Bane of My Existence

Chapter 10

Carissa Ashe stood before a metal hydraulic door. Inside, waiting for her, were the executive directors, including her fiancé, looking for answers.

She straightened out her lab coat, pulling it around her waist to ensure it covered the blasted stain on her left hip. A useless intern had spilt iodine on her while she was making her rounds this morning. Now, she had to meet with a group of middle aged men who all thought they knew better than her. If they got one peek at the stain, she might as well be as useless as the interns beneath her and not have spent years researching genetics, because she was a woman and if she couldn't keep up her appearance, how in the hell could she do her job?

Echo cleared his throat behind her, reminding her he had orders to bring her before the board, willing or unwilling.

"Fuck it," she muttered under her breath. She was as ready as she'll ever be. If they didn't like the stain, they could shove it. She didn't have a case full of awards for nothing.

She swiped her card through the reader and stepped through the doors when they opened, chin held high.

Her gaze met Victor's first at the head of the table. He subtly nodded to her. It wasn't one of assurance, she didn't need that. He had just confirmed what they had suspected.

The board was going to pull the plug on her latest project.

Not if she had anything to say about it.

She squared her shoulders and faced the room. "Gentlemen-"

"You're cut off, Doctor," Nigel interrupted her before she had the chance to speak. Prick. "You're burning money on a pipe dream."

She cast him a bitter smile. "It's not a pipe dream. I'm close to perfecting the formula. I need more-"

"You gave us that excuse last month, Doctor, and you have made no progress."

She clenched her fists so tight, her manicured nails bit into her palms. "No progress? Have you not seen the latest addition to our ranks?" She gestured to the magnificent creature behind her. "Have you not seen what he is capable of?"

"He's still unstable," another spoke up. Of course it was Rick. He leered at her. "You have given us no results. It's time to find another project."

"If you'll let me finish speaking," she ground out, "you'll find that I have made much progress. Echo is the most stable subject yet. I need shifters in their prime. If I can islolate the genome that controls their beasts, I can fix the Serum."

Nigel scoffed at her, gesturing grandly around the room. "And where are they? You have the resources to get them. Go get them."

She withheld a biting remark. As much satisfaction it would bring her to remind them how inept they all were with their simplistic views of the world, it wouldn't add anything constructive to her argument. "They've gone into hiding. We can't pluck them off the streets in the middle of the night anymore. I have hired someone to track them. She will give me valuable data on their whereabouts so I can pick the subjects I need before they get wise."

Calvin rifled through his binder until he found the sheet he was looking for. "Kinsey Ashe? Your sister, I presume?"

"Yes," she replied a little more icily than she intended. The thorn in her side that was disguised as her little sister.

People were already talking about her in the office. The Ashe who smiled at them. The compassionate Ashe.

Hah!

Everywhere she went it was the same. People would bask in Carissa's brilliance, awe at her achievements--then Kinsey would sweep in with her timid smiles and gentle demeanor, and people always asked, "Why aren't you more like your sister?"