The Progeny (The Progeny Series)

by Laynne, Ashlynne

  At his sudden somber tone, Shauna glanced up. The serious part, the part that sparked the dim dread in Ascher’s eyes was coming.

  “My son lives life in limbo. He is a mix of two beings, life and death existing in him at once. He’s the living amongst the dead. He’s also the best of both worlds—a compassionate, beating heart merged with the strength, abilities and immortality of our kind. I designed him this way.”

  “Wait a minute...you made him?”

  The warm shackle of Ascher’s embrace surrounded her. He slipped onto the stool, wedging himself under her then steadied her in his lap before she could process the movement.

  “See what I mean?” Jonas chuckled. “In 1898, Gabriel and I had a secret government contract. Our partnership—Genesis Research Institute did much of the research for a new project. The British government was interested in creating a ‘super soldier.’ For all of the charms humans possess, you still have a fault that makes you undesirable.” He gave her a ghostly glance. “You die. Your mortality makes you a liability.”

  Ascher patted her hand as his father paused.

  “We called our research Project Progeny. It started with animals. At first, we concentrated on artificial insemination, and most of the pregnancies ended in live births. We were living in London at the time. The amount of data our research produced made it impossible for us to keep track of it—even with our sleepless nights. We needed an employee to help with the backlog, so we combed the city for a gifted scientist to add to our team. We found exactly what we needed in Ascher Westridge and his daughter, Beatrice, who was equally as talented as we were. She spent her time in the lab working with us, analyzing data and keeping an accurate account of our records.”

  Ascher’s arm tightened around her, his lips resting at the base of her neck.

  She managed to ignore the tingles his lips, so close to her, caused. “Ash’s mother.”

  Jonas nodded. “The British government threw insane amounts of money into our project, hoping we’d get the breakthrough to validate their expense. Between 1908 and 1918, we got serious about our project, delving deeper into the data, using what we’d learned about insemination on humans.”

  Shauna gasped.

  “Ten women were impregnated with a mixture of vampire and human semen. At first, we were curious if a vampire could even impregnate a human, since we are essentially the undead. Eight of the pregnancies progressed to the tenth week. None of the pregnancies resulted in a half-blood embryo.”

  “Did they know? The women, did they know what you were doing to them?” Shauna questioned.

  “Of course not, my dear,” Jonas answered swiftly. “Our greatest concern is staying inconspicuous. We’d never risk telling anyone who couldn’t be trusted. By 1920, our hope was exhausted, and the British government cut our funding. Gabriel and I made plans to return to the States. We were two weeks from returning when Ascher Westridge was murdered—a government hit. Project Progeny failed and we knew too much to live. Gabriel and I eventually tracked down and killed the perpetrator—a Colonel by the name of Isaac Dorton.”

  Shauna clutched her chest in horror.

  “The Colonel’s death caused a ripple effect. Most of those intimately involved in the funding of Project Progeny soon died, or disappeared without a trace. The cover-up had started. Gabriel and I went underground, fleeing to France. Beatrice came with us because she was alone after her father’s death. Besides.” Jonas’s eyes smoldered with an emotion that resembled a human’s blushing. “By then Bea and I were becoming close.”

  Shauna felt Ascher’s breathing quicken briefly, before returning to a calmer pace, his fingers flexing against her waist.

  “It was nice to be home. In 1922, we attempted insemination with only vampire sperm. All five pregnancies took. Three miscarried within the first six weeks and of the remaining two, one made it to the eighth week before miscarrying. The last was viable up to the twelfth week. We terminated it, learning as much as we could about ‘Adam.’ What we found was astonishing.”

  Shauna's throat nearly closed up as she attempted to speak. “What did—you find?”

  “I’ll show you,” Ascher offered as the warmth from his body left her, his form disappearing then reappearing on the opposite side of the table. Before her eyes could adjust to seeing him in one place, he moved like lightning to another location. His body blurred, flashed and tore through the room, gathering things as his father spoke them.

  Ascher placed slide after slide into the microscope, showing the results of Sub Project Adam. It was unbelievable. Ascher placed the last slide on the stage, encouraging her to look. She peered down into the eyepiece and the breath caught in her chest.

  “Shauna,” Ascher whispered. “Breathe.”

  She drew a shallow gulp.

  “This is Ascher’s blood. See the difference?” Jonas asked. “The blood cells are both crimson and black. The globules dance around one another, bump into one another and seem to merge without harming one another. We learned one thing from ‘Adam.’ His cells were unstable. The black cells killed off the red ones, and he would’ve died within weeks.”

  “If the government pulled your funding, why did you continue the experiments?”

  “I’m a scientist by nature, Shawnette.” Jonas raised a brow, speaking as if Shauna should know him well enough to ascertain this. “Curiosity is a huge part of being successful. I became obsessed with solving the puzzle and making sense of what seemed unattainable. You might say I became a mad scientist. After the first trial failed using Gabriel’s sperm, we decided to try again using myself as the donor.”

  “Sweetheart, up until that time, the possibility of a half-blooded child had never been explored. It would take a tremendous amount of restraint for a vampire to be that close without feeding,” Ascher stated.

  “Gabriel produced a serum from Adam’s blood and cells,” Jonas continued. “We tested it in ten mice and all ten became amazingly strong. We introduced them to five diseases and watched as their highly resistant immune systems neutralized the diseases, before they could cause them harm. The test mice developed a thirst for blood, preferring the blood of other mice but we expected that.”

  “The mice became vampires?” Shauna breathed with disbelief.

  “What we didn’t expect was what happened when we inseminated the female with one of the test mice’s sperm. Normal gestation for a mouse is about twenty days. Our female gave birth to a full-term litter in ten. All of the offspring’s cells showed stark similarities to Adam, but with one difference. The introduction of Gabriel’s serum stabilized the cells. The aggressive black vampire cells peacefully co-existed with the red cells. We were ready to attempt Project Progeny on another human.” Jonas disappeared, returning with a projector and box of slides.

  Ascher scooped Shauna up, landing her across his lap again. “Gabriel and Father searched France for the perfect woman to carry the child. My mother volunteered herself, knowing the risks involved. Father was livid and vehemently refused her. They argued about it for months.”

  “Bea was stubborn,” Jonas added, smirking at Ascher. “Much like her half-blooded son.”

  At this observation, Ascher allowed a small smile to appear on his face.

  “The insemination took place July 25, 1923. The first three weeks were uneventful. She had morning sickness and fatigue—normal human pregnancy symptoms. Around week eight, it got interesting. Bea was eight weeks pregnant but looked well into her second trimester. The pregnancy progressed at twice the rate of a human one.” The room darkened as Jonas flipped a switch on the projector, causing a bright beam of light to shine onto the white wall.

  Various pictures of a pregnant Beatrice Westridge flashed on the wall. The brown-eyed beauty’s condition seemed to deteriorate with each week, each slide a postcard from the grave. Her creamy, radiant complexion soon paled and grayed, to become more transparent and tight. The spark in her eyes dimmed into a sunken replica of her former self.

  Sha
una’s eyes strained to hold back the tears, because the images really bothered her. She believed that a person had many portals with which to be born into the world. If Ascher was truly her destiny, he could have been born to someone else—vampire or not. “Why didn’t you terminate? She’s dying. It’s so obvious.”

  “I tried to convince her, but she refused. She wanted the baby born, even if it meant her death. By week fifteen, she was too big to do much. Her skin was as thin as parchment paper, the veins protruding. We made a birthing plan for when the baby came, because we weren’t sure what was coming or what it would be.”

  Shauna wondered how any amount of planning could prepare anyone for such an event.

  “The night Ascher came, it stormed. It was as though the heavens were shouting their disapproval for what we were doing. I loved Bea, but the scientist in me wanted to see the pregnancy through. I thirsted for the knowledge that the answers would provide.” Sadness crossed Jonas’s face, as the light dimmed in his eyes. “The birth was hard on her, but she was brave. Unfortunately, she died when Ascher was only hours old. Over the span of his lifetime, we’ve studied him as much as we’ve loved him. He’s a miracle. If we can ever get the serum done, Ascher may save millions of lives...become the hope of the world.”

  The projector snapped off, and the room lit again.

  Shauna glanced over at Ascher and couldn’t decipher the look on his face. It was too complex, too many emotions displaying to get an accurate read.

  “Still love me?” he asked.

  “I’m still here. What do you think?”

  “Now that you know about my origins and you’ve seen exactly what I am, there’s one more place I want to show you. It’s someplace really special to me.”

  “Okay.”

  Jonas nodded and gave her a warm smile, his attention dropping to the microscope to resume his tireless work.

  Ascher tugged Shauna to him. “One of the best parts about being a vampire is soaring high above the city. My brothers and I do it often, and it helps me think when I’m confused.”

  “You get confused?”

  “I am human, too, love. Eternal life doesn’t give you infinite wisdom. I know you’re afraid of heights, so hold on to me okay?”

  Shauna flinched and nodded her head.

  “Up we go.” Ascher embraced her tightly, levitating them up and out of the window, into the night.

  Fourteen ~ Laurel Pointe

  Weightlessness—Shauna marveled at the feeling. Her heart pounded, beating so rapidly that she thought it might explode, while her fingertips numbed from the force of the cool air gusting around them. Her dizzy head felt like it might just float off her disoriented body. All that said, she’d never felt so exhilarated, afraid for her life—or more alive. She inhaled a deep breath and giggled as the cold breeze tickled her nose.

  Ascher glanced at her and smiled. “You have no idea how freeing this is. There are no secrets between us. If there’s a better feeling in this world, I’ve never felt it.” He paused as his face flushed with the tiniest blush of crimson. “There was one moment though, that was almost equal in its gratification.”

  “I’m not following you.”

  “That night we almost made love in your apartment.” He brought them down onto the rocky mountain floor.

  A wave of vertigo washed over her when she attempted a step and stumbled, falling back into his arms.

  He scooped her back up. “Maybe I should hold on to you for a little while longer. So, what do you think about the view?”

  Shauna gazed down at the twinkling lights below them. At a loss for words, she only uttered, “Wow!”

  He pointed to a particular cluster of lights. “That’s Sheridan Square.”

  “It looks so small from up here.”

  Ascher sat on the rocky ledge, his legs dangling. “It’s late, and I don’t want to overwhelm you with too much information.”

  She shivered. Heights were her greatest fear, heights and large bodies of water. She sat near him, keeping her distance from the edge. “I’m afraid of heights.”

  “Most humans are afraid of heights, Shauna. I suppose I would be, if the other part of me didn’t exist.”

  “Since we’re talking about what I fear.” She paused, drew a deep breath and stared over at him. “Ursula was your first.”

  “You really want to talk about her again?”

  “Not her so much as your lack of human bonding.”

  “Ursula and I were never meant to be together, but you and I are. What Ursula and I did was not making love. In order to make love you have to be in love and I never loved her, Shauna. You’re the only woman I’ll ever love.”

  “So, you’ve never made love to a human. Is that why you stopped us?”

  “That’s part of it, but mostly I felt guilty. I wanted you to choose me, knowing everything about me.”

  Shauna grasped his face. “I choose you, Ascher. I love you.”

  He pulled away, his eyes blazing blue. “No! Never forget what you’ve seen tonight—what I am. I’m so dangerous.”

  “You’d never hurt me.”

  “I’m not as strong as you think. A human like you is a rarity. You possess the trinity—a combination of properties that make blood delicious. One of the three makes a human’s blood irresistible. All three are maddening to us.”

  “What are the three properties?”

  “You are a non-drinker, a vegetarian and a virgin. I knew you were all of these things after one sniff.”

  “If it’s driving you so mad, we can take care of one of those right now.”

  Ascher gave her a perplexed look, as she gave him a seductive smile.

  “I’ve been thinking about that night a lot. Even when I was angry with you, I still thought about it. I wished that you hadn’t stopped us.” She ran her hand along his neck. “Now seems like the perfect place. What do you think?”

  “Don’t tell me you’re serious. Were you not listening the last two hours? Did you not hear what my father said?”

  “I heard everything he said, and it still doesn’t change how I feel. I’ve wasted enough time, and I want you to be my first.” Her hands slipped under the lapel of his shirt, unbuttoning three buttons. “Make love to me Ascher, right here—right now.”

  “Shauna, we—”

  She covered his mouth with her hand. “You think too much and what’s with you and words? No more words, Ascher.” She pulled him down on her, securing his lips to hers.

  * * * *

  Ascher kissed her with hesitance. This wasn’t a good idea at all, as her scent made him thirsty.

  The burning, the torture, he wanted so badly to bite her.

  Shauna kissed him with fervor, shifting herself on top. Her lips brushed his forehead, closed eyelids and nose before merging with his anxious mouth.

  He smoothed his hands along her spine, stopping to knead the small of her back. His body was ablaze, each touch of her lips bringing more fire. Exhilaration bubbled up then exploded, igniting his rabid thirst and uncontrollable passion.

  She gazed down at him, beaming the dark depths of her eyes into him. “I want you so much. Do you want me, Ascher?”

  “More than I want my own existence.”

  Shauna diverted her kisses to his neck—his spot, his vulnerable spot. One of two places that made him crazy when kissed or stroked. She’d figured him out. If his body was a treasure map—with various points of pleasure marked along the way—the two moles along his neck were the “x” that marked the spot of his unlikely weakness.

  Fire blazed in his blood. Grabbing her tighter, he flipped her beneath him.

  Silent, she laid there, her chest heaving and her pulse racing.

  He ran his fingers along the buttons of her shirt.

  She continued suckling his neck.

  Pop. One of her buttons flew off.

  Shauna's gaze burned at him, her eyes flickering with lust. “Do it!” she taunted, unbuttoning the last two buttons on his shirt.
“C’mon, Ascher. Don’t stop!”

  Pop, pop, pop. Three more buttons vanished. The one button left, strained to hold her breasts in.

  He lifted her, placing his mouth against her neck as he ripped the shirt from her body, tossing it against the rock wall. Her breasts were two perfect, perky globes with eager and erect nipples. Her pulse thumped against his lips. He closed his eyes, trying to escape the feelings her throbbing carotid caused him.

  “Ash, what is it? What’s wrong?”

  “Your carotid. I don’t know if I can control myself. I haven’t fed and I’m weak. I didn’t take precautions before we came up here.”

  Her carotid jumped and he bit at his lip in response.

  She gave him a look of bewilderment. “Precautions?”

  “My brothers suggested that I feed before I was close to you. It’s easier to resist the urge if the thirst is satiated.”

  “You drink human blood, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Where does it come from?”

  “Volunteers.”

  “Women?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about vampire women? Do they feed on men?”

  Ascher smirked, grateful for the distraction. “Are you asking for future reference?”

  “Possibly.” She leaned her head back, showing him the creamy skin of her neck. “I’m a woman, and I’m definitely human.”

  Ascher shook his head. “No, Shauna.”

  “I’m volunteering myself.” She placed his fingers over her carotid.

  The strong pulsing shocked his heart, bringing the ache back to his mouth. The lines between his hunger for her and the thirst for her blood blurred again. He seized her, kissing her skin along the throbbing artery.

  Shauna secured her hands to his head, holding it firm against her neck, satisfied moans tumbling from her mouth.

  Ascher sensed the deliciousness of her blood, and she smelled too good. The thought of drinking her was too appealing.