Collection by T.K. Lasser Read Free Book Online

weight of their responsibility to the rest of the family on his shoulders. If he lost Lucien, he would lose the one person who truly understood what it was like.
    Every person in this house and all the others were related to Lucien and Cicero by blood. Granted, the connection was several centuries in the past, but they lived together through necessity. Nobodyunderstands like family. The genetic connection that bonded them, also cursed them. Whenever a male baby was born, it was not a time of celebration, but of tense anticipation. Without fail, for the past several hundred years, male children from Lucien and Cicero's bloodline would die before their third birthday. He would live like any other child until the unfortunate day when his genetic code betrayed him. Just as he learned to speak and understand his world, he would talk as only a child could about the pain and the fear he felt as he died. Every living daughter feared the day that she might bear a male child.
    It was an unavoidable burden, this lottery of birth and death. The horror was not something they could isolate to one person; when it happened to one of them, it happened to them all. Each time they lost a child, they all felt the mother's agony. Until a solution was found, Lucien and Cicero would continue to do what was required of them. Likewise, the women of their family would live with them and work with them. They learned the skills necessary to finance their mission. If they couldn't find the cure in their generation, then maybe the next would be saved. The family came first, as it had for hundreds of years. As a result, the lives they led were secret. The occasional husband was vetted, and sometimes he was told about the rest of them, but often he was not. Many of the women wouldn't tell their boyfriend if they got accidentally pregnant. It seemed too cruel to subject another person to the possibility of a child's death. Outside relationships were secondary, or nonexistent. It was dangerous to know people in the outside world, and Lucien and Cicero were no exception.
    Leading such an insular life protected them, but also denied them the possibility of leading normal lives. Sometimes, women would leave the family with the intent to reinvent themselves. This choice was a difficult one, but never frowned upon by the rest of the family. As long as they agreed to keep the secret of their family, they could do as they pleased. Nobody had ever broken this trust.

6
    THE DARK VAN RUMBLED out of the museum parking garage without drawing attention to the passengers inside. Lucien was fairly certain that they were still in Atlanta, though he couldn't be sure. Whatever chemical they had put on the rag to knock him out was strong, but he didn't know for how long he was meant to be unconscious. He decided that if the girl started to come around, then he would too. In the meantime, the large man was driving like a maniac on the interstate. He switched lanes suddenly in traffic, and the van pitched to the left forcefully. Lucien ended up lying snugly against the girl as he pretended to be a rag doll. Since his head was turned away from the men, Lucien decided to risk opening his eyes to see if she was okay.
    Steven had carefully smoothed down her dress when he deposited her in the van, but her breasts were practically spilling out over the top. Lucien tried his best to avert his eyes. Just because she was unconscious didn't mean he couldn't be a gentleman. She was young, but he revised his opinion of her as a “girl”. He focused on assessing her health. Her face was calm and her eyes closed. She looked like she was sleeping. He hazarded another look at her chest, purely to calculate her respiration, and it was normal.
    Steven started to speak quietly to the large man, and Lucien was glad for the distraction since he had calculated her respiration a couple of times already. He closed his eyes so that he could concentrate on what they were saying.
    â€œWhat do you