~ SASHA ~
Sasha stared at him, but after a mont Nick only put his device down in his lap and put the car back in gear.
"So?!" Sasha said, her voice strangled.
"So, what? You're getting what you want. An audience with the decision makers."
"I an, what were the test results?" she said, exasperated.
"I don't know. They haven't told . They just said they're in and we need to co back."
Sasha gaped at him. "How can you just sit there? Isn't this like the biggest thing they've done so far? What does it an that they're coming? Does that an they think I'm pregnant? Or that I'm not?"
"I don't know, Sasha," Nick said, utterly calm. "That's the thing with these n, they're almost impossible to predict. I've stopped trying."
"That's bullshit. You're a thinker, Nick."
"No bullshit," he said with a glance at her to the side. "I really don't know what that ans, and I'm not going to speculate, because I can see reasons why they'd show up on both sides of that coin. I actually find it more interesting that they haven't just told what it was. That speaks volus."
"About what?"
"It ans either they are certain I'll tell you, and they don't want you to know yet. Or they think you're going to respond poorly to the news. They're trying to avoid problems. But I could be wrong… Like I said, they're hard to predict."
Sasha shook her head and turned to look at the passing scenery again. They weren't far from the complex now. Her head was spinning. How should she play this? Businesslike, as if the whole scenario was just a transaction, which was clearly how these n thought of all this?
Or should she appeal to their baser instincts? Their guts? Their emotions—if they even had them.
She was still twisted up, swinging back and forth between options when they pulled up outside the main building.
There were two other cars there this ti—a long, sleek, black SUV, and another Jeep. Black, too, and fitted out with all kinds of antennae and gadgets on its roof and clipped to the front of the windscreen.
Nick got out of the car and started towards the building, once again just trusting her to follow.
When she slid to the ground outside the vehicle and closed the door, she looked out towards where the light broke through the trees. The road that led out of this place, to that fence, then the highway, then back to Thana.
She yearned to be on that road. Even if she had to walk the whole way.
Her stomach clenched and she lifted a prayer to the God that she knew had to love Zev's soft heart and loving nature. That God had to help her, had to help them. This was all too much. She couldn't die here. But she couldn't leave all these Chira here, either.
Help , please… she pleaded. Then started towards the building as well, watching Nick's back as he opened the door and stood there, holding it for her.
As she passed through and into the perfectly controlled temperature and humidity of the building, she was reminded.
Just because sothing was easy, didn't an it was good for you.
They could make these buildings and fill them with technology, and give chemicals that would keep a body alive, but that didn't an that these females were alive.
It just ant they were breathing.
She wanted them to smile. And she wanted to see the faces of the males when they saw the females coming…
She rolled her shoulders back and lifted her chin. She didn't know how she was going to do it, but she was going to get these won out. As many of them as she could.
*****
An hour later, she sat at a conference table with Nathan, Horace, Nick, and a lab technician who'd spent the past forty minutes walking them through the genetics of Zev's creation, Sasha's DNA, how and why they believed the gene pool would mingle, and so interesting anomalies they found in Sasha's DNA.
"Anomalies," Nathan asked tightly.
"Yes, her DNA has changed since we last tested her."
Sasha blinked. "I've never had my DNA tested."
Nathan stared at her, and Horace rubbed his mouth.
Nick sighed. "We've had your DNA profile since the first day you and Zev touched, Sasha. Just in case. We started with hair and saliva, and we've built your profile over the years in various ways."
Sasha stared at each of them around the table, horrified. "That is such a… violation!"
Nathan shrugged. "We could have had you arrested on trumped up charges and kept you in prison for all these years so we could request your samples when we needed them instead. Would you have preferred that?"
"Those aren't the only two options!"
"They are in your case."
"You people are nuts, you know that? Actually insane!"
Nick made a soothing gesture towards her, but Sasha just glared. Nathan turned back to the technician, while Horace fiddled with his shirt cuffs and didn't et her eyes.
"The anomalies," Nathan said calmly. "What are they, and what do they an?"
"They an sothing has occurred to flip certain genes in Sasha since the last ti we tested her, which was… approximately three months ago. When she started dating that other male."
"I… what?!" Sasha gasped.
Nathan ignored her. "What's changed?"
"It's hard to say without knowing what caused the shift. We can assu the bond with Zev has had so kind of impact. She seems to be carrying… markers now."
"Markers?"
"A genetic map for… well, we don't really know. But certain points have shifted to match a Chira, while others remain unchanged."
Nathan sat up, his brows high. "She's becoming Chira?"
Sasha felt Nick tense in the seat next to her, but she sat bolt upright in her chair, staring at the technician. She couldn't be saying that… could she?
She opened her mouth, but Nick's hand appeared on her forearm and she cut off, turning to look at him.
He held her gaze and shook his head, then looked back at the technician who was frowning at the papers in front of her.
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