Then his words sank in. Mac knew Erik stayed in my room the night before. How did he know that? Mac wasn’t even supposed to be in the hotel. I wanted to crawl under the table and hide, I was so mortified.
“I’m sorry, Director McDonough,” Erik hissed to Mac through teeth so tightly clenched that a muscle in his jaw jumped erratically and I worried his stitches might split open.
“You’re right. I did spend last night with Talia. After what I saw yesterday, what I went through, I wanted to be near her. But you know as well as I do that I will not let anything happen to her. She is like my family and you, of all people, know the sacrifices I’m willing to make for my family.” Erik’s words were a challenge.
Raw fear showed in Mac’s eyes as they quickly darted in my direction. I kept my face impassive. Inwardly, I reeled at the realization that Mac was aware of the fact that Erik’s father and brothers were virtual prisoners. Almost worse than Mac’s knowledge was Erik’s omission. Why hadn’t he told me? Did he honestly think that I was too delicate to handle the truth? Erik was normally so cognizant of my mood, but he was too focused on Mac to register my irritation now.
Mac quickly recovered his composure. He glanced between me and Erik, seeming to choose his next words carefully. “You make a compelling case, Mr. Kelley. I will grant your request. However, I am serious about you sleeping in your own room. Should I find out you disobeyed me again, or let anything happen to her, I will personally ensure that you are sanctioned for your obstinacy,” Mac threatened him.
Anger and frustration shimmered around Erik like an aura. His hands clenched into fists, and for one terrible moment, I was convinced he would hit Mac. My mouth gaped stupidly in shock and I sat paralyzed, unable to send Erik calming thoughts before he did something stupid. Luckily, Erik was better at controlling his emotions than I was and he quelled his temper without my help.
“Natalia,” Mac said turning to me, his tone softer than the one he’d used on Erik, but still stern. “I am aware that you are not blameless in all of this. I am partially to blame for your misguided belief that rules do not apply to you, but in this case, they do. I know you think I am being overprotective, but I am simply looking out for your mental and physical health, so, please humor me. It would also please me if the two of you would show a little discretion in public.”
I snapped my lips shut, swallowing my bitter retort. “Yes, Mac,” I agreed quietly when I finally regained my composure. Ordinarily, I would have put up a fight, but the knowledge that if I refused, I’d end up with one of Mac’s spies trailing me around halted any further argument on my part.
“Good. We are all in agreement. Natalia, I’ll stop by and see you this evening.” With that, Mac was gone.
I let out a long breath and Erik slumped back into his chair. Cadence’s small eyes were impossibly large as she glanced back and forth between us.
“I think I’m going to get something to eat before we go,” she mumbled, practically leaping out of her seat in her haste to get away from the uncomfortable scene she’d just witnessed.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I hissed to Erik once she was gone.
“I know,” Erik whispered. “But I couldn’t let him have some random guy following you around. I hate the idea of him spying on you more than he already does. The whole situation makes me sick.”
“Do you think he’s making up the threat to me?” I asked.
“Not exactly,” Erik began slowly. “I just think it’s very convenient is all.”
“What about your father and your brothers?” I asked. “Aren’t you worried he’ll do something after you brought that up in front of me? And why didn’t you tell me that Mac knew?” My temper was rearing its ugly head.
“I didn’t tell you because I didn’t think you’d believe me. I thought it would be hard enough for you to believe that Toxic would do something like that in the first place. And don’t say you would have, because I know you still have your doubts,” Erik growled, his rage rising to match my own.
When Erik got angry, he scared me, but I was still reeling with the knowledge that he’d lied to me.
“Had doubts,” I snapped, straightening my spine defiantly.
“Huh?” he asked, slightly thrown off, the fire in his eyes dimming.
“You said I have my doubts. I don’t,” I hissed. “I know better.”
Erik deflated and reached for my hand. When I didn’t pull away, he laced his fingers through mine. “I’m sorry, Tals. I’m not angry with you. And to answer your question, no, I don’t think he will do anything to my father or brothers. I knew it was a risk, but I figured mentioning it in front of you would ensure he didn’t. At least I hope that is the case,” Erik said. The conflicted expression that passed over Erik’s features extinguished my own anger. He’d chosen me over his family. He’d risked their lives to spare me the indecency of having a babysitter.
“You shouldn’t have,” I repeated weakly.
“What’s done is done.”
Getting a late start to the day meant the testing ran well past dinnertime. The children all exuded a fear well beyond that of those we’d seen in the previous two days. I took my time with the questions and did a fair deal more improvising in an attempt to put them at ease. Today, Cadence didn’t care about my lengthy sessions, or at least if she did, she refrained from commenting.
Erik’s bruised and battered appearance did little to comfort the children and I even considered suggesting that he wait in the other room with Cadence. But the mental exertion was exhausting and having him next to me helped lessen the burden.
“Just one more,” Cadence said, passing through the doorway separating the two rooms. She sounded as tired as I felt. Her eyes were slightly swollen and her short black hair was mussed around the temples from where she’d been rubbing her head to ward off a headache.
“Thank god,” I mumbled. “I’m starving.” My stomach rumbled loudly, punctuating the statement.
Mac’s allegations from that morning weighed heavily on my mind. All day, I had been contemplating whether to approach him about letting me question Crane’s men. I had to know whether the threat was as severe as Mac had implied or if he were being overly cautious. And more than anything, I wanted to know what it was Crane intended to do with me if, and when, he found me. Was he finally going to kill me? Finish what his men had started the night my parents were killed?
“Do you want me to do the last one?” Erik asked, rubbing my neck to ease my tension. It was well past the time when I normally took my medicine and I was beginning to feel jittery, on edge. But I wasn’t the only one who had slept little the previous night and I wasn’t the one who’d spent the previous day in a war zone. So instead of letting Erik take care of me, I told him no.
“I’m okay. I can do it.” I smiled reassuringly. Erik looked doubtful, but said nothing.
“Bring her in,” I said, turning to Cadence.
She nodded and turned to fetch the waiting child.
When she returned, she was accompanied by Alexia Cruise and a small girl in a flowery dress with a white cardigan fastened over her small shoulders. Hair the color of corn was held back from her forehead with a white band that tied in a bow on one side. Beautiful pink irises twinkled brightly with unshed tears.
The girl’s angelic features and nervous demeanor were a sharp contrast to power radiating from her small body. In my time with Toxic, I’d encountered other strong Talents, none that exuded so much raw energy. I was drawn to her, a moth to a flame. One glance at Erik told me he felt it too.
The little girl climbed into the empty chair across from me and Erik, her pudgy legs swinging as she kicked her white patented leather-clad feet back and forth. She held her head high and stared straight ahead as Alexia Cruise readied to inject her with the amplification drug.
“That’s not necessary,” I said quietly, nodding to the syringe poised over the girl’s pale arm.
“What?” Ms. Cruise asked, confused.
> “She doesn’t need the drug,” Erik clarified, letting out a heavy sigh.
“But its protocol,” Alexia Cruise insisted.
“Just draw a sample of her blood,” I ordered. “If anyone asks why you didn’t give her the injection, you can tell them it was my decision.” Not that I had the authority to make such a decision, but that had never stopped me before. There was no point in amplifying the girl’s abilities, anyway.
Alexia Cruise hesitated for the space of a minute before nodding. She extracted a blood sample and was on her way. Cadence studied me curiously. I realized she couldn’t feel it. What was so obvious to me and Erik was lost on both Cadence and Alexia Cruise.
“Your name is Ingrid, right?” I asked when Cadence had finally left the room.
“Ingrid Bowman,” the girl replied in a clear voice that held more maturity than any five year olds should.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ingrid. My name is Talia,” I told her. “And this,” I pointed to Erik, “is my friend, Erik.”
Ingrid’s rosy cheeks spread in to a big grin. “You mean your boyfriend,” she said knowingly.
I laughed. “Yes, my boyfriend,” I agreed.
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” she replied, her face falling.
“Well, you’re still young; you’ve got time to change that.” I tried to keep a straight face, but the girl’s solemn expression made it hard.
“You know why you’re here, don’t you, Ingrid?” I said it as though it was a question, but it was really more of a statement.
“Because I can hear people’s thoughts,” she answered in a small voice, the earlier tears were back.
“Yes, you have a form of Mental Manipulation called Telepathy,” I replied honestly.
“Am I going to be taken away from my mommy?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“No, no. You aren’t going to be taken away,” I soothed, even though essentially she was. “You’re going to get to spend the school year with other children like you, special kids.”
Next to me, Erik’s expression turned grim.
“Will I still get to see my mommy?” Ingrid asked frantically.
“Of course, you will,” I replied, giving her a tight smile. The half-truth ate away at my gut. Ingrid would return to her family during summers and holidays. Over time, the trips home would be less frequent. Training, fine-tuning, her abilities would start to take precedence.
“How come I don’t hear your thoughts?” she asked me quizzically. “I hear everyone’s thoughts. Is there something wrong with you?”
I almost laughed. There were so many things wrong with me, where to begin? The reason she couldn’t read my mind, though, was because as soon as she’d picked up on the fact Erik was my boyfriend, I’d put up walls. No one, let alone a child, deserved the torture of rooting around in my head. It might scar her for life.
“Well,” I began slowly, not quite sure what to tell her. “You see, I’m like you,” I finally said after a long pause. It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it wasn’t really a lie either. I could read people’s minds, but I needed to establish a connection with the person beforehand. Ingrid, on the other hand, needed no such connection; her gift provided a direct line to others’ thoughts and feelings, whether she wanted it or not. “At the McDonough School, you will be taught to block your mind so others like you can’t read it,” I continued.
“Really?” she asked hopefully.
“Really,” I confirmed. “You will also learn to control your abilities, so you only hear others when you want to.” Ingrid’s big pink eyes lit up at my promise.
“Do you read heads, too?” Ingrid asked, turning to look at Erik for the first time.
“Sometimes,” Erik answered uncomfortably. Explaining how mimicry worked to a child would take all day; it was too complicated. I barely understood Erik’s Talents.
“Your brain doesn’t buzz like hers,” Ingrid accused him.
“No, it doesn’t,” I confirmed, impressed she had picked up on the fact. “Erik’s abilities are slightly different from mine.”
“Hmmm,” the little girl replied, pursing her small lips together.
“Can you do anything else special?” I changed the subject, returning to the actual administration of the test.
“Nope,” she answered, averting her gaze to her lap. A brilliant liar she was not.
“Can you control other people? Make them do what you want?” I asked softly.
“Nope,” she responded, shaking her blonde head so forcefully, the bow threatened to detach from the headband.
I’d established enough of a connection to read her mind; she was telling the truth. She was young and inexperienced enough that I didn’t need to probe at all to figure out what she was hiding.
“You can make it rain,” Erik said kindly before I got the chance.
“Yes,” she whispered the confirmation.
“So can Talia,” Erik assured her.
“Really?” she asked me, a plea for confirmation. Oddly, her control over the elements bothered her more than the ability to read minds.
The ability to control the weather was an odd byproduct of mental manipulation and, in rare instances, Telekinetics demonstrated the power. When my emotions ran out of control, as they often did, I was able to make it rain or kick up strong winds. At least once that I knew of, I had even caused an electrical storm.
“Yes, really.” I nodded, feeling a strong kinship with the little girl. Discovering you possessed abilities others did not was unsettling at first. With time, she would learn to cope with that. It became easier after you learned you weren’t alone.
I asked her a couple more probing questions about the extent of her powers as she knew them, but wasn’t able to glean any more useful information. If she had other abilities, she wasn’t aware of them.
When I was confident that I had extracted all the pertinent facts, I turned to the mirror and nodded to Cadence, indicating we were finished. Cadence came through the adjoining door instantly and told Ingrid to follow her.
Ingrid Bowman’s pink eyes stay glued to me until she’d exited the room, her mix of trepidation and relief mirroring my own. We were both relieved she would be going somewhere she would no longer feel like a freak for being different. But we both ached at the thought of the forced separation from her family. I personally knew how hard it was to be torn from your parents, but unlike me, Ingrid would at least see hers on vacations. That fact absolved me slightly of the guilt at having been a part of taking her away from those she loved.
Since I hadn’t allowed Ms. Cruise to give Ingrid the amplification drug, her mind wasn’t numb the way the other children’s had been by the time they left the interrogation room. So I felt her pain more intensely than I had with the other kids and it made me profoundly sad. It reminded me how unfair the Mandatory Testing Laws truly were. Children like Ingrid did need the school to help them learn to use their Talents and to feel normal. But that was a choice that they should be given, not one decided for them.
Chapter Fifteen
Erik was quiet and subdued over dinner. I’d ordered us lamb steaks and broccoli casserole to my room. Erik sat pushing his food around on his plate, only eating small bites. His injuries magnified against pale and fatigued features.
“How do you feel?” I asked, concerned by his melancholy mood.
“Huh?” he asked, so lost in thought, he seemed to have forgotten I was there.
“How do you feel?” I enunciated my words this time.
“Fine,” he lied, offering me one of his beautiful smiles.
“You’re a liar,” I teased. Something was bothering him. Well, a lot of stuff was bothering him, but something that he didn’t want me to know about. If I delved into his mind, I could figure out his source of unease, but I wanted him to tell me himself.
“Just tired,” he mumbled.
We ate the rest of our meal in silence. While I ate, Erik just played with his food.
“Lay with me for
a while?” I asked when it was obvious he wasn’t actually going to eat his dinner.
Erik glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was already after ten. He nodded slowly. “Just for a little,” he warned.
I tried to smile, but his reluctance upset me. After the scene at breakfast, I’d anticipated him being less touchy feely than normal, but his complete indifference was not expected – or welcome.
Under the cover of darkness and with Erik’s arms wrapped loosely around me, I chanced questioning his source of distraction again. However, by now, my irritation with his attitude was high and tact was not a concern.
“What’s wrong, Erik?” I demanded.
“What’s wrong?” he shot back incredulously. “Really, Tals? Everything is wrong. The Coalition ATTACKED a Toxic facility, you’re a prime target for them, you’re sick, and we don’t know why, the Director directly threatened to take action against my family this morning, and oh, yeah, we just condemned yet another child to a shitty life of servitude to Toxic. Did I miss anything?” Erik was tense, fury radiating from his body. It took every ounce of self-control I possessed not to rise to the challenge in his words.
“I’m sorry. You’re right,” I tried to calm his rising temper. I reached up and tentatively stroked his cheek. He didn’t shy away from my touch, but he didn’t respond to it, either. Apparently, Ingrid’s feelings had affected him strongly, a catalyst that had incited the rising panic he had already been experiencing. In a rare reversal of our roles, I tried to assure him that we would find out what was wrong with me and that Ingrid was actually going to be better off in the long run. Erik remained unconvinced, reliving his own experience of having been torn away from his family.
Hunted (Talented Saga # 3) Page 14
