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Her dark brown hair was longer, hanging down her neck in little ringlets. Her lashes had always been long, feathering her rosy cheeks. Soft baby lips were slightly parted as she lay on her back, her breathing slow and easy.
She looked picture perfect. A babe, innocent in her slumber, dreaming whatever bright, happy dreams happy babies had. But there were changes.
Her face was thinner, the features altered almost imperceptibly and appearing almost feline. Her hair was lighter, with soft black and reddened streaks showing themselves amid the golden brown.
There was the faintest point to a tiny ear and every so often a very distinct purr.
“She’s running a fever,” Rachel whispered, her voice husky with tears. “She’s been running one for the past two days. It’s spiked on us twice, going over a hundred, and Dr. Morrey has tried everything to bring it down. Nothing works. Then it will just go away on its own.”
“Should she be here?” Diane wanted nothing more than to reach out and pick her niece up, to cuddle her, to hold her closely and keep whatever was tormenting her from ever hurting her again.
“Dr. Morrey is in the next room,” she answered. “With Callan and Merinus traveling here as well, they decided it best to bring Amber. That way, she’s with us if needed.”
Another little purr left the baby as a small frown wrinkled her forehead before easing away.
Lawe stood behind Diane, his hand resting against her hip as he too watched the baby. She could feel his concern. Just as she could feel Jonas’s as he stood behind her sister.
“She’s healthy,” Jonas whispered. “Ely keeps a daily check on her. She’s not hurting.”
But that was little comfort today, when tomorrow it could all change.
“Did you get my report from the doctors in Argentina?” Diane glanced back at the director.
He gave a sharp nod. “The main scientists working with the girls were killed by Gideon, though.”
“Before I could get to them,” she agreed. “I only had their assistants that I could talk to.”
The information they had given her had terrified her. The girls had survived, obviously, but those assistants hadn’t understood how, or why. Because the stages of agonizing pain and adjustment owing to the serum had had the children begging for death more often than not.
Had her sister seen those reports?
“She’s so tiny,” Rachel whispered. “She’s not growing properly, even Ely admits it. If she goes through one of the stages those girls did . . .”
Fawn Corrigan and Honor Roberts had been older. They hadn’t been infants when the experiments had begun, nor had they been healthy children.
“Ely will be there for her,” Diane promised. “And we’ll find the girls, Rachel. I promise you we will. They’ll have the answers we need.”
She prayed they’d have the answers needed, if nothing else, the memory of what the scientists had done. Honor Roberts’s mother reported her daughter had possessed a photographic memory. There was nothing she heard or saw from that time that she had forgotten. She remembered it all, in blinding detail.
Those details had been what had convinced her mother to help her run. When the scientists had come to General Roberts to request he return his daughter to the labs, she had known she had no other choice. Because her husband believed her daughter had somehow been infected with Breed genetics. Genetics he wanted out of her.
“She’s not in pain now, Rachel,” Jonas whispered at her ear. “So far, she’s been relatively free of anything but our worry. Let’s pray it stays that way.”
Diane glanced at the director. He should have never shown Rachel those reports, but somehow she had known he would. Rachel hadn’t been raised as Diane had been, amid the blood and horror the world could spawn. Diane and their uncle had done everything possible to protect her, to ensure her life was more settled, that it was safer.
Diane was older, and she had longed to follow her uncle into his chosen career. The night their parents had died it had been Diane who had used the few tricks her uncle and her parents had taught her to save herself and her sister.
Just in case, they had always reassured her. She had never suspected their trips could carry the risk of their deaths, as well as her and Rachel’s. She had never known their secrets, their rescue of certain Breeds and aid in transporting them to a hidden base in Africa could have come back to destroy the lives they lived.
Rachel hadn’t been prepared for the life she had been thrust into.
Diane had sensed, and then known, she thrived within it.
“Come on, sweetheart.” Jonas kissed the top of his mate’s auburn hair. “Let’s let her rest. We can talk in the living area.”
They eased quietly from the room.
“This is the first day she’s napped in weeks,” Rachel said as Jonas closed the doors carefully behind them.
