Loving Lucius (Werescape) (34 page)

Like she knew she was half extraterrestrial.

A chill prickled gooseflesh to chilly attention down the length of my arms.

That damned foreign DNA must be completely housed in her brain. The steel trap. Telling her anything would only encourage her to continue the discussion. Augustus obviously preferred dabbling in code. "Don't worry about the fever, Violet. Please teach Augustus how to embed messages within a message."

"But what if there's a message somewhere else, Elise? What if the aliens left us a message
inside
Shifter DNA?"

If a person's expression could reflect his heart stopped when he should have gone ghostly white, Augustus' did. Maybe the giveaway was his distant widening gaze riveted upon me. Looking yet seeing something other than his daughter-in-law.

His detached stare blinked back into full awareness of the quiet lab.

Of us. Me. More than recognition haunted his blue eyes. He'd had an epiphany. What?

He slid an appreciative gaze to Violet. "What makes you think there would be a message in Shifter DNA, little one?"

A broad smile lit her face.

Probably because she could sense Augustus' sudden enthusiasm with her new train of thought.

Violet sucked in a deep breath as if preparing to duck underwater for an extremely long time. "It's amazing. Isn't it? All those invisible little coils of genetic code-like sentences. Instructions. Telling those who can understand what they need to know. I want to learn about genetics. Can you teach me about genetics?"

Was that request embedded itself? Something told me to just let it go. To crawl in a drawer near my knees and stuff my fingers in my ears. But the damned word
spy
kept howling inside my head.

"I think that's an excellent idea." Augustus flicked me a stern gaze that dared me to argue. "I should begin at once. As soon as Lucius returns and your duties switch from learning to make penicillin to nobler ones." He winked.

At me. Was that just a reference to mating? The man must want grandchildren. At least he isn't staring at me like I'd come here to infiltrate his Shifter community to hand him and his relations over to the extraterrestrials.

Augustus just kept staring at me.

Go back to Violet's writing before I lose my mind with these bloody fears I can't shake. I nodded.

"Now," he pointed at her pencil and paper, "show me how to embed these words so I can compare it to what I know about genetics." The eye in his profile winked at my little sister.

She smiled and clutched her pencil as if he'd bestowed the greatest gift upon her.

Something I had yet to grasp. Brain fog and fear made for a wicked combination. They could suck your mind thoughtless in a second like a vacuum.

"You know," Violet beamed, glancing back and forth between us like a cat who'd caught a canary and dragged it home to its owner, "the rumors all note something highly patterned occurring in births among those carrying alien DNA."

Augustus planted an elbow onto the dark countertop and leaned his cheek upon the ball of a fisted hand. "Oh?" He ignored me as if I had ceased to exist.

"I heard how Shifters only have Normal daughters when mating with Normal females. And then the Shifters who used to be my Guardians would whisper as if I couldn't hear." She chuckled a demonic little sound. "But I could. And I heard them speak of Cougar and Shifter matings. Of those children often being Cougars. Others having psychic powers. Are their powers like mine?" She waited.

Silently. As if Augustus would tell her what she wanted to know. Like he'd either confirm or dismiss her suspicions--that she harbored alien DNA in the little coded coils of genes her body carried. Why in the hell did she seem so damned excited at the thought?

"I have heard the very same rumors." He sat up, dropping his hand to dangle off the counter where his elbow still rested. "But I think these patterns you see reflect something we need to understand. And I bet you and I can work together to read the secret message."

Okay. Not a bad reaction. Well, Lucius said Shifters were half alien too. Not that Shifters and hybrids carried the same amount of extraterrestrial DNA. But we all seemed to work on the same side. Why shouldn't Violet's heightened thought process be utilized to help humanity's survival? She might be the only thing capable of spotting the clues hidden within the two genomes.

"We will begin your private lessons on genetics after Lucius returns," Augustus announced as if he decreed the route her future would take.

Yes. Maybe the aliens shot themselves in the foot by breeding hybrids on Earth? Hybrids who could outsmart their sires. But surely they had to know this would happen? Just why had we been bred and left on Earth?

Not really left.

My gut twisted in a pit of understanding.

We were why the aliens were chasing Langston. They want us. Back. Their precious children.

"Elise?" Augustus' voice called.

God. I had to look sick. Close to fainting. I blinked him into view and gulped to settle my unruly gut. "Yes?"

His brow knotted where he studied me. "You look ill."

Wrong subject. Return to the code scrawled on the paper. "It's alright. I'm just tired."

He reached for the pencil and paper. "You go on upstairs, Violet. Thank you for being my teacher today."

She shoved off the stool and grinned at him. "You're welcome." Her gaze locked upon me. "Come on, Elise."

Augustus slid the whispering paper across the countertop to deposit it inside the drawer where he kept Violet's encrypted doodles. "I'd like to speak with Elise for a moment." He thrust his neatly-bearded chin toward the door. "You go on ahead. She'll be up shortly."

Joy. Here we go again. Me and my stupid reactions to anything alien-related. Why couldn't I keep a straight face? And why does my sire-in-law have to be so focused on body language?

The door exiting the lab shushed at Violet's departure.

Augustus leaned toward me, both elbows on the counter, his thick fingers lacing his palms together. "What upset you a few minutes ago?"

The same thing nagging me now. "She figured it out."

His eyes pinched questioningly.

What did it matter to admit my thoughts? He'd just move on to another subject. "She knows she's part alien." And didn't hate herself. Why?

His head cocked. "Maybe. But I think she realized how important she is here. How I'm going to need her help to unravel the mystery of what the aliens are really up to on our planet. How it's the only way to reclaim our planet."

Always, he always accepts our presence. Unbelievable. "So you don't think the aliens sent us here to spy on you?"

He burst out laughing at me.

"Why are you laughing?"

"It doesn't matter what the aliens wanted from you moving westward. You, my dear daughter-in-law, are now part of the pack. And Lucius will not allow anyone to attack you physically or emotionally. Not that I would. If the aliens hoped you would do something for them, that your extraterrestrial heritage somehow would trigger your allegiance, they've yet to squash the human part of you--the part that makes you compassionate and merciful. They'll have to whip up a few new generations of hybrids with less human DNA…" his words stopped.

Fading. Following his wayward empty stare. And sitting here wondering how it affected me would put me in an early self-dug grave. Not anymore. "You're thinking again. About the aliens. What they're doing here. God damn it, Augustus. What?"

His eyes squinted, staring off, beyond my shoulder. "What Violet said about the patterns in DNA." He shook his head slightly as if something tugged at one of his gray hairs. "We're being bred. I don't know for what. But it's obvious. The mating patterns. I need to research what we know about Shifter type and the type of mates as well as the byproducts of mating." He slapped a palm down on the unyielding countertop, his gaze snapping to mine. "It's there. I know it is. Evidence. I'll find it. Or I'll be Gods-be-damned cursed on my death bed if I can't. Fifty years is enough time. More than enough to provide the obvious because Shifters pushed to mate by the age of twenty early on. This gives Shifters a good three generations to analyze…" His words faded away with his intense contemplation again.

Lost. He was so lost in thought. Confusing thoughts that my brain didn't want to process at the moment. "I'll see you at dinner then." I shoved off the stool.

"Don't worry, Elise."

Why would I worry when he keeps supporting me, and his son protects me? I'm truly safe.

Chapter Fifteen

Augustus eyed the low dancing flames in his fireplace like he had something he needed to tell me. Just what happened the four days I was gone to the Western Fields?

"Violet said something that made my blood run cold," my sire said, sliding his gaze sideways to me with the eye I could see in his profile.

Since we're alone, this must be extremely important. "What?" I settled an elbow against the hard wooden mantle.

He turned an icy stare to face me. "That she'd seen patterns in the various matings of Shifter, Cougar, and Normal--in their progeny. I hadn't really cared about it much before now. I'd been so consumed with finding a code to safely communicate with humans around the globe. And then when she was showing me how to embed messages in code, she said something along the line that the aliens had to be embedding messages in all those DNA threads--invisible little coils of genetic code-like sentences. Instructions. Telling those who can understand what they need to know."

He contemplatively shook a thick finger at me. "We've spent all this time trying to determine what they did to us. But why not focus on the instructions that cause the differences in progeny? What if there's something to who mates with whom and the final outcome that will make or break their dominance here? A greater plan, Lucius. Something we hadn't bothered to consider before?"

But we had studied the DNA as much as possible given the equipment we have on hand. "I don't understand what you want to do?"

He planted his hands on his hips and paused a moment. "I'd thought about going to the gathering myself after this idea hit me. But I need to stay here with Violet and run ideas past her. Just to see the things her mind might connect. You'll still go to the Elders. Ask them for everything they know about Shifter matings with Normals or Cougars and the offspring."

"But we know Shifters who mate with Normal females have Shifter sons and Normal daughters. And Tornado said a Shifter who mates in his Wolfskin with a Cougar produces another Cougar. That's if we can believe the Rites of the Goddess priestesses. What else do you need to know?"

His bright blue eyes widened. "What about hybrids? Elise calls herself one. We need to learn if there are other hybrids being protected by Shifter mates. Hidden in The Wild. And we need to know about the children produced from their mating. What about hybrids themselves? How is a hybrid created? That process might shed some light on things. After all, Elise and her sisters have unusually strong healing powers. Psychic yes. But why? Maybe the aliens are creating new subspecies here on Earth for a reason."

A sick feeling wormed its way through my gut.

His points were monumental. The significance bone-chilling. So, my attendance at the gathering was even more important than ever now.

His gaze snapped into a speculative squint. "But how do you expect Elise to react when she learns Violet will be staying behind? The little one will be fine here nonetheless."

"I'll deal with that when the time comes."

"'Well, it may take years to gather enough information to study the demographic changes caused by alien activity here. But we'll just begin now. Let's go find your mate and relieve her from today's chores."

Just what did he do with my mate?

****

Where is Lucius? Doesn't he miss me? I'm going to die if he doesn't come home. Augustus will work me to death…My legs hurt from standing in the lab for four days. Add to that pain how my ankles were killing me where I knelt near three Shifter youths and their teacher, and I seriously doubted I'd ever felt as weak in the legs from riding a horse when unaccustomed to extended periods of time in the saddle as I did at this moment. Thanks to the clan leader.