”
“That Dr. Hamilton was right last Phase when he said I was being selfish, because I am. I’m being selfish.”
“How?”
“When Greene told me about the appointments with Dr. Cherry, he said they were about finding out what demons I would be safe around. And now, it’s turned into the vampire-cure hunt. Don’t get me wrong, because I know that’s important, but…I thought it was about me. And—” I jabbed my finger at nothing in particular. “—it pisses me off that I’m pissed off about that, and that just pisses me off even more.”
Linc stared at me blankly for a minute and blinked slowly. “You’re…a confusing and complicated person, Jade Hall.”
“Yes, a confusing, complicated, pissed off, and selfish one.”
He pulled me close and wrapped his arms around me again. He pressed his lips to my forehead. “You’re not being selfish, at least not unreasonably so.”
I dropped my head to my hands. “What’s wrong with me?”
“There’s nothing wrong with you, babe. You’re human. You’re allowed to be complicated and confusing, even selfish sometimes, if that’s what you need.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but then shut it when I didn’t know what to say. His answer sounded so simple and yet…not.
He said I was human, but sometimes—on days like today when I was basically called my own species—I really didn’t feel so human.
CHAPTER 09
The thought that I didn’t feel human haunted me. It settled in my stomach, in my heart, like a lead weight and dragged me down. It would have been worse, but anytime Linc sensed I was dwelling on anything bad, he distracted me with kisses or threats of Tasha. He didn’t know what he was really distracting me from, but he probably thought it was the meeting with Dr. Cherry. It was in a way, but it was more than that, though I didn’t know how to tell him what was really bugging me.
When his distractions didn’t work, he reminded me that we had reports due for two classes and that I probably needed to check them over for the hundredth time. (That worked more than anything else.)
And on the Sunday before Christmas, Greene distracted us all when he called the P3s and P4s to the auditorium.
“Welcome,” he said as the last of the Prospects took their seats. “I’m sure you’re all anxious to begin your break, however, we have a situation that requires your attention. We’ve had numerous hunts this year, even more than last year’s unusual amount, and that number continues to rise. Due to the time of the year—winter, which is when a surprising amount of demons are active—our hunters have more work than they can currently handle. So, we’ve decided we’re going to take advantage of the situation and give you all more training opportunities.”
“We’ll be going on real hunts?” Daniel asked.
“You’ll be going on Capture and Contains, as many of you did last year. Since the P4s have nearly completed their training, and because they’re due to receive their treatments soon, they’ll be going first.”
Natalie raised her hand. “What about us? Why are we here, then?”
“Based off the reports I’ve received from our own hunters, as well as others in the state, we believe even the P3s will get a chance to go on C&Cs. Right now, our teams of hunters have been split from their usual groups of eight-to-ten, down to teams of only three to four. For some demons, as I hope you’re all very aware, this is acceptable. For higher class demons, that is a particularly disturbing number given the amount of demons they’ve been facing recently. Obviously we have no plans to send you against C3s or C4s, so we’ll be using you for the lower class demons. Teams will consist of two Prospects and three to four hunters.”
The standard whoops and cheers rang out at those words, but I wasn’t among them. I doubted I’d be able to go. Tasha, Chris, and Linc all grinned at me, then either remembering my situation or realizing I wasn’t thrilled, they quickly looked away. All but Linc. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “He wouldn’t have called you here if he wasn’t going to let you go.”
“I wish I could believe that,” I murmured. He wouldn’t have not called me here, either.
“At this time, I can’t say when everyone will go on a C&C. I am, unfortunately, relatively certain that we will be putting all of you to work sooner than we’d like.” He paused, then turned toward the P4s. “P4s, at least half of you will be going on a C&C as soon as tomorrow evening.”
There were over a dozen P4s, so that meant at least six different teams. “How is that right?”
“You have a question, Miss Hall?” Greene said.
My head jerked up. “Sorry. I just meant, there’ll be that many hunts going on in a single night so close together?”
“Unfortunately, yes. Demon activity in this region alone is, for unknown reasons, the highest it’s ever been. And our region isn’t the only one affected by this—many on the east coast are seeing a rise in demon activity. We’ve all seen this before, where one region
sees a temporary rise. Typically, we’d transfer hunters from other facilities to help out, but with so many of them in a similar situation, there aren’t any to spare. We have to rely on our own people for this, and that includes using everyone we can. Even the P1s and P2s.”
“They’re going on hunts?” someone asked.
Greene shook his head. “No. The P2s will help keep the Demon Database updated, as will a number of select P1s.” He stepped down from the podium and walked to the front. “P4s, you’ll meet your teams in the Weapons Room tomorrow evening at five. P3s, we’ll call you as you’re needed.” His eyes narrowed slightly. “I don’t need to remind you how serious this is, do I?”
Most of the Prospects shouted or muttered ‘no’ and a few shook their heads.
“Good. What we’re dealing with isn’t expected and I don’t want to hear about any accidents or injuries that could have been avoided. Do as you’re told, when you’re told.”
“Will we have to write reports?” Kristina asked.
Greene smiled. “I’m afraid so, Miss Ray.” She frowned, making Greene’s smile widen. “Thank you all for your time. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”
As Linc, Tasha, Chris, and I headed out, Greene lifted his hand to me and called my name. I let out a breath, shot Linc a told-you-so look, then headed for Greene. And here comes the ‘You’re not cleared to go, Miss Hall, I’m sorry’ speech. I could’ve laughed.
“Good afternoon, Miss Hall.”
Not trusting my voice, I nodded and only said, “Hi.”
“I’m sure you’re anxious about the C&C as much as the others, if not more, considering—”
“I can’t go.”
“Can’t you?”
I eyed him. “Can I?”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “Unless you have an outstanding appointment of which I’m unaware, I don’t see why not.”
“Oh. I thought you called me over to tell me I couldn’t go.”
His lip twitched. “I won’t deny thinking I should do just that. After speaking with Dr. Cherry, she seems relatively certain that, should the occasion arise where your skills will be needed, she could supply a list of safe demons. In fact, she believes your particular ‘skills’—and that’s her term, so you can save the glower for her—could be an asset, depending on the C&C.”
