Initiation (17 page)

“Good. She saw Professor Bern.”

“Whoa! The witch herself? Man, I don’t know if that’s good or bad!”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. I don’t think Faustine’s going to have it easy. That’s for sure.”

“Oh?”

“Just a feeling I got from the questions she–”

“Faustine told you? She’s not supposed to.” Dax sounded surprised and slightly worried.

“No, no. I was at the meeting.”

“Bern let you sit in?”

“Yep.”

“Wow. Anything you want to share?”

I clenched my jaw. “No. Better not. I want to keep my head.”

Dax nodded. “Look, you don’t have to stay for this class. I’m going to stay with them until after dinner. So go and have some free time; I know you probably need it.”

“Thanks! Are you sure, though?”

“Sure. I’ll bring her over to your room after dinner.”

“Great. Call me if you need me before then.” I walked toward the exit, but couldn’t help looking back when I heard the distinctive skipping sound of Dr. Lindgren’s footsteps. I smiled at the reaction of the class as four-foot-tall Dr. Lindgren entered. I giggled inwardly in anticipation at their response to his thunderous, deep voice.

“Hello, class!” he boomed.

A symphony of gasps and snorts invaded the air before he spoke again. “I am going to start off by covering basic paranormal history. We’ll start with demons. This is not an interactive class. I’ll talk; you’ll listen and take notes. We have a test every second Wednesday.” He launched into his demon history spiel, and I left Faustine to enjoy the rest without me.

I let my mind wander as I hurried back to my room. I had to gather my thoughts about the trial. And the eagle. I had to find her. How difficult could it be? More importantly, what would I do once I found her? I could hand her over to the student council. But what were they going to do? Even if they did find the other four guilty, what exactly did they have the power to do? Expel them? That just meant they’d probably come after me once I left the Academy grounds. But they’d at least be out of my hair while I was at school. That was something.

But how would Octavia win the case without the surveillance evidence? What other evidence did we have?

Jagger would testify that when he found me, I had been dead.
Dead
. That just blew my mind. But he couldn’t even tell that I had been attacked. He hadn’t been there to witness that. But of course, Jagger could testify that when he found me, none of my limbs were attached to my body. Circumstantial evidence of an attack–of some sort, by someone.

What about Faustine? She could certainly bear witness to the fact that we’d been chased. I wondered how clearly she remembered our attackers. Had she been way too freaked out to pay attention? She’d at least remembered the smell from the eagle, so she could probably identify the smells of the other shifters. Maybe Jagger had picked up on the scents when he found me? I’d have to ask him. Identification by smell would definitely be allowed as part of the evidence.

Jagger. Images of his body against mine overcame me, the sheer thoughts sending tremors pulsating through my body. I had to rid my mind of those thoughts before I made a complete idiot of myself. What was I going to do about Jagger? I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about him. He was mine.

So was Quinn….

Ugh!

I caught a familiar smell–the eagle. Again. Where was she? I stopped and looked up and down the packed corridor. Hundreds of students clogged the hallway, most of them rushing around, but groups of them clustered to chat and text. I spotted Initiates, Integrates, and Enrichment students. The Initiates were easy to identify by the Initiation pins on their lapels. Also, they had to be accompanied by their group leaders. It was impossible to see past all of them.

I assumed that the eagle must be an Integrate. How else would she have left that feather outside my door? I supposed she could have given her group leader the slip. I wondered if the pack leader was their group leader. In that case, we had a lone Initiate on the loose. Bad news all around.

I closed my eyes, trying to pick up the trail of her scent. It was very faint, but most definitely coming from further up the corridor. I focused on it, ignoring all the other smells and sounds around me. I followed it as fast I could, zigzagging through the crowd.

“What’s the hurry?” Jagger’s breath was in my ear unexpectedly, causing me to jump.

I didn’t let him distract my focus. I grabbed his sleeve, pulling him along with me.

“Okay.” He laughed. “Octavia told me you
needed
me.”

“Shush!”

I continued, following the scent, which was getting stronger. However, I began to find it more difficult to ignore the other aromas.

“Okay.” Jagger whispered, sprinting along with me. “But why are we heading toward the shifter wing?”

“Shhhhhhh!” I hadn’t been aware of my direction, but he was right. Going to the shifter wing of the school probably wasn’t the most sensible thing to do. It could have been a trap.

But I kept going until we arrived in the reception area. I didn’t lose the scent, which would probably have taken me straight to the eagle, but glaring shifters surrounded us. We were suddenly walled in by at least ten of them. Their foul smell, and air of menace and malice, made me instantly fuse my fingers. I stopped further transformation, but stayed on alert.

“Gee, thanks, Cordelia. I didn’t bargain for this. I would have brought some dog treats,” Jagger muttered.

“Hey, what do you want?” a boy of about fourteen asked Jagger, totally ignoring me. “This wing is outta bounds to your kind.”

“Not exactly.” Jagger’s expression turned stony, his lips drawn into tight, pale lines. He towered above the shifters, staring them down. “I’m Jagger, president of the student council.”

“Oh.” The shifter crouched, backing away.

A girl who looked a little older, maybe seventeen or eighteen, stepped forward. “Welcome to our wing, Jagger. I’m Melissa. How can we help you?”

“I’m doing a room inspection. I’m just going to go through with my assistant to make sure everything is in order. I’d like all of you to go to your rooms and wait for me.”

“We didn’t get notice of a room inspec–”

“That’s right. It’s a spot check. We’ll be doing them from time to time. We’re checking for flammables in particular, after what happened…”

Melissa nodded. “All right, everyone. Let’s get to our rooms. Initiates, stay with your group leaders in their rooms.” She turned back to Jagger. “I’m the dorm supervisor. I’ll be happy to show you around. I have a list of all the students. And it’ll probably be safer if I go with you. You wouldn’t be safe walking around by yourselves. We have way too many Initiates for that.”

“Thanks, Melissa.” I chimed in before Jagger could decline her invitation. I had no wish to be pounced on again. Melissa could give us the tour, and my nose would do the rest.

We waited for all of the shifters to disappear.

“This way.” Melissa said.

We followed her up a flight of steps to the first floor of the dorm. The eagle smell wasn’t strong enough on that floor for her to be in any of those rooms. I shook my head at Jagger.

“Melissa, we don’t need to check every room. It’s just a spot check, so my assistant will randomly pick two for me to inspect.”

I rolled my eyes. He could have just said I was another member of the council or something. Still, I thought it good that he was so quick on his feet, especially since he had no idea what I was up to. Or did he somehow know? Could he read my mind? My wall was up, so that should have been impossible. I really needed to talk to Mom about the synch thing. She’d know.

“Taylor?” Jagger prompted, fixing his eyes on me.

“Em? Oh.” He didn’t want to say my name aloud, just in case. More good thinking. I randomly pointed at a door.

“Okay, let’s see.” Melissa checked her iPad. “This room belongs to Marla.” She knocked at the door, and when there was no reply, she shrugged. “Do you still want to go in? Or pick another room?”

“Let me have a quick peek, just so I can check it off,” Jagger suggested, tapping into his phone. “And Marla is a…?”

“She’s an Integrate.”

“What does she shift into?” I asked.

Melissa arched her eyebrows at me. “Did your boss not tell you that you’re not allowed to ask that? That’s private.”

“My apologies,” Jagger muttered. “She’s new.” He poked his head through the open door, pretending to inspect it, then tapped something into his cell phone. “Where to next, Taylor?”

I stuck out my arm again and pointed aimlessly.

“Which one do you mean?” Melissa inquired.

I was pointing at the wall between two doors. “Oh, sorry. That one.” I moved my finger to the left.

I heard sounds coming from inside the room. There was more than one shifter in there. My nose told me there were four. But none of them were the eagle. We had to go through the charade, though, before we could move to the next floor.

“This is Costa’s room. He’s a group leader. I think some of his Initiates may be with him.” She knocked on the door.

A grumpy-looking boy of around seventeen or eighteen opened the door and glared at Jagger. The boy, who I assumed was Costa, blocked the entryway with his short, stubby body. I peeked over his shoulder and saw five shifters, all of whom had transformed into werewolves. They were crouched and menacingly baring their teeth, growling at us.

Costa rolled his eyes. “They’re untrained. There’s nothing I can do. You can come back later to check my room after they go to bed, if you want.”

Jagger nodded and took a step back, letting Costa close the door. Phew.

“To the next floor?” Melissa inquired.

“Yeah, let’s pick up the pace, though.” Jagger took the stairs two at a time.

I immediately knew that, although we were getting closer, the eagle wasn’t on the second floor. I did smell something familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I shrugged at Jagger, then meandered along the hallway until I got to where the aroma was strongest. I pointed at the nearest door.

Melissa checked her iPad again. “This is Hank Murphy and Andrew Bell’s room. They’re Initiates.”

I could hardly contain myself as Melissa knocked on the door. I recognized the names as they belonged to two of the shifters who had attacked me.

“Sorry, there doesn’t seem to be anyone in again. They could have been down in Costa’s room. We should have asked him for the names of the Initiates in there. Shall we go and do that?”

“Melissa, could you? Taylor and I will inspect the room while you do that, to save some time,” Jagger said nonchalantly.

She let us in and then left. I nearly exploded with excitement once the door closed behind her.

Jagger was all business. “We won’t have much time, so you take that side, and I’ll do this side.”

“What are we looking for?”

Jagger guffawed. “This is your little expedition, remember? I’ve just been winging it for you. What is it that you came here for?”

“I smelled the eagle. I was tracking her.”

“I thought so. Anyhow, since we’re here, let’s snoop. You never know what we might find.”

I went over to the side he’d assigned me. Along one wall was a twin bed with a blue coverlet and a couple of drool-covered pillows–clearly old favorites from home. The bedside table was surprisingly tidy, with an organizer tray containing a watch, a couple of rings, some pens, and a pad. A hand-drawn birthday card stood balanced against the stem of the chrome lamp. I picked it up. The picture was of two wolves and two boys, and had clearly been drawn by someone young. Inside, I read,
Happy Birthday, Andy. You are the bestest brother ever. Stan.