The Tenth Legion (Book 6, Progeny of Evolution) Read Online Free PDF Page A

she’d learned from the
book.
    On the home
screen, she touched the tab titled “Preemergent Care”. Out of
curiosity, she wondered whether things had changed in her old home.
The corporation-administered institute where Lorna had grown up
boarded equal numbers of lycans and vampires. All pre-emergents,
they didn’t walk until they were three or speak until five. Caring
for such children posed a burden on any family, which is why so
many, like her, ended up there.
    Then the
search passed to Ed White, CEO of Coven International.
    The portraits
accompanying his corporation biography captured her attention. The
man’s beauty staggered her. An aura of pride accompanied by supreme
confidence emanated from the rugged, square face in the frontal
shot. Thick, burnt sienna-colored hair scrolled above as well as
around the face with its two green eyes like jade lamps. Wide,
prominent cheekbones form fitted the flesh to the jawbone. A
straight nose with the slightest of upturns added a pleasing
triangle to the profile picture, augmenting the brooding brow and
jutting chin. Two wide thin lips, like an expert butcher’s cut,
showed firmness and conveyed the demeanor of a man well used to
getting what he wanted. In profile, their slight downturn suggested
something deeper brooded underneath all the good looks.
    Studying the
face, Lorna experienced an inexplicable sense of recognition and
connection. Had they met before? Maybe so. She recalled the dream
conversations of her youth with a kind, dark haired woman. Those
stopped after emergence. Then, recently, the woman returned, well
sort of. All Lorna remembered after waking was being a spectator.
No other details stuck, including any association with the head of
Coven International. She dismissed the idea of prior acquaintance,
conceding he would at least be interesting to meet. Then she
chuckled at the ridiculous thought. There was about as much chance
of crossing paths with him as of touching the hem of an archangel’s
robe. She chalked the déjà vu moments up to having seen him on
cable news or the Internet stream. The handsome marmoreal face with
the tense, sculpted topography belonging to the man who could well
be the most powerful being on earth stared back from the laptop
screen, saying nothing.
    The Board of
Directors of Coven International, Inc. listed several members of
the White family. Ed’s older half-brother and sister served in
something called Special Operations. Three of his sons were listed
farther down in the pecking order, project managers of various
kinds. More of the board may have been relatives under different
surnames. Females still practiced the tradition of giving up their
family name and taking their husband’s when they married.
     
    * * * *
     
    A week passed
with no word from Jerry. When he didn’t return her calls, she vowed
to kick his ass to the curb the next time he came sniffing around
for a booty call. Meanwhile, fingerprints proved the Gomez victims
were ordinary humans. A few days later, the body of the son turned
up in a culvert, minus several organs. He too turned out to be
human—unlucky for the victim, but ordinary, nevertheless. Lorna
ruled out conflict between covens of The Others, although the
theory of an urban feral stayed in play.
    A detail about
the case still nagged in the back of her mind. The emblem they
found in the boy’s room—a black shield with the Roman numeral “ten”
inscribed in white. The symbol of The Tenth Legion, an organization
named for Julius Caesar’s most loyal legion, it represented to The
Others what the KKK had to African-Americans. The group had
remained quiet for years, but no telling what cooked within the
clandestine, network that crossed regions, and even borders, of the
old nation-states. Every so often they reminded the world they were
still around with a demonstration, or when authorities broke up a
plot brewed by one of their cells.
    Below the
Tenth Legion, or X-10 symbol, sat the one that got