His Dark Bond Read Free Page B

bloodlines.
    What had started out as academic curiosity, the thrill of discovery and of breaking new ground, had turned into a too-personal quest. No one in the academic community had done work on paranormal DNA. Hell, no one had realized the paranormals had DNA. DNA was, after all, a human trait, a recipe for building humans. Paranormals were, by very definition, inhuman. Except for the crossbreeds like her. And that had been her first clue.
    The dean sighed. “Go home, Nessa. Think over my offer; let me know what you decide. I’d like to hear from you in three days. Give me funding and facts, and we’ll talk. Otherwise—” He shrugged.
    Otherwise, don’t let the door hit you on your way out . He hadn’t fired her, but he’d made it crystal clear that she either had to find funding, take a demotion, or get squeezed out of the department. That gave her precisely three days to rescue her career or watch everything she’d spent a lifetime working for head straight down the crapper. She was going to have to put her backup plan into play.
    She cleared the door and made it past the department secretary before the tears finally spilled over. She should have made a beeline for the restroom, but she refused to cry in a stall because her reptilian dean had decided to destroy her career on what appeared to be a whim.
    Besides, campus lately had a decidedly less than friendly feel. Maybe it was her paranoia kicking in, or maybe, it was the half dozen times this week that she’d caught something out of the corner of her eye. It felt like someone was following her.
    Ducking into the bathroom still seemed like a bad idea, however, despite the cheerful flood of students streaming past her. Most of them were paired off in couples, arms wrapped about each other. She didn’t know what they saw when they gazed into each other’s eyes, but she knew lust when it strolled by her. Spring always hit campus hard, and her students were busy doing what came naturally. Maybe, there was something wrong with her, but she’d clearly gotten hit with the short end of the mating stick. Maybe, she should make more of an effort. Going home lonely night after night wasn’t anything to be proud of. She needed a cat. Maybe, two cats.
    If, of course, she still had a paycheck to buy the Friskies with.
    With a timeline of three days, she wasn’t going to have a choice. It was going to have to be the backup plan. Genecore Foundation had sent her a frozen DNA sample, requesting a workup. The anomalies she’d found had piqued her curiosity. Genecore had extended the possibility of a collaboration—a well-funded collaboration—but she’d only just begun checking out the group. She wasn’t going to leap from frying pan to fire. But the foundation’s president was very, very interested in her work. She’d make that call before her lecture, she decided. Let the guy know that she was seriously interested in signing on to the DNA project he’d proposed.
    Elbowing open the door to the building where she had her lecture, she slipped inside, heels clicking on the black-and-white flooring that was older than she was. Heels were a vanity, but, damn it, she was short. She’d take all the extra inches she could get. Plus, the thin heels changed her walk, made her aware of the movement of her hips, the slide of the skirt’s fabric over her skin. Made her feel different. More confident. Sexier.
    She might not be married, engaged, or even dating, but nothing had ever topped the thrill of setting foot on this campus, of knowing that she belonged here. She wasn’t leaving, and she wasn’t working for Professor Markoff. There was a way to sort out this situation and she’d take it.
    With a sigh, she flipped open her cell and dialed.
    This was home, and she was damned good at what she did. Never mind that she was as meat-and-potatoes as they came and that the Stalinist architect who’d designed the campus had had a penchant for Gothic curlicues and stonework. On