Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Try not to look nervous," Lark said as he put a hand to her lower back. They were following Shine and Granger in as a valet sped off in their cars. Stone was at the back of their little group, and they all had a ticket in hand thanks to the senator. People were everywhere, dressed in such extravagance, Ebony was sure the cost of clothes alone for this event could feed everyone in the LA halfling district for a year. It made her uncomfortable to think of how much her own dress was, although knowing it had been charged to Buchanan helped ease that guilt.

There were lots of looks and whispers and a few greetings to Shine, obviously many of these people had met the daughter of Senator Buchanan before. Shine smiled and waved and greeted back, but she didn't stop to chat. They walked right up the steps and into the main lobby. There was a man there waiting to take their tickets with a look of disdain for the men. Ebony didn't breathe until they had all handed their tickets to the man and had been allowed to enter the ballroom.

"That was too easy," she whispered to Lark.

"The senator is confident, that will likely be his undoing," Lark assured her.

Ebony couldn't help thinking that Lark sounded pretty damn confident too, so what did that mean?

The luxury and extravagance inside was shocking. So many people with glasses of champagne, food being brought around by wait staff. Live music was being played on the stage and the overall feeling was one of joy and indulgence.

"This is supposed to be a fundraiser for his orphanages?" Stone commented.

"The wealthy like to bathe in their wealth while giving tax deductible donations to the poor," Lark grumbled.

"There he is," Shine gasped, and their entire group froze as Buchanan approached with an entourage of security.

"My daughter," Buchanan exclaimed as he embraced Shine, whispering something harshly in her ear that Ebony couldn't hear, but she didn't miss the way Shine stiffened.

The man looked the part of a smooth talking and relatable politician. Grey hair and wrinkles didn't detract from his overall handsome face, and in fact made him look wise. He wore an expensive suit with a silver bowtie and there was a pin on his lapel that said, VOTE in red, white, and blue. When he pulled back and looked beyond Shine, dismissing the men in a quick glance, his eyes settled on Ebony and his lips curled in a hateful smile.

"I've been looking for you," he said, but made no move to get closer to her. Lark grasped her waist tightly and Stone stepped up on her other side.

"I would love to have a chat," Ebony said, feeling her confidence waver under his intense scrutiny.

"I imagine you would. Well, I think that can be arranged. My daughter can entertain the men, it's something she's good at," he spat. All the while his smile remained, a practiced look that gave away nothing to the onlookers. To those too far to hear his words it would seem as if he were merely greeting his daughter and her friends.

"She's not going anywhere alone," Lark said darkly.

"Of course, the hired muscle. By the look of that hand on her waist I think I know how she's paying for your services."

Lark made a move forward and Ebony shot out a hand to stop him at the same time Stone grabbed Lark's shoulder.

"Careful, there are a lot of people here. You wouldn't want to make a scene; your girlfriend is already one of LA's most wanted," Buchanan said with a sly grin. "But please, join us." He motioned his hand and suddenly two large men were flanking Ebony and Lark. "Follow me." Buchanan turned and walked swiftly through the crowd.

Ebony looked at Shine who just stared back with unease. She turned to look up at Lark who shrugged, apparently it was her choice what they did next. She was terrified of going anywhere private with this monster but she wanted answers that only he could give, so she started to follow with Lark at her side and two goons behind.

They followed Buchanan to a private room with a few chairs around a coffee table. The goons stopped at the doorway, but Buchanan walked in and sat down as if he couldn't care less about what Ebony wanted to do. She knew she was making an impression on him with every move she made, and didn't want to seem afraid, so she walked in with head high and took a seat. Lark stayed standing behind her and Ebony imagined he was glaring at Buchanan.

"I want to know everything," Ebony demanded.

He smiled and nodded, crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair. His hands were casually laying on the arms of the chair and he looked intimidating. "Well, you know a lot, don't you. But you don't know enough, or you wouldn't be here risking being arrested."

"I know that you've been doing horrid things, but what I want to know more about is my mother's place in it all. Why was she in your facility? What did you do to her? And why were you looking for me?"

"My dear, why wouldn't I look for my daughter?"

Ebony stared, dumbfounded at the man as he grinned at her in satisfaction. He'd been going for shock, and he'd succeeded. She couldn't comprehend, didn't want to.

"What do you mean, daughter ?" Lark finally said and she was thankful he'd gotten the words out that were stuck in her throat.

"Henrietta came to me when she was young and alone, in trouble because she had no family and no money. It happens a lot. Her father had lost everything at the casino and killed himself. Her mother couldn't handle the shame, the social downfall, and took too many pills one night. I offered Henrietta a chance to be a part of something great. She came to my facility when it was just starting and I was using my own, uh, samples in creation. Your mother was fertile, she took to the first implant right away along with a group of others, but they all spontaneously aborted." Buchanan frowned at the memory.

Ebony was horrified by what she was hearing, but she wanted to know it all even if it threatened to give her nightmares. Lark's comforting hand on her shoulder gave her strength. "So you tried again," she prompted.

"Yes, I adjusted the strength of the artificial soul my lab had come up with. Your mother and about half the women agreed to try it again. Your mother and one other were the only ones whose pregnancy took that time. She carried you in my facility for three months before she disappeared, taking my property with her as well as a good chunk of money she managed to get ahold of from my office safe." His voice had gone dark and his eyes narrowed on her. "The other woman gave birth in the facility both she and the child died a short time later. For a while I assumed the same fate had occurred for you."

Ebony couldn't hold back a shiver.

"So you're the father of how many unfortunate souls?" Lark asked.

"Only one living. I found that my own seed was lacking an important ingredient to get the full desired effect. My offspring would never be able to hold a full soul because I have no soul."

Buchanan dipped his head and swiped a hand across his eyes. When he looked back up Ebony didn't even try to hold back her gasp. His eyes were deep black and soulless. "Oh my god."

"Yes, I am. At least just as good," he said with a bit of a maniacal laugh. "I have given souls, I have given life, and I have figured it all out on my own. I am a god as good as any other, better! Because I am helping to heal the shit hole the others left here. I may not have a soul but I'm the only one who can guarantee a fullsoul baby to those whose soulmates are never born. And who come from supportive families," he added with an evil grin.

"But you had a soulwife," Ebony said with a shake of her head, trying to fit this information with what they already knew.

"I had a wife," he corrected. "You'd be surprised to know how many soulmatches are nothing more than show. How can another look and see a bond like that? They can't. It's a political and social status decision that's made. To live like they are soulmated and come to me for a proper child."

"Why aren't you impregnating the women themselves? Why are you breeding babies in that facility? Are those women who hire you just pretending to be pregnant and then walking out with one of your babies?" Ebony was trying to understand, her mind spinning with everything he was revealing.

"That's the trick, isn't it. You can't fake that many pregnancies well. They have to get pregnant for real, but when they have the child, we make a switch. And as for why I don't impregnate the women themselves? Well there are some unfortunate side effects to the process, many of the women die birthing in my facility, something about the artificial soul doesn't mesh well with their bodies and their organs start to fail." He shrugged as if he couldn't care less about the risks he was putting on those poor women.

"Oh my god, and the orphans are born from the married women," Lark gasped.

"Yes, the orphans," Buchanan said with a wicked grin.

Ebony was dumbfounded. These people were giving up their children, putting them in orphanages to live terrible halfsoul lives and taking the genetically perfected models that Buchanan was producing at the risk of other women's lives, all for what? Social status? Government funding? It was insanity.

"How can you guarantee that the children won't look too different?"

"That's easy enough. I take the man's sample for the fertilizing, and I make sure I've got enough of a variety in women to use for the eggs."

"But there were so many down there," Ebony whispered, trying to understand how so many people could be in on it with him. So desperate for a child that was what they thought perfection needed to be.

"Each couple breeds a child or two, we always have deaths, mistakes and those born… not quite right."

"Like me," Ebony said.

"Yes, you weren't born whole, but so damn close. I could tell when you were in the womb, just three months of development and I could tell you had almost an entire soul. You were what got me to keep trying actually, I knew I was so close to perfecting the soul."

"And Shine?"

"My wife's mistake, an indiscretion. When she was born, I felt a kind of kindred spirit in her and decided I would raise her with the same kind of regimen I'd found worked well for myself. The shots were my first experiment that was successful actually. I had to find a way to live in society, I wouldn't accept the place of a nosoul and I gave Shine the same chance, ungrateful though she may be now."

"Because how could you guarantee she'd do everything you told her if she wasn't bound to you for those fucking shots," Lark hissed.

Buchanan shrugged. "No chip meant no travel. Why she is able to stand in there and not be sick means she has figured out more than I would have liked."

Ebony pursed her lips, unwilling to tell him that by some twist of horrible fate, Shine was her soulsister and Ebony was able to provide a bit of ease to Shine's curse. Let him assume it was all blood related, but if Ebony's soul was faked, how did she have a soulsister at all? It didn't make sense unless her mother hadn't actually gotten pregnant by this horrid man's methods, that was a very comforting thought and Shine just might be the proof of it.

"I'm not your daughter," Ebony said firmly. "My mother stepped out on your little experiment. That's the only reason I survived. Your dead sperm never procreated successfully."

Buchanan's face went red with anger, but he held it back from his voice, a practiced politician. "Perhaps. I could so easily test you to be sure."

Lark put a hand on her shoulder. "You will not touch her."

"You won't," Ebony agreed. "And Shine doesn't need you anymore. She won't do your bidding any longer."

"Won't she?" Buchanan said with a smile that put Ebony on edge. He stood then, and so did Ebony, moving so that he wouldn't get too close to her as he walked to the door of the room. He paused and turned to look at her. "Oh, and before you think you'll go out there and start spouting on about things. You should know that your dear friend, Taylor, is currently at my facility. What happens to her there is on your head… daughter. I'll be in touch for those tests."

Buchanan walked out, his goons followed and they left the door open as if he had no fear. He held all the cards, Ebony realized and she could do nothing to him right now.

Lark gripped her shoulders, and they stood staring at the open door for a time, trying to wrap their heads around all that the senator had revealed.

"We have to stop Shine from doing anything. We have to get Taylor out first."

"You're not his daughter. Not if Shine is your soulsibling and I'm your soulmate. Your soul is real, not whatever he's cooking up in his freaky lab."

"I know. I just wish my mother was here to tell me what really happened."

Lark pulled her in for a comforting embrace. "She did tell you. She fell for a man's charms and then he went and found his soulmate, happens all the time and there's no shame in it."

She brushed a tear from her cheek. "My poor mother must have been so scared that Buchanan would know that she'd cheated on his experiment after I was born, it must be why she left."

"I'm glad she did," Lark said, bending down and pressing a quick kiss to her lips. "She was so brave to do what she did for you."

"She was," Ebony agreed. "And now I need to be brave. I need to save Taylor."

Lark nodded sharply and they left the office.

Shine watched them walk away and the world spun around her. She wasn't processing what Senator Buchanan had just said and she grasped Granger's arm for balance when they were gone. A waiter passed with a tray of champagne, and she reached out for one, downing the liquid in one go.

"Damn girl, are you okay?" Stone asked as he sipped his own glass.

"No," she whispered and grabbed Stone's glass, downing the rest of it.

"Talk," Granger demanded softly.

"He said that my mother is alive."

"What? That's good news," Stone said cheerfully.

She looked at him and blinked back tears. "If I go up there and say anything against him, he'll kill her." Fear slid up and down her spine.

"Shine! So nice to see you outside of DC" A somewhat familiar man came up to her and started chatting on and on, but she couldn't really pay attention to anything that was coming out of his mouth. She just smiled politely and nodded every once in a while. It didn't take long before he moved on, never once noticing that she wasn't paying attention. These people just liked to hear themselves talk; they didn't really care about anyone else. That was a lesson she'd learned long ago.

"I need to get out of here," she whispered to Granger.

"Go on, I'll wait for Lark and Ebony, and meet you guys back at the hotel," Stone offered.

Granger grabbed her arm and guided her back out through the crowd. A few people tried to engage her in conversation as they went but a quick scowl from Granger was enough to stop them in their tracks.

When they were in Granger's car and on their way out of the parking lot, Shine let herself feel. Her body trembled, tears filled her eyes, and she punched the dashboard. "Fuck, ouch," she squealed and held her hand to her chest. "Why do guys do that shit?"

Granger laughed. "Mostly we don't," he said gently and reached out for the hand she was cradling. He pulled it to his lips and kissed her bruising knuckles. "Most men know that punching hurts."

"He's a monster, Granger."

"Yes, he is."

"Maybe we shouldn't have left Ebony and Lark alone with him."

"They'll be okay, Lark is very capable and I don't think Buchanan will want to make a scene there. Hopefully they get some answers we can use."

"He thinks he's untouchable," she whispered. "Maybe he is."

"No one is that far above everyone else, Shine. We will find your mother and we will bring him down."

She wasn't so sure, and it hurt.

They didn't speak again until they were in the hotel room. Granger started a bath for her and helped her undress. Once she was settled into the hot water, he stepped out of the bathroom, and she could hear his voice humming in the other room as he made phone calls. She closed her eyes and let the hot water soak into her, let it ease the tension a bit.

"Stone just messaged, said he's on the way back here with Lark and Ebony. They want to meet and tell us what they found out. He told them why you didn't make your announcement."

Shine nodded. "Okay, give me another minute and I'll get out. Could you run downstairs and get me something to wear from the giftshop. Some sweats and a T-shirt would be great."

"Sure."

She drained the tub, washed her face, and wrapped in a towel. When he got back with a bag from the gift shop, she gratefully pulled out the tacky hotel emblemed sweats and T-shirt proclaiming Vegas is for Fun .

His lip quirked as he took in the sight of her. "Cute," he said.

"I look ridiculous, but at least it's clean and comfortable."

"They are waiting for us in Lark's suite. Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's do this."