Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02)

by Jordan, Lanie

“But wouldn’t have that shown before now?”

  “Not necessarily. Look, I don’t know a lot about genetics—that’s not what I’m studying. But I know you’ve got a lot of demon DNA, Jade. I wanted to talk to you about it over the summer, but the Director said you weren’t interested in knowing about it.”

  Hell. I’d said that it was time to learn about it, hadn’t I? So why was it, now that I was getting the opportunity to do just that, that I really didn’t want it? That what I really, really wanted to do was scream and run away, find a nice patch of sand to bury my head in? “Hell,” I said again, this time out loud.

  Linc smirked and grabbed my hand. “Your call, Jade.”

  “Okay, fine. Give it to me. Just dumb it down, ‘cause this genetics stuff gives me a headache.”

  She walked over to the computer and motioned us to follow. She tapped a few buttons on the monitor. “Director Greene made a list of the different species of demon that your parents’ treatments were made from.”

  The list showed at least ten different demons. “I don’t recognize any of those names but one,” I said after I read it. The only one I really knew anything about was the vampire. Figured, didn’t it?

  “That’s because it’s only a partial list and because the ones here—excluding the vampire—are all C3 demons or hybrids.”

  “Then where’s the rest?” If I was going to see what the hell I was made of—ha ha—then I needed it all, didn’t I?

  She swiveled around in the chair until she was facing me. “These are the only samples Dr. Hamilton let me see. He just said there were more.”

  “So, what’s the deal, then?”

  “Demon DNA is more complicated than ours, and we’re not even close to understanding everything about either. Certain species of demons don’t mix well together, in life or in DNA. Vampires, for some reason, are the only species whose DNA is incompatible with any other. Maybe it’s because they were first. No one knows why exactly.” She shook her head. “The point is, it was never used in the treatments given to any of the agents—or your parents—for that reason.”

  “But I had it already, before I ever got bitten.”

  “You did. That’s another thing we’re still trying to figure out, because you shouldn’t have had it—at least not until after you’d been bitten, and even then it shouldn’t have been possible.”

  I didn’t understand science, and even dumbed down, I had to be missing something. I shot a look to Linc, but he only shrugged. “Okay, fine. So I have DNA I shouldn’t have and that said DNA is…what? Incompatible with the rest?”

  “It should be incompatible but it isn’t. At least not with you.”

  “Okay…is this good or bad?” It was hard to tell with Doc. I wanted to assume good, since, I thought, that was the reason Greene wanted my DNA studied in the first place. To find a cure for vampirism or something.

  “It’s…different. Good, for you, because you’re getting stronger, but weird for us because we don’t know why. It shouldn’t be happening. Vampire DNA is destructive. That’s why their bites are so painful, because it eats away at cells.”

  “If vampire DNA does that, then how can they make other vampires?” Linc asked, looking—thankfully—as confused as I felt.

  “Because they’re also the only species we’ve found so far where the male and females have a completely different DNA structure. Think of them as a battery—positive and negative. Alone, neither works. But together, they do. So, when one bites someone, it destroys their DNA, but if the other bites the same person, then it acts as a bonding agent, keeping the DNA together and, ultimately, changing it.”

  I shook my head. “Science gives me a headache.”

  Linc chuckled beside me, so I elbowed him.

  Doc cleared her throat. When I looked at her, she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “There’s, ah, also some more bad news involved. For you.”

  “What?” I said and groaned.

  “Your DNA just became rarer than before. It means the scientists are going to be even more hard pressed to study it.”

  I said something under my breath that, if Greene had been around to hear, probably would’ve gotten me yelled at. As it was, Doc’s eyes went wide. Linc coughed and looked away.

  “Seriously. There’s only so much guinea pigging I can handle.” I dragged my toe across the floor. “That’s my line, right there.”

  “Guinea pigging? Is that even a real term?”

  I glared at Linc. “Shut up. It is today.”

  Doc, trying to fight a smirk, coughed. “If it’s any consolation, it shouldn’t mean anything extra on your part, except maybe more tracking of your physical endurance.”

  “Why did I agree to this again?” I asked, looking to Linc.

  “To help the CGE and other people.”

  Right now, the only person I wanted to help was myself. I took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then released it. “Remind me of that. A lot. I’m going to need it.”

  CHAPTER 10

  It turned out Doc was right about the scientists wanting more tests. Unfortunately, she was wrong in her guess that they’d only want to test my endurance more. My once-monthly physical exams turned into weekly exams. I had my normal visit to the TT, followed by running on the treadmill, eye and ear tests, and some strength test that I didn’t really understand. Now I had been in at least four rooms on the second floor, so my plan to avoid all the rooms possible on said floor had been an abysmal failure.

  Greene had given me a choice, of course, but I had Linc whispering in my ear (literally) that I was doing this to help other people, and at one point, when I was close to saying no, he told me to suck it up and put my big girl pants on. Silently, I cursed him and whined about not having big girl pants.

  November disappeared and December started slowly. We were into the third month of the Phase, yet it felt like I hadn’t learned anything yet. Or maybe I was just weird and wanted to learn more.

  I settled into a routine with class work and the DD project. I worked on the DD updates during the first half of my Demonology class (I didn’t want to work on it the entire time because I’d never stay caught up that way), the allotted two hours a night on class days, four hours on Saturday, and then only two on Sunday. Linc pretty much suckered me into that schedule, otherwise I would’ve worked every alloted hour I had, but he insisted I needed non-study time and time for the important stuff, like eating and showering.

  It was the first Saturday of the month and I was working on inputing info into the DD. I’d come across a few demons so far that I hadn’t recognized, so I’d jotted down notes about them in my personal tablet, and if they had a picture, I’d been snapping one and putting that into my notes, too. I didn’t know if they were P2 demons like Mr. Sheldon said they would be (since I hadn’t run across them in my Demonology text yet), but at least I would have a heads up about them either way.

  Leaning back in my chair, I paused as I studied the open report on my class tablet. It was the second report I’d seen like it, though the first one had seemed familiar before I’d ever seen the second. I had no idea why. My fingers danced on the desk as I closed my eyes and tried thinking of where I’d seen it before.

  Some demon species, like some serial killers, had a particular victim type, or victims that shared the same traits. In this case, both reports had two teenagers—one guy, one girl—who’d been killed. From what I’d read, they’d been attacked while they were out. Walking to or from school, a store…

  The tablet dropped to the desk.

  Linc.

  On my personal tablet, I pulled up the Demon Database and went to the search screen. I typed in Linc’s name, Florida as the state, hoping it’d pull up the report on him and his sister. I had no idea where the attack actually took place, since I’d never thought to ask if Linc had lived here when it happened; I’d just assumed he had after Greene mentioned other CGE facilities across the United States. If he’d been in another state, then he would’ve joined o
ne of those facilities, right? At least I hoped that was the case.

  Thankfully, it showed up in the search results. I scanned the report quickly and compared it to the other ones. The area was different, which was expected, but the rest was eerily similar. Two teens walking home, attacked from behind. The notes called it a blitz attack. The cause of death had been blunt force trauma by an unidentifiable weapon. And in all three reports, the same “unknown DNA” had been found.

  The only difference between the reports was in Linc’s, because he’d survived when no one else had.

  But it looked like everything else matched up.

  There were demons I didn’t know about yet, so just because certain things matched up, it didn’t mean there weren’t other demons with the same type of…signature or something. And that was assuming it didn’t have hybrids.

  I did another comparison, double and triple checking everything, and then I leaned back again. Did I tell Linc? What if I was wrong?

  But they’re all in the same twenty-mile area, I thought.

  It still didn’t mean it was the same exact demon, either. There had to be a lot of them, even in the same state, or maybe even in the same twenty-mile area.

  What did I do? When I thought I’d been close to finding the demon I was looking for, only to realize I wasn’t that much closer, I’d been seriously disappointed. Still was, actually, even now. I was glad I knew what demon it was, so I had something to look for, but I was disappointed because I wasn’t any closer to catching it.

  Did I want to do that to Linc? Could I?

  “Shit,” I said, pushing away from my desk to stand. I set the tablet down, gentler this time, and then paced my room. Did I do more research first, making sure I was right? I laughed. “And how am I going to do that? Linc’s the only one who’s seen the demon to even know if it’s the exact one.” Okay, so more research was out. Did I have any good reasons not to tell him? I tried thinking of some but came up blank.

  So I had to tell him. Now the question was, how? Because ‘Hey, Linc. You know the demon you’re looking for, the one that killed your sister? Well, I mighta found it’ just wasn’t going to cut it.

  “Maybe I could…stop talking to myself like a crazy person,” I said and then sighed.

  Did I tell him tonight or wait until some random moment in time when the timing was right? I scoffed. Yeah, that’ll go over well. ‘By the way, I found the demon you’re looking for, oh, about a month ago. But I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know how to then.’

  “Ugh!” I stopped pacing to drop down on my bed and run my fingers through my hair. I didn’t want to do this. Not because I didn’t want him to know, but because I really didn’t know how to. Maybe I could tell Greene or Peter and have them tell him. Maybe it’d be better coming from them.

  I let my hands drop and shook my head. No, I’d rather hear it from a friend than Greene, or even Peter.

  I rose from my bed, let out a loud exhale. I could do this. I had to do this. Now, before I chickened out.

  When my hand touched the doorknob, I froze for a full thirty seconds before I forced myself to pull the door open. And then I froze outside his door, with my hand raised to knock, another ten seconds.

  I hadn’t even looked at the time. What if he was sleeping and I woke him up?

  I’d done, or signed up for, a lot of difficult things at the CGE, but this, right here, right now, was among the hardest. And it wasn’t even like I was about to deliver bad news.

  Was it?

  “Just get it over with, you coward,” I muttered to myself. I took another breath, knocked. Hardly a second went by before I wanted to turn and run, but then Linc was already opening the door and cutting off my chance to escape.

  He was shirtless, wearing only a pair of loose fitting sweat pants. He covered his face and yawned. After another second, his eyes became more alert. “You okay?”

  Crap. “Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “It’s okay.” Another yawn. “What’s wrong?”

  I bit my lip. “Can we go somewhere to talk? Catwalk, maybe?”

  He motioned me to come in, so I followed behind him. His room was dark, but he didn’t bother turning on the lights. “You sure you’re okay?” he asked as he opened a dresser drawer and pulled out a shirt. Tossing it over his shoulder, he sat down on the edge of his bed and quickly put on his shoes.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.” But you might not be after we talk.

  He grabbed his I.D. and bit down on it as he put his shirt on. When he walked back toward me, I backed out of the room to give him room to close the door. “What time is it?”

  I shrugged. “No idea. Sorry. Again.”

  He shot me a sleepy grin. “Don’t worry about it. Payback’s fair.”

  I didn’t smile back, which only had his confused expression deepening. In silence, we rode the elevator up to the fifth floor and on to the catwalk. Once we were seated, I started swinging my legs out of habit, and then Linc turned to me. He laid his hand on mine. “Okay, so what’s going on? Even if you were the wakeup-call kinda person, you’d have gloated about it by now, so I know something’s up.”

  “Let me just start by saying that I could be wrong,” I said, speaking quickly. “I don’t actually have any hard proof, only speculation—”

  “Jade. Just spit it out.”

  “I—” This was the part I wasn’t sure how to say, even here and now. I’d figured I’d wing it, but then I’d hoped that the words would come to me, some gentle way to break it to him. They didn’t. Keeping my eyes locked with his, I said, “I might have found the demon you’re looking for.”

  It seemed to take a while for my words to sink in, either because he was still half asleep, or maybe because he had to think on them. His eyes widened slightly, barely even noticeably. But his breathing stopped for a full five seconds. “How?”

  “I was reading through reports to upload to the DD and I came across some attacks that were similar to what you told me about…what happened. Like I said, I could be wrong. I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure, but I have no way to be sure so I had to tell you.” My words were really fast and garbled, but I couldn’t slow them down. I felt like I had to say everything in under a second. “I should’ve waited to tell you, maybe, or asked someone before I did, but I thought you should know.” When he still didn’t say anything, I let out a sigh. “I thought you’d want to know,’ I added quietly, looking down.

  Stupid, Jade. You should have just waited.

  “Why do you think it’s the same demon?”

  “The other attacks I read about happened to couples—a guy and a girl—who were attacked either on their way to something or on their way back from something. And then I…read your report.” I winced. “Sorry, that was probably not my best idea, but I didn’t know how else to find out about it without asking you and potentially telling you something wrong or getting your hopes up for nothing.”

  “Was that the only thing they had in common?” His tone was clipped, and I hoped—prayed, really—that he wasn’t mad at me and just reacting to what I was telling him.

  “Same…signature, I guess they might call it. Same unknown DNA left behind. And same basic area, all within twenty miles of each other.” I looked up. “There’s a picture of one in one of the reports, if you want to see. Sorry, I didn’t think to bring the tablet with me and I should have.”

  He gave a short nod. His gaze stayed on the sky, unblinking, and his jaw was tight.

  I didn’t know what to do, so I just pulled his head to my shoulder and rested my head against his. I debated with myself, wondering if I should say anything else, but then I just decided to stay quiet for now. Wasn’t that what Linc would do? He’d just keep quiet and wait for me until I was ready, so that’s what I’d do.

  It was a while before that happened, but I wasn’t in a hurry. Linc had always been there for me and this was the first time he’d even come remotely close to needing me, so I was staying as lon
g as he let me.

  “Will you show me?”

  “The report?” I nodded. “Yeah.” I wasn’t sure I was technically supposed to, but I didn’t really care. It was Linc. He never asked for anything, and I wasn’t about to deny him the first time he did.

  “Thanks, Jade.”

  “Don’t thank me yet,” I warned. “I could still be wrong.”

  “Either way.”

  “Wanna go now?” At his nod, I stood up carefully and walked to the ladder. As I climbed down, I kept my eyes on him as he followed.

  The ride back to our floor was just as silent as the ride up. Half a dozen times, I opened my mouth to say something, but then I just shut it and let out a silent sigh. What was I supposed to say?

  When we reached my room, I unlocked it and let him go in first. I almost winced. It was kind of messy. I’d taken a shower before I started work on the DD, in case I fell asleep like I usually did, so my towel and hairbrush were just tossed on the bed. I had the tablets scattered on the desk, along with hand-drawn pictures of the demon I was after, and other random items.

  I picked up the tablet and opened the report I’d told him about. “Is that the right demon specie, at least?” I asked, handing the tablet over and then sitting on my bed so he could take the desk chair.

  Immediately, I knew it was. The way his expression darkened told me that much. His jaw clenched. “Yeah. That’s it.”

  “Do you know if it’s the same one?”

  Eyes glued to the tablet, he sat down in the chair. He was quiet for so long that I almost thought he hadn’t heard me, but then he finally spoke again. “I’m not sure.” His tone was harsh and low. “But it doesn’t matter. It, or another like it, killed my sister.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  His gaze flicked up and met mine. “What would you do?”

  I didn’t answer immediately. We both knew my answer, just like I knew his. “You’re going after it.”

  “I am.”

  “Are you going to tell Greene?” I asked, though I was half-afraid of his answer.

  He took his time thinking about it. And then, like he was steeling himself, said, “I will.” He didn’t say anything for another moment. “He made me the same deal he made you. In fact, I’m pretty sure he makes the same deal with everyone.”