Henri fell over backwards, catching himself on his hands before hitting the ground. In one fluid motion, he pushed off and flew back at Erik, feet first. He landed in a crouch and swept his leg out in a wide arc, attempting to trip Erik, who did a standing flip to avoid his leg.
“It almost looks like a dance they choreographed, huh?” a voice said in my ear. I let out a startled yelp.
“Hello, Captain.” I smiled, looking up into the dark features of Captain Alvarez.
“It’s great to see you, Lyons,” he said sincerely. “How are you feeling?” His dark brown eyes were narrowed in concern.
“Pretty good, actually,” I replied.
“We have the top Medicals working on an antidote,” he promised.
“I know,” I muttered, looking at the ground.
“We’ll get you back out there before you know it. Besides, those two need you.” He gestured to where Erik and Henri were now flying through the air to the delighted oohs and ahhs of the crowd.
Glancing at Cadence and seeing her annoyance at Captain Alvarez paying attention to me gave me way more satisfaction than it should have.
“Thanks. I really want that, too.” As I said it, I realized for the first time that I wasn’t entirely sure that I did. I had desperately missed the Hunt throughout my long recovery, but for some reason I now felt reluctance at the prospect of rejoining the Hunters.
“Will I see you at the dinner this evening?” he asked hopefully.
“Of course. I’m looking forward to it,” I answered honestly.
Captain Alvarez smiled, giving my shoulder a comforting squeeze, then walked back to where Erik and Henri were still sparring. I watched as Captain Alvarez called the session to an end, and the crowd responded with a chorus of “boo’s”. He announced that if anyone wanted to see more and get a chance to go one-on-one with a Hunter, they should sign up for the small group demonstrations that would take place over the next two days.
“You were invited to the dinner?” Cadence asked, outraged.
“Of course, I was,” I retorted angrily. I’d had more of her attitude than I could take in one day.
“Why?” she demanded. “I wasn’t.”
“I guess you’ll have to ask Captain Alvarez since he’s the one who invited me. Or you can ask Mac since he’s been taking me to this dinner since I was eleven,” I shot back. I immediately regretted losing my temper. I was supposed to be gaining this girl’s confidence instead of purposely baiting her. It was no wonder that she hated me. Without so much as a reply, Cadence stalked off.
Feeling suddenly exhausted, I, too, turned to leave – the day’s events had worn me out. I made it several feet before two sets of slick, sweaty arms encircled me. Erik and Henri were both beaming.
“You guys smell.” I wrinkled my nose.
“Every girl here is wishing that she were you right now.” Erik laughed. He was right; many of the girls who’d congregated for the show were now glaring at me jealously.
“Only because they don’t know you two like I do,” I groaned.
“Haven’t you missed us even a little?” Henri asked, sticking his lower lip out in a mock pout.
“Maybe this much.” I held up my thumb and forefinger, indicating a space that only an ant could fit through. Smiling, I hugged Henri again, his sweaty shirt damp against my face. The truth was I’d missed them both more than I could ever express.
“If you two will excuse me, I need to shower again before dinner.” I rolled my eyes and pretended to wipe their sweat off of my face. Giving them a small wave, I turned to go. Erik grabbed my wrist.
“Can I walk you back to your room?” he asked, his voice light.
“I have to go to Medical first,” I responded.
“Okay. Can I walk you to Medical and then back to your room?”
I looked at him for a long minute before finally nodding. After Donavon’s earlier outrage, I didn’t want to rock the boat, but he wasn’t my boyfriend and had no right to be upset.
We walked for several minutes in silence.
“Please don’t provoke Donavon,” I finally said, trying to fill the awkward silence.
“Provoke? Me?” Erik feigned a look of shocked innocence. I rolled my eyes.
“Why are you dating him again?” he demanded. When my eyes met his, I saw more hurt than anger in the turquoise depths.
“We aren’t dating,” I said quickly.
Erik raised his eyebrows, but didn’t comment. Silence fell between us, yet I felt surprisingly at ease; Erik’s demeanor had changed at my reassurance that Donavon and I weren’t a couple. All of the awkwardness dissipated, and I felt comfortable. For a brief minute, it was just like we were back at the Elite Headquarters and Nevada had never happened.
The Medical building came into view and the reality of my situation came rushing back: the shots, the seizures, the spy. The stability that I’d finally established after my parents’ deaths was gone. My desire for revenge against the man who’d ordered my parents’ deaths wasn’t the driving force it used to be. I still believed that Ian Crane had something to do with their murders; I just wasn’t sure that it was all so black and white anymore.
“Why so serious?” Erik’s mental voice filled my head, interrupting my thoughts.
“I just want everything to go back to the way it was,” I sent back.
“We’re going to get this all worked out.” He reached over and squeezed my hand affectionately, holding it for just a second longer than necessary as we entered the big sterile building that was Medical.
“Want me to come back with you?” he asked. I stared at him a minute, wondering if he was serious. He was.
“No, thanks. I’m a big girl and I’ve gotten pretty used to the shots.” I smiled, touched by his offer. Erik nodded and took a seat in one of white plastic chairs across from where the receptionist sat behind a huge white and chrome desk.
“Natalia, Dr. Thistler is expecting you. You can come on back,” the receptionist said, giving me a small smile. I nodded and made my way to the swinging doors that led in to the heart of the facility.
“Back in a second,” I told Erik without turning around to look at him. I caught the receptionist sneaking glances in his direction as I disappeared through the doors.
I found the designated room, and it wasn’t long before Dr. Thistler appeared. She quickly worked through the familiar routine of checking my vitals and taking a vial of my own blood, then injected me with the equalizing agent. As she worked, she asked me the same series of questions that she always did: How was I feeling? Did anything out of the ordinary happen today? What had I eaten? How was I sleeping? My answers were basically the same as they’d been every day for the past nine months.
“All set, Natalia. I will see you tomorrow,” she declared once she’d finished making notes on her ever present electronic pad.
“Dr. Thistler?” I asked, hesitating for a moment before continuing. “How’s Ernest?” I was as eager for her answer as I was to experience another seizure.
Now it was Dr. Thistler’s turn to pause. Her gray eyes studied me carefully before she finally answered. “He is responsive,” she said slowly, measuring her words.
“Responsive?” I repeated.
“Yes, he is aware of his surroundings.” She averted her eyes back down to her electronic tablet.
“Oh, I see,” I said quietly.
“I am sure that, in time, he will be good as new.” She smiled brightly, daring to tear her eyes away from the screen in the crook of her arm to meet mine.
“Does he know who he is?” I blurted out. She shook her head sadly. It was exactly what I’d feared.
“Natalia, this is always a risk with psychic interrogation. The Director never authorizes such an extreme step unless he feels it’s necessary,” she replied sternly.
Necessary? I thought incredulously. It hadn’t been necessary. I should’ve tried harder to convince Mac that Ernest wasn’t capable of such treachery. I shouldn’t h
ave pushed Ernest so hard in my interrogation. His current situation was my fault. Even the calming effects of the equalizing drug couldn’t suppress my rising panic.
“Can I see him?” I asked.
“No, darling, I don’t think that is a good idea,” she replied gently.
Quickly, I swiped her mind. She feared how Ernest would react if he saw me; she worried that he might go into fits since I was the one who’d actually performed the interrogation.
What had I done? I was a monster. Gretchen had once told me that this was a possibility, but I’d never before invaded another mind so completely that I’d ever been in jeopardy of eradicating all the memories and thoughts.
Swallowing over the lump that had formed in my throat, I slid off the edge of the hospital bed and left.
Erik walked me back to my room, thankfully having the good grace not to ask me what was wrong. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ernest. I felt responsible for what had happened. Worse, I was responsible for what happened. If only I hadn’t pushed him so hard. I should have put my foot down and told Mac that I’d done all I could. After all, I’d known that he was telling the truth. There was no need for me to have gone so deep. What if he never recovered? What if his memories were no longer in there? What if I had ruined the rest of his life?
“Is my company really that bad?” Erik asked, giving me a slight nudge in the ribs with his elbow.
“Huh?” I asked, his question putting an end to my mental chastising.
“You look like you’re about to cry. Women don’t usually react to me like that,” he joked. I rewarded his attempt at humor with a half-smile.
“Just have a lot on my mind,” I mumbled.
“I’m here if you need to talk,” he replied, his tone turning serious.
We came to a stop in front of Instructor housing. Erik clasped both of my hands in his and squeezed gently. I stared at the ground, avoiding his imploring gaze.
“Thanks. I’ll see you at dinner,” I muttered, snatching my hands away and turning to leave. Erik reached for me again, his fingers trailed across the inside of my wrist before dropping to his side. A hot flush crept up my neck and burned my cheeks. I paused, my hand halfway to the door handle. I wanted to turn around, wanted to fall into his arms and tell him about Ernest. I wanted him to stroke my hair, to tell me that everything would be all right. Instead, I finished extending my arm and firmly gripped the cold metal of the door handle. Pulling with way more force than was necessary, I yanked the door open and entered without turning back. I’d leaned on Erik too much in the past – I wouldn’t let myself fall back into the habit now.
Chapter Fourteen
When I reached my room, there was a huge package lying on my bed. On top of the box sat a plain white envelope with my name scrawled across the front in familiar handwriting. Smiling, I tore open the envelope and found a single sheet of thick white stationary with the Toxic logo emblazoned across the top, and several lines of text below.
Natalia, Danbury told me that you would be attending Captain Alvarez’s dinner this evening. I took the liberty of selecting one of your gowns and having it cleaned, pressed, and taken in. I look forward to seeing you tonight. Love, Gretchen.
Opening the box, I found a dark red gown made of raw silk. It had long, sheer sleeves that kind of belled at the wrists. The dress was designed to rest on the edge of my shoulders with deep V’s cut in the front and the back, exposing a great deal more skin than I was used to. The waist was cinched and would likely emphasize my drastic weight loss. The skirt of the dress hung all the way down to the tops of my feet. Gretchen had also thought to include a black velvet jacket, perfectly tailored for my small body, to wear over the dress in case the night air was chilly.
Gretchen loved having clothes made for me, and I never minded. It meant that I didn’t have to bother with doing my own shopping. Still, sometimes I felt more like a china doll than a person. I made a mental note to thank Gretchen when I saw her later.
I carefully removed the gown and jacket from the box and hung them on the back of the bathroom door. There was no way either, let alone both, would fit in the closet. The mental and physical exhaustion from earlier returned, so I laid down on my bed, and closed my eyes to take a quick nap.
An insistent pounding woke me after what seemed like mere minutes.
“Go away,” I called groggily.
“Talia, are you sleeping??” Penny’s impatient voice was muffled by the door.
Opening my tired eyes just enough to see the clock next to my bed, I instantly registered the lack of sunlight streaming through the window.
“Crap. What time is it?” I said more to myself than to Penny. “Come on in,” I called to Penny, mentally disengaging the door lock.
“Don’t you check your communicator?” she demanded. “I’ve been messaging you for the last hour.”
“Sleepy,” I replied, burying my face in the pillow.
“We barely have enough time for you to get dressed!” she exclaimed.
Grumbling, I turned to face her and rubbed my eyes trying to clear away the sleep.
“You look pretty,” I commented with a grin.
Penny’s wild red-orange hair was twisted in to a knot at the nape of her neck. She wore a simple long black dress, a matching black shawl resting on her slim shoulders.
“And you look awful,” she teased.
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically.
“Did something happen?” she asked suspiciously, her eyes growing wide with worry as she took in my disheveled appearance.
I climbed out of bed and made my way to the bathroom to splash water on my face, debating whether to tell Penny about Ernest. I considered how much better I’d felt after telling Penny about what happened in Nevada, and decided in favor of filling her in on my trip to Medical.
“Do you think I’m a monster?” I asked once I’d explained about Ernest’s condition.
“Of course not, Tal!” she assured me. “It’s not your fault.”
“Not my fault? How could it not be my fault? I kept pushing and pushing. I went too deep in to his mind. I should’ve known better.”
“No,” she said emphatically. “You were following the Director’s orders.”
“He didn’t mean for me to turn Ernest’s mind to mush. He just wanted me to find out the truth,” I insisted, quick to defend Mac even though I also felt that he deserved some of the blame.
“By pushing you past the point of exhaustion and forcing you to delve so far into Ernest’s mind that you broke his will?” she demanded, an uncharacteristic fire igniting behind her limey eyes.
“Mac had no way of knowing how close Ernest was to breaking. Only I knew, and I still pushed. I pushed him over the edge.” My voice cracked when I thought about the way that Ernest had looked after the interrogation. I slumped down in my desk chair, and Penny knelt down in front of me, to look me square in the eyes.
“It’s not your fault, Natalia,” she said firmly in a low voice. “Let me hear you say it.”
“It wasn’t my fault,” I repeated numbly. For a second, looking at Penny’s earnest face, I almost believed that the words were true.
“Now get ready. We’re already late.” She smiled, her tone switching back to bubbly.
There was no time to shower and straighten my hair, so I threaded a gold headband through the front of my curls to hold them back from my face. I applied a bare minimum of makeup – just enough to cover the dark circles beneath my eyes and to give my cheeks a rosy tint, so that I didn’t looking like the walking dead. Penny helped zip me into the dark red dress before I shrugged on the velvet jacket.
Just as I was giving my appearance a last once over, there was a knock at the door. Penny rushed to answer it, so that I wouldn’t be distracted. Donavon stood in the hallway. He looked amazing in a perfectly-tailored black suit complete with black shirt and black silk tie. He’d clearly put in extra effort, making his hair shiny and silky, falling neatly to his shoulders.
br /> “I’m sorry about earlier,” he apologized as he stepped into the room.
“No need to be sorry,” I replied with a smile. I didn’t have the energy to fight with Donavon tonight.
“I thought that you ladies might like an escort,” he said aloud.
“Thank you.” I really was glad that he’d come.
That is until Erik appeared in the doorway a second later. He, too, was wearing an immaculately tailored suit, but had opted for black pants and a white jacket instead with a white shirt and white bow tie. The white set off the tan of his skin. I had to restrain myself from hugging either boy. Worse, I didn’t know who I wanted to go to more.
“Guess I should have called,” Erik said lightly.
Donavon visibly tensed at the sound of Erik’s voice. Penny looked uncomfortably from one boy to the other, chewing on her thumbnail. Inwardly, I groaned. This was already shaping up to be an awesome night.
“No, it’s fine. The four of us can go together,” I replied, giving Erik a hard look. His self-satisfied expression, and smug thoughts, let me know that he’d anticipated Donavon’s presence. Erik knew that showing up in my bedroom, again, would piss off Donavon. From the look on Donavon’s face, Erik’s plan had worked; to say that Donavon was less-than-thrilled to see him would’ve been an understatement.
Our awkward foursome walked to the Headmistress's building. Penny and Erik chatted easily about mutual acquaintances back at Elite headquarters. I trailed several paces behind, trying to ignore Donavon's thoughts, centering mostly on his dislike for Erik. When we finally reached the entrance to the banquet hall, I let out a sigh of relief. The sooner I could get away from the stifling tension between the two boys, the better.
Most people were already there, thanks to my extended nap. The room was decorated in a truly magnificent fashion. A huge rectangular table sat in the middle of the room. The tablecloth was made of a thick gold fabric and embroidered with an intricate floral design. The place settings appeared to be bone china, slightly off-white and rimmed in real gold. All of the silverware was actually gold-ware, real gold if I had to guess. Huge red floral arrangements decorated the center of the table with red-and gold-swirled candles intermixed. The candles were emitting a smell that could only be described as fall - cinnamon and pumpkin spice. Carving stations with huge hunks of every type of meat I could imagine – and some that I’d never seen – lined one wall.