Breed of Havoc (The Breed Chronicles #3) (21 page)

Tasha blinked. “Blindfolded? You avoided being hit blindfolded?”

“Yeah, so?” Okay, I knew the
so
in question was probably…bigger than I was making it out to be. But whatever.

“Were you peeking or something?” she asked.

“No!” I said it a little louder than I meant to. I lowered my voice. “No.” And then I told them about the seeing-sounds thing.

By the time I finished, Linc was shaking his head and Tasha looked like she wanted to strangle me.

“That’s a neat trick,” was Linc’s response. “Feeling someone move, or seeing them when you can’t see them.”

“You better have saved some of the good abilities for us,” Tasha warned. “That’s all I’m saying.”

I wanted to warn
her
that it took being bitten by a vampire to
get
these abilities, because I hadn’t had them before. It was definitely new and strange. It might’ve helped me in class, but I was pretty sure it wouldn’t help me with anything else. As soon as everyone else found out—and they would, soon—they’d think I was even more of a freak.

And after today, I’d have to agree.

C
HAPTER 10

For the next week, I locked myself in my room at night, turned off all the lights, blindfolded myself, and tried the seeing-in-the-dark thing. It didn’t work the few first nights. And then, the first time I managed it, Eric’s question of
What are you?
popped into my head and I didn’t try again.

I’d never liked his questions, but it’d been a fair one. It was one that I was constantly asking myself now. Rather, it was one I was asking myself more, because I’d been wondering the same thing since Dr. Cherry had called me my own species.

And to add to the weird and general bad feelings I had, Eric hadn’t said a word to me since Tracking class. In fact, if I even came into his line of sight, he twisted away from me as fast as he could. And, even weirder, no one else was saying anything. Either he hadn’t told anyone about what happened during class that day, or they were plotting against me somehow.

While I wouldn’t necessarily put the plotting-against-me thing passed any of them, I had a feeling that wasn’t the case. For whatever reason, Eric hadn’t told anyone about what I’d done. Instead, he’d been quiet. Too quiet. I didn’t know why exactly, but that worried me more than anything else. When noisy people were quiet, it wasn’t a good sign, and when that noisy person was Eric, one of my biggest adversaries, that meant double the trouble.

My only bright side was I didn’t have time to worry about what Eric might or might not do because I was too busy. Classes were faster paced, the mentor program was a weekly deal, and weekend training was harder and an hour longer. (Greene did offer to let me have Sundays off from training if I wanted it, but I said no—and I didn’t tell Linc or Tasha that.)

Trips to the facility were the same. Demons were brought in and their reactions were recorded and analyzed, and then my beady-eyed counterpart (aka Jade 2.0) was tested after me. It was pretty much a repeat of the first day with the rat. The demons sniffed at it, and then promptly ignored it—if they even bothered taking a whiff of it, which most didn’t. One demon had stared at it for a full minute, but Dr. Cherry was pretty sure the demon had just been hungry since rats were its normal choice of food.

Of the new demons she tested, it seemed like there was a three-way split between the demons that liked me, the demons that hated me because of my DNA, and the demons that hated me because I was human. If she was adding any to the Friend or Foe list, she wasn’t telling me about it. Mostly, she just nodded and moved on to the next demon with little to no comment.

The biggest change was that she started “tweaking” the rat’s DNA on a weekly basis, hoping for a change. I didn’t want to know what exactly had been tweaked, so I never asked. When Linc was about to, I kicked him in the shin to keep him quiet. And because she tweaked the rat’s DNA so often, she spent a lot of time going over the same demons that’d been tested before. It made things…slow. And to be honest, it felt like she’d moved on from testing
me
and focused most of her attention on the rat. I wasn’t even sure why me and Linc needed to be there anymore.

We’d been back from our most recent trip for a little over an hour, and as much as I liked Dr. Cherry, I was thankful to be away. She was nice, but the longer I was around her, the more wary I got. Her insistence that she just
knew
she was close to figuring out something drove me batty after the first hour.

After the trip, I hadn’t wanted to go inside, so Linc and I were on the bleachers. The weather was warm for January (even by Florida standards) and it had stormed while we were gone, so the smell of rain hung in the air. After hours at the facility, it was a nice change.

“You’re quiet,” Linc murmured.

“Just thinking.”

“Are you still pissed because I’m calling the rat Jade 2.0?”

I groaned. “No. Well, that annoys me, but it’s not what I’m thinking about.”

“Then what is it?”

I shrugged. “The tests, Dr. Cherry. The fact that I feel like I’m coming in second with her.” I frowned. “Everything. If you name it, it’s on my mind.”

Since summer—and especially in the last month or so—things were weird. I’d been weird. Getting ridiculously angry for no reason, that weird non-dizzy dizzy spell back in November, and now the Tracking class thing. Things weren’t normal.

What are you?
That’s what Eric had asked me. And for once, it’d sounded like a genuine question and not him being a jerk toward me. Sure, he’d always mouthed off about me being part demon, but it’d been worse that day, because he’d meant it. There hadn’t been any malice in his voice, only curiosity and fear. Worse, it was a question I found myself wondering. What was I?

After two months with Dr. Cherry, she was no closer to figuring it out. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if she was trying to.

For a minute, Linc didn’t say anything, just sat, watching me closely. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, what?”

“Why didn’t you tell Dr. Cherry about the Tracking class thing?”

I sighed. “I don’t know. I guess I was afraid she wouldn’t know what to say or how to explain it. And maybe, on some stupid level, I was afraid she would.” What if it was a bad thing? What if I really was part demon? Not in the we-share-DNA way, but in the we’re-the-same-thing kind of way? I didn’t know how that could be the case, but when there so much else about me and my DNA that no one understood, anything was possible, wasn’t it?

“Jade, you should—” He broke off as every spotlight and security light flashed on around us, lighting every inch of the property.

Linc and I spun in our seats in time to see Greene and three CGE agents run out of the North Tower and round the building.

“Wonder what’s going on,” Linc said, already rising from his seat.

I shrugged. “No idea.”

At the front doors of the North Tower, a dozen Prospects stood, watching, trying to see whatever Linc and I were now trying to see. A few of them came outside and looked around, as if trying to find Greene.

A few minutes passed, then Greene and only two of the agents returned. I squinted to get a better look. It wasn’t two agents but one. The second person— “That’s Chris,” I whispered to Linc.

“Shit. You sure?”

I glanced at him and nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure. And none of them seem happy.” I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could see Chris’s lips moving rapidly. Greene looked…beyond furious.

The second we’d all gotten back from the facility, Tasha and Chris had vanished from sight. I didn’t see Tasha now, though. I’d just assumed they’d gone back to one of their rooms.

“Come on. Let’s go see what’s going on.”

We hurried down the bleachers and ran. We were only about twenty feet behind them when I heard Chris saying ,”I didn’t do it!” over and over again.

The Prospects who’d been waiting at the doors scrambled as Greene marched through with Chris and the agent right behind him. Linc and I raced inside as they all headed toward Greene’s office. I could still hear Chris muttering the same thing, in the same frantic voice.

A door slammed and Linc shot me a worried glance. “Can you hear what they’re saying?”

I tried listening but could only hear a few words. I shook my head. “Not enough to figure out what’s going on, but whatever it is, Chris is in serious trouble.”

“Should we get Tasha?”

I shook my head. “Let’s find out more first.”

Chris had done some stupid stuff since I’d met him. Fireworks, smoke bombs, fireworks again. Considering the speech Greene had given at the beginning of the Phase, the seriousness of it, I hadn’t really expected any trouble from him again. At least nothing that could get him suspended or expelled. But since Greene himself had gone after him…it wasn’t looking good.

What the heck could he have done? No more fireworks, no more smoke bombs—we would have seen or heard about those.

If he did get himself kicked out, I wasn’t sure what Tasha would do. Would they be able to date? Would they be able to meet up? Would Chris be banned from the property? Could they keep Tasha from seeing him entirely?

So many questions with no answers and no way to get them, at least not until Greene gave us some.

Everyone around us whispered their theories and stared at the wall, like they were hoping to see through it into Greene’s office. A few Prospects—ones a heck of a lot braver than me—actually headed toward the hallway between us and his office to try to listen. A few seconds later, they ran back out and went to the nearest staircase or elevator. Peter followed behind them, looking just as angry as Greene had.

“You all better find something better to do,” he said, both his tone and eyes dark, “before I find something for you.”

Most of the others scrammed. I started to follow, thinking it was best not to push him when he looked so angry, but then Tasha darted over.

“What’s going on?” she demanded. “Someone told me Chris is in trouble.”

Peter shook his head. “It’s not my place to say. He’ll have to tell you himself.”

My first thought was optimistic. That meant he’d be around
to
tell us.

But my second thought was more grim. Unless he only gets time to say goodbye.

The only person who’d been kicked out since I’d joined had been Felecia. Since I’d been practically comatose during that time, I’d missed it and had no way of knowing what she’d been allowed to do.

Either way, I was really hoping my optimistic side won this round.

“What’d he do? How much trouble is he in? What—”

“Tasha,” he said, ending her tirade. “I don’t have the answers you’re looking for. I’m out here with you, remember? But what I do know is when Director Greene comes back out, you don’t want to hound him with questions.”

She closed her eyes. “Just tell me if it’s bad.”

“It’s not good. Now I suggest you three make yourselves scarce.”

He walked away as Tasha shot more questions at him. “Damnit!” she half-shouted when he’d disappeared around the corner, back toward Greene’s office.

“Come on,” Linc said, pulling her away. “We’ll wait in the cafe court for a little while. Maybe we’ll catch him as he comes out.”

We waited for over an hour, but he never came out. The only person we saw was Peter, and he sent us to our rooms with the threat of making us write ten-page essays if he caught us waiting again. (It could’ve been due to the fact that Tasha barreled more questions at him as soon as she saw him.)

“He’ll be okay,” I told her as we walked up to the fourth floor. She didn’t believe me, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her. I didn’t know what Chris had done, but it wasn’t looking good for him.

*~*~*

When we didn’t see Chris the next morning (after Tasha banged on his door for ten minutes straight to no avail), Linc and I both exchanged looks. We were both thinking the same thing: Chris had been suspended, or worse, kicked out.

Tasha was a wreck the entire day, barely participating. When she did, she was a danger to herself and nearly got plowed in the head by the girl Mr. Elliot made her (temporary, I hoped) partner. After that, I switched with the other girl and took over partner-duty. I figured I was quick enough not to hit her if she didn’t do anything and I probably wouldn’t be hurt much if she managed to hit me. It’d still hurt, but at least I wouldn’t have any visible injuries.

As class ended, Tasha walked out, as if in a trance. Linc and I followed closely behind. She went down to the first floor, and as we neared the cafe court, she tossed her tablet into my hands and broke out in a run. We saw why a second later: Chris was sitting at a table.

“Is it good that he’s there or bad?” Linc wondered.

“No idea.” I sighed. “Guess we better find out.”

We wandered over in time to hear Tasha yelling at him. She was rambling—quickly. His eyes darted back and forth, like he was looking for help. He dropped his head to the table with a thud and linked his hands over the back of his head.

“Tell me what’s going on, Chris,” Tasha was saying.