Autumn's Blood: The Spirit Shifters, Book One Read Online Free PDF Page B

separating them. Just behind his left shoulder stood
another man she hadn’t seen before. He looked to be in his late
twenties or early thirties, though something about his gray eyes—an
intelligence—made him appear older. His brown hair was brushed back
from strong features, flecks of white at the temples.
    The two men weren’t the
only people waiting for her. Farther back, she saw the broad
expanse of Blake Wolfcollar. His eyes rested on her face, his gaze
clear and direct. His brown eyes were so
dark and deep she felt like she was diving into twin cups of molten
hot chocolate.
    Her stomach did a little
flip.
    Behind them stretched a huge glass and
chrome laboratory. Several rooms were cornered off. Near the back,
she caught sight of a couple of people in white coats flitting from
room to room like moths trapped in a lampshade.
    Dumas smiled his cool smile and
stepped back. “Welcome to your new lab.”
    She stepped out, her eyes wide. She’d
expected a busy, hectic laboratory, but this place was close to
deserted. “Shouldn’t I have a team working with me?”
    “No, Doctor, it’s just
you.”
    Strange, but what could she
say?
    He turned to the men flanking him.
“You’ve met Blake Wolfcollar, of course.” His attention moved to
the other man. “This is Peter Haverly. He’s the head of our
research department.”
    She smiled and stepped forward,
offering her hand. Peter Haverly took it, his grip dry and firm.
“Good to meet you,” she said.
    He smiled back, his expression warm,
unlike Dumas’. “You too.”
    Dumas began to stride across the lab.
“Please, come with me. I have something I need to show
you.”
    He took her over to a
bench lined with several stools. Large silver filing cabinets
containing slide samples propped up one wall. Across another wall
were a chemical extraction chamber, several centrifuges, and
bottles of chemicals. On the bench stood high-tech electron
microscopes, the most powerful she’d ever seen, together
with electron, scanning tunneling, and
atomic force microscopes used to view individual DNA
molecules.
    The head of research handed her a
white lab coat.
    Autumn waved it away. “Oh, that’s
fine. I brought my own, but thank you.”
    Haverly shook his head. “You need to
wear this one. I’m afraid I insist. We wouldn’t want any outside
material tainting what work has already been done.”
    She took the coat, and he handed her a
pair of micro-thin gloves and a pair of Perspex goggles. She
glanced over to check the location of Blake.
    The big security man hung in the
background, his expression unreadable, his arms folded across his
chest, making his big biceps appear even larger. She didn’t want to
feel like a total nerd in her work clothes, but she couldn’t do
anything about that, so she slipped on the coat, gloves, and
goggles.
    Dumas nodded at one of the stools.
“Please, sit. I want to show you what you’re going to be working
with.”
    She took a seat and Dumas
sat next to her. Haverly stood behind them, flanking their
shoulders. Dumas pulled one of the big microscopes toward him. From
one of the filing cabinets, he took out a tray of glass slides,
each slide about two inches in length by an inch in width. He
selected one and slid the sample beneath the lens of the
microscope. In front of them, a large
monitor displayed the image of the genetic fragment.
    Autumn peered at the screen, a frown
furrowing her forehead. “Is this what I’m supposed to be working
on?”
    Dumas studied her face. “That’s
right.”
    “These genes are clearly human. You
must realize I would recognize that immediately.”
    He lifted a finger to stop her. “Just
wait. First you must learn about what we need them to
become.”
    Dumas removed the first slide and
replaced it with another. “As you can see, the mutation starts
small, an amino acid base pair substitution at position five of the
polypeptide chain. The adenine-thymine pair for
guanine-cytosine.”
    Autumn nodded her