Primal Instincts by Susan Sizemore

Author:Susan Sizemore
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2010-09-22T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-six

As you know, we can trace ancestry from your mother’s side through mitochondrial DNA. But what I want you to take a look at on your individual results screens are those lines that look like bar codes. Those are called bonding patterns, and that’s what was used to trace your paternal descent . . .”

Saffie’s biology teacher went on talking about variable-number tandem repeats and other stuff she might normally have found fascinating, but Saffie’s attention was riveted on the blotchy black dash patterns on her laptop screen that told her who her father was.

Or maybe what.

She’d had a bad feeling coming into this, and if there was one thing she’d learned from her adoptive father, it was to trust her feelings. To double-check her feelings, she tilted her laptop so the girl seated on her left could see it. She got a look at the other girl’s DNA information in turn. This got a giggle from Pattie, who was on her right, so she and Pattie exchanged views as well. Saffie was so not reassured by what she saw.

Students weren’t supposed to access the classroom’s Wi-Fi without getting permission and a password from the teacher, but a Dark Angel wasn’t going to let minor details get in her way.

Saffie was still careful to slowly tap out her message when she sent an e-mail and a couple of sips, so the soft clatter of keys and hand movements wouldn’t give away what she was doing. Frustration at being stuck in the mortals’ world boiled in her while she surreptitiously tried to make contact with her own.

Holiday vacation was coming up very soon, but not nearly fast enough for her. She had to get away from this place, these people. Maybe the DNA evidence, whatever it meant, would be enough to convince her father of what she’d been telling him all along. She didn’t belong there.

Saffie got no immediate replies from the messages she sent, so she was forced to wait for the end of biology class to make a phone call. She hated bothering Tobias or Dee while they were on an op, but this was important!

She’d known going into it that it was important, but had they listened to her? Why did they still treat her like a mortal kid with no psychic gifts of her own? Well—not completely. At least Dee agreed she had a talent for magic, which kept her from being a complete washout for the Crew.

Magic.

A smile spread across Saffie’s face, and her worry eased a little. Maybe that was what was wrong with her paternal DNA profile. Maybe she’d inherited some sort of magic-enhancing mutation from her biological father. He was a great and terrible wizard and that was the cause of the conclusion at the bottom that read:

Sample not consistent with human DNA.

Saffie held on to this reassurance until class ended.

Before she could leave, the teacher stopped her with, “A word, Ms. Strahan.”

Having spent her life around soldiers, many colorful and profane responses came to Saffie, but she managed a meek, “Yes, sir.

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