Initiation (40 page)

“What’s up?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. Something was definitely up.

“I was going to tell you later, but I might as well do it now. He said that his brother is here as well, or was… apparently, he got transferred recently.”

A chill went through me. I stared at the screen blankly.

“Ready?” The technician held out night-vision goggles for Jagger and me, and then sat down at the far terminal.

“Cordelia?” Jagger whispered.

I ignored him, too stunned to speak. Ryker had an adopted brother who had recently been transferred out of this school to another. That would have to be Mason or one of the other shifters who’d attacked me. The name
Darley
suddenly hit me. Mason Darley. Spencer Darley. Spencer Darley had brought Ryker to the school. Was Ryker related to Spencer Darley? Was he a Darley as well?

“Jagger,” I whispered loudly.

He turned and looked at me sharply, his eyes warning me to be quiet. The test had begun.

But I couldn’t help myself. “Ryker
Darley
?”

He nodded slowly and then looked at his monitor, ignoring me.

How could that be? And how did this piece of information fit with everything else that was going on? Mason’s dad was the shifter rep in Paris. Who was his mother, his biological one? And why did they have him adopted? Was it because he’d been a gynandromorph? Had his mom not been able to cope with it and pawned him off on someone else? It figured… that sounded like something a faery would do.

Could that be it? Was Mason a shifter-faery hybrid? One that had been abandoned to be brought up by a complete stranger. Or maybe Ryker’s mom wasn’t a complete stranger. Was she somehow connected to Mason’s father or mother? What was the connection?

And, more importantly, why the heck did he have it in for me?

I tried to concentrate on the test in spite of my head swimming with questions. Maybe I’d get some clues about Ryker. I peered over at the chamber. Ryker sat in an armchair looking relaxed and happy. Glancing back at the screen, I wasn’t surprised as to why. Ryker was in a playground, surrounded by happy, playing kids.

When I looked over at him again, he was bending down and patting something. I wondered what his imagination had conjured? Could it be a dog, or maybe a toddler? He abruptly withdrew his hand, sitting up straight, staring at something.

I watched the screen again. Ryker was obviously much further along with his tests than Faustine. The film on the screen focused in on different children. But Ryker’s field of vision seemed concentrated further away. What the heck was he staring at? Certainly not something we could see on our monitors.

He stood up in a quick motion, straining his back to look over something. He rushed to the wall and tapped on it. Then, he spoke, “Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten you. Do not go over to that man. Hurry back to your mom.”

He stared intently at something, then his expression changed. He smiled and sat back down in the armchair.

The technician passed Jagger a note. He read it, nodded, and then passed it to me, whispering, “If you have time.”

Scrawled on the paper was a short note:
Escalating this, if you have time
. I nodded at them. I didn’t have to be back for Faustine just yet.

Ryker seemed to go into a heavy sleep, and our screens went blank again while the tech fiddled with his computer. Then, a new video appeared. It showed a view of a swimming pool. I couldn’t tell if the pool was attached to a private house, hotel, or what. It was an outdoor pool, though, a rectangular one with a diving board at one end.

As Ryker stirred, a boy of about ten came into view on the screen. The boy sauntered to the edge of the pool and jumped in, belly first, landing in the water with a big splash. He swam to the side and jumped up, then sat with his legs dangling in the water. A baby, wearing only a diaper, crawled over to him.

In the chamber, Ryker was on his feet, his body tense.

The boy peered down at the baby and grimaced. “Stupid baby, go back to Mom.” Then, he turned the baby around, and it crawled out of view.

Ryker relaxed and sat back down again.

The boy got up from the side of the pool and stepped out of view. Nothing happened for a while. Then, the boy appeared again, carrying the baby. Looking around nervously, he made his way to the edge of the pool.

Ryker walked toward the wall of the chamber. He stopped abruptly and waved his arms, flailing wildly, his face contorted in fear.

I glanced back at the screen. Nothing had changed–it was static, with the boy just standing on the edge of the pool with the baby in his arms. Whatever Ryker was reacting to had been conjured by his imagination alone. He was in a state–yelling, shouting, kicking.

The tech held up his finger, a signal that he was about to start the termination of the test. I’d never watched a termination, since Faustine always ended her tests by vanishing.

It turned out to be a boring procedure. The video clip was replaced by a white noise screen, and Ryker immediately seemed to get calm. He returned to the armchair and slumped into it, resting his head on the back and closing his eyes. He soon fell asleep.

The tech took off his goggles and switched on the lights. “I’m not seeing any response to the tests so far. This is very strange; I’ve never seen such a lack of activity.”

“But he was totally reacting to something,” I protested. “He looked like he was fighting something.”

The tech stared at me vacantly, but then appeared to perk up. “Ah! You’re talking about the physical responses, the non-paranormal ones?”

“I guess.”

“Oh, that’s not what I meant. I mean he hasn’t exhibited any paranormal activity. I’m wondering if he’s just a regular human.” He shrugged and idly flicked through the file beside his monitor. “It clearly says that he’s a faery, but I’ve seen no indication of it. Any faery would have shown a response with the stimuli he’s been subjected to.” He scratched his head. “At this point, I can only assume that he must be a hybrid, but there’s nothing about that in the files. I’ll discuss the results with Professor Bern and see what she has to say.”

I was surprised to hear that, having assumed that Ryker was a Wanderer. At least partly so, but maybe not. Maybe Jagger and I had jumped to the wrong conclusions. We’d just based our ideas on the fact that Spencer Darley had brought him to the Academy. But Jagger had just confirmed that Ryker’s last name was Darley, so that followed…. I wondered why it had been left out of his file.

“Can I take him back now?” Jagger asked.

“Yes, I’ll wake him. Take him back to his room as usual and let him sleep for a few hours.”

Once Ryker was safely tucked in his bed, Jagger and I went up to the west tower terrace. The view from the tower was breathtaking, and the cold air smelled wonderfully clean and refreshing. Jagger put his arm around me, drawing me close to him, making my body turn to jelly as my heart raced crazily. I put my arm around him and drew him in as close as I could without actually stepping into him and possessing him.

He bent his head and breathed in my hair, blowing cool breaths of air against my scalp that sent tremors surging down my spine. I wanted nothing more than to rip off his clothes.

So, I did.

Later, even though I lay in his arms, feeling deliciously satisfied, all the questions from before came rushing back. They crashed around in my head, making me dizzy from the effort of not blurting them all out at once.

Jagger laughed. “I can tell. Just by the change in the rhythm of your heart. It’s time to talk?”

“Jagger, aren’t you confused?”

“Nope. I don’t feel that emotion.”

“Uh? Whatever.
Surely
you have some questions?”

“If you say so.” He smiled. “Let’s start with yours.”

“Okay. Is Mason Ryker’s
adopted
brother?” For effect, I air-quoted
adopted
with my fingers.

“It’s a possibility,” he mused.

“A possibility? Is that all you have to say about that? Jeez, they even have the same last name. It seems totally obvious now. Aren’t you freaked by that?”

“Maybe a little, at first.”

“At first? And when was that exactly?”

“The day after the bonfire, when we had our brotherly chat.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me?”

“I was going to the first chance I got, which I did. Anyhow, Cordelia. I wanted to try to confirm it before I bothered you with it. I mean, lots of families have that last name.”

“And did you?”

“I tried. I tracked down Mason’s file, which was a bitch because it had already been archived. There wasn’t much there. His parents are listed–that’s his adoptive mom and his real dad. His real mom’s not listed. His dad, as we were told before, is the shifter sovereign of Paris. Mason has had very little contact with him over the years, but his father apparently took an interest when Mason decided to move to Paris last year. In just months, he’d established control over a notorious pack and had turned them into the most powerful one in Paris.”

“What about his mom? Both of them? Are they shifters?”

“I can’t imagine that Ryker’s mom is a shifter, though we don’t know anything about her. Just her name. And from that, I assumed she was a Wanderer. As for his real mother, she wasn’t even listed.”

“So, how did Ryker’s mom come to adopt Mason?”

“Now, I did ask Ryker that. He had no idea.”

“There are too many pieces missing to make any sense of it all. What’s with Ryker not responding to the tests?”

Jagger rubbed his chin. “Well, what the tech said at the end there sort of made sense. What if Ryker is a human? Not full, of course, but a human-faery hybrid. Perhaps his human form is so dominant that his faery abilities are completely squashed. Maybe he’ll never transform, just because he can’t. He might just not have any powers. So, the test may end up being a complete bust.”

“Don’t you think we should be able to smell his human blood if that was the case? Jeez, the vamps would go nuts around him if he’s that human.”

“Maybe in his case, the combination masks the smell. Face it, the guy is practically odorless. Now,
that
is weird.”

“What about the Wanderer angle? Did you look into that a bit more? I mean, it seems totally obvious that he must be a Wanderer hybrid if he’s a Darley. Right?”

“Probably, unless of course, he was adopted as well. The odd thing about that is that he’s not showing any Wanderer powers during the tests, either. He’s basically not reacting at all.” Jagger shrugged.

We were missing something, or perhaps we were just in the dark because we weren’t privy to enough information.

“So, now what?” I turned and stared at Jagger; his chiseled features looked unreal in the fading light.

“Dinner.”

“O-M-G! What time is it? I better go. I promised Quinn I’d meet him and his new wards for dinner.”

“Quinn, yes,” Jagger drawled. “You have to do something about him.”

I arrived late, and Faustine’s face was set in a scowl.

“Sheesh, Cordelia! I was about to start snacking on Dax.” Then she looked over at Dax with a smile. “Just joking, of course. But I’m starving.”