Free Breed of Havoc (The Breed Chronicles #3) by Lanie Jordan Page B

They all have very different DNA, so I’ll need to run—”
    “More tests,” I finished for her.
    “I’m afraid so.”
    Normally, when someone said something like that, they sounded or looked apologetic. Despite her words, she didn’t. But she was a scientist, wasn’t she? She probably liked testing things. Keeping that in mind, I didn’t sigh or groan or do any of the number of things I wanted to do (like throw a huge fit) and reminded myself that I’d signed up for this. The good, the bad, the…demony extras. I couldn’t balk now.
    *~*~*
    Doctor Cherry ran more experiments. She had a Sercoon brought in—a demon species I’d encountered last Phase. It, like the ones from before, didn’t show any kind of adverse reaction toward me. Instead, it just pressed its body to the glass, tilted its head to the side, and studied me like it recognized me but couldn’t place how. After another minute, it poked its finger through one of the holes until I gave in and petted it. Then it made a weird purring sound at me.
    The Sercoons had been added to the unofficial official friend list. The next demon was quickly added to the foe list. It’d tried sticking its tentacle things through the air holes in an attempt to strangle me.
    At the end of the day, my own personal demon-scoreboard was as varied as the demons. It ended with three demons that had normal reactions to me, two that were definitely going on my mental foe list, one that liked me, and the Sharphynx that was in a kind of purgatory until she tested the species again.
    So far, I hadn’t had any abnormal reactions to the demons, though I had no idea if Dr. Cherry was testing for that. Regardless, that was definitely on my watch list. I wanted to know how different demon species reacted to me, but more, I needed to know my reaction to them. I needed to know if there were more demons—like the Sercoons from last Phase—that I’d like.
    It’d only been my first appointment with her, so I tried not being disappointed that we were no closer to finding out anything definitive.
    When Dr. Cherry finished her tests (including some blood-drawing), she led us back down the never-ending corridor to meet up with the other P3s. They were already there waiting. Eric spotted us and made one of his usual faces at me (a cross between a sneer and a look of straight disgust). It was pretty much the only expression I’d seen on his face since last Phase, so I tended to ignore it. Okay, I tried to ignore it.
    His head tilted to the side and he smiled. “Awh, I think they let her hang out with her own kind for a while. How sweet,” he whispered to his friends.
    “Jerk,” I muttered.
    Dr. Cherry looked down at me. “Ex-boyfriend?”
    Linc laughed as I made a choked sound. “No,” he said. “Just an as—”
    “A someone—” I shot Linc a glare. “—who doesn’t like me very much.”
    “Oh?” She raised an eyebrow. “Why is that?”
    Linc snorted. “Because she’s her.”
    She nodded, like that made perfect sense. “I see. Director Greene did mention that you weren’t very…popular among your peers now, because of your DNA.”
    “I guess you could say that.” Though, saying I wasn’t very popular was a bit of an understatement.
    “Well, the director has high hopes for you and is sure you’ll win them over.”
    I blinked. “He told you that?”
    “Yes.”
    He’d said the same thing to me at the end of last Phase, but I hadn’t expected him to share his thoughts with anyone else. I wasn’t sure why he had.
    “Director Greene gives us impressions of people we—the scientists—may work with,” she said, reading my thoughts. “It doesn’t necessarily help us with our work, but it’s nice to know who we’re dealing with. As I said before, I was anxious to begin working with you, so I did a bit of nosing around.” She managed to look almost abashed for two seconds. “I’d apologize again, but I’m clearly not sorry. I’m a scientist. We snoop.