The Gray Institute (The Gray Institute Trilogy Book 1)

by Leanne Pearson

  'She's not nothing to me,' I frown. 'I like her,' I shrug, sighing at my own feeble comment. 'I feel for her, you know? I feel for her situation. It's not a fair one, she's got a shitty deal – '

  'Without a doubt, but that's not your fault. It's not your job to fix this, Eve!' Tia's getting agitated again so I grip her shoulders, trying to calm her down.

  'Look, I've connected with her, okay? Over a ridiculously short period of time, after three conversations with the girl, I have bonded with her.

  She's a friend to me, a good friend. She trusted me with her past, which is more than I've done with anyone here. How can I let her trust me like that and then throw it back in her face?'

  'Oh my God!' Tia puts her head in her hands, groaning theatrically. I sigh, sliding off my bed and crossing to the window, pulling out another cigarette. Though the nicotine craving has gone, the psychological feeling of de-stress from the comfort of a cigarette has not.

  Tia jumps up suddenly, springing to her feet, maniacally pulling a pair of sandals on.

  'Wait here,' She demands. 'Just wait, okay? Don't leave the room.'

  'Okay.' I frown, wondering if perhaps Tia's finally lost her mind. She sprints from the room, slamming the door behind her, her footsteps audible all the way down the hall.

  A moment alone gives me time to think. I process Lorna's plan step-by-step and realise how much detail she's neglected to include.

  Firstly, how would we leave the Institute in the first place? How tall did she say the fence was? Twenty feet?

  I could jump that with Lorna in my arms easily. But then what? We're chased by fifty Immortals?

  Even if we did make it away, how long would it be until they caught us? I have no idea how to go undetected and despite Lorna's seemingly endless encyclopaedia of knowledge, I doubt even she knows fifth year material.

  Then how would we find the 'Rebels' Lorna is so sure are out there? Why would they trust us? Would they even go for Lorna's ludicrous plan to use herself as bait?

  Then how would they find the Confine? An insider maybe, like the French Rebels?

  The plan is ridiculous, impossible, completely and utterly infeasible. It's unknown territory; two people who know nothing of the outside world as Immortals, running from a group of high status, highly dangerous Immortals.

  Which leads me to my key question... why am I considering helping Lorna in the first place?

  Forget the unthinkable plan, forget the entire ludicrousy of the situation – what are my reasons for helping a girl I barely know and don't trust to have my back? Whose only concern is getting one up on a system that's impossible to beat?

  I have no answer.

  The bedroom door opens and Tia re-emerges, her expression sheepish. She hovers on the threshold, her posture stiff and awkward.

  'I want you to promise you won't get mad.' She says slowly. I narrow my eyes at her, feeling the beginnings of rage stir in my stomach.

  'What have you done?' I hiss, my tone low and threatening. She shifts uncomfortably, her eyes on the floor.

  'Look, I did what I thought was best. I thought maybe – ' Tia's sentence is cut off as the door swings open, knocking her sideways. She stumbles before regaining her balance, just in time to be knocked over again as a familiar figure pushes past her into the room.

  'What the hell are you thinking, Eve?' Yells a voice which sounds a lot like Malachy's but is far too loud and rude to be. I stare as a raging, terrifying version of Malachy glares at me across the room.

  'I said; what the hell are you thinking?' He repeats when I don't reply, the sheer volume of his voice enough to set my teeth on edge.

  'I heard you.' I mutter.

  'Then answer me!' He demands. I wring my hands together, feeling like a child being told off by her dad.

  'I just thought... I know I can't...' I stammer, unable to answer his very simple question. I keep my eyes on the floor and watch Malachy's feet as he strides across the room, reaching me in three.

  'Eve,' He growls my name, forcing me to look at him. He's inches from my face but I feel none of the soft, floaty feelings I felt before; instead I feel sheer, cold fear as he gazes steadily and menacingly into my eyes. My body squirms as I hold his stare, transfixed, unable to look away no matter how hard I try, as though I'm paralysed against my will.

  'You will not so much as attempt to help Lorna Gray escape from the Institute. Is that clear?' His tone is low and calm, but undoubtedly authoritative and attractively hypnotizing. I feel my head nod without my permission.

  'Say it.' He demands, and my mouth opens obediently.

  'Malachy...' Tia's frightened, quivering voice snaps me out of my trance and I break eye contact with Malachy. My body slumps, as if it's been released from tight bindings, and I glare coldly at Malachy, my meekness gone.

  'Don't you dare use your freaky Auctorita power on me!' I cry, snarling at him. 'Don't you dare. And thank you,' I turn to Tia. 'For warning me about that. That was really good of you. How dare you screech at me about acting strangely around Malachy when all along you knew why it was! You knew of his hold over me, over all of us!'

  'It's not supposed to go that far!' Tia protests, her voice pleading. 'I'd seen it before, in Meredith, and I was scared you were going the same way as her! I said all that stuff to try to convince you that he wouldn't be interested in you. To try to keep you away from him!'

  'You had me convinced that I was going crazy!' I yell, feeling a deep sense of satisfaction as Tia winces.

  'Tia, leave us.' Malachy commands. Tia hesitates. 'Now.' He adds sharply.

  She obeys, giving me one final, pleading glance before closing the door behind her. She hovers for a moment outside before her footsteps recede into the distance. I turn back to glare at Malachy.

  'You can't just use it on people like that.' I snap, referring to his treatment of Tia.

  'I didn't,' He replies. 'I just told her to leave.'

  I lower my gaze, fighting the magnetic urge to look into his eyes. The fact that I have no idea what are really my words and my actions, and what are not, scares me.

  'Eve?' Malachy's voice is softer now, calm. But still I refuse to acknowledge him. 'I promise, I won't use it, okay? You have my word.' He states.

  I flicker my eyes back up reluctantly, but instead of looking at him directly, I glare at a spot on the opposite wall.

  'How much of it was me?' I ask, gritting my teeth.

  'Almost all of it,' He replies. 'I forced you to find me at the stairwell that time I dropped the door number, and I forced you to come back to my room after I'd told you to leave. But that was all.'

  'You have to promise never to use it on me again.' I demand, but to my disbelief, he shakes his head.

  'It's not that simple,' He protests. 'It's not always under my control. You have a natural instinct to want to obey me. You are naturally drawn to me. There's nothing I can do to change that. Believe me, if I could, I would.' He replies sadly, and I remember Aleks Anzhela.

  'Were her feelings real?' I ask, knowing there's no need to explain who I mean. He hesitates for a moment, considering my question.

  'Yes, I believe so,' He nods. 'She was drawn to me, like everybody else, but I used no influence on her. Her feelings turned romantic of her own accord.'

  'Are mine?' I ask.

  'Are yours what?'

  'Romantic?'

  'You misunderstand it,' He shakes his head. 'I can't force you to feel anything that strong. If I really wanted to, I could bend your will. I could make you feel a vague, inexplicable dislike for Tia which you'll never quite be able to ignore, but I couldn't make you detest her. Any more than I could make you fall in love with me. I can make you infatuated, but it wouldn't be real and it wouldn't last very long.'

  I consider this, walking a fine line between pure anger towards Malachy, and utter sympathy for him. How trying it must be to be forever guessing if people really like you, or are simply drawn to you against their will, unaware of it themselves.


  How does he know who to trust? Who's really a friend and who isn't? How many people who are forever flung at his feet, like Meredith, would turn against him if his power somehow dissipated?

  'I apologise for using it on you,' Malachy says carefully, his eyes unwavering. 'And I'm sorry for neglecting to tell you about it, it's hard to put into words and not something I like to admit or discuss.'

  I nod; this is understandable, and I can rest assured that Malachy isn't the worst person who could possess this sort of power – it could, for instance, have been Lucrezia.

  'But I'm not here to debate my 'power' or fate with you, I'm here to advise you strongly against your ridiculous decision to help Lorna Gray.'

  'I haven't decided anything...'

  'But you are considering it.' He interrupts, silencing me. I can't deny it, he would know I'm lying.

  'Eve, it's not exactly what you'd call flawless,' He snorts sarcastically. 'Why do you want to help her? Risk all of your eternity for her?' He grits his teeth as his asks this, sounding even angrier than before, though I don't know why.

  'I don't know,' I sigh, sinking down onto my bed, letting my weakness show. 'I suppose I feel truly sorry for her. No one should have to endure what she has.'

  'I don't deny that Lorna Gray has had a pretty tough time of things, but don't make the mistake of thinking she's the only one here who has.' He reminds me. I glance at him, realising that he, too, has many reasons to hate the system.

  'Wouldn't you get back at them? If you could?' I ask. He looks away uncomfortably, pausing a moment.

  'By 'they', I assume you mean my family?' He raises an eyebrow.

  'Yes, your family,' I nod. 'The family who took Aleks away from you. The family who are forcing you to live a life of misery, until the day when you can be the one taking loved ones away from others.'

  'Don't cross the line, Eve,' Malachy growls, his expression closing off again. 'That subject isn't up for discussion. The bottom line is: if you decide to help Lorna Gray escape from the Institute, I will be forced to inform Sir Alec, and my family, of your plans. It is my duty.' He clenches his jaw but I sense that his words aren't as final as he'd like them to be.

  'Would you really Confine me, Malachy?' I lean back, propping myself up on my elbows as I stretch across the bed. I'm being extremely cocky, I know, but no matter what I say or how I say it, there's no reasoning with him.

  'Don't you understand?' He loses his temper, his eyes flashing with anger. He takes a few steps forwards, so that his frame towers above me.

  'Of course you don't,' He sneers, narrowing his gaze, his aura oozing with hostility. 'You're nobody. You're of no importance, and any decisions you make don't matter to anyone. Well I'm not!' He yells, the weight of his words bearing down heavily on both of us.

  'My decisions are extremely important! What I think and what I do can be the difference between freedom and Confinement for Immortals, life or death for humans.

  I'm entrusted with our entire species and one day I will govern it. Do you really think I'm going to let your stupid, idiotic plan to rescue an insignificant woman from a fate she brought upon herself get in the way of that?

  Remember who I am, Eve. Remember who my family are. And stop taking liberties with the friendship and help I've extended to you.

  I will not be lenient with you because you happen to look like my ex-girlfriend, is that understood?

  You are nothing to me and if you break a rule, if I hear so much as a whisper of your aiding Lorna Gray to escape, I will have you Confined and her killed.

  The choice is yours.' He snarls before turning abruptly, striding across the room and disappearing through the door. His footsteps recede into the distance and I lay on my back, paralysed with shock.

  I don't pretend to know Malachy inside out, I don't pretend to be something to him that I'm not, but I was pretty sure that he wouldn't Confine me without a second thought. Apparently I was wrong.

  He risked a lot helping me with Katy Branch, he has a lot to lose, and it was stupid of me to think that because he did it once, he would do it over and over again. It was stupid of me to think that just because he helped me once, that made me something to him.

  I'd forgotten his status amongst us. Forgotten that he is entrusted with duties and tasks beyond my imagination, far more important than anything I've done or will ever do.

  Our entire world will soon look to him for guidance and decisions. His father already expects him to conduct himself in a certain way, have certain opinions and demonstrate that he's Auctorita material.

  Did I really think he would cast all that aside for me?

  My cockiness only a few moments ago now embarrasses me, and I curl into a ball, my ego knocked to the ground.

  *

  I make a steadfast decision to stay as far away from Malachy – and, for the moment, Lorna – as I can get. I need time to myself to think, figure this whole mess out and make a decision on where to go from this point.

  All I can be sure of is that this situation won't end well for me, the only question now is: how would I like to go out? What offence would I prefer to be dragged to the Confine for?

  Tia doesn't come back to our room all night and I guess that her brush with Malachy's darker side sent her running for the comfort of Richard's arms.

  It's better this way anyhow; company is the last thing I want right now. But despite laying in bed for eight hours, thinking the events of the day through, come morning I'm no closer to a decision or solution.

  I'm thankful that my first lesson of the day is Theory; I can handle neither the physical or mental demands of my other classes. Will's quiet, stuffy classroom seems like a good sanctuary for me and my seat at the front of the class keeps me away from the other students, no conversation or contact necessary.

  Will announces that today's lesson will be a lecture, and whilst the rest of the class groan in distaste, I'm secretly pleased. Losing myself in Will's tales of history and politics is just what I need to take my mind off the present, and I settle in my seat, ready to – for once – give my undivided attention to my education.

  'Who can tell me the name of our Government?' He starts with an easy question, and Logan rolls his eyes, indulging Will with a bored sounding answer.

  'The Auctoritas.'

  'Correct, Mr Marshall. An easy question and an easy answer. But how many of you can tell me who the Auctoritas are? Their individual names and positions?'

  I fidget in my seat as heat builds within my chest. I love to share my knowledge with others, and I especially like to please Will, but to reveal my awareness of Sirus and Maya would only shed a damning light on Tia, who broke a rule by telling me about them.

  I keep quiet, pretending to be as bemused as the rest of the class.

  'In order to live in this world, run and governed by the Auctoritas, it would be beneficial for you to know a little about them,' Will smiles, taking his usual position perched on the edge of his desk at the head of the class.

  'So, we'll begin with Sirus Bathory; head of the Auctoritas, the highest power in our world,' Will informs us. 'Sirus has ruled over our kind for two hundred years thus far. He succeeded his father, Caruso Bejarano, in 1813. Caruso had ruled for five hundred years and it was his time to step down and allow his son to take over...'

  'How did the Auctoritas first come into existence? For that matter, how did we?' I ask, my curiosity stirring.

  'Yeah, who's the oldest Immortal?' Tomos pipes up.

  'Our kind first came into existence around 200,000 BC, as linear time is now regarded. We evolved alongside the first humans, helping to build civilisation as it's now known.

  As to the oldest Immortal, that's a difficult question to answer. If you're asking for the oldest immortal in the truest sense of the word – as in: he who has been alive the longest – this would be Ka, a Sumerian man still in existence today. However Ka is immortal only by name. He has the ability to live forever, but does not live as we do.

&n
bsp; The oldest Immortal in the way that we are, is Menes Sekhem, who stands at around 10,000 years old, born in 8000 BCE,' Will smiles at a sea of baffled faces and sighs.

  'I'll try to put this as simply as I can, but we're touching on a very complex and little understood history. Our kind evolved in the same way humans did; we began as a superior race, faster, smarter, more developed than early human beings, but by no means Immortal.

  Most of early human civilisation was built by our kind. But the one flaw in our biology was the lack of us. Our oldest ancestors were not Immortal, and the offspring they produced were not Immortal, until Ka.

  Born to a biologically human – albeit superior – mother and father, he was the first of our kind to be born immortal. However, he possessed little of the power we, as modern Immortals, harness now.

  He's only slightly smarter, faster or stronger than the average human, not an Immortal in our sense of the word, nor does he feed on human blood.

  Ka mated with many human women for many years and all of his offspring were born mortal, until Menes Sekhem.

  The first modern Immortal, Sekhem was ten times faster, stronger, more intelligent than his father – and had an irresistible urge to feed on human blood. I believe he killed his own mother.