Free Revealing Eden by Victoria Foyt

father’s wound might incite Bramford to attack. Any predator would.
    She hardly could believe it when he carefully lifted her father in his arms. Not even Bramford’s former self was capable of such gentleness. Like a rock skimming over a flat pond, he carried her beaming father across the tops of the workstations until he stood above Eden.
    She stared up into his savage face, her mind a blank. To her amazement, Bramford spoke in a raspy growl, as terrifying as a tsunami, as thrilling as a rare bird in flight.
    “Come, Eden,” he said, holding out a sharp-clawed, leathery hand.
    He knew her, she realized with delight. Perhaps it was silly, but she felt special, as if a celebrity had recognized her. And she felt helplessly lost in the magnetic glow of his cat-like eyes.
    “This is your final warning! Thirty seconds until termination. Twenty-nine seconds…”
    Bramford barked at her. “What are you waiting for?”
    Eden liked him much better when he seemed mute. She certainly didn’t want to go anywhere with the scary beast. But there was Father, and her promise to watch over him.
    She reached for Bramford’s hand, shocked once again by the electric feel of his touch. This time, there was no mistaking the reeling effect on her, despite the change in him. Or maybe because of it, she realized.
    Bramford balanced her onto one broad shoulder, as if Eden were a little bird perched there. She clung to his neck, petrified, as he sped away. Fiery objects exploded around them, and yet he easily evaded them, dodging through the smoke-filled tunnels.
    Ahead, she saw a wall of fire, blocking their path to the upper level. Good Earth, Bramford wasn’t going to stop. She screamed as he sprinted forward. The fire reached for them, but Bramford was too fast for it to catch hold. He seemed to have the power of ten jaguars.
    Eden laughed hysterically, as they burst through the blaze. She wondered if
they
were laughing, too. Possibly,
they
had designed an entire night of elaborate Holo-Images to drive her mad. She only wanted it to stop.
    Bramford ran past the charred security gate and into the hangar, where his aircraft waited. The pilot’s eyes widened as they approached. Like Eden, he must have recognized Bramford in the creature’s steely gaze. At once the doors slid open.
    A Uni-Gov military siren echoed in the distance. Eden feared they’d treat her no better than the FFP. Her father might be retained until he was of no further use, but she would be cut off. They had no choice but to rely on Bramford, as crazy as that seemed.
    He lowered her to the ground then set her father on the back seat, again with surprising tenderness.
    “Get in, Eden,” he said, as he jumped into the facing seat.
    Her father’s eyes begged her to join him. Happy at this meager sign of acceptance, she stepped in beside him when a horrible thought stopped her.
Austin
. She’d forgotten him in the chaos. Before she could leave, Bramford yanked her inside, and the doors closed.
    “Full speed ahead,” he told the pilot. “And tell the airstrip to ready number one.”
    “Stop!” Eden cried, banging on the cabin door. “I have to go back.”
    Bramford released her with a grunt, as the aircraft vaulted into the air. She fell back into the seat beside her father, unable to fathom life without her dog.
    A heart-stopping boom shook the skies. She watched the lab explode, and let out an anguished scream.
    “No! Austin!”
    Slammed by the shock wave, the jet skidded towards the hillside. The driver struggled to right the craft, then raced ahead.
    Eden slid down into the seat, devastated. Everything she had known was gone. If her life were a simple equation, like one plus one, it now yielded a negative number.
    “Austin is of the species
Canis lupus familiaris
—a dog,” her father explained to Bramford in a soft voice, as if talking to a child.
    “You’d risk your life for a dog?” Bramford asked her, incredulously.
    “You wouldn’t understand.