INTEGRATION (Bonfire Academy Book Two) (Bonfire Chronicles) (17 page)

I nodded.

“No, say it.”

I grabbed his pinkie in mine. “I swear. Now can we go?”

He pulled me to him until I felt his heart thumping loudly. Lifting my chin, he brushed his lips against mine, igniting every nerve in my body into fiery sparks. Then he abruptly stopped. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”

He took my hand and led me to The Smelt’s front door, where he started working on the lock. At least her door was locked. Once the door was open, I listened hard for any sounds, but all I heard were deep, even little grunts coming from upstairs. The Smelt was fast asleep. I climbed onto Jagger’s back, and he hovered up the stairs to avoid making any floorboards creak. When we were on the landing, I peered into the bedroom and nodded at Jagger. He clenched his jaw, clearly unhappy, but let go of me. I turned and walked into The Smelt’s room, ready to dive into her.

But I collided with something rock hard and fell backwards, almost crashing onto the floor. Jagger caught me just in time. I held my breath, hoping that the noise hadn’t woken The Smelt. Jagger carried me back onto the landing.

He arched his eyebrows in a silent question. I shrugged. I had no idea what had happened. I had walked into something, something very hard; my nose still stung. I tiptoed into the room again, but with my right hand extended in front of me. I stopped as soon as I touched something. I lay my palm flat against the invisible whatever and walked along beside it. The surface was smooth and cool, like glass. I circled it until I was back to where I started. The wall extended all the way around The Smelt’s bed. I bent down and followed the wall from the floor up, as high as I could, until I was standing on my tiptoes.

Well, that explained her cavalier attitude on safety; she was surrounded by a containment spell.

I wondered what had prompted that. Did she know she’d been compromised and was now taking extra measures to prevent that in the future? That made sense. What else could she assume after the whole Quinn episode? I wondered if she had some kind of protection in place during the day as well. That would make it impossible for me, or anyone else, to figure out what was going on with her.

I turned and left, taking Jagger’s hand and continuing outside the house. I knew he wanted answers, but I ignored his attempts to pull me back. I was fed up. The last thing I wanted to do was talk, analyze, or plan our next move. I needed to de-stress, to enjoy life, even for just a moment. I practically dragged Jagger through the woods until I was exhausted from running. He yanked me back into his chest and allowed me a moment of complete peace; he even beat my heart for me. All I did was exist. Then, when I made the move, he returned my passion, overpowering me with his hunger.

E
ven though Quinn constantly occupied my thoughts, I had to shake myself and get on with my life. I had briefly popped in to talk to Frau Schmelder, offering to help her in any way I could to find him. She’d declined, but assured me that she had things under control. She said she’d been in contact with Quinn’s parents, and they were handling it. She firmly told me that I was to get on and concentrate on my work and leave school matters to her. She added that she’d have Quinn contact me when appropriate.

Appropriate?
I had asked her if that meant he’d been located, but she wouldn’t say, being annoyingly vague. Plus she asked me not to contact Quinn’s parents, which was doubly irritating. I knew them well and was sure they’d tell me what was going on, if they knew. There was no arguing with The Smelt; I’d have to find a way to get more information. All I really needed was proof that Quinn was okay. That’s all.

I had to put all Quinn thoughts to the back of my mind as I readied myself for the day ahead. Whoever did the scheduling for Professor Kunz had messed up and scheduled Mason and Faustine on the same day, not realizing that they’d both need the use of the dOME lab. So Henri and I were due to test Mason first and then Faustine in the afternoon.

Neither of us had ever done an Integration baseline test. Since the Integration department was completely separate from the Initiation one, it had had its own technicians and test chambers. But it didn’t have a dOME lab, hence the crossover. Thankfully, Professor Kunz had promised to send one of his apprentices over to help.

I dressed comfortably in dark purple Chanel slacks and a cream cashmere top, then headed down to the lab, leaving Faustine fast asleep in her bed. I assumed Ryker was around to keep an eye on her. I needed to get to the lab two hours before the test to set up and meet with the apprentice. I hoped he or she had a plan because when I had talked to Henri, it became clear that we both would have winged it if things were left up to the two of us.

Even two hours early, I was the last to arrive. Henri and Professor Kutz’s apprentice were already sitting and chatting by the monitors.

“Good morning, Cordelia,” Henri said. “This is Colton, Professor Kunz’s apprentice. He’s going to help us with the Integration tests.”

The apprentice turned around to reveal his full hotness to me, which he couldn’t even hide in his starched white laboratory coat. “Nice to see you again, Cordelia,” Colton extended his hand.

Nice! Getting to spend time with Colton was not something I could complain about—apart from maybe the smell. I shook his hand and sat down beside him. “So, what are we doing?”

Colton pointed at his laptop. “Henri was helping me hook my computer into the main unit so we can use some of the pre-recorded test scenes and record the baselines.”

“Okay. What can I do to help?” I asked.

“Are you okay?” Colton asked, tilting his head.

I had inadvertently covered my nose. Sheesh, how rude of me. I removed my hand instantly. “I’m sorry. I thought I felt a sneeze coming,” I lied.

“Cordelia, it’s okay. I know about your issue. I sprayed myself this morning and hoped that would suffice. Give me a moment, and I’ll do it again.” He took a little canister out of his pocket and sprayed himself liberally. Whatever was in the can didn’t smell of anything, but it did a reasonably good job of masking his shifter stench.

“Thanks,” I said, thoroughly embarrassed.

“No problem. It’s just temporary, so feel free to use it on me when you need to.” He held out the spray can.

I took it and put it in my pocket, promising myself that I’d have Professor Bern help me find a more permanent solution as soon as I got a minute. Today was out, though, with these back-to-back tests.

Colton laughed. “No need to look so mortified. You can’t help it. Anyhow, let’s get ready.”

“I think I’ve got you hooked up to the main terminal,” Henri said. “Can you input your code, so we can check?”

Colton tapped on the keys, and an Excel spreadsheet appeared on the monitor. He proceeded to type a bunch of numbers into various cells.

I guessed I should have asked him to explain, but numbers bored me to tears. “Shall I go and make sure the chamber is ready? Henri, do we have any new safeguards up after what happened to Faustine?”

“I’ve got this, if you two want to get the chamber ready,” Colton said.

“Good. Yes to your question, Cordelia. Let me show you.” Henri stood and led me to the steps.

Once we both were inside the chamber, Henri said, “Hit the wall, really hard.”

“Um…no.” The wall had no padding to break the impact.

Henri chuckled. “Well, watch me then.” He pulled his arm back and then slammed his hand into the wall.

He moved so fast that I didn’t see exactly what happened, but his knuckles seemed to stop an inch or so from the surface. I walked over and looked at the wall carefully. There didn’t seem to be anything between his hand and the hard surface of the glass, yet his knuckles hadn’t touched it.

“Can I touch your hand?” I asked.

Henri withdrew his hand. “It would be much more fun if you tried it yourself. It won’t hurt, I promise. I’ve tested it several times, as has Professor Bern.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded. “Go ahead.”

I turned to face the wall, standing about a foot away. It seemed like insanity to slam my hand into it after what had happened to Faustine. But I gritted my teeth, pulled my elbow back, and slammed my fist into the wall as hard as I could. There was no hard impact. It felt as if my fist had sunk into a soft cushion of silk. I looked down at my hand, which was suspended about an inch from the wall.

“Impressed?”

“Yes! This is neat.” I boxed my fists against the wall several times, moving all around the chamber. Then I body-slammed into it. The cushion broke my impact. That was cool, and now the place was definitely safe for Faustine.

Henri laughed as he watched me throwing punches at the wall. “Done?” he finally asked.

“I think so. This is really great.”

“Yes, let’s go back and see how Colton is doing. I’m looking forward to trying this out.”

“That looked like fun,” Colton commented when we got back.

“Yeah, it sure was! How are you doing?” I asked.

“I think we’re ready. Mason should be here any minute. I was wondering if you could stay out of sight until Mason is safely in the chamber and unable to see you. You seem to trigger him.”

I rolled my eyes, but he was right. It was best to get Mason into the chamber, relaxed, and ready to go. So I nodded and walked into the ante-office where the files were stored. I checked my text messages while I waited, hoping that there would be one from Quinn. None from him, but there was one from my mom asking me to contact her. I called her number.

“Cordelia?”

“Hi, Mom. I just got your message.”

“I was just wondering how you’re doing.”

“I’m good.” No point laying my troubles on her; she’d just fly over.

“What about Pascal?”

“I haven’t seen much of him, but I take that as a good sign, that he’s settled in.”

“Hmm. I’m not so sure about that.”

“What do you mean?” With everything going on, I had totally neglected him. He’d seemed fine the one time I had talked to him, but anything could have happened since then. I would have expected someone to let me know, but not my mom.

“Well, he called me last night. He didn’t say much, but I could feel that something was wrong. He asked me if I’d heard from Quinn, or Quinn’s parents, which I haven’t. He sounded tense. Could you check on him for me and call me back? Is everything okay with Quinn? I haven’t bumped into his mom in a while.”

“Oh. That’s odd about Pascal. Of course I’ll talk to him. I’ll do it as soon as I’m done with work. I have to go. Is that okay?” I hoped she wouldn’t ask any more questions. I really wasn’t allowed to discuss Quinn with her. Frau Smelt had made that clear.

“Yes, I suppose so. Talk to you later.”

I turned off my phone just as Henri tapped on the door to let me know it was time for me to join them.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Yes, fine. You haven’t heard anything from my brother, have you?”

“Pascal? No, why? Whose group is he in?”

“I have no idea.” I was ashamed to admit it. “I need to spend some time with him, obviously.”

“Well, you’ve been busy.”

I took my place on Colton’s left and looked over at the chamber. Mason—in his male form—sat in the armchair, looking relaxed.

“Are we ready to start?” I looked over at Henri, who nodded. I glanced back at Mason again. “What are those tubes jutting out behind the chair?” Several narrow, clear tubes snaked their way up the back of the chair.

“I had to add those for the Integration test,” Henri explained. “They’ll deliver different aromas to the chamber, so we’ll be able to measure olfactory response as well as visual and sound.”

“I’ll start by putting him into a semi-sleep state, so we can get started,” Colton said. He spoke into his microphone. “Mason, sit back, close your eyes, and slowly count backward from twenty.”

Mason made it to seven and then seemed to be asleep.

“Let’s give him about ten minutes or so to settle before we start,” Colton said.

“Okay. I’m going to make a couple of calls in the meantime. Be back in ten.” Henri stepped outside the dOME lab, leaving Colton and me staring at the static monitor.

Colton chuckled.

“What’s up?” I asked, noticing nothing funny on the screen.

“You. I can feel you bursting with curiosity. Good job trying not to break the rules, but go ahead, ask me anything you want. I have very few secrets.”

I smiled. I had wanted to ask him a few things. “What kind of shifter are you?”

“Just the regular, boring kind—a werewolf.”

I decided to get all my questions out there while he was being so amenable. “Hardly boring. What’s the accent?”

“London. I’m guessing you’re from Paris?”

“Yes. My dad’s the demon sovereign of Paris,” I offered, evening the exchange of information a bit.

“That’s interesting! My dad is one of the shifter sovereigns of London. Our parents probably know each other. So, are you planning to head into politics yourself?”

“No, I don’t think it’s for me. I haven’t decided exactly what I want to do once I’m done here. I was hoping that apprenticing with Professor Bern would open some unexpected doors, but it’s too early to tell yet. What about you?”