She had promised she would run and hide. That she wouldn't endanger herself.
"Where is the girl?"
The girl? Her?
"I sent her away yesterday," her father replied, his voice shaking.
"Because you knew what was coming?"
Her father shook his head. "How could I have known?"
"You thought you were so careful." The voice was filled with fury. "You aided our destruction, JR. You'll pay for betraying us by aiding the Breed sympathizers in this f**king rescue."
"I aided nothing," her father, JR, James Robert, denied.
A harsh laughed filled the room.
"We'll find the girl. No doubt you sent what I need with her. Or did you? Give me that research, JR, and I'll let her live."
"What are you talking about?" Fear was thick, heavy, surrounding her father, her brother, even as Storme felt it stealing her breath.
"I want that data chip."
"What data chip?" Even Storme could hear the nervousness, the lie, in her father's voice.
An animalistic, harsh snarl filled the room as shadows moved. As though there were many, not just one. Dark, brutal shadows, glowing eyes advanced.
Storme stared at the aberration. The merciless eyes, the face that seemed too young, and yet too cruel. And she memorized it. Memorized the creature that she knew would kill what was left of her family.
Her brother jumped in front of their father, to save him, Storme knew. That was James, so protective, so loving. As the Coyote latched onto her brother's fragile shoulders, Storme covered her mouth with her hand to hold back her screams and watched in horror.
Dear, beloved James. He played word games with her, made her laugh, and as she watched in horror one of those horrible monsters grabbed him, bent his head, and tore James's throat out.
Blood sprayed as another explosion outside lit the room with brutal light, displaying the scene in harsh detail.
Bile rose in her throat as it tilted its head back, the face, so like a human's, covered in blood as its lips opened and a howl echoed around her.
They could smell fear. They could smell her. Her father had warned her of that.
He had made her swear to protect herself and the secrets he had risked his life to steal.
If she stayed, she was dead. Her brother was already dead, and she knew her father wouldn't survive.
Because of the Breeds. Because of the human animals these scientists had created, trained, and were now turning loose on the world. Breeds, like the one now tasting her brother's blood.
She backed down the stairs. The darkness enfolded her, wrapped around her. She could hear her father screaming, denying that his daughter was there. She was gone. He had sent her to stay with relatives.
He swore he had no information. He stole nothing. His daughter had nothing. He was screaming in pain and fury.
They would know better. They would have smelled her presence in the house if they had passed by it. They were that good. But here, deep beneath the earth, cocooned as though in a grave, she was safe.
The smell of her father's and brother's blood above, the smell of smoke, fear and death would hide her for a little while. And once she was through the tunnel and into the small town beyond where the tunnel exited, she would have a chance to run.
She was alone.
She could feel it.
A strange sense of disassociation filled her, washed over her and stopped the tears. Fear choked her, made it hard to breathe, but her mind felt mercifully numb.