Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Ebony bit her lip as the cries of babies reached her through the closed elevator doors. When they opened she was faced with a reality she never could have imagined. It looked like a hospital nursery with beds and beds of babies crying out for love and just a handful of women dressed in nurse uniforms interspersed with others in lab coats. They all walked among the babies doing the bare minimum to keep them alive.

"We have a full house right now." Marty explained. "This is the most our facility can hold at a time. All pregnancies have been fruitful this round. Usually we have more infant deaths per cycle," Marty added. "As you can see, we give them all what they need and care for them before placements. We will have them all tested before the week's out."

"I see," Shine said, and for the first time since they entered the building, her fa?ade faltered.

"I know the noise is unsettling. Come this way, we can walk through the women's wing."

They followed Marty. Granger moved to offer Shine a supportive hand to her lower back and Ebony gripped Lark's arm tighter. She wasn't sure what she'd expected, but this wasn't it, and it was horrifying.

"What are they testing them for?" she hissed in a whisper.

"No idea," Lark whispered back.

Ebony tried to look at the infants closer as they passed and she saw they looked like fullsouls, but then a dark eye caught her attention and she sucked in a breath. Were they breeding nosouls down here?

They went through a doorway and into a lounge area where women sat around with various activities. Some were reading, others watching television. They all turned to stare as Marty walked in and a few visibly shrunk back as if he were the harbinger of doom in their midst.

"As you can see the ladies have the best facility in which to spend their time with us," Marty said as if it couldn't be truer. He had a wide smile on his face and he swept his hand around to indicate the sterile, cold room.

"Nice," Shine agreed quietly.

"Would you like to see the birthing wing? It's empty today."

"Um, no, thank you, I think we have seen enough," Shine said, and Marty nodded curtly then led them back the way they'd come. Before they went through the doorway into the infant area Ebony looked back at the women.

The deep looks of emptiness in their eyes was terrifying. It wasn't a lack of soul, they were all fullsouls, she was certain, it was a lack of will, a lack of hope. Ebony shivered and pressed closer to Lark. She couldn't wait to get out of there, she needed air and sunlight and maybe a good cry.

"I'll show you the labs if you'd like," Marty said as they entered the elevator.

"Please," Shine said, and Ebony couldn't help being impressed with the impassive way she responded to the situation, she was a real professional at hiding everything.

The elevator went up two floors and opened to reveal a high-tech looking laboratory that was bustling with activity.

"This is where we run all the tests, find the best matches and assess the results. I assure you we take every precaution to make sure our samples are clean and true and everyone who works here knows what they're doing." Marty explained as if Shine were here to judge him.

"I see," Shine said, walking forward.

All of them took the opportunity to look around, reading everything they could see to try and get an idea of what was going on. Shine couldn't ask outright; it would blow their cover. They would have to compare notes when they were back in the car.

"This is where we chart our progress," Marty said proudly, pointing to a large graph. "As you can see, we are getting closer and closer to the goal."

The goal, as Marty put it, was stated in big red letters: Artificial Soul Passed through DNA .

"That's great," Shine whispered, then cleared her throat and looked at her watch. "Oh my, look at how much time has passed, this has all been very enlightening. We have a lunch date with Daddy though, so we must get on our way."

"Oh, yes, let's get you out then, and do tell him I send my best," Marty said eagerly.

"I will," Shine said brightly as they loaded back into the elevator and headed up.

They stepped out into the same hallway they'd first been in and as they walked behind Marty toward the lobby, a door opened, and Stone slipped out to join them once again.

Marty stopped at the front desk to wave them on out the door and gave a little startle when Stone passed, but he didn't comment. It was hard for Ebony not to run as soon as they hit the front door. She wanted to get as far from this place as possible. Only Lark's hand on her arm and Granger's imposing presence in front of her held her back. They were still playing a part, making a showing of their lie. But as soon as they were all loaded back in the car, Lark didn't hold back, squealing his tires and blowing out of the parking lot like the devil was on their tail.

"Fuck" Granger hissed when they were on the highway and headed back into the main part of the city.

"Yeah," Stone agreed. "Let's go somewhere we can drink and compare notes."

Everyone was silent as Lark drove.

Lark took them to a dark bar off the strip and they took a table in a corner. Shine put on a hat and kept her eyes down for this venture and they didn't draw more than a passing curious look as they hurried to the booth still not talking.

Lark ordered beer and burgers for everyone, and no one spoke until after they were all served.

"What was downstairs?" Stone finally asked.

"Fuck," Shine said, shaking her head and taking a long swig of the beer. She immediately started to gag, and the entire table went ridged as she sputtered and finally spit it back in the glass. "I—I uh, don't drink beer."

"You don't usually drink anything," Granger said with a frown.

"I'm fine," Shine snapped back. "Trade me places," she demanded and crawled over his lap before he could answer and settled herself next to Ebony. "I hope you don't mind. The connection soothes me." She grabbed Ebony's hand and squeezed.

How could she say no to that? It was comforting for her but she imagined it did a whole hell of a lot more for Shine. "Oh, no, it's fine," Ebony said. She would never deny Shine this kind of comfort just because it was a little weird.

"Don't touch either of them," Granger growled at Lark.

"She's my fucking soulmate, I'll touch her whenever I want," Lark hissed back.

"Not when it affects Shine too. She's not yours," Granger said.

"Whoa, settle down boys," Stone whispered. "People are starting to look."

"Just scoot over a bit, Lark," Ebony said calmly, not liking the idea of Shine getting any sparks through her from Lark either.

Lark grunted but did as she asked.

"Thank you," Shine said, looking at him with an embarrassed smile. "I usually get shots, three times a day and it keeps me normal I guess."

Lark shared a look with Granger but didn't comment.

After that they talked over what they'd seen and compared that with the information in the file Stone had stolen. It was obvious what was going on in the laboratory and why Buchanan was keeping it hushed, but they could only guess at what it meant for Ebony.

"I want to confront him. I want to hear the whole truth from his mouth," Ebony said. "I want to know what he did to my mother, where I was made, and how, why." She shook her head. "Am I just a science experiment that ran away?" Her throat tightened and she had to take a gulp of beer to push back the tears.

"He was after you. Did he know that you were going to be born with a dominant soul?" Lark wondered aloud.

"Is it an artificial soul?" she questioned back quietly, voicing what everyone had to be thinking.

"An artificial soul, but you still have a soulsibling and a soulmate?" Stone pointed out. "Seems unlikely. If it wasn't a real soul, wouldn't it act different?"

Everyone exchanged confused looks, no one had any answers.

"I feel like all we found were more questions," Ebony said in frustration.

"There's only one way we're getting the answers," Lark said.

"Which means we need to prepare for an event," Shine said. "I'll need a dress and I bet Ebony will too. Do you boys all have a tux? It's black tie."

Granger and Lark groaned a bit dramatically, but Stone smiled wide. "I look great in a tux."

"I'll need another beer before shopping," Lark said, raising his hand to call over the waitress.

"I can't go shopping," Ebony said, a little panicked. She imagined being arrested immediately and it didn't sound like the way she wanted to spend her last few months on this earth.

"Oh, we don't need to shop," Shine said with a smile. "I know all of the senator's connections and I plan to use his money as usual. We'll have a selection of dresses sent to the hotel and we can pick in private."

"Handy," Granger said.

Shine shrugged. "Or just another way to make sure no one ever found out what I really am."

No one spoke for a while as they all chewed on the possibilities. Not only was Ebony likely an experiment of Senator Buchanan's, but it was also feeling more and more likely that Shine was too. But what didn't make sense was why the senator would have kept Shine and raised her up like his own, especially after his wife's death. Why not pick up a baby from his factory that wasn't almost a nosoul? Why not just scrap the whole idea of a child? He could have gained a lot of sympathy for losing a wife and child.

What did it mean that Shine had the little slice of soul that Ebony was missing?

"Did you know that you had a soulsibling?" Ebony asked Shine.

"No, I couldn't feel anything until you were right in front of me. I guess it makes sense because mine is so small."

"So your father, or, well, the senator, he didn't know that your soulsibling was alive?"

"I don't think so. When I was a young teen, I figured out what I was. I know I should have sooner, but you have to understand how secluded I was. I just thought I had a medical condition, probably something my mom also had, and she died from it. It all made sense in my mind. Then he took me to a doctor who ran some tests and asked me all kinds of questions about sparks and pulls and stuff that I didn't really understand. I was dead inside, or at least that's how I felt, and I told the doctor that. He looked at me with so much pity I knew then what my father had tried to keep from me. I wasn't a fullsoul with a medical condition. It was a few more years before I figured out that I was even less than a halfsoul."

"Do you think Buchanan knew that he was giving his kid the other part of your soul?" Lark asked Ebony.

"I feel like anything is possible at this point. I can't believe what we saw today, what he's doing. Did you see those women? They were… dead inside and not because they didn't have souls. They must be put through hell there and all because they probably had no other options for survival… no family or soulmate," Ebony said.

"We're taking him all the way down," Shine insisted.

They all mumbled agreement and finished their meals. The ride back to the hotel was quiet and Lark circled the place once before parking, looking for anything suspicious.

"I'm sure Buchanan knows you're staying here, we can't guarantee he won't try something stupid," Granger pointed out.

"It would be stupid, with so many people watching," Shine said, but everyone looked around and wondered about every person they saw. Was there a spy here for Buchanan? Were there police here looking for Ebony?

Nothing looked out of the ordinary, so Lark pulled up to the valet and they all stepped out.

"Ms. Buchanan!" The front desk woman called as they crossed through the lobby.

"Shit," Granger hissed.

"Do we keep walking?" Ebony whispered.

"Everyone is looking," Shine pointed out as she turned on her heel and walked to the waving woman.

"Yes," she asked with an air of importance.

"You have a message." The woman handed Shine an envelope then looked uncomfortable.

"Is there something else?" Shine prompted.

"No, it's just that, well, you aren't registered as a guest."

"So?"

"I understand the need to be careful when traveling, but we really need to have such an important guest registered, especially if you're going to be receiving messages at the front desk."

Ebony bit her lip, this is where everything fell apart.

"Of course, tack me on with Mr. Duport's set of rooms." She raised an eyebrow at the woman, daring her to say something about the propriety of it all. "A message for me could go to any room and I'd get it," Shine added.

"Of course, your security," the woman said carefully.

Shine just stood silent, stoic and the woman shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "Is that all?"

"Yes ma'am," the woman said quickly, probably thankful to have them gone.

"We'll be having a clothing delivery. Don't send it up. Call for one of my men to collect it," Shine added with a frown.

"Yes, of course."

Shine spun and started across the lobby at a fast clip, and they all followed.

"You're impressive," Ebony said when the elevator doors shut.

"Lots of practice. Most people don't question you if you act like you're in charge."

"It helps that you have a famous face," Granger added. "What does the note say?"

They all looked at the envelope in Shine's hand. She opened it and pulled out a small paper. She paled a bit then handed it to Granger who read it out loud.

"Darling Shine, I am disappointed. See you tonight. Love, Daddy."

"What does that mean?"

Shine pulled out some tickets from the envelope. "I think he's expecting us to go to the event."

"Daring us, more like," Granger said as he looked at the tickets. "This one says Ebony Duport."

"Fuck," Lark hissed.

"How much could he already know?" Ebony whispered.

"And why isn't he scared?" Shine asked.