Mackenzie scrunched her face but nodded reluctantly. “You still have a choice, though. We don't want you here if you don't want to be here and we don't mean just for now. We mean for the long run. If you quit now we might have time to find someone to replace you, so if you agree to stay this time, then you're agreeing to stay until we see if we qualify for Vicara.”
“You mean I'm agreeing to stay until we win Vicara,” Ryan said, correcting her with some bravado.
Logan's face lit up. “That's a yes then?”
Ryan nodded. “That's a yes.”
“What about your girl?” Clarisse questioned softly. The others turned to look at her. “You can give up Alex for that long?”
“You know about Alex?” Ryan asked, not really surprised.
Clarisse nodded. “I've always known about her. That's my job. It's the same way I knew you accidentally let the other team know about our comms.”
“They didn't know about them before?”
“We're the only team with comms. Logan designed them himself.” Clarisse sighed. “Cat’s probably out of the bag now. Get ready for some cheap knock-offs, Logan.”
Ryan really thought about it as they discussed what would happen at the academy as fallout. He didn’t care as he remembered Alex and wondered - could he give her up for the next few years? Could he put the team before her?
He glanced over at them. He looked at Kenichi, who was still favoring one arm. The boy had been shot for him. Clarisse had inhaled sleeping gas for him. The others had placed themselves between him and members of a disciplinary squad. They were ready to protect him at the risk of their own lives. The least he could do was be the kind of teammate that they deserved.
“Can you tell me if Alex is okay?” he asked Clarisse.
Clarisse sighed. “Paul's taken her underground. I don't have the reach to go looking into his group's business.”
“You know Paul?”
“Of course I know Paul. He's one of the most notorious car thieves out there,” Clarisse said with a duh expression.
“Paul's famous?”
“You didn't know that?” Kenichi asked with an over-the-top laugh. Daylan must have really over-medicated the boy.
“No, I didn't,” Ryan said. “As far as you know though, Alex is okay?”
“Yes,” Clarisse said. “As long as she's with Paul, she should be fine.”
“That's all that matters then. My best chance of getting back to her is by working with you guys to win Vicara.”
He looked around at his seven teammates. They were all looking back at him, and for once, they were all smiling. Even if Kenichi’s smile was drug-enhanced, Ryan felt a part of them. A part of the family.
“We should get to work then,” Mackenzie said. “Now that we officially have a full team, we have plans to make.”
“And revenge to get,” Kenichi added. “Mystique's team is going to pay for messing with us.”
“First, you two need to heal up,” Daylan said. “So, if you're done with dinner, then you should get to bed.”
“Fine, but we won't be sleeping.” Kenichi muttered pulling himself up out of the chair gingerly, then motioning for Clarisse to follow him. On their way out, Kenichi gave Ryan an approving nod, and Clarisse paused long enough to give him a quick hug.
“You realize-” Daylan started.
“I'm on it,” Aria said and followed the two to Kenichi's bedroom, but not before patting Ryan on the shoulder.
“I'll be there as soon as I fix Clarisse some more tea for her throat,” Daylan called after Aria. “You're sure you're not injured?” he asked Ryan.
“I'm sure.”
“I'll go get that tea then.”
Ryan tiredly watched them leave. The events of the day were catching up with him. He had been betrayed by the one person he had thought he could trust at the academy. Ryan wondered how he could have been so easily fooled by Eloise and her team. He had thought only informants had the ability to lie so easily to someone. His own team though, while they had kept things from him, hadn’t seemed to have actually lied about anything. There was also the fact that they had all risked their lives for him and he felt that any minor deceptions could be overlooked because of that. Yeah, anyone who helped him out when he was running for his life could probably be trusted.
He was jerked from his drowsy state when Eva stood and gathered the dishes. “I'll take care of cleaning up everything tonight. Ryan, I was thinking maybe we should spar in the morning. How does five thirty sound to you?”
“It sounds early,” he said. He wasn’t sure he even had the energy to drag himself to his bed, never mind trying to get out of it in the morning.
Eva merely smiled. “Perfect.”
Her grin was infectious, and Ryan found himself smiling back. “Yeah, perfect.”
“I'll help with those dishes!” Logan leapt from his seat. He grinned widely at Ryan. “This is great!” he remarked. Ryan chuckled.
Mackenzie stood and made her way to the doorway. “I'm going to go start making arrangements to get a little revenge on Mystique's team,” she said. “Kenichi will run off on his own if I don't give him some kind of plans soon.” At the doorway, she stopped as if she was debating something and called over her shoulder. “Hey, Ryan!”
“Yeah?”
“Welcome home.”
*
The day after the attack on the villa, Ryan's band beeped and displayed a holographic message. Report to Dr. Dupin's office immediately.
“That seems ominous,” Logan commented while helping himself to more bacon.
Ryan stared as the words circled around for a several long moments before disappearing.
Mackenzie frowned. “He knows about your pathetic attempt at escaping then.”
It seemed that even though the attack had established a tentative friendship between Ryan and the others, their leader was still intent on insulting him. In a way, Ryan was grateful for the barb. He deserved whatever punishment they thought appropriate. In a way, it eased his guilt over Kenichi and the others who were wounded.
“Mac,” Eva said in the tone she used whenever she wanted someone to play nice.
“What? It was a pathetic attempt. At least the last person who tried to escape made it to town.”
Ryan was too frightened by the summoning to the headmaster's office to actually be offended by Mackenzie's comment.
“What do I do? What's going to happen?”
“Don't worry so much,” Clarisse said. “Set your comm to allow us to listen in, and at the first sign of trouble, we'll burst in and save you.”
He didn't ask what they could possibly do. If the headmaster wanted him demoted then it was only a matter of time before Ryan found himself working in a labor camp or living in a cell. What was the punishment for trying to escape? They couldn't possibly save him from such a fate. They were merely Belligerents themselves. They could be stopped by a simple injection of a sedative.
“Relax, Ryan. Breathe,” Clarisse instructed him, and Ryan realized he had been holding his breath. “Everything will be fine.”
“Besides, if it was really serious, they would have just sent the disciplinary squad to collect you,” Kenichi added. There was less of a bite to his tone than when he usually addressed him, and Ryan didn’t know whether to attribute that to Kenichi's finally deciding to like him or to the painkillers currently running through the retrieval specialist's bloodstream.
“What makes you think they're not on their way?” Ryan asked. “The message could have been a distraction.”
“Because,” Kenichi said, locking his gaze with him, “we'd be unconscious on the floor if that were the case. They know if they try to take a Belligerent away, their teammates will fight to keep them. They'll knock the teammates out before collecting someone.”
“You should get going,” Daylan said. “The message did say 'immediately,' after all.”
Ryan slowly slid his chair away from the table and stood. Though he didn’t attend
city school long enough to know what it was like to get summoned to the principal’s office, he assumed this was much worse.
Clarisse gave him a reassuring smile. “We'll be right behind you, listening in on every word.”
Ryan left the villa alone, knowing the others would be walking the same path in mere minutes. The path to the campus center never seemed shorter and all too soon Ryan was standing outside of Dr. Dupin's office. He raised a hand to the knock, but before he could, the door was flung open.
“Get in here!” Dr. Dupin said with a manic look to his wide eyes. Ryan hurried to do as instructed and took a seat when Dr. Dupin gestured at a chair.
The headmaster secured the door behind them and turned to face the student.
“Turn that comm off. And, yes, I know about the comms,” he said while pacing the room. Like the first time Ryan had met the man, Dr. Dupin's hair stuck out in wild directions. His stained tie was undone and his shirt wasn’t pressed.
Tell him you would prefer not to. Clarisse instructed easily.
“Clarisse said to say no,” Ryan said.
“She would,” Dr. Dupin muttered tiredly. “Fine then. She would find another way to listen anyway. You're not being demoted, so wipe that frightened rabbit look off your face. I don't appreciate feeling like a villain.”
“You're not having me switched to being an Omega or sent to a labor camp?”
“No, only your Owner has that kind of power. We can only expel you from an academy, but that's usually a guarantee of a demotion.”
“Am I being expelled then?”
Dr. Dupin shook his head. “No, no, you didn't break any rules.”
“Leaving campus without permission isn't breaking a rule?”
“No, that's just our cue to retrieve you, so your Owner won't blame us for losing his property.”
“Good to know,” Ryan muttered under his breath. “Was there a reason you wanted to see me?”
“You can't leave like that!” Dr. Dupin practically shouted. “You could have been killed! The disciplinary squad isn't careful. They don't care how they get you back as long as they get you back on campus.”
“And my well-being is of great concern to you?”
“Yes!” Dr. Dupin shouted and seemed to surprise even himself.
“What makes me so important?” Ryan asked after recovering from his shock. “Surely, you don't care about the well-being of all your students like this?”
Dr. Dupin heaved a sigh of exasperation and cringed. He pressed both middle fingers to his temples as if trying to stave off a headache. The movement seemed familiar to Ryan, but he couldn't place why. “Just don't do something that dangerous again.”
“I'm a Belligerent. My whole life is kind of dangerous.”
“Fine,” Dr. Dupin growled. “Don't do something that stupid again.”
“Got it,” Ryan said. Then, in a less cocky tone, he asked, “Does Shifter know about my attempt?”
Dr. Dupin smirked. “How do you think your teammates got off campus? You may not know this, but as soon as your hover-bike exited the gates, Mystique's team had your band send out an alert that it was no longer connected to your wrist. Your teammates' permission slips appeared on my tablet moments later. Shifter was in on their rescue plan the whole time.”
“That man is a sociopath.”
“You won't find me disagreeing.”
“Is that all?” Ryan asked.
Dr. Dupin looked him over. “That's all for now. Go on and get to class before you're late.”
Ryan nodded and practically ran from the office. He waited until he was away from the hall to speak. “You guys get all that?”
Yeah, Mackenzie replied.
Seems like Dr. Dupin's a man with a secret. Clarisse said. Don't worry. I'll have it figured out soon enough.
“Where are you guys at?”
Kenichi and I are waiting for you outside of lit class. Everyone else had to head to their own classes. Eva sounded as relieved as Ryan felt.
Not having to plan an escape or worry about being demoted had lifted a huge weight off Ryan. He still wasn't thrilled that he was a Belligerent, but he had realized that there were worse fates. Besides, it wasn't so horrible at the academy and it was only for a few years. As long as Clarisse could keep tabs on Alex, Ryan really didn't need anything else, except maybe to somehow get word to Alex that he was doing okay. It was nice not having anything more than a paper on Bleak House to stress over.
Chapter 11
Three weeks after Ryan's meeting with Dr. Dupin, Kenichi's bullet wound had mostly healed and Mackenzie was plotting vengeance against Mystique's team with a devotion she usually reserved for her schoolwork and training. Everyone knew it would be planned to the minutest detail and would probably take months before it was actually ready. Ryan became frightened at the thought of what would happen if he ever truly angered the strategist. He had found himself accepting his role as a Belligerent with a certain ease once he had realized that he could trust his teammates. Straightening his uniform that morning in front of his bedroom mirror, Ryan noted that even the green tie no longer felt like a noose around his neck.
He was startled from his thoughts by a loud knock on his door. “You're up for the games tomorrow. Pack a bag!” Mackenzie shouted.
Ryan froze. “What?” He ran to the door and threw it open. “What did you say?” he asked once he caught sight of Mackenzie, who was already heading to the kitchen.
She turned around, balancing one hand on her hip in the way that she did when she was annoyed. “Shifter wants to see how you're progressing, so he's entered you in a pit game that will be first thing in the morning. Pack a bag because we're leaving after breakfast.”
“What about classes?”
Mackenzie shrugged. “What about them?”
Ryan noticed for the first time that Mackenzie wasn't wearing her school uniform. In fact, she was still in a pair of sleep pants and a tank top.
“I'll see you at breakfast then,” she said. “Don't forget a formal outfit for the party,” she called over her shoulder as she left the courtyard.
Clarisse leaned her head out of her loft window. Foils were in her long hair where she was adding some different colored streaks to the bleach blonde. “Need some help?”
Ryan nodded mutely.
“I'll be right down!”
*
After breakfast, Ryan found himself on a plane with only Mackenzie and Shifter. Apparently, Shifter tended to only enter two team members in a pit game at a time, and the others remained at the villa if classes were in session. After exchanging greetings, Mackenzie and Shifter had chosen to not speak to each other if it wasn't obligatory. It seemed Mackenzie was still holding some anger about her brother's death towards the man, even though she had realized a while ago that there was no one to blame except for the team who had attacked them. While Shifter had seemed to respect Mackenzie's desire to not speak, he had tried to interrogate Ryan until Mackenzie had complained that she was getting a headache.
The plane was the same one in which Ryan had flown to the academy the first time. It wasn’t as large as the more common commuter aircraft, but the plane could comfortably accommodate Shifter and the entire team, as well as an attendant who saw to any of their needs. Ryan glanced over to where Mackenzie had her seat fully reclined. He was almost positive she wasn't really sleeping. Shifter was on his tablet, but if his snorts of amusement every few seconds were any indication, then he wasn't working. Ryan had tried watching a movie for a while. When that didn’t keep his attention, he switched to doing some homework for a few of his classes. It was hopeless though. Despite having been to pit games numerous times before, he had never been a participant in one, and his nerves were on edge. He felt like he would lose the little amount of breakfast he had struggled to eat that morning. He kept glancing over to the door to the bathroom ready to dart if his stomach did another flip-flop.
“Calm down already,” Shifter said, but there was a smile on
his face.
Mackenzie popped her chair up and glanced at him. “You're turning green. How appropriate,” she said in a deadpan tone.
He simply nodded at her.
“You maybe should have given him more than twenty-fours notice, considering this is his first time,” she said, turning her attention to their Owner.
Shifter shrugged. “I thought this way he would have less time to make himself nervous. I doubt you were very sensitive when delivering the news.”
Mackenzie's eyes narrowed. “What do you know of sensitivity? You lack all emotions except sadism.”
“Hah! This coming from the girl who has only two emotions: loud anger and silent anger. You have my pity if this is what she's been like your entire stay so far, Ryan.”
“She's much easier to deal with than you are.” Ryan said.
Mackenzie burst into laughter. “Looks like you annoy the new kid as well.”
“I need a plane with two rooms,” Shifter muttered. “These flights seem to be lasting longer each trip.”
“What are the games like?” Ryan blurted.
“You've been to pit games before. That's how we met, after all,” Shifter said.
“I've never participated in one.”
“Hasn't Eva had you sparring with the others?” Shifter asked. “When I told her I wanted to see what you had learned so far and asked if she thought you could handle a pit game, she said yes.”
“He sparred against me. Eva's had him against the bags since then, except for a handful of sparring sessions against her.” Mackenzie explained. “She's been teaching him the basics.”
Shifter seemed a little surprised by that. “Mackenzie took you down? You must really be absolutely dreadful.”
“Hey!” They both exclaimed.
Shifter waved off their protests. “Pit games for Betas are basically sparring. An Owner will stop the match if it looks like one of their Betas might actually be in danger of death. You have had some weapons training at least? Eva would have called ahead to ensure that they had a decent variety of whatever your weapon choice is.”
Belligerent (Vicara) Page 15
