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Her father cast her a fuming look as Dawn glanced at her in surprise. Cassie never disobeyed her father’s orders when it came to her safety. She well knew what awaited her if all protection failed and the Council managed to get their hands on her.
“Cassie?” Dawn questioned her softly, staring back at her quietly.
They had been friends. Cassie was always invading her space when the dreams were rising hard inside her in the past. With her spooky little riddles, her compassion and the knowledge that others’ pain hurt her as well, Cassie had never been one to deliberately make things harder on those around her. Especially her parents.
“I’m fine, Dawn.” She rolled her eyes, but Dawn could feel the tension in the other girl. There was also a certainty that Cassie had no intention of discussing it. It was in her eyes, in her closed expression.
As Cassie turned back to Dash, he merely shook his head; the frustration he was feeling was clearly evident in his expression.
“If you need anything, just let us know.” Seth nodded then. “We’ll circulate a bit more and then perhaps return to our suite for drinks. I’d like to talk to you before you leave.”
Dash nodded again before moving back to his seat, his hand finding his wife’s naturally as Seth and Dawn moved away from the table.
“What’s going on?” Seth asked her quietly, his gaze sharp, picking up, she knew, on the tension rising inside her now.
“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “But whatever is going to happen, it’s going to happen tonight, Seth.” She knew that as well as she knew her love for Seth.
It burned clear to her soul.
Seth paused, his hand dropping hers to allow his arm to curve around her back and pull her to him.
“We’ll get through it,” he promised her.
“I can only pray.” And for the first time in ten years she was doing just that. She was praying hard, praying with everything inside her. Because losing him now wasn’t something she could consider. Losing him now would kill her.
She stayed at Seth’s side through the hours they chatted, danced and celebrated not just the end of the board meetings and an agreement in Seth’s favor, but also the engagement that she had dreamed of.
They were watched closely. Some gazes were angry, some surprised, others genuinely happy for them. As they moved about the room, Dawn instinctively used a set of silent signals to the other Breeds there, keeping them carefully around Seth and close enough to stop a bullet if they had to.
Breed physiology could survive wounds that the human body couldn’t. They were more resilient, better able to endure as well as heal from life-threatening wounds. They weren’t just stronger and faster, they were created for abuse and trained within it.
That training had killed more Breeds than lived now. More than a century of the scientists’ work had created bodies and internal organs that could continue to fight under circumstances that would leave a normal human dead hours before. It was the reason they were created. To endure and to succeed despite all odds.
“Seth.” Brian Phelps moved toward the
m, a smile on his face despite the concern in his hazel eyes. “Congratulations again. She’s a beautiful woman.” He nodded to Seth and handed Dawn a glass of champagne before taking one for himself.
“She is indeed, Brian.” Seth smiled.
“I just received a report from one of my people in Los Angeles,” Brian told him. “Valere landed and immediately called a press conference. It’s a few more hours before it’s due to air. I’d hoped he wouldn’t do it.”
Seth shook his head as Dawn felt, scented, his regret.
Seth finally shrugged. “He can’t hurt the deal, Brian. And it’s not the first news conference he’s called to try to put pressure on the board to force our decisions his way. It won’t work now any more than it worked in the past.”
Brian nodded his thinning gray head, but his expression was lined with worry. “It makes me wonder if the rumors of his family’s involvement with the Council are true,” he finally sighed. “As God is my witness, I didn’t know the true scope of what we were funding, Seth. Research and development, they called it. The reports I received didn’t mention anything about children, or adults, being created.”
It was, Dawn suspected, no more than that truth. The Council reports to many of the companies funding them had been in terms of “weapons” developed; the testing of those weapons, the units built or destroyed for lack of efficiency.
A lack of efficiency. More clearly defined, the inability to endure the horrors of their “training.” And the scientists’ excuses?
Callan had nearly lost his sanity during the Senate hearings just after they revealed themselves. The Council scientists’ reasons for their cruelties, expressing their utter lack of humanity, had been brief. The Breeds were weapons that could be tortured for information. Better they understood the torture before embarking on their missions.
Their unique physiology and DNA required the various tests that were performed against them. Tests such as autopsies performed while the Breed screamed in agony. Beatings inflicted while electrodes measured pain, strength and neural synapses. It went on and on, the horror of it often too much to grasp, even for a Breed reliving it through those hearings.
“Lawrence Industries went over the records of its board members carefully, Brian,” Seth reminded him. “We’re aware of the reports that were sent out, just as we’re aware of the evidence that proved the knowledge of those we forced off the board ten years before.”
Brian nodded, then his lips quirked. “Have you regretted allowing Vanderale to take the place of one of those board members?” he asked. “He’s definitely a unique personality, Seth. Not always a comfortable one, but unique all the same.”
