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Releasing the lions with Scheme out there was a risky venture. They were trained to only respond to certain non-Breeds, only those who lived full-time within Sanctuary. Scheme was in just as much danger from the big cats as she was from Tamber. Unless she went to the ground and became completely submissive, making no sudden moves and not looking the animals in the eye. That would be the only way she could save herself.
“The jet is clearing Buffalo Gap, Tanner,” Kane barked. “You have approximately five minutes before it reaches the only possible launching site. ”
Time was running out.
“We’ll make it,” he snarled, pushing the bike harder. They had to make it; he couldn’t live otherwise.
Scheme stumbled on the incline as she tried to hurry away from the jeep and the psychotic Breed hopefully bleeding to death inside it. Though she doubted it. For the most part, Breeds, even the foul ones, were amazingly resilient.
Holding on to the stick David had provided, she followed him as fast as she could, feeling her legs trembling, the pain racing through her body and the overwhelming knowledge that she might have failed.
“We have to hurry. ” David turned to stare back at her worriedly, his head lifting, scenting the air around him. As small as he was, as young as he was, he was already showing traits of an alpha Breed male. Sure of himself, confident of his surroundings and his family’s ability to find him.
What would it be like, Scheme wondered sadly, to have that confidence? To know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if your family was near, then you were safe.
Her father was most likely near
, coordinating the capture with his smug smile and self-satisfaction. But it wasn’t for her protection. It was for the destruction of others. The Breeds who had escaped the torment he could have inflicted on them.
“Go. ” She waved her hand back to David weakly. “Get out of here, David. Find Tanner. He’ll come and get me. ”
The boy didn’t have many self-preservation instincts. If he did, he would be running like hell away from her.
He chewed at his lips in indecision, clearly eager to be on his way down the mountain. “The lions will eat you, lady,” he explained as though speaking to a dimwit, his shoulders straightening and an invisible mantle of responsibility seeming to settle on them.
“Then let the damned lions eat me,” she snapped desperately. “Do you think I went to all the trouble to get into Sanctuary just so they could take both of us?”
He rolled his eyes. “You’re being melodramatic. ”
Melodramatic? A freaking nine-year-old had just called her melodramatic?
“Excuse me here,” she snapped. “I’m stuck in the woods, I think I broke bones, and I’ve lost my shoes. This is not melodrama, kid. This is me getting ready to have a meltdown. ”
He stared back at her with a patronizing, totally male gaze. Good God, this kid was a hazard to himself.
“Meltdown when we get home. Mom keeps chocolate for meltdowns. Daddy always has them when Uncle Jonas visits. ” He frowned, glancing at the sky while he grabbed a handful of her sweats to steady her as she stumbled over something barky. A rotten piece of a tree maybe. She shuddered. Anything rotten should be kept well away from her.
“I don’t blame your daddy,” she muttered. “Jonas is a pain in the rear. Now run and tell him I said it. Go on. ” She waved her hand imperatively. “Go. ”
The kid shook his head.
“Uncle Jonas is cool. He knows neat stuff, like guns and knives and how to fight. ”
“So does your daddy,” she reminded him impatiently. “Would you leave already?”
“But teaching hurts Daddy,” he sighed, ignoring her once again. “I can feel it. So I asked Uncle Jonas to help me, and Uncle Taber and Uncle Tanner. It hurts them too though, but not like it does Daddy. ”
“It’s for your protection,” she pointed out.
“I know. I think that’s why it hurts them,” he shrugged. “It’s why I can’t go to the regular school or play baseball. ”
There was a note of sadness in the boy’s voice, of loneliness. Hell, the Breeds were no freer now than they were in the labs; they just weren’t tortured. Unless they were caught.
“We have to move faster,” she muttered, trying to force her legs to obey her. It was obvious the kid wasn’t going anywhere without her. “We don’t have much time. ”
She could hear something coming herself now, could feel the vibration of it.
“The lions are close. ” David’s voice rose in excitement as they passed a thick growth of foliage. “All we have to do is get to the—”
