Page 48 of Property of Crypt Keeper

“The little girl,” he explained quietly. “Zara.”

I watched his face carefully. The way his expression shifted when he said her name. Protective. Violently so. My stomach tightened unexpectedly.

“She’s not what we assumed she was,” he continued. “Hack found records. Black sites. Experiments.”

The room suddenly felt colder than it had mere seconds ago. My skin goosebumped, and my hairs stood on end.

“And?” I pressed.

“And I think they made her.”

Silence. Heavy. Dangerous.

Mind racing, I looked away.

Rafael.

Don’t ask me why, but this had Rafael written all over it. Not directly, maybe. He never really dirtied his own hands. But this kind of operation? This kind of manipulation? Yeah. I knew the smell of it.

“Someone is playing God,” he practically snarled.

A coarse laugh burst from my lips. “God? Not hardly. God couldn’t be bothered,” I snorted in disgust.

He glared at me, and I rolled my eyes.

“What else?” I asked, almost afraid of what he might say next.

His gaze sharpened. “You know something.”

“I’ve heard whispers of a group who think evolution is a game. Something to be… accelerated… manipulated,” I murmured slowly. “A small faction. Quiet. Secretive.”

“Demons?” he asked.

“I don’t know exactly. I’m sure some could be demons. I’ve never heard a lot about it because it wasn’t what my focus was on,” I admitted.

His expression darkened instantly. “Where do they do this shit? Who runs it?”

“I honestly don’t know. There was talk in the demon society my uncle is a part of that said they found someone years ago,” I continued. “A human scientist who believed in and was obsessed with supernatural biology. Someone brilliant enough to become dangerous, they said.”

“Dangerous how?”

Boldly, I met his gaze. His tone held accusation. I didn’t like that because I wasn’t a part of that, nor would I be. Besides, I hadn’t believed they were true. Different supernatural species couldn’t interbreed. It was bullshit. We could breed with humans, creating a watered-down version of our breed, but not supernatural species to species.

“According to what little I heard, this scientist wanted to know what species could interbreed,” I said bluntly. “What traits carried. What combinations produced stronger offspring.”

Gideon went utterly still. “And demons helped him?” he asked.

“For a price, I’m sure they would,” I quietly muttered.

Power. Weapons. Essentially control. The same things every egomaniac always seemed to want.

“And Rafael?” he asked.

There it was. The real question. I exhaled slowly.

“Rafael trained me,” I admitted. “Hand-to-hand. Tracking. Hunting werewolves. He never mentioned any of the experiment business to me. I only overheard one of his friends telling him about it one night. I had no reason to really pay attention to the details because I believed it was bullshit. It didn’t come up between us again.”

“Why me?”