28
Gen ran, nearly blinded by tears. She reached the foot of Stanton Hill and hurried along the sandy path toward the boardwalk that led to the marina. She stumbled and fell, gashing her palm on a sharp oyster shell; the flesh healed before she leaped back to her feet.
Conflicting emotions tore through her soul like a gale shredding a mainsail. She felt joy for Lana's miracle; gladness for Lana and Jimi's blossoming love; moved that Haven had reached out to her like a sister. And even the deep yearning of the Abundance had not prepared her for the hunger she felt for Cade. The instant in the bay when she first took his hand she had collected his essence; otherwise, by now she might have broken down his bedroom door just to touch him.
Thinking about her friends swelled her heart with love. To be a lasting part of their lives would be satisfaction itself, but she knew she could never truly belong.
Yes, it had turned out the dread of mitobots infecting the world like a doomsday plague had been the opposite of the truth. The Abundance had proven to be benevolent; her body was like a bottle filled with microscopic djinn. Even so, Gen knew she would bring destruction into the lives of her new friends, for there was a real menace that followed her. Its name was Jack Eberhard.
Because one man hated her, the walls of Redstone Laboratories reached out from fifteen-hundred miles away, to imprison her still.
Eberhard was watching, she knew, biding his time, waiting for her to reveal her place of hiding. She could feel him, like a cold shadow always hovering before the sun. For all she knew, some zoo visitor had videotaped the crazy scene with the leopards. If so, the news media would spread it nationwide. Eberhard would hear about it, and he would certainly investigate. Maybe today's incident would be enough to lead him straight to her.
Eventually, something would betray her secret. Lana now had beautiful, strong legs. Such news would leak, it could not stay sealed. Something, somewhere, somehow, would reveal Gen's location to the one who hunted her. It was only a matter of time.
When he found her, he would kill her. And he would kill anyone who stood in his way. For the sake of her new friends, she must make sure Eberhard did not find her.
That feat turned out to be surprisingly easy. Eberhard did not know she could transform into other species. Even if he somehow guessed her new power, he would have to also guess that she had changed into dolphin form, and then be able to track her in the vaults of the deep blue sea.
She raced down the boardwalk, sandals slapping the planks. A sun-wrinkled man with a bucket of bait and a fishing rod stopped in his tracks and gawked as she ran past. Cade's boat bobbed at its mooring near the end of Willingham Marina's main dock.
Gen ran toward it. She couldn't let her pace slacken, because she so hated to leave. If she slowed to a walk, it would degrade to a shuffle, and then she would lose her will altogether and be unable to budge. She only wished her racing feet could carry her backward through time to where this episode began.
She should never have left the pod of dolphins that was her sea family. If she had not spied Cade standing on the deck of his boat like a bronze sun god, if she had not listened to his honeyed baritone voice and laughter-oh what's the use of second-guessing? She had chosen to emerge from the water and rejoin the human race. That's what hurt so much now.
She had to flee the ones she loved, to hide again in the sea. She had to swim far away where Cade could not find her, because...
He would come looking for her. A sob caught in her throat. It was true: Cade would come looking for her. It was the first time she had let herself believe that he cared, but she suddenly knew it with certainty: Cade did feel strongly for her.
The realization broke her heart, and sorrow poured out in hot tears as if from a burst dam.