Breed of Envy (The Breed Chronicles, #02)

by Jordan, Lanie

  “Are those the only changes?” another girl asked. I’d seen her around, but I’d never heard her name, and I didn’t share any classes with her, so she was probably a P3 or P4.

  “The North Tower will also undergo some upgrades, but those will be worked around your class schedules and likely be on the weekends, so as to not disrupt your studying.”

  A guy in the front row raised his hand. When Greene nodded to him, he said, “So, when does this all start?”

  “Tomorrow morning. Your tablets should be available to you during your first class, and construction on the South Tower will begin around that time.”

  “Why did we get the extra funding? Did we, I don’t know, need it?”

  “We’re always looking for more funding as it’s what keeps us open. As for why…” Greene’s gazes met mine again. It was just a quick, barely noticeable look, but it made me frown. “We’re continuing to make great strides in our research, and those who support us wish us to succeed. More funding means better equipment which leads to quicker results—and those help everyone.”

  “So it’s for research,” a guy said. His shoulders sagged. “That sucks.”

  “Bear in mind that it’s that research that allows you and everyone else to be here, to continue to be able to live and study here.” Greene glanced down at his watch. “I know some of you were probably expecting a longer speech, but I’m afraid I have business to attend to. To those who have been with us a while, please take some time to show our newest recruits around the CGE and answer any questions they may have.” He bowed his head in a small nod and picked up his tablet. “I wish you all the best during your classes tomorrow.” He smiled as a bunch of the kids (okay, everyone but me) gave happy sighs and/or looks of thanks.

  “That’s it?” a guy asked.

  “That’s it.” Greene nodded to the group at large and then stalked away, heading toward a group of agents that stood beside the car he’d arrived in.

  “But—” I stuttered, unable to say or do anything as I watched Greene leave.

  Linc shook his head. “Disappointed, aren’t you?”

  “Well, kind of. I was hoping for…more.” What more I wanted, I had no idea. I didn’t even know why I wanted it, but dang it, I did.

  “We’re getting new tablets. That’s more.”

  “That’s not the more I wanted. And I thought our old ones were pretty good.” Though I still preferred the tablet I’d bought for myself, but I couldn’t use it during my classes.

  “They’re about two years old. In tech time, that’s ancient.”

  I frowned at Linc. “How do you know how old they are? Did they come with a manufacturing date on them or something?”

  “No, but I searched the web.” He shrugged. “Research is good, remember? That’s what the CGE does.”

  “Careful, Linc. That’s nerd talk.”

  For a split second, there’d been this mutinous look on Linc’s face, like I’d stabbed him in the eye with a spork. “That was mean.” The accusation in his voice made me laugh.

  “So? You called me a nerd before.”

  “Yeah, but that was different. And true.”

  I smiled. “Well, I guess I passed the torch to you.” As he rolled his eyes, I stared back out at the podium, where Greene had been. I couldn’t fight a frown. “He was gone for an entire month and barely seen the month before that. Now he just comes back with a ten minute speech and…and that’s it?”

  “You’re relentless.”

  “I’m worried. You know Greene, and that’s not him.” Not the Greene who loved to give speeches and ask questions. The only time I’d seen him quietish was when I’d been in trouble.

  Crap. Was I in trouble again? Was that what that look had been about?

  Linc waggled his brows at me. “I thought you weren’t worried.”

  “I’m not worried about classes,” I said. It was still a lie, but right now, I was worried about something more important. “I’m worried about Greene and his disappearing acts.”

  He shrugged. “He came back with funding. Maybe he had meetings with investors or something. Some secret meetings with some secret government officials.”

  “For a month?” I rolled my eyes. “Not likely.”

  “Okay, fine, so he had secret meetings with secret government officials and he took an extended vacation. We got two months off. Why shouldn’t he?”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but when he said it like that, it almost made sense. Damn him and his logic. “Fine.” I sighed. “I’ll go back to worrying about classes.”

  Something touched my shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin. When I turned, I found am auburn haired girl with brown eyes standing beside me. I recognized her from my Orientation back in May. “You’re Jade, right?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Can I have a second?”

  I sent Linc a what’d-I-do-now look. He just shrugged and moved over to talk to Tasha who was dragging Chris down the bleachers.

  Motioning for the girl to follow, I got up and started down the bleachers. “It’s…Young, right?” I asked once we were aloneish. We were still surrounded by most of the Prospects, but we were as alone as we were going to get out here. “Sorry, I don’t know your first name. Director Greene only called you Miss Young before at your Orientation.”

  The girl nodded. “Yeah. Shelly Young. Good memory.”

  “Thanks.” I shoved my hands in my pockets. “So, what’s up?”

  Her brown eyes met mine. She looked around warily, like she wasn’t sure what to expect. “What’s it like here?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you were with us for that Orientation deal, and now you’re already here… I’ve only been here a few weeks, and already I’ve heard about you.”

  I groaned.

  “Nothing bad,” she added hastily, her cheeks pinkening. “I just mean, we—me and the other P1s—have heard people talk about you, since, you know, you were skipped ahead. So we were just wondering…what’s it like? Is it okay?”

  I scratched my head, suddenly more uncomfortable though I didn’t know why. “Yeah, it’s great. I’m still here, right?”

  “Did you really fight a…a vampire?” Her eyes were wide. I couldn’t tell if it was in awe or fear. Maybe both.

  “I—” I broke off as Linc jogged over.

  “Sorry to interrupt, but that thing I said not to worry about? Worry about it now. Greene’s coming back this way,” he added in a low tone.

  I turned to apologize to Shelly but found myself staring at an empty spot instead. She was already gone. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who worried about Greene being around. For a split second, I debated spinning around to look for Greene, but I just closed my eyes and sighed. “How long before—”

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Stone, Miss Hall.”

  I snapped my mouth shut, sent Linc a scathing look, and then twisted around to face Greene. “Hi.”

  Linc raised his hand in a wave. “Hey.”

  “I was wondering if I might steal a moment of your time, Miss Hall.”

  Don’t groan, don’t groan. I plastered a smile on my face. “Sure.” I pushed Linc aside and followed Greene as he headed toward the pool. I tried to trail behind him a little, but he just slowed his pace to match mine. I’m not getting out of this one.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Greene watching me. “I’m sure you were curious as to my whereabouts.”

  “What? No,” I said. He smirked at me. There was no other word for it. He just smirked. “Okay, fine, I was curious. Do you know everything? And how do you know everything?” Sooner or later, I’d figure that out.

  The smirk stayed in place and his brown eyes twinkled. “Research, Miss Hall. I told you I was very good at it.”

  “Yeah, well, I still say you’re cheating somehow.”

  He chuckled. “Perhaps.” He stopped walking. “The majority of my time was spent at another CGE location, in Texas.”<
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  “Oh. Um.” I bit my lip. “I don’t mean this to sound rude, but…”

  “Why am I telling you?”

  I nodded.

  “Because my time away was largely in regards to you.” At my gaping, he added, “Or rather, what almost happened to you.”

  “What? The vampire thing?” I knew that’d come back to bite me! “Am I dying again? Or turning into a vampire? I mean, it wouldn’t be again because I hadn’t really been dying in the first place, and I couldn’t have really turned into a vampire since I didn’t get bitten by two, but—”

  “Miss Hall.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “I apologize. I wasn’t implying you were in any danger. You are not dying and you are not turning into a vampire. You were cleared, I assure you. We’ll continue keeping a close eye on your blood work as we discussed after your graduation; however, I don’t believe there will be any issues.”

  “Oh. Okay.” I breathed a sigh. After a second, I narrowed my eyes. “Then what are you implying?”

  “Do you remember when I mentioned you being the first child born from genetically enhanced parents?”

  I nodded again. “Yeah.” That was the reason I was still alive and kicking. It’d been the same day he’d told me my mom—and dad—had been CGE agents. That wasn’t something I’d forget anytime soon, no matter how much I was trying to.

  “Well, your survival from the vampire bite brought quite a bit of attention from those who support the CGE.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you were the first person to survive a vampire bite. You were immune, or at the very least, your body produced what it needed in order to fight off the infection. This was nothing short of miraculous, Miss Hall.”

  I still wasn’t seeing the point to this conversation. Greene didn’t just offer information freely, not if it was important. He had a reason for it and I wished I knew what that reason was. Then again, knowing Greene, maybe I didn’t want to know. Whatever it was—and whatever he was leading up to—couldn’t be good. The odds weren’t in my favor, I knew that much.

  “Miss Hall, we acquired the funding because of you. Our supporters know we’re one step closer to curing, and maybe even preventing, people from being turned into vampires, or dying because the process failed.”

  I didn’t really know how much money his supporters had given him, but for the stuff he was talking about, I was guessing probably in the millions. A few thousand, or even a hundred thousand, would barely cover the costs of the new tablets—if that much. Mine had cost me a lot, and it wasn’t nearly as nice as the ones we had now.

  “So they donated all that money just to stop vampires?” Not that it was ‘just’ anything. It just seemed like a lot of money to hand over for something that would only serve one real purpose.

  “No, not entirely. This isn’t just about vampires. If we can find a cure for that, who knows what else we may discover. I know this may seem strange to you, but a fair amount of our medical breakthroughs are accidental—at least those that don’t help in the fight against demons. Scientists are always looking for, or trying to do, one particular thing at any given time, but often, they discover something completely different.”

  “I’m still missing something, aren’t I? I mean, you wouldn’t be telling me this just because I survived.”

  He gave a brief nod. “The majority of the money will be spent researching—”

  “Me,” I whispered. Now I saw the point. “You want to research me.”

  Greene bowed his head slightly. “In essence, yes. Our scientists want to study you.”

  CHAPTER 02

  “Oh.”

  That was…not great news.

  Wasn’t the DNA harvesting enough? Now they really wanted to study me? Would they stick me in some white room somewhere, poke and prod at me, hoping to find answers?

  Director Greene looked down at me. “We—the scientists, that is—believe you hold the key to solving something they, along with hundreds of others, have spent decades working on. Thousands of hours and billions of dollars have been spent since the discovery of demons. There have been great strides made since then, but we’ve never been close to a cure before.”

  “And are you now? Close to a cure, I mean.”

  “Sadly, no. Not exactly. But we are a lot closer now than we were two years ago, or even three months ago. Our scientists will find a way, I’m sure, and they believe research on your blood and DNA will help aid them.”

  “So I have a choice?”

  He didn’t seem offended by my question, or all that surprised. “Of course. However, please consider that the hard work lies with the scientists. Your exams would continue much in the same way they are now.”

  “You’d just have Doc take more blood?” Didn’t Doc take enough already? I already felt like a blood bank.

  “Miss Jones would be required to take more samples, yes, but only one of your weekly appointments for the month would be different. She would need to perform additional tests as well.”

  “Like what?” Now I was really worried. He had to know I hated getting my blood drawn. It wasn’t as bad as before, but I still disliked it.

  “Though it’s not specifically required, I’d like her to run some digital scans and physical tests. You mentioned your rapid healing before, and I don’t see how that isn’t due to the genetic treatments your parents received. Also, your incredible memory. I’d like to have a brain scan run as well.”

  “But no more needles or…you know, brain surgery type stuff? Dissections or anything?” I doubted that’d be the case, but I really wasn’t sure. I mean, I had no idea how they did their research. Maybe they studied brains or corpses or something.

  Greene laughed. “No. No extra needles. More blood, as I said, for one of your appointments, and a few time-consuming tests, but nothing else. I can schedule your tests to be during one of your class hours, if that’d help. Perhaps Demonology since it seems to be your best course.”

  I didn’t gasp, but it was close. If Linc found out what I was about to say, he’d never let me live it down. “No, that’s okay,” I whispered, then I looked around to make sure Linc wasn’t in hearing distance. I didn’t add that I liked my classes. Linc knew it, because I said it enough, but if he knew I was declining being let out early… I was afraid his poor head might explode.

  “I didn’t think that would sway you.” The sides of his lips twitched. “As I said, ultimately, it is your decision, but I’d appreciate if you’d at least consider it very carefully. You said you wanted to help people, and I believe this would be one of the best things you can do, something that would allow you to help people on a larger scale, though it would be a long-term goal without many immediate or visible results.”

  I didn’t answer right away. It really shouldn’t have been that hard of a request. Did I or didn’t I want to do it? There were benefits and downsides. Obvious benefits being helping other people. Downsides were getting poked at more often and a harder time trying to avoid the whole I’m-part-demon thing. Both were big deals in their own right.

  His get-out-class-free card hadn’t worked, but the not-quite guilt trip thing would do the trick. “Alright,” I heard myself saying. “I’ll do it.”

  “Very well. Doc will be expecting you.”

  I felt my eyes bug out. “Now?”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Is there a problem with now?”

  The only problem I had with now was that it wasn’t later. Much, much later. “No, I guess not.”

  His eyes stayed locked on mine while he seemed to mull over my answer. “I suppose it can wait until Tuesday. That might be better, in fact. A new scanner will be delivered tomorrow, so it should be set up and ready for use by the time your class is finished on Tuesday.”

  “Are my weekly appointments changing?”

  “No, just this once. They’ll continue to be on Fridays.”

  I almost sighed. “Will it be a regular appointment or one of the longer ones you talked about?”
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  Greene tilted his head to the side and pursed his lips. “I know how much you hate these appointments, so how about a compromise? You go Tuesday, let Doc run her blood tests and complete a digital scan, and you won’t have to go again until the following Friday. The other tests can wait until the end of the month.”

  I didn’t say anything for a minute. He had a habit of ruining the good stuff by throwing some other not-so-good stuff in. When the minute passed and he didn’t comment, I said, “That’ll work.”

  “Waiting for the other shoe to drop?”

  I should’ve been embarrassed that he knew where my thoughts were, but I wasn’t, and I wasn’t at all surprised that he did know. This was just more proof that he knew everything. “Pretty much.”

  “There’s no catch, Miss Hall. You’re doing this to help, and as such, I’ll do what I can to make it…I won’t call it enjoyable knowing your aversion for bloodwork, but at least more convenient.”

  I shoved my hands in my pockets. “Thanks.”

  “Thank you.” He lifted his arm and glanced at his watch. “I’m afraid I really do need to go. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day and I have arrangements to see to. I hope your evening goes well, Miss Hall. Enjoy your classes.”

  I waved as he walked away, then frowned. When I twisted back to go find Linc, I nearly ran into him.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said, though I had no idea if it was really the truth. Nothing bad had really happened. I had what the CGE scientists needed to, hopefully, find a way to stop vampires. That was a good thing, wasn’t it? So why did I feel like…I wasn’t even sure what I was feeling.

  “What did Greene want?”

  “To research me,” I said miserably. “Or, my blood and DNA rather.”

  “Because of the bite?”

  “Because I lived,” I told him, then relayed what Greene had said.

  Linc said nothing for a minute, and then his face went serious. “Well, it beats them wanting to research you because you died. Now that would be awkward.”

  I just stared at him for a minute. Then I laughed and shook my head. “Thanks for the perspective, Stone.”