“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.”
CHAPTER 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.
Something human.
Tears streamed down my cheeks and I swiped at them with my fists. “I don’t believe you.” When my face was dry, I looked up. “You lied to me about dying—or not dying. Whatever. You’re lying about this, too. You’re lying or you’re just wrong.”
“You’re absolutely right. I did lie to you about being bitten by the vampire, but I’m not lying about this.”
“Why should I believe you?”
Wordlessly, he walked over to the computer console and began typing on the keyboard. After a minute, he stepped aside and motioned me forward. “You can see for yourself.”
I rose from the bed and walked over to the computer. I was still a few feet away when I saw what was on the screen: pictures of my mom, including one of her and my dad. It was the picture that’d been stolen. The rest were ones I’d never seen before. She was younger in a few of them, but I still recognized her.
“They both worked here?” I asked, not taking my gaze off the screen.
“Yes, they did.”
“Is that what got them killed?” I looked up. “Working here? Working for you?”
; “Your father, yes. He died in a car crash on the way to a hunt. As for your mother… Once she left, she never again set foot on CGE property. She kept in touch, occasionally giving us reports of demon activity if she heard or suspected any. If she moved to a new town, she called ahead to make sure there were no sightings in the area. She did everything she could to make sure you and your brother were safe.”
I turned away and headed for the door.
“Where are you going, Miss Hall?”
Pausing, I turned my head to the side, avoiding his gaze. “I need air,” I said and left. And I need someone I can trust, I thought. Because I couldn’t trust him.
He’d lied to me. Again. He’d known about me long before he’d tracked me down. He’d known about me since before I was even born.
How could he not have told me?
More importantly, how could my mom not have told me? And not just about being a demon hunter, but about my dad being one too. How could she have just skipped telling me that? Why had she only made passing comments about monsters and not warned me more? Had she thought we were safe? Was this something she would have explained, like Greene, but had tried putting off?
Had she ever planned on telling me?
I didn’t know. There was no one who could give me the answers I needed. My mom wasn’t around to ask, and I wasn’t sure I could trust Greene to give me the truth, even if he had it.
I brushed aside more tears as I made my way to the catwalk. Once I was safely on the beam, I dropped my hands to my lap and stared ahead, looking at everything and not really seeing anything.
I didn’t know how much time had passed before I heard the window slide open. Lifting my head, I watched as Linc came through. He climbed the ladder and sat down beside me. After one look, he pulled my head to his shoulder and his arms went around me. I couldn’t say why, but it made me cry even harder.
He didn’t try to stop me, didn’t try to make me talk or give me any of those ‘there, there’ or ‘don’t cry’ platitudes people seemed to offer. He just sat there and held me.
After a few more minutes, when the tears finally stopped, I straightened and looked away long enough to wipe my face. “What are you doing here?”
“Director Greene called and said you could probably use a friend, so…here I am.”
“Did he tell you?”
He brushed aside stray stands of my hair. “Tell me what?”
“They thought I was turning into a vampire for a while there,” I said, and almost laughed as the color drained from his face. I had to give him credit, though—he didn’t even flinch. “I’m not. And apparently I’m not dying, either.”
He closed his eyes and let out a loud sigh. “That’s great news, Jade.” His brows creased. “Isn’t that great news?”
“Yeah, of course it is.”
“Then why do you look more miserable now than when you were dying? Or when you thought you were dying.” He made a face, sighed. “That’s confusing. Anyway. So what’s going on? Why do you seem sadder? And not that I’m complaining, but why aren’t you dying? I mean how.” He shook his head. “You know what I mean.”
My lips twitched. “Apparently I have vampire DNA.”
“Well, yeah,” he said, speaking slowly. “I can see that since you were bitten by one, but—”
“I mean, I’ve had it. Since before I was bitten. I guess it makes me immune?” I questioned it, because no one had really explained the why of it. Once Doc had mentioned my pre-vampire bite vampire DNA, Greene just seemed to have thought that just explained everything.
The confusion on Linc’s face didn’t clear. It gave me an idea of what I looked like when Greene’d told me about it. “That’s impossible.”
“Yeah, I imagine a lot of people think the same thing about demons.”
“Point. But what’s the deal? How are you immune?”
I didn’t know if telling him was a no-no, but since Linc already knew about the treatments themselves and Greene hadn’t told me not to tell him, I assumed it was okay. Plus, Greene had called him for me. Either way, now that I thought about it, I wasn’t sure I cared whether Greene wanted me to tell Linc or not. “I’m immune because…” I closed my eyes and exhaled. “Because my mother had the genetic treatments. She was a CGE agent.”
One of his arms was still around me, so I felt the exact moment my words sunk in. His entire body stiffened. “What?”
I glanced at him. His eyes were wide, his jaw slack, and he had this cute, dumbfounded look that made me want to laugh. “Both of my parents were CGE people,” I repeated.
Saying it out loud was weird. A part of me had no doubt about it now—because why would Greene lie about something like that and how would he have gotten all those pictures?—but the other half was still in doubt. Or maybe wanted to be there.
“Both of your parents? I’ve never heard you mention your dad before, only your mom.”
“I don’t remember him,” I said slowly with a slight shrug. “He died when I was four.”
“And they were both here? They were both agents?” His tone was soft, kind of awed. “That’s… What is that? Good, bad, somewhere in between?”
Now I did laugh. “I wish I knew what it was.” I frowned and looked down at my hands. “I just can’t believe my mom never said anything. I mean, anything clear, you know? In hindsight, I can look back and kind of see the subtle hints about demons—her talking about monsters, her collection of weapons and knowledge of them. But she liked learning, so I always figured it was just research. Or self-defense. Anything but this. Anything but the CGE and demon hunting.”
“You’re angry.”
“Yes—no. I’m just…confused. Half of her life was a lie. Half of my life was a lie,” I added quietly. “Even my time here.”
He shook his head. “Your time here hasn’t been a lie, Jade.”
“Okay, maybe not, but Greene’s reasons were. He’s known about me this entire time, even before I was born. And yet he just pretended I was some other kid they’d found or researched—whatever it is they do to find us.”
“Well, I can’t argue with the lie part, but think about it. If he’d approached you, and the first thing out of his mouth was what he’d just told you—that your mom was an agent—how would you have reacted? Would you still have joined?”
“I—”
“I can see you working out a lie,” he said, raising an eyebrow in that I-can-see-you-so-don’t-try-it way of his.
“I don’t know. But it might’ve been nice to know before I was dying. Or could have been dying. Whatever. The point is, I’ve been here over three months and he never told me. It makes me wonder if he would have if this hadn’t happened, if he’d had another choice.”
“You could always ask him,” Linc suggested.
I snorted again. “Yeah, that’ll go over well. I wouldn’t trust his answer, anyway.”
“Who are you really upset with, Jade? Greene or your mom?”
“Both,” I muttered and let out a huff of air. “Everyone says life isn’t just black and white, that there are shades of gray. But this isn’t just a shade. It’s like a whole fricking rainbow of gray. I’m not handling the shades well.”
“I’m not sure I follow.”
“My life before Greene was pretty much black and white, good or bad. And when I got here, all that changed. There wasn’t just black or white, good or bad. There were places in between. I mean, Greene comes along and offers me the one thing no one else could: a chance to hunt demons. Then lots of stuff happens. Some good, some bad. Then I’m dying, and then I’m not dying but turning into a vampire. But wait, I’m not dying or turning into a vampire because—surprise!—my mom was an agent who had the genetic treatments that saved me. Not only was she part demon, but I am too.” I lifted my hands and then let them drop. “Sorry, I’m rambling. Everything is swirling in my head and I’m sure I’m overreacting.”
“You’ve gone through a lot, Jade. You’ve just learned some big, head-spinni
ng stuff. You’re allowed to be confused and pissed off. I’d be worried if you weren’t, so cut yourself some slack.”
“I don’t even know what I’m pissed about. Obviously Greene for lying to me again. And my mom for not telling me any of this stuff. But in the end, does it change anything? My mom was an agent and then she wasn’t. But she and my brother were still killed by a demon. None of that really changes anything. Yet…”
“It changes everything.” He nodded. “I’d be freaking out, too.” He said nothing for a minute, then an uncomfortable expression crossed his face. “Was the attack—I mean, is that what…you know.”
“What got them killed? No.” I shook my head. “Not according to Greene, anyway. He said she retired a few years after she had me, when my dad died. I mean, she retired from here almost ten years before the attack, so I don’t see how it’s related.”
“Well, I guess it kind of explains things with Greene.”
“Like what?”
“Like why he took such an interest in you. Why he went to pick you up personally when it’s not something he usually does.”
I frowned. “I can’t decide if that makes me feel better or not.”
“I think it’s a good thing.” He shrugged. “Like you said, he knew about your family and knew what happened. He obviously kept track of you over the years.”
“But why?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he liked your mom. He’s been running the place for over twenty years, right? So he would have been around when your mom was here, or even in charge, depending on when she joined. Maybe he felt responsible for her. Maybe he just wanted to make sure you doing okay.”
I had no idea when my mom had joined—he hadn’t said. Either way, why had he waited so long to tell me? “Maybe.”
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