Styx's Storm (Breeds 16)

Breeds. Killers. Animals. They were monsters. Evil, wicked monsters that man had created, that man was now losing control of, just as her father had warned them they would lose control. The Breeds were turning on their creators, escaping, killing, turning the world into a place of conflict where their very humanity was in question. There was no redemption for the Breeds; they had no mercy, no compassion, just as the other scientists had always warned her father. A Breed was a Breed. A Coyote was still a Breed, and a Coyote had just destroyed her world.

They were without souls.

And now Storme was without family.

As she reached the metal ladder below the drainage gate just outside the small Chilean town, Storme forced herself to find the energy to climb to it and push it open.

The serene calm she had seen in the town during short visits didn't exist now. People were pouring out of their homes, standing and watching the display of light and explosions on the mountain above their homes.

Storme slipped silently along the edge of the crowd, her gaze locked on the mountain. Howls echoed from above, enraged and filled with fury as gunfire and explosions continued to rip through the night.

Moving quickly, hurriedly, she began to run through the shadows to the house outside of town. The one her father had promised he would meet her at.

He wouldn't be there. It wouldn't matter how long she waited, he would never be there. Only death would find her there if she waited, and she had promised her father she wouldn't allow death to find her.

As she reached the house, she didn't wait around. Racing into the small attached garage, she threw the canvas from the old, rusted pickup that sat there.

It looked like shit, but she knew it would run. It was strong and fast; the tinkering her brother had done with the motor had ensured that whoever drove it would have the best chance possible of escape.

The passports were still in the glove box, the small box of cash was still hidden in the back of the seat. Birth certificates, records needed to hide their identities if all escaped together--everything was still there.

Carefully, she pulled her father's and brother's papers from the glove box, pushed them into the backpack, then shoved the key in

the ignition.

She knew how to drive. She knew how to shoot the powerful gun strapped to the door, and she knew how to fight. She was only fourteen, but her father and brother had been planning this for years.

They had taught her how to survive in case the worst that could happen, happened. As though they had known, despite their assurances to her, that they wouldn't be with her.

As she accelerated from the garage, lights off, nothing but dust moving in her wake, she was aware of the heli-jets lifting off from the mountain.

Breeds or scientists, she didn't know which. Whoever it was, they were no friends of hers. She had no friends, she had no family, there was no one to protect her until whoever her father had been working with found her.

If he found her. And when he did, he damned well better be sure he had proof of who he was, because Storme knew in her soul that she could never trust anyone after this.

Everyone was the enemy.

TEN YEARS LATER HAVEN, WOLF/COYOTE BREED COMPOUND

Jonas strode into the small meeting room, paused and stared at the scientists and the Enforcer staring back at him. Dr. Jeffrey Amburg was a human genome advanced design scientist. He had been involved in more than twenty-five years of Council-backed Breed genetic research. He'd created Breeds, his experiments had killed Breeds, and he was here, in Haven, for the first time. It was the first time in two years that he had been allowed out of the specially secured rooms he had been confined to after Jonas had captured him in Buffalo Gap, Virginia.

Dr. Nikki Armani, Wolf Breed genome specialist and physician, was also human. She too had worked for many years with the Council. The difference was, Nikki had conspired from day one to find freedom for the Breeds she had cared for when they returned from missions wounded and nearly dead. Or when the experiments conducted on them had weakened them to the point of death.

Dr. Elyiana Morrey was the exception here. She was a Breed. A Lion Breed created to treat her own kind. Training had begun with her from conception, introducing her in vitro to the complicated process of manufacturing and repairing the often complicated Breed physiology. She was both physician as well as scientist, and her breakthroughs in the mysterious mating heat afflicting the Breeds had given them the additional time needed to continue hiding the phenomenon from the world in general.

Navarro Blaine was one of the higher ranking undercover Enforcers. A Wolf Breed with specialization in several forms of martial arts, the man was more of a shadow than even the shadow he cast.

This meeting, outside of Jonas's normally preferred base of Sanctuary, home of the Feline Breeds, was the first meeting to bring all three scientists together, along with Dr. Elizabeth Ambrose Vanderale, the ninety-some-year-old mate to the first Leo, Leo Vanderale.

Elizabeth stood at Jonas's side, sleekly tailored in a gray silk skirt and matching blouse, looking barely old enough to be the mother of the self-proclaimed thirty-year-old Dane Vanderale.

It was a damned good thing the Vanderales had adapted and learned how to make themselves appear older before appearing in public; otherwise, Leo and Elizabeth both would have been given away by their acknowledged son's widely known age.

"Ladies and gentlemen." Jonas nodded as he and his mother, Elizabeth, moved to the conference table. "I hear we may have a problem."

As usual, Jeffrey Amburg sat back silently. If Jonas wanted information from him while in the presence of the Breed scientists, then he would have to force it from him. The scientist was aware of the hierarchy of the labs now, and he was at the bottom of the food chain.

"Jonas, this meeting was uncalled for," Ely was the first to speak. "I have things to do at Sanctuary, as does Dr. Vanderale. This subject does not require such an in-depth meeting."