Dare You to Run by Dawn Ryder Page B

furious look when he tried to grab her elbow. She walked out of the study even though it was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She wanted to fight, needed to rage against the way her sire was trying to push her down and hold her there, beneath his heel.
    She’d never thought he’d turn against her mother.
    Well, you should have.
    Back in her room, she paced around the cream and lilac–colored furniture. Her suite was over a thousand square feet of luxury that felt worse than the concrete cell Vitus had pulled her out of. It was a cage, just as surely as any cell was.
    Just as a clinic retreat would be to her mother.
    She sat down, feeling overwhelmed by circumstances. Her carefully plotted future was suddenly further from her reach than she’d ever thought it might be.
    Maybe impossible …
    No! She forced herself to stand. She refused to quit. She hadn’t given up in the concrete cell and she wasn’t going to throw in the towel now. There was a way around, something she hadn’t thought of yet. Wasn’t that what the field she was going into had taught her? Diseases had ravaged the globe for centuries, and yet people came along to defeat some of those germs. She wasn’t going to give in, she was going to figure out a way to succeed. Just like those scientists had.
    At least that was what she intended to tell herself until she believed it.
    *   *   *
    â€œI didn’t expect to hear from you for another couple of weeks, Ms. Ryland.”
    Colonel Bryan Magnus pointed at the chair in front of his desk. Damascus fought the urge to look over her shoulder as she slid into the seat. She was taking a risk, but it was necessary. The colonel headed up the classified study program that she had secretly transferred into three years ago. The office was four stories beneath the surface of the university grounds, and very few people knew it was there. She certainly hadn’t until the colonel had made contact with her. With her father insisting she cut her ties with Vitus, the offer had been the perfect retaliation, a golden ticket to a future of her design, instead of one her father laid out for her.
    She’d made a grave miscalculation in overlooking the threat to her mother, and that just pissed her off because normal people didn’t have to worry about their father using their mother against them.
    But she did have to worry, so she looked the colonel in the eye. “I have a complication,” she said evenly.
    â€œAt this stage of the game Ms. Ryland, you will be expected to fulfill your contract to us.”
    The colonel folded his hands and put them on the desktop. Bryan Magnus had always presented a controlled persona to her. Honestly, she couldn’t recall ever seeing him smile, and now she caught a hint of disapproval in his eyes. One she didn’t want to see grow.
    â€œMy father has threatened to have my mother admitted to a clinic if I don’t proceed with an engagement he’s given his blessing on.”
    There was a slight narrowing of the colonel’s eyes. “You have been through classes that included classified materials and information. Were the terms of your commitment to us unclear?”
    â€œNo,” Damascus answered firmly. “I am eager to fulfill them.”
    â€œGlad to hear it,” Bryan Magnus said. “I’d hate to have to have you arrested on your graduation day.”
    His tone left it very clear that he wouldn’t hesitate to do it. She shoved her misgivings aside. Nothing was free. Especially not the freedom and protection she needed. It had been made painfully clear to her that in exchange for her admittance into the classified program, she would be expected to take a position with them.
    â€œTrying to slip out of my commitment to your team works a little better when I don’t clue you in on my plans. I’m here because you said to come to you if I had a difficultly.”