Blood Legacy: The Story of Ryan by Kerri Hawkins Read Free Book Online

and her eyes caught sight of the woman’s legs. She stopped.
    For a long moment, she didn’t move. She slowly stood upright, the sheet forgotten as it slipped from her nerveless fingers. She reached out, hesitantly touching the body.
    The woman’s legs were intact. There were no compound fractures, no broken skin, only mild bruising where before there had been horrendous injuries.
    Susan gazed at the legs. She had been so caught up in looking at the internal organs on the MRI printout she had missed the obvious.  She felt a cold chill whisper down her spine, but it was a very different chill than she had experienced a moment before. This was a much more primitive fear. Thoughts of a conspiracy slipped away.
    Susan slowly began backing away from the body. It was still slightly askew in the bed, but she was not going to right it. Nor was she going to turn her back on it before she left the room. She felt for the doorknob behind her, then slid through the crack she opened.
    Susan slammed the door, locking it. She peered through the window, not exactly certain what she expected to see.
    The body just laid there. The woman appeared to be sleeping. Not completely comfortably, but sleeping nonetheless.
    Susan forced herself to take several deep breaths. “Get a hold of yourself, girl. Remember, you’re a scientist.”
    As if in support, the computer printed out the reassurance. Susan thought about turning the voice activation off, but she needed the company at the moment, even if it was self-generated.
    “Okay,” she said aloud, now addressing the computer as if it were another person. “We’ve got something new, now.” She tried to return to her professional voice. “Not only does this woman possess an extraordinary anatomy, she appears to be healing at an accelerated rate.”
    She glanced down at the MRI printout in front of her, and her professionalism fled. “Well that was the understatement of the year, Dr. Ryerson. “ She began to think aloud again. She tried to regroup, putting her research voice on. “This could be some type of chromosomal defect, or perhaps some type of genetic engineering,” she paused, “but if so it’s way beyond anything I’ve even heard about.”
    The EEG sprang into action behind her, and she jumped, startled. She felt foolish as she pushed her heart back down into her chest where it belonged. She glanced at the monitor, then turned to look through the glass window. Even from where she was standing she could see the twitching of the intact eyelid, could see the rapid eye movement indicating a dream state.
    Susan’s fascination overcame her fear as she stared at the prone body. Half the woman’s face was gone. Her skin had the pallor of death. And yet she was obviously dreaming. What in god’s name could be in that woman’s head to generate such activity?

CHAPTER 6
    THE BOY STILL REMEMBERED THE FIRST TIME he saw the Man. It had been shortly after Bertha’s daughter had died in childbirth. She had been small and the baby had been large. Neither had survived.
    The boy was standing in the middle of the dirt road that split their small village. He was playing with some of the other boys, boys who were larger than him but never quite as strong or as fast.
    They all heard the sound of hooves off in the distance and the boy looked to the west at the cloud of approaching dust. It was rare that horses came to their village; it usually meant that tribute was due.
    The other boys scattered but the fair-haired one stood in the street. He was more curious than afraid. He saw what seemed to be a great number of horses; he could not count so in his mind it was simply more than two.
    The horses stopped at the edge of the village, snorting and rearing, their riders trying to control them. The men atop their backs were dressed in finery, leather jerkins, steel mesh, brightly colored crests. The boy watched curiously as they gathered and wheeled about.
    The horses parted as if on command and a man