Styx's Storm (Breeds 16)

He was in love with her. If he wasn't in love with her before, then in that moment, he fell head over heels as she reached for the slender electronic adjustment wand at her side and expertly applied it to the sensor in the control module that had been giving him hell for months.

"Well, I was trying to bypass the security protocols on the system so I could watch the damned television," she muttered. "While I was in there, I found about a dozen shorts in the system and several hardware vulnerabilities. I thought I'd just fix everything."

"Bored, Storme?" he drawled in amusement as he hunched down beside her.

"Just hold this." Feigned disgust filled her tone as she indicated the long, awkwardly mounted control board beneath the table. "Whoever installed this should be shot. It's a freakin' mess. Do you realize hardware vulnerabilities can screw your entire firewall system? What? You want someone to slip into your system and fuck with it?"

No, he didn't, but he had suspected Storme's talents based on the files the Bureau had on her. He'd deliberately left the problems in place and had the

communications bunker closely monitoring it as he waited on her to get tired of roaming the house like a ghost and do something about it when one of the shorts caused the television to stop working.

"I appreciate your concern," he murmured as his gaze drifted to where the shirt she wore gapped at her stomach, several buttons having slipped free.

She was wearing one of his shirts now. Bare, tanned flesh tempted him to take a taste as he reached in and held the control board in place for her.

"My concern or my boredom?" she questioned crisply as she reached for another of the electronic tools, her fingers feeling around against the sheet until he pushed it in her path silently.

She picked up the slender needle-nosed wire adjuster and soldering tool, and he watched as she gripped two minute wires, set them in place and activated the tool to set the wires.

So much for Jonas and Navarro's opinion that she would betray them at first opportunity. She could have kept her mouth shut about the hardware problems, likely believing he was unaware of them, and tried to find a way to hurt Haven.

She hadn't. She had warned him of the problem instead. That knowledge sent a surge of pure emotion slamming through his gut, nearly causing him to lose his grip on the control board.

"Geez, Styx, don't get fumble fingers on me," she muttered as she pulled the pliers back and checked her work with a small electronic surge light.

Thumbing the switch to the light, she activated the testing system and began running the white light over each component and wire.

"Where did you learn how to work on these systems?" Styx asked as she frowned up at the internal system fiercely.

"Tinkering some," she answered absently. "I had some training at the Omega lab, with one of their computer experts, before the rescues."

"You have a knack for it," he stated.

"It's a talent." She reached for another slender tool and made an adjustment in the wireless modules that connected the system to the various electronics it controlled.

"I would have imagined you would lean toward medical or genetic engineering. I wouldn't have guessed a talent in computerized systems."

She paused, glared at the system then sighed heavily. "I thank God I didn't lean toward anything medical in any way. The thought of it sickens me."

"Because of the work your father and brother did?"

She pushed herself from beneath the table and glared up at him now. "Would you like to know, Styx, why I hate Breeds with a depth that frightens me at times?"

His teeth clenched. She was admitting it, and he hated that.

"Why, Storme?" he asked softly.

"Because they sent my father and my brother to hell before I was ready to let them go. My father and brother broke the laws of nature, and the laws of decency, in what they helped the Council to do. And then they broke my heart when they showed their loyalty to their work over their loyalty to me. I hated them for it, I hated the Breeds for it, and I hate that fucking Council so bad I'd kill every one of those bastards if I could. So the Breeds can count themselves lucky. At least I don't wish I could murder them to their faces. Now, excuse me, but I don't need your help any longer. You can leave now."

She pushed her back beneath the table and ignored him as though he wasn't there, while she went back to work on reassembling the electronics she had taken apart.

At least, she appeared to ignore him; what he sensed was far different. He could feel her pain, tears unshed and a sudden desperation that tore at his chest.

Storme was fighting more than the past or her emotions. She was fighting the desertion of her father and brother, and the suspicion that they had loved the Breeds far more than they had loved her.

Unfortunately, Styx agreed with her.

CHAPTER 13