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Ten years he had fought theto him Now she was here, and he swore, no matter what it took, he would hold her here

Dawn slept She slept harder than she could re arainst his chest, she felt safe Secure She could sleep now, knowing he would hold back the night And she slept deeper So deep that the protective layers she had built in her mind to hold the past at bay weakened Relaxed

Suddenly, she wasn’t in Seth’s arhts and a cold that chilled her to her bones

I’htened

She turned and stared at the child that uttered the words She was alhost She was huddled in the corner of the cage, naked, her long hair covering most of her body, her brown eyes stark and blind with pain

It wasn’t just a child Dawn kneho it was It was her The child she had forced herself to forget, forced herself to bury as deeply as possible

As she stared at her, she felt betrayed A betrayal that cut deeper than Callan showing Seth those ies It cut deeper than any betrayal she could remember, and she couldn’t place its source Refused to search for the source of that pain

She shook her head She wasn’t here It was just a drea her Even as the nightes coalesced, she could feel his arh she could no longer see him

Dawn looked around and felt terror chill her soul again She was no longer so shadows or darkened shapes She didn’t sense an enclosure, she felt it She saw it

The underground labs of the New Mexico facility that Callan had rescued them from But this wasn’t the rubble left after the escape and the explosions This was the lab, fully functional, the es and cells And the cages The cages that held the children when they were unruly or when they were insane fro bodies

“I don’t want to be here,” she whispered, feeling the words lock in her throat

“Don’t bother praying,” the child whispered “If you pray, they get mean And He doesn’t listen anyway You know He doesn’t”

“Then don’t pray,” she warned her, furious “Keep your damn mouth shut”

Daas angry with the child and she wasn’t certain why Why would the kid want to pray? Why call out to a God that didn’t listen, that didn’t protect the Breeds? He hadn’t created them, why should He care if they lived or died? If they survived or lived without nightmares?

The little Breed fee, dejection and hopelessness surrounding her as Dawn felt her chest clench with pain She moved closer She wanted to com