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PROLOGUE

“Please stop, Daddy Please!” The little girl twisted and struggled desperately against the thick straps that held her down on the cold, metal table

“Now, Cassie, be a good girl and don’t fight” Her father loo his white lab coat He had aeyes “This is going to er?”

He was going to put the linted under the bright light So long and sharp

“I-I don’t want to be stronger,” she whispered She wanted out of that room Away from him

Far, far away

“There are monsters in the world, Cassie We have to stop them” His voice had hardened His voice was always hard and cold

He looked like a ht all around hiloves on his hands

Tears leaked down her cheeks as he pushed the needle into her arm

She screa into her veins Her body started to thrash and jerk on the table

He sighed “That’s why I had to use the straps I couldn’t have you hurting yourself”

Her screarew louder

“Don’t worry We only have a few o”

She kept screaainst the table Over and over Black dots danced before her eyes

“Once the transformation is complete, you’ll be our weapon So perfectly cloaked in a child’s innocence”

Her screa to pull in a breath, but she couldn’t get air Her gaze flew around the small lab Her daddy’s lab He usually ht her in today—even when she’d begged to go outside

He was staring down at her His eyeslooked worried He never looked that way

“Breathe, Cassie,” his voice snapped

She couldn’t

Machines started to beep around her

“The dose was too high!” her father yelled

The light see

“Cassie?”

He’d injected her with solint of a needle before it was shoved into her arm

“Her heart has stopped beating” A woave Cassie lollipops when her father wasn’t looking Mrs May had always seemed so nice

But she had strapped her down minutes before Usually, one of the men would strap her down Not sweet Mrs May Not

“Cassie!” She couldn’t see her father any her body She didn’t feel the fire any

“She’s flatlined!”

Cassie heard nothing more

Cassie sucked in a desperate breath Then she screamed because she hurt

“She’s back! Dammit, she’s back!”

That wasDaddy’s voice She tried to see hiht So Cassie looked downand saw the blood that covered her body “Daddy?”

Then he was there Lowering his face toward hers “It’s going to be all right, sweetheart I took care of you”

She’d never seen him smile like that before

“You’re going to be so strong now So strong”

She didn’t feel strong