Breed of Innocence (The Breed Chronicles, #01) (32 page)

“Yes, Miss Hall?”

“What’s going on? What does this mean? Am I still dying? Am I turning into a vampire?” I really disliked that idea. Actually, I disliked both ideas, but I’d take death over vampirism. “I can’t be turning, can I? I mean, even if I had been bitten by two vampires, the signs usually show within a day. It’s been a week. I feel fine.” Better than fine, actually. Before the bite had healed, I’d felt kind of weird. Now, other than being a little shaky with the vampire-prospect, I felt strong. Stronger than normal.

And I wasn’t craving blood, which I thought was a really good sign.

“It’s too soon to tell. We’ll know more after we get the tests done.”

“I’ve been having my blood drawn every four hours for the last three days,” I muttered. “It can’t have changed that much. How many times do you have to run the damn tests to know if I’m dying or turning into a vampire!”

“More than we have,” Doctor Asshat said. “This is unusual. Until we run more tests and figure out what’s going on, I can’t tell you anything else.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I glared at Doctor Asshat until Doc came back a few minutes later, pushing her usual tray of supplies. “Is there an award, or maybe a reward or something, for the person who has the most blood drawn in a week?”

Cause if there wasn’t, there needed to be. With a good reward, too. Like cookies.

“Do you want me to run these?” she asked the doctor when she was finished taking more blood.

He shook his head. “No, I’ll handle it myself.”

She looked like she wanted to argue but didn’t. Instead, she waved and then left. Maybe she wasn’t a real doctor, but I wanted her back anyway. I knew her and, despite her want-to-be-a-doctor craziness, I liked her. More, I trusted her. I didn’t like or trust Doctor Asshat.

“You need to stay here, Miss hall,” he told me before turning to Greene. “I’ll keep you informed.”

I glared. “You mean, you’ll keep
us
informed. This is my…whatever…on the line. I think I have a right to know what’s going on.”

He sent a condescending smile, one of those looks that was usually followed by a head pat. “Of course you do.” His attention went straight back to Greene. “I’ll call you later, Director,” he said and then left.

I ground my teeth together and stood up. “I want Doc back. I have a right to know what’s going on before anyone else, even you. And I don’t mean that to sound rude, but this is
my
life. Not his, not yours.”

“You’re a minor, Miss Hall.”

“I’m sixteen. I’m not a kid. My condition, or whatever you want to call it, is my business and no one else’s until or if I want to share it.” I really wasn’t trying to be difficult, and I didn’t care if Greene knew what was going on with me, but Doctor Asshat didn’t have the right to tell anyone else before he told me.

“Do you have a problem with me knowing what’s going on?”

“No, I don’t.” I sighed. “Look, I’ve spent the last two years with some adult telling me what they thought I needed to know or what they thought I deserved to know. I don’t care if you or the rest of the world knows I’m dying or not, because I realize you have the other Prospects and agents to worry about. I just think I have a right to know first. Or at the same time at least. I came here to be trained, to get some control in my life—not to hand it over to someone else entirely.”

He nodded at me. “You’re absolutely right, Miss Hall. I suppose I never looked at it that way. If you don’t mind my being here, then I’ll inform Doctor Hamilton of your request.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Very well. The tests will probably take a few hours. Would you like me to stay and keep you company?” He smiled. “Or I could call Mr. Stone, if you’d like. It’s late, but I don’t think he’d mind.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. What was the point in waking him to tell him something I didn’t know? My neck had healed itself, but right now, no one knew for sure what it meant. Either I was dying or I was turning into a vampire. In the end, it meant the same thing for me. “Let him sleep.”

“Very well. I know I said you could stay in your room, but until we know more…”

“I’ll stay here.”

He nodded. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call. Perhaps you should try to get more sleep. As I said, the tests could be a few hours.”

“Yeah, I will.” I faked a yawn that ended up not being all that fake. “I’ll try.”

And then I was alone
, I thought as Greene said bye and left. I lay down and curled up, pulling the blanket over me. Maybe I could sleep until they figured out what the heck was going on. Maybe, by the time I woke again, they’d know if I was getting remarkably better or remarkably worse.

*~*~*

Greene and Dr. Asshat piled back into the med room in the morning. Neither of them seemed particularly pleased.

“I ran the blood tests, Miss Hall,” the doctor said, looking from me to Greene. I tried ignoring his expression, because it left me with a bad feeling. “And everything indicates—”

“Is it good or bad?” I interrupted.

His hands went to his pockets. “I’m afraid it’s bad.”

“Oh.”

Everything went fuzzy, like some filter had been put in front of my eyes and in my ears somehow. Words were garbled; faces were blurs.

“You’re positive?” I heard Greene say, though I wasn’t sure why he’d said it. I’d missed part of the conversation.

Less than a week ago, they’d told me I had a week to live. I hadn’t really let myself believe otherwise, but deep down, I hoped I’d be proven wrong. The CGE was filled with brilliant scientists who had made a lot of medical breakthroughs, so I’d kind of hoped they’d come up with one for me.

And apparently they hadn’t.

Who the heck would’ve guessed that healing would be a bad thing?

“What is it?” I finally asked. “Why is this happening when it shouldn’t? What did the tests say exactly?”

“If I could speak with you in private, Director,” Dr. Asshat said, ignoring me for the umpteenth time in a matter of hours.

I jumped to my feet. “Oh, no you don’t. This is my life—”

“As I said before,” Director Greene started, giving me a look that shut me up, “if this is in regards to Miss Hall’s health, she has a right to hear it.”

“I believe this would be best for you to hear first—” Director Greene gave him the same look he’d just given me. “Very well.” Reluctantly, the doctor turned to me. “I believe, somehow, that the bite has mutated your DNA. I believe it’s changing you, even though, according to everything we’ve learned about vampires, it shouldn’t be possible on its own.” He looked to Director Greene now. “It’s the only thing we can think of. The only explanation that makes any kind of sense out of this. And even then, it’s only a best guess.”

“I just want to know—am I dying or am I turning into a vampire?”

“It’s not as simple as that—”

“I think it’s a rather simple question myself, Doctor Hamilton. Is she dying, or is she becoming a vampire?”

The door burst open and Doc ran in, breathing hard. “She’s not a vampire.”

Doctor Asshat spun around. “Adria, I already told you to let me handle this.”

“But I—”

“Do you have a different theory, Miss Jones?” Greene asked before I could.

She glared at Doctor Asshat. “Yes, I do.”

“Honestly, Adria. You’re not qualified to—”

“Hey.” I leapt up and moved to Doc’s side. “If she has a different theory, I want to hear it.”

“Really, Director. She’s a teenager playing doctor.”

“Yes, she is. A teenager
you
personally vouched for because she had an unnatural aptitude for it.” He raised his chin. “What’s your theory, Miss Jones?”

“I ran her DNA test and it’s unusual, and she
does
have vampire DNA, but—”

Doctor Asshat sneered. “Which is what I’ve been saying. Her DNA has been changed.”

“I ran the test from her original sample. The one I took the day she joined—before she was bitten.”

“So what, I’ve been a vampire?” Okay, it seemed like a really stupid question once I said it out loud, but it’d made a lot more sense in my head.

Doc’s smile was kind. “No. If I’m right, you’re not a vampire.”

“Director Greene, are you going to believe someone with an actual medical degree, or—”

“I don’t care if she has a medical degree or not!” I shouted. Immediately I winced. “Sorry.” Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Am I or am I not dying? Can someone give me a straight answer, please?” I didn’t really care about the why of whatever. I just wanted to know that one question.

“Miss Jones, Doctor Hamilton, could I please have a word with Miss Hall in private?”

I needed answers and Greene was sending away the only two people who could give them to me. “But—”

“Now.”

They both left. Dr. Asshat sent Greene a strange look; Doc sent him a confused one. I glared.

He had no right to order them away. I’d been worried for the last three days (it’d actually been a week, but since I’d slept through the first four days, I didn’t really count those) that I was going to die, and then worrying that I was turning into a vampire instead, and now I had no idea what was happening. I just wanted a straight answer and he was doing his best to make sure I didn’t get one.

My hands curled into fists and I rounded on Greene. “What?” I snapped. “What could possibly be more important than finding out what the heck is going on with me?” I laughed but it wasn’t happy. “How can you do that? How can you just send them away when they’re about to—”

“Neither of them knows what’s going on, Miss Hall. But I believe I do.”

“Oh? You’re a doctor now? You wouldn’t even give Doc a chance to explain her theory. Am I dying or am I turning into vampire?”

“Neither. Please sit, Miss Hall.”

I let out a frustrated growl and stormed to the bed. It creaked as I dropped down onto it.

“Do you remember why you’re here?”

“Yes,” I said through clenched teeth. “To hunt demons.”

“The other reason, Miss Hall.”

I bit back impatience. “The DNA thing?”

He nodded. “Yes, precisely. I also mentioned certain agents who share the same anomaly, agents who’d had their DNA manipulated—”

“And mixed with demon DNA,” I finished for him. “I haven’t had that.”

“No. You haven’t.” He paused and, slowly, turned to face me. His eyes met mine and there was something there, some emotion I didn’t understand.

“So? What about it then? What does it have to do with—”

“Jade. You didn’t have the genetic therapy. But your mother did.”

C
HAPTER 18

“What? My mom had her DNA played with?” I blinked a few times and then shook my head. “That’s…insane. She didn’t know anything about this stuff—not until it killed her.”

“I’m afraid you’re wrong, Miss Hall.” For the first time since I’d met him, he looked tired, and maybe a little sad. Sighing, he said, “I’d planned on having this conversation with you, but I had hoped to put it off until you’d been here longer. Until you had time to fully understand how things worked here.” He put his arms behind his back and started to pace. After thirty seconds of silence, he stopped and turned back. “She was well aware of the treatments and what they entailed. And she most certainly knew of ‘this stuff’.”

“How? I would have known.”

“She worked here. Your mother was a CGE agent.”

The laugh rumbled from my throat unexpectedly. “Oh, come on! She was a teacher.” Up until now, his research had been dead-on, but he was way off base this time. In another freaking galaxy, even.

Saying nothing, he stared at me with the same look the cops had given me when they’d told me my family was gone. That pity-mixed-with-an-apology look.

I shook my head again until it made me dizzy. “You’re wrong. I think I’d remember her coming here everyday or going out to hunt demons. The scariest thing she did was grade assignments and read book reports.”

“Your mother worked for us for ten years. You wouldn’t have known she was a hunter. She retired a few years after you were born—when your father died.”

“What does my dad have to do with anything?”

“Your father worked here too, Miss Hall. When one of your parents was on a hunt, the other would watch over you and your brother. After your father died, your mother wanted to spend more time with her children.”

“What?” Other than knowing my dad had died when I was two or three, I didn’t know much about him. A brave man and a great dad. That’s all my mom had ever told me. I didn’t even have a picture anymore. The one my mom had given me had been taken by one of the girls from The Pond.

I couldn’t argue with Greene about my dad, because for all I knew, he could have worked here. But not my mom. I would’ve known if my mom had been an agent. She would have told me.

Greene had to be wrong. We talked about everything and she wouldn’t have kept something that big from me. She never once mentioned the CGE or demons—

Except…she kind of had mentioned demons. Not by name, and she never came right out and said it, but she’d said there were ‘real monsters’ in the world. And she made me swear to run away and call for help if I ever saw someone wearing a costume when it wasn’t Halloween. But I’d never seen one until her death, so I’d always assumed she’d meant bad guys or bank robbers. Something else.