Page 115 of Into Darkness (Night Prowler 6)
They stood together on the slope of the hill near the entrance to the caves. Birds sang in a stand of nearby trees. A cool, gentle wind stirred her hair around her face, swirled surrealist patterns in the long grass. Holding hands, her parents stood with them, silently staring into the distance with identical small smiles that looked to Lu both melancholy and mysterious, yet also glad.
All six of them were full of contradictory emotions, she knew. So much was behind them, yet so much still lay ahead. Lifetimes of adventures, still to be had.
Lifetimes spent in a new, strange, wonderful world.
“Did you see the news about that doctor from the hospital in New Vienna?” her mother asked quietly, looking out over the darkening valley. Sunset colors highlighting her long blonde hair in glinting gold, that scant, strange smile still on her lips, she turned her head to look at Honor and Lu.
Simultaneously, they asked, “No, what?”
Her mother’s smile deepened, becoming almost mischievous. “The medications the Phoenix Corporation made from us had some unexpected side effects in the people who took them.”
“What kind of side effects?” asked Beckett.
“Good ones.” Her father drew her mother against his side with his arm around her shoulder. She rested her head there, still looking at her daughters, still smiling. “Although hardly the result Thorne would have wanted, I’m sure.”
His laugh was low and wry, and Jenna angled her head to look up at him. “Funny how things have a way of working out in the end, isn’t it?” she whispered.
Nodding, Leander brushed the hair away from Jenna’s face, stroking a finger down her cheek. It was so strange to see them together, these two people she’d never even known existed a few weeks ago. Her parents. It was all still so hard to process.
Over the past few days since everyone had returned to the caves from the prison beneath St. Stephen’s, Lu had struggled with her emotions. One moment she was gleefully happy, the next, she was sitting stunned on a rock in some dark corner, trying to piece it all together. Magnus would always find her at those moments. He’d take her into his arms, hold her, let her cry or rant or whatever it was she needed, letting her draw on his strength until she found her footing again.
He was her anchor now. Her center. Without him, she’d be lost.
Those strong arms tightened even harder around her. I love you, too, angel.
If you’re going to keep eavesdropping on me, Lu thought, trying not to smile, I should warn you that I’ve been thinking about a few new positions we should try. I read the Kama Sutra once and I really liked this one thing called “The Perch.”
She sent him a mental picture, gratified when a low growl of desire rumbled through his chest. We’ve already done that, angel.
Not with a mirror!
He pressed a kiss to her neck, his husky laughter muffled against her skin.
“But what exactly does that mean?” Honor prompted, impatient with their father’s vague answer about the medicine.
With a look of triumph in his eyes, Leander said softly, “It means that our DNA, bioengineered to be compatible with the human body, solved a lot more problems for the patient than whatever the patient was taking the medication for. Have diabetes? Your eczema is cured, too. High blood pressure? Say good-bye to your lactose intolerance. Taking a pill for migraines? That hole you didn’t know you had in your heart is now healed, too.”
“Well,” said Honor after a while, sounding a little disgruntled. “Bully for them.”
“No, love. Bully for us.” Leander paused, his gaze taking in the group. “Because every person who took medication from the Phoenix Corporation for the last twenty-five years has had their DNA altered. And they’ve passed that altered DNA on to their children, and those children will pass the altered DNA on to their children. So now, basically . . . they are us. Or something like us.”
“Hybrids?” Beckett stared at Leander in disbelief. Everyone else stared at him that way, too.
Leander nodded. “Without knowing it, Thorne solved a problem that’s plagued the Ikati since the beginning of time. We could never mate with humans because our genes were incompatible. The half-Blood offspring would survive until the age of twenty-five, then either Shift for the first time, or die. Only a tiny percentage were ever able to survive the Transition—”
“So that’s what he meant!” exclaimed Lu, standing straighter.
“Who?” asked Honor, frowning.
“The Grand Minister! The day he found me at the Hospice he questioned me, asked if I’d ever had any health problems around my twenty-fifth birthday!”
Eyes shining, her mother reached out and touched Lu’s arm. “You’re only one-quarter human, and I knew how powerful you and your sister were, but I admit, the day of your twenty-fifth birthday was one of the worst I can remember. I just sat on the cot in my cell all day . . . waiting. I thought I would feel it . . . if . . .”
She swallowed, shaking her head. Leander murmured something into her ear, low and soft. Jenna cleared her throat, blinked her tears away. “But obviously I had nothing to worry about. Cliché as it sounds, we had the last laugh. The majority of people left on Earth are more like us than not. Even if they can’t Shift, they have our Blood, and that makes us related.”
A bird was singing somewhere out there in the twilight. High, sweet notes warbled and trilled, suspended for a long moment in the cooling air. Lark, Lu thought. She’ll be making her nest soon. Life goes on.
Life goes on.
